Saddle cloths to be worn by Preakness horses on their way to Pimlico

Small New Jersey embroidery shop frantically stitches cloths after Wednesday night's draw By 9 a.m. Thursday, an important part of the Preakness race had crossed the finish line. A dozen colorful cloths, each with the name and number of the entry, were folded neatly and placed in a plastic bin, ready for a final inspection, a pressing and the trip to Pimlico Race Course. The cloths are made by ...

Sisters stitch together a business

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- They call themselves Sister Stitches. Growing up in Madison, though, siblings Aleesa White and Emma Doss didnt sew much at all. "The only thing I ever sewed was a pair of boxer shorts in 12th-grade home economics class,&quo...

Europe’s dirty secrets

Angela Merkel, Europe’s master schoolmarm, scolds her neighbors that they have “no alternative to austerity.” François Hollande, the new French president, preaches the need for growth, challenging Merkel’s leadership with a social democratic alternative. The two meet in Berlin tomorrow, for the first time since Hollande ousted Merkel’s pal, Nicolas Sarkozy. And the tension will be on display ...

“The Aleppo Codex”: The bizarre history of a precious book

An ancient and priceless book, a murky history of evasions and coverups, an underground of sinister and possibly violent dealers, a former spy who drops tantalizing hints and a wily 84-year-old millionaire who says stuff like, "The problem with this story is that it could damage your health": Are these the ingredients for a cheesy, improbable historical thriller? Yet "The Aleppo Codex," Matti ...

Students turning old wedding dresses into infant burial gowns

The Riverside High School Clothing 2 class in Lake City is going far and above your typical sewing class. The class is taking old wedding and formal dresses and turning them in to burial gowns.

My dad’s 30-year coming out

I must’ve been eight or nine the one time my dad took me along to meet Bart. This was somewhere near Tompkins Square Park. What I recalled was a shaggy shock of blue hair, and feelings of both elation and terror: On the one hand thrilled to be old enough to be taken along one night to the city to meet a guy with blue hair, and on the other frightened of the jagged dark in the Alphabet City of ...