Towns are adopting “Do Not Knock” registries, the door-to-door equivalent of the “Do Not Call” list. But between the rise of the Internet and two-income couples, Do Not Knock initiatives seem to be a quaint answer to a rapidly disappearing problem.

While the Internet has made genealogy a much easier hobby to pursue in the past decade, sometimes, there’s no substitute for doing research the old-fashioned way. Persistence doesn’t hurt either.

Brian d’Arcy James, Broadway actor and currently starring on NBC’s “Smash,” says that acting in his high school’s musicals was an integral part of his evolution into the person he is today. Thanks to the “Make a Musical” initiative and shows like “Glee,” more and more students today decide to join the musical and performing arts as well.

Long a backwater in the film industry, faith-based films and films with overtly Christian themes are gaining in popularity. With the money rolling in, Hollywood is beginning to see the light.

There was a time when middle and even lower income Americans could look like rappers. Golden grillz – the ostentatious oral bling popularized by hip-hop’s most outré stars – were fashionable and affordable. But times have changed. At the end of 2000, an ounce of spot gold cost $272; in mid-April it hovered just below $1,700. Gold has become a symbol of wealth for a declining number of people who can afford it, and this has led to a marked decrease in grillz sales at stores like Brooklyn’s Contessa.

Mobile classrooms are growing in number across the country. They travel from place to place, providing students and professionals with access to educational opportunities including biology, disaster training and music.

The growth of the Indian-American population in the U.S. is fueling an increase in popularity of Carnatic music, a classical Indian form of music, based on melodic scales and rhythms.

Often stereotyped as disengaged and skeptical, members of Generation X have in fact been donating their time to various causes in record numbers over the past four years, partially as a result of the worst economic crisis to hit the country since the Great Depression. But as the economy begins to recover, will that continue?

As Jeremy Lin recovers from knee surgery, Chinese American fans — and sporting goods sellers in Chinatown — wish him a speedy return to pro basketball.

Since 2005, at least seven companies, all with the word “Southern” in their names, have emerged to offer a classic alternative to what has, until recently, been a Northern monopoly on the preppy look. First came Southern Proper, then Southern Tide; next were Southern Marsh and Southern Point Co. In the past 18 months, Southern Frattire, Southern Dignity, and Southern Ties has each begun peddling its own Dixie-inspired apparel. The image has enjoyed a welcome worthy of the term “Southern Hospitality.”