It's no wonder that red haven peaches are considered the standard by which all other peaches are judged. Sweet, juicy, full of flavor and the perfect balance of sink-your-teeth-in soft and hold-their-own-weight firm, they wear their fuzz with pride.

When Bob Morris and his wife, Linda Peckham, moved into a condo in the 10,000-square foot former convent at 311 Seymour Ave. 31 years ago, they say the neighborhood was a mess. The area was overrun with absentee landlords who had carved up the historic Victorian homes and were renting them to low-income tenants who had no regard for either the neighborhood or the property they lived in. Morris said he was determined to put a stop to it, if he had to do it himself.

For seven decades, he's worked almost nonstop on stages across North America, on television and appeared in dozens of movies. But for an entire generation, Jamie Farr will always be Maxwell Klinger, the cross-dressing corporal on the groundbreaking TV series "M*A*S*H."

It's a long story how Tony Cervantes, longtime radio personality at WKAR-AM, got the nickname El Chayo — in a nutshell, it's a homonym of a nickname of an inside joke from his youth. Just don't call him Antonio.

Earlier this year, Biggby Coffee moved up to No. 255 on Entrepreneur Magazine's Annual Franchise 500 list, essentially making their signature black-on-orange "B" the second most distinguished letter to come out of East Lansing since a certain white-on-green "S."

Lansing is the history hub for all things Michigan, from the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum, which focuses on the rise of the automobile, to the Michigan Historical Museum, which covers the rise of pretty much everything else in the state. Well, maybe not everything —like, for example, the city of Lansing.

The owners of Old Town's newest business have picked a heck of a weekend to launch their grand opening. As Oktoberfest patrons slur their way through German folk songs backed up by the oompah-pah band down the street, Lindsay Jones and her partner, Roberto Cantu, are throwing a decidedly lower key event at the brand new Salon 1131.

Want to make your grandmother's sugar cookie recipe famous? You have a couple choices: 1.) sell the recipe to a commercial pastry chef, or 2.) mass-produce it yourself. Pfff, no one gets gram-gram's recipe, you say — slap some flour on the counter and let’s get baking. But wait just a second there, Mrs. Fields, you're forgetting a few things.

Spending an afternoon on a bar patio with Evan Pinsonnault, you don’t so much get the feeling you're hanging out with a TV morning news anchor as you are being charmed by a consummate performer. As he knocks back a beer, he sweet talks the waitstaff and enthusiastically greets passing fans before casually running down the list of roles he's juggling.

Things are brewing across the street from the City Pulse offices on Michigan Avenue. Well, maybe not actually brewing on-site, but a new business is certainly getting things started. On Thursday, owner/operator Todd Branstner opens his venture, Capital City Homebrew Supply, where he hopes to separate himself from similar beer- and wine-making supply stores around town.