Living in a recession is hard. We at WWE! have already sold a kidney to pay for ramen and Playboy, and we can still only afford to drink Natty Light (in bottles when we feel like classing it up or we have a lady friend over).  

In talking with several jewelers that work with big-time Rap stars, the paper found that many of them have requested cheaper jewelry in the face of the recession. Instead of real diamonds, some have switched to — gasp! — cubic zirconium.  

Foodie Jason Klapfish has traveled the world, including the Arctic Circle and half of Mexico. Not one to settle down, Cincinnati is the only place he keeps coming back to.   

For Kendall Fisher, adjusting to her first month as Women Helping Women’s executive director felt like deja vu. She’d been the organization’s associate director from 1996 to 2001, and coming back this July was “like a homecoming,” she says. Fisher supports a women’s advocacy agency for victims and survivors of violent crimes and stalk ing.   

There’s an important mantra in a recent film: “Anyone can cook.” Amy Hunter believes that wholeheartedly. She also believes everyone can get better — and enjoy it more — with a little help. Enter the Creations Community Cooking Classes at the Midwest Culinary Institute (MCI) at Cincinnati State, for which Hunter is the coordinator.   

Local writer Joani Lacy’s second novel, Hollister House, is one spooky trip to the exotic, crumbling Southern home of the title. The book’s protagonist, Eve Hollister, is determined to start over by looking to her past when she moves into the Gothic-tinged, long-vacant Victorian homestead that belongs to her father’s family in Juniper, Miss.   

Jeff Cappell isn’t afraid to piss off people in his own party. Last year Cappell filed a federal lawsuit against the local GOP’s big gun — Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis Jr. — alleging Leis broke state election laws when he included a letter in pay checks to his workers urging them to support a sales tax referendum on the November 2007 ballot.   

Northwestern Hamilton County isn't necessarily known for its fine eating establishments. The exception has to be Les Flick's Homelike Inn. Having had the pleasure of growing up in that part of G