It’s called the sunshine vitamin because you can make it when you are in the sun. A general recommendation is 15 minutes of sun exposure three times per week. Vitamin D is different from all other nutrients in that the body can synthesize it with the help of sunlight from a precursor that the body makes from cholesterol. Technically,... Read more →

DOWNTOWN — So, maybe restaurant week was a misnomer. Santa Monica restaurants are folding up their fixe prix menus today as Dine L.A. comes to a close after a two-week encore. The event, originally scheduled to end on Feb. 6, got an extension because of the popularity of the reduced-price menus that allowed economy-conscious diners to... Read more →

The other day I was reading “Oliver’s Fruit Salad” to hungry tot-chefs in my kindergarten Books-for-Cooks class at Franklin Elementary School. The story is about a boy named Oliver, who, having recently helped his grandpa harvest juicy grapes and delicate pears from a backyard garden, refuses to eat the fruit his mom serves... Read more →

At the eight-week ultrasound, it was apparent even before the doctor said anything definitive. I looked at the monitor and there was just a space in a little black hole. I kept hoping as she moved the wand that she would stumble upon our child hiding, but no. No heartbeat, I heard her say. I must have turned pale because she told me to lean... Read more →

SMC — After the storm of foster care, domestic abuse and gang violence had passed, Jabril Muhammad found his voice. It’s a voice that comes through in an independently-produced film that tells the story of a boy who much like Muhammad experienced a challenging life growing up in the gang-ridden streets of Los Angeles,... Read more →

Each year Santa Monica Citywide Reads selects a book for the community to read together and meet to discuss. They have been doing this for seven years. This year they have chosen a story by Marianne Wiggins. It is called “The Shadow Catcher” and it is well done. She started writing back in 1970. She took time off from her... Read more →

‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ Woody Allen writes and directs this romantic tale set in that fine Spanish city. Friends Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), spending their summer in Spain, are two young American girls of different viewpoints on romance yet fall for the same Casanova artist Juan Antonio Gonzalo... Read more →

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but nutrition plays a vital role in both inner and outer beauty because if you feel good, it will show on your face and in your disposition. Any beauty regimen should start with proper hydration, and yes, water is best. The average person needs 2 liters of fluid per day or about eight (8 ounce)... Read more →

When you meet a guy while driving south on Lincoln Boulevard there ought to be a warning. “Stinky ‘Stinks’ McFadden” had the most chiseled features I’d ever seen, so it was easy to ignore the fact that he was tooling around in a beat up yellow Chevy van — which I later discovered was his home. A... Read more →

WEST L.A. — Courtne Dotson’s eyes started welling as she sat and listened to a speech that she knew was about her. In a state of shock and overcome with joy, the 17-year-old Hamilton High School student got out of her chair to a round of applause, accepting the Youth of the Year award by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa... Read more →