May 2010

Cheat Sheet: Four Things You Maybe Missed This Week

May 21, 2010 at 2:55 pm , by Catherine LeFebvre

1. Pac-Man Turns 30
The classic arcade game hit the big 3-0 today. To celebrate, you can play Pac-Man on Google‘s homepage. Instead of clicking the search button like normal, click Insert Coin right next to it, and the Google logo becomes a game. If you click on it twice, Ms. Pac-Man joins to make it a two person game, so you can have help fighting off ghosts Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. And if somehow you missed cheat sheet on Friday and are reading this later, you can still keep the Pac-Party going by making one of these fun Pac-Man treats from Food2.com.

2. Ghostbusters in the New York Public Library
In keeping with the ’80s theme this week, performance art group Improv Everywhere brought Ghostbusters to life in the reading room of the New York Public Library (where the opening scene of the movie was filmed). People dressed as ghosts sat down to read amongst people studying or catching up on work, and then four Ghostbusters came in to chase them out. Watch the video over at Improv Everywhere.

3. Modern Family’s Ty Burrell Rocks the Wienermobile

Silly video, but it’s for a good cause (Feeding America)!

4. Karaoke with Russell Crowe

Again, silly video. This one just because.

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Bargain Buyer Beware

May 21, 2010 at 2:47 pm , by Margot Gilman

I cannot tell you how much money I have wasted trying to be frugal. It’s my secret shame—and I was reminded of it this morning when I poured myself a bowl of Cheerios from one those 100-some-odd ounce boxes I had purchased at Costco. I remember when I bought the cereal how smug I felt about the money I was saving—at least 50 percent over what the same amount would have cost in my local supermarket. Turns out I’m not so clever: The cereal was inedibly stale and wound up in the garbage.

I know I am not the only person to have ever been so swept up by the quality of a bargain (100 ounces for just $7.59!) to overlook some basic truths: One, you can’t eat that much quickly enough, and two, even if you could, you might not really want to. (The truth is, I don’t like Cheerios all that much and only bought the box because Costco doesn’t carry Corn Chex, which I prefer.) Good deals have a way of getting the better of us, of clouding our judgment. But to prevent wastefulness in the name of thrift, you need to do more than ascertain that you really need or will  use the item you are considering purchasing at your favorite bargain emporium. You need to consider the following:

1. The shelf life may not be as long as you think. That cereal doesn’t last beyond a few months is kind of obvious, but some things that you might think keep indefinitely actually don’t: certain dried grains like brown rice start to loose nutrients, and flavor, after about six months; even bleach starts loses its potency in about the same amount of time. And while some canned items do last virtually forever, many, many others don’t. Go to http://www.solareagle.com/PREP/SHLFLIFE.HTM for the expiration dates of many common food items. Keep a copy in your purse. Read more

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Ladies We Love: Jocelyn Allen

May 21, 2010 at 10:13 am , by Sonia Harmon

Jocelyn Allen has made it her mission to help young girls grow to become strong, successful young women. When she realized that there were many girls in Detroit with a lack of access to a good education and growth opportunities, she decided to start a not-for-profit program, Divas4Life. She provides the girls with a positive environment where they can learn life skills and attend educational and motivational events—one such event is Dinner with a Diva where the girls meet with a professional woman who has succeeded in her career (and Jocelyn is one such woman—she’s the General Motors Communications Director for OnStar). We admire her passion for helping young women realize their potential!

What makes me a lady: My appreciation of manners; “please” and “thank you” never go out of style. Also my desire to pass on these things to young girls coming up. All girls grow into women but ladies are cultivated.

Favorite guilty pleasure: Shopping, chardonnay, and soap operas (in that order).

Three things on my life list: To take my family to Africa, to witness my son grow into the man he is intended to be, and to work with Oprah.

If I could have a superpower, it would be: To fly—I hate traffic jams.

Ladies I admire: My mother, my pastors (all females), Vivian Pickard, the president of the GM Foundation, and all women who achieve their dreams in spite of their circumstances.

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Food Festivals To Visit This Summer

May 21, 2010 at 9:45 am , by skay

Looking for some tasty treats to indulge in this summer? All over the country, cities are having food tastings to show off all their delicious cuisine. From bar-b-que, to seafood and wine tastings, there is absolutely a festival out there for any and all food junkies. Find one near you and eat up!

East Coast:

Washington D.C.- The Food and Wine Festival at National Harbor on June 12-13 will feature distinctive food, beer, wine and spirits from nations all over the world, and will educate its guests in all the latest culinary trends.

Southern:

Houston, Texas- Wine and Food Week runs from June 14-20, and has several different events to celebrate the food of the south. Events during the week include H-E-B Wine Walk at Market Street, Sips, Suds and Sliders-A Texas Experience, and Wine Rendezvous Grand Tasting and Chef Showcase presented by Texas Monthly.

New Orleans, Louisiana- June 11-13, at the Louisiana Seafood Festival, local chefs will be cooking up local favorites such as crawfish, oysters, crab and even alligator. Grilled, fried, baked or barbequed, there will be something for everybody to enjoy!

Owensboro, Kentucky- May 7-8, the International Bar-B-Q festival features some sizzling, hickory-smoked fun that people come back for every year.

Read more

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Blonde Ambition: Getting the Color Right

May 20, 2010 at 3:32 pm , by Beth Roehrig

My natural hair color hovers somewhere in that ho-hum range between blonde and brunette, so I’ve submitted my strands to a lot of experimentation over the years. I’ve gone darker; I’ve gone lighter; I even went red during an angsty high school phase (I’ll admit it, I totally copied that icon of 90s teen angst, My So-Called Life‘s Angela Chase). But for the last several years, I’ve been much tamer with my mane, just getting blonde highlights to brighten up my hair. So I don’t know what came over me, but a couple of weeks ago I decided that I wanted to be a real blonde. Like, platinum, Marilyn Monroe, Gwen Stefani blonde. I impulsively booked an appointment with my colorist. And here’s where it started to go terribly wrong. I didn’t bring any pictures to the appointment. I just figured my stylist would intuitively know which shade would work best with my skin tone. I was also totally unprepared for how long the process took (3 hours!) and that burning sensation on my scalp (my lovely stylist, a Brooklynite by way of Texas, joked about the Southern no pain, no gain beauty philosophy: “If it ain’t burnin’, it ain’t workin’.”). By the time she finished, it was after 10 p.m., I was exhausted, and I wasn’t loving my look. Read more

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More on The New Way to Think About Weight Loss

May 19, 2010 at 1:49 pm , by Julie Bain

In early April I blogged here (“A Completely New Way to Think About Weight Loss”) about a fascinating new study that suggests when you eat certain foods may be as important as what you eat. Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that mice who ate breakfast with more fat than carbs metabolized fat and other foods better throughout the day and avoided weight gain. Meanwhile, mice who started out their day with carbs didn’t metabolize as well, tended to eat more overall, got chubby and developed symptoms that can lead to heart disease.

Then I followed up a week later (“An Easier Way to Lose Weight”) with my own seven-day weight-loss experiment based on this study. I ate fat and protein like eggs, cheese and nuts for breakfast, with my only stipulation being no carbs before noon. No other changes.

I told the study author, Molly Bray, Ph.D., a professor of epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, about my experiment, and she was intrigued and said she might try it herself. What were our results? Read more

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So You Want To Be A Fashion Editor…

May 18, 2010 at 4:51 pm , by Sue Erneta

I get asked all the time how I ended up as a glamorous high-profile fashion editor. After I finish cracking up (Glamorous? Me? This job? Ha!), I tell them the story about a young girl from Massachusetts who came to New York City with a suitcase full of vests (What? It was 1993!) and a dream.

Step 1: Get thee to thy fashion capital. I was sitting in my dorm room in New England looking at the cow field across the street when I had an epiphany. If I wanted to work in fashion, I needed to be in New York City. I told my parents that I wanted to transfer schools (again! sorry mom and dad!) and came to FIT.

Step 2: Stand out by working hard. Students at FIT were being recruited for volunteer jobs with 7th on Sixth, the arm of the CFDA who was putting up tents in Bryant Park and hosting fashion shows. I made photocopies with a smile while other volunteers sneaked into the tents and got kicked out. My hard work paid off: I got to shadow Fern Mallis, then the CFDA’s executive director and be there for all the shows and behind-the-scenes action. Like seeing Calvin Klein and his team—including Carolyn Bessette—watch Kate Moss walk the runway during a sound and lighting check. Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up.

Read more

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