I was livid, that day in 1996. Fuming. A neighbor had bought my 4-year-old a sword. A long, plastic, fake-authentic, medieval-esque weapon.

 

How dare she! She knew we allowed no toy weapons in our house. (“We were in Toys “R” Us and the boys really wanted them” was her excuse.) How should I handle this? I pondered. Whisk it away from Josh with a blunt statement on why it’s forbidden? Lecture him on why it’s inappropriate? ...

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When the editors of Orlando Home & Leisure couldn't fit all my "best of" suggestions into their next issue, they generously agreed to let me share the remainders here. These are sensational tastes and such in and near Orlando. Get in those cars, locals! For more  -- the ones that did make the cut, check out the magazine's May 2012 issue.

Best Reason Never to Order Fried Mozzarella Sticks Again

We used to battle over ...

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Pointe Orlando is a restaurant/retail/entertainment complex right near Orlando's convention center. This Sunday, it's hosting Taste of Pointe Orlando. You'll get to sample foods from a load of restaurants including Taverna Opa, Copper Canyon Grill, Funky Monkey, Maggiano's, Cuba Libre, Adobe Gila's and B.B. King's. << MORE >>

The Festival of Chocolate returns to Orlando the last weekend of April and it is a sweetfest like you've never seen. Cooking demonstrations, kiddie games, even a runway show with gowns made from candy wrappers ... . Here's a feature we wrote about it for Edible Orlando (you'll need to scroll down). << MORE >>

You should have seen me Saturday night, wiping salt off my tongue. Not wiping. That’s too civilized a description. With a force of desperation, I was dragging a linen napkin over my tongue, from top to bottom, top to bottom. Occasionally I’d jam a finger in and wrap it around my tongue to scoop out more of the assaulting mess. << MORE >>

A dear friend sat with a plastic surgeon recently, as stunned as she was offended. Her breast, it seems, can’t be reconstructed right after her upcoming mastectomy for reasons irrelevant here. The shocker wasn’t the news; it was the M.D.’s attitude. “Why would you care?” the doctor asked uncaringly, although not in those exact words. “After all, you’re 75.”

Seventeen or 75, we’re women and we care about looking like a woman and feeling like one. How dare that doctor dismiss her concern! To point, my friend isn’t an invalid ...

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Did I mention the toilet? Ours worked perfectly well. I liked it fine. Only nowadays owners of upscale homes who redo bathrooms install “comfort height” units. They’re higher off the ground so we don’t have to struggle to squat so low. (I never struggled; did you?)<< MORE >>

Ryan has a brutal upper respiratory infection. He’s lucky. Why? Because if he felt good, if his nose and throat and head and glands weren’t swollen and achy, he’d be at band camp. << MORE >>

One fine spring day in Oneonta, New York, my college friend Chris and I bolted out of her car in a bank parking lot while belting out the words to Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman.” Newspaper editors, serious students and overall ambitious young women, we were giddy with possibilities – until we came face to face with Clifford Craven, our school principal. << MORE >>