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The heavy presence of dessert in children's diets is troubling; but there are ways to make treats healthier

My oldest son started at a new school where every single day he is offered a sugar-laden dessert with lunch. I have a beef with this. Kids shouldn't be taught that every meal, dinner or lunch ends with something sweet. This creates a habit and a craving that can be challenging to break later in life.

So how often should kids be given dessert?

There really isn't one right answer, because not all children are the same. Some are more susceptible to a sugar addiction, some eat healthfully throughout the day while others do not, and a toddler is a different creature than a teenager.

The Wimpy Kid is returning to his digital roots.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid creator Jeff Kinney, a major e-holdout among children's authors, has agreed to make his illustrated, top-selling series about the trials of middle-schooler Greg Heffley available electronically.

"The decision came after a lot of thought and deliberation," Kinney said during a recent telephone interview. "I am very excited about this. It feels like the time is right."

The first six volumes of The Diary of a Wimpy Kid will be out Oct. 30 as e-books. The new novel, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel, comes out simultaneously as a hardcover and an e-book Nov. 13.

Don't expect any answers to your inevitable questions

From its famed giant stone statues to finding a good, affordable hotel, Easter Island is full of mysteries.

There are ancient questions, like how the statues were transported, and why the island lost its trees. And there are modern puzzles, like what $1,600 a night will get you in a hotel and why roads aren't better marked for visitors touring the island.

Perhaps it's fitting that riddles still exist on the most remote inhabited island on earth: a Chilean territory in the South Pacific, 2,300 miles to the west of the South American continent.

Yet I hoped for answers. After flying nearly 20 hours from New York, and having one of our group shaken down for a bribe by a customs agent, I wanted to not only see the sites, but understand them.

I don't think any of you would be shocked to hear that we have an obesity problem here in the United States. We are getting fatter and fatter, our kids are fatter and our pets are getting fatter. We can eat all the junk food that we eat, and it's our own fault, but we don't need to do it to our pets, too.

The problem of obesity has become especially common in our cats. Approximately 70 percent of adult pet cats are overweight; some of them are morbidly obese (i.e. 20-plus pounds). This leads to a number of problems, including arthritis, liver disease, diabetes and heart disease. It certainly isn't their own doing, it is ours - we are the ones who provide them with all the extra calories, usually in the form of free-choice dry food (all you can eat).

Here is a little explanation of the reasons our cats are so rotund. If it seems boring or depressing to you, please hang in there until the end because I have some very good news.

Ask Carley

Q: We're only paying for guests who drink. Our venue suggested they wear bracelets, but that's tacky. Any ideas?

A: Your instincts are right - you can't ask guests to wear wristbands all night, but there is another solution: See if your reception venue will let you pay by consumption instead. So if you only open 13 bottles of wine, that's all you'll be charged for. Another option is to have a beer-and-wine-only bar. Skipping the hard liquor alone could cut your bar bill by 25 percent, plus you won't need as many bartenders if they'll just be pouring, not mixing, drinks.

Q: We want to have our wedding in D.C., where we live, but most of our guests have to travel. What should we do?

A: Have your wedding in D.C. Don't feel bad about asking guests to travel - your situation is pretty common, actually, and most couples find that no matter where they decide to get married, some of their guests will have to travel to get there.

Baggage Check

Q: Ever since my husband and I met 18 years ago, we've joked about how I'm older than him (by three years). Now that I'm approaching 50, this joking gets to me. I know it shouldn't. I've talked to him, and he's tried to be sensitive about it, but he feels like since we've always joked this way, we shouldn't give in to my stress about getting older. Is it reasonable for him to "retire" these jokes?

A: Both sides are valid here, and it sounds like you're being respectful to each other - a great start. But you're still so young. If you're this sensitive about aging now, you need to ask yourself whether it's a bigger issue that needs taking care of.

Q: My husband and I have been together 10 years and recently had a baby. Right before the baby was born, he said he had fallen out of love with me and flip-flops on wanting to be with other women.

But he's never cheated, and he also says he doesn't want to lose me and he wants to work this out.

A few weeks ago, I went on a hawk watch. What is a hawk watch? It's an event during which avid birdwatchers find a height from which they can observe migrating hawks wend their way south at this time of year.

Now, I am not an avid birdwatcher. I like to know who's singing to me when I'm out for a walk in the woods, and I can identify the white-throated sparrow by his song, but that's about my limit. So, what was I doing on the hawk watch?

Bariatric surgery and a lifestyle overhaul have led to a whole new me Embed multimedia (photos, galleries, audio, map):  Eric Merriman loses 197 pounds Eric Merriam

In January 2011, I was 36 years old, 6-foot-2 and 462 pounds. I was hardly exercising because any activity left me short of breath and my joints aching. I'd been battling high blood pressure for about five years and obstructive sleep apnea for three years. At my annual physical that year, my doctor told me he was increasing the dosage of my blood-pressure medicine.

I knew if I didn't do something for myself soon, it was only a matter of time before I was resting in my casket.

So I did do something - a lot of things, actually.

I had bariatric surgery and sweated through a few months of Jazzercise. And, finally, I found a gym I look forward to going to. Now, less than two years later, I no longer suffer high blood pressure or sleep apnea. My joints don't hurt when I exercise, and I don't get out of breath just going up my stairs.

Today, I'm nearly 200 pounds lighter than when I started. At 265 pounds, I'm just 5 pounds from my goal.

Small window for savings opens up

Just in case I'd forgotten (I hadn't), promotions in this week's mail reminded me that we're smack in the middle of "shoulder season" for many popular destinations and vacation activities. In other words, summer cruises and land tours in Europe are about done. Summer vacation for school-bound families is over. The winter season in the Caribbean hasn't started yet. In fact, we're edging toward the end of the dreaded hurricane season. We're in the middle. So what deals are out there?

Canterbury 'Ghost Encounters' a historical haunting

They weren't much for tomfoolery, those Shakers. They worked hard, they lived simply, and they steered clear of the entanglements of carnal love.

But let's not forget that the folks who invented the flat broom and the clothespin, who spent their days making no-frills furniture and their nights sleeping in separate beds, were also highly spiritual people, perfectly comfortable with dancing and clapping in the church pews on Sunday.

A good ghost tale, it would seem, was not beneath them.

"They had several stories that had been passed on through oral tradition," said Maisie Keith Daly, education manager at Canterbury Shaker Village. "As far as the people who experienced them were concerned, they were all true."

Patti Woods-LaVoie loves Halloween and all things candy, but she has a hard and fast rule when it comes to teens and trick-or-treating.

Show up at her door in Trumbull, Conn., with a costume - and she means something more than a baseball hat and jersey - and her candy bowl is your candy bowl.

Ring her bell in street clothes and you'll get teabags, ramen noodles, shampoo samples or some other discard from her pantry or closets.

"Some come in cars," she said. "They park and go from neighborhood to neighborhood. My husband is just waiting for the day our house gets egged by someone who got a teabag."

When it comes to big kids with pillow cases begging for candy on Halloween, there seem to be three camps.

Hopkinton

The Hopkinton Historical Society plans a not-quite-frightful stroll this weekend with its third annual Cemetery Walk, through the New Hopkinton Cemetery.

Participants will visit former residents' graves, where they will be met by actors in period costumes playing the departed. This isn't a haunted house; instead, it's a chance for visitors to learn about the history of Hopkinton in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The walk starts at the cemetery, which is close to the intersection of Hopkinton Road and Main Street (Route 202/9) and Exit 4 of Interstate 89. Visitors should wear comfy shoes and can bring chairs.

Tickets, which are $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers, can be purchased at the event or the society during normal business hours today and tomorrow.

For information about the walk or society, call 746-3825, email nhas@tds.net or visit hopkintonhistory.org.

So what are you doing today? Not you, Joe Biden and Paul Ryan - we already know you're a little busy with that debate thing. But others may be marking, in some way, the fact that today is a special day, numerically speaking: It's 10-11-12.

Nice, but how significant? Those who study numbers say, well, not too much. Or perhaps it's better to say that it's as significant as you want it to be.

Significant enough to influence your wedding date? At one wedding chapel in Las Vegas, Forever Grand at the MGM Resorts, there's a special numerology package, including a chapel, a pianist, a minister, and a limo to the courthouse, among other things. (And if you're just finding out about this, it isn't too late: There's another special at Forever Grand for 12-12-12.)

With little more than salt and water you're on your way

I have hundreds of cookbooks (and too few bookshelves), not to mention access to excellent libraries and the internet. So a cookbook has to be a lot more than a collection of beautiful photographs of the same recipes that are in every other cookbook for me to consider buying it. Never mind recommending that anyone else buy it.

Which means that if you are interested in the science of food - or making your own pickles and beer, wine and cheese, yogurt and soy sauce, kombucha, sour dough bread, dry-cured sausage, or, for that matter, your own indigo dye - and I tell you that you should buy Sandor Ellix Katz's new book The Art of Fermentation, you should at the very least head down to your local bookstore and have a look at it. I am guessing you will buy it, for yourself and every other cook on your gift list.

With its robust blend of sweet, creamy, spicy and smoky flavors, this chipotle carrot soup is perfect for a chilly fall afternoon. The beautiful orange color, the subtle smoky-spicy flavor of the chipotle, and the satisfying creamy texture make this recipe a perfect seasonal lunch or appetizer. Consider topping the soup with seared shrimp or shredded pork for a quick weeknight dinner.

CREAMY CHIPOTLECARROT SOUP

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large yellow onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound carrots, peeled and diced

2 potatoes, peeled and diced

1 canned chipotle pepper (in adobo sauce), minced

1 tablespoon adobo sauce (from canned chipotle peppers)

2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 cup heavy cream

salt and ground black pepper

sliced scallions, for serving

How old is too old to sob like a little girl at E.T. - the Extra-Terrestrial? Not 40, apparently.

The Steven Spielberg film that would become a 1980s pop-culture phenomenon is coming out on Blu-Ray for the first time today - 30 years, four Academy Awards and nearly $800 million after its theatrical release. To commemorate this, theaters across the country recently showed a digitally re-mastered version of the film for one night only.

Being a total geek for E.T., I jumped at the chance to see it again in a theater. And yes, I dug up my old red hoodie and bought some Reese's Pieces for the occasion.

Having worked as a film critic for a while now - and with a child of my own - I wanted to find out whether the movie would still have the same emotional impact on me as it did when I was a kid. I wondered whether I looked back fondly at it as a piece of nostalgia, or if the film itself truly was as original, well-made and heart-tugging as I remembered.

Neeson action flick outdoes the critics

Critics don't like Taken 2, but Liam Neeson's action sequel has proved twice the hit among fans as the original movie was.

Taken 2 led the box office with $50 million domestically over opening weekend, according to studio estimates yesterday. That's double the haul for Neeson's Taken, which took in $24.7 million in its U.S. debut in early 2009.

Taken went on to become a $145 million smash for Neeson, the Academy Award-nominated star of Schindler's List who has become an unlikely action hero in his 50s.

In Taken 2, Neeson returns as a retired CIA agent using his expert espionage and killing skills to take on a gang of thugs out for revenge against him and his family.

Baggage Check

Q: I recently got engaged to a fantastic guy, and I couldn't be happier. Which is why I feel terrible that I really don't like my engagement ring, like really don't like it.

I wanted to be surprised, but now I wish we had picked it out together. It's just not my style at all. But I don't want to crush my fiance. Am I stuck with this?

A: My guess is that over time your ring will bother you less. Before the bridezillas attack me, yes, if you're going to be wearing this ring forever, you have the right to have it be something you love. But if your engagement is new, you may very well find that the ring will grow on you, and there's a chance that you'll eventually become attached enough to it that you wouldn't dream of switching it up.

What a thrill it must have been for Steve Geddes of Boscawen to bring his giant pumpkin to the Deerfield Fair and have it weigh in at a whopping 1,843.5 pounds - a new world record! But alas the record didn't stand for long in this ultra-competitive branch of gardening.

A monster pumpkin from Rhode Island smashed the record when it weighed in at just over a ton at the Topsfield Fair.

Buying, selling used make designer duds more accessible

Once upon a time, picking up pre-loved clothes was reserved for bargain hunters. Now, thrifting, swapping and consigning are widespread money-saving tactics and lucrative hobbies for those who choose to buy low and sell high.

At the height of the recession in 2008, thrift stores started booming. Many Goodwill and Salvation Army stores reported double-digit sales increases at locations across the country in 2010 and 2011. While the economic slump helped the resale industry grow, so did fashion magazines and bloggers, which have prominently featured vintage pieces season after season.

But how do you know if you're buying trash or treasure? And should you swap or sell when you're finished wearing?

We talked to expert shoppers and swappers to learn how they work thrift stores and swapping events. And once you've mastered the buy-trade-sell cycle, you may find retail shopping isn't nearly as much fun.

Buy: thrift stores