A fermented probiotic drink, kombucha was originally consumed in China more than 2,200 years ago for its energizing and detoxifying properties. It is typically made from sugar, tea, a SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast) and some starter liquid from a previous batch of the beverage. The mixture is fermented for a week or more and is sometimes called “mushroom tea” (or “fungus tea”) due to the floating colony of live bacteria and yeast created by the fermentation process.
This summer, the movies – or at least the ones I seemed to enjoy the most – made me feel nostalgic.
At 58, I like to think I’m still a hip, happenin’ guy. But as it turns out, I’m not. Out of 20 “old school” behaviors that a USA Today article says positively no one does anymore, I still do 12.
As a writer for My City Magazine since its inception, I have had the honor of writing many stories about the HAP Crim Festival of Races. I’ve become well-versed on its history and have interviewed many people who help make this race so very special and a premiere event for Flint. But my first experience with the Crim goes back a few years when I was working for the Social Security Administration back in the late 70s at the office formerly located Downtown on Stevens Street.
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting Greenfield Village in Dearborn, then you have experienced an authentic Cotswold Cottage, moved painstakingly, stone by numbered stone from a village in England over to the United States. From the very first time I had a school field trip to Greenfield, the cottage was one of my favorite buildings on the site. It had seemed so different from the other houses in the village, more storybook than reality, more a Goldilocks dream than actual real estate.
We’ve all heard the saying, “records are meant to be broken.” Early in the month of July, the various indexes, which measure the over-all stock market – the NASDAQ, the Dow, AND the S&P 500 indexes – all did just that!
In the modern labor market, a college degree is increasing in importance. Job and wage growth for college-educated workers has far outpaced that for non-college-educated workers during the recovery. A degree from an elite university is of particular value as it serves as a gateway to elite occupations such as investment banking, as firms like those on Wall Street will only recruit from elite “target schools.” Given the current college admission system, not everyone has an equal chance at passing through this gateway, which further exacerbates income inequality.
You will seldom find a purer feeling of anticipation than when a vinyl record is placed on a turntable, the needle touches the groove and you hear that first little taste of surface before it really gets going. That sound is unique, instantly recognizable and associated with worth, warmth and great music.
This recent headline caught my eye: “Woman Falls to Her Death While Taking Photos at Eagle Falls in Lake Tahoe.” That’s been happening a lot in recent months, and especially since the invention of the selfie.
I didn’t know very much about Cornwall before we visited – only what I had seen represented on TV and the very loose history of Cornish miners in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (mostly about pasties, if I’m being honest). I’d read something about cream teas and heard of The Pirates of Penzance, but other than that, just vague holiday notions of a seaside region of Britain.
If you’re anything like me, when the weather is warm, you try to spend as much time outdoors as you can. You may not always have the time to commit to a weekend getaway, but enjoying a meal al fresco with family or friends can feel like a mini-vacation and takes almost no planning or preparation.
