Columnists

What the heck is this popular phenomenon called “hot yoga?” Thanks to the company I work for, I now know. For Christmas, the company offered its employees an annual membership to their choice of several area fitness and health centers. On the list this year was Bikram Yoga Morgan Hill - I decided to sign up and see what it’s all about.

Kurt Drückler was a heavy smoker. For many years, the German gentleman ran a tobacco shop on the corner of Alexandrinen and Sebastian streets in the heart of Berlin. A few months after I was born, he died from emphysema. This lingering and painful disease, caused by years of inhaling tobacco smoke, prevented him from traveling to the United States in 1966 to see me, his newborn grandson.

As a native New Yorker, I still marvel at our region’s ideal weather even though I’ve lived here for 29 years. This year, as always, I look forward to the crisp air of autumn. Although not as dramatic as autumn in New York, I find the changing colors of leaves and the crunch underfoot as they cover sidewalks and yards invigorating. If you happen to see an adult woman skipping along the sidewalks while collecting leaves, it’s probably me.

We've all heard about the

In my Christmas column last year, I wrote about my family's Christmas Eve menu and how it changed when I began hosting duties. I shared the recipes for Decadent Hot Chocolate and Spiced Apple Cider. I also mentioned one other item on the menu called sfingi. This week, I describe what it is and share the recipe.

In the late thirteenth century, the English King Edward I

I have been getting dizzy trying to come up with adjectives

The many thousands who regularly use the state’s large and varied park system were among the most distraught of Californians when legislators and Gov. Jerry Brown last year imposed cuts and closures on the system, with 70 parks scheduled for shuttering early this summer.

Holding your smartphone may be hazardous to your body. According to Dr. David Rempel, Director of the UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco Occupational and Environmental Medicine Program: Using a handheld computing device places your body in a hunched position, which can lead to pain in your back and neck.

Whether you want to replace your income for your family in the event you should die young or help preserve an inheritance for your heirs, life insurance can serve as the cornerstone of a sound financial plan. It can also serve as a key component of succession planning by protecting a buy-sell agreement or further your charitable giving program.