Catherine Gigante-Brown

I know it’s not a politically correct one, but I’ve got a confession to make: earth-friendly hotels stink. There, I said it.

I try. I really do. But whenever I attempt to embrace my husband Peter’s Cuban culture, I always screw up.

Instead of categorizing people as different colors, I proposed we might begin to think of each other as Earthtones—because our skin colors are based on hues from the earth. Just as the planet is made up of a myriad of shades, it’s still one cohesive entity. We can be thought of as one entity also.

Wrinkles or lifelines? Chunky or curvaceous? The choice is yours.

I’m a firm believer that Tiny Kindnesses can change the world, one sweet, loving gesture at a time.

I saw my present mother-in-law in a whole new light the first time she held my newborn son.

I’m sure you’ll find it a delicious and well-stocked place. There are just a few rules

" Sure enough, the doorbell rang one early June day and there she was: curvy, seductive body, smooth black skin, bright blue eyes."

In the photograph, my great-grandmother, Margarita Cirigliano, is sitting at a small table on the front porch of the family home in Borough Park, Brooklyn.

Candida Royalle pretty much invented couples erotica. She made it socially-acceptable. Respectable. The women in her films looked like real women and had real, comfortable female bodies. And her movies actually had stories. Good stories. She hired her friends—adult legends like Annie Sprinkle, Veronicas Hart and Vera, and Gloria Leonard — to create Femme films too.