lack of words

The lack of published words here doesn't mean I'm not writing. I am. The truth is, writing is therapeutic. It's not therapy, or else that industry would be on the down & outs. It's therapeutic. My life is great, but there are things that need to be said, written & expressed that shouldn't be made public or published. As such, here's a note - being made public - that I'm still kicking. I'll be posting regularly soon about more generic topics.


...but that can be the problem right? Generic topics. Nevertheless, stay posted!

baby it's cold outside...

Yes, it's cold outside. And yes, it is April. While your mind tries its best to wrap around that one, I suggest curling up with a steaming bowl of chili! The aroma of chili can also act as a great excuse to take a break from taxes (my explanation for all the beautiful paperwork in the background)!

 I don't know exactly when I decided I would become the self-proclaimed queen of soups, but it certainly began a few years ago when I was living in my teensy apartment in the East Village as a single chick. While roaming Manhattan in my high heels was certainly one of my extra-curricular activities, I spent many an hour buckled down in bed studying for the GRE, drafting admissions essays, and generally plotting my quick ascent to world domination. These activities were exhausting and a girl needs sustenance. Thus soup. It's always been one of my comfort foods - savory, hot, and it can be made with the most humble of ingredients. Not to mention that it's an easy diet-food if you omit cream and heavy starches! Whenever I feel like I need to be more health conscious & trim down a bit, I turn to soup - split pea, minestrone, yellow lentil, cream of corn....mmm.

For a quick weekend dinner, I made turkey chili. I hadn't planned to - I could have sworn I took out chicken to defrost that morning, but on close inspection it was ground turkey. Turkey is a tricky meat - it's entirely lean, but also devoid of flavor.  You need to really pump up the spices! In any case, when tummies are grumbling you must respond - and this yummy chili hit the spot. I always have to dig for compliments around certain people (ahem, J), but with this dish they were given freely! Here's the recipe - and by that, I mean, this is what I remember seeing my mom do in the kitchen ten years ago, revamped. Enjoy!

simple turkey chili

ground turkey
onion & cloves of garlic
one can of green hatch chiles
two small cans of red kidney beans
one large can (28oz) diced red tomatoes
low-sodium chicken broth
cumin, salt, freshly ground black pepper, Italian red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, chili powder

Saute the turkey meat in about two tablespoons of olive oil; add garlic & onion. Watch carefully and break up the turkey as it cooks. Add the spices, and allow to cook for about a minute (this step allows the spices to really get in there). Add the two cans of kidney beans (drained), as well as the tomatoes and hatch chiles. Add chicken broth (I like to add about a 3 to 1 ratio to the amount of turkey used) and simmer at medium heat. This dish can be done in 20 minutes, but feel free to let it simmer while you're taking a shower, catching up on Twitter, etc (not like I would ever do that). Adjust seasonings as necessary. Serve with cheese (I used a low-fat blend), yogurt or sour cream, and/or green scallions. I've served this with tortilla chips, biscuits, and corn muffins...do what you like or skip the carbs. DELISH!

The High Heeled Chef does Brunch

Few things in life make you appreciate time and your loved ones more than brunch. Smooches over plates of pancakes, giggles and omelets - is there anything better? I adore going out for brunch but there's something really special about making brunch at home.

I took inspiration for this cinnamon caramel french toast from a fun blog called 'Crepes of Wrath.' I can't claim it as my own, but I did make it without the recipe, strictly speaking. This was a lovely dish, although very rich and certainly not something you can eat every day! I scaled down the butter/sugar from the original recipe, played with the spices & made it with whole wheat fiber bread and a banana smoothie to make it feel a bit less indulgent!

Cinnamon French Toast

6 slices of your favorite bread (I used a whole wheat fiber blend bread from Trader Joe's)

1 egg

Skim milk

Cinnamon, white sugar, brown sugar, nutmeg, dash of salt, a few pats of butter

To make: Whisk together the egg, cinnamon, a bit of white sugar and some milk; soak pieces of bread in mixture & fry in skillet on stove top. Melt some butter in the microwave and add brown sugar; combine and microwave for about 40 seconds. Whisk in some milk to make a delicious caramel. Spoon caramel on top of the finished french toast and bake in an oven at 350 degrees until the caramel is bubbly and your house is filled with the most delightful scent of caramel and cinnamon! Serve on a plate with powdered sugar and whatever fruit or toppings you might have on hand. OR you can do what I did...and make a smoothie!

Banana smoothie:

Blend one banana per person with ice, skim milk, Splenda and a bit of cinnamon. Blend until frothy and serve - this combination works with just about any fruit!!!

The High Heeled Chef - series kickoff!



I am not a chef. But I do wear high heels around the house (that is, until I found out that I'd been making indents in the gorgeous blonde hardwood floors of my condo...oops)...and I love to eat.

Did you hear me? I love to eat!!! I am also a bit of a picky eater (I prefer organic, healthy, select cuts, seasonal produce, etc. and I sprinkle fiber in almost everything. I'm an old lady). I also love to make people happy - and so it follows, that I love to cook! Because I follow an exceptionally large number of food and cooking blogs and I always think back to my own experiences with cooking, eating and savoring.

My own penchant for 'yumminess' and 'doing good work' (as I like to call it the act of polishing off a plate of awesomeness) is far easier to document than it has ever been before, thanks to my iphone!  As such, I'm going to occasionally feature some of my dishes & "recipes" here. I've put apostrophe marks around the word recipes because I don't use them very often - I look at dishes & will read recipes, but unless I'm baking, I never, never use a recipe! Cook what you like, and season until it's delicious - that's how I cook. I've handrolled gnocci, simmered arroz con pollo, created pasta bolognese, and rolled out biscuits and it's all been a blast. That being said, I'm going to try to photograph my dishes & give you the basics of my 'recipe."

On Monday I made chicken paillard in picatta sauce over warm pureed chickpeae on a bed of sauteed spinach with roasted cinnamon sweet potatoes. What-a-freaking-mouthful...I know! This is basically fancy talk for saying it was cold out and I didn't want to eat cold salad and I had OD on carbs all weekend and needed to feed my body some wholesomeness.

I ate a huge plate. My hubs said "it's good" and ate it without further comment even when I asked him repeatedly if he liked it.

And so here we have it: Chicken Picatta with warm pureed chickpeas accompanied by sauteed spinach and roasted potatoes.

1) Cinnamon roasted potatoes. I 'invented' this dish because j-dawg basically dies a bit inside any time I make anything with cinnamon. SCORE! Peel and slice sweet potatoes; toss in a large bowl with a bit of olive oil, lots of cinnamon, a pinch of cayenne, a shake or two of black pepper and a dash of salt. Bake in a roasting pan in an oven set to 400 degrees.

2) Chicken. Buy thin chicken cutlets, season with pepper & a bit of salt. Dredge in flour and cook until brown in a skillet with olive oil. Remove the cooked cutlets from the pan and place in oven to keep warm (with the roasting potatoes). Swirl a pat of butter in the pan with the chicken bits & olive oil. Add the juice of one squeezed lemon (don't include the pits, smarty pants!) and a dash of wine if you have some laying around. Simma until reduced, then add a few teaspoons of Spanish capers. The term "Spanish capers" sounds lovely - imported and picked under sunshine, but I use Goya capers - same difference! Stir to combine and then add the chicken to your sauce and make sure each piece is thoroughly covered in buttery lemon caper goodness.

3) Spinach. This couldn't be easier - peel and slice some garlic cloves & saute in olive oil. Add clean, washed spinach. Don't add salt - just a dash or two of pepper!

4) Warm pureed chickpeas (fancy hummus for dummies). Open a can of imported Spanish chickpeas (a can of Goya - good stuff). Rinse thoroughly & dump in a saucepan with sliced garlic cloves in olive oil. Add a generous amount of red pepper flakes and pepper. Add salt; cover with water. Simmer until at near boil - when all your other components are done, transfer contents to a food processor and puree until smooth.

To serve: plate a bunch of spinach and then add chickpea puree. Layer chicken on top with plenty of sauce. Surround the serving with sweet potatoes. Drool a bit and then EAT (while watching tv, obviously)!

You're welcome.

just when you thought we were (mostly) broke-

Last night I was reading a wikipedia entry on Google (if you're bored, look up a well-known company or person on google. I promise you'll find it fascinating!) & I was astounded that within two years of its founding, it recieved 25milly in funding. I thought that was crazy talk, but my techie husband assured me that in the "old days" (as I call them) or "golden years" (as he prefers to call them) throwing around hundreds of millions of dollars into web startups was anything but uncommon. With the US economy as it is then, articles like this are particularly interesting. Do you think money should be poured this freely into social start ups? Where do you think funds would best be diverted given the needs of our society? Check out the WSJ article below-

MONEY RUSHES INTO SOCIAL START-UPS

By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER

As Wall Street and other investors clamor for a piece of social-networking giant Facebook Inc., Silicon Valley venture capitalists are betting on a new generation of companies that hope to unshackle social networking from personal computers—and shift it to the cellphone.

On Thursday, Color Labs Inc., a phone-based social network founded by veteran entrepreneur Bill Nguyen, is opening its doors. The Palo Alto, Calif., start-up recently secured $41 million from top venture-capital firms including Sequoia Capital even before the company's iPhone and Android apps were ready to debut.

The idea behind Color is that a phone's location-sensing abilities can build a user's social network for them, allowing users to share photos, video and messages based simply on the people they're physically near. The company's view on privacy is that everything in the service is public—allowing users who don't yet know each other to peer into each other's lives.

Color is just one of a growing number of social start-ups betting on smartphones that are now attracting a venture-funding rush. Many of the companies feature photo taking and sharing at their core, such as Path Inc., founded by former Facebook executive Dave Morin. It received $8.5 million last month from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Index Ventures. It has also had conversations with Google Inc. about a buyout, according to a person briefed on the discussions. Google declined to comment.

Another phone photo-sharing company, Instagram, was barraged by inquiries from nearly 40 investors before settling last month on $7 million from Benchmark Capital.

We would have people show up at our offices every other day wanting to meet while we were trying to get work done," said Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom. Since launching in October, the service has nearly three million users, he said.

In addition, Yobongo Inc., a three-week-old iPhone app that lets users chat with people located in their geographic area, said Wednesday it raised $1.35 million. In January a group-texting service called GroupMe said it raised $10.6 million.

The flood of venture capital into mobile social start-ups is the latest sign of Silicon Valley's Web-fueled boom. In recent months, investors have driven up the valuation of Facebook above $60 billion and social-gaming company Zynga Inc. to $10 billion.

Behind the spurt of new services is also the idea that the phone, carried by people at all times, can reinvent the notion of a social network by sharing more real-time information about where people are, what they're seeing and even who they're around.

The phone "provides a platform for developers to build experiences that are more personal in nature," said Path's Mr. Morin. What's different now is the ubiquity of smartphones and tablets. "Now you have an opportunity to create these experiences at scale," he said.

The rush into mobile social companies also comes as Facebook is honing in on phones. Facebook, which has more than 200 million users of its services on cellphones, this week bought mobile-technology company Snaptu and earlier this month acquired group chat room service Beluga.

In both deals, the purchase price wasn't disclosed.

Last year, Facebook also unveiled a check-in service for its phone apps that allow users to volunteer their location to friends, and also find deals from nearby businesses. The company is now at work on efforts to integrate its capabilities deep into phone operating systems, potentially expanding the sorts of things people can do with their Facebook friends on the go.

A Facebook spokesman said the company's platform is used by many phone apps.
"We're excited to be the technology that many of the leading mobile apps are using to help people connect with friends through games, music, photos and commerce," he said.

Unlike Facebook, Color eliminates the acts of "friending" and selecting privacy settings. That's because when it is turned on, Color collects global positioning, gyroscope, ambient lighting and other data from phones to determine who else is in close proximity.

That means users will temporarily join the group of people at a birthday party or rock concert—even strangers on a train. Phones running the Color app automatically share photos and videos taken with other phones running Color nearby.

"Instead of seeing your friends online alone in front of a PC, we allow people to interact with each other in real life," said Mr. Nguyen, who previously founded online music start-up LaLa, which was acquired by Apple Inc. in 2009, among other companies. Of the $41 million that Color raised, $25 million came from Sequoia and $9 million came from Bain Capital Ventures, with the rest from Silicon Valley Bank. "Color is at the confluence of the mobile, social and local phenomena," said Sequoia partner Doug Leone, of the 30-person start-up, which is seven months old.

Services like Color raise questions about how people might use them and deal with privacy. Mr. Nguyen said Color doesn't ever promise that photos, location and other information will be private.

Such capabilities will require good faith from users (for example, to keep public photos G-rated) and could push people to change their social behaviors.

Color's business model, like many free mobile social services, remains a work in progress. Mr. Nguyen said the company might eventually sell premium services to local businesses like restaurants, which might be able to highlight photos of popular dishes or daily specials, or learn more about which Color-using customers come to the restaurant most often.

discrimination: a curly chick's cry

Today it rained. And snowed. There was even some sleet.

Yes, I kept my head covered, but the inevitable happened - my long, formerly lucious curly locks got frizzy. Not my fault in the least - it just so happens that my "look" is subject a bit more to the elements than some of my co-workers with sleek hair.

As such, I slightly resent this paragraph, as published in an article titled "The Taming of the Curl."

"Some image consultants say professional women with lots of curls often feel pressured to tame them for work. "The women who have the power spots in banking and hedge funds and all of that never wear their hair to extremes," says Susan Sommers, a New York business-image coach who has advised employees at companies including Deloitte and Colgate-Palmolive Co. Their hair isn't too straight, too long or too curly. "People who are being groomed for high potential, and people who are handling a lot of money, have overseers who really understand that they can't look unkempt or ungroomed," she says."

My reaction? A big fat "WAAAA," wailed as loudly as someone can imagine (well, ok - I'm not actually wailing, but you get my drift)...women with curly hair aren't perceived as professional as women with sleek helmet hair? I can concur with the perception that might be true, but it still stings to know that's somewhat of a universal truth.

Feel free to join my pity party, attendee 1. Read the entire article here!

"Do you think my butt looks big?"

I'll never forget an instance last year during which my husband (then fiance) and I encountered a gaggle of girls in figure-hugging mini dresses, sky-high heels & dramatic makeup...out and about at 2pm at a bat mitvah. True story - we were touring a seaside venue popular amongst the NY set for hosting weddings & a variety of other events and occasions. My husband said he literally had to look away because by appearing to look in their direction, he was sure he was breaking some type of law. Curled eyelashes, teetering stilettos - I couldn't for the life of me believe what I was seeing. As such...I may have excused myself to the restaurant's restroom where a group of them were headed..I wanted to get in their heads for one second. Crazy! Beyond the "what did you do Friday night?" conversation - here they were, adjusting their dresses to butt-skimming heights and trading sex tips.

OMG. An article published in this past weekend's WSJ describes a scenario very much like the one I observed, and just barely delves into the tip of the iceberg concerning the phenomena of little girls dressing like Kim Kardashian. I truly wish the author had delved into the subject a big deeper as an emerging tend within the popular conciousness. Why would mothers who embraced the feminism of the 80's allow their girls to imprison themselves as they have? Little girls have always wanted to try mommy's lipstick & go on dates, but when does the innocence end and tales of 'how I went down to Aaaron last night" begin? As a girl (woman, I should say) whose mother still analyzes her hemlines, the fact that tween can moonlight as an extra from the film "Burlesque" shocks me.

For your reading pleasure...

Why Do We Let Them Dress Like That?

by Jennifer Moses

In the pale-turquoise ladies' room, they congregate in front of the mirror, re-applying mascara and lip gloss, brushing their hair, straightening panty hose and gossiping: This one is "skanky," that one is "really cute," and so forth. Dressed in minidresses, perilously high heels, and glittery, dangling earrings, their eyes heavily shadowed in black-pearl and jade, they look like a flock of tropical birds. A few minutes later, they return to the dance floor, where they shake everything they've got under the party lights.

But for the most part, there isn't all that much to shake. This particular group of party-goers consists of 12- and 13-year-old girls. Along with their male counterparts, they are celebrating the bat mitzvah of a classmate in a cushy East Coast suburb.

In a few years, their attention will turn to the annual ritual of shopping for a prom dress, and by then their fashion tastes will have advanced still more. Having done this now for two years with my own daughter, I continue to be amazed by the plunging necklines, built-in push-up bras, spangles, feathers, slits and peek-a-boos. And try finding a pair of sufficiently "prommish" shoes designed with less than a 2-inch heel.
All of which brings me to a question: Why do so many of us not only permit our teenage daughters to dress like this—like prostitutes, if we're being honest with ourselves—but pay for them to do it with our AmEx cards?

I posed this question to a friend whose teenage daughter goes to an all-girls private school in New York. "It isn't that different from when we were kids," she said. "The girls in the sexy clothes are the fast girls. They'll have Facebook pictures of themselves opening a bottle of Champagne, like Paris Hilton. And sometimes the moms and dads are out there contributing to it, shopping with them, throwing them parties at clubs. It's almost like they're saying, 'Look how hot my daughter is.'" But why? "I think it's a bonding thing," she said. "It starts with the mommy-daughter manicure and goes on from there."

I have a different theory. It has to do with how conflicted my own generation of women is about our own past, when many of us behaved in ways that we now regret. A woman I know, with two mature daughters, said, "If I could do it again, I wouldn't even have slept with my own husband before marriage. Sex is the most powerful thing there is, and our generation, what did we know?"

We are the first moms in history to have grown up with widely available birth control, the first who didn't have to worry about getting knocked up. We were also the first not only to be free of old-fashioned fears about our reputations but actually pressured by our peers and the wider culture to find our true womanhood in the bedroom. Not all of us are former good-time girls now drowning in regret—I know women of my generation who waited until marriage—but that's certainly the norm among my peers.

So here we are, the feminist and postfeminist and postpill generation. We somehow survived our own teen and college years (except for those who didn't), and now, with the exception of some Mormons, evangelicals and Orthodox Jews, scads of us don't know how to teach our own sons and daughters not to give away their bodies so readily. We're embarrassed, and we don't want to be, God forbid, hypocrites.

Still, in my own circle of girlfriends, the desire to push back is strong. I don't know one of them who doesn't have feelings of lingering discomfort regarding her own sexual past. And not one woman I've ever asked about the subject has said that she wishes she'd "experimented" more.

As for the girls themselves, if you ask them why they dress the way they do, they'll say (roughly) the same things I said to my mother: "What's the big deal?" "But it's the style." "Could you be any more out of it?" What teenage girl doesn't want to be attractive, sought-after and popular?

And what mom doesn't want to help that cause? In my own case, when I see my daughter in drop-dead gorgeous mode, I experience something akin to a thrill—especially since I myself am somewhat past the age to turn heads.

In recent years, of course, promiscuity has hit new heights (it always does!), with "sexting" among preteens, "hooking up" among teens and college students, and a constant stream of semi-pornography from just about every media outlet. Varied sexual experiences—the more the better—are the current social norm.
I wouldn't want us to return to the age of the corset or even of the double standard, because a double standard that lets the promiscuous male off the hook while condemning his female counterpart is both stupid and destructive. If you're the campus mattress, chances are that you need therapy more than you need condemnation.

But it's easy for parents to slip into denial. We wouldn't dream of dropping our daughters off at college and saying: "Study hard and floss every night, honey—and for heaven's sake, get laid!" But that's essentially what we're saying by allowing them to dress the way they do while they're still living under our own roofs.

—Jennifer Moses is the author of "Bagels and Grits: A Jew on the Bayou" and "Food and Whine: Confessions of a New Millennium Mom."

For Japan, with love...

God Grew Tired of Us

Last night I watched a powerful film titled "God Grew Tired of Us," which explored the story of the Sudanese "Lost Boys." The documentary began by charting the course that thousands of young boys took as they fled from Sudan to Ethiopia, crossing hundreds of miles of harsh desert landscape as they escaped almost certain death as caused by civil war and the brutality of rebel soldiers. Hungry, tired, battling disease, with no shoes and merely strips of clothing (if lucky), these boys walked step after step towards an unknown destination - all they wanted and needed was an escape. Little did they know that even as their numbers would decrease by more than half due to starvation, they would not arrive at some Holy Land. In Ethiopia they found a camp not prepared for their needs in terms of food and shelter; they waited it out for two years and then proceeded south by foot once more towards safety.

Enter the Kukuma camp. A UN camp in Kenya, this is where the Lost Boys were able to establish some sense of normalcy and community, although amidst circumstances where a day or two without food during the week was de rigueur. It was here that the Boys played soccer and met in Parliament, the bond over burying the bodies of their brothers (and sisters) complete.


As mentioned though, this camp was far from paradise, with its continuous food shortages, clearly marked boundaries, and limited educational opportunities. The dream for many then, after ten long years spent in Kukuma, was for the Boys to be able to secure American visas through the International Rescue Committee.


The film follows four of the Lost Boys as they travel from Kukuma to their final destinations in America (two settle Pittsburgh, PA & Syracuse, NY) and encounter electricity, potato chips, flushing toilets, the struggles of balancing multiple jobs and maintaining hope as they endeavor to support the boys left behind in Africa while finding whatever is left of the families whom they had once thought lost forever.


This movie made me cry more than once, as I sat on my leather couch eating my delivered (pizza again, I had a craving..) dinner in my high rise condo (and I am almost always the type to hold back tears...what does that tell you?). The pure emotion that these boys displayed on camera, the succinct and clear way they articulated their feelings (their English diction & vocabulary put mine to shame), the grace with which they worked two or three jobs as a welcome opportunity & the zeal which they embraced education and fought for awareness of their cause....it was breathtaking. I can't help but get emotional again thinking about it - this is a life-changing film. The images and words will be burned into your mind long after the film's final credits have flickered on the screen. The way with which we view immigrants, Africans, UN refugee camps, the crisis in Sudan, and our American comforts will be altered. Even something as simple as a film can change you, and this is a film that will stay with me forever.


Here is an excerpt from the book of the same name, authored by John Bul Dau (one of the "boys" featured in the book). The spirituality and maturity conveyed by his words leaves me nothing short of amazed.

"I have witnessed my share of death and despair. I have seen the hyenas come at dusk to feed on the bodies of my friends. I have been so hungry and thirsty in the dusty plains of Africa that I consumed things I would rather forget. I have crossed a crocodile-infested river while being shelled and shot at. I have walked until I thought I could walk no more. I have wondered, more times than I can count, if my friends or I would live to see a new day. Those were the times I thought God had grown tired of us...They call me a Lost Boy, but let me assure you, God has found me." (p. 7)

If you are interested, John Bul Dau has a foundation which helps set up medical clinics & trains workers in Sudan. People are always asking for help (handouts galore!), but do take a look at his site....

Spanish Telenova Tops English Broadcasts (i.e. so what & get used to it!)

Whoever wrote this "Hollywood Reporter" article...needs to have her head fixed. Philiana Ng - came off as thoroughly ignorant in just a few sentences, which truly indicates the power of the written word.

Ms. Ng's article is as follows:

The Spanish-language soap topped Univision and English-language broadcast networks in the adults 18-34 demo in its time period Tuesday.

"It's not a good sign when a Spanish-language soap tops English-language broadcast networks.

That's what happened Tuesday night at 10 p.m. with Telemundo's La Reina del Sur. The program was No. 1 in its time slot in the adults 18-49 and 18-34 demographics, according to Nielsen. In the latter demo, La Reina topped CBS, ABC, NBC and Univision in the period.

La Reina drew 2.9 million viewers and roughly 1.93 million were in the ad-favored 18-49 demo. For Monday and Tuesday's telecasts, La Reina has averaged 1.89 million in the demo, up 7 percent from its premiere week.

In adults 18-34, La Reina had its best ratings to date with 1.13 million."

Ms. Ng...what makes you think (note that I am a lady and will not use the words that I think actually express her ignorance) that a Spanish-language broadcast topping mainstream-American television during the same hour is a bad thing? What about that fact is scandalous, dark, outrageous, or indicative of a larger trend of anything other than the fact that the US now has more Spanish-speakers than any other country, lead only by Mexico? We all know, thanks to our friend Nielsen, that people aren't watching the news at that hour anyway - the top-rated news program  (ABC"s "Nightline") doesn't air until 11:30! That can lead us to believe that Americans are probably watching reruns of "The Nanny" (I still love that show, b the way) or "Bad Girls Club" at that hour...and so Ms. Ng's underscoring point that Spanish-language programming is dangerously outranking local 10:00pm news broadcasts (that relatively few watch) is absolutely ridiculous.

Alternately, even if her point is "I can't believe a Spanish soap opera garnered that type of acclaim," she is still thoroughly in the wrong. Let's not go into lengths about "The Bachelor" finale which aired last night...the results of which have been riding the airwaves since the second the shows ending credits played out on our nation's television screen (well, not mine..I will NOT watch that show!). Last year's finale of the very same show drew 15 million viewers...so why don't you make a crack about that, Ms. Ng and draw some telling conclusions about American culture from that figure!

My point is that the Spanish-speaking population in the United States is quickly becoming the mainstream. Our tastes, our language, our needs & wants will all begin to play into the national conciousness. We can watch novelas and watch Nightline, all in the same evening. Play smart & get with the program - literally - ...and leave your opinion out of it when reporting news, Ms. Ng.

update: VIVIAN SCHILLER RESIGNS

old news by now, but I wanted to provide an update to my last vlog (courtesy of TVNewser)

NPR CEO Vivian Schiller Resigns

By Chris Ariens on March 9, 2011 9:50 AM

Breaking: NPR president and CEO Vivian Schiller has submitted her resignation to the Board of the pubic broadcaster following an embarrassing undercover video captured Ron Schiller, NPR’s former senior vice president for fund-raising, and no relation to Vivian Schiller, calling the Tea Party “racist” and “scary” and questioning whether NPR needs federal funding.

Ron Schiller stepped down from NPR yesterday.

Vivian Schiller’s resignation also follows the very public firing from NPR of Fox News analyst Juan Williams which later cost Ellen Weiss, head of news at NPR, her job.

At the time of Weiss’ firing in January, the NPR board “expressed confidence in Vivian Schiller’s leadership going forward.” Less than three months later, Schiller is out of a job.

Interestingly, Schiller was to be in New York today and in fact at our mediabistro studios to tape an interview for our MediaBeat video series. An NPR publicist informed us yesterday that Schiller’s trip to New York was “cut short” and that the interview would be postponed for a second time.

NPR’s release after the jump.



NPR BOARD OF DIRECTORS STATEMENT ON RESIGNATION OF VIVIAN SCHILLER, NPR PRESIDENT & CEO

March 9, 2011; Washington, D.C. –

The NPR Board of Directors announced today that it has accepted the resignation of Vivian Schiller as President and CEO of NPR, effective immediately.
Board Chairman Dave Edwards said: “The Board accepted Vivian’s resignation with understanding, genuine regret and great respect for her leadership of NPR these past two years.”
According to a CEO succession plan adopted by the Board in 2009, Joyce Slocum, SVP of Legal Affairs and General Counsel, will be appointed to the position of Interim CEO. The Board will establish an Executive Transition Committee to develop a timeframe and process for the recruitment and selection of new leadership.

waves & destruction

Big news this morning about a deadly earthquake which hit the northern coast of Japan and is now hitting Hawaii in the form of a tsunami. Obama's going to deliver a presser at 11:15am, and Japanese officials have estimated between 200-300 casualties thus far (with added reports of missing trains & boats).

Great chart which places this event within the proper context (courtesy ABC News):

Large Quakes since 1900

	Location	Date	Magnitude
1.	Chile	1960 05 22	9.5
2.	Prince William Sound, Alaska	1964 03 28	9.2
3.	Off the West Coast of Northern Sumatra	2004 12 26	9.1
4.	Kamchatka	1952 11 04	9.0
	TODAY’S QUAKE		8.9
5.	Offshore Maule, Chile	2010 02 27	8.8
6.	Off the Coast of Ecuador	1906 01 31	8.8
7.	Rat Islands, Alaska	1965 02 04	8.7
8.	Northern Sumatra, Indonesia	2005 03 28	8.6
9.	Assam - Tibet	1950 08 15	8.6
10.	Andreanof Islands, Alaska	1957 03 09	8.6
11.	Southern Sumatra, Indonesia	2007 09 12	8.5
12.	Banda Sea, Indonesia	1938 02 01	8.5
13.	Kamchatka	1923 02 03	8.5
14.	Chile-Argentina Border	1922 11 11	8.5
15.	Kuril Islands	1963 10 13	8.5

top news wednesdays - VLOG

hi! I've missed omgcents so much! Here's vlog #2 - done straight after work, a quick rundown of my favorite news stories - raw, unedited, and me. What do you think of the hair? Should I spring for brazilian hair straightning? Time to bounce & drink some water...I just scarfed down a mediterranean-style pizza with kalamata olives. Delicious, but I'm parched now! 

so many ideas, so little time

Many blog posts sitting in draft mode...apologies, hoping for a slow weekend soon to post some good bites!

politics & debt, Chicago-style (hot peppers not included)

I literally shrieked when I read the headline "Emanuel Elected Chicago Mayor" - politics aside, I cannot believe he was tapped to win by Mayor Daley. Since when did it become ok to bestow another with the consequences of your bad economic policies? 1billion dollars of debt and less than a 50% public high
school graduation rate? OMG indeed. I definitely need to read more about Emanuel's campaign - what were his selling/talking points? Was it just the sway of popular opinion through the Obama & Daley connection which won him the vote? For years now we've known Emanuel as one of the forces behind our nation's newest president, but I have a feeling we're all going to get to know him soon....

EMANUEL ELECTED CHICAGO MAYOR

Wall Street Journal
By KEVIN HELLIKER

CHICAGO—Voters in overwhelming numbers on Tuesday elected Rahm Emanuel to be the first new mayor of Chicago in 22 years.

Only four months after resigning as President Obama's chief of staff in order to enter this city's mayoral race, Mr. Emanuel received 55% of the vote with 93% of the precincts reporting, more than the simple majority he needed to avoid a run-off campaign against second-place finisher Gery Chico, a long-time Chicago administrator who received 25% of the vote.

Indeed, Mr. Emanuel's vote far outnumbered the total of his six opponents, including former Democratic Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, who with most precincts reporting had garnered less than 10% of vote, despite being the leading African American candidate in a city whose population is about one-third black

Inside an Emanuel campaign party in Chicago's West Loop, an ebullient crowd cheered as a giant screen with rolling election results showed their candidate steamrolling toward victory. By 8 p.m. local time, with 84 percent of precincts reporting, Mr. Emanuel was leading with 55 percent of the votes cast.

Standing in the center of the crowd was Ralph Schwartz, 83 years old, who sipped red wine to celebrate Mr. Emanuel's rising fortunes. "He has the force of personality and the knowledge to take on the sleeze in Chicago politics," Mr. Schwartz said. "The way he talks reminds me of how FDR faced down the Republicans when he was forcing through the New Deal."

By winning in such dominant fashion, Mr. Emanuel perpetuated the legacy of retiring Mayor Richard M. Daley, who has held a firm grip on the electorate in Chicago since taking office in 1989.
Mayor Daley didn't officially endorse any candidate. But the so-called machine that helped Mayor Daley stay in power for more than two decades got behind Mr. Emanuel early in the campaign, helping him jump to a commanding lead that recent polls placed at near 50%. A former congressman from Chicago, Mr. Emanuel is a long-time ally and friend of Mayor Daley's, and also a former high-ranking member of the Clinton Administration.

On Tuesday, Mr. Emanuel's margin jumped above 50% in part because of turnout that fell far below the more than 50% of Chicago's 1.4 million registered voters that election officials had predicted.

Instead, with 90% of the vote counted, turnout remained below 40%. Those who did show up to vote, said Chicago political observers, belonged to the so-called machine, benefiting Mr. Emanuel.

Mr. Emanuel campaigned aggressively, in recent weeks making 360 hand-shaking stops, often at public-transportation stations. His war chest of several million dollars also far surpassed that of his opponents. During a two-year break from politics before running for Congress, Mr. Emanuel earned more than $15 million working for the Chicago office of a Wall Street investment firm.

Yet for Mr. Emanuel, the toughest challenge lies ahead. He faces a city reeling from the recession and years of overspending. Chicago's projected budget shortfall is approaching $1 billion and public-employee pensions are underfunded by about $20 billion. The city's unemployment rate is 8.6%.

One of Mr. Daley's favorite tools for raising quick cash was privatizing public assets. But in the wake of the sale of the city's 40,000 parking meters—a deal that resulted in rates quadrupling—the public's tolerance for more privatization is next to nil.

Chicago also faces a depleted police force and a violent crime problem, particularly in the city's largely African-American South Side.

The city's public school system is also at a crossroads. Mr. Daley took over the school system in 1995 and test scores saw an initial bump, but they have flattened out in the last decade.

Chicago's high school graduation rate remains mired just above 50%.

—The Associated Press, Stephanie Banchero, Douglas Belkin and contributed to this article.

Find the article here, at WSJ.com

introducing: the VLOG!

YAY! I'm all about introducing "firsts" into my life these days, and I'm tremendously pleased with my latest foray: the video blog (or "vlog," for short).

So yes, that's me with the frizzy post-work hair.

And yes, this can be another way for me to obsess about myself (note: wth is up with my huge lips? sigh.)

...but mostly, this is for YOUR benefit right? And my practice ;-)

Oh well - here it goes, without further ado - THE VLOG (completely unedited)!

history as it happens

As a news junkie, this is the stuff I live for - chills & goosebumps as I watch my tv screen in my own corner of the world, watching history unfold as Mubarak has just stepped down from the presidency.

We'll wait - who will take over? It's a precarious situation - let's not echo the ills of history past, but hope that move will usher democracy & peace to that country.

My heart goes out to those people...who knows what will happen now? No president, VP...just tanks, mobs and an economy quickly sinking. What is more important - stability or democracy?

new merger, new media, continued-

Brilliant!

"this deal is not a victory for either side. It’s a slow-motion train wreck and will end in disaster...."

new merger, new media?

The big news this morning, as summarized by this very efficient press release:

AOL AGREES TO ACQUIRE THE HUFFINGTON POST

Acquisition Will Solidify AOL's Strategy of Creating a Premier Content Network With Local, National and International Reach

Arianna Huffington To Lead Newly Formed The Huffington Post Media Group Which Will Integrate All Huffington Post and AOL Content, Including News, Tech, Women, Local, Multicultural, Entertainment, Video, Community, and More

The New Combined Media Group Will Reach 117 Million Americans and 270 Million Globally

Group Uniquely Positioned To Redefine the Future of Brand Advertising and Marketing For an Engaged and Influential Audience

--

Ok, first things first. This press release is really more of a few headlines strung together, rather than a traditional press release (although I have only attached its synposis or blurb here)- I noticed that type of 'yada yada blahhh' stuff came from Arianna Huffington's blog post. Big news for sure, but what does this mean? AOL was surely one of the monoliths of the internet that created accessibility for Ms. Housewife, Joe Schmo and their four kids, but it had been falling off the radar as of late despite the company's deft acquisition of rather lackluster projects (in my humble opinion) that failed to grasp the truly inspired ideas which had prompted their creation - projects like patch.com.

Enter HuffPo, a new type of website for a new type of game, whose players were those very kids and adults who had probably used AOL as their first type of internet server/browser. HuffPo was a website which captured the same type of 'community' which had made AOL so popular in the first place (who doesn't remember slaving over making their profiles "unique"?). Cue in the blogger phenomena with the allure of celebrity and some features for the everyman, and you have HuffPo. I was a fan to be sure, but bigger doesn't always mean better, and somewhere along the line, HuffPo lost some of its sparkle. I've seen the interviews and perused her books - Arianna Huffington seems to have a larger than life personality - and probably wants her website to follow. So there we have it, in the words of Ms. Huffington,

"We're still traveling toward the same destination, with the same people at the wheel, and with the same goals, but we're now going to get there much, much faster."

With this acquisition, both parties hope that gaps in reporting will be filled, videos will increase in number (and supposedly, featuring  original content), photos will abound, and that sucess will come primarily from the allure of customized news. You will have your news how you want it, when you want it - on your phones, computer screens, and at your fingertips at whichever hour you'd like (glitter and flashing icons may or may not be optional). Great. Awesome. I think we've heard those lines before. I won't hold my breath for this big "breakthrough" in media partnership, which follows a period with the largest merger of them all - Comcast/NBC -  was signed, and where the biggest debate of the day is the Verizon/AT&T coverage battle. In a time where bigger, wider, etc. is truly considered better. I'm waiting for original, inspired reporting and coverage that will make me say "wow, I didn't think of it that way."

I'll wait to see what happens. What do you think?

Jane Velez-Mitchell's "Intervention for America"

next read, maybe? She's an interesting character and with this book seems to make the case that it's easy to get addicted, but more challenging than ever to beat addiction at its core - it's everywhere.

Jane Velez-Mitchell's "Intervention for America"

Jane Velez-Mitchell tackles the country's newest battle with the bottle -- in the form of prescription pill addiction -- and other vices rapidly eating away at the American infrastructure in her new book, Addict Nation - An Intervention for America and RadarOnline.com has all the details for you.

"In the United States, almost everything that's being presented to us as a 'free choice' is being designed, sold and packaged to us as a way to get us hooked, to ensure that we keep coming back for more -- even when it's destroying us," the New York Times best-selling author, who is a recovering alcoholic herself, told RadarOnline.com.

"Prescription pill addiction is epidemic -- you could call it a social contagion.”
Addict Nation - An Intervention for America examines a growing pill epidemic -- which Velez-Mitchell said is largely ignored -- that's been foreshadowed by a string of high-profile celebrity deaths (Anna Nicole Smith in 2007, Health Ledger in 2008, Michael Jackson in 2009), all tied to cocktails of legal prescription medications.

The drugs vary: there's Valium, Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, OxyContin, Vicodin, Valium, Xanax, Lexapro, Zoloft, Cipro, Klonopin, Valium, Lorazepam and Ativan, just to name a few -- but the paths, according to Velez-Mitchell, all lead to the same dead end.
In Addict Nation-An Intervention for America, Velez-Mitchell and co-author Sandra Mohr present a blueprint for change they claim can only be cultivated at the root of the problem.

Addict Nation-An Intervention for America has garnered high praise from all spectrums, as clinical psychologist Dr. Judy Kuriansky said Velez-Mitchell "deserves an honorary psychology Ph.D. for her insights on the human psyche."
"Addict Nation is a great read," The View's Joy Behar said. "I couldn't put it down. In fact, I read it over and over, and I can't wait to read it again. I think I'm hooked -- but in a good way."

According to media superstar Nancy Grace, Velez-Mitchell "breaks it down so we can not only understand addiction, but we can beat it!"


From Radar Online.