My favorite childhood Christmas gifts were china tea sets and child-sized pots and pans. It's no wonder I grew up loving to cook and bake. ...more

December 15, 2007

My favorite childhood Christmas gifts were china tea sets and child-sized pots and pans. It's no wonder I grew up loving to cook and bake. ...more

December 14, 2007

Almost 100 people attending a holiday piano concert by Steven George, 7, donated $1,023 and pledged Christmas gifts for the Foster Angels of Hillsborough County, organizers said. ...more

December 5, 2007

Holiday shopping for folks who read a menu more often than a cookbook is easy. Here are helpful suggestions for what to give people who prefer to dine or dial out. ...more

November 28, 2007

Holiday shopping for folks who read a menu more often than a cookbook is easy. Here are a few helpful suggestions for what to give people who prefer to dine or dial out. ...more

November 28, 2007

SEBRING — Tina Harshman started her Monday morning bright and early by turning on her computer and buying some Christmas gifts online. Cyber Monday, as retailers have tagged the Monday after Thanksgiving, is the busiest day of the year for online shopping. According to a survey for Shop.org, an online arm of the National Retail Federation, 72 million consumers were planning to shop online from home or at work on Cyber Monday, and sales were expected to exceed $700 million. A number of retailers even hosted special sales or offers for the occasion. Harshman found good deals on gifts for her kids at Web sites for Toys "R" Us and Gymboree. ...more

November 27, 2007

I sit in wonderment at the story of W. Lance Anderson, the president of NovaStar Financial in Kansas City who, while handing out subprime mortgages to any applicant wearing shoes and a shirt, managed to sink the company's stock from $40 in June to $1.72. ...more

November 24, 2007

I sit in wonderment at the story of W. Lance Anderson, the president of NovaStar Financial in Kansas City, who while handing out subprime mortgages to any applicant wearing shoes and a shirt managed to sink the company's stock from $40 in June to $1.72. This is a man who earned $1.7 million in salary and bonuses last year, plus $711,386 in deferred compensation, plus more dough in various arrangements that dopes like me can't quite grasp. Meanwhile, all the little investors in NovaStar are cutting back on Christmas gifts and canceling their winter vacations in Daytona Beach. ...more

November 23, 2007

About 100 people braved the first cold snap of the fall waiting for the newest Bealls department store to open Nov. 16. ...more

November 22, 2007