Arts & Style

Beating the February blahs

Submitted by Barbara Ruben on Tuesday, January 31, 2012

While much of this winter has been downright balmy, February can still be a month where leafless trees, early sunsets and frigid early mornings can wear you down. And with leap year, we have to slog through 29 days.

Eat, drink and be merry

Submitted by Barbara Ruben on Monday, December 13, 2010

Yesterday afternoon, I pulled the tattered recipe for gingersnaps out of recipe box that had once belonged to my mother. Gingersnaps are a holiday treat we made each year growing up, and baking them every December continues as a tradition with my own daughter.

Holiday shows help make the season merry and bright

Submitted by Barbara Ruben on Monday, November 21, 2011

Beyond the Christmas creep and the showdown for parking spaces at the mall, the holiday season brings a bounty of plays and concerts that more than make up for commercialization of the season. Here are a few to consider attending, many with the youngsters in your life. All will make you feel young at heart and are sure to banish Scrooge’s voice in back of your head.

Is it so terribly strange to be 70?

Submitted by Barbara Ruben on Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Bob Dylan turned 70 yesterday. Fresh from playing concerts in China and Taiwan, he’ll jet on to Ireland, England, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark and Norway — and that’s just in June alone.

Red but not read

Submitted by Barbara Ruben on Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Last year, the producers of the movie Red, currently in theaters, wrote to us asking permission to include a copy of the Beacon in a scene from the movie. I was thrilled. The Beacon was going Hollywood.

Some operating instructions for grandparents

Submitted by Barbara Ruben on Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Back in 1993, one of my favorite writers, Anne Lamott, published a witty, self-deprecating journal about her son’s first year. Called Operating Instructions, it chronicled her joyful, exhausting days as a single parent with her baby Sam.

The sound of music

Submitted by Barbara Ruben on Tuesday, November 8, 2011

I grew up in a house where the soundtrack of daily life was Mozart, Chopin and Beethoven played on the kitchen radio tuned to the classical music station. While my tastes as a teen ran more to the Rolling Stones and Cat Stevens, today my car radio is often tuned to the classical music on WETA, and my iPod contains Bach, along with Bruce Springstein.