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From Father to Son, Last Words to Live By

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 15:30:11 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

From Father to Son, Last Words to Live By

Published: January 1, 2007

He drew pictures of himself with angel wings. He left a set of his dog tags on a nightstand in my Manhattan apartment. He bought a tiny blue sweat suit for our baby to wear home from the hospital.

Then he began to write what would become a 200-page journal for our son, in case he did not make it back from the desert in Iraq.

For months before my fiancé, First Sgt. Charles Monroe King, kissed my swollen stomach and said goodbye, he had been preparing for the beginning of the life we had created and for the end of his own.

He boarded a plane in December 2005 with two missions, really — to lead his young soldiers in combat and to prepare our boy for a life without him.

Tags: life, living, iraq, next generation, war, war memories

The Starbucks Aesthetic

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 11:17:27 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The Starbucks Aesthetic

WHEN Bette Gottfried, a 48-year-old regular at a Starbucks in Ardsley, N.Y., saw that her favorite coffeehouse was promoting a film, she wasn’t immediately interested. “At first I was leery,” said Ms. Gottfried, dressed in workout clothes, wearing her hair in a ponytail and sitting near the window with her daily decaf mocha (“low-fat milk, no foam, no whipped”). “I thought, ‘Who are they to get involved in the movies?’ ”

Ultimately, however, she decided to take her 9-year-old daughter to see the film, “Akeelah and the Bee,” precisely because of the involvement of Starbucks. “I trusted seeing the movie, because it was promoted here,” she said. After all, she liked the company’s coffee; she had already bought and liked several CD’s it produced and sold, compilations of music by Carole King, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra. Why wouldn’t she like a Starbucks movie? She did, and now she’s considering picking up its latest cultural sales item: “For One More Day,” a book by Mitch Albom.

But Ms. Gottfried’s question is a valid one. Starbucks is clearly very good at selling coffee, but why should it become involved in the movies — and books and CD’s, for that matter? And why would consumers trust its taste in books and films any more than they’d trust, say, Simon & Schuster’s taste in Ethiopia Gemadro Estate decaf?

Yet the chain is increasingly positioning itself as a purveyor of premium-blend culture. “We’re very excited, because despite how much we’ve grown, these are the early stages for development,” said Howard Schultz, the chairman of Starbucks. “At our core, we’re a coffee company, but the opportunity we have to extend the brand is beyond coffee; it’s entertainment.”

Tags: culture, society, psychology, starbucks, aesthetic

So the Torah Is a Parenting Guide?

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 21:25:22 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

So the Torah Is a Parenting Guide?

By EMILY BAZELON

Published: October 1, 2006

In the third century, the rabbis who put together the Talmud instructed fathers to teach their sons to swim. It’s safe to say that most American Jews aren’t familiar with this directive, whether or not they take their kids to the lake or the pool. But one morning this past summer, a group of mostly non-Jewish parents puzzled over its meaning in a classroom at the Carolina Day School, a nonsectarian private school in Asheville, N.C.

These mothers and fathers were accidental students of Judaism. They had come together because they often felt flattened by achieving the modern ideal of successful children. They were seeking relief in a weeklong course based on the book “The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children,” by a Los Angeles clinical psychologist named Wendy Mogel.

Genevieve Fortuna, a 58-year-old former preschool teacher who has been teaching classes on raising children for 30 years, wrote the Talmudic quote about swimming in blue marker on the classroom’s white board. The half-dozen or so parents, dressed in summer-casual shorts and sandals, looked up at her from their seats around two child’s-height tables. Fortuna opened her copy of Mogel’s book. “Jewish wisdom holds that our children don’t belong to us,” she read. “They are both a loan and a gift from God, and the gift has strings attached. Our job is to raise our children to leave us. The children’s job is to find their own path in life. If they stay carefully protected in the nest of the family, children will become weak and fearful or feel too comfortable to want to leave.”

Tags: kids, parenting, children, child-rearing, torah, religon, jewish

Taking passwords to the grave

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:02:48 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: news.com.com

Taking passwords to the grave

William Talcott, a prominent San Francisco poet with dual Irish citizenship, had fans all over the world. But when he died in June of bone marrow cancer, his daughter couldn't notify most of his contacts because his e-mail account--and the online address book he used--was locked up.

Talcott, 69, a friend of beatnik Neil Cassidy, apparently took his password to the grave.

It's a vexing, and increasingly common problem for families mourning the loss of loved ones. As more and more people move their lives, address books, calendars, financial information, online, they are taking a risk that some information formerly filed away in folders and desks might never recovered. That is, unless they share their passwords, which poses security threats.

Tags: passwords, grave, email, death, estate planning

Priest: Buffett is 'Dr. Mengele of philanthropists'

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 03:21:45 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: This priest is an idiot!

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Priest: Buffett is 'Dr. Mengele of philanthropists'

Alliance with Gates foundation irks anti-abortion activists

NEW YORK (AP) -- Warren Buffett's new philanthropic alliance with fellow billionaire Bill Gates won widespread praise this week, but anti-abortion activists did not join in, instead assailing the two donors for their longtime support of Planned Parenthood and international birth-control programs.

Thursday, June 29, 2006; Posted: 5:38 p.m. EDT (21:38 GMT)

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to which Buffett has pledged the bulk of his $44-billion fortune, devotes the vast majority of its funding to combating disease and poverty in developing countries. Less than 1 percent has gone to Planned Parenthood over the years. And the Gates Foundation does not permit its gifts to Planned Parenthood to be used for abortion services.

"The merger of Gates and Buffett may spell doom for the families of the developing world," said the Rev. Thomas Euteneuer, a Roman Catholic priest who is president of Human Life International.

Tags: priest, buffet, gates, abortion, health, rights

It's not your mom's PTA

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 14:42:11 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

It's not your mom's PTA

By Donna Krache
CNN

(CNN) -- They come from all walks of life to the searing desert heat in Phoenix, Arizona: parents, some who are also teachers; administrators and school board representatives.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006; Posted: 6:26 p.m. EDT (22:26 GMT)

Many have traveled from faraway places like Alaska and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Yet if you ask them why they are here, the answer is always the same: It's for the kids.

A generation ago, the mention of PTA parents -- primarily mothers -- conjured up images of bake sales and fund-raisers.

At the 110th National PTA Convention, moms are still predominant, but there are also some dads. The issues on the minds of parents and teachers go far beyond bake sales and are as diverse as the students in American classrooms.

Tags: pta, national pta, pta conventions, education, learning

Blinging up baby

Sun, 12 Mar 2006 03:31:45 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: Amy1NYC - I think your prices are too low compared to these

Clip Source: money.cnn.com

Blinging up baby

They're fussy, pampered, and growing fast. No wonder toddlers are the favorite new target of luxury-goods marketers.

By Susanna Hamner, Business 2.0 Magazine writer-reporter

March 10, 2006: 9:21 AM EST

(Business 2.0 Magazine) - Pink leather Gucci shoes for $230. Louis Vuitton bags priced at $1,240. A $475 Hermes bathrobe. That's not a preview of fall runway fashions but a sample of new products available for babies. Yes, babies.

Tags: baby, clothing, expensive taste