Bulgari shows off Liz Taylor's gems

It isn't easy sometimes to be an ordinary person in Los Angeles, so near to and yet so far from the city's glamorous events.

You hear about the grand Oscar parties, but you will never be invited. The award ceremony may be taking place minutes from where you live, but you watch it at home, on TV, in your sweat pants — and you might as well be in Dubuque.

Rodeo Drive too can make you feel like a scrap on the cutting room floor. As you stroll the wide and immaculate sidewalks of Beverly Hills' iconic shopping street, you pass by boutiques you'd feel self-conscious walking into. In the windows are baubles and trinkets you could never in three lifetimes afford.

Which is why it is rather nice to be invited to make a private appointment at the house of Bulgari, the fine Italian jeweler that opened its doors in 1884.

Elizabeth Taylor loved Bulgari jewels. Richard Burton, whose torrid affair with her began during the filming of "Cleopatra" in Rome, accompanied her often to the flagship shop on the Via Condotti. He liked to joke that the name Bulgari was all the Italian she knew.

So it is fitting that starting Oscar week, the jeweler is celebrating the Oscar-winning star with an exhibit of eight of her most treasured Bulgari pieces.

They are heavy on diamonds and emeralds — of rare size, gleam and value.

And Bulgari knows their value well.

After Taylor's death, it reacquired some of the gems at a Christie's auction. One piece, an emerald-and-diamond brooch that also can be worn as a pendant, sold for $6,578,500 — breaking records both for sales price of an emerald and for emerald price per carat ($280,000).

That brooch, whose centerpiece is an octagonal step-cut emerald weighing 23.44 carats, was Burton's engagement present to Taylor. He followed it upon their marriage (his second, her fifth) with a matching necklace whose 16 Colombian emeralds weigh in at 60.5 carats. Bulgari bought the necklace back too, for $6,130,500.

They are in the exhibit, along with Burton's engagement ring to Taylor and a delicate brooch — given to her by husband No. 4, Eddie Fisher — whose emerald and diamond flowers were set en tremblant so that they gently fluttered as Taylor moved.

The jewels are not for sale.

On Tuesday night, actress Julianne Moore wore the Burton necklace, with pendant attached, at a gala for Bulgari's top clients. At the dinner hour, guests were escorted along a lavender-colored carpet to a nearby rooftop that had been transformed into a Roman terrace.

Those honored guests, of course, got private viewings of Taylor's jewels.

But so did Amanda Perry, a healer from West Hollywood who arrived the next morning for one of the first appointments available to the public.

Someone had emailed news of the collection to the 35-year-old Taylor fan. She walked in off the street Tuesday, when the exhibit was open only to press — and Sabina Pelli, Bulgari's glamorous executive vice president, fresh from Rome, was taking sips of San Pellegrino brought to her on a silver tray between back-to-back interviews that started at 5 a.m.

The camera crews were long gone when Perry came back Wednesday. She had the exhibit, and handsome sales associate Timothy Morzenti of Milan, entirely to herself.

In a black suit, still wearing on his left hand the black glove he dons to handle fine jewels, Morzenti whisked Perry off via a private elevator to the exhibit on the second floor. The jewels stood in vitrines mounted high off the ground. Behind them were photos and a slide show of Taylor, bejeweled.

"Which piece would you like to see first?" Morzenti asked her as a security guard stood by. "I personally love the emerald ring."

Then he proceeded at leisure to explain Bulgari-signature sugar-loaf cuts and trombino ring settings, while tossing in occasional Taylor stories.

Read More..

Pinterest Gets a Billion-Dollar Bump, Pins More Cash to Its Boards

Everyone’s favorite online discovery site Pinterest has raised yet another round of funding, $200 million from San Francisco firm Valiant Capital Partners, the company confirmed Wednesday. Existing investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners and FirstMark Capital also participated. The massive round – twice as much as Pinterest’s last VC infusion of $100 million – values the company at $2.5 billion, according to Pinterest. All for a company that has either yet to figure how to make any money from its 50 million monthly visitors, or just as likely is keeping its mouth shut about its plans.
In the last year Pinterest has exploded. What started out as an invite-only social bookmarking network, where anyone could save a photo and link they found online, has become one of the top 50 websites, according to comScore. In May 2012, the site attracted $100 million at a $1 billion (or $1.5 billion, depending on who you talked to) valuation from Japanese firm Rakuten, leading venture capitalists and the media to hint at the possibility of another bubble set to burst.

It’s spent some of that money on buying recipe aggregator PunchFork in January 2012, and on a new office near San Francisco’s design district. Another chunk of that cash went toward growing the 20-person team to more than 100 employees.

With this new cash, Pinterest is going abroad and buying more companies, says early Pinterest investor Rick Heitzmann of FirstMark Capital. “Pinterest will continue to build out and improve its products; you’ll see more international expansion and there will be additional acquisitions to fit Ben’s (Silbermann) greater vision for the company,” he says. The site is already popular in Europe and Asia, but Pinterest has plans to add more languages and create a more custom experience in other countries.

While $200 million seems over the top for a company that’s not pulling in any revenue, it’s just right, according to Heitzmann. “You always want more than enough capital to execute the vision,” he says. “Pinterest’s vision is to become one of the largest companies in the world for both online and offline discovery, and we want to make sure the company has enough to do that.”

Apparently a lack of revenue isn’t a problem yet. Heitzmann isn’t worried, saying when the time comes Pinterest will find a way to make use of all the content we’re pinning to our board to turn a profit. There’s already been hints of how that might happen. Pinterest started pulling in pricing information when someone pinned a product from an online shop. Pinterest is also immensely valuable to e-commerce retailers because of how much traffic a pin of a dress or coffee mug can send to their sites, and there’s been talk that businesses would be willing to pay for those referrals.

Still, potential avenues for revenue do not equal actual revenue. And while investors championed enterprise startups in the market last year for their clear-cut business models, it seems VCs are still taking their chances on a consumer company with lots of pretty pictures, lots of users and no profits. Either Pinterest’s viral growth is just that impressive, or there’s something else going on behind the scenes that have investors signing those fat checks. We’re betting on the latter.

Read More..

Actresses walking Oscar’s red carpet to exude sophistication, not sex

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – When actresses sashay down the red carpet before the Oscars ceremony on Sunday, they are expected to be wearing gowns exuding glamour and sophistication, not flesh-exposing jaw-droppers.

Performers at this month’s Grammys were issued a “wardrobe advisory” ahead of the big music awards show, telling them to cover up and keep buttocks, nipples and genitals under wraps. The advisory appeared to work, as no one bared too much skin.

But fashion experts do not expect guests at the 85th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday night to shock, instead forecasting original fashions inspired by last month’s Paris haute couture week where made-to-order gowns worth tens of thousands of dollars are hand-crafted.

Top designers are keen to dress the hottest Hollywood stars, loaning them creations and jewelry for the awards ceremony that is watched by an estimated one billion people worldwide, with many as interested in the fashions as the films.

The importance of looking good on the film industry’s biggest night is critical for up-and-coming actresses wanting to be noticed and for designers and cosmetic and jewelry companies seeking global recognition and the next big contract.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hands out the Oscars, says on its award show tickets that attire for the event is “formal.” An Academy spokeswoman declined to elaborate on whether more detailed advisories are given to nominees and presenters, saying only that “the Oscars and the Governors Ball are black-tie events.”

With the red carpet televised live, there is no room for wardrobe malfunctions. And attendees know that the critics are ready to pounce on anyone whose frock does not live up to the event.

LEGBOMBING

Designer Marc Bouwer, who is dressing three Oscar attendees this year, called the Oscars red carpet “the greatest, biggest runway show on earth,” pointing out that the right outfit can take someone’s career “from zero to a hundred.”

Bouwer would know. His creations are regularly featured on best-dressed lists, with the white satin gown worn by Angelina Jolie wowing the audience at the 2004 Oscars.

Jolie is a pro of the red carpet. She again stole the spotlight last year when she thrust her right leg out of her high-slit Versace dress, setting off a global copying craze and leading to the adoption of a new word, “legbombing.” Her right leg even got its own Twitter account.

The value of red carpet exposure is hard to pinpoint, but a vintage Christian Dior dress worn by actress Natalie Portman at the 84th Academy Awards later sold for $ 50,000.

The photographs of the actress who takes home the Best Actress statuette becomes part of Oscar lore.

It’s a night when images of beautiful women in spectacular gowns become Hollywood history, such as pictures of Grace Kelly in a blue satin gown by Edith Head in 1955, Julia Roberts in a black vintage Valentino in 2001, and Halle Berry in an Elie Saab gown with a sheer upper bodice and burgundy satin bottom in 2002.

One actress in the spotlight this year is 22-year-old Jennifer Lawrence, who is a favorite for the Best Actress award for her role in the quirky romance “Silver Linings Playbook.”

Lawrence has built a relationship with Christian Dior’s creative director, Belgian fashion designer Raf Simons, and wore Dior gowns to the recent Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards and the BAFTA awards in London.

It remains to be seen if she will don Dior for the Oscars, but style expert Sam Saboura, a fashion host on the cable channel TLC, said he expected the copious amounts of black and white used by Dior and Chanel in Paris last month to appear at the Oscars.

He said the full skirts used by Dior in Paris are also likely to influence gowns on Oscar night, while spring and fall colors like cobalt blue, poppy red and yellow, as seen at the Golden Globes, could emerge.

“The Oscars carpet is the grand dame of all red carpets,” Saboura told Reuters. “It’s a world stage and what’s worn on that night will set the tone and trend of what everyone else will be wearing … and other designers will follow suit.”

Bouwer expects prints to make a big return to the red carpet as designers use computer software like photoshopping and art applications to add prints easily.

“Prints have been on day dresses for years, but now it’s moving into haute couture and ballgowns,” Bouwer told Reuters. “It’s something different. It’s pushing the envelope and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be on an evening gown.”

No matter what color, pattern or designer is chosen for the Oscar red carpet, hair stylist Jose Eber said the underlying theme will be, as always, a celebration of the golden years of Hollywood and a bygone era of timeless elegance.

“Every nominee and presenter gets inspired by that era, and you will see them paying homage to stars like Rita Hayworth, Veronica Lake, Audrey Hepburn and others,” Eber told Reuters. “But they will all have their own new twist” on elegance.

(Editing by Belinda Goldsmith and Philip Barbara)

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Actresses walking Oscar’s red carpet to exude sophistication, not sex
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/actresses-walking-oscars-red-carpet-to-exude-sophistication-not-sex/
Link To Post : Actresses walking Oscar’s red carpet to exude sophistication, not sex
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Personal Best: When to Retire a Running Shoe

Fitness Tracker

Marathon, half-marathon, 10k and 5K training plans to get you race ready.

Ryan Hall, one of the world’s best distance runners, used to pride himself on wearing his running shoes into nubs. No more. Now he assiduously replaces his shoes after running about 200 miles in them. He goes through two pairs a month.

“I know that my shoes could probably handle a couple of hundred more miles before they are worn out, but my health is so important to me that I like to always make sure my equipment is fresh,” he said.

Of course Mr. Hall, sponsored by Asics, does not have to pay for his shoes. Most of the rest of us do, and at around $100 a pair they aren’t cheap. Yet we are warned constantly to replace them often, because running in threadbare shoes may lead to injuries that can take months to heal.

So here’s a simple question: How do you know when your shoes are ready for those discard bins in gyms? And if you do get injured, is it fair to blame your shoes?

My friend Jen Davis runs more than 100 miles a week, like Mr. Hall, but has a different set of criteria for getting rid of shoes. One is that if they smell bad even after she washes them in her washing machine, it’s time for a new pair. She estimates she puts 500 miles on each pair of shoes.

Henry Klugh, a running coach and manager of The Inside Track, a running store in Harrisburg, Pa., says he goes as far as 2,000 miles in some shoes. He often runs on dirt roads, he said, which are easier on shoes than asphalt is and do not compress and beat up the midsole as much.

My coach, Tom Fleming, has his own method. Put one hand in your shoe, and press on the sole with your other hand. If you can feel your fingers pressing through, those shoes are worn out — the cushioning totally compressed or the outer sole worn thin.

As for me, my practice has been to keep track of the miles I run with each pair and replace them after 300 miles. Who is right? Maybe none of us. According to Rodger Kram, a biomechanics researcher at the University of Colorado, the theory is that you must change shoes before the ethylene vinyl acetate, or E.V.A., that lines most running shoe insoles breaks down.

“Think of a piece of Wonder Bread, kind of fluffy out of the bag,” he said. “But smoosh it down with the heel of your palm, and it is flat with no rebound.”

A moderate amount of cushioning improves running efficiency, he has found. But as to whether cushioning prevents injuries, he said, “I doubt that there are good data.”

Dr. Jacob Schelde of Odense University Hospital in Denmark, has looked for clinical trials that address the cushioning and injury question — and has found none. He’s applying for funds to do one himself, a 15-month study with 600 runners.

Dr. Schelde did find a study on injury rates among runners, published in 2003, that had some relevant data even though it was not a randomized clinical trial and shoe age was not its main focus. The study was large and regularly tested runners in a 13-week training program. The researchers failed to find any clear relationship between how long running shoes were worn and a runner’s risk of injury.

It also is difficult to find good data on how long E.V.A. insoles last. But one exhaustive study, led by Ewald Max Hennig of the biomechanics laboratory at University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany, involved 18 years of shoe testing from 1991 to 2009. The researchers measured the performance of 156 shoe models worn by runners. Dr. Hennig and his colleagues wrote that the sort of mechanical testing that shoe manufacturers do to evaluate cushioning materials does not reflect what happens when people actually run.

Over the years, running shoe quality steadily improved, the researchers reported. The shoes also changed as running fads waxed and waned. Shock attenuation, for example, diminished starting around 2000, when there was talk of shoes providing too much cushioning.

Then, when cushioning became fashionable again, it returned. But so did minimalist shoes designed for the barefoot running fad, which have almost no cushioning.

In Europe, the researchers reported, people typically wear shoes for about 600 miles. But their studies indicated that shoes could last much longer.

Most shoemakers, of course, would prefer to see us trade in sooner. Kira Harrison, a spokeswoman for Brooks, said shoes should last for 400 to 500 miles. The very light models last about 300 miles, she said.

Biomechanical studies have shown that after those distances the shoes lose their bounce, she said: “Everyone in the industry knows that standard.”

Gavin Thomas, a Nike spokesman, said a shoe’s life span depended on the type of shoe — lightweight or more heavily cushioned — and on the runner’s weight and running style. Those who are light on their feet can wear shoes longer than those who pound the ground. Those who run on soft surfaces can keep their shoes longer.

After 300 or 400 miles, Mr. Thomas said, a typical shoe worn by a typical runner will not feel the way it used to, a sign it is worn out.

But Golden Harper, developer of Altra running shoes and founder of the company, said any advice on mileage was “a lot of malarkey.” Mr. Harper, a distance runner, said most runners could feel when their shoes need to be replaced. “You get a sense for it,” he said. “Nothing hurts, but it is going to soon.”

So when should you retire those faithful running shoes, and what happens if you don’t? Despite the doomsday warnings, no one really knows. And with so many variables — type of shoe, runner’s weight, running surfaces, running style — there may never be a simple answer.

But we can take comfort in Dr. Hennig’s work. Even people like Henry Klugh, who put in many more miles than most guidelines suggest may still be fine. Their shoes may still be performing.

Read More..

At least 16 hurt in blast and fire at Kansas City restaurant

At least 16 people were hurt and a popular wine bar was destroyed by an apparent natural gas explosion and ensuing fire at an upscale shopping district in Kansas City, Mo., Tuesday evening.

Residents reported smelling natural gas and seeing utility crews in the area before the conflagration. A strong scent of gas hung in the air afterward.

“Early indications are that a contractor doing underground work struck a natural gas line, but the investigation continues,” Missouri Gas Energy, a natural-gas provider, said in a statement.

The Kansas City Fire Department said the incident was under investigation. “It does seem to be an accident,” Fire Chief Paul Berardi said during a late-night news briefing.

JJ's Restaurant and wine bar, just off Country Club Plaza, had apparently been partially evacuated before the blast occurred about 6 p.m.

"This was happy hour at the restaurant. There were patrons in the restaurant," Berardi said.

No fatalities were reported, but officials brought in cadaver dogs to check the rubble. The Kansas City Star reported that one JJ's employee was missing.

The fire raged for two hours, with thick smoke visible for miles. Victims streamed to hospitals; at least four people were in critical condition.

Initially, police said a car had hit a gas main, but officials later discounted that explanation.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene. 

"I was sitting in my living room folding laundry, and felt in my chest -- and heard -- an explosion," said Jamie Lawless, who lives about two blocks from JJ's. "I started freaking out, and I was looking around, and then I saw other people walking outside. You could see giant black smoke billowing up from the plaza area, and nobody really knew what it was."

Sally McVey, who lives across the street from JJ's, said the fire "was growing exponentially, incredibly quickly. It was not like a fire I’ve seen before, where it takes a long time to spread.”

A crowd gathered to watch firefighters battle the blaze. At an apartment building on JJ's block, a woman on a top-floor balcony called down to onlookers.  "'Is my building on fire?' and everybody says, 'Yes, come down!' " McVey said. "She’s like, 'Oh my gosh,' and a lot of people come out of that building with their computers and dogs. She did too.”

JJ's owner, Jimmy Frantze, was out of town, said Kansas City Mayor Sly James, who used to be a fixture at the restaurant. The business, which boasted a selection of 1,800 bottles, had been on the site for 28 years.

“It was 28 years of a great restaurant, and then it has to end like this,” Frantze told the Kansas City Star while driving back from Oklahoma. “I want to make sure to check on my employees to make sure they are all right.”

Kansas City Police Department's bomb squad and officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were expected to investigate the accident after the search dogs finished looking for victims, Berardi said.

 matt.pearce@latimes.com

ALSO:

Coast Guard: Fuel line leak caused Carnival cruise fire

New York anchorman charged with choking his TV-journalist wife

Executive, charged with slapping baby on Delta flight, loses job

Read More..

Turkish Soccer Fans Roar Loudly Enough to Damage Your Ears

ISTANBUL, Turkey — The Turks, who love football as much as anyone, have the loudest fans on earth.

The 51,998 people packed into Turk Telekon Arena, home to the Galatasaray football club, let out a 131.76-decibel roar during a match against Fenerbahçe two years ago, enough to secure a spot in the Guinness book of records. That’s louder than The Who during their 126-decibel gig in London in 1976, and louder even than standing behind a fighter jet at takeoff.

They haven’t gotten any quieter.

Check out a Galatasaray game and you’ll have no doubt how much the Turks love the sport Americans call soccer. Oh sure, their three biggest clubs, Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Beskitas, may not be the most successful, but they boast millions of followers.

Millions of very, very loud followers. The fans, profiled in Ford’s Fantastic World of Football documentary series, are passionate about the beautiful game, and want everyone to know it.

They pack the stands, screaming as if the the match will be won or lost on noise alone. I brought along a decibel meter for a recent match and the din hit 97 decibels — about as loud as a jackhammer, and enough to cause some serious hearing loss at sustained levels. It was modest compared to that derby game against Fenerbahçe, but enough to make your hair stand on end.

So even if the team can’t guarantee the right result, one thing Galatasaray’s fans can guarantee is an incredible — and incredibly loud mdash; atmosphere.

Video: IncWord.com

Read More..

Oscars in Hollywood cliffhanger over Best Picture, Director

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Sunday’s Oscar ceremony is set for a cliffhanger ending after a topsy-turvy awards season that has left the two top prizes – Best Picture and Best Director – too close to call.

With just days to go before the movie industry’s highest honors are handed out on February 24, awards watchers are keyed up for one of the most exciting nights in recent Academy Awards history.

Despite entering the Oscar race with a leading 12 nominations in January, the front-runner Best Picture status of Steven Spielberg‘s presidential drama “Lincoln” has been undermined by a slew of awards picked up Ben Affleck‘s Iran hostage thriller “Argo.”

But an “Argo” win despite Affleck’s omission from the Best Director shortlist would defy the conventional wisdom that says the Oscar for Best Film usually brings a trophy for its director.

“Argo” would be the first movie to take home the statuette for Best Picture without its director winning even a nomination since “Driving Miss Daisy” in 1990.

“Everything is kind of haywire, so those of us in the (awards prediction) business are all left scratching our heads and saying what does it mean?” said Matt Atchity, editor in chief of movie review website Rotten Tomatoes.

After beating “Lincoln” at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, directors, producers and writers guilds, “Argo” now has the edge in the Best Picture race.

“Even if ‘Argo’ wins for Best Picture, which is kind of a foregone conclusion at this point, it still feels exciting because ‘Argo’ has managed to keep this underdog status even though it has been winning every award,” Dave Karger, chief correspondent for Fandango.com told Reuters.

“If ‘Lincoln’ wins, ironically it will be considered an upset even though it has the most nominations. That’s what’s strange about this year – all the rules seems to be turned on their heads,” Karger added.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday underlined the stiff competition. Some 17 percent of the 1,443 people questioned in the United States between February 15 and 19 thought that “Lincoln” was most likely to win Best Picture, but the same percentage gave their backing to musical “Les Miserables.”

“Argo” was thought most likely to take home the Oscar by 8 percent of those questioned, while “Django Unchained” and “Life of Pi” tied with 4 percent. Some 41 percent of those asked in the Reuters/Ipsos poll were unsure which movie would win on Sunday.

JOCKEYING FOR POSITION FOR MONTHS

Unlike last year when silent film “The Artist” had the race sewn up weeks ahead of the Academy Awards ceremony, four films have moved in and out of the front position six times since September, according to movie pundits at Goldderby.com.

They include quirky comedy “Silver Linings Playbook” which won the top prize at the Toronto film festival, and “Les Miserables” the screen version of hit French Revolutionary stage show which has a strong fan following but which got mixed reviews.

“The fact the front-runner has changed so many times has made it exasperating, but almost more fun,” said Karger.

“Argo” is thought to have come through less because of a sympathy vote for the snub to Affleck and more because of its deft blend of thriller with a satire on Hollywood movie making. The movie is based on the true story of the CIA rescue from Islamic revolutionary Tehran of six U.S. diplomats who pretended to be producing a fake film.

“I think people genuinely love that movie and it’s very inclusive to the Hollywood professionals who are voting on these awards. It allows people in Hollywood to say, we helped get those hostages out, and there is an appeal there,” Atchity said.

“The critical reaction to ‘Lincoln’ tended to be that it was a very educational and really impressive film but it didn’t grab you emotionally the way some of the other nominees did.”

Directors Tom Hooper (“Les Miserables”), Kathryn Bigelow (“Zero Dark Thirty”) and Quentin Tarantino (“Django Unchained”) were also left off the Oscars short-list although their movies earned nominations.

That leaves Spielberg as presumed favorite for a third Best Director Oscar after victories with 1990s films “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan.”

But don’t count out David O. Russell for “Silver Linings Playbook,” and Ang Lee, the self-effacing Taiwanese director who brought Yann Martel’s mythological shipwreck survival novel “Life of Pi” to the big screen.

“No one thought that book was filmable, and yet Ang Lee was able to pull it off. When you think this was the same man that made ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ and ‘Sense and Sensibility,’ he is so versatile it’s astonishing,” said Karger.

“Lincoln” is distributed by Walt Disney Co. and 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp; “Argo” is distributed by Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner; “Les Miserables” is distributed by Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp; “Life of Pi” is distributed by 20th Century Fox; “Zero Dark Thirty” is released by Sony Corp’s movie studio arm; “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Django Unchained” are distributed by privately held Weinstein Co.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Oscars in Hollywood cliffhanger over Best Picture, Director
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/oscars-in-hollywood-cliffhanger-over-best-picture-director/
Link To Post : Oscars in Hollywood cliffhanger over Best Picture, Director
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

The New Old Age Blog: The Reluctant Caregiver

Now and then, I refer to the people that caregivers tend to as “loved ones.” And whenever I do, a woman in Southern California tells me, I set her teeth on edge.

She visits her mother-in-law, runs errands, helps with the paperwork — all tasks she has shouldered with a grim sense of duty.  She doesn’t have much affection for this increasingly frail 90something or enjoy her company; her efforts bring no emotional reward. Her husband, an only child, feels nearly as detached. His mother wasn’t abusive, a completely different scenario, but they were never very close.

Ms. A., as I’ll call her because her mother-in-law reads The Times on her computer, feels miserable about this. “She says she appreciates us, she’s counting on us. She thanks us,” Ms. A. said of her non-loved one. “It makes me feel worse, because I feel guilty.”

She has performed many services for her mother-in-law, who lives in a retirement community, “but I really didn’t want to. I know how grudging it was.”

Call her the Reluctant Caregiver. She and her husband didn’t invite his parents to follow them to the small city where they settled to take jobs. The elders did anyway, and as long as they stayed healthy and active, both couples maintained their own lives. Now that her mother-in-law is widowed and needy, Ms. A feels trapped.

Ashamed, too. She knows lots of adult children work much harder at caregiving yet see it as a privilege. For her, it is mere drudgery. “I don’t feel there’s anybody I can say that to,” she told me — except a friend in Phoenix and, anonymously, to us.

The friend, therapist Randy Weiss, has served as both a reluctant caregiver to her mother, who died very recently at 86, and a willing caregiver to her childless aunt, living in an assisted living dementia unit at 82. Spending time with each of them made Ms. Weiss conscious of the distinction.

Her visits involved many of the same activities, “but it feels very different,” she said. “I feel the appreciation from my aunt, even if she’s much less able to verbalize it.” A cherished confidante since adolescence, her aunt breaks into smiles when Ms. Weiss arrives and exclaims over every small gift, even a doughnut. She worked in the music industry for decades and, despite her memory loss, happily sings along with the jazz CDs Ms. Weiss brings.

Because she had no such connection with her mother, whom Ms. Weiss described as distant and critical, “it’s harder to do what I have to do,” she said. (We spoke before her mother’s death.) “One is an obligation I fulfill out of duty. One is done with love.”

Unlike her friend Ms. A, “I don’t feel guilty that I don’t feel warmly towards my mother,” Ms. Weiss said. “I’ve made my peace.”

Let’s acknowledge that at times almost every caregiver knows exhaustion, anger and resentment.  But to me, reluctant caregivers probably deserve more credit than most. They are not getting any of the good stuff back, no warmth or laughter, little tenderness, sometimes not even gratitude.

Yet they are doing this tough work anyway, usually because no one else can or will. Maybe an early death or a divorce means that the person who would ordinarily have provided care can’t. Or maybe the reluctant caregiver is simply the one who can’t walk away.

“It’s important to acknowledge that every relationship doesn’t come from ‘The Cosby Show,’” said Barbara Moscowitz when I called to ask her about reluctance. Ms. Moscowitz, a senior geriatric social worker at Massachusetts General Hospital, has heard many such tales from caregivers in her clinical practice and support groups.

“We need to allow people to be reluctant,” she said. “It means they’re dutiful; they’re responsible. Those are admirable qualities.”

Yet, she recognizes, “they feel oppressed by the platitudes. ‘Your mother is so lucky to have you!’” Such praise just makes people like Ms. A. squirm.

Ms. Moscowitz also worries about reluctant caregivers, and urges them to find support groups where they can say the supposedly unsay-able, and to sign up early for community services — hotlines, senior centers, day programs, meals on wheels — that can help lighten the load.

“Caregiving only goes one way – it gets harder, more complex,” she said. “Support groups and community resources are like having a first aid kit. It’s going to feel like even more of a burden, and you need to be armed.”

I wonder, too, if reluctant caregivers have a romanticized view of what the task is like for everyone else. Elder care can be a wonderful experience, satisfying and meaningful, but guilt and resentment are also standard parts of the job description, at least occasionally.

For a reluctant caregiver, “the satisfaction is, you haven’t turned your back,” Ms. Moscowitz said. “You can take pride in that.”

---

Paula Span is the author of “When the Time Comes: Families With Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions.”

Read More..

DealBook: Office Depot and OfficeMax Announce Plans to Merge, After Erroneous Release

9:40 a.m. | Updated

Office Depot and OfficeMax announced their plans to merge on Wednesday, just hours after an erroneous release about the deal briefly surfaced.

Under the terms of the deal, Office Depot said it would issue 2.69 new shares of common stock for each share of OfficeMax. At that level, the transaction would value OfficeMax at $13.50, or roughly $1.19 billion, a premium of more than 25 percent to the company’s closing price last week.

The deal has been anticipated, as the companies face an increasingly difficult competitive environment. Both companies, which are burdened with big real estate footprints, have struggled against lower-priced rivals like Amazon.com and Costco. By uniting, the two companies should be able to cut costs and better negotiate prices.

“In the past decade, with the growth of the internet, our industry has changed dramatically,” Neil Austrian, chairman and chief executive officer of Office Depot, said in a statement. “Combining our two companies will enhance our ability to serve customers around the world, offer new opportunities for our employees, make us a more attractive partner to our vendors, and increase stockholder value.”

While the deal has been years in the making, it was initially announced prematurely. A news release announcing the merger of the two office supply retailers was posted early Wednesday morning on Office Depot’s Web site, but it quickly disappeared.

Several news organizations reported the terms disclosed in the errant news release for Office Depot’s earnings. The details were buried on page four of the release under the header “Other Matters.”

As the details filtered through the market, shares of the companies jumped. In premarket trading, Office Depot’s stock rose more than 7 percent, while OfficeMax shares were up more than 8 percent.

The episode is reminiscent of other times that companies’ earnings releases were published prematurely. Last fall, Google’s third-quarter earnings were published three hours early, which the technology giant blamed on a mistake by R.R. Donnelley & Sons, the company’s printer.

Representatives for Office Depot and OfficeMax were not immediately available for comment on the erroneous release.

Strategically, the deal makes sense, as the companies deal with a changing competitive environment.

Combined, the companies reported about $4.4 billion in revenue for their third quarter of 2012; in comparison, Staples disclosed $6.4 billion in revenue for the same period.

Office Depot has also been under pressure from an activist hedge fund, Starboard Value, which sent a letter to the retailer’s board last fall. In it, Starboard called for more cost cuts and a greater focus on higher-margin businesses like copy and print services. With a 14.8 percent stake, Starboard is the company’s biggest investor.

Read More..

Oscar Pistorius denies charge of premeditated murder

PRETORIA, South Africa -- As his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, cowered behind a locked door in a tiny bathroom, Oscar Pistorius strapped on his prosthetic legs, grabbed his pistol, strode seven yards to the door and fired through it four times, killing her, prosecutors alleged Tuesday as they laid out their case against the double-amputee Olympic runner in Pretoria Magistrate’s Court.

According to prosecutor Gerrie Nel, Pistorius’ actions amounted to premeditated murder.

But in an affidavit read in court, Pistorius said he was deeply in love with Steenkamp and denied any intent to kill her. “I know she felt the same way," he said in the document.

As the affidavit was read, Pistorius wept so bitterly that Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair had to halt the proceedings to allow the athlete time to compose himself.

But in a major blow for Pistorius, Nair agreed with the prosecution, ruling that for the purposes of Tuesday's bail hearing the charge against Pistorius was premeditated murder, a decision that will make it difficult for him to be granted bail.

Under South African law, those charged with a category six offense, the most serious category, must show exceptional circumstances as to why they should be released on bail.

Pistorius may now face months in jail before his trial. If convicted of premeditated murder, the 26-year-old Pistorius, who inspired the world by overcoming adversity to compete in the Olympic Games in London last year, faces life in jail.

The hearing took place at the same time as Steenkamp's family was holding a private funeral for the model.

Though Tuesday’s proceedings were a bail hearing, some of the main contentions of the prosecution and defense cases were aired.

Pistorius wept through much of the hearing, while his brother, Carl Pistorius, put his hand on the athlete’s back in a gesture of comfort. Asked by Nair if he understood the arguments being made, Pistorius replied in a soft, clear voice, "Yes."

Pistorius' defense attorney, Barry Roux, denied there had been any murder, and the runner’s family has made it clear that he will plead not guilty when his trial begins.

Roux argued that the killing was not premeditated. "It’s not even murder. There's no agreement there, not even concession that this is murder," he said, adding that there were many cases of men shooting their wives through doors, mistaking them for robbers.

In the affidavit, Pistorius said, "I deny the allegation in the strongest terms. Nothing can be further from the truth. I fail to understand how I could be charged with murder, let alone premeditated ... as I had no intention to kill my girlfriend."

According to his version of events, the couple had a quiet dinner on Valentine's Day, and he watched TV with his prosthetic legs off while she did yoga. Then, they turned in.

During the night, he said, he went outside to the balcony to get a fan -- without his prosthetic legs -- and heard noises in the bathroom. It was pitch black, and assuming a robber had gained entry, he felt horror and fear sweep through him, he said.

Feeling vulnerable without his prosthetic legs, he said, he grabbed his gun from under his bed, screamed out at the intruder and opened fire through the toilet door, yelling at Steenkamp to phone the police.

It was only after he returned to the bedroom and saw that she was not in bed that he realized it must be her in the toilet, he said.

According to Pistorius, he broke down the bathroom door with a cricket bat and carried her downstairs.

“She died in my arms,” he said.

Nel said there was no evidence available that supported the athlete’s contention that he thought Steenkamp was a burglar and shot and killed her by mistake.

"There is no possible information to support his version that it was a burglar," the prosecutor said.

Read More..