Too cynical?

Maybe I've gotten to be too cynical, or maybe after a week of Balloon Boy coverage I just have hoaxes on the brain, but this morning I found myself questioning something else that has been getting a lot of media coverage. Good Morning America was talking to the woman who foiled a robber by praying with him, and as I watched I couldn't help wondering if this story was really authentic. The first thing that struck me was the fact that the whole thing was caught on video. Is it just a coincidence that the entire incident, which I believe was about 40 minutes in length, just happened to take place in perfect view of the security camera? I was also struck by the fact that for the entire 40 minutes, no one came to this woman's assistance. They showed a short clip of her 911 call and had a brief statement from a policeman saying how brave the woman had been, but why was she alone with this armed thief for 40 minutes? Even the outcome appeared to have a "made for television" aura to it - apparently after seeing the video, the thief's mother convinced him to do the right thing and turn himself in. Ahhhhhhhh.

So am I completely heartless to question this? I don't think so. A big part of media literacy is questioning what we see. If nothing else, the story reinforces my belief that a lot of what is presented to us as "news" wouldn't be news without the dramatic video. Certainly the Balloon Boy story wouldn't have been nearly as big of a deal without live television coverage of the balloon floating through the air. Think about this the next time you see a so-called news story about kids fighting on a school bus, or an animal caught in a well. Without the video, would this be news?

2016 Olympics

One week from today, on October 2, the IOC will announce which of four cities will host the 2016 Summer Olympics. Will it be Chicago, Tokyo, Madrid or Rio? No surprise that I'm hoping for Chicago, partly just because it would be exciting, and partly because I think it would be good for our local economy. Maybe not in the long, long term, i.e., after the games are over, but in the seven years of preparation leading up to 2016, a lot of money will be spent getting ready, and it might as well be spent here.

Will President Obama go to Copenhagen to pitch for Chicago? It's beginning to look as if he might. Apparently a White House advance team was sent to Denmark to scope out the place, just in case. Initially it was reported that he wasn't going because he didn't want to be away from the health care debate, but some cynics suggested he was also concerned about the political risk - if Chicago doesn't get the games after the President makes a personal appeal, does that make him look weak? On the other hand, if the 2016 games are awarded to Madrid or Tokyo after personal presentations from, respectively, the King of Spain or the Emperor of Japan, you know there will be a lot of 20/20 hindsight saying that if only the President had cared enough to show up in person things might have gone the other way. (I'm not sure who's planning to go from Brazil.)

The local news here is reporting that Mayor Daley is leaving for Copenhagen today to get ready for the final presentations to the IOC, and the Chicago 2016 committee has chartered a United Airlines 747 to take the rest of the team over there on Monday. We're getting down to the wire and there's a lot at stake - I'll definitely be watching next Friday to see how this turns out! Stay tuned.

Chicago in 2016

We're now less than 3 weeks away from the announcement of which city will host the 2016 Summer Olympics. Will it be Chicago? Who knows. Do I want it to be Chicago? Probably. It would certainly be exciting, and it would also probably pump a whole lot of money into our local economy as everything gears up to get ready over the next seven years. Unfortunately the downside is also about the money: how much will it cost, how in debt will we end up being and who will ultimately pay the bill.

The chicagogames.com website has a countdown clock that is ticking off the seconds until the announcement on October 2, along with a collection of articles about the goings-on concerning Chicago's bid. I'll be checking it periodically between now and October 2, and I'll definitely have my fingers crossed on the big day. Go Chicago!

Mastering The Art

As a result of the movie "Julie & Julia," Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which is the book that started it all, is finally reaching the number 1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list. I loved the movie when I saw it last week-end, although I was a little disappointed that it didn't include more actual cooking. I also agreed with many of the critics that the Julia in Paris segments, starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child, were hugely more interesting than the modern day tale of the New York blogger who decided to cook her way through the entire cookbook in one year.

I already own the cookbook, volumes 1 and 2, having purchased a 40th Anniversary edition a few years ago when I found it on sale at Costco. As outlined in this article, modern cooks who are used to quick low-fat cooking will find Julia's masterpiece to be a bit of a challenge, with ingredients, techniques and calorie counts that we just don't see on the Food Network. Still, it's fun every now and then to at least attempt to master Julia's art. I'm certainly going to keep trying, one recipe at a time and I'll let you know how it goes. For the moment, there's nothing else to say except "Bon Appetit!!!"

To Watch, Or Not To Watch...

... that is definitely the question. If you haven't heard, there's a new two-hour special on Fox tonight, starring none other than Octomom!!

In a previous post about rumors that Nadya was getting a reality show, I said that I would probably watch, but I might not admit it. In the interest of full disclosure, I am thinking that I will at least check it out tonight, in the spirit of "how horrifyingly bad will this train wreck be?" curiosity. In fact, I really am interested to see what the eight babies look like now, at about six or seven months old, and in particular whether or not they're all healthy. But that's about 90 seconds worth of material, and I can hardly bear to think about what kind of inane absurdities might be used to fill up the rest of a two-hour show. Maybe I'll tape it, which gives me the option of skipping over the really icky parts.

Believe me, I'm aware of my own hypocrisy concerning this whole subject. I'm having so much fun being all snarky and snotty about Nadya's show, even as I sheepishly admit that no way I'm going to miss watching at least part of it. If 10 million other viewers feel the same way, Nadya gets the last laugh and a new reality star is born. Tune in tonight, 7:00 p.m. central time on Fox, and let's see what happens.

The Harvest Begins

Check out my beautiful tomatoes! Unfortunately at the end of the video you'll also see my basil, which is under attack from japanese beetles. I've now sprayed with bug spray which will hopefully get rid of the bugs, but who knows whether or not the basil plants can recover.

In spite of that, I'm so excited about my tomatoes!

Is This News?

There's a lot going on in the world today, including, off the top of my head, the health care debate, the Sotomayor confirmation, record unemployment, two wars, and even as two American journalists are released by North Korea, three American hikers are now being held by Iran. So what was the lead story on both Good Morning America and the Today show this morning? A shooting at a health club last night in Pennsylvania. Based on the way it was presented by both shows, this story was very big news indeed. NBC was running a "Breaking News" banner, even though the story was now about 12 hours old, and both shows sent big gun news stars to report "Live" from the scene - Lester Holt ("filling in for Matt Lauer") for Today and Chris Cuomo for GMA.

For the families of those killed and injured this is, of course, a tragedy, and for those who were in the health club and survived it had to have been terrifying, but for everyone else, is this really news? National-level, "lead story" important news? I don't think so. This was a perfect example of the news judgement axiom that "If it bleeds, it leads." To put it another way, it's not just People magazine that has been dumbed down and sexed up.

Still Thinking About Nacho

A few weeks ago, I picked Nacho Figueras as my #1 choice in an on-line poll for the world's best looking man. I'd actually never heard of him before I saw the poll, but whatever. He looked really hot in the pictures. Now, because I know you were wondering, I'm happy to report that Nacho is still around. Here's another article about the life and times of the "Stud on a Steed." Turns out he's actually a married man with kids, a hard-working guy just trying to tap into and cash in on America's culture of celebrity, commercialism and manly hotness. I think we should all keep an eye on Nacho, don't you?

Back To Blogging

I'm back - and take a look at today's pictures of my tomatoes! It's been such a non-hot and sunny summer here in Chicagoland that it took a lot longer than I expected to get even a few red ones, but I'm in business now.

Short Time-Out From Blogging

I've been away from my blog for a while as I'm working to finish up my web development class. Wednesday night is the final and after that I'll be back with lots to talk about. See you then!

Just for fun...

MyCoolSigns is a fun site that built a sign just for me:

Tomato Update

Here's the latest picture of my tomato plants, taken just a few minutes ago.

Hearing The News

In 1981, I learned that President Reagan had been shot when the soap opera I was watching on television was interrupted by an "ABC News Special Report".

In 1986, I heard about the Challenger explosion from a co-worker in the parking lot at San Francisco airport.

In 1997, I found out about the death of Princess Diana when a friend called me very early that Sunday morning.

This evening I'm struck by the fact that although the death of Michael Jackson and the death of Walter Cronkite have almost nothing in common, in my mind the two events are connected by the way I learned they had happened: I found about both events on Twitter.

Thinking about Speidi?

Actually for the past few days I haven't been thinking about Speidi, and I'll bet not too many other people have been either. Whatever else you think about the over-the-top media coverage of Michael Jackson, Sarah Palin, and the Ensign/Sanford political sex scandals, it's had the effect of knocking Speidi off the tabloid radar screen. As Martha Stewart would say, that's a good thing.

And speaking of people whose 15 minutes of fame appear to be over, I wonder what Nadya Suleman is up to these days. Ah, fame - such a fickle lover.

Coolest Website Ever?

I had kind of forgotten that this summer marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, until I ran across what may be the coolest website ever. Well, maybe not, but it's a lot of fun. It's a real-time countdown of the entire mission, exactly 40 years after the fact. As I'm writing this on Monday, July 13, the mission countdown clock shows just under 65 hours until launch, and there's a pretty realistic looking graphic of the Apollo 11 rocket sitting on the launch pad. It's mesmerizing and I'm going to be checking it often in the next few days.

You can find the website here.

Ironies abound

I admit, I'm mesmerized as I watch all the various media-obsessed feeding frenzies that are playing out this summer. The Ensign scandal caught my attention, only to be eclipsed by Mark Sanford's adventures in Argentina, who then caught a lucky break in the "media spotlight du jour" sweepstakes when Michael Jackson died, followed by Sarah Palin's strange resignation. There's a lot that can be said about all of this, both serious and silly, and I'll probably be blogging about it some more as the summer goes on. (Or not. I may just keep tweeting about my tomatoes.)

Anyway, things have circled around and l'affaire Ensign is back in the news, and here's my pithy observation of the moment: One of the odd, head-scratcher elements of the Sarah Palin babygate story is the fact that even though she was a high-risk 44-year-old woman carrying a special needs baby, she wasn't being treated by an OB-GYN. The baby was apparently delivered by Palin's regular family practice physician. On the other hand, Senator Tom Coburn, who in addition to being a senator is also a doctor, is claiming that the "doctor-patient privilege" protects him from revealing what advice he gave to Senator Ensign about how to fix his marital problems. Coburn's speciality? Obstetrics.

Seriously. I can't make this stuff up.

Tomatoes

Here's what my plants look like today.

Believe it or not, this is just four plants, two in each of the Earthbox planters. You can't see them but there are about 10 little green tomatoes, getting bigger everyday.

Just For Fun

If you need a diversion on this nice Saturday morning, take a look at Vanity Fair's on-line poll to determine who's the world's most handsome man. As I'm writing, Robert Pattinson is in the lead of this totally unscientific poll with 51% of the votes, but Nacho Figueras, who currently has 15%, is the one who gets my vote. I have to point out that my choice is based solely on the pictures provided by Vanity Fair. Until I saw the poll, I had never heard of Nacho, who in case you're wondering is an Argentine polo player, recently described by Page Six Magazine as the "Stud on a Steed." I was marginally more familiar with Robert Pattinson, who is one of those celebrities that I know about from looking at the covers of magazines like OK and US.

So what does it all mean? Absolutely nothing. As I said, just an entertaining diversion.

Changing The World ...

... one tweet at a time. Apparently Twitter is playing a key role in how information is coming out of Iran in the aftermath of the disputed election, so much so that the U.S. State Department has asked the site to defer a planned maintenance outage that was scheduled for this afternoon. How about that? It's easy to laugh about Twitter and be dismissive about the whole idea, starting with the silly name ("tweeting"? Really?), not to mention the notion of substantive information being squashed into messages no longer than 140 characters, including spaces and punctuation. Twitter gets the last laugh, because it's clearly having an impact far beyond those of you who are mesmerized by my tweets about tomatoes and my web development homework. Just one more way the world, and how we get information about what's going on in it, is changing.

Here's what cnn.com is saying about this.

The Queen, Michelle and Me

Gardening is cool! The White House's vegetable garden is well known, and of course, everyone knows all about my wonderful balcony garden, but apparently Her Majesty is getting in on the fun too. Based on the picture accompanying this article, it's not the Queen who is actually digging the dirt and planting the plants, but no worries. I'm sure she's enjoying her garden as much as I'm enjoying mine.

Nailed It!

I really don't play my old "Guess Who's On The Cover Of People Magazine This Week" game any more, but if I did, this week I was right. In my Bikini Rant Follow Up post on Sunday I listed Brangelina as one of three possibilities for the issue that comes out this Friday, and bingo! There they are. I know this because of the weekly What's In The Fabloids feature on The Daily Beast. Every Wednesday afternoon they provide a preview of People's upcoming cover, plus the covers of US, OK, the National Enquirer and a couple of others, and yes, every week I check it out. That's how I found out about Speidi.

I admit that I'm simultaneously intrigued and repulsed by the whole spectacle of tabloid celebrity coverage. There's so much more going on in the world than whether Brad and Angelina are together or not, much less what Speidi are up to, and a lot of it is actually important, but you'd sure never know that from the stories in all these magazines. Unfortunately, the important stuff is also frequently the boring stuff, and that doesn't sell magazines. It's probably not just the celebrity tabloids that won't be doing cover stories about the health care plan that was just introduced in the Senate. That's something that will affect my life way more than the latest celebrity gossip, and it's going to be a whole lot harder to find out what it's about than it is to keep tabs on Brangelina. For what it's worth, I'm going to try.

Be Careful What You Wish For

I frequently use the expression "I'd rather have root canal" when talking about something that I don't particularly want to do. Today those words came back to haunt me because after an unpleasant week-end courtesy of a very sore tooth, I ended up in the dentist's chair this morning actually having one.

Initially, it wasn't that bad. After a large shot of novocain, I not only didn't feel anything during the procedure but I also couldn't feel the sore tooth anymore, which was definitely a relief. The dentist gave me a prescription for pain pills, which I had filled on the way home, but as the afternoon wore on I was feeling pretty good and didn't think I'd need them. I had even begun to wonder what the big deal about root canal was. Then, at 4:10 p.m. (yes, I remember the moment exactly,) the novocain wore off. Yowza.

For those of you who saw my breezy little tweet about how I sailed through the root canal, never mind. I deleted it. I am indeed taking my medicine and I plan to spend the rest of the evening moaning and groaning and generally feeling sorry for myself. I know I'll feel better in the morning and I'm grateful I was able to get my tooth fixed. I'll also probably think twice the next time I start to say that I'd rather have root canal.

Bikini Rant Follow-Up

When I wrote my "Bikini Rant" post on June 1 I hadn't seen this fascinating bit of "inside baseball'' about how People magazine chooses their cover subjects each week, but I sure enjoyed reading it today, even as it depressed the hell out of me. True story: back when I had a subscription I used to try and guess who/what would be on the cover each week, based on what big pop culture stories and events had taken place at the time. I don't play that game anymore, but if I did, there's not a snowball's chance that I would have picked Melissa Joan Hart last week. Seriously - does anyone really care that she lost 42 pounds? Jon Gosselin's on the cover this week, which was fairly predictable. Any guesses for next week? Speidi? Susan Boyle? Brangelina? It could be Farrah, but only if she dies. (That's not me being morbid and disrespectful. I'm quoting People's editor.) As I said in my previous post - what this says about our culture depresses me beyond words.

Still Thinking About Madame Sarkozy

After writing my earlier post, I was still thinking about the life and career path of Carla Bruni Sarkozy when this thought came to me: What do you suppose the reaction here in the U.S. would be if a candidate for President was married to a former supermodel, a woman who had been famous for having an affair with a rock star?

It's fun to contemplate, isn't it? The U.S. isn't France and something tells me that for us it would be a very big deal and probably not in a good way for the candidate. I can only imagine the media feeding-frenzy-on-steroids that would follow such a revelation.

So here's another question. Does it matter? Does having a wife with a racy tabloid past automatically mean that an American man couldn't be an effective president? With our current "sex and scandal over substance" media-driven political process it almost certainly means that such a man couldn't get elected president of the U.S., but winning an election and actually leading the country are two very different processes. I don't know if Nicolas Sarkozy is a good leader or not, but I admit I kind of like the fact that he's married to a woman with an interesting past and the French people think that's okay. Wonder if it could ever happen here ...

Remembering D-Day

This morning I watched some of the ceremonies commemorating the 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. A few random thoughts:

Given the choice between watching CNN's coverage on television or cnn.com's live stream on-line, on-line wins by a landslide. Not only does the TV coverage switch to commercials on an annoyingly frequent basis, even when they're showing actual coverage you still have to listen to the inane and never-ending narration from the anchors. Watching on-line, there are no commercials (other than 30 seconds at the beginning) and no voice-over narration. Bliss.

Apparently there was some kind of diplomatic kerfuffle about Queen Elizabeth. The British are insulted because they say she wasn't invited to the various events in France; the French are saying it's up to the British government to decide who to send. What really happened? Not sure, don't care, but Prince Charles was there, which is apparently the "save face all around" solution they came up with. I didn't see Camilla, which makes me think he was a last minute addition to the program. I was struck by how old Charles looks (he's now 60) and by comparison, how young Obama is, at least by head-of-state standards.

Actually, now that I'm writing about this, I do wonder what the real issue was with the Queen. Unlike the five key dignitaries who were there (Charles, Obama, Sarkozy, British PM Brown and Canadian PM Harper), she was actually alive in 1944. She has already smiled her way through a lifetime's worth of these ceremonies and she may well have been just as content to stay home and send Charles, but still. She's of the same generation as the aging veterans who were honored today and it would have been poignant to see her there.

The French band played and the French soldiers sang the anthems of all four countries and it was interesting to hear our anthem sung with a French accent. As I listened I realized that I was at least vaguely familiar with the anthems of Great Britain, France and even Canada. Comes from watching the Olympics, I guess.

Whenever I see Carla Bruni in her role as First Lady of France I'm struck by what an interesting second act it is for her. It's almost hard to remember that she used to be a super model/tabloid fixture, at one point being famous primarily as the "other woman" Mick Jagger was fooling around with while he was still married to Jerri Hall.

Because I was watching on-line I could hear some of the announcements and speeches in French and I'm proud to say that I actually understood most of them. The Rosetta Stone lessons are working!

It's Not Just The Sheep

Global warming is a complicated problem with no easy answers. If you don't believe it, take a look at this story from today's New York Times. Back in February I linked to a story entitled "Sheep Belches Threaten World", and apparently cow breath is part of the problem too. According to the story, scientists are working to develop the cow of the future, who will have sweeter breath with less methane gas than today's regular cows. It sounds like a joke but in truth it's a serious problem that's apparently having a real impact on our environment. I'll be interested to learn more about the cows of the future. Won't you?

To Tweet Or Not To Tweet ...

... that's certainly the question. I set up my account on Twitter a few weeks ago and I've found it to be a fun way to express myself on topics both interesting (Talk like Shakespeare Day) and otherwise (perhaps a few too many weather updates from Chicagoland.) I also enjoy reading the tweets of the various people I've signed up to follow - again, some are interesting, some are boring and some people obviously felt inspired to create their Twitter personas but have fallen out of love with actually tweeting. Whatever. So far, I'm enjoying it.

If you're wondering what all the fuss is about, take a look at this article from Time.com. It's an interesting example of how this new-fangled way of communicating is changing the way we all get information. Twitter may be annoying sometimes but my guess is that it's not going away. Tweet on!

Bikini Shots

Warning: rant ahead. First, here's the background. Over the years I've had an evolving relationship with People magazine. Back in the day, I used to enjoy reading it, and for a few years in the 90s I even had a subscription. The new issue usually showed up in Friday's mail and reading it was a relaxing Friday night ritual that I looked forward to. Over the years, unfortunately, People magazine, along with the rest of pop culture and pretty much everything else we're exposed to on every level of media, has been dumbed down and sexed up to the point where I consider it to be almost unreadable now. It was never the New Yorker, but it didn't used to be "all bimbos all the time" either.

So here's my rant: Do we really need this many cover stories about B-, C-,
or D-list actresses who lost weight and are now posing in bikinis? To refresh your memory, the cover story for People's April 6 issue was a picture of Valerie Bertinelli in a bikini, with a headline that said "Bikini Body at 48." My thought at the time was "Is this really the most intriguing thing happening in the world of celebrities this week?" That issue must have really sold well because this week's cover is almost identical. It's a picture of Melissa Joan Hart (who???) in a bikini, with this headline "How I lost 42 pounds". There's also a "before" picture that the sub-headline describes as horrifying. Would you like to guess what her horrifying "before" weight was? 250 pounds? 185 pounds? No, her horrifyingly fat pre-diet weight was 155 pounds.

I fully understand that the fate of the world doesn't depend on what People magazine chooses to put on its cover every week. The cover story's one and only purpose is to sell magazines, and pictures of women in bikinis is probably as good a way to do that as any. I just really don't like what that says about our culture.

More About Change

It's always interesting to ponder all the ways technology has changed our lives. Not just the equipment, like personal computers, flat screen televisions and ATMs, but the way we all communicate and interact with each other.

I was just reading one of those "relationship" articles, written for a female audience, and I was struck by one of the dating tips. It said that at the beginning of a dating relationship, the woman shouldn't be the first one to change her status on Facebook to "in a relationship." Let him change his status first. That's just not one of the things we had to worry about when I was in high school.

In those days, boys had control of the asking out, because "nice" girls didn't call boys, but on the other hand, boys were pretty much always expected to pay for the date too. Susie might see Janie's boyfriend out with another girl and run home to call Janie and tell her about it, but there was no real-time texting or cell phone video evidence. If Boyfriend wanted to break up with Janie, he had to have the guts to tell her personally. Break-up by Facebook status just hadn't been invented yet. And we didn't have to worry about those incriminating cell phone pictures being posted on the internet for all the world to see.

So is the whole dating/relationship dance easier now that we have all these new ways to communicate? I'm still thinking about that, but there's no question at all that it's different.

Growing Tomatoes - It Runs In The Family

Those of you who read this blog and/or my tweets know how much I'm enjoying my little balcony garden. Well, just so you're up to date with all the green thumbs in my family, check out this picture my dad just sent me. He's decided to try the newest new way for people who don't actually live on farms to grow their own tomatoes. It's called the "Topsy Turvy" upside down hanging tomato planter - perfect if you don't have your own dirt.

My tomatoes have been in the dirt for a couple of weeks, so they've got a bit of a head start - I'm even seeing a couple of yellow flowers, which will eventually turn into fruit. Still, I'm interested to see how the whole upside down concept works. Watch this space - as we go through the summer I'll provide periodic updates in the saga of the dueling tomato plants.

How Things Change

It's always interesting to me to think about how things change. I've been working on my Rosetta Stone french language lessons, and it occurred to me that I'm learning words for everyday things that didn't even exist when I first learned French in high school. These days I'm learning the French words for computer, cell phone, internet, e-mail and ATMs, none of which were part of our lives 30 years ago. Another thing that has changed is French money. Back in the day it was francs; now, of course, it's Euros.

Thinking about all of this reminds me of my trip to France last April, when I sat in the guest bedroom in the basement of my friend's house in Paris, using my cell phone (mon portable) to send a text message to a friend back in Chicago. It's not just about learning new words - it's about how we use the things those words represent, that's what has really changed.

I'm A Celebrity....

A few weeks ago, the judge in charge of former Governor Blago's corruption trial refused to allow him to travel to Costa Rica to participate in a reality TV show called I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here. Well Mr. and Mrs. Blago obviously had a Plan B, because now it's been announced that Mrs. B is going to be on the show. And guess who she'll be competing against? Speidi!!!!

Who says American pop culture isn't profound and enlightening! Don't go away because it all starts June 1 on NBC.

The Business of Reality

There were 2 big upsets in Reality TVLand this week. Shawn beat Gilles on Dancing With The Stars and Kris beat Adam on American Idol. How about that? I always like it when there's an upset - it's just more interesting when things don't turn out the way everyone thinks they will. I also like the fact that even though they are monumentally overproduced, both of these shows are broadcast live, which means that there's always at least the possibility that something unplanned will happen.

This is in stark contrast to other reality shows such as The Bachelor, in which everything is so elaborately edited that there's almost no connection to the actual reality that took place during filming. The other problem with shows that are filmed in May and broadcast in July is that it's almost impossible to keep the outcome secret. Trust me on this - there are a couple of "sleuther" forums that will have sussed out the results of Jillian's Bachelorette adventure way before the finale hits the airwaves.

Anyway, check out this story in the New York Times for an interesting look at the commercial side of American Idol.

Reading Between The Lines

When I saw the headline on Huffington Post, "A Recipe For Longevity: 33 of The Healthiest Foods on Earth", I clicked on it right away. I'm always interested in good nutrition, at least theoretically, and who knows, I might discover something new and delicious. As it turns out, the list consisted pretty much of the usual suspects - pineapple, red peppers, spinach, strawberries, mushrooms, carrots, etc., all of which were ordinary fruits and vegetables. Well, okay. Nothing radical here, just another five-servings-a-day article trying to convince me that vegetables are better for me than pasta and ice cream. No harm, no foul.

Then I noticed the small print at the bottom, giving the biographical information about the article's author. David H. Murdock, who wrote it, is the CEO and owner of the Dole Food Company, described as the world's largest producer and marketer of fresh fruits and vegetables, packaged and frozen foods.

So. Is this article a factual and objective list of credible nutrition information that will benefit my life? Or is it advertising for the Dole company? I think it's advertising masquerading as objective information. What do you think?

Marital Woes

For me, Jon and Kate Gosselin are in the same category as Speidi - so-called ordinary people who star in a reality show that I don't watch. (No, the lady doth not protest too much. I've really never watched it.) For anyone who doesn't live in a cave however, it's impossible not to know that they're having marital problems of one kind or another. They're both having affairs, or not. They're getting a divorce, or not. It's all a publicity stunt to juice ratings for season 5 of their show, or not????

Is this really the most important thing that's going on in the world this week? If you go by the covers of celebrity magazines it is:

Star: Inside Jon & Kate's Twisted Marriage
US: Her Own Secrets - Kate and the Bodyguard
People: We Might Split Up

They're on the cover of the National Enquirer this week too, or at least half of it (She'll Lose All 8 Kids). Who's the other half of the cover story? John and Elizabeth Edwards (She Kicks Him Out.)

The Jon and Kate story can be looked at and thought about a bunch of different ways, but for now I'm sticking with one of my favorite themes - the ups and downs of fame in America. Based on what I've read, having their own little reality show started out as a pretty good deal for the Gosselins. They get paid somewhere north of $50,000 an episode, along with all kinds of goodies like trips to Hawaii and fancy furniture for their cool new house. They profit from DVDs, Kate's books and endorsement deals. They were well known, and presumably well liked, by the 4 million or so people who watch their show, but they weren't notorious. What could possibly go wrong?

Maybe the question is, Has anything gone wrong? I'm making the assumption that having your personal life splashed all over the tabloids, not to mention the blogosphere, the morning news shows and Entertainment Tonight, is not enjoyable. I'm assuming that they are now experiencing the downside of fame, when it gets out of your control and not everything that's being written is positive. I'm assuming that at this point for Jon and Kate, fame isn't fun any more, but maybe I'm wrong. After all, controversy and scandal make for good ratings and when you turn your life into a t.v. show, maybe in the end that's all that matters.

Warning: The Bachelorette Is Coming

Back in February I confessed that I had been watching the latest edition of the Bachelor, calling it a "guilty pleasure," and starting this Monday I'll probably be watching (and possibly blogging about) The Bachelorette too. It's a silly show, on so many levels, but I admit, I did get sucked into the drama of Jason Mesnick's search for love, however artificially created it may have been, and I kept tuning in on Monday nights. The new Bachelorette is Jillian Harris, who made it to girlfriend number three before being released by Jason on the show's second-to-last episode, and I admit that I'm curious to see how things work out for her this time around.

So, for better or worse, I'm allowing myself to get caught up in all things Bachelor, and from where I sit, here are the three issues-du-jour in Bachelor World:

Will Jillian find true love? Possibly
Will Jason and Molly stay together? Almost certainly not
Will Melissa win Dancing with the Stars? Hope so, but not counting on it.

Let the games begin and I'll be watching.

Watching Charlie's Angels

If you've never watched an episode of Charlie's Angels and want to see what all the fuss was about, check out the show's page at hulu.com.

Thoughts About Farrah Fawcett

There's been a lot of news about Farrah Fawcett in the last few days, because of her failing health, and it's got me thinking back to the days when she first burst onto the scene. Farrah was a big, big deal in the late 70s, in a way that now seems almost quaint. These days, a never-ending parade of famous blonde girls floats into and out of pop culture relevance, with varying degrees of substance and actual talent. It was different back in the 70s.

Think back to September, 1976, which is when Charlie's Angels debuted. There was almost no cable TV, no US weekly, no VCRs or netflix, no twitter or iphones. It all sounds so primitive - how did people actually become famous in those days, back when there were no cell phones to take videos with and no internet for those videos to go viral on? Strange as it sounds, Farrah became a phenom because of a poster. And remember - in 1976, "poster" did not mean "snarky writer saying mean things in a blog." I'm talking about an actual piece of paper that teen-age boys taped to their bedroom walls. It was a picture of Farrah, with big hair and a big smile, wearing a tame-by-today's-standards red bathing suit. What was it about the poster that caused such a fuss? Think wet T-shirt contest:



The merits of Charlie's Angels were debated endlessly at the time. In some ways the show was sexist and degrading, with paper-thin plots, sexual innuendo and lots of gratuitous shots of the stars in bikinis. Masterpiece Theatre it wasn't. On the other hand, the three girl detectives did work as a team. They always supported each other and didn't compete for the attention of potential dates. They solved cases together, and every now and then they got to shoot some bad guys and kick some butt. They always looked great doing it but still. They weren't wimps.

Farrah wasn't the world's greatest actress, but she had an impact on pop culture far beyond that of the current crop of here today/gone tomorrow It Girls. I can't imagine that we'll be talking about Heidi Montag in 30 years. At least I hope not.

Truth and Consequences

John and Elizabeth Edwards are back in the news this week and it isn't pretty. I've been watching the whole thing play out, just as I did last summer when the scandal first broke, and now there are two primary thoughts on my mind.

First, what did Elizabeth think would happen when her new book was published? I've wondered what her motives for writing it were - personal catharsis, trash the mistress, humiliate the straying husband, make money? Probably all of the above, to one degree or another, but did she understand that the reaction wouldn't be completely positive and supportive of her? By portraying John as completely without agency in the whole sorry mess, just an innocent old-fashioned man seduced by a wicked modern temptress, she has generated more ridicule than sympathy, not only for John, but for herself as well. Refusing to identify the mistress by name (and making Oprah promise not to either) doesn't seem to have made Rielle Hunter any less famous. If anything, Rielle has now jumped back into the spotlight too and is saying that she would like to do some DNA testing on her daughter, after all.

Second, and most important, it's the situation with the baby that bothers me the most. My gut feeling is that John probably is the little girl's father. There's no doubt in my mind that if John (and Elizabeth) were certain--absolutely, positively, beyond a shadow of a doubt certain--that he's not the father, they would have said so by now, and that hasn't happened. In his Nightline interview last summer, John said he wasn't the father and offered to have his DNA tested to prove it, but the next day Rielle said she would never invade her daughter's privacy by having her tested. That sounded a little too convenient to me - in fact, it smelled like a deal. John can have his DNA tested until hell freezes over, but if there's no test from the baby to compare it to, nothing can ever be proven.

I've been reading a lot about this story this week, and one facet of it in particular strikes me as being nothing less than unconscionable. One of John Edwards' signature issues is poverty in America, and I believe it's a genuine concern on his part. He has to know that one of the primary reasons children grow up in poverty is absent fathers - in other words, men who choose not to live up to their responsibilities as fathers. Of all the disappointing things we've learned about John Edwards in the past year, the possibility that he would make that choice is what saddens me the most.

More Thoughts About Being Famous

Do you know who "Speidi" is? I do, kind of, and I admit it's a weird feeling. It would feel so much more grown-up to be able to say that I've never heard of them. For the record, Speidi is the two-names-joined-into-one moniker of Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, who are reality stars from some show or other, and they just got married. I'm proud to report that I've never watched the show that made them famous (no false modesty here - I really haven't watched it.) Most of what I know about them is what I read on the cover of tabloid magazines as I'm doing my grocery shopping.

The reason they're on my radar screen today is that Spencer gave an interview about the joys of being famous, the high point of which is when he states that they "pray every day to stay famous." Isn't that just precious? I've come to believe that when two famous people are being referred to by one name, like TomKat or Brangelina, it's a pretty good indication that they're over-exposed, but at least in both of those examples, one or both members of the partnership is an actual star. Spencer and Heidi - not so much, and as I've blogged about before, fame in America is a very fickle lover. I'll be keeping an eye on Speidi, for there's no doubt at all that one of these days this poppiest of pop culture phenomenons will fall from the pinnacle and being famous won't be so much fun anymore. I know I can count on US Weekly and Life & Style (both of which have Speidi's latest wedding on their cover this week) to keep me informed.

Check out the interview here.

Thinking About Pigs...

Just to clarify, when I posted my WTF headline on Friday, about the pigs who escaped from the bacon factory because of a truck accident, the whole swine flu thing hadn't yet become a big deal. The story just struck me as comically ironic.

And have you noticed that here in the U.S. the pandemic-to-be is no longer officially called swine flu or anything to do with pigs? Apparently pig farmers were getting concerned, so the CDC is now calling the new disease by its official scientific name of H1N1. This politically correct language is probably too late to have any real impact in the popular perception - it started as swine flu and swine flu it will continue to be. Still, I think we should all go out and get ourselves a great big bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, as a gesture of support for pig farmers everywhere. After all, this really isn't the pigs' fault.

Still Twittering

Or should I say "tweeting"? Regardless, it's a fun way to keep up with what's going on in the world, or at least what's on the minds of people who tweet. And I've decided you can get a pretty good idea of what someone is interested in by looking at the accounts they're following. Anyone looking at my home page will see that I follow sites/tweeters on the subject of travel, food/cooking, current events, politics, a couple of entertainers and tout les choses français, along with a few personal friends. At present I'm not following Oprah or Ashton, I am following Maria Shriver, although she hasn't tweeted since I joined, and I was following a couple of CNN accounts until it got to be too much and I deleted them.

It's still a relatively new way to communicate, and I may get tired of it at some point, but for now I say, Tweet On!!!

Swine Flu

In the last 24 hours the swine flu story has become a big deal here in the U.S. media, and I'm alternating between being concerned, annoyed and pissed off. There's no question that a global pandemic of a contagious flu would be a very big deal indeed - something we all would need to know about. I'm annoyed right now because if you're not listening carefully to the news reports, you might think that Armageddon has already begun.

The WHO says the situation "might" become a pandemic - but it isn't one yet. On the evening news last night, ABC reported that there are 11 or so cases in the U.S. - but it wasn't until the very end of the report that they got around to mentioning that they're all mild cases and no one in this country has died from this flu, or even become seriously ill. There are also a couple of drugs that are effective against the disease.

All the news shows have video of people in Mexico wearing masks, but I've only heard one doctor mention that not just any mask will help - it has to be a specially designated "N95" medical mask to provide any benefit. Such a minor little detail. Much more dramatic to show video of lots of people in public places, wearing masks and looking scared.

And in case you're wondering, the White House has definitively announced and the networks are breathlessly reporting that the President doesn't have the flu. Huh??? Did anyone think he did? Well, he was in Mexico last week... Yes, I'm cynical but that seems to be a bit of a stretch. Oh, well - anything for ratings.

Once again serious, matter-of-fact (read "boring") reporting of the facts of a situation is being trumped by scary, dramatic and emotional stories that aren't false, exactly, but also don't give viewers a full understanding of what's going on. I'm not saying that the flu story isn't important or serious. I'm just wishing it was easier to get the accurate facts.

WTF Headline Of The Day

I couldn't resist:

Pigs Escape In Crash Enroute To Bacon Factory

A Great Day

There are (almost) no words to express how great it felt to be outside in the sunshine today. I've been blogging and tweeting about this for a few weeks now and today is the day I've been talking about - the first 80 degree day this year. According to the TV news, it hasn't been this warm since last October 12. Oh, the bliss ... I always say that people who live in California just can't appreciate Spring the way we do here in Chicagoland.

I've scouted the tomato and herb plants at the local nursery, and bought the replant kit for my earthbox planters. As soon as they're ready to go I'll go back and get the actual plants. As happens every year, I'm wishing I had more room to plant. My balcony just doesn't get enough sun. This year I'm trying some planter boxes that hang on the balcony railing - that's where I'm putting the herbs and hopefully that will do the trick. Last year the herbs didn't do very well because the planters they were in were too low to get sun above the railing. I definitely need a nice patch of my own sunny dirt!

My tomatoes always do very well in the earthbox planters - they're a self-contained system that takes a few minutes to set up each season, but once it's done all I have to do is add water every few days. Check out the earthbox website here. Stay tuned for more of Kimberly's adventures in agriculture!

Talking Like Shakespeare

As I mentioned in one of my tweets, today is Talk Like Shakespeare Day - not just in Chicago, which is what I originally wrote, but everywhere. Turns out today is Will's 445th birthday. I found a fun website with tips for talking like the bard. Here are my two current favorites:

When wooing ladies, try comparing her to a summer's day. If that fails, say "Get thee to a nunnery!"

When wooing lads, try dressing up like a man. If that fails, throw him in the Tower, banish his friends and claim the throne.

Clicketh here for more fun info about talking like Shakespeare. Happy 445th Will!

Happy Birthday to Queen Elizabeth

Today is Queen Elizabeth's birthday - do you know how old she is? She's hale and hearty at 83, and she's been queen since 1952, making her one of the longest-serving heads of state (if not the actual longest) in the world today. In six years she will have reigned longer than Queen Victoria, and there's no reason not to think that she'll make it. A few days ago, her husband Prince Phillip became the longest-serving prince consort in British history, if you care about such things.

And wasn't it interesting to see the Queen and the Prince standing next to the Obamas a few weeks ago? The Obamas are not only about a generation and a half younger but also a lot taller, and the contrast was striking. Note that I'm not dissing the Queen and the Prince - in their unique position the wisdom and dignity that comes from decades of service seems to me to be an appealing advantage. Not only that but I think the Queen is mellowing in her old age. Who could have anticipated that she would not only let Michelle Obama embrace her but even seemed to return the gesture. One more example of how things are changing in royalty-land.

Fun With Twitter

Twittering is Fun! It really is - whoever came up with the 140-character format was brilliant. As I said in my last post, you don't have to worry about being profound or earth-shattering, you just write down whatever's on your mind. If it's boring - oh well, life is boring sometimes and maybe the next tweet will be more interesting. So I'll twitter on, at least for a while, trying to find the right balance between sharing what I'm doing without drifting into TMI territory. No tweets about teeth brushing or other such things, I promise. Other than that, who knows.

Skype-ing and Facebook and Twitter, Oh My!

"Oh, My" indeed. I joined Twitter yesterday and so far I've written three "tweets". If you're interested you can check it out here: http://twitter.com/writingtheworld. With all the new ways to communicate and stay in touch, I'm not sure I'll be able to keep up. I know I'm behind on checking my Facebook page, and for a few weeks I was out of the habit of blogging, too. The unique thing about Twitter, of course, is that it's only 140 characters, which is really short and sweet - very easy to update and you don't have to worry about being profound. On the other hand, I do worry about being banal (i.e., boring.) Does anyone really want to know that I just vacuumed my carpets? Or even that it's supposed to be 73 degrees here in Chicagoland today? I have noticed that both my first two tweets and my recent blog posts seem to be a little bit obsessed with the weather. As I've said before, that's what happens at the end of a Chicago winter. We really do appreciate the first stirrings of spring.

More New Words

Here are some cool words I've come across lately:

redoubt: (n) a small, usually temporary fortification; any stronghold

demesne: (n) the land around a mansion; lands of an estate

bespoke: (adj) custom or custom-made; made to order

distaff: (n) a woman's work or domain; (adj) maternal, female

anathema: (n) a thing or person accursed or damned; (adj) greatly detested, viewed as accursed or damned

inchoate: (adj) just begun, in the early states, incipient; not yet clearly formed or organized

lexicon: (n) the vocabulary of a language, speaker or subject; terms used in a particular profession

samizdat: (n) a system by which manuscripts denied official publication in the Soviet Union were circulated clandestinely in typescript or mimeograph form

More Reality T.V.

Susan Boyle isn't the only one making news in Reality TV land. In spite of previous denials that she would ever do a reality show, apparently Octomom Nadya is close to finalizing a deal with a British company to do a series of shows about her children. Some reports said the shows would also include Nadya's adventures in dating, or "looking for love," in reality-speak. On one hand, she's got to earn money somehow, and if some company will pay her to make shows about her kids, good for her. On the other hand, I can't help wondering - will anyone really watch? Will I watch? I'm not sure. (True confession: I'll probably watch but I may not admit it.)

And just when you thought things couldn't get any weirder with our former governor, Blago is apparently going to appear on a reality show too, assuming, of course, that the federal judge in charge of his corruption trial says it's okay. The show is "I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here," and you can watch it on NBC starting June 1. There are the usual hoops to jump through, but if our pal Rod can make it to the end, he'll be crowned King of the Jungle. He'll also get $80,000 for every week that he's not eliminated. No, really. I'm not making this up. The Chicago Tribune says it's true.

Have You Seen This?

Have you seen the video of Susan Boyle? She's a Scottish singer who brought the house down on an episode of Britain's Got Talent, which is a talent show similar to American Idol. It's even got Simon Cowell, who was shocked out of his usual snarkiness when this woman opened her mouth and began to sing. Based on Susan's appearance, which is distinctively non-glamorous, and her age (47 years old), Simon, the other judges and the audience members had clearly judged her to be dismissible when she walked out on the stage. There was a lot of derisive eye-rolling when she said that she wanted to be a singer like Elaine Paige, who is a famous British actress and singer (She was the original "Evita.") Watch the video here and see what happens when Susan starts to sing.

The YouTube video has gone "viral," with over 7,000,000 hits as of a few minutes ago, and the story was even featured last night on ABC's evening news program. I say Go Susan. There's a nice lesson here for all of us, about not judging a book by it's cover, appearance isn't everything, etc. Sometimes having a spectacular god-given talent is enough.

It's Still Not Spring

Happy Easter to Everyone! Here in Chicagoland, it's been sunny all day but we're still waiting for it to feel like Spring. Right now it's 45 degrees at about 7:00 in the evening, and the warmest day in weather.com's 10-day forecast for Schaumburg is 60 degrees for next Friday. Brrrrrrrrr .... It's all relative, of course. I still have my weather printout from the day in February when it was -9.

Anyway, I had my windows open this afternoon and the fresh air was bracing but even so, it's almost mid-April with no 70 degree days in sight. We're probably past the danger of a hard freeze but I'm still not quite ready to plant my tomatoes.

On another subject, I've been Skype-ing up a storm recently, with a couple of long conversations with my sister in Oregon, as well as a nice long talk with my niece in Chile. For some reason when I was talking to Laura my webcam wasn't connecting right so we couldn't see each other, but it was still so cool to be talking to her via the computer. The sound was crystal clear, much better than most cell phone conversations I've had, even with people right here in Chicago, and it's free. What could be better!

Happy Anniversary to Charles and Camilla

Today is Prince Charles and Camilla's 4th wedding anniversary. I know - you can't believe I'm keeping track of such trivia, and you're right - it's a little weird. I just happened to read somewhere that April 8th is the day they got married.

This whole thing is interesting to me because there was a time when the thought that the two of them would actually get married was considered to signal the end of civilization as we know it, but as far as I can tell, they're just a boring old married couple. Life as we know it hasn't come to an end. Don't you wonder how British history of the last 28 years would have been different if Charles had just been allowed to marry Camilla in the first place? As I understand it, she was considered to be not virginal enough, not aristocratic enough, not pretty enough, etc., to be the Princess of Wales, but doesn't it make you wonder - pretty enough for what, exactly. Diana was pretty enough and then some, not to mention aristocratic and young enough to presumably be a virgin, and we all know how that turned out.

Standards of acceptable marriage-partner-choosing for British royals have certainly been evolving over the last 75 years or so. In 1936, King Edward the 8th was forced to abdicate the throne and live the rest of his life in Eurotrash exile because his chosen bride was not only American but had already been divorced twice. In 1955, the Queen's sister Princess Margaret was not allowed to marry the man she fell in love with because he was not only divorced but was a member of the royal household staff - in other words, a servant. It's just not done, my dear. The first wave of scandalous Windsor divorces, not to mention the delicious irony of it all, came in the late 1970s, when Margaret was allowed to divorce the man she had eventually married instead.

And now we have Charles and Camilla, happily married and quietly waiting for the day when he becomes king. When they got married four years ago it was stated that when Charles ascends the throne Camilla will be known as the "Princess Consort" instead of becoming Queen, which is what the King's wife would normally be called. Presumably this is for the same reason that she is now called the Duchess of Cornwall instead of using her legally correct title of Princess of Wales. Apparently it's believed in Britain that people with fond memories of Princess Diana couldn't cope with the hated Camilla using the same title that Diana had for 16 years. I don't know if the verbal sleight of hand is fooling anyone, but at least one socially savvy British writer is betting that eventually Camilla will in fact be declared Queen. Given everything else that has changed where Prince Charles's personal life is concerned, I'm not betting against it.

A New Way To Communicate

I'm back, with apologies. For a few weeks I've become what I didn't want to be - a blogger who doesn't blog. I'm trying to do better and I'm starting with something really cool that I've just been learning how to do, and that's talk to people via Skype. What a concept!

It started when my niece was leaving to do her junior year, spring semester in Santiago, Chile. My dad told me that everyone in the family was planning to communicate with her using Skype, which is a free website where you "talk" to each other via the internet, at no charge. That alone is intriguing, but what's really cool is that if both parties have a webcam for their computer, you can see each other onscreen while you talk, just like the old video phones in the Jetsons when I was a little girl. So Friday I went and bought a tiny little webcam and now I'm in business. I've had video chats with my dad and my sister, as well as a voice-only chat with a friend who doesn't have a webcam yet. Down in Santiago, Laura has laryngitis so we haven't talked yet, but we're going to as soon as her voice comes back. I'm also hoping to be able to video-chat with Lorraine in Dubai. We've sure come a long way since the days when I had to have special extra-lightweight stationery and a designated "air mail" stamp to send a letter to my friend who lives in New Zealand.

To update a few previous posts, I'm hanging in there at school, and I even got an A on my first quiz. Last week I was on Spring Break, which for some reason struck me as being pretty funny. The Bachelor controversy appears to have died down, and I'm "sort of" watching Melissa on Dancing With The Stars. Things are quiet with Octomom, although I'm certain there's more trauma and drama to come on that story. We're a couple of weeks into Spring although you wouldn't know it here in Chicagoland. There was snow on the ground yesterday, so much so that they postponed the White Sox home opener until this afternoon. Bummer. I'm ready for a nice 80 degree day, that's for sure.

That's all for now, and I promise it won't be three more weeks before I post again.

T.V. Or Not T.V.?

I just did something that feels pretty radical - I called and "down gauged" my cable TV as a cost-cutting measure. I went down to Basic Cable, which will give me about 25 channels. I'll have the local networks, PBS, TCM, the Food Channel and a few others. I won't have CNN, MSNBC, History, Disney, Spike, E!, A&E, Weather and many others. I'm thinking of this as an experiment. Most of the stuff I watch on the channels I won't have anymore is available on-line, at cnn.com, weather.com, etc. I actually like the idea of watching less television, at least in theory, so I'll see how it goes. I can always re-enlist, so to speak, if I really miss the extra channels, but I hope that doesn't happen. It make take a while to get used to, but my guess is that in the long run, watching less television will end up being a good thing for me, and not just financially. I'll let you know how it goes.

I Love The Burj Dubai

All week this week on Good Morning America they're featuring things that are "big", both man-made and natural, and when I heard the promos I wondered if they would be talking about the Burj Dubai. This morning they did, and I'm in heaven (so to speak.)

The Burj Dubai is the world's tallest building, with approximately 160 floors. I say approximately because it's not finished yet, and the developers haven't said what the final height will be. It just keeps getting taller and taller. I first heard about the Burj Dubai when I read an article about it in the December, 2007 issue of Wired magazine. The article focused on the structural engineer who designed the building, and specifically the engineering solutions necessary for "supertall" buildings, or those that have 150 stories or more. It was written for a non-technical audience and I was fascinated to learn about a building that will be roughly equivalent in height to the Sears Tower standing on top of the Hancock building. Wanting to learn more, I typed Burj Dubai into google and the rest is history.

Seeing the building in person was one of the highlights of my trip to Dubai last year. Because it's not open yet, I didn't have to make the decision about whether or not to go up to the observation deck, which I think will be on the 120th floor or so. It would be a once in a lifetime view, that's for sure, but I'm not sure how I'd feel about being that high up off the ground. Just standing at ground level and looking up was amazing. According to the Wired article, even in the best of times it's hard for developers to rent/sell all the available space in a large building when it first opens, and Dubai is currently feeling the effects of the worldwide economic downturn, so who knows how long it will be before this amazing building is fully occupied. However long it takes, I'll be watching.

You can check out the official Burj Dubai website here.

WTF Headline Of The Day

Guy With Sword Interrupts Neighbor's Porn

Cool Inventions

Have you ever heard of "disemvoweling"? Well, neither had I, but I found it today in a list of Time magazine's 50 best inventions of 2008. Disemvoweling is what moderators do to obnoxious posts and comments on blogs or online forums. Rather than deleting the offensive post altogether, which could be considered obsessive censorship, moderators simply remove the vowels from all the words in the post. With only the consonants left, the post is still mostly readable, but a lot less obnoxious. What a concept.

There were all kinds of cool inventions on the list, including Smog-Eating Cement, Einstein's Fridge, the Orbital Internet and Facebook for Spies. Check it out here.

Almost Spring...

As I'm writing this it's 61 degrees here in Chicagoland and it feels pretty good. Even though Spring is officially a couple of weeks away, it's so nice to be able to have my windows open and fill my house with fresh air. I actually went outside without a coat today, which I haven't done since last October.

I was also surprised to see that this is the week-end that we "spring forward" our clocks for daylight savings time - it kind of snuck up on me. It really has been a cold and dreary winter in the Windy City so it's nice to be able to anticipate the warmer weather and the longer days. I always say that people who live in Los Angeles and other warmer climates don't appreciate Spring the way we do. You can't really savor that first warm, sunny day until you've lived through a Chicago winter. Just a few more weeks and it will be time to plant my tomatoes ...

A Pop Culture Phenomenon

Who knew that "The Bachelor" would rise from the dead. I'm talking about the show, which has exploded this season with ratings that are making it one of the top 10 shows this week. Oh, the trauma and the drama! The actual bachelor himself, Jason, is definitely not rising from the dead, at least in terms of his reputation within the world of people who care about what happens on reality television.

For once the show really did have a shocking finale, with Jason proposing to Melissa, then breaking up with her and taking up with Molly in the space of about 10 minutes on the After The Final Rose show, known as the ATFR in bachelor-speak. ATFR 1 was actually filmed about 6 weeks ago, ATFR 2 was filmed last Friday, they were all in New Zealand last November, but never mind all that. The logistics of how it all played out are less interesting to me than the fact that The Bachelor is once again front page news, and poor Jason is the bad boy du jour in the blogosphere and on entertainment websites and talk shows. And he really is front page news - he and Molly are on the cover of the People magazine that comes out Friday, with a cover headline that screams "The Bachelor Betrayal!" Oh my.

So how about it, Jason? What's it like to be famous? How about you, Molly? Is this what you signed up for when you agreed to go on The Bachelor? Probably not. The show's ratings have been pretty low for the last few seasons, and it was definitely "under the radar" in terms of pop culture relevance. Reality shows are so inexpensive to produce, compared with "scripted" programs, that the network can make a profit even if not that many people are watching. Certainly it's been many years since someone from the show has been on the cover of People. I think it's safe to say that Molly, Melissa and all the rest of the "girls" never expected to have their dating lives dissected publicly from The View to Bonnie Hunt to Jay Leno to Jimmy Kimmel.

As for Jason, as I've said before, fame is a fickle lover and he got dumped big time this week. He was so popular and appealing when the show started and now? Not so much, and like Nadya before him, the more he tries to explain himself on the talk show circuit the worse he's making himself look. It can't be fun for him, but it's sure entertaining for me.

The Magic Of Macy's?

We live in a consumer society - so much so that prior to the current economic debacle, consumer spending represented something like 70% of the U.S. economy. What that translates to is that going shopping and buying stuff on a regular basis was almost a patriotic duty. Unless all of us are hitting the malls on a regular basis, buying more and more stuff that we don't need and won't use, the economy will crater, and that's pretty much what we're seeing now. I have a lot of thoughts on this subject and will probably be writing about it frequently on this blog, but what's on my mind today is a really stupid commercial I saw this morning.

It started with several clips from movies and TV shows that mention Macy's department store, and it turns out there are a lot of them. Miracle on 34th Street was just the beginning. (Historical note: Most, if not all, of the clips are referring to the flagship Macy's store in New York City. Here in Chicagoland, Macy's is the department store formerly known as Marshall Field's.)

The voice-over says something about how Macy's is part of our lives, and then comes the tagline: "the magic of Macy's." What? The magic of Macy's??? The more I think about it the more it annoys me. Seriously - what part of a department store is "magical"? Is it the thrill and the joy of being able to walk in the door and breathe the air? The exquisite fun of handing over some money to buy another product? As Americans, we're continuously bombarded with messages from advertisers, all designed to convince us to buy something, and regardless of the overt message, the covert message is the same: Buying the product equals finding happiness. In a consumer society like ours it's almost impossible to resist the never-ending exhortations to buy, buy, buy, but for what it's worth, I'm trying to.

Memories of The Jumeirah Sceirah

Yesterday while channel surfing, I came across a program on the Travel Channel called Extreme Waterparks. I only saw the last 15 minutes but I loved it because it brought back such great memories of my visit to the Wild Wadi waterpark in Dubai. In particular, I'm proud to say that I survived a terrifyingly fast slide down the "Jumeirah Sceirah," a 33-metres high waterslide that is described as the tallest and fastest speed slide outside of North America.

According to the program, the Summit Plummet at Disney World in Florida is the world's tallest water slide at 120 feet high. The Jumeriah Sceirah, at 33 metres/108 feet, has to be a close second. I had never been to any kind of waterpark before so I had no idea what to expect as my friends and I were climbing up, up, up the stairs to get to the launching platform for the slide. Just waiting at the top of the stairs is pretty cool because you have a bird's eye view of all of Dubai, including the downtown skyline and the iconic Burj Dubai. Then you're at the front of the line and there's no place to go except down.

And down the slide you go. It's just you and the water, sliding very fast down a slick aerodynamic tube. It's over almost before you know it, but those few seconds between the platform at the top of the slide and the splashdown pool at the bottom, were among the most exhilarating of my life. The Travel Channel program only covered waterparks in the U.S. and Canada, so they didn't show the Jumeirah Sceirah, but it didn't matter. Just thinking about waterslides brought back memories of one of the best trips of my life.

WTF Headline Of The Day

Sheep Belches Treaten World

More New Words

I've seen these words in print occasionally, but I always tried to discern their meaning from the context of what I was reading. Today I finally looked them up in a dictionary. I may never actually use either of them in a real conversation but they're still fun words to know.

Nihilism: (n) The doctrine that existing social, political, and economic institutions must be completely destroyed in order to make way for new institutions; a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless.

Solipsism: (n) The theory that the self can be aware of nothing but its own experiences and states; the theory that nothing exists or is real but the self.

Still Famous

After a few days of relative obscurity, Nadya Suleman, aka Octomom, is back in the news big-time this week. This morning, the morning news shows had video of a pretty spirited argument between Nadya and her mother, from celebrity gossip website radaronline.com. Nadya's father was on Oprah, and now I just learned that Nadya has given a "daytime television exclusive" interview to Dr. Phil, which will be on his show tomorrow and Thursday. Wow.

Based on what I've seen since the octuplets were born a month ago, fame isn't doing this family any favors (think about it - they've been getting death threats,) so why are they all of a sudden all over the place again? My best guess is that they're trying to create a more sympathetic perception of Nadya, presumably to generate more assistance and support. So far, that strategy doesn't appear to be working. I only saw a small clip of the face-off on radaronline.com, and I don't know the context of how the interview came to be, but what I saw didn't reflect well on Nadya or her mother.

I was curious to hear what her Dad had to say, so I videotaped Oprah and watched it while I was eating my lunch. At the end of the show I felt a great deal of sympathy for Mr. Doud. He personally came across as a kind man doing his best to cope with a situation that he didn't create and can't really control. The first thing that struck me was that he clearly wanted to go on Oprah - she said a couple of times that he reached out to her producers and asked to be on the show, and I found myself wondering why. Given how negative the press coverage of his daughter's story has been, why go on Oprah? It seems obvious that he was hoping to change the tone of the coverage, and as I said, hopefully generate more donations.

There's no question that Oprah can mobilize people. If she had had a nice cozy chat with Dad, then announced that she was making a generous donation to the family and encouraged her viewers to do the same, Nadya's financial problems would probably be over. That didn't happen and I believe it was naive in the extreme for anyone to think that it would. Why? Because nice cozy chats make boring television, and the Oprah show is first and foremost a television show. Forget that fact at your own peril. Conflict, confrontation and scandal is what makes good television.

So there was Dr. Oz, declaring Nadya to be "selfishly delusional." There was another fertility expert talking about the guidelines for IVF implantation and how Nadya's doctor exceeded them. Dr. Oz again, saying that people aren't donating money because they don't trust Nadya. "If I send $100 to Mom right now, will it go for a pedicure or will it go to help the kids?" A snarky comment, perfect for television, and it got the biggest applause of the entire show. It really did make me feel sorry for Nadya's father.

As I said in my first post about the octuplet story, the media in America is a very fickle lover, and so far it's been pretty mean to Nadya. Something tells me it's not going to get any better with Dr. Phil. I'm sure it will be very good television, but good for Nadya? Probably not so much.

The Oscars

Some random thoughts about last night's Oscar show.

• I like it when there's some suspense about which actors and movies will win, and I really like it when there's a big surprise. Before the show started, there was almost universal consensus about who the winners would be, at least based on the various predictions I read, and they were right. No disrespect to the late Heath Ledger, but imagine how interesting it would have been if Michael Shannon had won Best Supporting Actor.
• On the other hand, it's fun to see a Cinderella story like the huge success of Slumdog Millionaire. And wasn't it cool to see the kids from India, who had been flown in specially to attend the awards ceremony.
• Whose idea was it to go from "And the winner is... " to "And the Oscar goes to..." ? Presumably this is to avoid bruising the tender egos of the non-winners, i.e., if Kate Winslet is the winner, does that mean that Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, Anne Hathaway and Melissa Leo are the losers? Apparently so, but I'm guessing they could handle it.
• And speaking of Angelina Jolie, I actually found myself feeling some sympathy for Jennifer Aniston, which isn't usually a feeling I experience when thinking about multi-millionaire television/movie stars. It can't be easy to see your ex-husband and his gorgeous, sexy, more-successful-than-you-are, we-have-six-children-together partner sitting front and center as you're trying to be cute with Jack Black.

Anyway, it's over for this year. Let's all go to the movies and try to predict who next year's winners will be.

Tab Trivia

Yesterday I added the picture of a Tab can to the top of this blog, and it makes me smile every time I see it. It's kind of an "in joke" for people who know me, because I'm a devoted Tab drinker and I've taken a lot of teasing about it over the years. There aren't many of us left anymore, so much so that just being seen with a can of Tab in my hand can be a conversation starter. The two comments I hear most often are: "I didn't even know they still made that stuff," and "Oh yeah, my sister-in-law/cousin/best friend drinks Tab." As I always say, I can't be the only one still drinking it.

I didn't actually take that picture, by the way, I just googled "Tab beverage" and found a great site with several pages of all things Tab. Did you ever wonder how the Coca Cola company came up with the name Tab? Here's the answer, from the site's FAQ page:

When Coke was looking for a name for their diet cola, they configured an IBM 1401 computer to print all four letter word combinations that had a vowel. This generated over 250,000 words; they also added names suggested by employees. After cutting out stupid combinations, Coca-Cola narrowed the list to 600 possibilities and checked each of these against existing trademarks. By the time of the final selection, there were less than two dozen choices left. TABB was the final choice. Before production began, the superfluous "B" was dropped, leaving us with TAB.

So long live Tab! As long as Coke keeps making it, I'll keep drinking it. I may even play around with the colors on my blog, to better coordinate with the famous bright pink can.

Do You KenKen?

I've just discovered a new numbers puzzle called KenKen, which is a numerical logic puzzle from Japan. It's kind of like sudoku, in that it has a grid of blank boxes to be filled in with numbers, but you have to do actual arithmetic to solve it. According to the New York Times, the name loosely means "cleverness squared." I'm all in favor of cleverness, so I went to the KenKen website and printed out one of the easier-looking puzzle grids.

For some reason I've never gotten into sudoku, but I like the idea of something fun that will challenge my brain, so I'm off to do my first KenKen puzzle and I'll let you know how it goes.

And in case you're wondering, yes, it snowed here last night but I'm not snowed in. The snowplows have already been out and it's just another wintry day in Chicagoland.

Hunkering Down

It's still winter here in Chicago. We're currently under a Winter Storm Warning, with 4-8 inches of snow expected by Saturday afternoon. Right now it's 27 degrees with bright sunshine, and looking out the window you'd never know what's coming. Truthfully, I usually take these warnings of coming weather disasters with a grain of salt, although a "warning" is usually more substantive than an "advisory." In particular, the local TV stations like to go into hysterical "armageddon is imminent" mode at the slightest hint of a change in the weather. There have been many, many nights when I've gone to bed expecting to wake up to the blizzard of the century, then woken up to only the lightest dusting of snow.

Every now and then, however, we do get socked in by buckets of snow, so I can't ignore the weather reports completely, and I'm ready for tomorrow, just in case. I went to the library this morning and got several great books, then I stopped by the grocery store to stock up on provisions. Let the snow fall - I'm ready. I can keep myself occupied and well fed without leaving the house for days, if I have to.

While I was on weather.com I couldn't resist checking out the current weather for Santiago and Dubai. Both my niece Laura (in Chile) and my friend Lorraine and her family (in Dubai) are enjoying much nicer weather than I am right now. It's summer in Santiago and the current temperature is a balmy 84 degrees. It's winter in Dubai, (and as I'm writing this it's also the middle of the night,) but even at that, the temperature is 66 degrees, with 83% humidity. Sounds good to me!

More Words I Like

Lagniappe (n): a gratuity, a gift with purchase, an extra you weren't expecting

Agitprop (adj): of or for agitating and propagandizing, (n) any agitprop activity or agency

Schadenfreude (n): glee at someone else's misfortune

These words are fun to know and fun to say, so try dropping them into a conversation from time to time. Your friends will think you're either a brilliant speaker or an obnoxious show-off. Let me know how it goes.

What time is it in Santiago?

As I said at the beginning, this blog is a work in progress, and this morning I'm experimenting with the "add a gadget" function. I added the World Clocks gadget and I'm not sure how much I like it. I love knowing the current time in various places around the world that I'm interested in, but I don't like the low-tech look of the clocks. I also don't like seeing the ads. I can play around a bit with the look of the clocks, so maybe I'll find a look that I like. Stay tuned.

WTF Headline Of The Day

Woman OK After Bullet Ends Up In Hairweave

People and Pets

I haven't been paying too much attention to the story about the pet chimpanzee that mauled its owner's friend. This morning, however, there was a segment on Good Morning America that really got me thinking. I wasn't paying too much attention to the specific details about what happened, although I was glad to hear that the woman who was attacked is apparently holding her own in the hospital. It was the part about the pros and cons of keeping chimpanzees as pets that caught my attention, specifically the comments of some pet owners and the degree to which they treat their pet chimps as children.

Lots of people who have traditional house pets, i.e., dogs and cats, consider their animals to be "part of the family," and I totally understand that. So why was I so creeped out to see chimp owners doing the same thing? A lot of it had to do with the clothes - not on the people, but on the chimps. There was a shot of a small monkey dressed in a green satin dress, with a voice-over of an adult woman's voice cooing "that's a pretty girl" as if she were talking to a baby. Another woman was shown in a clothing store, picking out outfits for her chimp. A third woman described the "onesies" a chimp owner bought for her pet.

It was the shot of a chimp dressed in a diaper that helped me to clarify my thinking on this. Dog and cat owners do indeed sometimes treat their pets like children. They talk to them, give them "people food," let them sleep on the bed and sometimes even kiss them. But dogs and cats are different enough from people (they walk on four legs, they go outside/use the litter box to pee, they don't have hands that can grasp things, etc.) that we're less likely to forget that they're not actually human. Dressing a chimp in diapers and a green satin dress is way beyond treating a pet like a member of the family. Treating an animal as if it's actually a human being is the part that gave me the creeps.

Added Friday, February 20, at 2:50 p.m.
Even Chimps In Tutus Can Be Vicious