November 21, 2009
Sylvia Anderson - Lifestyles Reporter
Sylvia Anderson has been a lifestyles reporter with the St. Joseph News-Press for almost five years. She writes features on food, home and garden, travel, parenting and other lifestyle subjects for the paper, along with articles for Josephine and Kin magazines.
She also reviews new products once a week for Sylvia Says, coordinates the Young at Heart section and writes the Eats restaurant reviews in St. Joe Live. Sylvia has a bachelor’s degree from Northwest Missouri State University in public relations and previously worked for The Kansas City Star and the Platte County Landmark newspapers.
Recent Stories
Sylvia Says: Green Wash Ball saves the Earth — and your money
Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009
Technically, you don’t have to use toothpaste to clean your teeth, as long as you use a good toothbrush. And the same kind of thing could be true with detergent. According to Give A Green Bag, commercial laundry detergent isn’t necessary to clean your clothes. In fact, they say, it’s actually bad for the environment. That’s because most commercial detergents contain phosphates, which remove hard water minerals from water but stimulate growth in certain organisms, creating an unbalanced ecosystem.
Black, white and red for Christmas
Monday, Nov. 16, 2009
What’s black, white and red all over? Yes, it’s a newspaper, but it’s being used in a whole new way for Christmas decorating that’s nostalgic, fun and inexpensive.
Black and white has been a popular home decorating trend for about three years, says Joyce Gilpin, an antiques dealer at the Jesse James Antique Mall. But this year, the trend — using things you have around the house, like newspapers and sheet music — is making a splash in holiday decor.
“It’s a way of repurposing what you have for Christmas,” Ms. Gilpin says.
Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009
I worked at one time for a guy who was really into his health. He was in great shape, but worked out all the time and was known to eat tuna for lunch, straight out of the can with nothing else.
America's house
Monday, Nov. 9, 2009
Barbara O’Malley thinks her husband, Patrick, can do about anything.
Patrick says that’s just because you can’t see all of his mistakes.
Visitors on this year’s Holiday Homes Tour in Weston, Mo., Nov. 20 through 22 will no doubt agree with Barbara — especially once they see the O’Malley home, where Mr. O’Malley has not only restored and preserved much of structure but made many of the Pennsylvania-German-style furnishings himself, along with creating some fascinating photo displays. And he is the same O’Malley who restored and owns Weston’s landmark 1842 O’Malley’s Pub and the America Bowman restaurant.
The Difference Maker
Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009
In the back of Border’s bookstore on a chilly Saturday morning, six women are talking about life over coffee and pastries. The women, ranging in age from 30- to 70-something, have been meeting every Saturday at 9:30 a.m. for the past three years. Some days more women join them, sitting in the big, leather chairs at the back of the store, but on this day it’s just the six, chatting on issues of the day, including the book of the month: “The Difference Maker” by John C. Maxwell.
Where have all the nursing caps gone?Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009
Elaine Greer remembers how one of her classmates in nursing school got secretly married.
“If they found out, she would have been kicked out of school,” Mrs. Greer says. “Nurses couldn’t be married.”
That’s because it was during the 1960s at the former Missouri Methodist Hospital and Medical Center in St. Joseph, when things were much stricter. Schools thought women should be completely devoted to nursing, she says.
Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009
To keep smelly kitchen odor at bay and ensure appliance workhorses run smoothly, Whirlpool has introduced a new dishwasher and disposal cleaner called affresh. (That seems to be the trend these days to use all lowercase letters.) They say it’s the only national two-in-one cleaner for dishwashers and garbage disposals. Now, if you are like me, cleaning your dishwasher is probably not anywhere near the top of your to-do list and you may not care about this at all. But according to most cleaning experts, they need cleaning about once a month. And the makers of affresh say even though you scrape or pre-rinse your dishes, minerals from your water can still calcify and build up, leading to odor.
Eats: Just like grandma'sWednesday, Nov. 4, 2009
You could say Galvin’s Dinnerhouse is like the St. Joseph version of Stroud’s in Kansas City. Although there are certainly differences in decor and some menu items, they both pride themselves on tender, pan-fried chicken served up family-style in a down-home setting. And they’ve both been around long enough to get pretty good at what they do.
Midnight spaghetti
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009
It feels like little Italy at Lino’s Original Pizza in the East Hills Shopping Center. The aroma of sizzling garlic and olive oil is intoxicating as Lino Ingargiola tosses what is officially called “pasta aglio oilio e peperoncio” in a skillet. Bits of green parsley and crushed red pepper accent the thin, graceful noodles as they cascade onto a plate. You can almost hear Luciano Pavarotti singing in the background. And as he shakes some Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese on top, Mr. Ingargiola asks with his Sicilian accent if we want to try some. It was an offer we couldn’t refuse.
Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009
If you love the sights, smells and sounds of Christmas, make the trek to Independence, Mo. Even Scrooge himself would get excited with the plethora of things to do, from sleigh rides to holiday home tours, plus the long list of events at the new Independence Event Center. And it all begins before most anywhere else: The weekend of Nov. 7.
“It’s been intentionally done that way for a couple of years because people love the old-fashioned Harry Truman hometown idea and the Main Street shops, with the magic of a homespun, heartwarming holiday,” says Janeen Aggen, who does media relations for Independence, Missouri, Tourism. “So they’ve put a lot of planning into trying to encourage the sites and attractions during this time.”
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