Home and Shopping

"Imagine walking into your local grocery store on a frigid January day to pick up freshly harvested lettuce, fragrant basil, juicy sweet strawberries, and ripe red tomatoes – all of which were harvested at a local farm only hours before you’d arrived. You might be imagining buying that fresh produce from vertical farms where farmers can grow indoors year-round by controlling light, temperature, water, and oftentimes carbon dioxide levels as well. Generally, fresh produce grown in vertical farms travels only a few miles to reach grocery store shelves compared to conventional produce, which can travel thousands of miles by truck or plane." more »

Ferida Wolff Writes: I know it’s winter and it’s not unexpected but I realize that our outdoor critters are not as lucky as we are to have a warm place to shelter in. I hope that Mother Nature will be kind and help all her critters, even us, have a healthy winter. But we aren’t the only ones affected by the cold weather. Today a squirrel was trying to get a drink on the birdbath but the water was frozen over. (Adding a birdbath to your yard is the easiest way to provide drinking and bathing water for birds.)                                     more »

Today, the Stettheimer “doll’s house” – an artistic model made over the course of nearly two decades between 1916 and 1935 – is one of the great treasures of the Museum of the City of New York. Carrie, along with her sisters Ettie and Florine, hosted a famous artistic salon in the early 20th century, which influential art historian and critic Arthur Danto later called the “American Bloomsbury.” Ettie was a philosopher and novelist; Florine was a painter; Carrie was an aspiring theatrical designer whose artistic goals were derailed by her obligations to run the household. Her creative energies were channeled instead into the crafting of a miniature world whose interior reflected the Stettheimers’ life in their fashionable apartment and reflected the avant-garde artistic circles of New York in the 1920s. more »

The Biden Administration is Buying One Billion Tests to Give to Americans for Free; Online Ordering of a Half-Billion Tests Begins on January 19th; Builds on Significant Actions to Expand Testing Capacity and Increase Access to Free Testing. Testing is an important tool to help mitigate the spread of COVID-18. Public health experts and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that Americans use at-home tests if they begin to have symptoms, at least five days after coming in close contact with someone who has COVID-19, or are gathering indoors with a group of people who are at risk of severe disease or unvaccinated. To help ensure Americans have tests on hand if a need arises, the Biden Administration is purchasing one billion at-home, rapid COVID-19 tests to give to Americans for free. A half-billion tests will be available for order on January 18th and will be mailed directly to American households. There will be free tests available for every household, and to promote broad access, the initial program will allow four free tests to be requested per residential address. Starting January 19th, Americans will be able to order their tests online at COVIDTests.gov, and tests will typically ship within 7-12 days of ordering. more »