Last month started a new year for the Chinese lunar calendar. In the Chinese Zodiac this will start the year of the Water Dragon which is a year filled with lots of energy -- could be good or bad. But it will be an interesting year and a year filled...

Jerry West, the iconic basketball player, gave a preview of his upcoming book at a Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce luncheon this week. The book West by West: My Charmed Tormented Life is due out next month.

Of course I knew of Jerry West, I grew up in LA...

I got a call a few weeks ago from Sheila of Farming Independence, a nonprofit organization working with developmentally disabled adults. The purpose of this group is to provide them with training in animal husbandry, gardening and other areas where they may be able to apprentice and eventually get employment....

PT Barnum I guess said it best " There is a sucker born every minute." Unfortunately I think we can be much more gullible when times are more difficult. When we get a call from a potential client that has a large project, or one that says they have several...

Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life. --Samuel Johnson

I know that many of us are ready to say goodbye to 2010. I would put myself in that category as well. 2010 was a difficult year...

In my green posts I have written about the importance of environmental issues ranging from the amount of pollution caused by gas powered lawn mowers, water use in the landscape, and local food sourcing. But there is more to sustainability than just the environment. In this post I...

This weekend I attended a wine dinner at Michael Chiarello's restaurant Bottega in Yountville Ca. Michael and his wife Eileen are very involved in green issues and have been for some time even before it was chic. Eileen has been instrumental in starting a program for children called Dirt To...

I was on a radio show today in LA, Home Wizards with Cindy Dole KFWB 980, and we talked about how many baby boomers at least in Southern California don't garden any more. We discussed why that is. Many people don't have the time, or in many cases are intimidated...

Monday night I heard Steven Solomon speak at a Zocalo Town Square event held at the Rand Institute in Santa Monica. He is an authority on water and its history throughout the world. He is the author of Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization. He shared some...

Last weekend I saw the musical "Urinetown" at a local, small theater in Santa Monica. The musical was written roughly ten years ago and the basic premise is that we have been in a drought for 20 years and we need to conserve water. The way the government has decided...

As this is "Eat In Week", it called to mind how little I actually ate out while growing up. My father was the cook in our family, but due to busy schedules as both my parents worked, we ate a lot of frozen dinners. It was my grandmother that really...

You have done all the things that most green sites have suggested you do to be green. You drive a hybrid, bring your own grocery bags, and carry a refillable bottle of water. You support your local farmer's market and have a small patch of yard set aside for lettuce...