Sunday Newspaper Inserts Hit a New Low
One of life’s little pleasures is the all-encompassing Sunday newspaper that contains all the news of the week and, of course the Sunday inserts from Target, Walmart, Best Buy, CVS, Walgreen’s, and this week’s special sales brochure from Shoot Straight which not only advertises the Smith & Wesson M&P 15-T, a tactical semi-automatic rifle with a 30-round detachable magazine for $949 but also the Smith & Wesson 15-22 Rife with a 25 round magazine for $399 for those who want to spend less. That the M&P 15-T is “designed specifically for the needs of military and police around the world” according to Impact Guns, is obviously besides the point. Read more 
COWSPIRACY: The Sustainability Secret
Why doesn’t The Sierra Club, Oceana, Greenpeace, Surfrider Foundation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Rainforest Action Network, and Amazon Watch loudly communicate about the number one environmental problem in the world?
News outlets recently reported that Bill Gates, Peter Thiel, Jerry Yang, and Jessica Powell are investing in Hampton Creek – a small company based in San Francisco focused on developing new ways of utilizing plants to replace eggs and animal products in a variety of different foods. Why would the co-founders of Microsoft, PayPal, Yahoo, and Google invest in a company promoting plant-based foods? The answer is surprisingly simple: there is one single industry that is destroying the planet more than any other: animal agriculture (which includes animal livestock and fishing). Hard to believe? It’s true but it’s one of the best kept secrets on this planet because no one wants to talk about it. Why? That’s a good question. Read more
A Prom Dress Registry?
Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful.
-Gibran Khalil Gibran
Decades ago when I was going to proms, finding a dress was as simple as going to the mall and buying a gown that would match a date’s tux (yes, it was the 70’s). Nowadays, my daughter tells me things are different. Girls buy a dress and immediately post a picture of the dress on-line (usually a Facebook page set up for this purpose) so that no one else even thinks about buying the coveted frock because there really can’t be anything more catastrophic than two or three girls wearing the same dress to a prom. And, if an independent-minded teen dares to defy her peers and not conform, she is criticized, shunned, or runs the risk of subjecting herself to a fashion face-off of “Who Wears it Better?” Read more
My Neck Obsession
A few weeks ago, I was watching the last season of Dexter and couldn’t stop staring at Hannah McKay, Dexter’s murderous psychopath girlfriend. The actress, Yvonne Strahovski is young, thin, and beautiful but it was her neck that had me mesmerized…she was wearing a spaghetti-strapped tee which showcased a beautiful silken neck that looked smooth as cream even when her hair was limp and frizzy from the Miami heat and humidity. Read more
“The Problem with Teenagers is Their Parents”
In my mailbox this week was the current issue of New York Magazine (Jan 20, 2014) which displays the upfront and in-your-face shot of a raging mother and a calm teenage son with the words “The Problem with Teenagers is Their Parents“ emblazoned across the cover. My first reaction was to read the cover story (The Collateral Damage of a Teenager, an excerpt from All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood by Jennifer Senior, to be published later this month), and then either tear the cover off or hide the issue from my teenage daughter thinking this would be another article about over zealous helicopter parents pushing their kids to the brink of insanity. But, after reading the article, my opinion completely changed. I e-mailed the link to both my daughter and husband with the by-line: “you have to read this.” Read more
The Ultimate Weapon: The Water Bottle
I’m tired. Bone-weary, dizzy, worn out. More exhausted than when I had a newborn, or when I flew back from Hong Kong with my infant daughter and swore to my husband that I must have a brain tumor because I was so off-balance that each step gave me vertigo. Handing him the baby because I didn’t trust my coordination was all I could do before I hit the pillow and fell into a deep sleep. Of course, I didn’t have a brain tumor; I felt fine the next day. But my current condition is different. I am chronically sleep deprived. Read more
Why You Should Buy “Humans of New York”
Two days ago, Humans of New York (“HONY“), a photography book by Brandon Stanton was released and although the chatter and buzz made me a skeptic initially, HONY really is a book worth buying for the following reasons: Read more
Life with a Veganista
One day my daughter came home from school and told me a joke: How do you know someone is a vegan? Answer: They tell you. There is some truth to that joke as vegans have a reputation – rightly or wrongly – of being preachy at times. Last December, my daughter decided to become a vegan and started on a journey to live a complete animal-free lifestyle, which means no meat, no dairy, no honey, no leather, and no products that have been animal tested. Read more
Can You Imagine?
More than 40 years ago, John Lennon released a song entitled Imagine which asked the listener to imagine a world of peace without borders, religions and nationalities that divide us. Imagine offered us an ideal but one which most of us would find unobtainable. Still, the song can be recited word for word by many generations who loved and admired the message Lennon was trying to convey to his listeners. But, what if we took a few steps backwards and tried to imagine small changes in the world in which we live. Can you imagine…… Read more
The Give
Last year, through a Facebook friend who has a child with a serious health issue, I learned about a woman named Donatella Botolino, a mother of four young children in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Donatella lost her 11-year old son, Denali to pancreatic cancer on June 11, 2012 after a two-year battle. She chronicled her son’s and her family’s struggle on a Facebook page called Please Pray for Denali Botolino which has over 7,500 followers. The story is heartbreaking and will bring most readers to tears. Read more
Paddock Post 