Kick the Bottle

1 Days of Water and Roses

The couple peruses the menu from plushly pillowed pods set along the perimeter of a Zen-like reflection pond. After they decide on wok-fried lobster with coconut foam and grilled Florida pompano in curry sauce, the only choice remaining is whether they should pair their dishes with a bottle from Gleneagle Estate (described as "slightly tart" and "fantastic with shellfish") or the Gerolsteiner from Germany ("perfect for bold dishes as well as foods from the grill or rotisserie"). But the selections aren't high-end wines; they're water.

That was... full story >>

Fighting Fire With Fire

His nightly transformation began with a twinge. Then, gnawing and relentless, it consumed him.

At 45, "Steve" was a hard-charging sales manager who'd snagged two promotions in three years. After work one spring day in 2006, he picked up his infant and toddler from day care, had dinner with his family and retired to his office in their spacious Plano home.

His wife assumed he was wrapping up the day's projects. As he thought about her lying in bed downstairs, trying to calm the agonizing headaches that had plagued her since she'd delivered their second daughter the year... full story >>

Union Station may become Denver's gateway again -- if it stays on track

Passengers disembark from the rumbling trains by the hundreds, by the thousands. They've arrived at this station from Aurora and Littleton, from Golden and Boulder, even from over the Continental Divide and across the Great Plains. As the trains empty and creep away from the platforms, others pull in, disgorging more passengers.

The new arrivals stream across the yard, under sweeping wrought-iron canopies, through granite arches and into the cathedral-like train room: vaulted ceiling overhead, two-story windows, grand chandeliers. Lines form at ticket windows, out-of-towners... full story >>

Houston Turns Back to Tap Water

Erica Campbell doesn't want to die from drinking tap water. She doesn't trust Houston's public water system, and as a homeopathic doctor, she says she doesn't believe in the supposed benefits of the fluoride contained in city water and wants nothing to do with the chlorine used to treat it.

Instead, Campbell shops for bottled water.

"I like just pure water," she says. "In life, I try to control the factors that I can, and then do the best I can with all the rest."

On a Friday afternoon, Whole Foods is bustling with people. The water aisle, however, is virtually... full story >>

Bottled Water Gets the Boot

1. Days of Water and Roses

The couple peruses the menu from plushly pillowed pods set along the perimeter of a Zen-like reflection pond. After they decide on wok-fried lobster with coconut foam and grilled Florida pompano in curry sauce, the only choice remaining is whether they should pair their dishes with a bottle from Gleneagle Estate (described as "slightly tart" and "fantastic with shellfish") or the Gerolsteiner from Germany ("perfect for bold dishes as well as foods from the grill or rotisserie"). But the selections aren't high-end wines; they're water.

That was... full story >>

Minnesota's largest shelter killed more than 14,000 animals last year. How many were unnecessary?

When Amber was a little girl she would save her allowance to buy cat food for the strays roaming her neighborhood behind the Animal Humane Society's St. Paul location, a place still plagued by feral cats today. As a child, Amber made friends with the cats, begging neighbors and friends to take them in. Every once in a while she would go inside the shelter to watch the dogs in their cages. "I loved the dogs," says Amber, who is now a 28-year-old kindergarten teacher.

When Amber was in college at Concordia University, she and a friend decided to volunteer at the humane society.... full story >>

Artist Betsy Schneider takes pictures of her children naked and shows them to the world

These days, a mom can scrapbook the remnants of her baby's umbilical cord or blog about her teenager's period, and no one will bat an eye. But there's still one place where maternal (or paternal) documentation is sometimes considered an over-share: nude photos of the kids.

Particularly when they're hanging on the walls of a gallery.

From the day her daughter Madeleine was born, Betsy Schneider has performed a ritual that would inspire jealousy in any mom who lost the baby book when her own kid was 3 months old. Schneider's taken what she calls a "Photo of the Day." Two,... full story >>

Room with a Few

It wasn't meant to be one of those damned open houses.

They — the innumerable aspiring Tiger House roommates — were supposed to come for their appointments at 30-minute intervals. During his years in the coveted seven-bedroom Cole Valley party house, Dan Nazarian, aka the Danlord, had been able to keep auditions under control. But this time, some folks showed up late and some early and then some imbecile sewed his ass to the couch and everybody refused to leave.

It's a symptom of a rampant strategy known as be-the-new-housemate. If you can look as though you... full story >>

Demons Among Us: The RFT paid a visit to America's foremost demonologist in Chesterfield and came home with our head spinning

Late one night last spring, William Bradshaw sat nervously in his study in Chesterfield waiting to make his media debut as a demonologist. A radio host in either Maine or Oregon — he can't remember which — was scheduled to call to discuss Bradshaw's new book, Sinister Among Us, a novel about hunting demons on a college campus.

It had been 47 years since Bradshaw first began his research of evil spirits that shatter human lives. Then, as now, an entire wall of his home office was lined with neatly arranged books on biblical scholarship. There, too, were two... full story >>