(MCT)—With Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby” opening just before summer, there’s no better time to celebrate the spirit of the Roaring ’20s. From speakeasies to grande dame hotels, the members and editors of VirtualTourist.com have chosen

(MCT)—If there is one thing gardeners everywhere hate, it’s weeds. However, many times the solution to getting rid of weeds can actually be more of a problem. In fact, it can be downright dangerous because there are growing health concerns about one of the chief ingredients, glyphosate,

(MCT)—The garbage disposal is often one of the most-used appliances in the kitchen. It’s also the most abused. “Foreign objects in the disposal is the most common issue,” says Kevin Harner of Kevin Harner Appliance Services Co. in Enola, Pa.

(MCT)—Q: When Sandy flooded our basement, we had a contractor pull up the carpeting and install vinyl tiles. He prepared the concrete floor by scraping up the rug glue that remained, and used commercial adhesive to put down the new tiles.

(MCT)—In just weeks, my sister’s youngest son will put on his high school graduation cap and walk across the stage, soon to head out the door to his college dorm. Watching her confront the impending reality of becoming an empty nester has me a little unnerved.

(MCT)—The flowers are blooming, the weather is warming, and pests are starting to appear inside and outside of our homes. Instead of reaching for a toxic cocktail of bug killer, Do Your Part to battle these pests with safer solutions.

(MCT)—QUESTION: I recently moved, and the moving company damaged a piece of antique furniture. I’m getting only a few dollars in compensation, much less than the value of the furniture. What can I do?

(MCT)— When Mark Fay heard that the F.P. Fay Building was about to be demolished, the “True Blood” sound engineer drove to downtown Los Angeles to see the building named for his great-grandfather. That day, Easter Sunday, he discovered the building had already been knocked down, with little left but some ironwork and Fay Building signage he found on a piece of marble.

(MCT)—It’s that time of year. Drive through your neighborhood on heavy trash pickup day in early spring and you’ll likely see them: lawnmowers sitting forlornly at the end of driveways, worn but otherwise seemingly intact; cast aside because they no longer function as they should.

(MCT)—Q: Our house was fitted with white aluminum siding by the prior owners decades ago. We’ve been in it about 16 years now. The siding has held up OK except in the front above the porch, which gets the morning sun. It is losing its paint. Is there a preferred method of dealing with this?

Internationally acclaimed Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei celebrates his 96th birthday today, April 26th. With a career that spanned six decades and several continents, Pei created some of the most iconic structures in the world such as the Pyramid entrance

(MCT)—The Chinese snowball viburnum has a lot going for it: Virtually no insect or disease pressures, 12-foot height, spectacular glistening white blossoms, and cut flowers by the buckets. This makes this heirloom that’s strutting its stuff right now in the South an absolute winner

(MCT)—From retirement to saving to paying off debt, our modern-day money worries are many. But some of that concern is fueled more by rumor than reality. Mechel Glass, vice president of community outreach for financial counseling service

(MCT)—If you’re anything like me, you probably have a few old prescriptions that have been hanging around for years. Those orange plastic bottles may contain the last antibiotic from a bout of strep throat or a medication that you never even used.

(MCT)—Do a quick online search for carpet cleaning and you’ll find a variety of different methods. The two most common are hot water extraction — mostly known as steam cleaning — and hot carbonation, often referred to as dry chemical techniques.