Barack, why didn't you just keep your big pie hole shut? Come on, guy, I voted for you and I went to your inauguration--so why are you doing this to me?
The thing is, four years ago when I came up with the title for the book I was...
There is something ineffably sad about abandoned books. They sit, discarded, a story that will never be shared, pages that will never be turned. People are drawn to them, they are protective of them. Readers will stop for an abandoned book, they will bring them home even when they don't...
Before we begin, if you're under 18, or one of my children (even if you're over 18), or one of my children's friends, or someone who works for me, or my Mom or Dad, you should stop reading and close your browser now.
We hear it all the time: "the window for reviews is shrinking." And yet we still see reviews appearing everywhere. So how can you capture a share of this market? It's true that often reviews from big-name bloggers go to equally big-name authors. Well, can you blame the blogger? If...
As Americans enjoy the holiday weekend, does anyone know how Memorial Day originated?
On May 1, 1865, freed slaves gathered in Charleston, South Carolina to commemorate the death of Union soldiers and the end of the American Civil War. Three years later, General John Logan issued a special order...
"Road movies" may be associated primarily with American film -- from The Grapes of Wrath to Easy Rider -- but the Brazilian director Walter Salles is growing into a master of the genre. In films like Central Station (1989), The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) and now On the Road, he...
For all the talk about 'monetization' -- the actual business of media often gets shorted on the industry conference circuit.
So when the organizers at PaidContent decided to put an actual living, breathing content maker on the stage at this years PaidContent 2012, folks in the audience didn't...
When I was a junior in college I fell in love with Shakespeare. I was determined to become the next Kenneth Branagh--in large part because I wanted to bed his then wife, Emma Thompson. Love of literature can be based on worse things.
Women should "always end a phone call first," "let him take the lead," and never "tell him what to do." This is the sort of advice that the best-selling (straight) dating guide book "The Rules: Time-tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right" gives to single women...
In this video interview, Dr. Marion Nestle talks about how to keep your weight down, stay healthy, and enjoy your food, sharing insights from her new book, Why Calories Count. I talked with her at the 2012 International Association of Culinary Professionals in New York City.
Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics
Dr. Nestle's new book is an encouraging and fascinating story about the mighty yet invisible calorie. Written with Dr. Malden Nesheim, this book helps you grasp why calories are confusing (for one, there are many definitions of a calorie), why you need them, and how you use them.
With that knowledge under your belt, you then learn what happens if you have too few or too many calories. Particularly helpful is the section on various fad dieting strategies. And particularly encouraging is the flexible, understanding tone throughout the book. Nestle and Nesheim love to eat, and want you to enjoy the pleasures of good food too.
My favorite section is the last, which looks at the politics of calories, the influence of the food industry, and changes that make food available nearly everywhere and all the time. Learn the marketing tricks of the alcohol and beef industries and get a glimpse of why food labels are so confusing.
Nestle knows what she's talking about. She's a professor in two departments at New York University: Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health (the department she chaired from 1988-2003) and Sociology. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an MPH. in public health nutrition, both from the University of California, Berkeley. Nestle helps us care about complex and often contradictory information that affects our health in her books and on her blog, Food Politics.
Eat better, eat less, and move more
The conclusion of Why Calories Count offers refreshingly straightforward advice about how to stay healthy and trim in a society that promotes overeating: eat less, eat better, and move more. How? Pick from many practical tips, including getting organized and eating reasonable portions of real food washed down with a glass of water.
If you feel overwhelmed by conflicting diet claims or just want to be a better grocery shopper, Why Calories Count is for you.
Have you noticed how guys are being portrayed in movies lately? Unless you've been living under a rock you've seen at least one of these: Knocked Up, Failure to Launch, Hall Pass, Old School, or the Jackass series.
All the leading male characters are presented as expendable losers usually incapable...
If you're a writer, Key West is on your bucket list, likely in the number one spot.
This bohemian island city, the southernmost in the contiguous United States, is where Ernest Hemingway produced nearly half his life's work including To Have and Have Not and For Whom the Bell...
Painter of Silence, Georgina Harding's third novel -- recently shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction -- is set in Romania in the early fifties and tells the story of Augustin, a deaf and mute man found frail and very ill on the steps...
In the Jewish calender, the holiday of Shavuot is about to return into the flow of time. Shavuot celebrates the day when God gave the Torah to the Jewish people at Mt. Sinai. But what is meant by the word "Torah"? Many people associate the word "Torah" with the Five...
To the delight of Muggles and half-bloods alike, April brought the opening of Pottermore, a digital portal for the best-selling novels about Hogwarts' young wizard that captured the hearts and minds of a generation. The wizarding world of Harry Potter has taken the planet by storm, selling half...
By Bob Timmermann, Senior Librarian at Central Library.
On Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Kings earned just their second trip to the Stanley Cup Final in franchise history, after defeating the Phoenix Coyotes, 4-3 in overtime, to win the Western Conference Final in five games. The Kings, who...
When The Avengers opened earlier this month, it shattered several box-office records, including biggest opening weekend in North America. Those numbers tell us everything we need to know about why marriage equality advocates should be anxiously anticipating the recently announced, impending marriage that will be featured in the upcoming issue...
It's almost June and you know what that means. School will be out. Children will be left to their own devices. During hours of endless sun and aimless wandering, you will hear, over and over again, "I'm bored. There's nothing to do." There are only so many times you can...
Rodger Streitmatter | Posted May 26, 2012