If You Are a Shopaholic, Beware This Post!

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I, for one, have become quite the avid online shopper.  And there are plenty of others like me.  I only go to the mall as a last resort.  Most of the clothes that I buy are from stand alone stores (except for one).  But for baby gifts, housewarming gifts, dinner party thank you gifts, birthdays, skin care products etc etc, I buy online.  According to the US Commerce Dept., US ecommerce sales totalled an estimate of $194.3 billion in 2011, up 16.1% from $167.3 billion in 2010.  Now, the US government, being the US government and always looking for new ways to tax its populace, has for years been trying to tax online sales from companies that do not have brick and mortar stores.  It's once again being mulled over in congress.  I look at it this way.  If I go to a store in NY and buy something, are they going to be responsible for charging Georgia sales tax? I don't think so.  But that's not what this blog is about.  It's about the BEST online shopping sites for you to peruse but not abuse.  The Huffington Puffington Post had a list put together of sites they found "stand out from the crowd". I'll give you that list at the end.  But first...my list! Read more...

Girls, Read This so You Can See Ryan Gosling Shirtless

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OK.  So I got your attention.  The picture is at the bottom of the blog but I put it there because I want you to read this article. It's by Rob Lazebnik, a writer for "The Simpsons".  Just by telling you that should also get your attention.  The theme of the article is: "Why are so many leading men suddenly so buff? So beware the pernicious trickle down effect for the average guy."  I found this article highly amusing because now it's the guys time to feel the pressure to look like Brad Pitt.  How many times, girls, have you heard your man say, "Wow, isn't Charlize Theron a knockout.  She's on my top ten list."  And then they proceed to tell you their entire list. Well, it's payback time!  You go Ryan, Hugh, Brad, Leonardo, Marky Mark, Matthew... Read more...

Nine Things You Probably Didn't Know About Curse Words

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I'm sure there are probably more than 9 things that I don't know about curse words or swearing.  At my age the curse words I normally hear are either aimed at a politician on the TV or following a particularly bad shot on the golf course.  Speaking of swearing and golf, Tiger Woods is frequently fined by the PGA for swearing on TV (at least that's what John Daly says in his autobiography). No segue, just a different fork:   I remember many years ago going to see Richard Prior in concert.  You, mama, now that had some curse words in it.  He was raised in a brothel.  So most of the stories he told  about his life experiences were viewed through the prism of his upbringing.  So one would not expect him to stand up there and be Jerry Seinfeld.  The only "close to" curse word I've heard him say is "damn".  There are actually college courses built around the psychology of swearing and I even took a course on the psychology behind dirty jokes.  The textbook: The Encyclopedia of Dirty Jokes.  Or something along those lines.  Melissa Mohr, a medieval literature expert (we need more of those), has written a book entitled "Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing.  She was asked by Time.com to come up with a number of things people wouldn't know about swear words.  So be ready to razzle dazzle with sparkling repartee at your next cocktail party with your intimate knowledge about swearing:  Read more...

For a Sick Friend: First Do No Harm

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I saw this article in the April 13 edition of the WSJ.  It's not something I really wanted to ponder on a beautiful spring day, but ponder I did.  The article discusses how we should act and treat our friends or family members who have critical or terminal illnesses.  The reason I'm pondering this is because I am a woman of a certain age.  Meaning that the majority of the people around me are also of a certain age and are now more prone to critical or terminal illnesses (like breast or prostate or colon cancers).  Yuck :((  So, here's a primer by Letty Cottin Pogrebin from her book "How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who's Sick".  Conversing with the ill can be awkward, but keeping a few simple commandments makes a huge difference:  Read more...

Back to The 80's: Would you Zap Back if You Could?

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Ahhh, the 80's.  It was the decade, as far as I'm concerned, that brought about the biggest changes in my life.  I divorced a man I had been married to for 13 years and had known since I was 14.  I then went through the "I'm divorced and have some fun stage".  And then I married the love of my life and have been happily married for 25 years.  During the 80's I also changed careers.  I had been teaching high school advanced placement English and speech and debate.  I decided I couldn't make any money at that so I went into a career that also paid very little but gave me the opportunity to do what I liked to do best and that was to travel.  For me, my working career was epitomized by my tenure as a Sales Manager at Carnival Cruise Lines. Of course going through a divorce and changing careers can be tumultuous. But the 80's brought more positives than negatives, I think.  I found this great article in USA Today (does anybody buy that newspaper anymore except for air travelers?) about the 1980's  and much of the info below is gleaned from that article: Read more...

Chopped and Screwed

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Is this a blog on slasher erotica?  Sorry to disappoint but nyet.  Ok then.  A blog on the eroticism of food and sex i.e. the movie Tom Jones or Last Tango in Paris (butter anyone?) or George Costanza with 2 of his trifecta,  food and sex and to complete the trifecta, listening to a Yankees game while doing the other two.  Only on Seinfeld.  No my loyal readers.  It is none of the above.  I am really satisfying my curiosity with this one.  It all started with Rush Limbaugh.  Yes, yes, I know.  That arrogant ba*tard.  I find him to be a provocateur.  On Fridays, which he calls open line Friday, a caller can ask him about anything.  A caller asked him if he thought President Obama had any "chopped and screwed" music on his iPod.  Rush, normally always culturally up to speed ;)), said he didn't know what it was.  Well, he then went on about a half hour or so trying to find out what "chopped and screwed" was. He also got into the Beyonce/ Keisha feud.  Trust me folks.  It was a surreal listening adventure.  Hopefully I've gotten you so intellectually stimulated you're ready to satisfy your curiosity.   Here's what "chopped and screwed" is along with the must accompanying drink, the "Purple Drank". Read more...

Memories of the 4th of July Italian Style

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If you go back in my blog posts, you'll see a post on My Memories of the 4th of July, Part One.  It's spending the weekend of July 4th, 1976 at a 3 day Willie Nelson concert.  Now flash forward to July 1996.  My husband (a different one at this point and still happily married) and I decided to  travel to Italy's lake country and see what we could see.  We found some very interesting and unusual sites and activities.  We stayed at the venerable Villa d' Este on Lake Como (George Clooney sightings?  No.).  The Villa is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Work on the Villa and its grounds started in 1550 but wasn't completed until 1886.  Our room was in the Princess Wing in a corner room that looked on to the Villa as well as having a full view of Lake Como. We ended up being lucky to have such a good location. Read more...

Book Review: The Dinner by Herman Koch

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When we meet a person for the first time, we are like new born babies.  We know nothing of that person's world.  Where did they grow up, go to school, work, marriage, kids, we know none of this.  When that person tells us things, we have to take their word that they are speaking the truth.  As we get to know that person, we begin to realize that that person is either straight forward and has been telling us the truth or is a b*ll sh*t artist out to take advantage of us or to somehow raise their self worth in our eyes.  I dated a guy once, he was from NYC, who told me that on the weekends he was a ski instructor.  That's easy to believe.  But then he told me (you might remember this, that on the Wide World of Sports, when they were showing downhill skiing,they used to show a guy having a horrible crash) that guy was him.  Now that was easy to verify.  Not him.  Too bad.  He was a good looking guy and fun but unreliable when telling me anything.  And that's what we have in Herman Koch's new book The Dinner.  A totally unreliable narrator. The Dinner is a big hit in Europe having sold over 1 million copies and now has made its debut here in the states. Following on the heels of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, which also has very unreliable narrators, The Dinner should do very well.   read more...

Travel Faux Pas: White Tennis Shoes Oh My!

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I found this article on travel faux pas on the USA Today site and it comes from smartertravel.com.  It got me to thinking about all of my travels and which denizens of which countries are the worst travel dressers.  I know the good people of the good old US of A have to rank in the top 5 if not the top two.  Who competes with us on that level, for diplomatic detente, I shall remain speechless.  But if you've traveled all over the world, it's not difficult to make the deduction.  I remember going on a mother daughter trip to Amsterdam in 2002.  I suggested to my daughter that we wear clothing with no logos, sandals not sneakers, no baseball nor golf nor gimme caps and capris not shorts.  The world was still topsy turvey  at that point and I didn't want our clothing to scream AMERICANS!  I'm blond (well, you know what I mean) and blue eyed and my daughter has dark brown hair and blue eyes.  We fit right in with the wonderful people of Holland.  We would sit at a side walk cafe reading and having a coffee and tourists would come up to us to ask directions.  Cool.  I agree with this article's author. She gives not only clothing advice but also how the clothing you wear can cause you to be the victim of a crime.   Read more...

Time Time Time is on My Side, Yes it is....

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No it's not!  Well, I guess it depends on when you make the statement.  If you're 25, yes, time can be on your side unless you get drunk and slam into a tree.  If you ask someone of the respectable age of 65 if time is on their side, they'd probably say, not as much as before.  Why does time seem to go by so quickly when you're older?  I've read a few articles about this and people like Stephen Hawkings and other big thinkers say it's a mathematical equation.  Lost me there.  Or this...let's say the average life expectancy is 100.  You're now 20, so, you then have 80% of your life left to live.  Or take the opposite, you're now 80 therefore you have only 20% of your life to live. Well, that's depressing.  That doesn't make that much sense to me because it doesn't answer the feeling that time is going by rapidly.  Here's an answer I like.  It's from Psychology Today written by Ronald Riggio, Ph.D.  He says, "that the best answer for this phenomenon is that the early years are full of first time events, your first date, the birth of your first child, that first big vacation, etc.  First occasions are novel events and we tend to make more detailed and lasting memories of those first times.  When we repeat the event, year after year, it is less likely to make a unique or lasting impression... So here is the key to slowing down the pace of life (at least psychologically): As much as possible, take advantage of new and unique experiences.  When we go to the same places and do the same things, we don't make distinct memories and time seems to fly by...focus on positive (rather than negative) past memories, trying to live more in the present, and holding a positive perception of the future-envisioning a future full of hope and optimism.  IN OTHER WORDS...use your time wisely!  Read more...

Small Sacrifices for Big Loooooovvvvvvve

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For my American audience (but the post will also intrigue my international readers), this blog reminds me of one of my favorite episodes of the Ray Romano hit show, Everybody Loves Raymond. Ray and Deborah go on a vacation.  When they return, Ray leaves the suitcase at the base of the stairs.  He clearly anticipates that Deborah, his wife, when cleaning, will take it upstairs.  She, on the other hand, looks at it as Ray being lazy.  After a few days of them both looking at it (passive aggressively) and daring the other to take it up, Ray finds the biggest, stinkiest piece of blue cheese he can find and stuffs it in the suitcase thinking Deborah will smell it and take the case upstairs.  Instead she takes out the cheese and leaves the case as is.  They end up having Marie (the worst mother in law in TV history) tell them a story about the big spoon and fork (long story) and Ray and Deborah then fight over who will take the suitcase upstairs.  Whew!  But there is a moral to this story oh gentle readers. Let's see if this segue works:  It's this.  If you put your mate's needs first, it will not only make you happier but it will also make your mate happier. Read more...

The Best Mother's Day Gifts Ever; Courtesy of Saturday Night Live

If you do a search on my blog, you'll see that I posted a blog entitled Fifty Shades of Grey and Trickle Down Economics.  Well, here's another example of that.  It seems the phenom has not quieted down over those books.  They're now out in special editions and hardback sets.  No news yet on who might play the characters but there's speculation all over the web.   So you know Saturday Night Live had to flick a whip at the craziness and for Mother's Day at that...  Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK8Lr_HL3eY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The Double Life of Pi

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The wonderful novel, Life of Pi, by Yann Martel is once again in the spotlight.  The novel won the 2001 Mann Booker Prize for best fiction written in English by a citizen of  the Commonwealth of Nations.  Now it is a fabulous movie by Ang Lee.  As you might surmise from the above comments, I am a big fan of Life of Pi.  I led my book club discussion on the book and have defended it against many of its detractors.  It seems you either really love this book or really hate it.  I asked the usher at the theater how people were reacting to the movie and he said about 50/50.  So, I guess if you didn't like the book, you're not going to like the movie.  I went with someone who didn't have a clue about the plot and she loved the movie.  Even if you don't like or "get" the movie, it is visually stunning.  I saw it in 3D and it was spectacular.  So, after 12 years I'm once again thinking about the double Life of Pi.  I think that what confuses people the most is:  WHAT IS THE TRUTH?! Which story told by Pi is the real story? In the movie the stories are being told by Pi to a writer  many years after the shipwreck.  Which to believe...  Read more...

New Books on the Horizon

Here's a short list of some popular authors that will have books coming out, mostly in May. I guess they figured just in time for the beach season.  If you're like me, I pre order from Amazon and am always delighted to see a new book pop up on my Kindle. If you go to Amazon to the link for upcoming releases, there are over 50,000. A bunch of those, though, are coming out in paperback. Read more...

Two Book Reviews: Route 66 Still Kicks and The Lifeboat:A Novel

I at first thought I'd write this as a book review aimed at men and then another one at women.  And then I asked myself, " why?"  I thoroughly enjoyed the "man's" book, Route 66 Still Kicks by Rick Antonson.  I don't believe The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan is chick lit.  Far from it. So  here goes, two book reviews.  Let's start with Route 66 Still Kicks.  The reason I loved it was because I love trivial history about America.  And Route gives you plenty of that.  Let me set the map for you.  Rick talks one of his buddies, Peter, into taking a drive along as much of the now defunct Route 66 that they can find.  He wants to rent a convertible and travel down memory lane.  The road begins in Chicago and ends in LA.  Of course the book is riddled with references to how Nat King Cole came upon the song named after the road as well as tales about the TV show. But I'm jumping ahead.  I looked on Amazon and when I typed in Route 66 in books, 3,551 references were made regarding Route 66.  3,551.  Now that means somebody is interested.  Once Rick and Peter get underway, it's like opening an American history book.  We learn that FDR used Al Capone's car to make his speech regarding Pearl Harbor.  Why?  While Capone was in the slammer, it was the only armored vehicle the secret service could find on short notice.  We learn all about how the hotel industry started with the Harvey Houses and how hotels sprung up along the continental railroad.  We learn that much of the Route is along old cattle trails as well as parts of the Cherokee Trail of Tears.  As they visit Oklahoma, Antonson talks about the wonderful humor of Will Rogers and his tragic death and about the scouting and hiring of Mickey Mantle by the New York Yankees.  He tells the tale of a notorious double murder in Oklahoma that still permeates the psyche of the town of Depew. So as they follow Route 66, we get a great history lesson. Read more...

Gray Eyes...Oh My...

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In a humdrum moment of pure laziness, my mind wandered and began to contemplate the eyes of both Christian Grey and Gideon Cross.  Not an unpleasant way to laze away the time.  Authors these days, particularly the hot sex, rom/dom/sub types, have their protagonists with unusual hair and eye color combinations.  In Fifty Shades of Grey, Christian has copper colored hair with gray eyes whilst Ana has auburn hair with blue eyes.  In the Crossfire series, Gideon has black hair with blue eyes and Eva has blond hair with gray eyes.  I agree that black hair and blue eyes as well as auburn hair with blues eyes may not be that unusual.  But what's with the gray eye thing?  So I let my mind go all stream of consciousness a la James Joyce. (OMG, in college I took one whole course on his writings.  Other than the penis floating in the water like a flower, that's about all I remember.) What is so important about the eyes, other than for seeing? Well, according to a Yiddish proverb, "the eyes are the mirror to the soul".   I found some interesting useless info but hey, I'm satisfying my curiosity, right? Read more...

Book Reviews: The First Two Crossfire Books by Sylvia Day

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As the Wall Street Journal said:  There is finally someone sexier than Christian Grey...His name is Gideon Cross and he is, of course, a hunka  hunk of burning love.  When Bared to You came out, it sold 80,000 paperbacks in the UK in the first week alone.  More than Fifty Shades did.  And when Reflected in You came out, it sold 82,000 copies in the UK. On Goodreads, BTU has 71,4111 ratings and RIU, 35,075. Amazon reviewers give BTU an average 4.7 stars, RIU, the same.  So why all of the fuss about this Crossfire Series?  There are some similarities to Fifty Shades of Grey. Read more...

Book Review: Matched by Ally Condie

Genre:  Teen romance grades 7+

Author:  Ally Condie

It seems like the trilogy genre is on fire.  I know the first trilogy I read was The Lord of the Rings.  Now we have the Twilight series, The Hunger Games, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series and of course, the grand mamma of them all, Fifty Shades of Grey etc.  As a reviewer it is awfully hard to go from reading a Fifty Shades of Grey series, the adult dominance and submissive stuff, to reading a trilogy written for teens.  Truth be told, I thoroughly enjoyed the first in Ally Condie's trilogy, Matched.  Condie  has the middle book, Crossed,  as well as the concluding book,  Reached, now at a book seller near you or on an e book site.  Read more...

If You Like Vodka...

I have been a vodka aficionado for a while.  I've tasted quite a few through out my travels especially while in Russia.  But, I've come across a USA distilled vodka that I love.  It's Tito's Vodka made in Austin, Texas.  I was telling a friend of mine about Tito's and we decided to do our own little tasting of vodkas.  We had Tito's, Ketel One, Grey Goose and Crystal Head vodka (the one made by Dan Aykroyd).  Tito's won hands down.  Not only is it smooth in taste but the price is smooth. Crystal Head is anywhere from $45.00-$50 for 750ml .  Ketel One and Grey Goose $38-40.00 for 750ml.  Tito's is around $28-30!  The magazine, Wine Enthusiast, out of 100 points gave Tito's 95 points, Ketel One 89 and Grey Goose 84.  If you doubt my love of vodka, just read my blog about my adventure of trying to get some vodka on Borneo:  http://satisfyingmycuriousity.blogspot.com/2010/05/its-been-while-since-i-last-posted-but.html.Read more...

Giving "Back": I See Rotten Tomatoes Coming My Way

I'm going to approach this subject two ways.  The first will certainly be considered a "humbug" approach.  The second will probably have mixed reviews.  First, the "humbug" approach or how I let a phrase like "giving back" totally irritate the heck out of me.  But why?  Because, often, when people feel they have some extra time in their lives and want to do something for their community, they say they want to "give back".  Well, here's my point.  Give what back to whom and why?  I guess you could say I take the phrase literally and not figuratively.  Give back...let's see, the path I've taken in life has, at times, been rocky.  Have I faced a fiscal cliff or two in my life time?  You betcha.  But I have never had to, luckily, rely on the auspices of the government (taxpayers) nor private nor public charities to help me out.  I've never been on welfare nor food stamps nor medicaid.  I've not had to eat in a soup kitchen or ask for charitable help.  If I had to do any of these things, and then I found myself with the ability and where with all to "give something back" to those who have given to me, then I would with an open heart.   Read more...