“Celebrity Wife Swap”gives viewers and participants a chance to answer the age-old question: Is the grass truly greener on the other side?

As an expectant mommy, my radar has tuned to the wonderful, colorful world of picture books. Bright colors, vibrant stories and humorous, lesson-teaching tales have been a renewed treat for our family.

What do food, laughter and art have in common? To one degree or another, they are all medicine. While Hippocrates believed that food should be our medicine, and the Readers Digest suggests that laughter is the best medicine, the artistic among us would like to bring into the forefront the power of art as an inspirational healer.

When someone is born with a disability or gets injured, many people assume there are a number of things they will never be able to achieve or do. If you were to rely on stereotypes, you might assume that Bob C., who is considered permanently disabled, would not be a candidate to walk, let alone ride a horse.

Being selected to create a meal at Manhattan’s prestigious James Beard House is tantamount to winning the Academy Award for Culinary Arts. And to win the honor four times over the course of roughly a dozen years matches or eclipses all the awards won by stalwarts like Katherine Hepburn, Meryl Streep and Daniel Day-Lewis (who each took the golden statuette three times!)

In 1965, in the hills of West Virginia, a 6-year-old girl named Kathy Mattea began playing the piano, launching a musical journey that saw her reach a commercial plateau in the late 1980s and early 1990s with five No. 1 songs and 12 more in the Top 10.

Chris Hillman doesn’t play the“what if”game. He stopped doing it years ago.

When an eccentric homeschooler arrives at Mica Area High School, hallways buzz with texts, whispers fill the air, and 11th grader Leo Borlock’s life is changed forever. With her colorful costumes, ukulele, pet rat and unique view of the world, Susan“Stargirl”Caraway—the new girl in town—lives every moment to the fullest and challenges those around her to do the same.

Oh, if you could only go back to those fabulous 1960s, when your clock radio and hi-fi played all that terrific music—especially rock’n’roll and the music of Motown.

Chart-topping sax man Boney James will bring his eclectic blend of R&B, Latin, and jazz to the stage of the Keswick Theatre April 24.

Orchestras, like people, celebrate their birthdays with parties, presents and, of course, music. They get to play the music themselves, however, and sometimes, if they’re feeling adventurous, they ask someone to write something new for the occasion.

Like fine wine, some things just get better with age. One of them is the Choristers, a 65 to 70-voice auditioned civic choir that has thrived since 1978, when it was organized by the current artistic director, David Spitko. The Choristers will perform April 27 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lansdale.

Birds bark. Cows hibernate below ground. Highways don’t lead to cities but away from them.

This week some wine news, something cheesy and something spirited.

Like playing the guitar, cooking has returned as one of my cherished pastimes—especially because I can now enlist the able hands of the twins. But last Saturday, with their dad, Danny, visiting from Chicago, we created a meal for the ages.