News

Face it: Searching for reasonable airfares is depressing these days. In fact, any time I see "airfare" in headline (like early this week), I suspect there is an industry-wide airfare hike in progress, and I shake my head before I read on. What's the back story about these increases? Why do they happen, and why are some successful and some not? Is there anything the average traveler can do about?

The price: The final price you pay for a seat on airplane is made up of several components. You have a modicum of control over components like add-on fees for talking to an agent, checking a bag, using a pillow or blanket, having a snack or sitting in an aisle seat - or even sitting next to your family, in some cases. You can travel light, fly hungry, let your 3-year-old sit next to strangers - you decide.

Manchester Class combines stretches, installation Embed multimedia (photos, galleries, audio, map):  DSC 0199

There is nothing lacking in Cristi Rinklin's Diluvial, a new installation at the Currier Museum of Art. The emptiness of the space seems only to enhance the majesty and mystique of the images laminated on the windows, wallpapered on the front walls and painted on the back walls. And yet, when the yoga students arrive and unroll their mats on the blond wood floors, when their ancient mantra fills the bare room and their bodies adopt poses evocative of nature, there is a feeling that, yes, this is what was meant to be here.

"Cristi's project is about cycles of destruction and renewal . . . the way that she depicts these destructive events in very beautiful, seductive language, it's almost a coming to terms with nature's destructive forces," said Nina Bozicnik, curator of the installation, which will be on view in the Putnam Gallery through Sept. 9. "That theme seemed to fit with yoga and the idea of finding a balance."

Statewide Audubon event celebrates affiliation

A day of creepy crawlies, curiosity and a bald eagle finally ready for his close-up, this celebration is made for children, adults and everyone in between.

On Saturday, the New Hampshire Audubon and National Wildlife Federation will hold events at five Audubon sites throughout the state: Amherst, Auburn, Concord, Hebron, and Rye. The free, all-ages event will have live animal demonstrations, sanctuary walks, field and pond explorations, birding activities, and presentations by the Audubon's scientific staff

The event is meant not only to bring people a little closer to nature, but also to celebrate the recent affiliation of the New Hampshire Audubon and National Wildlife Federation.

"The purpose of the affiliation is to strengthen," said Kelly Wing, spokeswoman for the New Hampshire Audubon.

Los Angeles

A judge yesterday stepped into the turmoil roiling the Jackson family, appointing the son of Tito Jackson to serve as temporary guardian of Michael Jackson's children in the absence of the family matriarch and in the midst of a feud over the pop superstar's estate.

Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff temporarily suspended Katherine Jackson as the children's guardian because she is in Arizona and hadn't spoken with them in several days. He appointed Tito Joe "TJ" Jackson to serve as temporary guardian with the ability to control the hilltop home where the children live and to take on other supervision duties.

Beckloff said there was no evidence that Katherine Jackson had done anything wrong but instead it appeared she was being prevented from fulfilling her role as guardian through the "intentional acts of third parties."

He also said the children - Prince, Paris and Blanket - cannot be taken outside California without court approval.

Some sweet, savory ways to enjoy freshly picked berries Embed multimedia (photos, galleries, audio, map):  Home Plate Home Plate Home Plate

I can't remember another year when there were so many chipmunks and robins living in my yard. I like chipmunks and robins - in moderation. But this population boom is taking a toll on my raspberry patch. It turns out chipmunks and robins are huge berry fans, though the chippies seem to have a thing for golden Anna and the robins are red Polana fans. They both love Royalty Purple, as do I.

A friend who sells berries at local farmers markets recommended I hang up tinfoil pie plates and get one of those fake owls to scare off my freeloaders, which I did. The day after I set up the pie plates, I watched a robin fly directly into one, sort of like a knight tilting at a target. It seemed to be having fun.

Two things it's not: Anise or a bulb

If ever there was a vegetable dogged by misunderstanding, fresh fennel is it.

Because while it may taste like anise and look like a bulb, it is neither. And don't let the grocery workers who love to label it that way tell you otherwise.

While fennel is a relative of anise, they are separate plants. And while the base of fennel is bulbous, that's a shape, not its plant variety. So now that we've cleared up what fennel isn't, let's focus on what it is.

Fresh fennel resembles a cross between cabbage, celery and dill. The taste is assertively (though not unpleasantly) licorice and sweet. The base of the fennel is round with tightly overlapping pale green leaves. Sprouting out of that are long celery-like stalks topped with fine frilly leaves.

Technically speaking, all parts of the plant are edible, but most people will find the stalks too tough to eat.

My kids and I recently had 30 minutes to undertake a week's worth of grocery shopping before we had to be at baseball practice. This is not unusual. As we ran through the grocery store, each flying in a different direction to gather items on the list, my boys asked me an excellent question. They asked me why I don't buy frozen meals.

We happened to be at Trader Joe's, a store full of frozen items that are labeled organic and appear to be very healthy. They reasoned that if I tossed seven frozen meals in the cart I'd be almost done shopping for the week.

Shopping would have taken mere minutes instead of the hour it usually takes to find all the ingredients, not to mention the time spent unloading the groceries and cooking the meals.

My boys asked a fair question, and one I am guessing most parents have asked themselves when they feel frazzled getting dinner on the table.

Here is my simple answer.

A fresh meal generally supplies more . . .

Monitor board of contributors A Concord man's children gave him the gift of a lifetime: the ability to erase regret Embed multimedia (photos, galleries, audio, map):  Paul plays the Saxophone Paul plays the Saxophone Paul plays the Saxophone

Paul Dallaire grew up in a musical household in Lincoln. His three older sisters took piano lessons from a lady in the neighborhood, and every evening the family gathered around the parlor piano and sang songs together.

In fourth grade, he picked up the trumpet - but only briefly.

"The local band director, Mr. McClure, gave lessons and provided instruments for all the kids to use. I had a trumpet," Dallaire recalls. "About three months into the lessons, Mr. McClure announced that it was time for us to buy our own instruments. It was $50 for a new trumpet. So I went home and told my mom, and she said there was no way we could afford $50 for a new trumpet."

Dallaire would not play another musical instrument for 55 years.

In 2007, his daughter Michelle Branch surprised him with a philosophical question: "Do you have any regrets in your life?"

Related content:  Listen to Paul Dallaire play the sax

Be wary of baseline prices, cost add-ons

If you're thinking of cruising during the 2013 "wave season" (January-March) and haven't booked yet, you're on the cusp of being late. Are you putting off booking because you think last-minute deals will pop up or you're nervous about hidden costs?

Bud and I booked our February 2012 Caribbean cruise about this time last year and just made it under the wire for some of the worthwhile promotions. We hadn't cruised since 2006 and found that the landscape has changed a bit.

Pricing and the industry: Not surprisingly, the principle of supply and demand has an impact on cruise pricing. If you want to go where everybody else is going on the ships that everybody else likes, chances are you'll have to pay. And guess what?

Which is more important, the butterfly or the worm?

Everyone knows worms are beneficial to the garden. They provide nourishment and castings that maintain a healthy soil for growing plants. The absence of worms in your soil is an indication of a troubled ecosystem. The soil is hungry for organic waste: the leaves that fall off the trees, the plants that die and fall to the ground in the ongoing cycle of decomposition.

Gone are the days of fussy sit-down meals, today's caterers are getting creative

I've always been a guest, never a bride, so I can say this objectively: Only airline food has a worse reputation than what's served at weddings. Captive audiences can't be choosy.

While air fare will always be a joke, wedding food is evolving thanks to what might be called "no trend left behind." Five years ago brides could get away with putting their budget before their guests' palates. Now all the innovations changing the way America eats are being adopted by caterers and wedding planners - and happy couples themselves - who are taking cues from food television, the farm-to-table phenomenon, the organic/seasonal/sustainable movement and every other flash in the kitchen.

Even food trucks are rolling up to the fanciest receptions. (Cupcakes, however, are apparently off the table.)

West Bank West Bank town populated by Biblical nice guys

In Nablus, being a Good Samaritan is something locals take literally. That's because some are.

I'm on Mount Gerizim, meeting Samaritan Museum Director Husney Kahen. He's wearing a long traditional robe and rounded hat, his gray eyes shimmering.

"People don't believe that Samaritans exist, that it is a story in the Bible," he says. "People are surprised to find that there are actually such people."

Until visiting the West Bank city of Nablus, once a center of violence during the second intifada, the Palestinian uprising against Israel that broke out in December 2000, I also thought Samaritans were a fable.

Their religion mirrors Judaism, though Samaritans believe Mount Gerizim, rather than Jerusalem, was where the Temple Mount existed and Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac.

Concord More that 15 creators featured in new exhibit

Looking for a different sort of refreshment on a hot summer day? Pop into McGowan Fine Art and check out all the vibrant new work on display.

"We've been joking about it and calling it 'swimming in art' because we've gotten so much artwork in recently," said Sarah Chaffee, gallery director. "We don't normally do a show this time of year but we got in so much artwork, I just thought we really should do a little something to highlight it."

"Summer Selections: New Art in the Gallery," which will run from Tuesday through Aug. 31, features new work by more than 15 artists, several of whom are newcomers to McGowan Fine Art. Chaffee, who is always on the lookout for new artists to represent, said she is thrilled with some of her new finds, including a series of paintings by Craig Stockwell that have been creating a buzz in the art community.

Singer basks in Broadway role

Ricky Martin says Broadway is a monster that requires discipline, concentration and dedication, but Evita's "Che" is feeling so happy and so at home that he can't imagine moving for a while.

"I would love to do Broadway the rest of my life!" Martin told the Associated Press on Tuesday, breaking a months-long silence he subjected himself to in order to preserve his voice.

In an interview at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square, which houses the musical based on the life of Argentina's first lady Eva Peron, Martin said he's never been challenged as much as in the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber spectacle.

Martin has already decided to stay in the Big Apple at least for a while, calling it a "fascinating" and multicultural city for his soon-to-be-4 twins, Matteo and Valentino.

AP: You were born for the stage and certainly for one on Broadway. Any immediate plans to work on other musicals or plays after Evita?

Most kids love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Problem is, this lunchtime staple is high in fat and sugar. So it's time for a remake.

The first step is multigrain or whole wheat bread (make sure the ingredients list includes 100 percent whole wheat flour) instead of white bread. And since even the healthiest of jams and jellies are loaded with sugar, a mixture of all-fruit spread and fresh berries makes a good substitute. Natural, unsweetened peanut butter is the best option, but even that is high in fat. To cut back, bulk the peanut butter up with instant oatmeal to make it stretch further.

PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY SANDWICH MAKEOVER

1 tablespoon instant oatmeal

3 tablespoons nonfat milk

pinch salt

1 tablespoon natural, unsalted peanut butter

¼ cup chopped fresh berries

2 teaspoons all-fruit spread

2 slices multigrain or whole-wheat bread

Band's film playing for only one night

Asked to characterize Shut Up and Play the Hits, a concert film that documents LCD Soundsystem's final, oft-mythologized show at Madison Square Garden, James Murphy deadpans a television promo.

"Middle-age guy stops band. Pictures at 11."

The film, which plays in theaters for only one night tonight, is a kind of "The Last Waltz" for a new generation: an adored band going out with a self-induced, possibly premature bang. But it's also, as the filmmakers Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace say, "a character study" of Murphy, whose decision to end LCD Soundsystem is as curious to the man who made it as it is to anybody.

New Batman film on tap next week

With Batman lurking, the prehistoric critters of Ice Age: Continental Drift ran off with the box office, earning $46 million in their opening weekend, according to studio estimates yesterday.

The animated film from 20th Century Fox is the fourth in the Ice Age series and the first in 3-D. The North America performance of Continental Drift was on par with previous Ice Age movies but well below the opening weekend of the second installment, The Meltdown, which opened with $68 million in 2006.

There has now been a decade of Ice Age films, allowing the characters voiced by Ray Romano, Queen Latifah and John Leguizamo to become increasingly familiar to audiences, particularly international ones. The film had already done robust overseas business ahead of opening in the U.S. This weekend it earned $95 million internationally, bringing its overseas total to $339 million.

Couple plans to move from home they built together in 18th-century barn

John Lenaerts has never been afraid of change. At just 17 years old he left his home in England for a better life in America. After a stint in Korea courtesy of the U.S. Air Force, he moved to Greenwich Village for two years to experience all the city had to offer. And upon retirement, he and his wife left the life they'd known for decades and followed their dreams to the quiet countryside of New Hampshire.

But even if he's ready for life's next big transition, it won't be easy for Lenaerts to part with the one-of-a-kind home he built here from a late 1700s-era barn. Hugging the southern slope of a sunny meadow at the edge of Pittsfield, the home is handcrafted from top to bottom and filled with unique features.

"I'm not a planner. I just sort of made it up as I went," said Lenaerts, who plans to move with his wife, Marion, to Havenwood Heritage Heights when the home sells. "People would ask about my drawings and I'd say, 'I don't have any.' "

More eyes focused on pets left in cars

Good Samaritans, temperature guns and tougher laws are the newest tools in the campaign to keep animals out of hot cars, where just minutes can mean death.

More calls are coming in about overheated dogs - and officials say that's a good thing, because more people are aware of the problem and calling before it's too late.

Still, despite annual warnings, pets continue to die or suffer serious injury in hot cars. Before summer was even two days old this year, the Associated Press reported the deaths of five dogs in hot cars in Oregon, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

No one keeps tabs on annual deaths or injuries because so many different agencies handle calls. But agencies say calls have increased to 911, police departments, fire departments, animal control officers, shelters or veterinarians.

One thing I enjoy most about summer is visiting other gardens. Local garden tours are the best; they give you the opportunity to see what's going on in your neighbor's backyard. It is amazing just how much effort people put in to their gardens and the lengths to which some people will go to make their landscaping usable, productive and eye-pleasing. Digging ponds, creating waterfalls, clearing views, building stone walls, terracing hillsides, and paving walkways and patios - I admire their energy and vision.

There is also lots of creative garden art. I'll never throw away another worn out tool until I see if it can be incorporated into some kind of funky sculpture.