I would like information about my old table that is marked "Val-Kill." My grandfather worked at the factory so it means a lot to me. Please tell me more about the company and the value of the table. ...more

March 22, 2009

What can you tell me about my desk? It is a small piece with a fold-over lid and is only marked with numbers. It is painted. Value? ...more

December 14, 2008

"The Heretic's Daughter," by Kathleen Kent (Little, Brown & Co., $24.99) ...more

October 19, 2008

When she and her husband moved to the top of Laurel Mountain, that was when Liz Gates first took up mountain music. ...more

August 8, 2008

Local musician plays and teaches string instruments from past centuries. ...more

August 8, 2008

Ask a roomful of readers about Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's "Leopard" and more often than not you'll find a few who will put hand to heart and say it's their favorite book, and a few others who will simply shrug - never heard of it - or ask if it has anything to do with the Visconti movie starring Burt Lancaster (yes, it does). I suppose it's a coincidence that a roomful of travelers will poll in a similar fashion if you ask them about Sicily, the marvelous, maddening island disparaged and adored in "The Leopard": It's either a favorite place, or they haven't even thought of going there. ...more

August 3, 2008

Philip Levy spent a decade excavating sites that held signs of early American history, including a plantation in the nation's first permanent English settlement, Jamestown. ...more

July 4, 2008

Thank goodness divers off the Florida Keys found my 385-year-old gold toothpick and earwax spoon. ...more

May 27, 2008

"The Forgery of Venus," by Michael Gruber (William Morrow, $25) ...more

May 25, 2008

Dedicated To Preserving History As an unpaid intern for the Brooker Creek Preserve, Jamie Fridy has recorded and edited more than 100 hours of audio from residents of northwest Hillsborough and northeast Pinellas counties for an oral history project called Recollections Shared. northwest.tbo.com ...more

February 3, 2008