story
stringlengths
117
4.55k
questions
sequence
answers
sequence
summary
stringlengths
65
465
(Entertainment Weekly) -- Jaden Smith is getting a small taste of what it's like to walk in dad Will's action-blockbuster shoes. Keanu Reeves stars in the remake of the 1951 sci-fi flick "The Day the Earth Stood Still." As expected, the remake of the 1951 sci-fi flick starring Keanu Reeves easily replaced "Four Christmases" atop the box office leader board with an opening weekend gross of $31 million, according to Sunday's estimates. Despite mediocre reviews, the film held fairly steady throughout the weekend, falling slightly shy of our $36 million estimate. The Vince Vaughn-Reese Witherspoon yuletide comedy came in second with $13.3 million, bringing its three-week total to just under $88 million, while "Twilight" faded to the third spot during its fourth week with just over $8 million. The teen vampire romance managed to reach one milestone, however, grossing a total of $150 million -- the amount director Catherine Hardwicke surmised the movie would have to suck in for sequel "New Moon" to get the go ahead. Obviously, Summit executives saw the writing on the wall weeks ago and have hired Chris Weitz ("About a Boy," "American Pie") to direct next fall's follow-up. Rounding out the top five are Disney's doggie flick "Bolt" with $7.5 million and Baz Luhrmann's underperforming "Australia" with $4.3 million. The weekend's other new major release -- "Nothing Like the Holidays," starring John Leguizamo and Debra Messing -- got coal in its stocking with a measly $3.5 million during its first weekend. Also of note is the Clint Eastwood-starring "Gran Torino" (rumored to be the actor-director's last turn in front of the camera). Although it opened in only six theaters (three in New York, three in L.A.), the film scored the best per screen average, $47,333, with a gross of only $284,000. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly
[ "Which movie reached a gross total of $150 million ?", "Which film debuted with a weekend gross of 31 million?", "What type of movie is \"Twilight\"?", "Which movie came in second place?", "How much money did \"The Day the Earth Stood Still\" make in its first weekend?", "What movie slipped to second with $13.3 million ?", "What movie debuted with a weekend gross of $31 million ?" ]
[ [ "The teen vampire romance" ], [ "\"The Day the Earth Stood Still.\"" ], [ "teen vampire romance" ], [ "\"Four Christmases\"" ], [ "$31 million," ], [ "\"Four Christmases\"" ], [ "\"The Day the Earth Stood Still.\"" ] ]
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" debuted with a weekend gross of $31 million . The yuletide comedy "Four Christmases" slipped to second with $13.3 million . Teen vampire romance "Twilight" reached a gross total of $150 million .
(Entertainment Weekly) -- Neither the magic of Harry Potter nor the combined star power of Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler was enough to keep a crew of wise-cracking guinea pigs from scurrying to the top of the box office this weekend. Disney's family comedy "G-Force" made an estimated $32.2 million in its debut. Disney's family comedy "G-Force," produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Will Arnett, and Penelope Cruz as a team of world-saving rodents, made an estimated $32.2 million in its debut. Despite opening hot on the heels of the one-week old "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the animation/live action hybrid pic was a hit with young audiences, pulling 55 percent of its viewers from the under-18 crowd. But Potter's box office magic hasn't worn off just yet: The series' sixth installment landed in the number two spot its second weekend with $30 million, bringing its total to $221.8 million. After just 12 days in theaters, 'Half-Blood' is already the fifth biggest hit of the year domestically, not to mention overseas, where the powerhouse has raked in an additional $236 million. There was plenty for adults to enjoy at the box office, too. "The Ugly Truth," a raunchy R-rated rom-com that pits Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler in a battle of the sexes, scored an impressive $27 million bow, a career best for both Heigl and director Robert Luketic ("Legally Blonde"). The weekend's other wide release, Warner Bros' creepy "Orphan" -- starring Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga -- pulled in $12.8 million from an audience that was 55 percent female. Lower down on the chart, Fox Searchlight's "(500) Days of Summer" (at number 11 with $3 million) is still building momentum. The quirky rom-com posted a hefty $19,176 per-site average and a 95 percent increase over its debut last weekend. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly
[ "What installment of Harry Potter was released?", "Who stars in \"The Ugly Truth\"?", "How much money did the Disney film make?", "Who stars with Katherine Heigl in \"The Ugly Truth\"?", "What is the name of the sixth installment of the \"Potter\" series?", "What installment of Harry Potter?", "What film was in the number one spot?", "Who stars in The Ugly Truth?", "How many dollars did Disney's family comedy bring in?" ]
[ [ "The series' sixth" ], [ "Katherine Heigl" ], [ "$32.2 million" ], [ "Gerard Butler" ], [ "\"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,\"" ], [ "sixth" ], [ "\"G-Force\"" ], [ "Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler" ], [ "$32.2 million" ] ]
Disney's family comedy brought in an estimated $32.2 million over the weekend . The sixth installment of the "Potter" series raked in another $30 million at No. 2 . "The Ugly Truth," starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler, took in $27 million . Check out the other top earners on this weekend's top 10 list .
(Entertainment Weekly) -- Once upon a time -- oh, let's just call it North America in the mid-'90s, shall we? -- Weezer and Alanis Morissette were an inescapable part of the cultural landscape, churning out buoyant rock-radio hits (Weezer), wordy, eccentric anthems (Alanis), and MTV-friendly videos (both) with impressive consistency. Alanis Morissette struggled to find a way to stay current after her last album failed to do well. Each act's follow-ups, however, have failed to yield quite the success of their initial impact. So how, in the face of a never-ending rush of fresh industry blood, does an already established act stay relevant? For Morissette, the answer on new CD "Flavors of Entanglement" seems to lie, for better or worse, in going through a really, really bad breakup. The same kind of passion that fueled the 15-million-selling '95 smash "Jagged Little Pill" (was there ever a woman more excellently scorned than the Alanis who excoriated her lover on "You Oughta Know"?) is all over "Entanglement" -- thanks to a well-publicized split with actor fiance Ryan Reynolds. Granted, at 34, she still writes too often in the histrionic, no-one-has-ever-felt-what-I-feel style of a feverishly journaling liberal-arts major. Even so, the rawness of her hurt adds heft to eff-you screeds like the thunderous "Versions of Violence," and she's found an able partner in producer and co-writer Guy Sigsworth, a onetime Björk collaborator. His dense, swirling compositions seem to push Morissette's boundaries, conjuring her inner Princess of Darkness on the glitchy, gothy "Straitjacket" and exploring Far Eastern exotica on the tabla-tinged opener "Citizen of the Planet." But her most affecting moment may be the most stripped down. A barely-there piano is all the accompaniment needed on the broken, fragile ballad "Not as We," on which her voice cracks heartbreakingly over the lines "From scratch begin again, but this time, I as I/And not as we." Somehow, a devastating personal experience has galvanized her songwriting in a way that domestic bliss, as showcased on 2004's disappointing "So-Called Chaos," could not. EW Grade: B+ CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly
[ "Who is Ryan Reynolds?", "Who has Morissette partnered with?", "What is Alanis Morissette's most affecting moment on the album?", "Who did Morissette partner with?", "What happened with actor fiance Ryan Reynolds?" ]
[ [ "actor" ], [ "Weezer" ], [ "which her voice cracks heartbreakingly over the lines \"From scratch begin again, but this time, I as I/And not as we.\"" ], [ "Weezer" ], [ "split" ] ]
Breakup with actor fiance Ryan Reynolds part of "Flavors of Entanglement" Alanis Morissette's most affecting moment on the album is sparest . Morissette partners with producer, co-writer Guy Sigsworth .
(Entertainment Weekly) -- Over the last decade, Steven Soderbergh has taken the "one for them, one for me" concept of film-director politics to an almost comically programmatic extreme. Benicio Del Toro plays Ernesto "Che" Guevara in Steven Soderbergh's biopic. Basically, he makes big-budget crowd-pleasers like the "Ocean's" films, stuffed with movie stars and candied gimcrack fun, and between them he makes whatever oddball labor-of-love doodle (the enticing "Bubble," the dreadful "Solaris") enters his head. What's disorienting about "Che," his two-part, four-hour-and-17-minute, studiously eccentric drama about the revolutionary life and times of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, is that it's almost a knowing brainteaser on Soderbergh's part to force you to figure out which category the film belongs to. Che cost a reported $65 million to make, it's full of exacting panoramas of strategy and combat set in the mountainous jungles of Cuba and Bolivia, and its hero is a figure who -- 41 years after his violent death -- remains so loved, hated, and mythologized that he fits into an epic drama timed for awards season as perfectly as Gandhi or Ray Charles ever did. Following a one-week Oscar-qualifying run, "Che" is now rolling out to major American cities, where it is likely to draw generations of filmgoers who've either worn Che on their T-shirts or have the honest curiosity to wonder: Who was this man before he became a Warhol-worthy icon of radical chic? In "Che," Soderbergh stokes that curiosity, feeds it, and frustrates it, all at the same time. He's made a film that embraces the romance of revolution only to shake it off, leaving very little in its place. The first half of "Che" is a genuine achievement. It picks up Guevara (Benicio Del Toro) in 1955, when he was a clean-cut Argentine physician who dreamed of uniting Latin America through armed struggle. At a dinner party in Mexico City, he meets Fidel Castro -- played, with perfect domineering gesticulations, by Demian Bichir -- and the movie follows these two into the Cuban countryside, where they assemble the nuts and bolts of a revolution. Soderbergh exhibits a tinkerer's fascination with how it all worked, embedding each scene with a docu-nugget of information. We see Che taming his asthmatic coughing fits or reading books between battles, and learn how a battalion of rebels could defeat a platoon three times its size (with surprise, daring, and Molotov cocktails). Che is by turns scholar, guidance counselor, drill sergeant, and comandante, and Del Toro makes him a warrior-saint who learns, against his will, to cultivate a gruff bruiser facade. He yearns to be a "true revolutionary, the highest level of humanity," and it's no insult to the film to say that Soderbergh and Del Toro succeed in portraying Che as a kind of T-shirt in three dimensions, a Guerrilla for All Seasons. But that's when things get strange, if not monumentally perverse. At the end of Part I -- the victory of the Cuban rebels -- my appetite was whetted to learn even more about Che, in particular how his humane ideals were tested, and compromised, by the Castro regime as it edged toward dictatorship. Instead, Part II leaps forward to 1966-67, when Che led the revolutionary war in Bolivia, and here's the thing: It turns out to be the same damn movie. Only in this dispirited rerun, the revolution doesn't take. The rebels, all squabbling ego, can barely summon the will to sacrifice and die, and the peasants have little belief that this ragtag crew is bringing a better world. Even with the U.S. poking its nose into the region, the Soviet Union won't back an insurrection. Soderbergh has built "Che" conceptually, as two giant panels of war, and his message is about the doomed destiny of Marxism. Che, like Marx,
[ "what is the name of the movie", "What is the length of the movie?", "who wrote the moive", "Who had a brilliant first half?", "What is the name of the director?", "What is the name of lead actor?" ]
[ [ "\"Che,\"" ], [ "four-hour-and-17-minute," ], [ "Steven Soderbergh" ], [ "\"Che\"" ], [ "Steven Soderbergh" ], [ "Benicio Del Toro" ] ]
"Che" has a brilliant first half, but second half is repetitious, says EW . Steven Soderbergh's four-hour film is trying to make a point, but loses steam . However, Benicio Del Toro is terrific as famed Marxist revolutionary .
(Entertainment Weekly) -- Punctuation promises comedy in "The Informant!" as if the title subject is a cartoon secret agent -- maybe Agent 86 in "Get Smart." Matt Damon, as a corporate turncoat, offers up secrets in "The Informant!" But he's not. The whistle-blower worthy of an exclamation point in this groovy-looking, chuckle-baiting, fact-based movie from protean director Steven Soderbergh is Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), a biochemist and well-placed executive at the agri-processing giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in Decatur, Illinois. It's the early 1990s. The company man is helping expose ADM's alleged global price-fixing activities to the FBI, cooperating with the feds long enough to gather invaluable evidence. But what Whitacre doesn't confide to his FBI handlers, and what his wheat-colored jackets, Dilbert ties, and weakling mustache hide, at least at first, is that this inside source is not completely trustworthy. Damon, fattened up to fit his boxy suits, wears Whitacre's slack demeanor beautifully. The star -- who has quietly and steadily turned into a great Everyman actor -- is in nimble control as he reveals his character's deep crazies. Watch why Damon gained 30 pounds for the role » Soderbergh's amused study of the highest-ranking corporate whistleblower in U.S. history is adapted from "The Informant: A True Story," an amazing, deeply reported book by New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald. That book told the story without editorial eye-rolling. But somewhere between Eichenwald's journalistic attention to detail and the bubbly, dialogue-besotted script by "The Bourne Ultimatum's" Scott Z. Burns, Soderbergh has chosen to apply an attitude of arch whoopee, a greasy veneer of mirth over what is, no joke, a serious mess of malfeasance and mental instability. It's tempting to laugh, but what's the joke: Whitacre? ADM? The FBI? The fashion trends of Decatur? Smarty condescension lurks behind the suburban bushes. Had a '90s date and place card not been supplied, I would have remained in an honest muddle about the era depicted on screen. And since Whitacre is subliminally likened to bumbling, fictional Maxwell Smart, that's probably as the filmmaker intended. The artistic choice is reinforced by a '70s-era "Laugh-In" aesthetic seen in everything from the smiley yellow novelty typography of the opening credits to the fancy rubber-chicken music served up in heaps of horns and whistles by essence-of-'70s composer Marvin Hamlisch. Sock it to me. Playing it straight and letting his Sam-Donaldson-meets-Spock hairdo suggest otherwise, Scott Bakula makes an appealing FBI agent with a deadpan grimace just this side -- or maybe it's the other side -- of "Dragnet's" Joe Friday. Comedian Joel McHale from E!'s "The Soup" plays the fellow agent who stares with big round eyes while his partner squints at Whitacre's successive leakages of truth/lie/ truth/lie. The always wonderful, huggable Melanie Lynskey, who stole the show in "Away We Go," does more great wifely work as Ginger Whitacre, her husband's biggest booster. A valued subset of Soderbergh's audience is sure to dig iconic hipster comic brothers Tom and Dick Smothers in small roles. In fact, the wily pair would fit right in with an "Ocean's Whatever" cast of coolios, enjoying some retro-style ensemble fun, regardless of whether the audience does. Soderbergh is as smart, stylish, and attentive a filmmaker as they come. And there are moments in "The Informant!" when I can almost be convinced that the tonal feints he establishes at the intersection of joke and no-joke are seriously, thoughtfully meant to replicate the misaligned synapses in Whitacre's own head. iReport.com: Damon's latest worth checking out But if that's the intention, Soderbergh ultimately made the choice to abandon interesting, dispassionate empathy for the more quick-fix payoff of amusement. As Whitacre goes through his days, Damon recites interior monologues of distracted
[ "Who does \"The Informant!\" star?", "Who was \"The Informant!\" directed by?", "What role does Matt Damon's character play?" ]
[ [ "Matt Damon," ], [ "Steven Soderbergh" ], [ "corporate turncoat," ] ]
"The Informant!" stars Matt Damon as corporate worker giving info to FBI . Damon's character is an untrustworthy provider, and actor's performance great . But movie plays situations too much for laughs, says EW . "The Informant!" is directed by Steven Soderbergh .
(Entertainment Weekly) -- Sandra Bullock will surely be popping open the champagne as her new romantic comedy, "The Proposal," accepted the top spot at the box office this weekend by grossing $34.1 million, according to early estimates by Hollywood.com Box Office. Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock have reason to celebrate after "The Proposal" takes top box office spot. Not only did "The Proposal" win the weekend, but it was by far the best opening of Bullock's career, nearly doubling the opening of her previous best, "Premonition," which debuted to $17.6 million in 2007. While "The Proposal's" success was fueled mostly by women (73 percent of the audience was female), both women and men gave it a healthy "A-" CinemaScore rating, so expect the movie to hold up fairly well during the next few weeks. The weekend's other big release, the prehistoric buddy comedy "Year One," landed in fourth place with $20.2 million -- an okay debut for the $60 million movie. However, all indicators point to a quick descent for the Jack Black/Michael Cera flick. "Year One" dropped 24 percent from Friday to Saturday (never a reassuring sign), and the movie received an unimpressive "B-" rating from CinemaScore. "Year One" is all but certain to join "Land of the Lost" as another box-office disappointment for high-concept comedies. On the other hand, "The Hangover" (No. 2 with $26.9 million) and "Up" (No. 3 with $21.3 million) continued to show off their box-office stamina, dropping only 18 percent and 31 percent, respectively, from the prior weekend. "Up" now stands at $224 million, and may levitate past "Star Trek" (currently at $239 million) to become the year's highest-grossing film. Finishing off the top five was "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," which fell an alarming 52 percent for an $11.3 million weekend stash. Also opening this weekend was Woody Allen's "Whatever Works," starring Larry David. The New York-based comedy laughed up $281,000 from just nine theaters for a weekend-leading $31,000 gross per theater. The film will expand to more than 300 theaters on July 3. Overall, the box office was up 3 percent compared to last year's Father's Day weekend, when "Get Smart" debuted to a surprisingly sharp $38.7 million. Hope you all are having a splendid Father's Day! I know I will -- I'm taking my pop to see "Up." CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly
[ "What accepted the top spot at the box office?", "What is the best opening of Bullock's career?", "What genre is the \"The Proposal\"?", "How much did \"The Proposal\" gross?", "What was the second best grossing movie?" ]
[ [ "\"The Proposal,\"" ], [ "\"The Proposal,\"" ], [ "comedy," ], [ "$34.1 million," ], [ "\"The Hangover\"" ] ]
"The Proposal," accepted the top spot at box office by grossing $34.1 million . This is the best opening of Bullock's career, nearly doubling her previous best . Jack Black's comedy "Year One" landed in fourth place with $20.2 million . Check out the rest of the top 10 movies at this weekend's box office .
(Entertainment Weekly) -- Score a personal best at the box office for Quentin Tarantino this weekend. "Inglourious Basterds," his revisionist take on WWII starring Brad Pitt, grossed an estimated $37.6 million, besting the reigning box office champ "District 9," and giving beleaguered studio The Weinstein Co. a little financial relief. "Inglourious Basterds," a revisionist take on WWII starring Brad Pitt, grossed an estimated $37.6 million. "Basterds'" opening far surpasses Tarantino's previous best opener, "Kill Bill Vol. 2," which brought in $25 million in April 2004. The critical question now is how "Basterds" will hold up during the next few weeks. Since Weinstein only has domestic rights to the movie -- Universal Pictures holds international -- a large overall gross stateside is mandatory for the company. Warner Bros. had a much harder time with its release "Shorts" from auteur Robert Rodriguez. Opening to only $6.6 million, the PG-rated kid flick landed in a weak 6th place finish for its opening frame. The only other new release to reach the top ten was Fox Searchlight's post-college flick "Post Grad" starring Alexis Bledel. Despite opening in 1,959 locations, the film grossed only an estimated $2.8 million for the three days. Among holdovers, "District 9" did incredibly well considering Basterds was angling directly for its male audience. The $30 million sci-fi movie from newcomer Neil Blomkamp dropped a scant 49% to $18.9 million putting its total ten day gross at an impressive $73 million. "G.I. Joe" also hung in for its third week in theaters. The high-octane actioner fell only 44 percent to $12.5 million. It's three-week cume now stands at $120 million. Female moviegoers helped keep "The Time Traveler's Wife" and "Julie & Julia" in the top five. "Time Traveler" dropped only 46 percent to $10 million its second week putting its ten-day gross at $37.4 million while "Julie & Julia" fell only 25 percent, which is remarkable considering the movie is in its third week of release. Grossing $9 million for the three days, the Meryl Streep, Amy Adams two-hander has now earned $59 million total. Thanks to the strong opening of "Basterds" and the solid hold of the incumbent films, the box office was up 26 percent compared to the same time last year. It's the third week in a row the box office was up after four weekends of unimpressive results. Next weekend's horror mash-up of "Halloween II" and "The Final Destination 3-D" should yield some positive results too. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly
[ "What movie earned $12.5 million in the third week?", "who had a much harder time?", "what company had a harder time with a movie release", "Who had a hard time with its release \"Shorts\"?", "who bests the reigning box?", "Who beat the reigning box office champ?", "what movie hung in there for it's third week" ]
[ [ "\"G.I. Joe\"" ], [ "Warner Bros." ], [ "Warner Bros." ], [ "Warner Bros." ], [ "Quentin Tarantino" ], [ "Quentin Tarantino" ], [ "\"G.I. Joe\"" ] ]
"Inglorious Basterds" bests the reigning box office champ "District 9" Warner Bros. had a much harder time with its release "Shorts" "G.I. Joe" also hung in for its third week, earning an additional $12.5 million . See which other films made the top ten list at the box office .
(Entertainment Weekly) -- Spike Lee's last film, the gratifyingly tense and tricky "Inside Man," was celebrated -- rightly -- for the way that Lee finally jumped, feet first, into the studio-genre-movie game. Director Spike Lee poses for a shot during the filming of "Miracle at St. Anna" in Rome, Italy. He cooked up a gourmet-popcorn heist thriller and stamped every moment with his personality. Lee, until now, has never made a movie -- good or bad -- that wasn't unmistakably his. His latest, "Miracle at St. Anna," is the first Hollywood feature to tell the story of the African-American soldiers who fought in the U.S. armed forces during World War II , and as such it's a movie with a monumental mission. Unfortunately, that's more or less the only monumental thing about it. "Miracle" isn't powerful, it's muddled and diffuse, and the disappointment of the film begins with what a hard time I had finding Spike Lee in it. Based on a 2002 novel by James McBride, who also wrote the screenplay, the movie has a drifting, scattershot structure and no real organizing tone or style (if you wondered what Lee's frozen-figure-on-receding-background shots might look like in a wartime setting, then keep wondering). The bizarrely contrived framing device is set in the 1980s, when a postal worker named Hector Negron (Laz Alonso) mutters in anger at an old John Wayne war flick on TV, then shoots and kills a man who shows up to buy stamps. (He surely has his reasons, but does he really get away with stashing a loaded Luger under his post-office window each day?) Watch Spike Lee talk about the film » After his arrest, Hector won't talk, but a reporter finds a clue in the form of a priceless artifact hidden in his apartment: the head of a statue that once adorned a bridge in Florence that was wrecked by bombs during World War II. From this labored and gimmicky setup, the film flashes back to the itch and fear of battle, as Hector, along with other members of the all-black 92nd Infantry Division and its ''Buffalo Soldiers,'' stalks the Tuscan countryside. It's September 1944, and as they try to cross the Serchio River, the men are ambushed. The sequence has thunderous explosions, jittery editing, blown-up bodies -- everything but the virtuosity of staging that might have made the chaos and carnage revelatory instead of just a Saving Private Ryan rehash. Four members of the division end up stranded behind enemy lines, all but abandoned by a racist commander. In addition to Negron, there's Staff Sgt. Aubrey Stamps (Derek Luke), a college-educated stoic devoted to his service; Sgt. Bishop Cummings (Michael Ealy), furious at the world and a loose cannon, with no loyalty to the country he's fighting for; and Pvt. Sam Train (Omar Benson Miller), a starry-eyed oversize simpleton who rescues, and befriends, an Italian urchin (Matteo Sciabordi). The dramatic focal point, if you can call it that, is the war of wills between Stamps and Cummings. These two play out a version of the assimilate-versus-agitate debate that has echoed through many decades of African- American life, though this one would be more convincing if Ealy, a dynamic actor, had been asked to project his anger more in period, with a little less proto-gangsta recklessness. The men arrive at a picturesque village, where they mingle with the locals and Stamps and Cummings stoke their rivalry over Renata (Valentina Cervi), a married woman who is lovely in a saintly way. The film then veers into an endless, murky subplot about the Italian resistance from which it never recovers. "Miracle at St. Anna" wants to do too many things at once to do any of them with much verve. It aspires to be a war epic, but it's dominated less by combat
[ "what Movie based on a 2002 novel by James McBride?", "Who wrote a screenplay?", "What genre does James Mcbride write?", "What isn't powerful?", "what \"Miracle\" isn't powerful but muddled and diffuse?", "Who is Spike Lee?", "What was the movie based on?", "what Spike Lee's film tells story of African-American?" ]
[ [ "\"Miracle at St. Anna,\"" ], [ "James McBride," ], [ "studio-genre-movie game." ], [ "\"Miracle\"" ], [ "\"Miracle at St. Anna\"" ], [ "Director" ], [ "African-American soldiers who fought in the U.S. armed forces during World War II" ], [ "\"Miracle at St. Anna,\"" ] ]
Spike Lee's film tells story of African-American soldiers during World War II . "Miracle" isn't powerful but muddled and diffuse, reviewer writes . Movie based on a 2002 novel by James McBride who also wrote screenplay . Reviewer: "Real trouble with 'Miracle' is that Lee's filmmaking is joyless"
(Entertainment Weekly) -- The Disney family film update, "Race to Witch Mountain," won the weekend box office in fine fashion, grossing $25 million according to Sunday's estimates from Media by Numbers. "Race to Witch Mountain" won the weekend box office in fine fashion, grossing $25 million. That's the second best opening ever for a movie fronted by Dwayne Johnson alone, trailing only the first feature that starred the artist formerly known as The Rock, "The Scorpion King," which banked $36.1 million in its 2002 debut. "Race to Witch Mountain's" take was in line with expectations and garnered an okay CinemaScore grade of B+ from an audience that was 60 percent female. It should stay strong at the box office at least until "Monsters vs. Aliens" opens in two weeks. Also in "Race to Witch Mountain's" favor: weak competition from reigning champ "Watchmen" (No. 2), which dropped a hefty 67 percent from its big opening last weekend to gross $18.1 million. Zack Snyder's adaptation of Alan Moore's landmark superhero saga is clearly slowing down, although it has grossed $86 million in 10 days. Freshman fright flick "The Last House on the Left" was next at No. 3, with an anticipated $14.7 million. That's a decent sum for a horror movie that had the added benefit of opening on "Friday the 13th;" indeed, it's in line with what most scary remakes tend to bring in on their first weekends. Thus, you can expect this film (which got a so-so B CinemaScore review) to fall off the map after this frame, since that's also what most horror movies do. "Taken" (No. 4 with $6.7 million) remained in the top five well into its second month at the multiplex. Tyler Perry's "Madea Goes to Jail" came in at No. 5 with $5.1 million. And the weekend's other new wide release, the Playboy-centric comedy "Miss March," grossed an unsexy $2.3 million way down at No. 10. Meanwhile, the limited indie release "Sunshine Cleaning," starring Emily Blunt and Amy Adams, scored the highest opening-weekend per-theater average thus far in 2009, dusting up a stellar average of $53,500 in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles. Overall, the box office was a little on the sluggish side, dropping nearly 17 percent from the same frame a year ago, when "Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!" was the big winner. Still, this is just the first "down" weekend in more than a month, which is comforting. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly
[ "How much did Watchmen drop", "Who fronted the movie", "What movie was number 3", "What came in No. 3?" ]
[ [ "67 percent" ], [ "Dwayne Johnson" ], [ "\"The Last House on the Left\"" ], [ "\"The Last House on the Left\"" ] ]
This is the second best opening ever for a movie fronted by Dwayne Johnson . "Watchmen" dropped a hefty 67 percent from its big opening last weekend . "The Last House on the Left" came in at No. 3 with an anticipated $14.7 million . See what other movies made the box office top 10 .
(Entertainment Weekly) -- They have come to glimpse the miracle. They have come to witness the revolution. They have come for "Watchmen" -- the allegedly unfilmable superhero movie, the long-awaited adaptation of the comic book that changed the face of comic books forever. Billy Crudup plays Dr. Manhattan, a powerful superhero in "Watchmen." On this warm July morning, over 5,000 fans attending the annual geek pop summit known as Comic-Con have assembled inside the San Diego Convention Center for a first look. Many spent the night on the sidewalk. Some have come in costumes. Behind the stage, indie-movie icon Kevin Smith parks himself in front of a closed-circuit TV, a happy grin on his bearded mug. "You have to understand, I've been waiting for this moment for years," says Smith. "This is it, man. This is the pinnacle." All this, for a violent, ironic superhero epic that doesn't like superheroes in the first place. Directed by "300's" Zack Snyder, "Watchmen" presents a set of familiar superhero archetypes -- and then subverts them completely. Rorschach (Jackie Earl Haley) is like the Spirit ... except he's a joyless, hard-line misanthrope. The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is like Captain America ... but loyal only to sadistic thrills and a corrupt worldview. Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson) is part Batman, part Iron Man ... except he's also a schlubby, impotent coward. Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) is the resident genius ... who's built an empire on superhero toys. (You see what we mean by irony.) Says Billy Crudup, whose blue, naked Dr. Manhattan is an almighty Superman dangerously detached from his own humanity: " 'Watchmen' is a kind of thrilling thought experiment. What would people who dress up in costumes to fight crime actually be like? Well, they'd probably be fetishists who lived on the fringes of society. They'd all be a bunch of freaking lunatics." Yet for all its self-awareness and cynicism, "Watchmen" isn't some cheap-and-silly "Scary Movie" parody. Adapted faithfully, if not completely, from the celebrated 1986 comic-book series, Snyder's film is visually and intellectually ambitious, filled with heady ruminations about savior figures, pop culture, and the politics of fear. At a time when superhero stories are commonplace and our shaken country is pinning its recovery on an idealistic new president, "Watchmen's" director believes his movie can serve as a bracing blast of healthy skepticism. "Someone asked me if I thought that because Barack Obama had been elected president, the movie was no longer relevant. I said, 'Wow, that's a very optimistic view of the future!' " says Snyder. "The movie, like the comic, says, 'These superhero stories you've been feasting on? What if we took them seriously?' ... That's the fun." But fun for whom? When "Watchmen" hits theaters on March 6, the comic-book cognoscenti will be there in droves -- although some are already sweating the heresy of dramatic changes. EW: What didn't make it? And, for mainstream moviegoers, such talk of "subverting superhero archetypes" is liable to elicit a great big "Huh?" EW: A "Watchmen" primer "Watchmen's" financial backers are clearly hoping the success of "The Dark Knight" has primed the market for sophisticated superhero films -- especially one that's two hours and 41 minutes long. But where "The Dark Knight" transcended genre conventions, "Watchmen" wallows in them. Violently. Created by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, "Watchmen" is most often praised as the comic book that brought respect and maturity to a medium long dismissed as juvenile. It was the fanboys' "Catcher in the Rye" -- and maybe their first Playboy, too. "I was 13 when I read 'Watchmen,' and it came to represent my coming
[ "When is the Watchmen movie coming out?", "What is it based on?", "What is the film based on?" ]
[ [ "March 6," ], [ "comic book" ], [ "the comic book that changed the face of comic books forever." ] ]
"Watchmen" movie, after years in the works, finally coming out March 6 . Film based on classic graphic novel that influenced many . Film does not shy away from controversial themes, violence in novel .
(Entertainment Weekly) -- Usually, when characters in a movie are one-dimensional, that's not a good thing. But in "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian," the waxworks figures who come to life after sundown aren't crassly sketchy or dramatically lacking. They're one-dimensional, all right, but knowingly, delightfully so. Ben Stiller and Amy Adams size up a bobble-head Albert Einstein in the "Night at the Museum" sequel. Even at their most pop-up brash, they're true to the way that kids see history. They're like characters out of a cool yet innocent mischief-at-midnight children's book -- a "Where the Wild Things Are" of global story-time kitsch. And they give you a lift. The movie, make no mistake, is clownishly silly, a lark as light as balsa wood. If anything, though, it's a faster, wittier spin on the formula of its predecessor. Released in 2006, "Night at the Museum" was a family popcorn extravaganza that touched a chord even its producers may not have anticipated. In the sequel, Ben Stiller, as the former night guard Larry Daley (he's now a successful entrepreneur ... of flashlights!), spends one long night infiltrating the galleries of the Smithsonian Institution, where he attempts to rescue the exhibits he first got to know at the American Museum of Natural History. (He's trying to get his hands on the magical Egyptian tablet that brings them to life.) The T.rex, the capuchin monkeys, Attila the Hun -- all have been shipped to the archives of the Smithsonian. And all are as feisty as ever. But "Battle of the Smithsonian" tilts away from the zoological. The film is a history-of-the-world burlesque in which such drolly self-centered icons as General Custer (Bill Hader), Ivan the Terrible (Christopher Guest), and Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria) -- a made-up pharoah who lisps with the enthusiasm of Boris Karloff on his own reality show -- collide happily with a living army of Albert Einstein bobblehead dolls, plus stone-carved angels who sing "More Than a Woman" and "The Thinker" come to life as a Brooklyn deadbeat. This is what you call a wholesome kiddie movie on drugs. It all works because Stiller, with his eager-to-please anxiety and his incredulous double takes, is the perfect addled straight man for a hellzapoppin history show. And it works because Amy Adams, as Amelia Earhart, has the breathless, daffy-sexy vivacity of a '30s screwball heroine, her eyes lit with fire, her delivery as sharp as cut glass as she rat-a-tats out lines like "You haven't been able to take your cheaters off my chassis since we met!" "Battle of the Smithsonian" has plenty of life. But it's Adams who gives it zing. EW Grade: B+ CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly
[ "what does EW say about the sequel", "Who does Amy Adams play?", "who stars in the movie", "What character does Amy Adams play?", "At which museum does the movie take place?", "What is the name of the movie being reviewed?", "Who plays the lead role?", "who is the standout from the film", "What is the sequel of?" ]
[ [ "Grade: B+" ], [ "Amelia Earhart," ], [ "Amy Adams" ], [ "Amelia Earhart," ], [ "Smithsonian,\"" ], [ "\"Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,\"" ], [ "Ben Stiller" ], [ "Ben Stiller and Amy Adams" ], [ "\"Night at the Museum\"" ] ]
EW: "Night at the Museum" sequel lighthearted, enjoyable . Movie moves action to Smithsonian, where Ben Stiller character follows exhibits . Standout of film is Amy Adams as screwball Amelia Earhart .
(Fast Company) -- The tech world's getting used to the idea Steve Jobs is absent from Apple again, for medical reasons. We think he'll be back soon. But one day he won't come back, and who might fill the big chair then? For the time being Tim Cook is in control at Apple, as he has been every time Steve Jobs has had to take time to tackle his health issues. Cook's time in the role has, self-evidently, been highly successful, and many commenters are tipping him to be Steve's eventual successor -- with these stand-in periods acting as a carefully managed succession plan. But is Tim really the guy for the job, given that Steve is still active as CEO in the background, and all big decisions are still cycling through him? Could someone else from inside Apple be a better fit, or is there someone working elsewhere we can imagine as the next Apple CEO? Tim Cook Currently Apple COO, repeat stand-in for Steve Jobs. Demanding, keen-minded, unemotional. A science and business scholar, previously at Compaq and 12 years at IBM where he managed product and manufacturing inventories and chains. He's credited with making Apple's products stream reliably from their eastern manufacturing homes to their end users, and hot-tipped to replace Jobs by many. Recently introduced the high-profile Verizon iPhone. Once said: "Replace Steve? No, he's irreplaceable. That's something people have to get over." Odds for replacing Steve: Long, long, long. A good temporary replacement, but lacks dynamism and creative vision. Jonathan Ive Currently Senior VP of Industrial Design at Apple. Highly regarded, award-winning brains behind nearly all of Apple's iconic computing and mobile products since 1996 -- starting with the industry-startling original candy-color iMac, and recently refining the aluminum unibody designs that are now a design reference point. A highly accomplished presenter and speaker, he's known as a perfectionist and thinks focus groups are a symptom of corporate "creative bankruptcy." Odds for replacing Steve: Medium-long, as though he's a super-hot property in the design field, and some of his philosophy aligns with Jobs', he lacks the industrial and technical training to replace his boss. He could be a powerful co-chair, though. Phil Schiller Currently Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing at Apple. A 20-year Apple veteran, in different marketing management roles, he's credited with some of the smart moves that placed iMac, iPods, and iPhones as the chic devices to own in the public's eye. He often speaks at Jobs-led keynote speeches, and has led a keynote or two of his own to introduce new products. Not regarded as a business tiger, he does Twitter, and has spoken clearly about what makes Apple products unique: "We want things to be beautiful, surprising to see, but they also have to be functional. One without the other doesn't make any sense." Odds for replacing Steve: Medium. He has definite genius in marketing, and shares much of Jobs' product vision. But he doesn't have a dynamic public presence, and some see him as a bad CEO -- probably better suited at staying where he is, to support any future new CEO and ensure consistency. Scott Forstall Currently Senior VP iPhone Software at Apple. Forstall is responsible for some of the key decisions behind Apple's OS X and its Aqua interface, and led the release of OS X Snow Leopard. A computer scientist by training, and formerly an employee of Jobs' NeXT computer firm, Forstall reports directly to Jobs and is credited with the successful industry-defining iOS interface of the iPhone and iPad. He's a smooth public speaker and has notable attention to detail: "I actually have a photographer's loupe that I use to make sure every pixel is right" Odds for replacing Steve: Good. Forbes called him a name you "need to know in 2011,
[ "Who will likely be next leader of Apple?", "Who is likely to be the next leader?", "Who is going to be the next Apple CEO?" ]
[ [ "Tim Cook" ], [ "Tim Cook" ], [ "Tim Cook" ] ]
Tony Fadell is retired, but retained as a "special advisor" to Jobs . Scott Forstall has a good chance of being the next leader of Apple . Peter Skillman certainly has the right criteria for the Apple CEO role .
(Financial Times) -- When Macau unveiled record gambling revenues on Tuesday, the government was silent about the source of much of the cash fuelling the territory's boom: illegal money transfers from mainland China. From pawn shops offering money withdrawal services, to underground banks using human mules to transport cash across the border, Macau tolerates the illicit methods that mainland punters use to bring money into the former Portuguese colony, which reverted to Chinese control in 1999. Mainland tourists, who have made Macau the world's largest gambling centre, can legally bring only Rmb20,000 ($3,175) when crossing into the Chinese territory. But many gamblers bring more cash to the casino tables by using their Unionpay debit card to withdraw money -- for a fee. "There is no risk. We pretend to sell the customer an expensive watch or a piece of jewellery, charge the amount in renminbi to the debit card, and then give him the equivalent amount in Macau patacas or Hong Kong dollars as if the customer had decided to return the object for an immediate cash refund," says the manager of a pawnshop up the street from the Grand Lisboa casino, Macau's oldest casino owned by Stanley Ho, the gambling tycoon. The manager says the cardholder's records will register the transaction as a purchase. Unionpay, which was formed by China's big banks, says it bans such transactions, but the company declined to comment on the fact that the practice remained widespread. The company said it no longer released data on how much cardholders spent in Macau. People familiar with the industry say the Macau government cannot afford to shut down the illegal services, which hundreds of pawn shops advertise publicly on neon signs. "The Macau government's hands are tied," says one veteran Macau policeman. "It is not going to initiate a crackdown, because over 75 per cent of its revenue comes from gaming taxes." About 16m mainland Chinese visited Macau in 2011, an increase of more than 20 per cent on the previous year, and 60 per cent more than the 10m who visited in 2006. Analysts estimate that up to 30 per cent of Macau's gaming revenue could be channelled through illegal channels. "Banking restrictions make it very difficult to transfer funds to Macau legitimately, but it is easy for people to find ways [around the rules]," says a senior Chinese bank manager who gambles in Macau. While the debit card cashback service is the most visible source of money for the less well-heeled punters, those with deeper pockets have found different ways to avoid the restrictions. VIP punters -- whom analysts estimate generate 70 per cent of Macau's gaming revenues -- gamble on credit provided by so-called junket operators who seek out wealthy mainland gamblers. The junket operators receive commissions from the casinos or get a share of the profits. They, or their agents, sometimes use underground banks to return the money they have collected as debt on the mainland to Macau. The lenders use criminal gangs from Fujian and Guangdong provinces who in turn pay human mules as little as $5 -- compared with Guangdong's average daily wage of $7 -- to smuggle cash across the border. While the underground banks are part of what is known as the shadow banking system in China, providing credit to cash-strapped companies, their Macau-related business is limited to transferring money from other sources. One former junket operator and a Hong Kong owner of a mainland factory in Guangdong province, just across the border from Macau, described how operators also use Hong Kong business people who own companies on the mainland to transfer money illegally. He said operators handed over renminbi debts collected on the mainland to the factory owner, who used the money to pay his staff wages. Then, the owner sent the equivalent in Hong Kong dollars from his Hong Kong bank account to the operator's account in Macau. Both sides profited by agreeing a mutually beneficial exchange rate. There is no public data available to indicate exactly how much of Macau's gaming revenue comes from illegal channels, and casino operators and government officials refuse to speak
[ "Who are used to bring cash across the border?", "Which country tolerates illicit methods?", "Does the country have record revenues?", "What does Macau tolerate", "How many mainland visitors did Macau have last year?", "What are used to transport cash across the border", "Which nationality formerly colonized Macau?" ]
[ [ "human mules" ], [ "Macau" ], [ "unveiled" ], [ "illicit methods" ], [ "16m" ], [ "human mules" ], [ "Portuguese" ] ]
Macau tolerates illicit methods to bring money into the former Portuguese colony . Underground banks using human mules to transport cash across the border . Macau had record gambling revenues from 16M mainland visitors last year .
(GameTap.com) -- Everyone wants to be more physically fit, but the toughest thing is finding motivation -- the motivation to get started, the motivation to keep going, the motivation to push yourself to the next level. A man tries out the Wii Fit at a Nintendo launch party in Central Park, New York City. Wii Fit doesn't try to motivate you with before and after photos. It doesn't try to motivate you with testimonials from fitness gurus. It doesn't even offer you three easy payments. But it does entice you to get into shape by making working out look like fun. And that it does very well. In fact, Wii Fit might be some of the most fun you can have by just more or less standing still, which must make it about as mass market friendly as any video game product ever was. Wii Fit requires a Wii, of course, and it comes bundled with a balance board. But the entire setup doesn't take up much space, and the board is no eyesore, either. Unlike a bathroom scale that's usually squirreled away in a closet or shoved into the corner of a bathroom, looking at it doesn't make you feel guilty. Designed to fit in with Japanese living rooms, where space is usually at a premium, the balance board is sleek and elegantly designed. iReport.com: Send us your Wii Fit review It conveys cool Asian style with a streamlined appearance. It's something you wouldn't mind having in your living room at all. One thing about Nintendo: They know how to make hardware that's rugged but easy on the eyes. Getting started with Wii Fit is a snap, but you might have to get some bad news out of the way first. The balance board connects to the Wii through a Wi-Fi connection. You stand on it and use the Wii remote to record your height and age. The balance board then registers your weight. From those figures, Wii Fit calculates your body mass index (BMI), a standard metric many doctors use to determine a person's overall fitness, which you can track over time. Oddly, however, there's no easy way to just use the scale to see your weight without recalculating your BMI each time. The Wii Fit-ness program is organized into 48 activities divided among four general areas: yoga, aerobics, strength training, and balance games. You can choose to work through all four in one session or just concentrate on one. If you've never tried yoga before, working through the 15 positions here are as good an introduction as any. All of them are done with at least one foot on the balance board, so Wii Fit can measure how centered you keep your body. Yoga is a great way to stretch muscles and joints out and to work on overall flexibility. As meditative as this physical activity would seem, you'll feel the burn even before you reach any of the advanced forms. Once you're loosened up a little with yoga, you might move on to aerobics. The majority of these nine activities are basically variations of hula hooping, jogging in place, and simple step aerobics. The one exception is rhythm boxing, which you unlock later on. By turning these aerobic challenges all into minigames, Wii Fit entices you to keep working on them to earn better scores and ratings. With the hula hoop, for example, you have to stand on the board and grind your hips to keep a virtual hoop twirling. Later, you have to "catch" tossed hoops, and then keep them all twirling, too. Wii Fit sets a mellow, steady pace for all its aerobic challenges, but it still manages to make your heart pump. If just the words "push" and "ups" makes you break out in a sweat, then you've probably already surmised that strength training contains some of the most physically demanding Wii Fit workouts. The torso twist and rowing squat are easy, but push-ups, planks, and even the lunges will show you what you're made of
[ "what is wii fit", "what does wii fit do", "What does Wii Fit calculate?", "Into how many activities in the program organized?", "What does not take up much space?" ]
[ [ "video game" ], [ "entice you to get into shape" ], [ "body mass index" ], [ "48" ], [ "the entire setup" ] ]
Entire 'Wii Fit' setup doesn't take up much space, and the board is no eyesore . Wii Fit calculates your body mass index (BMI), a metric many doctors use . Program organized into 48 activities divided among four general areas . People over 6 feet tall or with broad shoulders may find some activities difficult .
(Health.com) -- An analysis of the sickest swine flu patients in Australia, Canada, Mexico, and New Zealand suggests that relatively healthy adolescents and young adults are among the most likely to get very sick after an H1N1 infection, a pattern similar to that seen in the 1918 influenza pandemic. The most important message is that children should get the H1N1 vaccination, Dr. Neil Schachter said. Almost all critically ill patients in the studies were sick for only a few days before rapidly progressing to more severe symptoms and respiratory failure, which required treatment with a breathing machine, according to three studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The mortality rate ranged from 14.3 percent to 41.4 percent, depending on the country. The findings may help shine some light on what the 2009 H1N1 flu season may bring, and who may be hit the hardest by the swine flu during the next few months. "These studies are telling us that young people are at risk for bad complications of H1N1 and under usual circumstances, [seasonal] flu does not cause acute respiratory failure in younger people," says Dr. Neil Schachter, the medical director of the respiratory care department at Mount Sinai Medical Center, in New York City, and the author of The Good Doctor's Guide to Colds and Flu. The analysis of cases in Australia and New Zealand looked at people who developed severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (a condition in which the lungs fill with fluid) and were put on a life-support system known as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). This artificial heart and lung machine system, which puts oxygen into the blood and then carries this blood to the body tissues, is considered risky and expensive; as a result, it is not readily available in every hospital. The mortality rate was 21 percent for these patients, although it may have been higher without this treatment, the authors say. Health.com: 8 ways swine flu is changing society "These studies provide important signals about what clinicians and hospitals may confront in the coming months," Dr. Douglas B. White, and Dr. Derek C. Angus, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, write in an editorial accompanying the new studies. In young, healthy patients, H1N1 can quickly cause respiratory failure that can't necessarily be reversed with mechanical ventilation, although such patients are not currently a priority group for H1N1 vaccination, they note. In the Canadian study, about 30 percent to 40 percent of the patients had lung disease, were obese, or had high blood pressure, a history of smoking, or diabetes. Overall, 14.3 percent of 168 critically ill people with confirmed or suspected H1N1 died within 28 days. The mortality rate in the Mexican study was strikingly higher. In Mexico City, where the H1N1 pandemic was first reported, 41.4 percent of 58 critically ill people died within 60 days of developing the flu. Health.com: 10 best big cities for people with asthma Those people who died from H1N1 got sicker earlier in the course of their illness, had extremely low levels of oxygen in their blood, and had multiple organ failure. Their average age was 44 years old, and 54 of 58 patients needed mechanical ventilation. Other signs of more severe H1N1 included fever and severe trouble breathing. Health.com: 10 ways you put yourself at risk for swine flu (without realizing it!) In the Canadian study (in which the average age was 21.4), the critically ill tended to be hospitalized within four days of developing flu symptoms, and there was about a one-day lapse between hospital admission to intensive care unit (ICU) admission. As in the Mexico City study, younger patients with low blood oxygen and multisystem organ failure were hardest hit. What's more, the critically ill tended to require mechanical ventilation and rescue therapies to aid in breathing. Health.com: 8 causes of chronic cough In both countries, the H1N1 outbreak lasted about three months. "It is not clear of hospitals' need to invest in this ECMO technology because this has not proven very successful in other respiratory illnesses," says Schachter. "We do know that
[ "What is the mortality rate?", "how much does the mortality rate range?" ]
[ [ "14.3 percent to 41.4 percent," ], [ "14.3 percent to 41.4 percent," ] ]
In sickest H1N1 patients, mortality rate ranged from 14.3 percent to 41.4 percent . Overall death rate is closer to seasonal flu than SARS, doctor says . Older people could have immunity to H1N1 because of virus 50 to 60 years ago . Doctor: "Definitely get the vaccine"
(Health.com) -- Doctors often recommend exercise for patients with fibromyalgia, but the chronic pain and fatigue associated with the condition can make activities like running and swimming difficult. Tai chi -- a slow, meditative martial art -- may be an effective alternative, a new study suggests. Fibromyalgia patients who took tai chi classes twice a week for three months experienced less pain, stiffness, and fatigue than a control group that attended lifestyle education and stretching sessions, according to the study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Tai chi involves a series of slow, fluid movements that focus on balance and deep breathing. Although it's not clear from the study how exactly tai chi might improve fibromyalgia symptoms, both the physical activity and the meditative aspects are likely beneficial, says Chenchen Wang, M.D., the lead researcher and an associate professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine, in Boston, Massachusetts. "Some people need the physical improvement; some people need more mental improvement," she says. "Tai chi can help with both." Health.com: How fibromyalgia is diagnosed Previous research has shown that tai chi can help relieve the symptoms of arthritis and other pain conditions, but this study is the first controlled trial to examine its effectiveness as a treatment for fibromyalgia, which affects an estimated 10 million Americans. The study included 66 fibromyalgia patients who were randomly assigned to take one-hour tai chi classes with an experienced teacher or one-hour classes that taught coping skills, pain-management techniques, and stretching. Participants were also asked to practice tai chi or stretch on their own for 20 minutes each day, depending on which group they were in. Health.com: 13 mistakes fibro patients make After three months, Wang and her colleagues asked the patients to rate their pain symptoms, physical functioning, fatigue, and mood, all of which were combined on a single scale ranging from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more severe symptoms. (The patients completed the same survey before the study began.) The average score among the tai chi patients dropped from 63 to 35, while the average for the control group dropped by just nine points, from 68 to 59. Three months after the sessions stopped, the scores had remained roughly the same, which suggests that the benefits of the tai chi were lasting, Wang says. The results were encouraging, as existing fibromyalgia treatments -- including medication, sleep therapy, and aerobic exercise -- fail to help many patients. "We need another approach," says Wang. Health.com: Medical marijuana may help fibromyalgia pain Robert Shmerling, M.D., an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and the clinical chief of rheumatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in Boston, says that he often recommends alternative treatments, such as acupuncture and massage, to his fibromyalgia patients, although some of them are skeptical. "I would certainly put tai chi on the list," says Shmerling, who co-wrote an editorial that accompanies the study. "It's difficult to take something that's as safe as tai chi and show that it has this dramatic benefit and not be enthusiastic about it." The calming style of tai chi used in the study, known as Yang, may be especially effective for fibromyalgia patients, says Kim D. Jones, Ph.D., an associate professor at the Oregon Health & Science University School of Nursing, in Portland. "It works more on the parasympathetic nervous system, ...the part of the nervous system that helps us feel calm and relaxed," says Jones, who studies Yang-style tai chi and yoga in fibromyalgia but wasn't involved in the study. Health.com: 13 conditions that mimic fibromyalgia Jones recommends that fibromyalgia patients find a well-trained instructor rather than trying tai chi on their own. She points out that learning tai chi in a group may have its own therapeutic benefits, by boosting confidence, for instance. Many community centers offer affordable tai chi classes, but experienced teachers can be expensive and hard to come by. However, if future
[ "whats Tai chi practicers experienced less pain, stiffness and fatigue?", "whats Study suggests Tai chi as a good exercise for fibromyalgia patients?" ]
[ [ "Fibromyalgia patients" ], [ "published in the New England Journal of Medicine." ] ]
Study suggests Tai chi as a good exercise for fibromyalgia patients . Tai chi practicers experienced less pain, stiffness and fatigue . Doctor says the benefits of tai chi were also lasting .
(Health.com) -- Amanda Santos wanted to send her 5-year-old daughter, Skylar, to a small private school. But after they interviewed, met the teachers, and submitted Skylar's medical records, they never heard back from the school, despite repeated inquiries. Santos, who lives in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, can't say for sure why communication was cut off so abruptly, but she's convinced that Skylar's severe nut allergy was an issue. "They knew going in that she had an allergy; they said it was no problem," says Santos. "But until we sat down and had a meeting about the precautions they'd have to take -- kids washing their hands, asking parents not to send nuts to school, that kind of thing -- they didn't realize how severe it was. I just think they didn't want her there, didn't want to deal with all of that." Health.com: The latest on food allergies Santos is not alone. According to a new study conducted in the U.K., families with children who are living with this potentially life-threatening condition often feel isolated, stigmatized, or unfairly excluded from activities, due to the allergies. In many ways, nut allergies feel more like a disability than a chronic illness because of the stigma, the researchers say. "Families reported some really very difficult and unpleasant experiences when they were trying to keep their child safe from risk," says coauthor Mary Dixon-Woods, professor of medical sociology at the University of Leicester. She was surprised by the study's results. "I was expecting to hear about problems with labeling and so on, but the extent of the stigma families reported was very troubling," she says. Peanuts are the most common food trigger of life-threatening anaphylactic shock, accounting for more than half of all fatal food-induced allergic reactions. Peanut allergies are on the rise, doubling in children between 1997 and 2002. About 1% of children in the U.S. have peanut allergies. Health.com: 8 Reasons to delay vaccines for kids Along with the rise in nut allergies have come more restrictions on schools and other public places, including nut-free classrooms and airplanes, as well as better labeling for products. In recent years, there has been a bit of backlash against the greater focus on nut allergies. In 2008, Harvard Medical School professor Nicholas A. Christakis published in the journal BMJ an editorial called "This allergies hysteria is just nuts." While noting that allergies are a real problem, he wrote about the "overabundance of caution" at his children's school and an incident in which a school bus was evacuated because a peanut was found on the floor. To determine some of the challenges faced by parents of children with nut allergies, Dixon-Woods and her colleagues interviewed 26 families about their coping strategies and techniques for avoiding dangerous situations. They found, however, that these parents were routinely made to feel that such allergies were nothing but a "frivolous and self-indulgent fad invented and maintained by attention-seeking people." Health.com: The healthiest vacuum cleaners for your home Parents interviewed for the study frequently encountered skepticism or hostility when they tried to explain their children's allergies to others, says Dixon-Woods. Birthday parties became "nightmares," and even just sending kids to school or leaving them with friends or family was terrifying. Interview transcripts from the study reveal several scenarios in which parents felt ridiculed, ignored, or challenged on the subject of food allergies. · In the lunchroom at school, children might feel bullied. "She was teased and things like that, people saying...'I've got nuts and I'm gonna come and touch you,'" said one participant. · Said one participant about a family camping trip: "He'd caught her sort of pulling faces and complaining to other people that they'd had to put the peanuts away...they all laughed and it was awful..." · At a social gathering, the hosts thought the family was overdramatizing the problem. "We got
[ "What is the most common food trigger?", "What has increased?", "Who feel isolated and stigmatized?", "Families with food allergies often feel what?", "What is the most common food trigger of life threatening anaphylactic shock?" ]
[ [ "Peanuts" ], [ "nut allergies" ], [ "families with children" ], [ "isolated, stigmatized, or unfairly excluded from activities," ], [ "Peanuts" ] ]
Families with food allergies often feel isolated, stigmatized, or unfairly excluded . Peanuts are the most common food trigger of life-threatening anaphylactic shock . Public awareness of food allergy in the U.S. has increased .
(Health.com) -- More than one in 10 women develops depression during pregnancy. Now, a new study suggests that women who are treated with antidepressants are more likely to give birth early or to have newborns that need to spend time in a neonatal intensive care unit. Babies of women taking SSRIs were born earlier and were more likely to have been admitted to intensive care. Depression itself can have ill effects for both mom and baby. Therefore, the benefits of the antidepressants -- known as selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors -- may still outweigh the risks for some women, researchers say. "There is no easy way out of this," says Dr. Tim Oberlander, a developmental pediatrician at BC Children's Hospital, in Vancouver, Canada, who has studied the effects of SSRIs on children exposed in the womb, but was not involved in the current study. "Depression needs to be managed, and for some women, the use of these medications is appropriate and necessary." Health.com: 3 Signs you should stop, adjust, or switch antidepressants The new study, led by Dr. Najaaraq Lund, of Aarhus University, in Denmark, found that babies whose mothers had taken SSRIs were born earlier and were more likely to require treatment in an NICU. Women have been using SSRIs during pregnancy since the early 1990s, Lund and her colleagues point out in the report, which is published in the October issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. These drugs, which include Zoloft, Prozac, and others, are widely considered to be the safest type of antidepressant medication to take during pregnancy. It's been difficult to confirm their safety, however, especially since investigators have to find a way to distinguish between the effects of depression itself -- and habits that depressed women may be more likely to engage in, like drinking and smoking -- and the drug on the newborn. Health.com: Do pregnancy and bipolar disorder mix? Lund and her colleagues tackled this issue by including a group of women who reported a history of some type of psychiatric illness but weren't taking SSRIs. Some, but not all, of these women had suffered from depression. "Using this group as a comparison group takes into account possible genetic or lifestyle factors associated with present or previous psychiatric disorders," the researcher notes. The analysis included 329 women who took SSRIs in pregnancy, 4,902 with a history of psychiatric illness who weren't taking the drugs, and 51,770 women who reported no history of psychiatric illness and weren't taking SSRIs. All had received prenatal care at Aarhus University Hospital between 1989 and 2006. Babies of women taking SSRIs were born an average of five days earlier than those born to women who had no mental illness, and were twice as likely to be born preterm. The babies whose mothers took SSRIs were 2.4 times as likely to have been admitted to the NICU than infants who hadn't been exposed to the drugs in utero. They were also more than four times as likely to have Apgar scores below eight, just five minutes after birth. (Apgar scores measure an infant's health at birth by looking at his or her breathing, heartbeat, reflexes, muscle tone, and skin color; scores of seven and above are considered normal, and a newborn's Apgar score has no influence on how he or she will fare later in life.) There was no difference between SSRI-exposed babies and unexposed babies in head circumference or birth weight. Antidepressant medication is just one part of the equation in addressing women's mental health during pregnancy, notes Oberlander, who says depression in pregnancy is a "huge public health issue" with lasting implications for women and their children. Helping ensure that women are getting enough social support and adequate nutrition is essential, he adds, while alternative treatments for depression -- such as exercise, light therapy, and omega-3 fatty acids -- ought to be explored further. "In general, optimizing non-pharmacological treatment would be a really important step," he says. He explains that it is essential to follow SSRI-exposed babies as they grow up, to identify any problems and intervene as necessary
[ "What is the name of the drug studied?", "What did the study find?", "what was the purpose of the study?", "What did the mothers take which increased risk?", "Where was the study carried out?" ]
[ [ "SSRIs" ], [ "women who are treated with antidepressants are more likely to give birth early or to have newborns that need to spend time in a neonatal intensive care unit." ], [ "that women who are treated with antidepressants are more likely to give birth early or to have newborns that need to spend time in a neonatal intensive care unit." ], [ "antidepressants" ], [ "Aarhus University, in Denmark," ] ]
Danish study finds babies whose mothers took antidepressants were born earlier . Babies of mothers who took SSRIs were 2.4 times likely to be in intensive care . It's unclear whether differences seen at birth will have lasting effects on child .
(Health.com) -- Over the past several years, researchers have noticed an odd pattern in the relationship between body weight and Alzheimer's disease: Middle-aged people have a higher long-term risk of developing the disease if they're overweight or obese, while older people have a lower risk of the disease if they're carrying excess weight. A new study, published this week in the journal Neurology, may offer a clue to this so-called obesity paradox. Non-overweight individuals in their late 60s, 70s, and early 80s who have no outward symptoms of Alzheimer's are more likely than their heavier peers to have biological markers (or biomarkers) of the disease, the study found. This finding raises the possibility that weight loss or a low body mass index (BMI) later in life may be an early warning sign of mental decline, the researchers say. "Weight changes or body composition changes may actually be a manifestation of disease, which would explain the obesity being an apparent protective factor," says Jeffrey M. Burns, M.D., the lead author of the study and the associate director of the University of Kansas Alzheimer's Disease Center, in Kansas City. Health.com: 25 signs and symptoms of Alzheimer's disease Well before memory loss and other symptoms appear, Alzheimer's may trigger metabolism changes that promote weight loss, Burns says. "In general, we think of Alzheimer's as a brain disease, but this is evidence that there are systemic problems throughout the body in the early stages of Alzheimer's." Burns and his colleagues analyzed data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, a huge study spanning 58 hospitals and universities that's funded by the National Institutes of Health and an array of nonprofit organizations and drug companies. The goal of the initiative is to find ways to measure the progression of Alzheimer's and the precursor condition known as mild cognitive impairment. The researchers looked at 101 people who underwent brain scans designed to identify the plaques and abnormal tangle of proteins that are the hallmark of Alzheimer's, and another 405 people whose cerebrospinal fluid was analyzed for fragments of these proteins (beta-amyloid peptide and tau). Each group included some people with Alzheimer's disease, some with mild cognitive impairment, and some with no signs of mental deterioration. Health.com: 7 ways to protect your memory There was no connection between BMI and Alzheimer's biomarkers in the patients who actually had Alzheimer's. But in the other two groups, lower BMI was associated with higher levels of biomarkers and a higher likelihood of having brain plaques and tangles. Among people with mild cognitive impairment, for instance, 85 percent of non-overweight individuals had signs of these brain abnormalities, compared to just 48 percent of those who were overweight or obese. (A BMI of 25 or above is considered overweight.) Richard Lipton, M.D., an attending neurologist at Montefiore Medical Center, in New York City, who was not involved in the new research, agrees with the authors that the findings suggest that Alzheimer's can affect the entire body early on. "The most obvious manifestations of Alzheimer's disease are in the brain, but Alzheimer's disease has a large number of effects on the body as well," says Lipton, the principal investigator of a long-running study on aging and Alzheimer's. "The brain regulates blood pressure and respiratory rate and pulse and hunger and satiety and blood flow to various organs in the body, so it wouldn't be surprising if a widespread disease of the brain had effects on many, many different aspects of bodily function." Health.com: Aging workforce means dementia on the job could rise The study shows only an association, not cause and effect, so Burns and his colleagues can't be sure that Alzheimer's directly causes weight loss (or prevents weight gain). In fact, the researchers found no association between BMI changes and Alzheimer's biomarkers in a subset of study participants whose weight was tracked for two years. May Ahmad Baydoun, Ph.D., a staff scientist at the National Institute on Aging who studies risk factors for dementia, described the study
[ "What may share a relationship with body weight?", "What disease is being researched?", "What is the goal of the study?", "What does a new study offer?", "What may trigger changes that promote weight loss?" ]
[ [ "Alzheimer's disease:" ], [ "Alzheimer's" ], [ "to find ways to measure the progression of Alzheimer's and the precursor condition known as mild cognitive impairment." ], [ "a clue to this so-called obesity paradox." ], [ "Alzheimer's" ] ]
A new study may offer a clue to the relationship body weight and Alzheimer's disease . Jeffrey M. Burns, M.D., says Alzheimer's may trigger changes that promote weight loss . The goal of the study is to find ways to measure the progression of Alzheimer's .
(Health.com) -- People who take vitamin E supplements regularly for years -- whether they are smokers or nonsmokers -- may lower their risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the lung condition that is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. COPD includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis and is often, but not always, caused by smoking. While the risk reduction is relatively small, 10 percent, COPD is a common and life-threatening condition in which a decline in lung function can be slowed down but not reversed. COPD symptoms include shortness of breath, coughing, and fatigue. "The effect appears to be modest. But for something for which there isn't really any effective therapy and tends to be a degenerative condition, anything that would reduce the risk even somewhat is not an insubstantial benefit," says Jeffrey B. Blumberg, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition at Tufts University in Boston who was not involved in the study. The research, from the government-funded Women's Health Study, included 39,876 women 45 years and older who were free of COPD before they were randomly assigned to take a placebo, vitamin E supplements (600 IU every other day) or aspirin (100 mg per day), either alone or in combination. At the end of 10 years, 760 of the 19,937 women who took vitamin E alone or with aspirin developed COPD compared with 846 of the 19,939 who took a placebo or aspirin alone -- a 10 percent risk reduction. Vitamin E did not lower the risk of asthma, a condition associated with a higher risk of COPD. Health.com: 10 ways to have cleaner air at home The researchers took into account factors such as cigarette smoking and age, which can affect COPD risk. The study, conducted by Cornell University and Brigham and Women's Hospital researchers, is to be presented this week at the annual American Thoracic Society meeting in New Orleans. The idea that vitamin E can reduce the risk of developing COPD is "biologically plausible," says Yvonne Kelly, Ph.D., an associate professor in the department of epidemiology and public health at University College London. Experts believe vitamins A, C, and E -- the so-called ACE antioxidants -- combat oxidative stress in the lungs that can lead to COPD. Health.com: Eight causes of a chronic cough Several studies have shown that these vitamins, as well as vitamin D, may help improve lung health. In a 2003 study, Kelly and her collaborators found that men and women with diets high in vitamins C and E had greater lung capacity and produced less phlegm, respectively. Phlegm production and wheezing are also COPD symptoms. One limitation of the study is that the researchers relied on the women to report whether or not they had a diagnosis of COPD, says Michael Sims, M.D., an assistant professor in the pulmonary critical care division at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. He points out that people with asthma may think they have COPD, or vice versa, since the symptoms are similar. In addition, early diagnoses can be inconclusive or due to lung problems that don't turn out to be COPD. Health.com: How to buy the right air cleaner In future studies, Sims says that the researchers should diagnose COPD using a breathing test called spirometry. "If you showed in a similar study with a gold standard outcome [like spirometry], among smokers and nonsmokers, that you could affect the incidence of COPD, I would imagine the committees that meet on this would take a serious look at increasing daily recommended intake [of vitamin E] for the general population," he says. Currently, no vitamin supplements are recommended to prevent or treat COPD. The best way to prevent the disease is to quit smoking, says Dr. Sims. About 24 million people in the U.S. have COPD -- 12 million who've been diagnosed with the disease and another 12 million who have COPD but don't know they have it. In the study, women who smoked were four times more likely than nonsmokers to develop COPD. Health.com:12 best COPD blogs and Web sites The daily recommended intake of vitamin E is about 22
[ "Which vitamins help improve lung health?", "What can cut chronic obstructive pulmonary disease?", "What includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis?" ]
[ [ "E" ], [ "take vitamin E supplements regularly for years" ], [ "COPD" ] ]
Vittamin E can cut chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk in smokers and nonsmokers . COPD includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis; often, but not always, caused by smoking . Several studies have shown that vitamins A, C, E and D may help improve lung health .
(Health.com) -- Sitting in an L.A. café, I see no sign of Michelle Monaghan, 35, whose career has soared since playing Tom Cruise's love interest in "Mission: Impossible III." Could it be that the famously down-to-earth star -- who grew up in Winthrop, Iowa, Population: 850 -- has turned diva? Just then, a redhead in the back waves (she has dyed her hair for a role). Soon, all worries about her having gone Hollywood vanish. Sipping mint tea, she talks workouts, health scares, and her secret weapon for PMS. Q: In your new film, Machine Gun Preacher, you play the wife of an ex-drug-addict-turned-evangelist who crusades to protect Sudanese children from the horrors of war. What drew you to it? When I was growing up, my parents took in foster children. From a young age, I learned that there are a lot of children in need. I am a firm believer that you can make a difference in someone's life -- whether they're thousands of miles away, or on your own block. Q: How has your childhood put your Hollywood life into perspective? I come from a very working class background. My dad worked in a factory for 40 years. We all put ourselves through school. So I've never felt entitled to anything. Q: Your daughter, Willow, is 3. What did you do to get your body back in shape after having her? I started with ab work, since after pregnancy the abs are shot. For the first time, I enjoyed working out: It was having that reprieve for an hour of alone time. It gave me more energy. Health.com: 6 rules for a healthy postpartum slim down Q: How do you stay in shape these days? I do squats, lunges, strength training. I ran a half-marathon in April with my cousins, mom, and aunts. It was amazing. After that, we had big plans to do the Chicago Marathon, but two weeks later, we were asking, "Are we really going to do it, or were we just on a runner's high?" I haven't run since! Q: What is the toughest part of working out for you? Just getting there! I've gotten down the stairs and thought: workout or post office? It's either physical torture or mental torture. So sometimes I go with the mental torture and stand in line at the post office in my workout gear. Q: What body part are you proudest of? I have nice muscle tone in my arms. I can't really take credit for it, though -- all the members of my family do. A lot of arm wrestling happened in our family growing up! Health.com: Get gorgeous arms Q: Do you have any body challenges? The old bum and thigh area. I hope most women agree with me! [Laughs.] Keeping it toned, dealing with cellulite. I hate when I feel it move after me. Q: Any health regrets? I smoked for almost 10 years. I really regret that. Thankfully, I came out on the other side. I hope my lungs are repairing themselves now. Q: You've known your husband [Australian graphic designer Peter White] for nearly 11 years. Do you find he "gets" you? He gets me on every level. During "that time of the month," he knows to bring me a Snickers bar. He's good like that! And a few years ago I had a mole on the back of my calf, and he was adamant that I get it checked. In Australia, they're very aware of skin cancer. I finally went and it was skin cancer. I had quite the chunk taken out of my leg. I'm so grateful he noticed it. I clearly now realize he has a keen eye and wonder what other imperfections he's noticing!
[ "What Monaghan said?", "Who ran a half-marathon?", "What did Monaghan do in April?", "Who plays Tom Cruises love interest?", "Who stars in Mission Impossible?", "What did Monaghan do after her pregnancy?", "When did she start the ab work?" ]
[ [ "learned that there are a lot of children in need." ], [ "Michelle Monaghan," ], [ "ran a half-marathon" ], [ "Michelle Monaghan," ], [ "Michelle Monaghan," ], [ "started with ab work," ], [ "after pregnancy" ] ]
Michelle Monaghan plays Tom Cruise's love interest in the new "Mission Impossible" Monaghan says she started with ab work after her pregnancy . "I ran a half-marathon in April with my cousins, mom, and aunts. It was amazing," Monaghan said .
(Health.com) -- Women run a lower risk of having babies with certain birth defects if they eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains during their childbearing years, a new study suggests. Women who followed healthy Mediterranean-style diets in the year before pregnancy were up to one-half as likely as those who ate diets high in meat, fat, and sugar to have a baby with anencephaly, a neural-tube defect that blocks the development of the brain and tends to result in miscarriage. Compared with fat- and sugar-heavy diets, healthier diets -- which included plenty of folate, iron, and calcium -- were also associated with up to a one-third lower risk of cleft lip, a one-quarter lower risk of cleft palate, and a one-fifth lower risk of spina bifida, another neural-tube defect. "Diet quality matters, and it was protective," says Suzan L. Carmichael, Ph.D., the lead author of the study and an associate professor of pediatrics at the Stanford School of Medicine, in Palo Alto, California. Health.com: Feed the Belly: Recipes for a healthy pregnancy The defects covered in the study are very rare overall, occurring in less than 0.1% of all births. They have become less common since the 1990s, when government health officials led a campaign to increase folic-acid intake among pregnant women through supplements and fortified grain products. Deficiencies in folic acid -- the synthetic form of folate, a B vitamin -- have been linked to both neural-tube defects and cleft lip and palate. Carmichael and her colleagues took into account whether the women in the study were taking folic acid, which suggests that a healthy diet provides protection against birth defects over and above that provided by folic acid. Women of childbearing age should, however, still take folic-acid supplements, says Gail Harrison, Ph.D., a professor of community health services at the UCLA School of Public Health, in Los Angeles. "Folic acid has made a difference," says Harrison, who was not involved in the study. "In countries that have used fortification levels higher than the U.S., it has made an even bigger impact." Health.com: How to soothe heartburn during pregnancy Most research on diet and birth defects has focused on single nutrients, such as vitamins A and B12 (in addition to folate). Carmichael and her colleagues took a different approach by looking at overall diet quality -- a method that has become common in cancer and heart-disease research. The government-funded study, which appears this week in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, compared the diets of 3,824 mothers whose children experienced birth defects with those of 6,807 mothers of healthy children. The researchers collected detailed questionnaires about the women's diets in the year before they became pregnant, and used that data to score their diet quality on two indexes, one modeled on the U.S. Department of Agriculture dietary guidelines and another based on the Mediterranean diet. Both indexes considered fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and "good" fats to be healthy, and saturated fats and sweets to be unhealthy. Health.com: Good fats, bad fats: how to choose Across the board, women with the healthiest diets were far less likely to have had children with birth defects than the women with the poorest-quality diets. High scores on both indexes were associated with a reduced risk of defects, although the association was stronger for the USDA score. Seventy-eight percent of the women took supplements containing folic acid during early pregnancy, but higher-quality diets were protective regardless of whether the women took folic acid. The study authors and other experts strongly recommend that pregnant women continue taking folic-acid supplements. But the study does raise the general question of whether "eating the right foods" can provide health benefits that supplements do not, says David R. Jacobs Jr., Ph.D., a professor of public health at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis. Health.com: Diabetes? 7 tips for a healthy pregnancy "We have evolved to eat food. We
[ "What type of diet lowers a woman's risk of having a baby with a neural-tube defect?", "What is the risk of having a baby?", "Deficiencies in folic acid have been linked to what type of birth defects?", "What gives a lower risk?", "where can I get folic acid?", "What should women eat to lower their risk of having babies with certain birth defects?", "What does the mediterranean-stle diets do?" ]
[ [ "rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains" ], [ "certain birth defects" ], [ "to both neural-tube" ], [ "eat a diet" ], [ "supplements," ], [ "rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains" ], [ "lower risk of having babies with certain birth defects" ] ]
Women who eat fruits, vegetables and whole grains run a lower risk of having babies with certain birth defects . Mediterranean-style diets lower a woman's risk of having a baby with a neural-tube defect . Deficiencies in folic acid have been linked to both neural-tube defects and cleft lip and palate .
(InStyle) -- After years in the bronze age, when sun-kissed cheeks and gloss reigned supreme, fall's return to glamour means that lipstick is making a major comeback. Lipstick outsold gloss by $76 million last year, and beauty companies are racing to launch new formulas that are more wearable than ever. So pucker up. We'll show you how to apply lipstick perfectly, along with the most flattering shades for day and night. For foolproof application, stick with sheer, subdued shades in the morning and save deep, bold colors (which require more time and precision) for night. Daytime equation 1. Condition and protect with a balm that contains sunscreen, like Softlips Raspberry with Green Tea SPF 20. "Dab some on immediately after getting out of the shower, when your lips are still a little moist," suggests Hollywood pro Kara Yoshimoto Bua. The smoother your lips, the more perfect your lipstick will look. 2. Choose a soft shade such as rose or nude that you can apply straight from the tube. A hydrating formula ensures a smooth coat of color. Try Neutrogena Moistureshine Soothing Lipsheers in Fresh Rose. 3. Blot, reapply and blot again to remove excess oils and create a stain, says Bua. "The color looks more natural and lasts longer." Instead of tissues, use lint-free blotting papers, like Boscia Fresh Blotting Linens ($10). Nighttime equation 1. Exfoliate before applying a bold hue like red or burgundy. Sally Hansen Gentle Peel for Rough Lips ($10; at drugstores) uses fruit enzymes to remove dry patches. 2. Create a base with a gel-based primer that fills in fine lines around the mouth and helps lipstick go on more smoothly. One to try: Olay Regenerist lip treatment ($19; at drugstores). 3. Define the borders of your mouth with a pencil to prevent color from bleeding, says Robin Fredriksz, who gave Barrymore her deep fuchsia lip. To avoid an unnaturally dark outline, use a shade that's lighter than your lipstick, like Revlon Colorstay lip liner in Plum ($8; at drugstores). 4. Brush on color for more control. Try: Shu Uemura Kolinsky Portable Extra lipbrush ($35) with Isadora Perfect Moisture lipstick in Bordeaux Red ($11). Makeup artists' favorites Just like us, cosmetics pros use the same lipsticks again and again. From the just right daytime rose to the classic evening red, here are some of their all-time go-to picks for day and night. Carmindy's neutral picks for day are designed to "enhance your natural lip color." For night she recommends dark berry or true red for all skin tones. Her clients: Heidi Klum and Jamie-Lynn Sigler. Day shades: Benefit Silky Finish in Candy Store, $16; Givenchy Rouge Interdit in Secret Pink, $26. Night colors: Nars in Scarlet Empress, $23; Revlon Super Lustrous in Love That Red, $8; at drugstores. AJ Crimson likes a subtle pink or sheer beige for all skin tones during the day. For night he recommends bright red for fair complexions and a deep purple for darker ones. His clients: Missy Elliot and Amerie. Day shades: Chanel Rouge Hydrabase in Pink Sugar, $25; Laura Mercier in Candy Pink, ($22). Night colors: Maybelline Moisture Extreme in Royal Red, $7; at drugstores; MAC in Cyber, ($14). Melissa Silver uses fuchsia on cool skin tones and peachy nude on warm ones for day. For night, she says, "anyone can wear plum or sheer red." Her clients: Renée Zellweger and Cindy Crawford. Day shades: Clinique Colour Surge Butter Shine in Fresh Watermelon, $14; Lancôme Le Rouge Absolu in Nectariche, $25. Night colors: MAC in Spice It Up!, $14; Sonia Kashuk in Sheer Cherry Blossom, $8. E-mail to a friend Get a FREE TRIAL issue of
[ "What should be done before applying a bold hue?", "Who likes subtle pink or sheer beige ?", "Who is Melissa Silver?", "What should you do to lips before applying bold colors?", "What to do before applying a bold hue", "What should be done before applying a bold hue?", "What should you do before applying a bold hue?", "Who likes subtle pink?", "What colors does AJ Crimson prefer?", "What does AJ Crimson recommend" ]
[ [ "Exfoliate" ], [ "AJ Crimson" ], [ "Makeup artists'" ], [ "Exfoliate" ], [ "Exfoliate" ], [ "Exfoliate" ], [ "Exfoliate" ], [ "AJ Crimson" ], [ "likes a subtle pink or sheer beige for all skin tones during the day. For night he recommends bright red for fair complexions and a deep purple for darker ones." ], [ "bright red for fair complexions and a deep purple for darker ones." ] ]
Gloss taking backseat to bold colors in lipsticks . Exfoliate lips before applying a bold hue . Melissa Silver: "Anyone can wear plum or sheer red" at night . AJ Crimson likes subtle pink or sheer beige for all skin tones for day .
(InStyle) -- Chanteuse Whitney Houston is back and she is better than ever! The one-of-a-kind star is happy, healthy and ready for what's next. The singer spoke with InStyle magazine and shared her comeback secrets in the magazine's January's issue. The 46-year-old sex symbol even gave some tips on how to be alluring. "Sexy can be sexual without having to expose a lot of yourself," she said. "Your body can express a lot without your having to take off a lot. I try to splash it in there a little bit, just by body movement. " The stylish singer said for her, less is more. "A smile, a little glance, the way you lean back says sexy without being too open or offending anyone," Houston revealed. "Because once they've seen it all, they go, 'Man, I'm bored with that,' instead of 'Hmm, what's she going to do now?'" Check out more of Houston's exclusive interview in the January issue on newsstands December 18th. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE!
[ "What did Houston say about her strategy?", "What type of tips did Houston give?", "Who spoke with InStyle magazine about her comeback?", "What did the singer give tips on?", "Who did Houston speak with?", "What is Houston's strategy when it comes to sex appeal?" ]
[ [ "less is more." ], [ "on how to be alluring." ], [ "Whitney Houston" ], [ "how to be alluring." ], [ "InStyle magazine" ], [ "\"Sexy can be sexual without having" ] ]
Whitney Houston spoke with InStyle magazine about her comeback . Singer gave tips on how to be sexy and alluring without having to expose much . Houston said her strategy is less is more when it comes to sex appeal .
(InStyle) -- Drew Barrymore keeps evolving -- from star to producer, and now director. Drew Barrymore sat down with InStyle for its October issue, on newsstands Thursday. The 34-year-old actress earned critic's attention with her uncanny portrayal of "Little Edie" Beale in HBO's "Grey Gardens," and her directorial debut, "Whip It," has been hailed as a success well before it rolls into theaters October 2. But, at her core, she's still the irresistible free spirit we all know and love, as she revealed in the October issue of InStyle. On being a celebrity ... Barrymore said that while she loves her life, there are still moments she battles with being a celebrity. "Some days I want nothing more than a brilliant mask so I could look like someone else and go wander the streets and be free," she said. "I'm very peeved that Halloween only comes once a year." On exercise... When it comes to transforming her body for a role, as she did for "Grey Gardens," the sunny actress is nothing but dedicated. But in everyday life, Barrymore aims for balance and body acceptance. "I don't have the time or discipline or interest in having a perfect-10 body. I work out, I eat right, but I'll always be a little bit of Jell-O on a pole." On her relationship with her mom ... Barrymore admitted her relationship with her mom is a topic she doesn't readily discuss, but the central love story between a girl and her mom in "Whip It" caused Barrymore to reflect on her relationship."I am OK with my dad, but my mom and I have yet to work it all out," she said, adding that she doesn't talk about it because "how do you talk about something you're confused about?" On girl power ... From "Charlie's Angels" to her new all-girl roller derby flick, it's no secret that Barrymore champions female friendships. "I like teams -- I like buddies. I don't understand women who are competitive, apart from positive forums like athletics. One person is a powerful thing, but a tribe is unstoppable." On her first fashion faux pas ... Barrymore is known for her ever-evolving, ever-eccentric style, but said anything she donned during the "E.T." era can be labeled as a fashion faux pas. Or can it? "Velour and taffeta, together? Oh, no, no, no. Now I think it's brilliant." On her first broken heart... Barrymore recently broke up with The Strokes' drummer Fabrizio Moretti, and called the five-year relationship one of the most important in her life. But when it comes to her first broke heart, Barrymore said it was her "first big boyfriend, Jamie Walters." Read the full interview with Barrymore in the October issue of InStyle, on newsstands Thursday. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE!
[ "Did she talk about her mother?", "What did drew barrymore talk about?", "Who does Barrymore have a difficult relationship with?", "What hits newsstands on Thursday?", "What month's issue of InStyle will feature an interview with Drew Barrymore?", "What does she love?", "When will the full interview be out?", "What is hard for Barrymore to talk about?" ]
[ [ "it" ], [ "being a celebrity" ], [ "her mom" ], [ "InStyle" ], [ "the October" ], [ "her life," ], [ "Thursday." ], [ "her relationship with her mom" ] ]
Drew Barrymore talked first boyfriends, fashion and girl power in October's InStyle . Barrymore admitted that her relationship with her mother is hard for her to talk about . While she loves her life, she sometimes wishes that she could be someone else . The full interview hits newsstands Thursday .
(InStyle) -- I can't find it anywhere in the Constitution, so maybe there is a first lady dress code buried in an obscure addendum to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, since every mistress of the White House for the last four decades has chosen a wardrobe that follows a particular one with near pathological devotion. President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrive in Prague, Czech Republic, in early April. No sooner does her inaugural ballgown get spirited away to the Smithsonian, then out it comes: The First Lady Suit -- that tailored, multibuttoned blazer over a skirt straighter than an Ionic column in a primary, patriotic or tastefully unobjectionable color. So did someone not give Michelle Obama the memo? Because during these first 100 days, our newest first lady has banished every version of this silhouette as if they were all designed by the House of Dick Cheney. Instead, Mrs. Obama has defined with remarkable acuity what flatters a tall, broad-shouldered and curvaceous working woman who knows exactly who she is and where she is going. With an enviable eye for color and layering, she has fashioned a riveting parade of on- and off-the-shoulder dresses, cardigans, cinched trenches, leggings, wide-legged trousers and full skirts, working them in intense florals or unexpected hues such as chartreuse and emerald. InStyle.com: Michelle Obama's first 100 Days of style In addition, like every woman who gets a kick out of dressing up, she knows the power of accessories -- a cool flat boot, a wide belt, a statement necklace. The thrilling result? Women across this country (and the world) are exclaiming almost daily, "Look at that print! I love that color! Where can I get that sweater?" Watch how the first lady has become a style icon » What's more, not only does our first lady proudly stride with the confidence and warmth of a modern American woman, but the wardrobe she steps out in boasts relevance, comfort, and -- dare we say it? -- sex appeal. InStyle.com: Try on Obama's hairstyle The fashion industry may have occasionally sniped, but come on, does anyone really give a damn if it's appropriate to wear a cardigan to meet the queen? What does count is that each time we've caught that man of hers watching her walk into a room during their first 100 days, we have witnessed both a dynamic new first couple -- and a wife whose husband unashamedly only has eyes for her. The clothes are cool, but even better is the fact that Michelle Obama has brought romance back to the White House. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE!
[ "What comes in intense florals?", "Who knows the power of accessories?", "Who has a parade of dresses?", "What does she wear?" ]
[ [ "on- and off-the-shoulder dresses, cardigans, cinched trenches, leggings, wide-legged trousers and full skirts," ], [ "Michelle Obama" ], [ "Michelle Obama's" ], [ "multibuttoned blazer over a skirt" ] ]
InStyle's Hal Rubenstein says Michelle Obama has dropped first lady uniform . She has parade of dresses, cinched trenches, wide-legged trousers, full skirts . Outfits come in intense florals or unexpected hues like chartreuse and emerald . Obama knows power of accessories: cool flat boot, wide belt, a statement necklace .
(InStyle) -- It all boils down to this. It doesn't really matter all that much what hot, nubile French maverick has set the fashion world on fire. Or which Milanese visionary has a new fabric technique discovered during a life-changing trip to Angkor Wat that's sure to bring back sixties minimalism with a twist. Or that so-and-so has signed a deal to develop boutique spa hotels around the globe in former monasteries. Because, in the end, he's Ralph Lauren, and we're not. Ralph Lauren has his eye on China and Japan. For four decades no other designer has had a greater impact, not only on the way American men and women dress but also on the way they imagine, seek and indulge in the Good Life, than the former tie salesman from the Bronx. "Those ties were handmade, by the way," recalls Lauren. "Back then, ties, even designer ones, didn't sell for more than $5 apiece. Mine were $12 to $15. Such luxury in something so simple was revolutionary." And ironic. Because while no other designer logo exemplifies aspiration in the home of the free and the brave like the mallet-wielding guy on the pony, Lauren originally named his company Polo because "it was the sport of kings. It was glamorous, sexy and international." See his designs » In the beginning a few people questioned if it was named after Marco Polo -- but today the fact that virtually none of Lauren's millions of devoted customers has ever even seen a polo match is immaterial. Lauren instinctively caught something that was in the air before any of his competitors had a chance to grab it -- the desire, not just to be a success but to look like one before you'd even achieved your goal. What's more, Lauren made it look as easy as Fred Astaire dancing down a staircase. "What matters the most to me are clothes that are consistent and accessible," says the designer. "When I look at the people I've admired over the years, the ultimate stars, like Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant and Astaire, the ones who last the longest are the ones whose style has a consistency, whose naturalness is part of their excitement. And when you think of the blur of all the brands that are out there, the ones you believe in and the ones you remember, like Chanel and Armani, are the ones that stand for something. Fashion is about establishing an image that consumers can adapt to their own individuality. And it's an image that can change, that can evolve. It doesn't reinvent itself every two years." However, with a media that is insatiable for the new, the now and the next, being steadfast doesn't always make for good copy. "The spotlight is always going to search for the newcomer," Lauren admits. "And that's fine. But the key to longevity is to keep doing what you do better than anyone else. We work real hard at that. It's about getting your message out to the consumer. It's about getting their trust, but also getting them excited, again and again. My clothes -- the clothes we make for the runway -- aren't concepts. They go into stores. Our stores. Thankfully, we have lots of them," says Lauren. "What I rely on is people walking into my store saying, 'I want your clothes.'" Well, if all of Lauren's customers shouted that together, he would go deaf faster than he could pull on one of his classic pullovers. Lauren's effortless luxury is all over the red carpet, on ski slopes and boats, at Wimbledon and elsewhere. It furnishes living rooms and graces dinner tables. It's on the bed, in the bed and under the bed -- and now sits on coffee tables, thanks to the tome Ralph Lauren (Rizzoli), celebrating his 40-years-and-growing career. But far from giving his customary over-the-
[ "Who started as a tie salesman?", "For how long has he designed high fashion?", "What did Lauren start as?", "What makes clothing glamorous?", "Lauren sold what?", "Who began as a tie salesman?", "Where was Ralph Lauren from?", "What was his first design?", "What was Ralph Lauren's first job?", "what did he design for four decades?", "What did Ralph Lauren originally do?", "What did he design?", "where did Lauren began as tie salesman?" ]
[ [ "Ralph Lauren" ], [ "four decades" ], [ "tie salesman" ], [ "Polo because \"it was the sport of kings." ], [ "ties" ], [ "Ralph Lauren" ], [ "Bronx." ], [ "ties" ], [ "former tie salesman" ], [ "way American men and women dress" ], [ "tie salesman" ], [ "ties," ], [ "the Bronx." ] ]
Ralph Lauren began as tie salesman from the Bronx . First design: Wide ties when others were narrow . Has designed high fashion for four decades . Goal: Glamorous clothing that is "consistent and accessible"
(InStyle) -- The multi-talented star Mandy Moore shares her stylish secrets. Mandy Moore spins in a Chaiken cashmere dress and Ibisco belt. 1. Start defining your style "It all goes back to wanting to be an individual. I have my days of not feeling super-great, but that's universal. My style has evolved as I've become more aware of myself as well as what looks good on me -- and what doesn't." 2. Find labels that work for you "It's always nice to have a running tally of designers that fit your body well and that you feel comfortable in for any number of events. It makes you feel less limited." 3. Identify shapes that flatter "I'm not super-picky about color. I'm more picky about the cut of a garment. I look terrible in anything bias-cut for instance, and I prefer Empire waists." Mandy explains other fashion choices » 4. Dresses are secret weapons "I love dresses! If it's flowy and loose, you don't have to worry about what shape you're in, frankly. Plus there's something romantic and ethereal about vintage dresses that I adore." 5. When in doubt, bring a belt "I'm looking at my dress today, and I wish I had brought a belt with me because it looks like a gigantic tent. Having a belt to define your waist is always better than hiding behind something." 6. What really makes you look good "If you're confident and you feel good, people pick up on that. And it doesn't really matter what's happening from the neck down. I'd rather be comfortable than anything else." InStyle.com: Witness Mandy's amazing style transformation 7. Some trends won't flatter you -- avoid them. "I tried footless leggings and then I realized, this is not a trend for me. When something stops at your midcalf, it can be somewhat shortening. But I feel like long tights make any look ladylike and classy." 8. Find a great tailor "I've been having trouble finding jeans lately. So I've been buying vintage high-waist trouser jeans and having them tailored. My tailor understands my body. She's always encouraging me to wear stuff tighter." 9. Hoop earrings work on everyone "My friend Raina's always telling me to wear hoops. She's like, 'Even if you're in jeans, a T-shirt and flats, hoops are sexy, cool, and everyone looks good in them.' " 10. Give yourself a break "You have to take a break and treat yourself. I treat myself by getting massages, manicures or pedicures. I treat myself by having a cookie or frozen yogurt, or whatever it may be, because I know I work hard and I deserve it." E-mail to a friend Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE!
[ "What does Mandy Moore advise to wear to hide your shape?", "What advice does Moore give about tailors?", "What style of dress will allow you to not worry about your shape according to Moore?", "What tip does Mandy Moore have for fitting clothes?", "What kind of dresses?" ]
[ [ "Dresses" ], [ "Find a great" ], [ "If it's flowy and loose," ], [ "Find a great tailor" ], [ "Chaiken cashmere dress" ] ]
Mandy Moore offers style tips: Avoid unflattering trends . Don't worry about your shape with flowy, loose dresses . Find a great tailor .
(InStyle) -- While the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been celebrating film's best and brightest for more than 80 years, the glamour we associate with the Oscars truly started in the 1950s, when stars such as Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Janet Leigh brought high style to the ceremony. Anne Hathaway accessorized her Armani Prive gown with more than $1 million worth of Cartier jewelry. Since then, the red carpet has been a can't-miss staple of the evening, and Hollywood's hottest stars work with fashion designers, wardrobe stylists, jewelers, hairstylists and makeup artists to create looks they hope will go down in fashion history. This year's show was no exception, and high-wattage stars such as Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet and Natalie Portman walked the red carpet in stunning couture gowns. Here are just a few of our favorites: • Best actress nominee Anne Hathaway made the most of her big night, arriving in a champagne-colored strapless Armani Prive gown that glittered with paillettes and Swarovski crystals. When the "Rachel Getting Married" star turned to give an over-the-shoulder pose, she revealed an unexpected onyx and black crystal dragon brooch, which was affixed to the back of her gown. Diamonds are always in fashion on the red carpet, and the actress accessorized with more than $1 million worth from jeweler Cartier. • Best actress nominee Kate Winslet looked as stunning as ever in an asymmetrical Atelier Yves Saint Laurent gown and Chopard jewels. Despite her picture-perfect appearance, the Oscar winner for "The Reader" admitted, "I'm extremely nervous!" See photos of InStyle's favorite red carpet looks » • "Slumdog Millionaire" beauty Freida Pinto continued her winning awards season style streak in a John Galliano royal-blue gown made of silk tulle with delicate embroidery and metallic beading. The 24-year-old, who said an enthusiastic hello to her parents in India from the red carpet, wore Martin Katz jewelry, including a ring set with a 150-year-old diamond from her native country. • In a sea of red and white dresses Natalie Portman stood out in an orchid gown by Rodarte, vegan heels by Stella McCartney and a vintage Rialto clutch. The actress' minimal Kwiat jewelry and elegant updo highlighted her flawless skin. Portman was truly an Oscars triple threat, making our best dressed, best hair and best makeup lists. Other colorful bests included Sarah Jessica Parker's Dior Haute Couture gown, which we loved not only for the shade (which she described as "barely mint, maybe seafoam") but also for its impressive size. Best supporting actress nominee Amy Adams was stunning in a crimson silk and satin gown by Carolina Herrera and a jaw-dropping, jeweled collar necklace by Fred Leighton (as seen on Beyoncé in the November 2008 issue of InStyle!). And Heidi Klum's bright red dress was not only glamorous, but also charitable: For the second year running, the "Project Runway" host partnered with The Heart Truth campaign to raise awareness of women's heart health by wearing red. Last year, Klum wore a custom red dress by John Galliano for Dior that was auctioned off for charity, and this year she hit the carpet in a red silk taffeta gown from RM by Roland Mouret. The stylish supermodel accessorized with a diamond and ruby bracelet charm of her own design that will be part of a giveaway on dietcoke.com. In total, the best-dressed women of the night span 28 years, from 16-year-old Miley Cyrus to 44-year-old Marisa Tomei. See all of our favorites, including Amanda Seyfried and Vanessa Hudgens, on InStyle.com. Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE!
[ "What event did all the actresses dress for?", "What color did Heidi Klum wear?", "What was Natalie Portman praised for?", "Heidi Klum wore red to raise awareness for what?", "What were the actresses Natalie Portman, Sarah Jessica Parker and Amy Adams praise for?", "For what reason did Klum wear read?", "Who was praised for their color choices?", "Who were among the best dressed?" ]
[ [ "the Oscars" ], [ "red" ], [ "best dressed, best hair and best makeup" ], [ "women's heart health" ], [ "stunning couture gowns." ], [ "partnered with The Heart Truth campaign to raise awareness of women's heart health" ], [ "Sarah Jessica Parker's" ], [ "Natalie Portman" ] ]
InStyle: Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet, Freida Pinto among best dressed at Oscars . Natalie Portman, Sarah Jessica Parker, Amy Adams praised for color choices . Heidi Klum's wore red in hopes of raising awareness of women's heart health .
(InStyle.com) -- A hit TV show. An Emmy. A summer blockbuster. A new company. A wedding! Katherine Heigl has every reason to smile for our camera. A star -- and a trio of gorgeous looks -- is born. The Ingénue: "This is my favorite look of the three just because it's sexy but not overtly so," Heigl says. "I like simple hair and makeup." There has been a self-tanning mishap As Katherine Heigl crosses the parking lot of the sandwich shop at the Roosevelt Golf Course at Griffith Park in Los Angeles, she walks stiffly, holding her arms away from her like a paper doll and apologizing profusely for running 10 minutes late. Earlier, she'd sprayed her entire body with self-tanner, which refused to dry. She resorted to having her fiancé, musician Josh Kelley, take a blow-dryer to her (didn't work). So here she is, in a strapless, ankle-length Juicy Couture sundress (donned to accommodate the residual stickiness), fanning herself and wondering how mottled the tan will be when (or if) the lotion ever sets. Not that one bum experience could turn her off beauty products. "I love everything new," says Heigl, 28, who, in addition to being nominated for an Emmy for best supporting actress on "Grey's Anatomy," just started a production company at Fox. "When I was in Rhode Island filming this summer, I went to Sephora for the first time. It was like my holy mecca." She recently had her bathroom vanity renovated with a high counter to make more room for the large drawers below that hold her well-organized loot. Then there's her deal with Coty to be the face of Nautica's new women's fragrance in January. Considering this fondness for all things beauty -- as well as Heigl's impressive acting range -- she plays TV dramedy as deftly as cinematic romantic comedy, as in the mega-hit "Knocked Up" and next year's 27 Dresses -- it seems natural for her to be In Style's first ever triple-cover girl. These three looks take her from girl-next-door to red-carpet knockout to pixie-coiffed vamp. The star, whom pals call Katie (and Hollywood calls the Next Big Thing), popped out her retainer to talk about makeup, breakouts and what boys like. KATHERINE HEIGL: I'm so sorry, I have to take out my Invisalign before I eat. IN STYLE: Who knew you wore them? I guess that's the point of Invisalign. KH: I got them because of this wonky tooth. I was like, OK, I can't take it. It's awesome because every two weeks you switch to a new retainer. Pretty much the perfect way to describe Invisalign is Netflix for your teeth. IS: Right -- the things we do for beauty. So, how did you like being transformed into three such different looks? KH: It was fun. I was working with such great hair and makeup people. And to have these professionals turning you into someone else is pretty neat. IS: Do you ever go without makeup? KH: There was a time when I would. Now that I get followed by photographers, I'm really paranoid about it. I do not want to be the "Look What This Celebrity Looks Like Without Makeup" picture. I'm clearly vain, and I don't need that. Plus, I like products. IS: How often do you go through your drawers and purge? KH: Often, because people send me a lot of stuff now, which is exciting. I love getting those boxes. [Into the tape recorder:] Send me a box of makeup, Stila! When that happens, I feel like I have to clean out and give stuff to my sister, mom and friends because there comes a point of gluttony that I can't accept. IS: How do you think you express your personality
[ "Which star is getting married?", "Who is she getting married to?", "What is grueling?", "What is the name of the star of the movie 'Knocked Up'?", "Name a star who doesn't go without makeup for fear of ugly photographs?", "What is Katherine Heigl doing?", "Which production company does Heigl own?", "is shopping for wedding dress?", "Who is getting married?", "What is the name of the star of hit movie \"Knocked Up\" who is getting married?", "Who starred on \"Grey's Anatomy\"?", "What kind of company does Katherine Heigl have?", "What does she fear?", "Who is Katherine Heigl marrying?" ]
[ [ "Katherine Heigl" ], [ "musician Josh Kelley," ], [ "A wedding!" ], [ "Katherine Heigl" ], [ "KATHERINE HEIGL:" ], [ "wedding!" ], [ "at Fox." ], [ "Katherine Heigl" ], [ "Katherine Heigl" ], [ "Katherine Heigl" ], [ "Katherine Heigl" ], [ "production" ], [ "This Celebrity Looks Like Without Makeup\" picture." ], [ "Josh Kelley," ] ]
"Grey's Anatomy" actress Katherine Heigl has own production company . Star of hit movie Knocked Up" is getting married . Doesn't go without makeup for fear of ugly photographs . Says shopping for wedding dress is "grueling"
(InStyle.com) -- A hit TV show. An Emmy. A summer blockbuster. A new company. A wedding! Katherine Heigl has every reason to smile for our camera. A star -- and a trio of gorgeous looks -- is born. The Ingénue: "This is my favorite look of the three just because it's sexy but not overtly so," Heigl says. "I like simple hair and makeup." There has been a self-tanning mishap As Katherine Heigl crosses the parking lot of the sandwich shop at the Roosevelt Golf Course at Griffith Park in Los Angeles, she walks stiffly, holding her arms away from her like a paper doll and apologizing profusely for running 10 minutes late. Earlier, she'd sprayed her entire body with self-tanner, which refused to dry. She resorted to having her fiancé, musician Josh Kelley, take a blow-dryer to her (didn't work). So here she is, in a strapless, ankle-length Juicy Couture sundress (donned to accommodate the residual stickiness), fanning herself and wondering how mottled the tan will be when (or if) the lotion ever sets. Not that one bum experience could turn her off beauty products. "I love everything new," says Heigl, 28, who, in addition to being nominated for an Emmy for best supporting actress on "Grey's Anatomy," just started a production company at Fox. "When I was in Rhode Island filming this summer, I went to Sephora for the first time. It was like my holy mecca." She recently had her bathroom vanity renovated with a high counter to make more room for the large drawers below that hold her well-organized loot. Then there's her deal with Coty to be the face of Nautica's new women's fragrance in January. Considering this fondness for all things beauty -- as well as Heigl's impressive acting range -- she plays TV dramedy as deftly as cinematic romantic comedy, as in the mega-hit "Knocked Up" and next year's 27 Dresses -- it seems natural for her to be In Style's first ever triple-cover girl. These three looks take her from girl-next-door to red-carpet knockout to pixie-coiffed vamp. The star, whom pals call Katie (and Hollywood calls the Next Big Thing), popped out her retainer to talk about makeup, breakouts and what boys like. KATHERINE HEIGL: I'm so sorry, I have to take out my Invisalign before I eat. IN STYLE: Who knew you wore them? I guess that's the point of Invisalign. KH: I got them because of this wonky tooth. I was like, OK, I can't take it. It's awesome because every two weeks you switch to a new retainer. Pretty much the perfect way to describe Invisalign is Netflix for your teeth. IS: Right -- the things we do for beauty. So, how did you like being transformed into three such different looks? KH: It was fun. I was working with such great hair and makeup people. And to have these professionals turning you into someone else is pretty neat. IS: Do you ever go without makeup? KH: There was a time when I would. Now that I get followed by photographers, I'm really paranoid about it. I do not want to be the "Look What This Celebrity Looks Like Without Makeup" picture. I'm clearly vain, and I don't need that. Plus, I like products. IS: How often do you go through your drawers and purge? KH: Often, because people send me a lot of stuff now, which is exciting. I love getting those boxes. [Into the tape recorder:] Send me a box of makeup, Stila! When that happens, I feel like I have to clean out and give stuff to my sister, mom and friends because there comes a point of gluttony that I can't accept. IS: How do you think you express your personality
[ "What did she say about wearing makeup?", "What TV show did Heigl become famous from?", "What did Heigl say of shopping for her wedding dress?", "What does \"Grey's Anatomy\" actress Katherine Heigl have?" ]
[ [ "\"I like simple hair and makeup.\"" ], [ "\"Grey's Anatomy,\"" ], [ "\"This is my favorite look of the three just because it's sexy but not overtly so,\"" ], [ "A hit TV show. An Emmy. A summer blockbuster. A new company. A wedding!" ] ]
"Grey's Anatomy" actress Katherine Heigl has own production company . Star of hit movie Knocked Up" is getting married . Doesn't go without makeup for fear of ugly photographs . Says shopping for wedding dress is "grueling"
(InStyle.com) -- Actress Cameron Diaz talks candidly about love, guys, friends, family and charting her own course. Sunny days and a smiling Diaz, here shot near the Malibu shore. "I'm mostly a jeans girl," she says Casual style Diaz doesn't strive to be taken seriously. Her style is relaxed, never more evident than with her wardrobe. "I don't like overdone or being too put-together," she explains. "I like casual chic. Eclectic style. I want to feel like I can go anywhere, whatever I'm wearing." Today is no exception. She's half glam, half laid-back. Her casualness comes courtesy of frayed jeans that show off her lightly tanned legs. "I found these jeans today and was, like, 'Well hello, Abercrombie jeans!' They're really old, and I love them. I don't care that they've got holes in them." Watch thoughts on friends and sexy poll results » She has paired them with a simple black sweater and added a dash of glitz with a crystal-and-gold cocktail ring from Barneys. "I'm Cuban, so I'm drawn to things that sparkle. I like to use accessories to give things a bit of my own flavor." Men So, is Diaz dating? "I'm a woman," she says, like, Duh! "Of course I'm dating. And is that so surprising? Oh my god, she's dating!" So when you make a reported $15 million per movie, how do you make the call that someone is boyfriend material? "I trust my judgment," she says. And though she won't divulge whom she's spending time with, she's clear on what she's looking for. "My list is all about balance. You can have smart but not funny. You can have funny but not very smart. You can have intellectual but not social. But ... I want it all!" Not that her life has gone exactly as planned. "I thought I'd be married and have kids by the time I was 22. But when I got to 22, I realized that wasn't what I wanted, which was a huge lesson for me," she says. "Am I going to have a baby? Who knows? I don't. I'm not going to live my life looking just for that. How can I know what my future holds?" She pauses, then offers an answer: "How about this -- I am happy right now. Does that count for anything?" Family Diaz lives 45 minutes from her family and has always spent a great deal of time with them. She raves about her parents, crediting them with fostering her sense of humor. "They just celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary. They're just really good, cool people." This is one woman with a well populated inner circle. Says Diaz: "I know I'll never be in a situation where I can't get to somebody for support." That support will never be more important. Sadly, after this interview was conducted, her father, Emilio Diaz, passed away unexpectedly. In the following days, the actress released a statement on behalf of her sister and mother: "My dad was so loved by so many people, and his humor and spirit will always live in our hearts." Two of her father's favorite groups were the ocean conservation organizations Reef Check and Surfrider. To honor her father, she has asked that donations be made to those organizations in his name. In her interview, Diaz remembered how her dad taught a then scrawny young girl how to fight bullies in school. "He said he'd always back me up if I got in trouble. He is a good man, stand up and loyal." Looks like that runs in the family.
[ "What did Cameron's father teach her?", "What is actress Cameron Diaz' style?", "Whose judgement does she trust?", "What does Cameron Diaz trust in when dating?", "Where does it claims that her father taught her how to fight bullies in School?" ]
[ [ "how to fight bullies in school." ], [ "relaxed," ], [ "my judgment,\"" ], [ "my judgment,\"" ], [ "In" ] ]
Actress Cameron Diaz likes "casual chic, eclectic style" Says she trust her judgment when it comes to dating . Her father taught her how to fight bullies in school .
(InStyle.com) -- As an aspiring ballerina, 9-year-old Brooke Burns took an aggressive approach to makeup. "I would borrow my mom's red Borghese lipstick and smear it on like a clown!" she says. "For sexy eyes, there is nothing better than this drugstore black liner." Nowadays, the 29-year-old Burns, a single mom, tries to pass along subtler application tips to her 7-year-old daughter. "I taught her 'a dab'll do ya,' "says the actress, who stars in the ABC comedy "Miss Guided." "She's going to wear it anyway, so she might as well have some experience." Did you pick up any makeup tricks working as a model? One of my favorites is putting white pencil on the inside of the bottom eyelid for that very awake look. At night if I'm in a hurry, I'll just put on a lot of mascara and black pencil all the way around the inner rim. It's a totally sexy eye in a minute and a half. What's the one makeup item you can't live without? I'm in love with Revlon Color Stay foundation. I can do anything in that makeup and it stays. Plus, it has sunscreen in it and gives me a really natural glow. It covers everything. You alternate between being a blonde and a brunette. Which do you prefer? My natural color is dark blond, but right now I like being a brunette. I did a movie last summer and they dyed my hair platinum -- I hated it. I have a big personality, and I think big personality plus blond hair makes me come across as glib. With dark hair, people look at your face more. Before, it was all about the hair. How do you keep color-treated hair healthy? I've never found a conditioner that makes my hair feel as amazing as Nature's Therapy Mega Moisture Nurturing shampoo by L'Oréal. My hairdresser used it on me one time, and now I'm obsessed. I also use a new color from Paul Mitchell -- it's called Fudge Brownie -- that's incredible. So many people comment, "Your hair looks so healthy!" Have you always had great hair? No. I totally had big hair in high school. I was a big user of the hot rollers and teasing. And I had mall bangs. I also wore my hair in a bun a lot because of all the dancing I did. I wasn't really popular in high school. No one will believe you if you say you weren't popular. "Olive Oyl" was my nickname. I was totally gangly and a foot taller than all the boys. It was not attractive. Clearly you've come a long way. What's your secret? I think it's very important to take care of your skin. Obviously the No. 1 thing is sunscreen. All my life I have used Oil of Olay as my daytime moisturizer because my mom did. I also use their foaming face wash. It's the best makeup remover ever. And in the morning I use Olay Age Defying Daily Renewal cleanser because it has these tiny microbeads that are great for exfoliating. People go, "You have such great skin!" and I'm, like, "Thank God I'm not spending $150 on products." I'm sure that stuff is great, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. E-mail to a friend Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE!
[ "what \"Miss Guided\" star Brooke Burns likes?", "what Her daytime moisturizer is same?", "what Actress explains why \"Olive Oyl\" do", "Her daytime moisturizer is same that her mom used", "what is a Miss Guided" ]
[ [ "being a brunette." ], [ "All my life I have used Oil of Olay as my" ], [ "Brooke Burns" ], [ "Oil of Olay" ], [ "ABC comedy" ] ]
"Miss Guided" star Brooke Burns likes being a brunette . Actress explains why "Olive Oyl" was high school nickname . Her daytime moisturizer is same that her mom used .
(InStyle.com) -- Check out these seven truly amazing destinations and plan the best place for your great escape. The Farm at Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand is the best place for an adrenaline rush. GIRL'S GETAWAY: Ojai Valley Inn & Spa -- Ojai, California Why it's great: This Spanish Colonial hideaway offers 308 rooms -- many with fireplaces and private terraces with mountain views. (No wonder Kate Walsh celebrated her wedding here.) What to do: Activities range from hiking and horseback riding to the more esoteric (take a watercolor class or customize your own massage oil.) Watch what stars pack for trips » Bring it back: Honey lip balm from a local bee farm; pixie tangerines (some of the sweetest fruits in this valley). Book it: ojairesort.com HIP SIGHTSEEING: Haymarket Hotel -- London, UK Why it's great: Haymarket manages to capture the cool, contemporary buzz of today's London to a tee. It's where Posh and Becks stay when they cross the pond and where Jude Law drops by for dinner. All 50 guest rooms are spacious and done in a bold color scheme. What to do: Shop at OG2 the new shop from of-the-moment designer Duro Olowu, whose vintage prints draw clients like Sienna Miller; visit Eco, a Green store opened by Colin Firth in Chiswick; or head to the Fashion and Textile Museum, spearheaded by designer Zandra Rhodes. For London's hottest new table, return to Haymarket's Brumus. Bring it back: Blue-suede weekend bag at Conran; new Lulu Guinness jewelry collection (we love the glamour-girl charm); colorful candles or twist tumblers from Nina Campbell. Book it: firmdale.com SHOPPING SPREE: Villa Mangiacane -- Tuscany, Italy Why it's great: You'll feel as if you stumbled onto a Bernardo Bertolucci set at this retreat, with its sculpture garden and gnarled olive grove. The 26 guest rooms are located in two villas, but romantics should stay in the 16th-century main villa, whose loggia is decorated with historic frescoes. You can request to have dinner in a new spot each night (try the dreamy vineyard). What to do: Florence is a short drive away -- spend the day shopping at the city's hottest fashion emporium, Luisa via Roma, and Loretta Caponi for exquisite lingerie, then head to the roof of Hotel Continentale, where the Ferragamos go for sunset cocktails. Bring it back: In Florence, find hand-finished leather gloves from the family-run Madova shop; soaps from the historic Santa Maria Novella pharmacy; a bottle of Mangiacane wine (the property produces Merlot and Chianti). Book it: steinhotels.com/mangiacane LAZY BEACH TIME: Rosewood Mayakoba, Mexico Why it's great : Located on the super-hot Riviera Maya, which has drawn the likes of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, Rosewood Mayakoba has 128 suites, which are actually freestanding villas with luminous bathrooms and private plunge pools. It's also eco-minded: Building materials are indigenous, and guests can navigate the property's network of freshwater canals via electric boats. What to do: Visit the Mayan ruins of Tulum; have dinner in the beach town of Playa del Carmen (try the hip Glass Bar/ Di Vino); snorkel in underwater caves (cenotes); or book a treatment at the Rosewood's spa, which occupies its own little island. Bring it back: A string hammock from Tulum for lounging; beauty products, like scented candles and linen spray, made with local ingredients, such as tropical wood and coconut, from chic eco-retreat (Coqui Coqui). Book it: rosewoodmayakoba.com COZY WEEKEND: Winvian -- Morris, Connecticut Why it's great: When it comes to throwing the ultimate weekend get-together, this new 113-acre resort is the place. The heart of the property is a restored colonial farmhouse, filled with antiques, but guests stay in 18 lavish cottages -- each boasting a unique design scheme and at least one open fireplace. One pick: Stable, a duplex with a
[ "where can you shop your heart out", "where is ojai valley", "What can you enjoy?", "What place in California is great for a weekend getaway?", "Where is the Villa Mangiacane?" ]
[ [ "Villa Mangiacane" ], [ "California" ], [ "seven truly amazing destinations" ], [ "Ojai Valley Inn & Spa" ], [ "Tuscany, Italy" ] ]
You can enjoy the same posh places as the stars . Ojai Valley Inn & Spa in California is great for weekend getaway . Learn to samba at Fasano in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil . Shop your heart out in Villa Mangiacane in Tuscany, Italy .
(InStyle.com) -- Daring in her fashion choices and her roles -- this summer she plays Agent 99 in "Get Smart" -- Anne Hathaway is the perfect candidate to answer questions about developing your own unique personal style. Anne Hathaway wears a Valentino satin coat and La Crasia leather gloves at an InStyle photoshoot. Curvaceous and kooky, interesting and interested, Hathaway is a multidimensional gal. In an age of nonstop tabloid exhibitionism, she stands out as a beacon of confident allure. Within a short period of time, the young actress has graduated from fashion ingénue to a woman who navigates the designer realm with intrepid spirit and lashings of wit. Now that she has her bearings, Hathaway is ready to express her individuality. Watch how Anne Hathaway changes her style » She arrives for our meeting looking well scrubbed, bohemian and totally incognito: Her navy jacket is from Et Vous in Paris; the jeans, True Religion; the flats, Lanvin; and the bag, Anya Hindmarch. An Yves Saint Laurent lapis lazuli ring and Ugandan handcrafted beads from Beadforlife.org are all the embellishment she needs. It seems to me that nowadays some stars confuse being stylish with dressing really slutty. What's your take? I've always been on the conservative side when it comes to showing skin. I'm from that school where you show one part of your body, not all of it. So compared to the girls you're talking about, I'm quite prim... [But] sometimes you just make mistakes. I once wore a see-through dress to an event, but I had absolutely no idea ... You didn't do the lighting test! And I have never not done the lighting test after that. At the end of the day, you have to dress in what you're comfortable in. If you're at ease in a bikini top and a miniskirt -- though I certainly wouldn't be -- go for it. Can you talk about your style philosophy? If you're going to be glamorous, it has to be tempered with eccentricity so that it incorporates your own personality. Dressing up is great, but you need a twist. And one of my biggest style influences has been Rachel Zoe, who introduced me to glamour. Now I'm kind of pushing her a little bit to explore the eccentric side. Lately, I've been having a lot more fun with how I dress. I am braving the idea of ending up on a worst-dressed list, but I'm also a lot happier with what I wear. What's the most tragic thing you wore in high school? So many things! I was still recovering from Clueless when I was in high school, so probably one too many baby-doll skirts with baby Ts, knee socks, mary janes and barrettes. Maybe the occasional pair of flannel pajama pants during finals week. I don't let myself get that slobby these days. What does the word "chic" mean to you? I instantly think of Audrey Hepburn -- she could do no wrong. Her style was revolutionary. She was ladylike without being stuffy. And I also love Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett and Selma Blair, who is so fabulous. Any other Hollywood icons lurking in your closet? I'm currently having a Gwen Stefani moment. I just bought some beautiful shorts from her fashion line, LAMB. Do you enjoy the whole red-carpet circus? For a while it was very new and very frightening, and I would just work myself up so in all my photos I looked like I was staring down the barrel of a gun. I don't beat myself up about it anymore. Did you care when the tabloids ragged on your white Valentino dress with the black bow at the 2007 Oscars? I consider it a good sign when you end up on best- and worst-dressed lists. If you're universally best, then you've been quite boring. Let's talk about "Get Smart": Is it retro, or did they update the groovy sixties vibe of Agent 99
[ "Who is Anne Hathaway?", "who are her style icons?", "who does Anne Hathaway play ?" ]
[ [ "young actress" ], [ "Rachel Zoe," ], [ "Agent 99" ] ]
Anne Hathaway plays Agent 99 in the movie "Get Smart" The actress says she's more conservative than most in her style . Audrey Hepburn and Gwen Stefani are among her style icons . Hathaway started working out three months before filming the movie .
(InStyle.com) -- Engagement season is in full swing, which, of course, means an influx proposals, but more importantly, tons of creative "will you marry me?" scenarios to top. Take a cue from these celebrities by jaunting off to memorable destinations for a proposal your partner won't forget (or turn down!). Venice was the scene of Avril Lavigne and Dereyck Whibley's engagement. St. Barts On their first date, Billy Joel took Katie Lee out to dinner, but on that November 2002 evening she got much more than a scene from an Italian restaurant. "Afterward he took me to see "Movin' Out" [the hit musical based on Joel's tunes], got onstage and sang the last two songs," recalls Lee, 23, who was visiting New York from Ohio and first met Joel, 55, in the lobby of the Peninsula Hotel, where both were staying. "I knew he was trying to impress me." It must have worked; six months after that meeting she moved to Long Island, New York, to live with him, and in January 2004 he proposed on a trip to St. Barts. "He got down on his knee, and it was a complete surprise," Lee recalls. "That made me feel really special." Though Scott Wolf, 35, of "Everwood," and Kelley Limp, 28, formerly of "Real World New Orleans," credit a friend with setting them up, in a way they can thank Oprah Winfrey. "When I first called Kelley," says Wolf, "she said, 'I just sat down with strawberries and chocolate milk to watch "Oprah." '" Apparently it was not the best timing. "Nobody calls me at 4 o'clock," says Limp. "It's an unwritten rule that I'm watching "Oprah"." So Wolf decided to catch the episode, and they discussed it afterward. The chatting continued over a dinner date at Raoul's in New York City. A year later, on a trip to St. Barts, Wolf took Limp boating and pulled into a cove for a sunset dinner, where he gave her a Bruce Winston (son of Harry Winston) 2.7-carat diamond ring. "I said yes, like, 15 times," says Limp. New York City It was Stephanie March's first and last blind date ever. After weeks of delays, March, then starring on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit", finally agreed to meet Food Network chef Bobby Flay for dinner at Nobu in New York. Within seconds of meeting Flay, her misgivings about blind dates were dispelled. "I know it's a cliché, but I remember thinking, Oh my gosh, this is the rest of my life," says March. She was right: Just before Christmas 2003, Flay took March ice-skating at Rockefeller Center, where he surprised her with another kind of ice -- a princess-cut diamond ring -- and a proposal. Africa On the golf course during the 2001 British Open was probably the last place Tiger Woods, 28, expected to meet his future wife, Elin Nordegren, 24. The thunderbolt struck when fellow golfer Jesper Parnevik introduced Woods to Nordegren, who was then working as the Parneviks' nanny. If his scores are any indication, Woods was more than a little distracted by the stunning Swedish former model. He lost the tournament but soon won her heart. And on a South African safari two years later, Woods proposed to Nordegren during a sunset stroll around the Shamwari Game Reserve. Nantucket, Massachusetts Devon Gummersall, 29, thought he'd blown it after a 1998 date with "Quarterlife's" Majandra Delfino, 27. "I showed up in this awful leather jacket, and Majandra was like, 'Who is this guy?'" recalls Gummersall, the former co-star of "My So-Called Life." After losing the leather, he reconnected with Delfino at a concert five years later -- and didn't miss a
[ "Who proposed to who?", "Which people got engaged?" ]
[ [ "Avril Lavigne and Dereyck Whibley's" ], [ "Avril Lavigne and Dereyck Whibley's" ] ]
Billy Joel proposed to Katie Lee in St. Bart's . Roselyn Sanchez and Eric Winter got engaged while in a double kayak . Jordan Batman proposed to Christina Aguilera on a Valentine's Day getaway . Seal gave Heidi Klum a 10-karat yellow diamond on a glacier in Canada .
(InStyle.com) -- Ever wonder how actresses like Sienna Miller look stunning 24/7? Good genes, sure. But they also get a little help from their friends Sienna Miller and favorite hairstylist Adir Abergel: "If I worried what people thought about my look, I'd get it all wrong." Sienna Miller and hairstylist Adir Abergel Try to talk coifs with Sienna Miller and she'll cut you off at the pass. "I don't even own a hairbrush!" she insists. "I'm really not too attached to my hair." No kidding. She gamely lopped off about 10 inches to play Edie Sedgwick in Factory Girl. But the actress is much less keen to part with her hairstylist Adir Abergel, for whom she has been known to cook dinner at her London home. "Adir gets me," says Miller. "He knows I never like to look too done or polished." Her biggest challenge? "I've got quite a lot of hair, but I like it flat, so Adir squashes it down for me." To create Miller's ideal look, Abergel flatirons her roots and combats bulkiness with Frédéric Fekkai Coiff Finishing cream. "Sienna feels most like herself when her hair is soft and airy versus set and stylized," he says. Still, it takes effort to appear this artfully undone. It may seem like she rolls out of bed looking glamorous, but Miller says it is not that easy: "I'm very much involved in how I want to look." Eve and makeup artist JJ Jacobucci She dyed her hair platinum as a Philadelphia teenager, rose to fame as a hip-hop biker chick, and cavorted with a tiger -- and later Gwen Stefani -- on MTV. It seems like Eve was born edgy. But until recently the rapper-singer-actress clung religiously to her signature look of cat eyes, dewy skin and pale pink lips, aided by the habitual application of MAC Lipglass in Malibu Barbie (she's also a company spokeswoman). It was on the L.A. set of Eve's candy-colored video for "Tambourine" (the hit single off her fall album Here I Am) that makeup artist JJ Jacobucci motivated the star to test a new image. "JJ recently said to me, 'Thank you for letting me experiment,'" says Eve, referring to a Cyndi Lauper--inspired look that involved electric-blue eye shadow. "I have definitely opened up a lot more." Says Jacobucci: "We were so used to seeing her in nude lips, bronze skin and comfortable colors. I push Eve to get out of that box." The star has lately sported hot-pink lips, chartreuse highlighter on her browbones, and blue mascara with newfound confidence. "At first Eve was like, 'Oh my god,'" says Jacobucci of such intense shades. "I was like, 'Listen, trust me. I'm going to make you look gorgeous.'" Kate Bosworth and hairstylist Renato Campora During the last three years, hairstylist Renato Campora has seen all shades of actress Kate Bosworth. "When I met her, she had beachy [sandy] highlights," says Campora, who brightened up Bosworth's Blue Crush--era color so she looked "more movie star, like a young Marlene Dietrich." Campora's platinum touch sent his number straight to Bosworth's speed dial. "It's a little secret," she says of his closet coloring abilities (he's known primarily as a haircutter). "I call him months in advance!" Naturally, she also uses him as her stylist -- it was Campora who gave her the sleek bob that solidified her status as a hair icon last year. "She was the first one to have it," he says. "And then everybody did the bob. She was the inspiration." For someone whose biggest struggle is building volume (Bosworth has "baby angel hair," says Campora) the bob was perfect; her hair looked
[ "Who gave Bosworth her sleek bob?", "What kind of haircut does Kate Bosworth have?", "Name of the hairstylist who gae Kate Bosworth a bob?", "What is Renato Campora's occupation?", "Who gave Kate Bosworth her sleek bob?" ]
[ [ "Renato Campora" ], [ "sleek bob" ], [ "Renato Campora" ], [ "hairstylist" ], [ "hairstylist Renato Campora" ] ]
Stars get attached to hairstylists, makeup artists they trust . Rachel Weisz: "In real life I'm very unpolished" Hilary Duff: Sitting in Rachel Goodwin's makeup chair is like therapy . Hairstylist Renato Campora gave Kate Bosworth her sleek bob .
(InStyle.com) -- From barefoot tomboy to fashion supernova, fearless pop renegade Rihanna lives to bust all the rules. "I love the heavy chain over this pretty dress -- it's exactly the way I would do it," says Rihanna. What are some rules you'd like to crush? The idea of not wearing brown and black together seems so dated. The other day I wore a black T-shirt, black Nobody jeans, a brown leopard-print belt by Dolce & Gabbana, and brown Giuseppe Zanotti shoes, and it looked awesome. Also the rule about not matching your makeup to your outfit. I do that onstage, matching red lipstick to a bright red jacket or neon-pink eye shadow to a pink jumpsuit. And I also love to mix prints. We've had the Meg, the Jennifer, and now people ask for the Rihanna at salons. Will you be switching it up again? The first time I heard people were asking for the Rihanna, it was really flattering and maybe a little strange. It caught me by surprise, but now I feel it's a very cool thing. I don't feel the pressure to change it up again at all. I like it, as they like it. Can you talk about your style obsessions and how your look has evolved over the years? It has evolved without my even noticing it. Lately I'm obsessed with Thierry Mugler... Grace Jones inspires me. She is the most iconic woman ever, in my eyes. She has extraordinary style and she's fearless. I love designer Martin Margiela; Kanye West told me about him. I also like Dsquared, Chloé, Zac Posen... But you weren't always a fashion maven? Growing up in Barbados, you were a tomboy. I wore my brother's clothes, dresses with sneakers, or no shoes at all. I would always get into trouble with my mom. She would say things to scare me like, "You're going to get cut!" But I couldn't help it. I would climb trees, steal mangoes, catch birds--silly things that were fun to us at the time. My cousin and I were the only girls in the group. We would have to stand up for ourselves because the guys didn't want us around. You stood out in Barbados because of your light complexion. Do you remember having trouble fitting in at school? Definitely. It made me angry... For the first six years of school, I would go home traumatized. The harassment continued to my very last day of elementary school. High school was better. I read that your mom owns a boutique and your dad works at a garment factory -- it seems you have the Rihanna fashion line already partly sewn up. [Giggles] Well I am working on that right now. It takes a lot of effort, and I want to be involved with every step of the process. What do you do for kicks in L.A.? I don't go out much. I'm moving into a new four-bedroom home in Los Feliz that I'm excited about. Parts of it will be inspired by India. I love things like canopy beds, printed fabrics and Spanish touches. Then I can stay at home and cook West Indian dishes like callaloo [stewed greens]. But I do want a sports car--as soon as I get my license. Who knew you were so domestic. Wait a minute. You're such a rebel. In the video for "Take a Bow," you drive a car. I have my Barbadian license, just not my American one. How will you celebrate your 21st birthday? Don't scare me! I have till February. I feel like I have so much more to accomplish before I'm 21. No party plans yet. Many showbiz types say, "Don't ever read your own press," but you do, even the online stuff. What's the kookiest thing you've read about yourself? The Grammy thing -- that
[ "Where is Rihanna's new four-bedroom home?", "Where is Rihanna's new house?", "What colors does Rihanna like to wear together?", "Where did she go to school?", "Who wants to wear brown and black together?", "Where did Rihanna go to school?" ]
[ [ "Los Feliz" ], [ "Los Feliz" ], [ "brown and black" ], [ "Barbados" ], [ "Rihanna." ], [ "Barbados" ] ]
Rihanna wants to crush the idea of not wearing brown and black together . Her light complexion gave her trouble fitting in at school in Barbados . Singer's new four-bedroom home decor in Los Feliz to be inspired by India . "If I had to come back in another form, it would be as my dog," Rihanna says .
(InStyle.com) -- How many closets does it take to make a "Desperate Housewife" happy? Just one, if it's anything like Parker's. We got a guided tour--and learned a lot more about the fashion-savvy star than her taste in shoes. "I love my new name. In Texas people are formal, so now it's 'Mrs. Parker.' I feel old! But I love it." Best dress A "gorgeous 1950s-style cocktail dress by Gustavo Cadile is my absolute favorite. It's fun, but classic too," says Parker. Treasured keepsake A clutch that belonged to her aunt: "She was the glue of our family. It's so beautiful and so impractical -- nothing fits in it." Watch what else is in her closet » First Christmas gift from Tony Parker A necklace designed by Monique Lhuillier. "It's his Spurs number. I love it." Loves, but doesn't know what to do with A "quirky lip-shaped purse by Judith Leiber. I can't figure out how to wear it!" Fashion faux pas "One time, my mom and aunt Didi were helping me clean out my closet. Aunt Didi had taken off her jacket. I grabbed it and was like, 'What is this? Who would give me this ugly thing?' And she was like, 'That's mine!' " Go-to outfit "A thermal top, a scarf, and I'm not just saying this because she's my friend, but I love my Victoria Beckham DVB jeans. She sent me three pairs--they're perfect." First splurge "I'd always wanted Uggs, but I always had the impostors--the Muggs, the Thuggs, the everything but. I still wear [them]." Owns in multiples "Christian Louboutin espadrille wedges. They're so high! I have them in every color. I've sprained my ankle walking on the cobblestones in Paris wearing them. They're a beautiful pain." Cool freebie "Richard Tyler mules. I did a photo shoot and they said I could keep them. I simply could not believe someone would give me a $300 pair of shoes. I was fascinated!" Most expensive item "My hot-pink crocodile Hermès Birkin bag. Robert Verdi, my stylist, told me, 'Wear it with everything--even to bed. This is going to be handed down in your will.' " E-mail to a friend Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE!
[ "Eva Longoria has espadrille wedges made by whom?", "Her most-expensive item is a hot-pink crocodile Hermès Birkin bag", "where \"Desperate Housewives\" actress?", "What show was she on?", "Actress Eva Longoria Parker gave a peek into what?", "Does she have any shoes?", "Eva Longoria's most expensive item is what?", "What was in her closet?" ]
[ [ "\"Christian Louboutin" ], [ "'Mrs. Parker.'" ], [ "Texas" ], [ "\"Desperate Housewife\"" ], [ "\"Desperate Housewife\"" ], [ "espadrille wedges." ], [ "hot-pink crocodile Hermès Birkin bag." ], [ "A clutch that belonged to" ] ]
"Desperate Housewives" actress Eva Longoria Parker gives peek into closet . Says she has Christian Louboutin espadrille wedges in every color. Her most-expensive item is a hot-pink crocodile Hermès Birkin bag .
(InStyle.com) -- Is anyone else besides Michelle Obama leaving the house these days? Because for the last week, you would have thought that Anne Hathaway, Gwyneth Paltrow and Halle Berry had gone into the Witness Protection Program. First lady Michelle Obama arrives with President Obama in London, England, for the G-20 Summit. During first lady Michelle Obama's whirlwind visit to Europe this past week, her refreshing take on American style has emerged. It is elegant, smart, appropriate and shows the first lady to be comfortable in her own skin. Coverage surrounding the first lady's wardrobe in Europe, from cardigans to kitten heels, has been relentless, riveting, fawning and, frankly, missing the objective of her strategically packed suitcase. No doubt about it, Michelle Obama scored big, looking terrific everywhere, delighting everyone -- probably no one more so than Mickey Drexler, CEO of J. Crew. But the post-game commentary sparked by each of her appearances has been hyperbolic when it hasn't been comical. See photos of the first lady's outfits » You would have thought each of the first lady's "face offs," as both American and British tabloids labeled her meetings with Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's first lady Sarah Brown, and France's Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, had been deliberately set up as counter-programming to C-SPAN's coverage of the budget negotiations in Congress. Watch Michelle Obama wow the world » One wire service reporter asked me if Michelle, wearing a two-toned silk dress by Isabel Toledo, should have "taken a bigger fashion risk" when meeting the 83-year-old British monarch, who was all mumsy in blush pink. It was an afternoon tea, folks, not the Embassy Ball in "My Fair Lady." Another wanted to know if I agreed that the first lady's now-sold-out J. Crew outfit, an embellished cream cardigan and mint-green jacquard skirt, was "a little too down-market" to meet the prime minister of England's wife, completely overlooking where the two women were headed after the photo op. Or would a bias-cut silk charmeuse dress have been a wiser choice for visiting a children's cancer ward? But the main event was going head-to-head with the former supermodel, pop-star first lady of France, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Except both women wound up wearing similar bow-tied coats -- Mrs. Obama's floral print number by the American designer Thakoon, and her counterpart's, a dove-gray look by the French house of Dior. Nevertheless, Tina Brown's TheDailyBeast.com went so far as to immediately declare the up-until-recently overtly scrutinized Mrs. Bruni-Sarkozy "over." The citizens of France might argue the point. More importantly, the press has been missing the over-arching point of our new first lady's wardrobe. Despite the declaration by many of the fashion community's talking heads that she is this generation's Jacqueline Kennedy, Michelle Obama's approach is quite different. True, Michelle's reception has been equally rapturous. But, Mrs. Kennedy's transatlantic mission nearly 50 years ago was to show the world that despite America's image of a country fueled by energy and youth, it was also one of elegance, poise and culture. In addition, whether speaking in English or French, Mrs. Kennedy purposely presented herself and her husband as children of privilege, embracing the aura of Camelot, which had cast them as American royalty. Conversely, what's most striking about each of Mrs. Obama's appearances is not the grandiose message, diverse labels or designers' origins. Rather, it is their unmistakable, uniform accessibility and appropriateness. Michelle Obama looks exactly like what she is: a modern American, working woman. Her outfits appear comfortable instead of buttoned up, her impression is pretty rather than formal, her silhouette based on sportswear -- the form of design that is at the heart of American fashion -- not politics. Add warmth, confidence, and openness and what the world is seeing -- besides someone who knows how to pack
[ "Where was the outfit that she wore from?", "She looked exactly like what?", "What does Michelle Obama show her style to be?", "Michelle Obama shows her own American style during a visit where?", "What did she wear?", "Where does the outfit come from which has sold out?", "What does Michelle Obama show in Europe?", "Michelle Obama showed what?" ]
[ [ "J. Crew" ], [ "is: a modern American, working woman." ], [ "elegant, smart, appropriate" ], [ "Europe" ], [ "a two-toned silk dress" ], [ "J. Crew" ], [ "the first lady to be comfortable in her own skin." ], [ "be comfortable in her own skin." ] ]
During her visit to Europe, Michelle Obama shows her own American style . Mrs. Obama shows her style to be elegant, smart, and appropriate . An outfit from J. Crew that Obama wore has since sold out on the brand's Web site . Michelle Obama looks exactly like what she is: a modern American working woman .
(InStyle.com) -- It takes a truly adventurous actress to pull off a razored Mohawk, a platinum pixie and a Louise Brooks bob, but we'd expect nothing less from the ever provocative Selma Blair, who experimented with all three looks in under a year. Selma Blair says she works with hairstylists and makeup artists who "have a vision." "I have no fears when it comes to my hair or clothes," proclaims the 36-year-old star of NBC's upcoming mom-and-daughter sitcom "Kath and Kim" and July's action flick "Hellboy II: The Golden Army." Makeup, however, is an entirely different matter for the self-declared "poor applier," who sticks with basics like nude lipstick and pink blush, and ducks whenever she sees a liquid liner. "I avoid anything difficult," she says. Blair's signature look: "A rosy cheek, a smudgy eye, a lot of mascara--I look like a doll that has too much makeup on, and I love it!" Have you always been a beauty chameleon? In high school I would mess with my hair and makeup all the time. I used to wear a shirt that said "Ms. Clairol" because I changed my hair color so much. I was blond for a long time, then what my mom called "barnyard red." Do you still dye it yourself? Only when I have to cover up stray grays. And I'll just use whatever color I find in the grocery store that looks good on the box, like Preference by L'Oréal--because I'm worth it [laughs]. But for my platinum hair, I went to Sheri at Román Salon in L.A. She was a saint. I had just dyed my hair dark brown, so she had to very slowly strip out all the color so that my hair wouldn't burn off. And the cut--are you keeping it short? I tend to like my hair whatever way it's not, so now I miss it being long. I think I'm more approachable with long hair. When it's short, I come across as being artsy and weird. What's your typical makeup look? I used to wear a lot of red lipstick, and when I got a pimple, I'd cover it up with eyeliner to turn it into a beauty mark. But everything has changed since I hit 35. I'm at an age where any makeup that's meant to look "slept in" really looks like I slept in it. That's for youngsters! Now less is more. I don't like to wear concealer or anything. I'd rather have uneven skin than feel like my face is cracking from too much foundation. Then you must be serious about your skin care. I go to a spa in L.A. called Kinara for its Skin Care BootCamp. You go once a week for 12 sessions and they'll look at your skin and tell you how to get it in better condition. They really helped me a lot. I also stay out of the sun. Any thoughts on Botox or plastic surgery? I wanted to get Botox once to make me feel younger. But I don't really have [enough wrinkles] to justify it yet. As for going under the knife, I can't say I wouldn't, but I haven't thought too much about it. Best beauty product? Egyptian Magic cream is my saving grace for everything. It works for my friend's baby's bottom, and I can also use it instead of Chapstick. So what's next? I'm really excited about having a perma-tan and wearing long highlighted hair extensions for my role on "Kath and Kim." And I've been gaining weight for the part by eating a little bit more of what I want and not moving around as much. I've already put on 15 pounds, and I'll probably gain another 10. It'll be a whole new me! Will this be your most drastic transformation? Actually
[ "Who gained at least 15 pounds for her role on \"Kath and Kim\"?", "Who considered Botox?", "What did Selma Blair gain weight for?", "What number of different completely different looks did Blair experiment with in less than a year?", "Who wore huge prosthetic boobs?", "Who wore prosthetic boobs for a John Waters movie?", "Who gained at least 15 pounds?", "What did Selma Blair wear?", "What did she consider?", "Who wore huge prosthetic boobs?", "Who wore huge prosthetic boobs for a John Waters movie?", "What was her role on?", "Who gained at least 15 pounds?", "Who gained 15 pounds?", "Who considered botox?", "Who wore a prothetic boobs?" ]
[ [ "Selma Blair" ], [ "Selma Blair," ], [ "role on \"Kath and Kim.\"" ], [ "three" ], [ "Selma Blair" ], [ "Selma Blair," ], [ "Selma Blair," ], [ "shirt that said \"Ms. Clairol\"" ], [ "Botox" ], [ "Selma Blair" ], [ "Selma Blair" ], [ "\"Kath and Kim.\"" ], [ "Selma Blair," ], [ "Selma Blair" ], [ "Selma Blair" ], [ "Selma Blair," ] ]
Actress Selma Blair wore huge prosthetic boobs for a John Waters movie . She's gained at least 15 pounds for her role on "Kath and Kim" She considered Botox but says she doesn't have enough wrinkles for it yet . Blair experimented with three completely different looks in less than a year .
(InStyle.com) -- Michelle Obama dazzled on the dance floor Tuesday night at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball in Washington, wearing an elegant, one-shouldered ivory gown created for her by 26-year-old designer, Jason Wu. First lady Michelle Obama dazzled in a Jason Wu original gown. The one-of-a-kind silk chiffon confection was embellished with organza rosettes, Swarovski crystal rhinestones and silver embroidery. The first lady accessorized with diamond chandelier earrings, a white gold and diamond ring and a stack of diamond bangles by jeweler Loree Rodkin. The president summed up his wife's look best before their first dance -- to Beyoncé's rendition of "At Last" -- when he said, "First of all, how good-looking is my wife?" Michelle Obama has worn Wu once before, during an interview with Barbara Walters. Wu, one of America's leading young designers, debuted his first collection in February 2006 and has since earned accolades such as Fashion Group International's Rising Star Award. Watch InStyle.com's Joe Berean discuss the gown » Obama was likely introduced to the designer in one of her favorite Chicago, Illinois, boutiques, Ikram. The new first lady has made a conscious effort to support young, diverse talent in the fashion community. In choosing Wu, who is originally from Taiwan, Obama continues a tradition of wearing American designers who hail from other countries. They include Cuban-American designers Isabel Toledo, who designed her yellow lace inauguration ensemble; Narciso Rodriguez, designer of the red and black dress she wore on election night; and designer Thakoon Panichgul, originally from Thailand, who designed the floral dress she wore the evening her husband accepted the Democratic nomination for president. Michelle Obama's style statement is one meant to inspire ethnic and class diversity in the world of fashion. Aside from being a socially conscious purveyor of style, Obama also sends a clear message of hope and promise by choosing colorful, reasonably priced pieces. Watch the Obamas enjoy the night » She prefers bright, cheerful shades such as yellow, electric blue, red and purple, and has been seen on multiple occasions in head-to-toe looks from moderately priced American retailer J.Crew. In fact, daughters Malia and Sasha braved Tuesday's chilly weather in coats from the brand's children's collection. Michelle Obama was first seen in J.Crew during a visit to the "Tonight Show" with Jay Leno on October 27. "This is a J.Crew ensemble," she told the host. "We ladies, we know J.Crew." The first lady also said she had a penchant for Internet shopping, saying, "When you don't have time, you gotta click!" Obama wore J.Crew again at the Kids' Inaugural Concert on Monday. She gave the colorful ensemble a luxe spin with dangling green sapphire earrings from Loree Rodkin and a Deco-inspired belt buckle. InStyle magazine Fashion Director Hal Rubenstein appreciates Obama's straightforward approach to fashion. "People tend to think classic looks are synonymous with boring, but they're not," he explains. "Michelle Obama has a specific style that works for her. She has a lady-like approach to style that is elegant and inspiring. "What we'll see as a result is this idea of looking put-together and sophisticated, as opposed to being daring or flamboyant. It's all about looking polished, like you know what you're doing." Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE!
[ "Where does she save time?", "What was the gown decorated with?", "Who created the gown?", "Where can I buy it?", "What material is the dress?" ]
[ [ "Internet shopping," ], [ "organza rosettes, Swarovski crystal rhinestones and silver embroidery." ], [ "Jason Wu" ], [ "J.Crew." ], [ "silk" ] ]
First lady's elegant, one-shouldered ivory gown created by 26-year-old Jason Wu . The one-of-a-kind silk chiffon confection was embellished with organza rosettes . Michelle Obama has tradition of wearing American designers from other nations . Her time-saving shopping secret -- buying on the Internet .
(InStyle.com) -- Michelle Obama dazzled on the dance floor Tuesday night at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball in Washington, wearing an elegant, one-shouldered ivory gown created for her by 26-year-old designer, Jason Wu. First lady Michelle Obama dazzled in a Jason Wu original gown. The one-of-a-kind silk chiffon confection was embellished with organza rosettes, Swarovski crystal rhinestones and silver embroidery. The first lady accessorized with diamond chandelier earrings, a white gold and diamond ring and a stack of diamond bangles by jeweler Loree Rodkin. The president summed up his wife's look best before their first dance -- to Beyoncé's rendition of "At Last" -- when he said, "First of all, how good-looking is my wife?" Michelle Obama has worn Wu once before, during an interview with Barbara Walters. Wu, one of America's leading young designers, debuted his first collection in February 2006 and has since earned accolades such as Fashion Group International's Rising Star Award. Watch InStyle.com's Joe Berean discuss the gown » Obama was likely introduced to the designer in one of her favorite Chicago, Illinois, boutiques, Ikram. The new first lady has made a conscious effort to support young, diverse talent in the fashion community. In choosing Wu, who is originally from Taiwan, Obama continues a tradition of wearing American designers who hail from other countries. They include Cuban-American designers Isabel Toledo, who designed her yellow lace inauguration ensemble; Narciso Rodriguez, designer of the red and black dress she wore on election night; and designer Thakoon Panichgul, originally from Thailand, who designed the floral dress she wore the evening her husband accepted the Democratic nomination for president. Michelle Obama's style statement is one meant to inspire ethnic and class diversity in the world of fashion. Aside from being a socially conscious purveyor of style, Obama also sends a clear message of hope and promise by choosing colorful, reasonably priced pieces. Watch the Obamas enjoy the night » She prefers bright, cheerful shades such as yellow, electric blue, red and purple, and has been seen on multiple occasions in head-to-toe looks from moderately priced American retailer J.Crew. In fact, daughters Malia and Sasha braved Tuesday's chilly weather in coats from the brand's children's collection. Michelle Obama was first seen in J.Crew during a visit to the "Tonight Show" with Jay Leno on October 27. "This is a J.Crew ensemble," she told the host. "We ladies, we know J.Crew." The first lady also said she had a penchant for Internet shopping, saying, "When you don't have time, you gotta click!" Obama wore J.Crew again at the Kids' Inaugural Concert on Monday. She gave the colorful ensemble a luxe spin with dangling green sapphire earrings from Loree Rodkin and a Deco-inspired belt buckle. InStyle magazine Fashion Director Hal Rubenstein appreciates Obama's straightforward approach to fashion. "People tend to think classic looks are synonymous with boring, but they're not," he explains. "Michelle Obama has a specific style that works for her. She has a lady-like approach to style that is elegant and inspiring. "What we'll see as a result is this idea of looking put-together and sophisticated, as opposed to being daring or flamboyant. It's all about looking polished, like you know what you're doing." Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE!
[ "Where does she buy her clothes", "who designed the gown", "What is the name of the dress designer?", "What is her time-saving shopping secret?", "In what way does she like to shop?", "Who created the First Lady's gown?", "What color and material was the dress made of?", "What was it made of", "Michelle Obama as a tradition of wearing what?" ]
[ [ "favorite Chicago, Illinois, boutiques, Ikram." ], [ "Jason Wu." ], [ "Jason Wu." ], [ "Internet" ], [ "Internet shopping," ], [ "Jason Wu." ], [ "ivory" ], [ "silk chiffon" ], [ "American designers who hail from other countries." ] ]
First lady's elegant, one-shouldered ivory gown created by 26-year-old Jason Wu . The one-of-a-kind silk chiffon confection was embellished with organza rosettes . Michelle Obama has tradition of wearing American designers from other nations . Her time-saving shopping secret -- buying on the Internet .
(InStyle.com) -- She refuses to dwell on the past and accepts that she can't control the future. Reese Witherspoon juggles her career, family and love life, yet still is able find time for herself For Reese Witherspoon, it's all about living in the moment. And with a thriving career, two children, and a handsome boyfriend -- Jake Gyllenhaal -- who can blame her? On her divorce from Ryan Phillippe ... You have to keep it together for your kids and for yourself too. I'm trying to learn from the things that have happened in my life, live more in the moment, and have more fun. Someone told me recently to live in the present but make plans and take pictures. And I am. I'm writing more, I'm reading more. Going to more concerts. Jake and I went to Coachella this year. On being confident ... As you get older, you know what you like and what you don't like, and you're not apologetic about it... I used to judge myself so harshly. I think women in their 20s do. You're hard on your body, you're hard on yourself. But you start to realize that none of it is really all that important. As long as you're comfortable, the best parts of yourself come through no matter what. Your mother can tell you that a million times, but you don't understand it until you live it! On if she likes to cook ... I do. And Jake is a great cook, he does a lot. We spend the weekends outside L.A, in Ojai, where I have a farmhouse. We have chickens and we grow cucumbers and tomatoes. I love it. It reminds me of where I grew up in Tennessee. On working out ... I try to exercise every day. I like to run for about an hour, and I'm big into working out with girlfriends. It's an acquired skill, being able to discuss your love life, children and friends, all while you're running! But we have mastered it. On her new perfume ... I have a lot of favorite smells from growing up in the South that I wanted to capture in this scent. As a kid, I was always outside. There was a magnolia tree in the front yard that I think I spent most of first, second and third grade in. And there was the smell of honeysuckle from the creek that ran down by our house. Gardenias were important too, because every Mother's Day or on my birthday my father would buy small bouquets or corsages for my mother and me. While we were working on the perfume, Avon asked me if I could explore other notes, but I kept going back to white flowers! The packaging reminds me of my grandma's bureau, where she'd have little perfume bottles out. I love it. On her girlfriends ... There are three of us who wear pretty much the same size, so we'll get together on a Friday night and I'll bring clothes I want to trade and they'll bring theirs. We swap shoes and purses a lot. I wore my girlfriend's dress to a wedding recently. It's fun. On raising her kids, Ava and Deacon, far from home ... Sometimes it's really difficult for me, being far away from home. L.A. is where my job is and I have to be close, but I never imagined that my children wouldn't grow up next door to my brother's children. Or my mom and dad wouldn't constantly be around. You know, I had dinner every night with my grandparents as a kid, so I think missing out on that is a hard compromise. At least I have a lot of Southern friends in L.A. I gravitate toward them. I think of those people as a part of my family: They take care of me and I take care of them. On being a mom and a career woman ... I love my life without work
[ "what say Reese Whitherspoon?", "What is the name of her boyfriend who she grows cucumbers and tomatoes with?", "What does Reese Witherspoon say about divorce?", "Who is Reese's boyfriend?", "How much time a dy does the actress say she exercise for?", "Reese exercises how frequently?", "Who commented on her divorce, \"You have to keep it together for the kids?\"" ]
[ [ "You have to keep it together for your kids and for yourself too. I'm trying to learn from the things that have happened in my life, live more in the moment, and have more fun." ], [ "Jake Gyllenhaal" ], [ "You have to keep it together for your kids and for yourself too." ], [ "Jake Gyllenhaal" ], [ "about an hour," ], [ "every day." ], [ "Reese Witherspoon," ] ]
Reese Witherspoon on divorce: "You have to keep it together for your kids" Actress says she exercises for an hour a day . She and boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal cook and grow cucumbers and tomatoes .
(InStyle.com) -- So you're finally ready to settle down and make that marriage proposal? There's no better time to do it than engagement season, which, lucky for you, is now! Get inspired by these uber-romantic celebrity proposals. Brandon Routh popped the question to Courtney Ford while on a picnic. Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict Although the set of a slasher movie seems an unlikely place for romance to bloom, that's just where it happened for actors Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict. Shortly after shooting began in 1999 on their film "Hollywood Horror," the co-stars started spending time together. Seven years later, on Christmas Day 2006, Hardrict, 32, told Mowry, 30, that he wanted to give her a promise ring. Then, as her entire family looked on, the "Lincoln Heights" actor yelled, "Psych!" and got down on one knee to present her with a 1.5-carat diamond engagement ring. Antonio Pierce and Jocelyn Maldonado Antonio Pierce, an NFL linebacker, met Jocelyn Maldonado during a celebrity appearance at an ESPN Fantasy Football Draft. Maldonado, a model at the event, instantly caught his eye. Pierce and Maldonado (who now hosts Mets Weekly) were inseparable over the next six months. In February 2007, Pierce treated Maldonado to a helicopter ride above Manhattan, New York, before dining at Brooklyn's The River Café. Famous for its chocolate Brooklyn Bridge cake, Pierce conspired with the restaurant's manager to place the engagement ring atop the confection, which was covered with pink rose petals. Howie Dorough and Leigh Boniello Backstreet Boy Howard "Howie" Dorough got more than he bargained for after hiring Leigh Boniello to be the band's webmaster in December 2000. Boniello went on tour with the group and quickly grew close to Dorough. Six years later, the couple attended a New Year's Eve party at the New Jersey home of Boniello's father. "I figured, what better timing," says Dorough, "because all of her family was going to be there, including her 92-year-old grandmother." Just before the stroke of midnight, Dorough made a toast and presented Boniello with a custom-designed three-stone diamond engagement ring. Brandon Routh and Courtney Ford Three years before actor Brandon Routh donned those famous blue tights, he tended bar at Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood. During a party there in 2003, actress Courtney Ford repeatedly poured out the drinks he made her as a ruse to chat him up. "I kept asking him for another drink, telling him the one before was too strong," she recalls. In 2006, Routh purchased the 3-carat diamond ring that had caught Ford's eye during an earlier visit to Neil Lane. But since the two were traveling for the Superman Returns press tour, Routh asked Gilbert Adler, one of the film's producers, to hold the ring until they arrived in England. "Poor man!" says Routh. "He carried it around for two and a half weeks." Finally, while picnicking in Glastonbury, Routh popped the question. Roselyn Sanchez and Eric Winter Roselyn Sanchez and Eric Winter became friends after meeting at a party in 2006 and Sanchez immediately pegged him as perfect husband material. She found out for certain that he felt the same way just two days before Christmas 2007, under a full moon at midnight, in a bay off the coast of the Puerto Rican island Vieques. The two were seated in a double kayak, taking in the bioluminescent organisms shimmering in the water all alone, except for a tour guide in a second kayak. The scene should have been pure bliss, except that Sachez was concerned when their guide speedily paddled away. "The guy knew to take off so Eric could propose, but imagine how I felt floating in this huge bay in the middle of the night with nobody around," Sanchez explains. "I started calling back, 'Senor, hello! Come back!' until I realized something was going on." After an "amazing speech," Winter pulled out
[ "When did he propose?", "Who proposed on NYE?", "When did they meet?", "Who got engaged on the set?", "Who got engaged on a slasher movie set?" ]
[ [ "Christmas Day 2006," ], [ "Dorough" ], [ "1999" ], [ "Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict" ], [ "Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict" ] ]
Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict got engaged on the set of a slasher movie . Backstreet Boy Howard "Howie" Dorough proposed on New Year's Eve . Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell first met in Las Vegas, Nevada . Jason Priestley proposed on the street corner where he and Naomi Lowde met .
(InStyle.com) -- So you're finally ready to settle down and make that marriage proposal? There's no better time to do it than engagement season, which, lucky for you, is now! Get inspired by these uber-romantic celebrity proposals. Brandon Routh popped the question to Courtney Ford while on a picnic. Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict Although the set of a slasher movie seems an unlikely place for romance to bloom, that's just where it happened for actors Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict. Shortly after shooting began in 1999 on their film "Hollywood Horror," the co-stars started spending time together. Seven years later, on Christmas Day 2006, Hardrict, 32, told Mowry, 30, that he wanted to give her a promise ring. Then, as her entire family looked on, the "Lincoln Heights" actor yelled, "Psych!" and got down on one knee to present her with a 1.5-carat diamond engagement ring. Antonio Pierce and Jocelyn Maldonado Antonio Pierce, an NFL linebacker, met Jocelyn Maldonado during a celebrity appearance at an ESPN Fantasy Football Draft. Maldonado, a model at the event, instantly caught his eye. Pierce and Maldonado (who now hosts Mets Weekly) were inseparable over the next six months. In February 2007, Pierce treated Maldonado to a helicopter ride above Manhattan, New York, before dining at Brooklyn's The River Café. Famous for its chocolate Brooklyn Bridge cake, Pierce conspired with the restaurant's manager to place the engagement ring atop the confection, which was covered with pink rose petals. Howie Dorough and Leigh Boniello Backstreet Boy Howard "Howie" Dorough got more than he bargained for after hiring Leigh Boniello to be the band's webmaster in December 2000. Boniello went on tour with the group and quickly grew close to Dorough. Six years later, the couple attended a New Year's Eve party at the New Jersey home of Boniello's father. "I figured, what better timing," says Dorough, "because all of her family was going to be there, including her 92-year-old grandmother." Just before the stroke of midnight, Dorough made a toast and presented Boniello with a custom-designed three-stone diamond engagement ring. Brandon Routh and Courtney Ford Three years before actor Brandon Routh donned those famous blue tights, he tended bar at Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood. During a party there in 2003, actress Courtney Ford repeatedly poured out the drinks he made her as a ruse to chat him up. "I kept asking him for another drink, telling him the one before was too strong," she recalls. In 2006, Routh purchased the 3-carat diamond ring that had caught Ford's eye during an earlier visit to Neil Lane. But since the two were traveling for the Superman Returns press tour, Routh asked Gilbert Adler, one of the film's producers, to hold the ring until they arrived in England. "Poor man!" says Routh. "He carried it around for two and a half weeks." Finally, while picnicking in Glastonbury, Routh popped the question. Roselyn Sanchez and Eric Winter Roselyn Sanchez and Eric Winter became friends after meeting at a party in 2006 and Sanchez immediately pegged him as perfect husband material. She found out for certain that he felt the same way just two days before Christmas 2007, under a full moon at midnight, in a bay off the coast of the Puerto Rican island Vieques. The two were seated in a double kayak, taking in the bioluminescent organisms shimmering in the water all alone, except for a tour guide in a second kayak. The scene should have been pure bliss, except that Sachez was concerned when their guide speedily paddled away. "The guy knew to take off so Eric could propose, but imagine how I felt floating in this huge bay in the middle of the night with nobody around," Sanchez explains. "I started calling back, 'Senor, hello! Come back!' until I realized something was going on." After an "amazing speech," Winter pulled out
[ "Who got engaged on the set of a slasher movie?", "Who got engaged?" ]
[ [ "Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict." ], [ "Brandon Routh" ] ]
Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict got engaged on the set of a slasher movie . Backstreet Boy Howard "Howie" Dorough proposed on New Year's Eve . Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell first met in Las Vegas, Nevada . Jason Priestley proposed on the street corner where he and Naomi Lowde met .
(InStyle.com) -- Style-maker, TV host and opinionated fashionista Carson Kressley explains how to give yourself a complete makeover--inside and out. Style-maker Carson Kressley spills the naked truth on giving yourself a mental makeover. Minimize the negative As Coco Chanel said, "Fashion is architecture: It's a matter of proportions." In other words: No matter which part of your body you dislike, there's a clever way to divert the eye elsewhere. Try different styles and employ horizontal (widening), vertical (elongating) and diagonal (slimming) lines as necessary. Venture out of your comfort zone "Many women get used to dressing their body a certain way because they think it's the only thing that works for them," says Kressley. Find a boutique or department store with well-trained salespeople and try on three styles you've never worn. It might be a fabric such as jersey that you've always deemed too clingy or an Empire-waist camisole that you're convinced looks too young. Not every experiment will be a success, but even one new style or color will prove that there are more ways than you thought to look your best. Don't be ruled by your insecurities If you've been avoiding the beach or missing out on parties because you're afraid of being the largest person there, grab a friend and go to the very place that incites terror--just be sure you're wearing an amazing outfit. Avoid a blackout "Have you ever seen a happy goth?" muses Kressley. "I think everyone needs color to feel good." Too many women rely on head-to-toe black as a form of camouflage. But any hue can be slimming if worn monochromatically--so instead of black, reach for plum, gray or chocolate brown. Clean out your closet Whether you're holding on to clothes that are too small because you hope you'll fit into them someday, or clothes that are too big for fear you'll grow back into them, you're keeping past wounds open. "Old clothes stop you from living in the present," says Kressley. "They reinforce what you used to look like." Get rid of anything you haven't worn in two years and replace it with something new that makes you feel pretty. And while you're out shopping, have a house-cleaner swing by for good measure. Write yourself a love note Some women are so obsessed with their hips that they fail to notice their flat tummy. Remind yourself of your virtues by writing a note that says something like "Hey, you have a great chest!" Tack it to the bathroom mirror so you'll see it in the morning and before bedtime. "We're so trained to look for the negative that we need a physical reminder of the positive," explains Kressley. Have a princess moment Treating yourself to a massage, a body exfoliation, a professional blow-out, a brow shaping or a mani-pedi can elevate your mood by affirming to yourself that you're worth the splurge. Get naked Some women on Kressley's show are so self-conscious about their bodies that they're reluctant to be naked around their husbands. That discomfort affects how they feel when dressed too. Before you can move as if you own the room, you'll have to be at ease inside your skin, and spending time in the buff can help. One idea: Take a bath with the (gasp!) lights on--no candles. "Feeling comfortable with your body alone is the first step to feeling comfortable with your body around others," says Kressley. If all else fails, fake it One of Kressley's favorite mantras is "looking cute is feeling cute." So if you're having a low day, force yourself to go through the motions. Put on your makeup, do your hair, wear a great outfit. Sometimes faking it can give you enough of a boost to lift you out of the doldrums. "Feeling pretty
[ "what is the problem with old clothes", "what does carson kressley say" ]
[ [ "stop you from living in the present,\"" ], [ "\"Many women get used to dressing their body a certain way because they think it's the only thing that works for them,\"" ] ]
Fashionista Carson Kressley: Women get stuck in fashion ruts . Well-trained salespeople can help you try new styles, colors . Old clothes reinforce old looks; toss anything you haven't worn in 2 years . Remind yourself of good things about your body .
(InStyle.com) -- The Cyrus family is ready to rock and always on a roll at its new L.A. home. Kick back and chill out with Billy Ray, Miley and the entire guitar-crazy clan. Billy Ray, Tish and Miley join Braison and Noah for chips and salsa in the kitchen before a rare barbecue. After months on the road, playing concerts one city at a time, Hannah Montana deserves a little R&R when she gets home. "I just Superman onto my bed," says Miley Cyrus, 15, whose Disney Channel alter ego has made her a pop sensation, with two multiplatinum sound-track albums and more than 70 sold-out concerts in the past year. "I love to sleep. I'd sleep all day if I could." Her father and Hannah co-star, country music icon Billy Ray Cyrus, prefers to think of the family's Mediterranean-style villa in North Hollywood as more than a crash pad. "I like for the house to be an escape from the insanity that is outside," says the 46-year-old singer and actor best known for his signature hit "Achy Breaky Heart." Inside, the superstars focus simply on relaxing with Miley's mom and manager, Tish, 41, grandmother Loretta Finley (who runs Miley's fan club), 72, brothers Trace, 19, and Braison, 14, and sisters Brandi, 21, and Noah, 8. "Our house is fun," says Miley. "Parts of it are really modern, but it's mostly old Italian country." She opted for a "more chill" vibe in her two-room bedroom one for sleeping, one for hanging out and playing music with friends such as dancer Mandy Jiroux and High School Musical's Ashley Tisdale. Inspired by the ultra-cool Viceroy Hotel in nearby Santa Monica, the suite has sea blue walls, coral-filled lamps and a delicate shell chandelier that hangs over her bed. "It feels beachy and Old Hollywood," says Miley. "I love the way the room is laid out." Billy Ray felt the same way about the entire house the first time he saw it in 2007, when the family decided they needed more space and privacy in the after-blast of Hannah Montana's success... "I just walked in and said, 'That's it; that's the place,'" he says. Though Billy Ray and Miley have work to do in their native Tennessee, where the highly anticipated Hannah Montana movie is filming, right now he's eager to lead his youngest daughter on a roller-skating expedition around the house. Miley sits at the foot of the stairs, teaching her brother how to break in his guitar strings. The Cyrus clan is happy to be home, even if the comings and goings of family and friends sometimes get as crazy as life on the road. "It feels like we're at the YMCA; there are so many people just in our family," Miley says with a laugh. "Then our friends come over, and it's like, OK, this is a stinkin' country club!" Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE!
[ "How many bedrooms does Cyrus have?", "Who is the alter ego Hannah Montana?", "how many bedrooms?", "Who is Miley Cyrus' alter ego?", "Where does Cyrus live?" ]
[ [ "two-room" ], [ "Miley Cyrus," ], [ "two-room" ], [ "Hannah Montana" ], [ "L.A." ] ]
Miley Cyrus' Disney Channel alter ego is Hannah Montana, a pop sensation . Cyrus has two bedrooms, one for sleeping and one for hanging out . The family bought their new L.A. home in the wake of Cyrus' recent success . Cyrus lives with her mom, dad, grandmother, two brothers and two sisters .
(InStyle.com) -- The co-star of "27 Dresses" discusses his personal style. "I just feel dirty," says James Marsden. Not to be alarmed: There's nothing indecent going on here. James Marsden talks about his favorite kind of clothes and how his style has changed over the years. The 34-year-old is explaining what it feels like to be sporting facial hair for a film he's working on with Cameron Diaz. Yet even the newly grown whiskers can't hide the finely chiseled features of an actor who seems to have cornered the Hollywood market on hottie-who-loses-the-girl roles ("Enchanted," "Superman Returns" and, of course, "The Notebook.") But the Oklahoma-bred star doesn't mind his wholesome image. "That's really me," he says. "I'm a little dorky -- awkward." However, his onscreen luck could be changing with his latest film, "27 Dresses," a romantic comedy co-starring Katherine Heigl. Scruffy or not, we'll be watching. You've played a prince in "Enchanted" and the superhero Cyclops in the "X-Men" movies. Is that a big deal to your kids and their friends? My daughter, Mary, is only 2, and my son, Jack, is 7. He has a Cyclops action figure, but he's really into Spider-Man and Pixar movies -- Buzz Lightyear is his guy. No "Superman," no "X-Men." I think he just assumes that everyone at his school has a dad who's a big superhero. You also played Corny Collins, the TV dance-show host in "Hairspray." What were you like in high school? That's when I came out of my shell and became more social -- people thought I was funny. I got into a whole preppy thing -- Duck Head shorts and Dockers. How would you describe your style now? Functional comfort. For a guy, it shouldn't ever look like you thought about it too much, like the clothes are wearing you. Whose clothes do you like? Paul Smith off the rack -- it's a slim cut, and I don't need to have it tailored. I always feel like an 8-year-old when I dress up in a suit, like, when can I take this thing off? But I wore a black Dolce & Gabbana suit to the première of "Hairspray" that was like, OK, now I know what a great suit is. Classic, clean lines -- sharp, sharp, sharp. Do you change your style from coast to coast? In L.A. it's too easy to throw on a pair of American Apparel sweats, a T-shirt and running shoes and just wear those for days. In New York, I actually like looking nice. Maybe I'm just getting older, but young guys need to pull their pants up. Do you ever shop for your wife? I love shopping for dresses, and I actually do a pretty good job. When I was in New York, I went into J. Crew in Soho and got her a cool fifties type dress with tiny polka dots. Style-wise I'm good, but figuring out sizing is a different story. What do you find sexy on a woman? I like spaghetti straps for my wife -- she has great shoulders and a great neck. I love when she puts her hair up, because I can see the back of her neck, so delicate and vulnerable. It's the vampire in me. Or my obsession with cheerleaders -- their hair up in a ponytail. When I was young, I could never have that. Never got the cheerleader? Eventually -- my wife was a cheerleader. What does your wife find sexy on you? A button-front shirt with [baby] spit-up on the shoulder. That means a guy is taking care of the kids and is a good father --
[ "Who likes to dress up?", "Where was James Marsden born?", "When did Marsden show off his preppy side?", "What did Marsden do in high school?", "Who can shop style for women?", "Who showed off his prepper side in high school?", "What did Marsden show off in high school?", "What does Marsden like to do?", "What does Marsden like to do other than throw on sweats?" ]
[ [ "James Marsden" ], [ "Oklahoma-bred" ], [ "high school?" ], [ "came out of my shell and became more social" ], [ "James Marsden." ], [ "James Marsden" ], [ "Duck Head shorts and Dockers." ], [ "looking nice." ], [ "looking nice." ] ]
In high school Marsden showed off his preppy side . While it's easy for him to throw on sweats, Marsden likes to dress up . Actor says he is inspired by Paul Newman . Marsden: I can shop style for women, but size is a different issue .
(InStyle.com) -- The holiday season is also the engagement season! A gorgeous cushion-cut stunner by Daniel K. Yes, you read that right. It's been said that nearly 40 percent of all marriage proposals occur between Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day. If you're one of the lucky ladies hoping for a ring this season (or one of the nervous gentlemen contemplating popping the question), use this guide to popular diamond shapes and cuts -- and the stars who sport them -- to get acquainted with the dazzling world of engagement rings. Emerald No shape more aptly fits the diamond nickname "ice" than the emerald, a rectangular cut with lean facets extending down the sides. This elegant art deco shape received its confusing name during the 1920s, when it was typically used for emeralds. Characterized by a flat top and step-shaped side facets, an emerald cut cries out for a clean setting. Star Power: Eva Longoria, Ellen Pompeo, Melania Knauss Asscher The Asschers of Amsterdam, gem cutters for the British royal family, designed this striking, dramatic shape in 1902. A square with diagonally cropped corners and stepped sides, it features a high crown and sheds a gentle light. Star Power: Tameka Foster, Ashlee Simpson, Christine Costner Cushion A square with curved sides and rounded corners, this stone shines softly instead of sparkling. Cushion-cut center stones surrounded by tiny diamonds are especially in vogue. Star Power: Jeri Ryan, Courtney Ford, Guiliana DePandi Princess Think of this flirty, flashy option as the "Yeah, baby!" stone, and not only because it was dreamt up in London during the swinging sixties. The arrangement of the gem's many (49 to 144) facets produces a hall-of-mirrors effect. Star Power: Stephanie March, Kara Janx, Sarah Michelle Gellar Oval Ovals have been enjoying a high profile since Tom Cruise placed a gorgeous one on Katie Holmes's finger. The cool cousin of the round, the oval shares many of that stone's features, with plenty of sparkle and versatility when it comes to settings. The long shape is especially flattering. Star Power: Bridgette Wilson, Toni Braxton, Rebecca Romijn Pear Made to sit with the point facing up, this lusciously feminine (and unusual) cut frequently goes solo because few wedding bands fit easily beneath the large underside of this stone. Star Power: Katherine Heigl, Lela Rochon, Tiffany Fallon Marquise The name for this cut comes from 18th-century Versailles, where courtiers wore ship-shaped rings as a sign of their rank. Today the marquise can be worn lengthwise or sailing sideways across the finger. Star Power: Catherine Zeta Jones, Victoria Beckham, Portia de Rossi Round Created by Marcel Tolkowsky in 1919, the round diamond is the most popular shape for engagement rings. It's often called the round brilliant because it has triangular facets, arranged to direct light from the bottom of the stone up through the top for maximum sparkle. Star Power: Katherine McPhee, Roselyn Sanchez, Mary J. Blige Radiant This rectangular stone, introduced in the seventies, lives up to its name: By combining long, lean, step-cut and triangular facets, it refracts lots of light. So if you decide on this shape, keep the setting simple. Star Power: Heidi Klum, Leslie Grossman, Anna Chlumsky Rose-Cut Most diamonds have a flat top with facets on the edges and bottom, but a rose-cut diamond is domed and covered with facets. Carat for carat, rose-cut diamonds, which cast a mellow, soft light, are typically less expensive than other shapes. Star Power: Melissa Akey Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE!
[ "Where does the name for the Marquise cut come from?", "What is the most popular shape for engagement rings?", "Where did the name for the Marquise cut originate?", "Does a rose-cut diamond have facets?" ]
[ [ "18th-century Versailles," ], [ "round diamond" ], [ "from 18th-century Versailles," ], [ "covered with" ] ]
Think of the flirty, flashy Princess cut as the "Yeah, baby!" stone . The name for the Marquise cut comes from 18th-century Versailles . A rose-cut diamond is domed and covered with facets . The round diamond is the most popular shape for engagement rings .
(InStyle.com) -- Think of a swimsuit as your strategic dare-to-bare ally: Find one in a flattering color and cut, and it can give you the confidence you'll want when it's time to drop the towel. There's no getting around the fact that swimsuit shopping can be a major drag, but if you put your mind to it, you will find a suit that downplays what you don't love and highlights what you do. Maximize a small bust Underwires, boning and padding add shape and fullness to your chest, says stylist Julie Weiss, who has worked with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Gabrielle Union. Just be sure that any padding is subtle and, once wet, doesn't show through. InStyle.com: Lose muffin top in 3 weeks Ruffles, like shirring, can also be a plus, since they can make any area look bigger. Also consider the art of distraction. Jeanne Yang, who has styled Katie Holmes and Brooke Shields, says a top with a funky pattern, polka dots or embellishments will camouflage a petite chest. Minimize a large bust In a top, don't be tempted to go too small: Spillage along the sides will just make the chest look bigger. And keep in mind that suits run about two sizes smaller than your clothing size. InStyle.com: 12 ways to look thinner by tonight An underwire or built-in bra gives structure and support, says Weiss. Seek out bra sizing in bathing suit tops for a more accurate fit. And when you're trying on either one or two-pieces, make sure the straps are sturdy. Keyhole or string-bikini triangle tops and demi bras aren't ideal for big busts, says Yang, since they don't provide enough coverage or support. Banish belly bulge A plunging halter top draws the eye up and away from any pooch below. Details or a bold pattern on the midsection can also be positively distracting -- a busy print keeps the eye moving so it doesn't settle on a less-than-flat tummy. InStyle.com: How stars get bikini-ready In one-piece styles, look for extras like built-in tummy control panel or a suit that has significantly more spandex; the Miraclesuit, for instance, has up to three times more than the usual swimsuit. In terms of two-pieces, a tankini is probably a better choice than a bikini. In either style, make sure that any elastic in the waistband does not cause belly spillover. Lower body help A high cut in the leg (but nothing higher than the hip bone) helps heavy thighs look slimmer. Leave boy shorts at the store - -they make the derrière and thighs look bigger. Also pass on any prints and ruffles on the lower half that draw attention to the rear. Emphasize your top with color blocks, light colors or embellishment at the chest--they'll draw the eye away from a heavier bottom. And consider mix and matching bikini pieces: Wear a print on top and a dark solid on the lower half, or white on top and black on the bottom. See more fashion coverage at InStyle.com Get a FREE TRIAL issue of InStyle - CLICK HERE!
[ "What is good for a small bust?", "What can a swimsuit do ?", "What draws the eye away from a belly bulge?", "What can a plunging halter top do ?", "What makes the derriere and thighs look bigger?" ]
[ [ "Underwires, boning and padding" ], [ "give you the confidence" ], [ "A plunging halter top" ], [ "draws the eye up and away from any pooch below." ], [ "boy shorts" ] ]
Find a swimsuit that downplays what you don't love and highlights what you do. Small bust: Underwires, boning and padding add shape and fullness to your chest . A plunging halter top draws the eye up and away from any belly bulge . Leave boy shorts at the store - -they make the derrière and thighs look bigger .
(InStyle.com) -- Toss that basic black and indulge in a fashion fantasy this year. We asked the four gorgeous stars of ABC's new TV show "Cashmere Mafia" to take part in a little experiment: If you could slip into a different guise for a day, what would it be? Frances O'Connor in Zac Posen silk gown, José and María Barrera rhodium-plated earrings with Austrian crystals. Frances O'Connor glams it up Understated when it comes to her own style and buttoned up in banker stripes as Zoe on Cashmere Mafia, Frances O'Connor, 40, has been hankering for an infusion of pure glamour. "I love the idea of wearing a dress that's a work of art in itself," says the actress, who slipped easily into a red-carpet fantasy with a mouthwatering cherry-hued gown by Zac Posen. O'Connor's "safety first" approach to fashion means living mostly in simple Marc Jacobs pieces, but it's a sensibility that doesn't offer much in the way of frippery -- which suits her just fine. "I don't like to stand out too much," says the willowy Anglo-Aussie beauty. Still, Posen's fluttering cascades of silk offer both a role reversal and a respite. "A fantasy has to move you to feel like a different person," she says. "That's fun for a day. Then I like to put my jeans back on and go home." Lucy Liu relives the forties Few decades enthrall Lucy Liu like the 1940s. "I like the idea of updating a traditional silhouette from that era in a fresh way," says Liu, whose character, Mia, reigns over a New York publishing fiefdom in power looks by Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino and Rachel Roy. Despite its abstract floral print, the ruffled organza dress by Christian Lacroix would seem right at home on the cover of a World War II-period glossy, yet Liu imbues it with a distinctly modern verve. "There was something really elegant and erotic about women back then, with their girdles and cinched-in waists," she says. On the set the 39-year-old star relishes watching costume designer Patricia Field work her sartorial sorcery with a swirl of offbeat textures and trimmings. "The other day my character was wearing a gold lamé striped dress with a coffee-hued belt, black leggings and green earrings. It's contagious," says Liu, who finds herself mixing -- and not matching -- more freely these days. Miranda Otto indulges in gems Famous for playing a Middle Earth maiden in the Lord of the Rings movies, Aussie actress Miranda Otto found herself dressing a little like one offscreen too, in muted, ethereal garb. But her arctic complexion and fiery tresses are the perfect canvas on which to throw splashes of drama. "Shooting Cashmere Mafia [the 40-year-old beauty plays steely hotelier Juliet] has made me lust for accessories," she says. Presto: Otto is resplendent in scads of jewelry. "Wearing stacks of the stuff makes it more interesting," she adds. There's just one catch to donning such beguiling accents: "My 2-year-old daughter, Darcey, wants everything." Bonnie Somerville goes for fifties bombshell Bonnie Somerville longs for the bygone days when women were perennially polished. "In the fifties you'd never leave the house without your hair done, your face on, and a nice dress. Me, I have my staple uniform of jeans, tank tops and flats." To resolve her clothing ennui, the actress chose a dazzling yellow Lela Rose number that is equal parts Bond Girl and Palm Beach socialite. "It's something I never thought I could wear for daytime," says the Brooklyn, New York-bred singer and actress who plays Cashmere's trendy cosmetics exec, Caitlin. A skinny metallic belt gives the look more of a now vibe. "On the show, with everything we wear, Patricia Field says, 'Put a belt on it!'" says Somerville, 33. "Now I'm buying belts
[ "Who has their own style?", "What did Bonnie Somerville wear?", "Who wears scads of jewelry?", "Who has their own style?", "Who is wearing belts on and off screen?", "What did Miranda Otto wear?", "Who likes 1940's silhouettes?" ]
[ [ "Frances O'Connor" ], [ "a dazzling yellow Lela Rose number" ], [ "Otto" ], [ "Frances O'Connor," ], [ "Somerville," ], [ "muted, ethereal garb." ], [ "Lucy Liu" ] ]
Each actress in "Cashmere Mafia" has own style . Lucy Liu likes 1940's silhouettes . Miranda Otto wears scads of jewelry . Bonnie Somerville is wearing belts on and off screen .
(LifeWire) -- Colleen Hiltbrunner spent two years researching her dream trip to South Africa. But she wasn't looking for the perfect safari lodge. She was hunting for the right cosmetic surgeon. When she told her family, it wasn't an easy sell. "South Africa? You're going to get some kind of witch doctor," she recalls her father saying. "But I told him they perfected some of the first heart surgeries down there. To me, South Africa had the most reputable surgeons." Hiltbrunner, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, traveled to Johannesburg in 2004 for a face-lift, upper arm lift and eyelid surgery. And she and her husband -- who hadn't taken a vacation in 20 years -- went on a luxury safari, included in the package by medical-travel agency Surgeon and Safari. "Medical tourism" may sound strange, but patients are discovering they can get some cosmetic surgeries abroad for less than the U.S. price. And many surgeries include sightseeing packages. The roster of countries in which hospitals and surgeons are marketing their services to foreigners is growing. South Africa, Argentina, Thailand, Brazil, Costa Rica, India and Singapore have become major players. Robert Painter, a travel writer from Albuquerque, New Mexico, journeyed last year to Argentina for dental surgeries -- and tango lessons: "If I'm going to be stuck somewhere for two weeks at a time, twice, Buenos Aires has got to be the best possible place," he says Painter's procedures were organized by Plenitas, a medical-travel facilitator in Buenos Aires, which booked him at a hotel with a dance studio in the back. He wasn't the only guest getting surgery: "While I was there, there was a young lady who was also having implants -- though not of the dental type." Cost-cutting pros and cons Cosmetic, or elective, procedures aren't covered by insurance, so cost remains the motivating factor for most medical tourists. Surgeries in many countries cost half or even one-fifth what they would in the U.S. -- including airfare, hotel and excursions. "A full face-lift that would cost $20,000 in the U.S. runs about $1,250 in South Africa," a 2005 article in U-Daily, the University of Delaware's online news service noted. Faith Richter, of Hope Sound, Florida, got a face-lift in Bangkok, Thailand. Her trip was organized by New York City's Med Journeys. "In the U.S., it would have cost $20,000 for the procedure alone, with no time in the hospital," she says. In Bangkok, Richter was in the hospital four days, and the total cost of her 19-day trip, including sightseeing and airfare for two, was $10,600. Painter estimates he saved $18,000 on his surgeries. "Cost was the primary factor," he says. "The only factor." Medical costs abroad are less than in the U.S. for many reasons -- favorable exchange rates, lower salaries and fewer medical lawsuits, which means lower malpractice-insurance costs. But the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery warns against low-cost surgery. "Get bargains on your shoes and laundry detergent, not on your face," says spokesman Tony Staffieri. "Researching the quality of doctors should be a patient's primary consideration, but it isn't always," he says. "Some people think 'tummy tuck and shopping.' This is not makeup; it's somebody cutting you." Some medical professionals fear that patients will overlook the severity of invasive surgeries and fail to ask the right questions. More casual attitudes toward plastic surgery -- spurred by lunch-break Botox treatments and same-day liposuctions, paired with temptingly cheap alternatives and vacation packages -- increase the risk of bad outcomes. Even stateside, cosmetic surgery can have tragic results. "First Wives Club" author Olivia Goldsmith died during a chin-tuck in 2004, and this year Kanye West's mother, Donda, died after a tummy tuck and breast
[ "What are prices like overseas?", "Where are prices cheaper?", "Where is it cheaper?", "Is it covered by insurance?" ]
[ [ "\"A full face-lift that would cost $20,000 in the U.S. runs about $1,250 in South Africa,\"" ], [ "South Africa, Argentina, Thailand, Brazil, Costa Rica, India and Singapore" ], [ "abroad" ], [ "Cosmetic, or elective, procedures aren't" ] ]
Tummy tuck tourism is on the rise as companies make arrangements . Most cosmetic procedures not covered by insurance . Prices overseas are cheaper . Company: 80 percent of doctors they use are trained in U.S.
(LifeWire) -- For some, Valentine's Day can be heavenly. For others, it's just plain hell. Take Felicia Sullivan, of Brooklyn. Four years ago, she and her live-in boyfriend -- the guy she thought she would marry -- were having a pre-Valentine's Day brunch when Sullivan leaned over and whispered a few sweet nothings in his ear. "I said, 'I'm so happy to know that you're the one for me. Aren't you glad to know I'm the one for you?' " says Sullivan, 32, who works in marketing. "And there was this silence. And then he was, like, 'I know you're the one for me now. But can you give me until summer to make a final decision?' " Aghast at his response, Sullivan quickly broke things off -- but she couldn't move until she found a new apartment. Home alone on February 14 in the apartment they shared, she decided to snoop through her ex-boyfriend's e-mail and discovered he'd had contact with several other women while they were together. "I've never been a big fan of the holiday," Sullivan says. "But now I typically refer to it as Black Monday..." Watch whether romance is still alive » Good times, bad times Sullivan isn't alone in dreading Valentine's Day. Thanks to super-sized expectations and over-the-top commercialization, February 14 has gone from a sentimental aside to a pressure-filled gauntlet lined with chocolate boxes, tennis bracelets and cheesy stuffed bears. See where the love dollars go » "The holiday's designed to make you feel (bad)," says Judy McGuire, author of "How Not to Date." "If you're in a relationship, it's never anything that it's supposed to be. And if you're single, you feel like a big loser because you don't have anybody. I think people should lower Valentine's Day expectations to pretty much nil. That way, anything that happens is good." Brian Wise, a 32-year-old technical writer from Seattle has seen his Valentine's Day go sideways repeatedly -- most memorably the time he ended up in handcuffs (and not in a good way). "Last year, I was in Singapore and I met this beautiful woman who took me to dinner at this hot, new restaurant,'" he says. "But then she gets food poisoning and ends up in an alley with major gastrointestinal problems. And while I'm standing guard, the cops pull up and think I'm paying her for sex." Wise talked his way out of an arrest (luckily, one of the policemen had eaten at the same place) but he's found no release from his unlucky Valentine's. "It doesn't matter who I'm out with," he says. "The day is just cursed." There are ways, though, to avoid a miserable holiday. Good plans Most women will admit they like to celebrate, but a fancy night on the town isn't necessary. "Sometimes, hanging out at home can be a lot more fun than going out to some restaurant filled with couples," says author McGuire. "Stay home with champagne, caviar and maybe a new toy from a tasteful sex shop." If you're not dating anyone, take some time to indulge yourself (a luxurious bar of chocolate, a pedicure), do something relaxing (take a yoga class or get a massage) or spend time with some of your closest friends. Make sure you're on the same page And if you do make plans, stick to them. Galen, a 28-year-old secretary from Seattle, and her boyfriend had made special Valentine's Day plans a month in advance. But on the big night, his buddies showed up and talked him into going out with them instead. "I was dressed to the nines," says Galen
[ "Who was the women?", "What other name did a woman refer to Valentine's day as?", "What was the man's worst Valentine's Day?", "What relationship between man and woman?" ]
[ [ "Felicia Sullivan, of Brooklyn." ], [ "Black Monday...\"" ], [ "met this beautiful woman who took me to dinner at this hot, new restaurant,'\" he says. \"But then she gets food poisoning and ends up in an alley with major gastrointestinal problems. And while I'm standing guard, the cops pull up and think I'm paying her for sex.\"" ], [ "live-in boyfriend" ] ]
Woman remembers one Valentine's Day as "Black Monday" High expectations for day can come crashing down . Man ended Valentine's Day in handcuffs with date puking . Skip gag gifts -- can of Spam not a good gift .
(LifeWire) -- Practicing the clarinet may be beyond tedious for teenagers forced into music lessons by their parents but for 70-year-old Joe Pedlosky it's a labor of love. Saxophonist Jerry Hendricks from Olympia, Washington, practices in Cambria, California, in March 2006 "From the time I was a little kid, I always wanted to play clarinet," says Pedlosky, a retired scientist in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. "But we didn't have the money. Then ... I decided it was now or never." Pedlosky, who plays with a local band, is one of many seniors picking up a musical instrument late in life. Many can thank New Horizons International Music Association, which sponsors senior bands and orchestras in the United States and Canada. The group was founded by Roy Ernst, professor emeritus at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. When he formed the first senior-only band in 1991, it was a radical notion. "It was widely believed that the window of opportunity for learning music was childhood," Ernst says. "If you didn't learn then, you missed your chance." The senior bands prove otherwise. As a matter of fact, these novice musicians give new meaning to the conductor's command, "Once more, with feeling." "I remember conducting at a senior band camp in California, and we played an arioso by Bach," recalls Ernst. "The second time through, two people were crying, they were so touched by the music. "High school kids could never do what we do, because they haven't lived enough, they haven't seen enough joy or sorrow. We have a special ability to play music expressively and with feeling." Ernst, who sometimes refers to himself as the Johnny Appleseed of senior bands, made it his goal to bring seniors to music. From just one band in Rochester, New Horizons has grown to more than a hundred bands, plus offshoots from brass quintets to swing ensembles. Music for body and soul Ernst's passion moved Professor Don Coffman of the University of Iowa to create his own senior band -- and to conduct research into how music can benefit older musicians. His findings: Benefits include social, emotional, physical and even spiritual growth. In part, Coffman found, seniors benefit from being part of a group that works together toward a significant goal. Other plusses can include better ability to focus, increased lung capacity and improved fine motor skills. Dinny Stamp would agree. She'd played trombone in high school; after retiring, she attended a performance of Coffman's Iowa City band and thought, "I can do that!" Playing in the band "has been one of the most rewarding experiences of not only my retirement, but my life," says Stamp, who turns 78 this month. "It's a joy to make wonderful music with new friends and to share this music with the community." Judy Schroeder, 62, another member of the Iowa City band, took up the oboe about three months before retirement. "I find that playing music really keeps your mind agile ... and our band director wants to challenge us to do well, think hard, try hard. It's just so much fun." She's enjoying herself so much that she has taken up the bassoon as well. Getting started If you're interested in getting involved with instrumental music, look for a band in your area on the New Horizons Web site. If there's no senior band available, or if you're interested in learning on your own, most teachers are willing to take on an older student. Pedlosky advises searching for the right kind of person so you're not quickly turned off. "It's important, if you're going to start cold, to really find a good teacher -- someone who sets standards for you but is also mature enough to understand that it's unusual for an older person to take up something about which they know nothing." There are real differences between younger and older
[ "What do they play?", "Who sponsors the band", "Who are making music?", "What instrument do they play", "What are the benefits of music for seniors?", "What are the benefits" ]
[ [ "music" ], [ "New Horizons International Music Association," ], [ "seniors" ], [ "clarinet,\"" ], [ "social, emotional, physical and even spiritual growth." ], [ "being part of a group that works together toward a significant goal." ] ]
More seniors are making music in their golden years . They play an instrument they learned before or pick up new one . Group sponsors senior bands and orchestras in U.S. Benefits: Social, emotional, physical -- even spiritual growth .
(LifeWire) -- After his father was diagnosed with dementia in 1996, Anthony Lazzara Jr. faced a difficult decision: He and his wife, Gail, either could place his father, Anthony Lazzara Sr., in a facility, or they could care for him themselves. Anthony Lazzara Jr. (right) and his wife, Gail (left), cared for Anthony Lazzara Sr. at home for eight years. Unable to afford a care facility, the Lazzaras brought him home. So began eight long years of caring for the World War II veteran and onetime truck driver as he slowly declined -- a burden borne largely by Gail, 56. She fed him, bathed him and changed his diapers on a daily basis while her husband, a truck driver, was on the road. Slowly, she says, her marriage began to crumble. "I couldn't take my frustration out on my father-in-law," she says. Instead, she took it out on her husband. "We almost ended up divorcing over the whole deal," says Anthony Jr., 56. Gail concedes she considered leaving, "but I couldn't walk away from my father-in-law." Two years ago, the Lazzaras finally threw in the towel. A bed became available at a local Veterans Affairs facility, and the elder Lazzara was admitted. He remained there until April 2008, when he died at age 95. A difficult labor of love As the Lazzaras can attest, the stress of caring for an elderly parent can overwhelm a relationship. Chauffeuring loved ones to appointments, handling their shopping, assuming their financial burden, even just living under the same roof can test even the most committed couples. In 2004, the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP reported that over 44 million Americans care for an adult family member or friend. Almost 80 percent of these are caring for someone older than 50. Although caring for a parent in their twilight years can be rewarding, it can also be a trial, says Beth Witrogen, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of "Caregiving: The Spiritual Journey of Love, Loss and Renewal." "Caregiving brings out the best and worst in us all," she says. Al Levi, 39, a Brooklyn, New York, occupational therapist, has experienced that kind of strain in his marriage. Levi says he has been at odds with his wife since his father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's two years ago. "I felt like my wife wasn't taking this seriously enough, and that if it would have been her parents, it would have been more important," he says. For a while, the Levis cared for Al's father at home, but eventually it got to be more than they could handle. Levi placed his father in a nursing home this past summer. But he says the ordeal has continued to strain his marriage. "It's complicated," he says. 'Your best is good enough' Often, couples will harbor unreasonable expectations of what they can or should do -- together or individually -- to care for an aging parent. "You have to accept that your best is good enough," Witrogen says. "It may not be pretty, but you will get the job done." It's also crucial that couples communicate clearly and effectively, Witrogen says. Too often, one partner will fixate on solving the problem while neglecting to listen to the other's needs. In the Lazzaras' case, Anthony Jr. says he would search for care facilities for his father from time to time, but Gail was still left to shoulder most of the daily duties of care -- something her husband still feels guilty about. With their three children grown, "it was her time to have and here she was taking care of my dad," Anthony Jr. laments. It wasn't until the Lazzaras finally found room for Anthony Sr. at the VA facility that they finally found some relief. "We knew there was a light at the end of the
[ "what more than 44 million Americans do?", "who are they caring for", "what the stress of caring for an elderly parent can do?" ]
[ [ "care for an adult family member or friend." ], [ "World War II veteran" ], [ "overwhelm a relationship." ] ]
The stress of caring for an elderly parent can overwhelm a relationship . Couples may have unreasonable expectations of what they can or should do . More than 44 million Americans care for an adult family member or friend . Almost 80 percent of these are caring for someone older than 50 .
(LifeWire) -- Janice Shih might be the most educated pastry chef you'll ever meet. Janice Shih left her career in medicine at age 38 and became a pastry chef. Shih attended Johns Hopkins University, followed by medical school at George Washington University, then practiced for eight years as an obstetrician/gynecologist before realizing that baking, not medicine, was her calling. "Everyone would say, 'You're a doctor; it must be so great to be able to save lives,'" she says. "But I felt like I was just pushing papers and feeling pressure to see more patients in less time. It was very draining. It just wasn't fun anymore." So in 2004, at age 38, she swapped her stethoscope for a rolling pin and enrolled in the pastry program at L'Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, Maryland. "I had always been interested in pastries -- mostly interested in eating them," she says with a laugh. Shih now owns Tenzo Artisan, a bakery and catering company in Baltimore that specializes in pastries for people with food allergies -- it's rewarding, she says, to make birthday cakes for people whose dietary sensitivities had forbidden such treats. She's one of thousands of career changers who have left their cubicles for culinary school. Enrollment has risen 40 percent since 2000 at the Culinary Institute of America, and it's up 15 percent this year at The Art Institutes, which operates 30 culinary programs across the country. The trend is helped by a growing cultural interest in gourmet food and a proliferation of cooking-themed TV shows like the Food Network's "Ace of Cakes" and Bravo's "Top Chef." Plenty of possibilities Students attending the grueling programs, which can last six to 38 months, can dole out as much as $30,000 to $40,000 for the diploma. And then the real work begins. Neil Robertson, 44, was technical director at a graphic design firm in 2003 and felt like he no longer fit the mold. He quit his 18-year career and attended the French Pastry School in Chicago. "I've always loved to bake," he says. "But baking in a professional kitchen? I wasn't sure that I could handle it." In his first professional experience after pastry school, he found out how tough it can be: "I came very close to tears." Yet he persevered, and five years later became head pastry chef at Seattle's Canlis restaurant. "You're not a chef as soon as you finish culinary school," says Michael Ruhlman, author of "The Making of a Chef," an inside look at life at the Culinary Institute. "You're a chef only after spending several years further honing your craft and learning the ropes. To say otherwise would be like saying grads of medical school could instantly be called pediatric neurosurgeons the day after graduation." And becoming a chef isn't the only option. "There are so many possibilities today," says Culinary Institute President Tim Ryan. "Catering, sales, manufacturing -- we even have graduates who have launched clothing companies (or) become food scientists." Jen Beltz, 38, and Thom Householder, 40, testify to that. In 2004, they quit their jobs at AARP and followed their palates to Italy. Using the proceeds of their house sale, the couple attended a five-month culinary program in Florence, then a nine-month course in Canada. All the while, they had no idea where their gastronomic education would take them. "Some of our friends and family seemed to think we were a bit insane," Beltz recalls. But with their newfound culinary know-how, Beltz and Householder launched Front Burner PR, a boutique public-relations and marketing firm in Portland, Maine, that focuses on restaurants, hotels and other food-related clients. Don't quit your day job just yet Think carefully before writing your resignation letter -- culinary school is no cakewalk, says Robertson. "It's hot. It's fast. It
[ "Who has become the owner of a catering business?", "What type of business does the doctor now own?", "Which TV show fed the trend /", "Who may leave office drudgery for cooking school ?", "What was the profession of the individual who left their job for cooking school?", "Who said \"It just wasn't fun anymore,\" ?", "Which TV shows are leading the trend?", "What business has the physician started?" ]
[ [ "Janice Shih" ], [ "Tenzo Artisan, a bakery and catering company in Baltimore" ], [ "\"Top Chef.\"" ], [ "Janice Shih" ], [ "obstetrician/gynecologist" ], [ "Janice Shih" ], [ "like the Food Network's \"Ace of Cakes\" and Bravo's \"Top Chef.\"" ], [ "a bakery and catering company" ] ]
Physician one of thousands to leave office drudgery for cooking school . "It just wasn't fun anymore," says doctor, now owner of catering business . Chef: School is "hot. It's fast. It's high-stress" Trend is fed by TV shows "Ace of Cakes" and "Top Chef"
(LifeWire) -- Jennifer Bilotta thought she and her husband Michael had the perfect present for his cousin's wedding. The gift in question -- a fused-glass plate decorated with a "tacky scene of a bride and groom," she recalls -- had been given to Bilotta at her own wedding a few years earlier. Nothing wrong with a little regifting as long as the bride and groom enjoy the gift. Or so Bilotta thought. "She collects Barbies, and he collects G.I. Joes," says Bilotta, 33, a publicist in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania. "The plate seemed up their alley. So for their wedding gift, we gave them the plate along with a card with a check for the usual wedding amount." But the gift didn't go over well. "A few weeks after they got married, we were talking to them about their wedding gifts, and they mentioned this hideous glass plate that someone gave them," Bilotta says. "The card must have gotten separated from the plate, so they didn't know it was from us and they both went on about how ugly it was. We never fessed up." Watch when to send a gift » Deciding what to give (or not give) newlyweds is never an easy task, says Peggy Post, one of the country's leading etiquette experts and co-author of the book "A Wedding Like No Other." Before you turn into a guestzilla, however, take heart. "Gift giving doesn't have to be a stressful experience," says Post. The wrong way to give Some gifts should never be given -- namely those that you yourself received. Whether it's to save yourself some cash or to avoid the hassle of shopping, regifting is a wedding no-no, says Steve Kemble, star of Style Network's "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" and "Married Away." "What makes you think someone is going to want a gift you did not want?" Kemble says. "Plain and simple, re-gifting is tacky! If you do not have the time to think about what a couple would really want, then don't give anything at all." Kemble ticks off a few of his favorite wedding gift gaffes: shot glasses ("I simply do not think there could be anything tackier," he says); knives ( "they represent bad luck for a relationship"); and, worst of all, deciding that a gift isn't necessary, because you gave the bride or groom a gift the last time they got married. "If you feel this way, then I feel you should not attend the wedding," he says. "If you are going to sincerely celebrate with them on their special day, then show that you are happy for them, and tradition says you should do this by honoring them with a gift." The right way to give When it comes to gift giving, Rob Johnsen, co-founder of MyWedding.com, has some simple, if calculating advice: Decide how much your relationship is worth. If the happy couple are two of your most cherished friends or relatives, get ready to fork over about $200, says Johnsen. "A blender or silverware off a traditional registry won't quite have the sentiment you are looking for," he says. Is the bride or groom is someone you talk to only a few times a year, yet someone you still value? Then keep your gift between $50 and $100, and feel comfortable selecting a set of dishes off the registry, says Johnsen. For distant relations, friends of friends or other lesser acquaintances, limit your spending to $50. "Sentiment here really isn't of concern, so go for something off the registry, or some cash in a card is acceptable too," Johnsen says. Peggy Post disagrees with putting a price limit on a wedding gift ("There's no such thing as a dollar amount," she says), but she does suggest basing the amount you spend on
[ "What is an appropriate amount to spend on a wedding gift?", "What are bad wedding gifts?", "What amount is appropriate for wedding gifts to close friends?", "What is considered bad wedding gifts?", "How much should you spend on a close pal's wedding present?", "What are bad wedding gifts, according to host?" ]
[ [ "$50." ], [ "fused-glass plate decorated with a \"tacky scene of a bride and groom,\"" ], [ "$200," ], [ "re-gifting is tacky!" ], [ "about $200," ], [ "shot glasses" ] ]
Expert: $200 is appropriate spending for wedding gift to close friends . TV host: Shot glasses and knives are bad wedding gifts . Peggy Post: It's OK to split cost of high-ticket gift with other guests .
(LifeWire) -- Nancy Dunetz, who teaches English as a second language in New York City, sat down in the school staff room to check her e-mail. One of the messages in her inbox was from an acquaintance she'd been corresponding with since their 50th high school reunion last year. In a survey of 4,000 people, about a third said they had accidentally sent an e-mail to the wrong person. But this e-mail last June didn't contain chummy banter or reminiscences. It simply included a lewd photo of a partly unclothed young man. The file name of the picture was "Mid East Hottie." "I was shocked!" says Dunetz, 68. She hastily closed the e-mail and tried to erase the image from her mind. Later that day, the sender e-mailed an apology to her and two dozen others who had received the e-mail. He explained he'd been experimenting with his new computer and was trying to figure out how to add attachments to an e-mail, Dunetz says. In doing so, he attached an image from his desktop and tried to send it to himself. Instead, the e-mail program automatically filled in an entire group from his address book -- something he apparently didn't realize until after he hit the "send" button. "I felt terrible for him," Dunetz says. "I could imagine just how mortified he must have been." With some 55 billion e-mails being sent daily (not including spam), according to e-mail archiving company The Radicati Group, misdirected e-mails have become the online equivalent of a wrong number. They're unavoidable, annoying -- and often embarrassing. The 'uh-oh' e-mail In a recent online survey conducted by AOL, 32 percent of the 4,000 respondents have at one time or another mistakenly forwarded an e-mail to an unintended recipient. And often, it's something not so nice. Karla Comer, an account executive at an ad agency in Greensboro, North Carolina, knows just how embarrassing that can be. In 2004, Comer met a guy at a concert and went out with him a few times, but ultimately realized she wasn't interested. "He was just awkward and clumsy. And sometimes I'd catch him staring at me, which really creeped me out," she says. She tried to end the relationship by simply not returning his phone calls. "But then he e-mailed and casually said that he had not heard from me in a while and he hoped everything was fine but just assumed I was busy," says Comer, 31. "Before I returned his e-mail, I sent the message to a close girlfriend with a blurb about what an idiot I thought he was and that dating him was a bad idea because he had no understanding of social cues." She thought she sent the "he's an idiot" e-mail only to her girlfriend. To her horror, Comer says, the spurned beau replied a few minutes later, calling her some not-so-sweet names and suggesting that she "share THIS e-mail with your friends." "I was speechless," says Comer, who chose to not respond. "But eventually I was able to laugh at it." When errant e-mails are sent at work, however, there's often much more at stake than personal embarrassment. Three years ago, Jamie Diamond, 33, e-mailed his then-boss to ask about a client at the public relations firm where he was working. His boss wrote back, criticizing the client as incompetent and urging Diamond to "go around him if you want to get anything done." Unfortunately, Diamond says, she also sent the e-mail to the client -- oops, make that ex-client. "One click, and suddenly we'd lost a $5 million account," says Diamond, who is now self-employed as a publicist in
[ "what caused the loss of a $5 million account?", "What did the publicist say?", "What did the author share?", "Where was the email sent?" ]
[ [ "sent the e-mail to the client" ], [ "\"One click, and suddenly we'd lost a $5 million account,\"" ], [ "THIS e-mail" ], [ "to the wrong person." ] ]
Author shares embarrassing stories of e-mail sent to wrong person . "One click, and suddenly we'd lost a $5 million account," says publicist . Service called BigString.com lets e-mailers tinker with or erase messages . Expert's advice: Type recipient's full name and never use reply-all .
(LifeWire) -- The TV no longer sits on a moving box, but she's still using filing cabinets as end tables. Desiree Jacobsen graduated from college years ago, so why does her apartment resemble a dorm room? It's hard to save for the finer things when you've had to shell out money to be in five weddings in one year, three times as maid of honor. Some maids of honor have gone deep into debt rather than disappoint a friend who expects a lot. "I shop at the Salvation Army quite a bit to save money," says Jacobsen, 26, a medical editor in Dallas. Being a bride's maid or matron of honor is a distinction many women cherish. But it doesn't come cheap. It can easily cost a woman $1,000 or more for the honor of standing beside the bride on her big day, according to TheKnot.com, the leading wedding Web site. On top of the traditional expenses of wedding attire, transportation and chipping in for a gift from the bridesmaids, maids of honor can wind up hosting bridal showers, bachelorette parties and even the co-ed Jack and Jill party -- often footing the bill entirely. Expectations are reaching bridezilla proportions, a trend Anna Post, spokeswoman for the Emily Post Institute and great-great-granddaughter of the etiquette authority, attributes in part to the extensive coverage of celebrity weddings on television and in style magazines. Watch etiquette tips on attending wedding events » Many bridesmaids are left torn between maintaining a friendship and breaking the bank. Tough to say no When Sarah de Maintenon, a 33-year-old real estate agent in Syracuse, New York, agreed to be her best friend's maid of honor two years ago, the economy was good and houses were selling like hot cakes. But the currently slow real-estate market means that money has become tight as the big day -- scheduled for October -- slowly approaches. "I seriously just didn't know. I thought it was just a bachelorette party," says de Maintenon of the events she was expected to throw and attend. Her distress over the destination wedding sent her seeking advice online. The advice she received was simple, but effective: Talk to her friend and be honest about her situation. "I contemplated telling her I couldn't do it, but I couldn't break her heart," she says. "I was afraid it would cause an argument ... I didn't want to ruin her wedding day." Jacobsen hasn't skipped a wedding, but she did once skip the pre-wedding bridal portrait, which she would have had to travel out of town to participate in, because she was short on money and vacation time. "She was upset with me for a little while, but it quickly blew over because I started planning for her bachelorette party." When feelings get hurt, Jacobsen says, she tries not to take it personally. "It's usually because of the stress of the wedding." Etiquette rules vs. reality Is all this necessary? Are brides asking too much of their friends? Post says that contrary to popular belief, the bridal shower isn't the maid of honor's obligation. Traditionally, a close friend would throw a bridal shower for the bride, and sometimes that person is also the maid of honor. But expenses can be agreed upon in advance and shared by the entire wedding party. And though there may be multiple parties thrown for the happy couple, Post says, the maid of honor is not required to go. "That's not true," claims Kim Bohnert, a 32-year-old teacher in San Francisco. She's served nine stints as maid of honor and considers herself an expert bridesmaid. She insists that the entire bridal party -- especially the maid of honor -- is expected to attend all parties and shell out for a gift each time. "It definitely adds up," says Melissa Bauer, spokesperson for TheKnot.com. Bauer ticks off some of the major expenses: about $300 for a dress, $50 to
[ "What does a Bridezilla expect?", "Who is expected to organize bridal showers?", "What do Bridezillas expect?", "What may more women reconsider as the economy gets tough?", "What will women reconsider?" ]
[ [ "a lot." ], [ "maids of honor" ], [ "a lot." ], [ "shop at the Salvation Army" ], [ "between maintaining a friendship and breaking the bank." ] ]
As economy gets tough, more women may reconsider being maid of honor . Bridezilla expects bridal showers, bachelorette parties, co-ed Jack and Jill party . Bridal coach: Detail expectations early and if concerns rise, compromise .
(LiveWire) -- Voluble Gary Vaynerchuk, 31, the host of "Wine Library TV," an online video show, has been known to lick rocks, suck leather and eat dirt while on camera, all to illustrate the unique properties of wine. "Wine Library TV" host Gary Vaynerchuk discusses four spooky wine varieties for Halloween show. Of a "wild and gamey" red from Rioja, Spain, Vaynerchuk says, "Hit a deer on the road. Throw a bunch of cherries on it. Take out your knife, cut the deer. Bite it. That's the flavor profile." That kind of attitude appeals to people who are mystified by the arcane lexicon of traditional wine journals or turned off by what they perceive as elitist barriers. Across the Internet, budding wine geeks are discovering a burgeoning number of Web sites, blogs, bulletin boards and other outlets that preach the gospel of the grape in terms they can understand. About 40,000 Internet viewers -- many of them 20-somethings -- have a daily appointment with "Wine Library TV." The low-budget video blog is produced five days a week from a nondescript office in the three-level wine retail operation that Vaynerchuk's family owns in Springfield, New Jersey. Vaynerchuk has a discerning nose and palate, and he doesn't dumb down his subject. Yet he stuffs his patter with sports and pop-culture references -- and the kind of language a Wine Spectator critic would be unlikely to employ. The mission of wine sites like "Wine Library TV," say several of the people behind these new outlets, is to demystify wine (and in some cases, sell it, too). Using the language, attitude and new media that appeal to a young, tech-savvy generation, they advocate trusting one's own palate rather than obeying powerful wine critics. Some of the sites also provide opportunities for average wine drinkers to share their opinions. One site, SavorEachGlass.com, declares its dedication to "exploring the spirit of wine for a new generation," with reviews, online journals and essays that explain the finer points of winemaking -- all with attitude. "The (wine) establishment is about ratings and 'reputation,'" says the site's founder, Tynan Szvetecz, 29. "It's about collecting the 'good' stuff as defined by someone else's palate and tastes. That bores a younger generation." "We're not afraid to be smartasses," he continues. "We make fun of ourselves, old-world wine makers, new-world wine makers, and anyone else we can get our hands on." In the U.S., interest in wine is exploding. While consumption has leveled out in traditional wine-producing countries such as France, Italy and Spain, especially among young people, it has trended upwards in the U.S. for 15 straight years. The U.S. is projected to overtake No. 2 Italy by the end of 2007, according to the annual report The U.S. Wine Market: Impact Databank Review and Forecast a leading industry trade publication. Many of the new converts to wine are the so-called Millennials, the under-30 age group coveted by beverage marketers and so comfortable online that they're also called iGen, or the Internet Generation. One of the wine Web sites targeting a younger demographic is VineSugar.com, which features a blog called "Wine Burps." "We love wine but hate the elitism," writes founder, Ryan O'Donnell. "After all, it's just grape juice." With rants about wine tasting fees, a feature spotlighting "wine hotties" working at California wineries, as well as interactive maps that plot and rate wineries, VineSugar.com leaves little doubt about its target audience. CellarTracker.com, an online wine community, appeals to more established wine collectors. The site provides free software -- designed by Eric LeVine, a fortuitously named former Microsoft software developer -- that allows wine enthusiasts to create an online inventory of their wines. The 39,000 users (who count 6 million bottles in their virtual cellars) post reviews of their wines and
[ "What has risen in the last 15 years?", "Amount of people watching wine library TV?", "Which show looks at wine business?", "What has risen in the US for last 15 years?", "what internet show is mentioned", "Has wine consumption risen in the US?", "What is the show looking at?", "What alcoholic beverage consumption risen over 15 years?", "what business is talked about", "What is the number of regular viewers?", "consumption of what has risen in United States", "What is the regular viewership?", "What's the name of the Internet TV show with 40,000 regular viewrs?" ]
[ [ "consumption" ], [ "40,000 Internet viewers" ], [ "\"Wine Library TV,\"" ], [ "consumption" ], [ "\"Wine Library TV,\"" ], [ "trended upwards" ], [ "Halloween" ], [ "wine" ], [ "wine tasting" ], [ "40,000" ], [ "wine" ], [ "About 40,000 Internet viewers" ], [ "\"Wine Library TV,\"" ] ]
"Wine Library TV" Internet show has about 40,000 regular viewers . Show takes irreverent look at wine business . Wine consumption has risen in United States for last 15 years .
(LonelyPlanet.com) -- Despite the daily foot traffic, Lower Manhattan is one of the most under-appreciated parts of New York City. It's not just a playground for suits bound for Wall Street bank jobs or tourists following the old New Amsterdam crooked plan through skyscraper canyons heading to the Statue of Liberty -- or, increasingly over the coming months, crowding to get a glimpse of the new 9/11 Memorial. As someone who has spent most of the last two decades in New York City, I can't begin to count the number of times visiting friends and friends of friends have asked me for "fun things to do in New York City." The hidden sides of Lower Manhattan fit the bill. If you're heading to visit the 9/11 Memorial and are looking for other things to do in the area, try these tips: LonelyPlanet.com: 40 free attractions in New York City 1. Trinity Church's gravestones New York's most historic church, dating from 1698, faces Wall Street from Broadway. Visitors often pop in to see the stained glass and perhaps peek into the free museum (which includes a cut-out $10 bill so you can pose as Alexander Hamilton). The Hamilton focus is there because the country's first US Secretary of Treasury -- who was shot in a duel by the former Vice President Aaron Burr in 1804 (no, Dick Cheney wasn't the first VP to shoot someone) -- is buried outside. But that's not the best part of the cemetery. On the bigger plot, on the north side of the church, there are shady spots to sit, and at the far northeastern corner lies James Leeson, who left a coded message atop his tombstone. According to Kevin Walsh's superb book "Forgotten New York," the code was finally cracked nearly a century after his death in 1794. The message: "Remember death." 2. National Museum of the American Indian Manhattan got its name from the Lenape word for either "place of hills" or "place of inebriation" (the latter is certainly more apt in the past few hundred years), and Broadway itself follows old hunting trails that date centuries before Henry Hudson wandered this way. A great place to learn more about all of the Americas' pre-Columbian inhabitants is this free, relatively quiet museum. Part of the Smithsonian (and open every day), the exhibit of artifacts fills the gorgeous century-old Customs House. Many equate Native Americans with images seen in old westerns -- usually wearing the attire of the Plains Indians, evident in a shirt that may have been worn by Sioux legend Crazy Horse. The "Infinity of Nations" exhibit gives a fuller picture. I also enjoyed thumbing through Native American newspapers from around the country and seeing works like a painting by Naiche, a Chiricahua Apache "prisoner-of-war" at Fort Sill, Oklahoma a century ago. 3. Stone Street dining I'm always shocked by how many people eat lunch at unmemorable places on Broadway or chains at South Street Seaport. Locals instead bee-line for the city's first paved street, Stone Street, a small traffic-free winding lane filled with covered tables a few blocks east of Broadway (and south of Wall Street), lined with good food and bars. It gets BUSY on weekday lunches (noon to 1:30 p.m.) and as work winds down (after 4 p.m.). Go then, and share an outside table. I like Adrienne's Pizza Bar (54 Stone St.) the best, but it comes in one big size -- don't go solo. LonelyPlanet.com: How to cycle NYC like a pro 4. Rat Alley OK, most people won't want to walk down Edens Alley, an L-shaped alley near the corner of Gold Street and Fulton Street, en route from the World Trade Center site to South Street Seaport. But it's legendary. In 2001, Robert Sullivan spent many nights here for four seasons, watching a terrifying scene of "relay teams" of eight to 10 rats storming into garbage bags that roared like "
[ "where should you stop to see stained glass?", "When is the best time to visit?", "What is a feature of Lower Manhattan?", "What types of food is sold on Stone Street?", "what is what of the most under-appreciated parts of NYC?", "Where is the Trinity Church located?", "What can you see at the Trinity Church?" ]
[ [ "Trinity Church's gravestones" ], [ "weekday lunches (noon to 1:30 p.m.) and as work winds down (after 4 p.m.)." ], [ "the new 9/11 Memorial." ], [ "Pizza" ], [ "Lower Manhattan" ], [ "faces Wall Street from Broadway." ], [ "gravestones" ] ]
Lower Manhattan is one of the most under-appreciated parts of New York City . Stop at the Trinity Church to see the stained glass and free museum . Stone Street offers dining alternatives to unmemorable chain restaurants .
(MENTAL FLOSS) -- College admissions are competitive, and not just from the student's side. Sure, sometimes it's hard to get into the college of your choice, but the schools are fighting just as hard to lure in top applicants. Davidson college students don't have to visit laundromats because they enjoy the luxury of a free laundry service. While some colleges boast about class sizes, graduate fellowships, and endowment growth rates, this sort of info is likely to bore the 17-year-old students they're wooing. Instead, some schools try to come up with unique perks that appeal to students, often in the form of free services. While the cost of these "free" perks is undoubtedly built back into tuition bills, when a family's spending upwards of $40,000 a year for school, it can't hurt to help them feel like they're getting something for nothing. Here are a few you might be jealous of: 1. Free laundry Nothing's more maddening for a college student than wanting to study, party, or sleep, only to be confronted with a massive mound of laundry. Most of us know that if left unchecked, these piles of dirty clothes can grow until they're on the brink of becoming sentient beings, but students at Davidson, an elite liberal arts college in North Carolina, don't have to worry about it. Their college does the laundry for them. Since 1919, Davidson has been operating a laundry facility that allows students to drop off their laundry and pick it up once its clean and smelling of dryer sheets. At the Lula Bell Houston Laundry, students' dress shirts and blouses are even pressed and put on hangers for them. The laundry clears about six tons' worth of dirty clothes and linens a week, but if students prefer to keep their filthy T-shirts to themselves, the school also offers free self-service washers and dryers in the dorms. As if that's not enough, Davidson was even more generous when its basketball team made a miraculous run to the NCAA's Sweet 16 last March. The school shelled out the cash for free bus transport to the venue in Detroit, two nights' lodging, and a free ticket to the game for any student who wanted to go cheer on their Cinderella in person. Mental Floss: 8 tuition-free colleges 2. Free skiing Michigan Technological University offers a pretty standard slate of majors for its students, but it also has a real estate holding that might lure in applicants. The school owns Mont Ripley, a ski slope on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. While normal lift-ticket prices run at around $35 a day, Michigan Tech students can hit the slopes without dropping a dime. 3. Free computers At my undergrad alma mater, Wake Forest, one of the chief perks is that when you showed up for freshman orientation, the school gives you a fully loaded IBM Thinkpad and a printer. Students keep this laptop for two years, then trade it in for a new model before their junior year. Students then take this one with them when they graduate. While there was a downside to the system (if profs know everyone has a laptop, they're not the least bit shy about making you tote it to class), it really upped the on-campus computing efficiency. Any program you needed for a class was already loaded on the laptop, and since everyone on campus was operating one of only two types of machines, tech support could diagnose problems and fix them really quickly. Mental Floss: 12 college classes we wish our schools offered 4. Free theater tickets Nothing irks actors and theater owners quite so much as playing to an empty house, so if tickets are moving slowly, why not fill the seats with college students? NYU's Ticket Central can wrangle Broadway and Off-Broadway tickets for up to 75 percent off their face values, but sometimes, the school can get lucky students into theaters for free to help fill otherwise thin crowds. Ticket Central also boasts that it can get students into Knicks games for as
[ "What is used to lure students?", "Do students at Davidson College pay for laundry?", "What is given out for free at some colleges?", "Which ones have free laundry?", "What lures students to colleges?", "Where can I get a free computer?" ]
[ [ "free services." ], [ "don't have to visit laundromats because they enjoy the luxury of a free" ], [ "laundry service." ], [ "Davidson college students" ], [ "free services." ], [ "Wake Forest," ] ]
Some colleges have come up with unique perks to lure students . Students at Davidson College can do their laundry for free . Free computers and theater tickets are given out at some colleges . Ohio University offers discount personalized birthday cakes .
(MENTAL FLOSS) -- In the last 2,000 years, commodity shortages, financial speculation, wars, famines, and outright manias have created some pretty strange economic behavior throughout the world. Once worthless Roman coins found in the British town of Snodland are considered quite a treasure. Cake or death? In order to stop rising inflation and devaluation of the currency in third century Rome, Emperor Diocletian instituted fixed prices on most consumer goods. Anyone selling goods at prices higher than those of the emperor was put to death; this led to hoarding of goods. A law was then passed that forbade the hoarding of goods. Penalty? Death. So people just closed their businesses, then another law was passed. You guessed it: shut down your business or fail to follow in your father's business? Death. It's amazing the Roman Empire lasted as long as it did. Mental Floss: Strange things we didn't know were illegal Gonna barter like it's B.C. 99 When the Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century, so did the Roman financial system. Part of the collapse was the disappearance of Roman coinage. Nowhere was this more evident than in England, where, according to archeological evidence, money basically disappeared, driving the British isles straight back to a barter economy. Coinage only came back centuries later when the English were forced to pay protection money (Danegeld) to the Vikings to stop the constant pillaging. 99.9 percent pure In 15th century Germany, grain shortages -- acceptable -- frequently led to beer shortages -- unacceptable. In response, brewers in towns like Munich and Regensburg used seeds, spices, and rushes to flavor their beers. Showing an uncomfortable foreshadowing of future events, German authorities instituted purity laws stating that only water, barley, and hops could be used in the brewing of beer. The rule, or Reinheitsgebot, is still on the books today. Nothing but the best for France While the Sun King, Louis XIV, and his building of Versailles typically get all the credit for bankrupting France in the seventeenth century, his Minister of Finance, Jean-Baptiste Colbert deserves some kudos as well. Colbert's tax schemes, deficit spending, and manic obsession with the production of luxury goods -- to the detriment, or outright exclusion of ordinary consumer goods -- emptied the French treasuries, drove the peasantry to starvation, and laid the foundation for the bloodiest revolution of the age. But, let's face it: who wouldn't trade the fate of an entire nation for a really, really well made tapestry? Adjustable rate mortgage, Archduke Ferdinand? In the 1860s, the rulers of the newly-formed Austro-Hungarian Empire encouraged their bankers to be more free with their lending standards. Their goal was to encourage growth in the empire. The result (this is going to sound eerily familiar) was over-speculation in building, massive default on borrowed funds, and economic collapse throughout Central Europe. The worldwide depression reached all the way to the United States and triggered the Panic of 1873. On the bright side, many of the most beautiful buildings in Europe come from this period of "irrational exuberance." Mississippi burning John Law, a Scottish banker and businessman, took control of a French enterprise called the Mississippi Company in 1717. In just a few years, he turned the company into the main economic force behind the French colonies throughout the world. The share price for the company went from about 500 livres in 1719 to 10,000 livres in 1720. Just one year later though, in a rather Enron-like turnaround, the stock price collapsed, Law fled France, and the French government (as the primary shareholder) was forced to cancel a significant portion of its debt obligations leaving lenders throughout the world ruined. Economists refer to the episode as the "Mississippi Bubble." The Mason-Dixon bottom line Many have read about the effects of hyperinflation on the German Weimar Republic. From 1920-1923, prices in Germany increased as much as 3.25 million percent. People burned their old currency for warmth, since it was less
[ "What were some things that were illegal in Roman history?", "What happened in Europe in 1860s?", "What was constructed in a period of \"irrational exuberance\"?", "When was Europe's \"irrational exuberance\"?", "What happened in 1860?" ]
[ [ "hoarding of goods." ], [ "the rulers of the newly-formed Austro-Hungarian Empire encouraged their bankers to be more free with their lending standards." ], [ "many of the most beautiful buildings in Europe" ], [ "1860s," ], [ "over-speculation in building, massive default on borrowed funds, and economic collapse throughout Central Europe." ] ]
When in Roman history it was illegal to raise prices, hoard goods or close stores . Europe's "irrational exuberance" in 1860s was when great buildings were constructed . Shortages paper and leather led to U.S. bible shortage in 1943 .
(MENTAL FLOSS) -- Most of the world seems to think that America invented obesity sometime in the last century, but the truth is, fat has always been a part of life (witness Hatshepsut, one of the great ancient Egyptian queens who reigned in the 15th century BC -- despite her svelte sarcophagus, modern archeologists believe that she was pretty obese and may have suffered from diabetes). Goldfish may have delivered a dubious dietary aid -- tapeworms. So it stands to reason that dieting has been around just as long. Some historians credit William the Conqueror with starting the first fad diet. Having grown too fat to ride his horse, William went on a liquid diet in 1087 -- or, rather, a liquor diet, since all he did was drink booze. The story might be apocryphal -- William, still fat, actually died after falling from his horse and there was no word on whether he was drunk at the time -- but it's a good one, and it sets the tone for the next 1000+ years of dieting. Throughout history, people have been looking for some kind of magic that will allow one to eat and live as one pleases, but still look emaciatedly gorgeous. And they've come up with some pretty dubious theories that somehow took hold in the public consciousness and became fads. Here are a few of our favorites. Location, location, location "The Causes and Effects of Corpulence" was a treatise penned in 1727 by one Thomas Short, in which he observed that larger people were more likely to live near swampy areas. His advice? Fat people should move to more arid climes. Improbable side effects The namesake of the graham cracker -- ironically now an integral part of that deliciously fattening treat, the 'smore -- was a Presbyterian minister who claimed that overeating could not only make you fat, it could make you lecherous, too. In the 1830s, Sylvester Graham ran health retreats for like-minded parishioners featuring a strict meat-free, incredibly bland diet. Chew yourself thin Horace Fletcher, a turn of the century San Francisco art dealer, became known as the Great Masticator after he claimed he lost more than 40 pounds by chewing his food until it was essentially liquefied and spitting out all the bits that weren't. Fletcher's scheme became incredibly popular -- novelist Henry James and industry titan John D. Rockefeller were reportedly fans, as was John Harvey Kellogg. Kellogg, of the cereal fame, was a health nut who ran a sanitarium in Michigan, where he encouraged his visitors to "Fletcherize" with a little song he wrote called "Chew Chew." Mental Floss: How cereal transformed American culture The parasite diet In the early part of the 20th century, the weight loss industry allegedly found a tiny little helper in the form of a tiny little parasite -- the noble tapeworm. According to product advertisements of the day, tapeworms were being sold in pill form as a weight loss tool. While whether or not those pills actually contained a real live tapeworm is certainly debatable, however, there is evidence that jockeys, who frequently needed to lose a lot of weight fast, would try to induce tapeworms. Another favorite weight loss tool of the Lilliputian equestrians: Burying themselves in piles of horse manure, which acted as a kind of natural sauna. Introducing the calorie In 1918, Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters introduced a new word to the world lexicon --"calorie" (may she be forever cursed for it). Peters' book, "Diet and Health, With a Key to Calories," which helpfully included a phonetic spelling of the word "calorie," as so many people were unfamiliar with it, sold more than 2 million copies and established calorie-counting as the framework of a good health. This diet regime wasn't particularly dubious, but it did lend a potentially dangerous new tool to those looking for a way to quantify and reduce their food intake. Case in point: The Scarsdale Diet of 1979, a strict 700-calorie a day diet that works -- because you're starving. Mental Floss: Quiz: Which item has
[ "In what century were pills with tapeworms sold for weight loss?", "What type of worms were in the pills?", "What kind of diet was William on?", "What killed William?", "Pills containing what were marketed as a diet aid?", "What parasites did people used to use to try to lose weight?", "How did William the Conqueror die?", "Where did people used to try to live in order to lose weight?" ]
[ [ "20th" ], [ "tapeworms" ], [ "liquid" ], [ "died after falling from his horse" ], [ "tapeworm." ], [ "tapeworms" ], [ "falling from his horse" ], [ "more arid climes." ] ]
Over the years, there have been many dubious theories on how to lose weight . William the Conqueror went on liquid diet (alcohol) until killed by fall from horse . In early 20th century, pills alleged to contain tapeworms were sold for weight loss . Living in arid areas, chewing food into liquid, smoking pitched for weight loss .
(MENTAL FLOSS) -- When we think of economic crises in America, two periods come to mind -- the Great Depression and whatever it is we're in the middle of right now. But the U.S. stock market has crashed more times than we'd like to admit. Historically, our economy has been brought to its knees by everything from greedy bankers to horse illnesses. Horses, cows, whales and a failed copper scheme caused economic panics earlier in U.S. history. So let's take a deep breath and remember that panics are just part of the American way of life. 1. The Panic of 1873: America stops horsing around During the late 19th century, the American economy relied on horses the way it depends on gas today. Horses unloaded cargo from ports, transported goods from city to city, worked the farms, supported the army, and served as the emergency vehicles of choice. Without them, the American workforce would have ground to a halt. And that's exactly what happened in 1872, when an estimated 99 percent of all horses in America contracted equine influenza. The highly contagious strain started in Canada and spread through New England to the South in a matter of months, leaving horses across the country too weak to stand and coughing uncontrollably. Street buggies stopped running, paralyzing commerce in the cities. Railroads were stymied because trains run on coal -- coal that was hauled out of mines by horses. And as the horse flu spread, U.S. military troops had to go into battle on foot (they were fighting Apache Indians at the time). More tragically, a fire in Boston raged for three days because there were no horses to carry water. The flames destroyed more than 700 buildings, causing an estimated $73.5 million in damages and killing at least 20 people. The "Great Epizootic," as it was called, spiraled out of control in less than a year. At the height of the panic, as many as 20,000 businesses failed, a third of all railroads went bankrupt, and unemployment spiked to almost 15 percent. The economy took nearly a decade to recover. Ironically, nearly all of the horses recuperated by the following spring. 2. The Winter of 1886: When the cows don't come home During the second half of the 19th century, cattle ranches in the American West were thriving. From the Montana grasslands to the Texas prairie, ranches were attracting investors back East and across the pond in Europe. But by 1886, things were getting dicey. Overgrazing, coupled with a hot and dry summer, had left the plains almost bare. Then came the snow. Known as the "Winter of Death," the following season saw one of the worst cold spells in recorded history. More than half the cattle in the West froze to death, unable to move in the thick snow. Ghoulish firsthand accounts describe the bodies of dead cows stretching for miles across the horizon. When the spring thaw and floods came, thousands of bloated corpses floated into the streams and rivers. Some ranchers quit the business entirely and didn't even bother to round up their surviving cattle. Mental Floss: Bold business scams that failed miserably By the end of 1887, the disaster had wiped out more than half of the United States' western cattle and debilitated the national economy. Most cattle investors went bankrupt, and thousands of cowboys were left unemployed. But more than anything, the winter of 1886 put an end to all those turn-of-the-century, idyllic fantasies of open-range ranching in the Wild West. 3. The Panic of 1907: Captains of industry to the rescue! The Panic of 1907 started the way many panics do, with a greedy capitalist. Multimillionaire Augustus Heinze, who had made his fortune mining in Montana, believed he had enough control over the copper industry to corner the market. With the help of several major banks, he concocted a scheme to buy up all the shares of United Copper. But Heinze had overestimated his prowess, and the scheme failed, bringing down Heinze, United Copper, the banks, and
[ "What kills 99% of horses?", "when was the event", "what was the percentage of ill horses", "what Disease kills 99 percent of horses in 1872?", "What wipes out half the cattle in West?" ]
[ [ "equine influenza." ], [ "1872," ], [ "99 percent" ], [ "equine influenza." ], [ "\"Winter of Death,\"" ] ]
Odd things caused U.S. economy to tank four other times . Disease kills 99 percent of horses in 1872, causing business failures, bankruptcies . Dry summer, record cold winter in 1886 wipes out half the cattle in West . 1907 copper scheme causes run on banks, banker uses own money to stop it .
(Mashable) -- Apple is scheduled to host an education-related event on January 19 -- shrouded with a veil of mystery, as always. A new report from Ars Technica says the company is about to unveil a set of tools to create interactive e-books. Previous rumors said that Apple will show no new devices, and that the event will center around Apple's new partnerships with textbook publishers. If this new report is true, the event might turn out to be much more significant. Ars Technica's sources say Apple's about to present new authoring tools described as "GarageBand for e-books," making it easy for everyone to create interactive digital books. The company also plans to expand its platform to distribute these e-books to iPhone and iPad users. Apple, who currently supports the ePub 2 e-book standard (with some additions) is also expected to announce support for the ePub 3 standard for iBooks. This venture is described as the pet project of Steve Jobs, who -- according to Walter Isaacson's biography -- believed the textbook industry is ripe for "digital destruction." According to Ars Technica's sources, Jobs was very closely involved on the project and has worked on it for several years. See the original article on Mashable.com © 2011 MASHABLE.com. All rights reserved.
[ "Ars Technica says Apple is about to unveil what?", "Report says company also plans to expand what?", "What is Apple about to do?", "What does the report say?", "Who says Apple is about to unveil a set of tools to create interactive e-books?", "What did previous rumors say?" ]
[ [ "a set of tools to create interactive e-books." ], [ "its platform" ], [ "unveil a set of tools to create interactive e-books." ], [ "the company is about to unveil a set of tools to create interactive e-books." ], [ "Ars Technica" ], [ "Apple will show no new devices," ] ]
Ars Technica says Apple is about to unveil a set of tools to create interactive e-books . Previous rumors said that Apple will show no new devices . Report says company also plans to expand its platform to distribute these e-books .
(Mashable) -- Ever think that Google's homepage was just a little too sparse? If all of that white space bothers you, your prayers have been answered: Now you can customize your background on Google.com. You can now choose any photo or image from your hard drive or your Picasa Web Albums to enhance your search experience. A new link on the bottom left-hand corner of Google.com will soon appear for all users that will give them the ability to change their search background. The rollout begins with the U.S. over the next few days, with international users to follow. The announcement, written by Google VP of Search Products Marissa Mayer, doesn't go into much detail as to why Google decided to add this feature. Personalization isn't something new -- iGoogle, Gmail and other Google products offer this type of feature already. However, the search giant has been working diligently to reduce clutter on the homepage. The new feature immediately reminds us of Bing, Microsoft's upstart search engine. Every day it has a different photo on its homepage, and it has proven to be a popular feature. Will you be customizing your Google homepage? Is this a smart move by the company? Let us know in the comments. © 2010 MASHABLE.com. All rights reserved.
[ "What does the new feature reminds us of", "Where will a link soon appear?", "Which website is mentioned", "What will the link allow users to do?", "The new feature reminds them of what?", "The new feature reminds people about what?", "You can choose any photo or image from where?" ]
[ [ "Bing," ], [ "on the bottom left-hand corner of Google.com" ], [ "Google.com." ], [ "change their search background." ], [ "Bing," ], [ "Bing," ], [ "your hard drive" ] ]
A link will soon appear on Google.com allowing users to change their search background . You can choose any photo or image from your hard drive or your Picasa Web Albums . The new feature immediately reminds us of Bing, Microsoft's upstart search engine .
(Mashable) -- Facebook is working with HTC to develop a phone that has a much deeper integration with the social network than any previous "Facebook phone." That's according to a report from All Things D, which says the phone is probably 12 to 18 months away from hitting store shelves. Codenamed "Buffy" after the vampire slayer of the same name, the phone will run a modified version of Google's Android, but Facebook is reported to be tweaking the system "heavily." HTC is known for modifying Android on its phones with its HTC Sense interface, and both Amazon and Barnes & Noble have created tablets with highly customized versions of the Android, so it's possible that Facebook is adopting a similar strategy. Part of the package would be serving up Facebook apps via HTML5 support. This would allow users to play games like Farmville and Poker directly from the Facebook app. While most developers offer their apps as separate downloads from Facebook, that prevents them from tapping into active Facebook users, while cutting Facebook off from potential revenues. Buffy would presumably bridge the gap. Buffy will be far from the first Facebook phone. Earlier this year INQ Mobile released two phones, the Cloud Touch and Cloud Q that put the service front and center. Then HTC took it a step further with the Status, which came to the U.S. on AT&T this summer and featured a prominent dedicated Facebook button. Finally, Facebook released an app designed specifically for the iPad in October. Apple, however, hasn't played as nice with Facebook as the service might have liked, however. When Apple unveiled iOS 5, the latest major update to the software on iPhones and iPads, it featured deeper integration with Twitter -- letting users share photos directly from the phone's camera app, for example. An option for sharing to Facebook was noticeably absent. Both HTC and Facebook told Mashable that they don't comment on rumor and speculation, though the Facebook spokesperson added, "Our mobile strategy is simple: we think every mobile device is better if it is deeply social. We're working across the entire mobile industry; with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers to bring powerful social experiences to more people around the world." The collaborative picture Facebook paints is a far cry from the ultra-competitive war among mobile platforms with Google, Apple, Facebook, and others vying for consumers' hearts and minds. Perhaps the most telling aspect of the rumored phone is the codename. With a name like Buffy, the Facebook phone's mission is clear: slay all comers. See the original story on Mashable.com © 2011 MASHABLE.com. All rights reserved.
[ "What operating system does it run?", "What system will it run?", "What will HTC run?", "What will the HTC phone run?", "Phone is how many months from hitting stores?", "What is the brand?", "What put Facebook front and center?", "when will the phone be in stores?", "How long to go before phone on sale?" ]
[ [ "a modified version of Google's Android," ], [ "a modified version of Google's Android," ], [ "modified version of Google's Android," ], [ "a modified version of Google's Android," ], [ "12 to 18" ], [ "HTC" ], [ "Cloud Q" ], [ "12 to 18 months" ], [ "12 to 18 months" ] ]
All Things D says phone is 12 to 18 months from hitting stores . HTC phone will run a modified version of Google's Android, report says . INQ Mobile's Cloud Touch and Cloud Q put Facebook front and center .
(Mashable) -- For all their buzz and value, location-based social networks haven't really gone mainstream yet. Only 7 percent of Americans are aware of location-based social networks, according to data from Edison Research. Part of the explanation for this is that the majority of mobile users aren't using smartphones. And as a result, just 10 percent of those surveyed use mobile location services at least once a week, according to the Mobile Marketing Association's latest Mobile Consumer Briefing survey. For smartphone users, like those of the iPhone (a popular device among early adopters), that number jumps all the way up to 63 percent. Still, even with smartphones predicted to overtake feature phones sometime next year, there may still be adoption hurdles for location-based social networks. Here's a look at why location-based services haven't yet hit critical mass and what those platforms are doing about it. Privacy concerns remain an issue Kristine van Dillen, director of industry initiatives and partnerships at the Mobile Marketing Association, said location-based services aren't growing as quickly as they should be. One reason for the lag is concern over privacy and who has access to users' data. Sites like PleaseRobMe.com, which humorously bring awareness to location-based privacy issues, may have scared some social media users from opting in. Furthermore, the use of geo-location data for commercial purposes has also raised concerns, prompting the Congressional subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection to hold hearings on the issue. Concerns about loopholes in Foursquare that give others the ability to announce your check-inshave also been raised. "There's still a perceived risk in accessing location data," van Dillen said. Location-based service providers are addressing these concerns by giving consumers more control. Most current iterations of the popular location-based networks allow users to opt-out of location tagging and notifying users when their location is being shared. Consumer education is also key. Users need to know how their location data will be used, and feel comfortable that the companies that have access to it will behave responsibly, according to van Dillen. She said consumers will become more comfortable sharing information with their friends and trusted applications. Brands will view these services as less risky, and more mainstream, and new types of location-based services will come to the forefront. Where is the value? Because of privacy concerns, it is imperative for location-based services to clearly communicate the value proposition to users. Without a clear picture of what they're getting in return, users may be hesitant to share location data. One of the ultimate promises of location-based check-ins is more accurately targeted advertising. For some users, the privacy concerns of sharing their location might be trumped by the potential utility of receiving highly targeted advertising and promotions. However, even though Gowalla, Foursquare, BrightKite and Yelp allow for check-ins at "places," rather than just map coordinates, which makes the data more valuable for targeted advertising, actual advertiser value hasn't yet totally materialized. Michael Boland, a senior analyst and program director at BIA/Kelsey said check-ins represent the makings of a business model, but they haven't reached their full potential value yet because there isn't a well-defined system to buy and sell advertising. "I think it does have a lot of staying power. We're only going to see it grow and evolve," he said. For early adopters, though, the long-term promise of more value through targeted ads, coupons and deals, along with the game mechanics (i.e., badges and "mayor" competitions) instituted by some networks has made location-based services worth the potential privacy headaches. As Twitter and Facebook move into the location tagging space, they might finally take the trend mainstream. During its Chirp developer conference in April, Twitter announced the launch of its annotations feature, which gives users the ability to attach metadata to tweets, including location. Facebook, meanwhile, will also reportedly soon enable members
[ "who gets buzz from tech media", "What percent were aware of it ?", "What does the app do ?", "what is not achieving popularity", "What are getting buzz from tech media?", "What percent of america are aware?" ]
[ [ "location-based social networks" ], [ "7" ], [ "bring awareness to location-based privacy issues," ], [ "location-based social networks" ], [ "location-based social networks" ], [ "7" ] ]
Sites and apps that let users track their locations get buzz from tech media . But the sites are not achieving mainstream popularity, according to surveys . Only 7 percent of Americans are aware of location-based social networks . Facebook and Twitter may soon popularize the idea, however.
(Mashable) -- It was speculative before given the lack of independent confirmation, but now apparently Apple has gone on record to confirm that the original deal signed with AT&T for iPhone exclusivity back in 2007 was a five-year deal. That means at least some legal hoops would need jumping through if we're ever going to see that oft-rumored Verizon iPhone before 2012. Engadget reports that court documents filed by Apple in a California class-action suit confirm the original AT&T exclusivity deal had a five-year duration. The suit, ongoing since 2007, claims that Apple and AT&T were exerting a monopoly over iPhone service by surreptitiously locking iPhone buyers into renewing contracts with AT&T once their initial two years was up. On the flip side, there are a number of reasons such a contract might be amended or canceled, so it's not exactly a total given that the iPhone won't appear on another carrier before 2012. But given the original terms, it could require some tricky negotiation or legal fancy footwork to get there. Moreover, the class-action suit also alleges an illegal monopoly over the iPhone App Store, which the court ruled substantial enough to move forward. On both fronts then -- consumer market and legal proceedings -- it will be fascinating to watch for further details on when the AT&T iPhone exclusivity curtain might drop or even be forcibly struck down. Do you think we'll see the iPhone come to another carrier before 2012? © 2010 MASHABLE.com. All rights reserved.
[ "Who have Apple signed a five-year deal with?", "Apple signed a five-year deal with which company?", "What did the lawsuit claim?", "What do lawsuits claim?", "What does lawsuit claim?", "Could the iPhone appear on another carrier before 2012?", "When could the iPhone possibly still appear before?", "What has Apple done?" ]
[ [ "AT&T" ], [ "AT&T" ], [ "Apple and AT&T were exerting a monopoly over iPhone service by surreptitiously locking iPhone buyers into renewing contracts with AT&T once their initial two years was up." ], [ "illegal monopoly over the iPhone App Store," ], [ "that Apple and AT&T were exerting a monopoly over iPhone service by surreptitiously locking iPhone buyers into renewing contracts with AT&T once their initial two years was up." ], [ "won't" ], [ "2012." ], [ "gone on record to confirm that the original deal signed with AT&T for iPhone exclusivity back in 2007 was a five-year deal." ] ]
Apple signed a five-year deal with AT&T for iPhone exclusivity back in 2007, court documents show . Lawsuit claims that Apple and AT&T exerted a monopoly over iPhone service . But the iPhone could possibly still appear on another carrier before 2012 .
(Mashable) -- Social media management company Vitrue released a free tool Thursday, the Social Page Evaluator, designed to help marketers get a better understanding of a Facebook page's value. Just submit a Facebook page URL and the app will come up with a valuation based on factors like number of fans, number of posts per day, number of interactions and so forth.ssss It's a cool -- if not completely scientific -- way to gauge the potential value of your Facebook page to advertisers. The formula used by the Social Page Evaluator is related to the formula that Vitrue released last month to estimate the relative value of Facebook Fans to big brands. The tool, which was built over 63 hours in a Startup Weekend-style project, is adjustable and interactive. For instance, the base rate of Earned Media Value (or CPM in more traditional terms) is $5, but this can be adjusted to a higher or lower value depending on the brand in question. Likewise, there is a "Fan-tasize" section that lets you manipulate other features like number of posts per day, engagement level and Fan count to see how that affects the valuation. You can also compare a Facebook Page with up to three other brands at a time and view a Page's value history. In addition to the valuation data, there is also a list of best practices for getting the most out of your Facebook Page. So how accurate is this tool? It's difficult to determine, as it is based on a formula that, while derived from a study of large brands, is obviously not going to be applicable to all companies. Still, it's a fun, easy way to get an idea of the factors that impact a Facebook Page valuation. It's also a good stepping stone for marketers to start thinking about the potential advertising power of a Facebook Page. What do you think of the tool? Let us know! © 2010 MASHABLE.com. All rights reserved.
[ "What is adjustable and interactive?", "What page URL?", "What do you have to submit to see a valuation?", "What is the name of the new app?", "Who built the new app?", "What helps marketers get a better understanding of a facebook page value?", "What helps marketers?", "What features does the tool have included?" ]
[ [ "the Social Page Evaluator" ], [ "Facebook" ], [ "a Facebook page URL" ], [ "Social Page" ], [ "Vitrue" ], [ "Evaluator," ], [ "Evaluator," ], [ "help marketers get a better understanding of a Facebook page's value." ] ]
A new app helps marketers get a better understanding of a Facebook page's value . Submit a Facebook page URL to see a valuation based on factors like number of fans . The tool, built in a Startup Weekend-style project, is adjustable and interactive .
(Mashable) -- Stuart Hughes, the British jeweler known for his expensive remakes of popular gadgets, is at it again, this time with a diamond-clad iPhone 4 with a price tag of 5 million pounds, or roughly $8 million. The handmade bezel contains approximately 500 individual flawless diamonds that total more than 100 carats. There's 53 additional diamonds in the back, and the main navigation button is made of platinum, holding a single cut 7.4 carat pink diamond. If you know diamonds, all of this probably means something to you. To us, it just sounds really, really expensive. Only two of these will ever be made, so don't worry: if you buy one, the chances of bumping into someone who has the exact same phone at a party are quite slim. © 2011 MASHABLE.com. All rights reserved.
[ "On what price is fixed the device?", "How much of these Iphone 4s will be made?", "What is the price tag?", "For what Stuart Hughes is known for?", "What number of these iPhone 4s will be made?", "Who is known for his expensive remakes of popular gadgets?" ]
[ [ "5 million pounds, or roughly $8 million." ], [ "two" ], [ "5 million pounds, or roughly $8 million." ], [ "his expensive remakes of popular gadgets," ], [ "two" ], [ "Stuart Hughes," ] ]
Stuart Hughes is known for his expensive remakes of popular gadgets . Only two of these iPhone 4s will ever be made . The device has a price tag of 5 million pounds, or roughly $8 million .
(Mashable) -- The AP Stylebook has released its new social media guidelines, including the official change from"Web site" to "website" (a move first reported back in April) and 41 other definitions, use cases and rules that journalists should follow. Among the more interesting changes -- at least from a grammar and style standpoint -- are separating out "smart phone" as two words, hyphenating "e-reader," and allowing fan, friend and follow to be used both as nouns and verbs. Beyond that, the AP has also defined a number of acronyms that are commonly used in texting and instant messaging. While most of them should be fairly well-known to regular web and mobile phone users (ROFL, BRB and G2G are among the definitions) one actually was new to me: POS. According to the AP, this stands for "parent over shoulder" (I've used POS to refer to something else occasionally, but I digress), and is used by "teens and children to indicate, in an IM conversation, that a parent is approaching." Elsewhere, other terms making the cut include "trending," "retweet" and "unfriend" ("defriend" is also acceptable, though the AP concludes it's less common). Finally, the AP also offers some basic rules of thumb for how social media should and shouldn't be used by journalists, with a focus on making sure they continue to confirm sources and information they find on blogs, tweets and other forms of social media. The full 2010 AP Stylebook, which includes the new social media guidelines, was released today and is available on the AP's Web site. © 2010 MASHABLE.com. All rights reserved.
[ "when was the AP style book released?", "Which Stylebook was released ?", "what did the ap define?", "What has also defined a number of acronyms?", "what is it the AP has defined a number of?", "what does POS stand for?", "What does AP POS stands for?" ]
[ [ "today" ], [ "AP" ], [ "a number of acronyms that are commonly used in texting and instant messaging." ], [ "the AP" ], [ "acronyms" ], [ "\"parent over shoulder\"" ], [ "\"parent over shoulder\"" ] ]
The AP has also defined a number of acronyms that are commonly used in texting . According to the AP POS stands for "parent over shoulder" The full 2010 AP Stylebook was released Wednesday .
(Mashable) -- There's no denying that Facebook has had an impact on the way the younger set flirt, fall in love and break up. Now, Seventeen magazine has released a study that depicts just what kind of repercussions the social networking site has had on modern courtship. "Teens are incredibly social, and Facebook plays a huge role in their love lives," says Ann Shoket, editor-in-chief of Seventeen magazine. According to the study -- which polled 10,000 guys and girls ages 16 to 21 -- Facebook plays an important part in how amorous teens make a connection. Within one week of meeting a new person, 79 percent of people click "friend," and after adding a new friend; 60 percent of people stalk their crush's profile once a day (40 percent check in on their would-be soulmate several times a day). Moreover, contrary to beliefs that social networking is erroding interpersonal communication, 72 percent of those surveyed said that talking to someone online brings you closer to them IRL. As we have already seen in other studies, Facebook also plays a role in how we fall out of love. Mashable writer Samuel Axon wrote a detailed feature about how Facebook has changed dating for the worse, Facebook dating app AreYouInterested released a study in which 21 percent of respondents said they would break up with someone via changing their statuses, and, most recently, infographic wizard David McCandless came out with a chart that shows popular breakup periods by way of status updates. Seventeen, for its part, reports that 10 percent of people have been dumped over Facebook, and the same number would just change their relationship status to "single" to cut a lover loose. The report also depicts the anguish the site can cause after a breakup, citing that 27 percent of people change their connection to their exes after a breakup via blocking (getEx-Blocker for that extra push), hiding him or her on the News Feed or unfriending. Surprisingly, 73 percent of people keep their exes in the friends list. I'd like to see some stats on how many of those 73 percent stalk said ex after the breakup. A couple of other interesting tidbits from the study: Girls are more judgmental: 43 percent of girls would decide not to date someone based on their Facebook profile, compared to 33 percent of guys. Guys are more likely to keep relationship statuses under wraps: 17 percent of guys don't share their status, compared to 12 percent of girls. Girls think it's exciting to change their relationship status: 50 percent of girls get a kick out of the status change -- one-third of guys agree; 24 percent of guys find it unnecessary, compared to 17 percent of girls. What do you think? Has Facebook affected your love life? © 2011 MASHABLE.com. All rights reserved.
[ "How many people have been dumped over Facebook?", "Which magazine has released a study on Facebook?", "who released study on facebook", "What percent of people have been dumped over Facebook?", "What percentage of people keep their exes in the friends list?", "Which magazine released a study on Facebook and modern courtship?", "what is facebook" ]
[ [ "10 percent" ], [ "Seventeen" ], [ "Seventeen magazine" ], [ "10" ], [ "73 percent" ], [ "Seventeen" ], [ "social networking site" ] ]
Seventeen magazine has released a study on Facebook and modern courtship . The study reports 10 percent of people have been dumped over Facebook . Surprisingly, 73 percent of people keep their exes in the friends list .
(Mashable) -- We've seen some major world events unfold on the social media stage in the past week, the biggest being Google's threat to pull out of China and the Haiti earthquake. Google's actions have brought attention back to the long-standing Internet censorship that blankets China, while the destruction in Haiti has mobilized hundreds of thousands to open their wallets and their hearts. Just like the Iran election crisis, those events are causing people to reassess the impact of social media on the world. It's clear that social media has the power to impact world politics and the lives of billions, but some have overstated what social media can actually do. We need to understand what social media really is in order to use it effectively for social good. iReport: Looking for loved ones in Haiti Let me explain by highlighting a few examples of social media's impact on the world stage, and then concluding with how I view social media's impact in the larger context of mobilization and world discussion. Iran election crisis During summer 2009, the world's eyes were fixated on Iran. Questions were raised after Ahmadinejad was declared the winner over rival Mousavi in Iran's Presidential elections. The abnormalities and potential tampering of the vote resulted in massive protests that engulfed the Islamic nation. Social media's role in the Iran Election Crisis started with #CNNFail, but that was only the beginning of social media's role. With the Iranian government clamping down on information and enforcing censorship, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube became the primary mediums for bringing information out of the conflicted nation and spreading notes between dissidents. Take a look at the Iran election social media timeline we built if you want to see its full impact. Key moments in the crisis, especially the death of Neda, were recorded and spread like wildfire, creating an outpouring of support for the protesters. Twitter's role was so important in fact that the U.S. government got involved in scheduling Twitter's downtime. In the end though, social media didn't topple any governments, although it has helped shift the political climate in Iran. In some cases the use of Twitter in Iran was overstated, yet the result is that the tipping point for Iran is close, thanks to social media. Haiti earthquake After a magnitude 7.0 earthquake (and multiple aftershocks) devastated the nation of Haiti, social media became the medium in which everybody spread the word. Dramatic Haiti earthquake Twitter pictures swept across the Web, while tech giants mobilized. iReport: Earthquake rocks Haiti The most impressive part of social media's impact on Haiti has to be the charity text message campaign that has already raised more than $10 million for Haiti victim relief. Social media spread the word. Technology made it possible. It's not all perfect, though: the money raised is small compared to the relief coming from world governments and donations face 90 day delays. Still, social media for social good is becoming more effective with each crisis. China-Google standoff While we are still far from the conclusion of this messy affair, Google's threat to pull out of China has already had a dramatic effect in both social media and political circles. Politically, China has been put under pressure. The U.S. government has thrown its support behind Google, though it's doubtful that the Obama Administration will get involved in the end. More importantly though, social media is being used to lift China's blanket of censorship. Social tools, while many are blocked by the Chinese, can get through China's great firewall. We have the tools to undo censorship in China. Google's efforts have re-ignited the debate over censorship, but they won't break the barrier. Social media's global impact In all three cases -- China, Haiti and Iran -- social media has had an impact, especially as the course of events evolved. Real-time communication platforms like Twitter and Facebook have spread the word about what's happening within these nations, long before the mainstream media prints the story. These tools have also created a level awareness we've never
[ "Social media has helped mobilize people where?", "Technology and what are tools people must use?", "what happened after haiti's earthquake?" ]
[ [ "Haiti" ], [ "social media" ], [ "social media became the medium in which everybody spread the word." ] ]
Author: Social media has helped mobilize people in China, Haiti and Iran . After Haiti's earthquake, aid groups solicit donations by text message . Social media's ability to help people has been overstated in the past, author says . Ultimately, technology and social networks are tools people must use .
(Mashable) -- You know there's something significant going on when Google creates one of its whimsical "doodles" on its home page, and Halloween is no exception. In case you can't see it where you are, this year (in some countries), there's a time-lapse video showing some of the most gigantic pumpkins in the world, going through a metamorphosis from blobs of orange to art as night falls. Here's how the Googlers describe the making of this kooky video on the official Google blog: "To celebrate Halloween this year, the doodle team wanted to capture that fascinating transformation that takes place when carving a pumpkin. Instead of picking up a few pumpkins from the grocery store, however, we decided to work on six giant pumpkins, specially delivered from nearby Half Moon Bay (some weighing well over 1,000 pounds). What you see is a timelapse video of the approximately eight hours we spent carving in the middle of our Mountain View, California, campus." Mashable: Where do Google doodles come from? Watch the video of this Halloween Google doodle -- or go to Google.com to experience the doodle for yourself. © 2011 MASHABLE.com. All rights reserved.
[ "what did the doodle show", "how much did they weigh", "What does the video show the emplees doing?", "What's the doodle of?", "What does the video show?", "What weight are the pumpkins?", "What is the weight of some of the pumpkins?", "What is the theme on Google?" ]
[ [ "some of the most gigantic pumpkins in the world," ], [ "well over 1,000 pounds)." ], [ "carving a pumpkin." ], [ "fascinating transformation that takes place when carving a pumpkin." ], [ "some of the most gigantic pumpkins in the world, going through a metamorphosis from blobs of orange to art as night falls." ], [ "(some weighing well over 1,000 pounds)." ], [ "over 1,000 pounds)." ], [ "Halloween" ] ]
Google's Halloween-themed doodle shows time-lapse carving of giant pumpkins . Video shows employees carving massive pumpkins into Google logo . Some of the pumpkins in the video weigh more than 1,000 pounds .
(Mental Floss) -- Almost everyone knows that each state of the Union has its own flag. State flags, however, are just the most visible elements of an elaborate, esoteric system of legalized symbols that characterize and codify our united states. It's time we were all exposed to the bizarre symbology of state identity-politics. Texas' state flower, the bluebonnet, is celebrated in the Texas state song. To begin with, some of the most well-known state symbols allude to lesser-known meanings and histories. I grew up in Wisconsin and only recently learned that the Badger State title originally refers not to Bucky, nor to the savage beast itself, but to lead miners in the 1820s and 30s. These miners moved from prospect to prospect in southwestern Wisconsin, traveling light and often, with little money for luxury. When winter came and conditions worsened, those miners too far from home to migrate would dig themselves sheltering caves in the hills -- like badgers. These temporary dwellings could be abandoned if a prospect proved fruitless, without much regret; and if the lead pickings were good, the lucky miner could fluff up his badger hole or upgrade to a more traditional Euro-American residence. For this practice Wisconsin miners were dubbed "badgers" -- a jibe that was soon appropriated as a proud, statewide nickname. Bucky didn't come along until 1949; the furry, quadruped badger, notoriously vicious when cornered, wasn't declared Wisconsin's state animal until 1957. Other miners migrated south for the winter to the far end of Illinois, much like the region's sucker fish; which earned them the nickname of Suckers, and their state of Illinois its unenviable nickname, The Sucker State. Mental Floss: How 22 colleges got their nicknames 'Rebel' woodpecker The state bird of Alabama has another tale behind it. They honor a little woodpecker they call the yellowhammer, which is known outside of Alabama as the northern flicker, the common flicker, or simply The Flicker. (It eats a lot of ants, and is not to be confused with the yellowhammer bunting of Europe and New Zealand.) State birds are chosen for reasons many and varied, some meaningful and others frivolous -- from the pretty songs they sing to their proximity to extinction -- and I believe this is the only bird singled out for its resemblance to Confederate uniforms. The story goes that a clean, trim, flashy bunch of new Confederate recruits one day passed by a weary, bedraggled, dusty pod of veterans, and their fresh uniforms, grey tinged with brilliant yellow, reminded some jokester vet of the woodpecker, so he let out a mocking call: "Yallerhammer, yallerhammer, flicker, flicker!" The jeer stuck, and the recruits were soon labeled the Yellowhammer Company. Later, as these things go, all Alabama troops were known as Yellowhammers, the whole state as the Yellowhammer State, and Confederate veterans developed a habit of wearing yellow feathers in their caps and lapels to dress up for post-war reunions. How entertaining and informative. But the real fun starts when these state symbols more shamelessly approach the ridiculous. Let us consider some of the finest specimens: Eat and drink to the honor of the state Most states have at least one form of official food. In Louisiana, the official doughnut is the beignet. (I'm unaware of any other state doughnuts -- and I'm disappointed.) New York's official muffin is made with apples; Minnesota's with blueberries; and none have yet found it fit to honor the vegan bran and raisin muffin, despite whatever strange wonders it works on the abdominal tubing. Vermont is the only state with an official flavor: maple, as in maple syrup -- but because they've designated the "flavor," not the "syrup," we can assume the appointment includes everything from maple-glaze for ham to autumnal maple lattes. Shockingly, Oklahoma has recognized a complete (and daunting) meal: fried okra, squash, cornbread, barbeque pork, biscuits, sausage and gravy, grits, corn, chicken friend steak, black
[ "Who dug caves?", "What is the origin of the Badger State symbol?", "What is Alabama's state bird?" ]
[ [ "miners" ], [ "miners too far from home to migrate would dig themselves sheltering caves in the hills" ], [ "yellowhammer," ] ]
Wisconsin's Badger State comes from miners who dug caves to survive winters . Alabama's state bird is a flashy-looking woodpecker . State drinks: Nebraska -- Kool-Aid, Indiana -- water . Mississippi state toy: the teddy bear; Massachusetts state bean: navy bean .
(Mental Floss) -- Although you probably use it every day, here's some interesting trivia you may not know about deodorant. Actor Matthew McConaughey reportedly doesn't wear deodorant. 1. Be thankful for your foul body odor. According to anthropologist Louis Leakey, it might be responsible for early man's survival. Leakey's theory claims that most predators avoided feasting on humans because our body odor was "too repugnant." 2. Not only did the ancient Egyptians give us pyramids and flush toilets, they also pioneered the field of deodorants. Egyptians were the first to popularize the idea of applying scents to armpits, usually using cinnamon and other spices that wouldn't turn rancid in the heat. 3. The Roman poet Ovid preferred a more proactive solution. In Book III of the Art of Love, he cautions women against carrying goats under their arms. 4. Antiperspirants are classified as drugs by the FDA. Technically, they affect and/or alter your body's natural functions. 5. The first modern brand of antiperspirant, EverDry, hit drugstores in 1903. The original formula was so acidic that it regularly ate through clothing. 6. Of course, modern antiperspirants can also ruin your clothing. Aluminum chloride, the ingredient that blocks glandular openings and prevents sweating, is notorious for turning T-shirts yellow. So, blame your antiperspirant for your pit stains, not your body. 7. Offensive body odor is actually illegal in libraries in San Luis Obispo County, California. Mental Floss: Weird wedding laws still on the books 8. One thing modern antiperspirants don't do is cause degenerative diseases. Medical science has found no conclusive evidence that absorbing aluminum chloride through the skin can lead to memory loss or slurred speech. 9. Aoki, a Japanese company known for its menswear, has developed a deodorant suit that supposedly absorbs sweat and neutralizes odors all over the body. 10. But that's nothing! The greatest Japanese innovation in the fight against B.O. is Fuwarinka scented gum. The so-called "functional candy" contains aromatic compounds that cause your skin to release "Fresh Citrus" or "Fruity Rose" aromas for up to 6 hours after chewing. 11. When Kurt Cobain wrote the lyrics for Nirvana's breakout song "Smells Like Teen Spirit," he didn't know Teen Spirit was a popular deodorant brand. The Mennen Company, which produced the deodorant, wouldn't say whether the song caused sales to spike, but six months after the single debuted, Colgate bought the company for $670 million. Mental Floss: 7 food promotions gone horribly wrong 12. In May 2008, actor Matthew McConaughey revealed that he never uses deodorant or antiperspirant. The next day, he received a year's supply of deodorant body spray from the Axe Company, along with a note on why he might want to start. For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com
[ "What reason did predators avoid early humans?", "Who doesn't wear deodorant?", "Who was the first for applying scents?", "Who were the first to popularize applying scents to armpits?", "What is illegal in one of the U.S. city's libraries?", "According to anthropologists, what did predators avoid because of body odor?", "Which actor reportedly doesn't wear deodorant?", "Which people first popularized applying scents to armpits?", "What did Anthropologist say?" ]
[ [ "our body odor was \"too repugnant.\"" ], [ "Matthew McConaughey" ], [ "Egyptians" ], [ "Egyptians" ], [ "Offensive body odor" ], [ "feasting on humans" ], [ "Matthew McConaughey" ], [ "ancient Egyptians" ], [ "it might be responsible for early man's survival. Leakey's theory claims that most predators avoided feasting on humans because our body odor was \"too repugnant.\"" ] ]
Anthropologist: Predators avoided early humans because body odor too rank . Egyptians were first to popularize applying scents to armpits . Offensive body odor is actually illegal in one U.S. city's libraries . Actor Matthew McConaughey reportedly doesn't wear deodorant .
(Mental Floss) -- Because you weren't going into botany, the priesthood, or coin manufacturing, you thought you were safe to dismiss Latin as a dead language. Obviously, you didn't graduate cum laude. I think, therefore I am the famous statue "The Thinker" by French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Latin is about as dead as Elvis (who, by the way, made $54 million in 2004). Whether you're deciphering a cryptic state seal or trying to impress your Catholic in-laws, knowing some Latin has its advantages. But the operative word here is "some." The ability to translate The Aeneid probably isn't going to come in handy anytime soon, so we'll start you off with 9 phrases that have survived the hatchet men of time (in all their pretentious glory). Caveat Emptor: (KAV-ee-OT emp-TOR): "Let the buyer beware" Before money-back guarantees and 20-year warranties, caveat emptor was indispensable advice for the consumer. These days, it'd be more fitting to have it tattooed on the foreheads of used-car salesmen, infomercial actors, and prostitutes. For extra credit points, remember that caveat often makes solo appearances at cocktail parties as a fancy term for a warning or caution. Oh, and just so you know, caveat lector means "let the reader beware." Persona Non Grata: (puhr-SOH-nah non GRAH-tah): "An unacceptable person" Remember your old college buddy, the one everybody called Chugger? Now picture him at a debutante ball, and you'll start to get a sense of someone with persona non grata status. The term is most commonly used in diplomatic circles to indicate that a person is unwelcome due to ideological differences or a breach of trust. Sometimes, the tag refers to a pariah, a ne'er-do-well, a killjoy, or an interloper, but it's always subjective. Michael Moore was treated as a persona non grata at the Republican National Convention. Bill O'Reilly would experience the same at Burning Man. Habeas Corpus: (HAY-bee-as KOR-pus): "You have the body" When you wake up in the New Orleans Parish Prison after a foggy night at Mardi Gras, remember this one. In a nutshell, habeas corpus is what separates us from savages. It's the legal principle that guarantees an inmate the right to appear before a judge in court, so it can be determined whether or not that person is being lawfully imprisoned. It's also one of the cornerstones of the American and British legal systems. Without it, tyrannical and unjust imprisonments would be possible. In situations where national security is at risk, however, habeas corpus can be suspended. Cogito Ergo Sum: (CO-gee-toe ER-go SOME): "I think, therefore I am" When all those spirited mental wrestling matches you have about existentialism start growing old (yeah, right!), you can always put an end to the debate with cogito ergo sum. René Descartes, the 17th-century French philosopher, coined the phrase as a means of justifying reality. According to him, nothing in life could be proven except one's thoughts. Well, so he thought, anyway. E Pluribus Unum: (EE PLUR-uh-buhs OOH-nuhm): "Out of many, one" Less unique than it sounds, America's original national motto, e pluribus unum, was plagiarized from an ancient recipe for salad dressing. In the 18th century, haughty intellectuals were fond of this phrase. It was the kind of thing gentlemen's magazines would use to describe their year-end editions. But the term made its first appearance in Virgil's poem "Moretum" to describe salad dressing. The ingredients, he wrote, would surrender their individual aesthetic when mixed with others to form one unique, homogenous, harmonious, and tasty concoction. As a slogan, it
[ "what does it mean to be a persona non grata?", "What number of Latin phrases are commonly used today?", "how many Latin phrases commonly used today", "what does Persona non grata mean" ]
[ [ "\"An unacceptable person\"" ], [ "9" ], [ "9" ], [ "\"An unacceptable person\"" ] ]
Nine Latin phrases commonly used today . Persona non grata: Person unwelcome due to ideological differences . Quid pro quo refers to a deal or trade . Sui generis refers to something so new or bizarre it defies categorization .
(Mental Floss) -- Behind every good war are many good women. Using their feminine (and in at least one case masculine) wiles, the following five spies would make James Bond proud. Noor Inayat Khan was posthumously awarded the George Cross for her spy service. 1. Mata Hari While Margaretha Geertruida Zelle MacLeod (1876--1917) may not have caused World War I, she sure as heck kept it going. Having spent time in Java with her husband, Captain Campbell MacLeod, Margaretha returned to Holland and sued for divorce. To make ends meet she took up exotic dancing and the name Mata Hari (meaning "the light of day" in Malay). With her sensual performances becoming the attraction of the major European cities came the men and the gifts for her favors. Many of these favors came from royalty and high-ranking French and German military officers. As World War I progressed, both sides became suspicious that Mata was spying for the other side. The French eventually put her on trial and, although the charges were never proven, Mata Hari was convicted of espionage and was executed by a firing squad on October 15, 1917. Playing the seductress up until the end, Mata refused a blindfold, smiled, and blew a kiss to the firing squad as the fatal shots were fired. Mental Floss: When a criminal survives execution 2. Noor Inayat Khan Khan was born in 1914 and at a young age moved with her family first to England and then to France. In 1940, Khan, along with her mother and sister, escaped back to England just before France surrendered to Germany. While in England she joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), but her ability to speak fluent French soon caught the attention of the Special Operations group and Khan agreed to become a spy. Khan was flown to Le Mans, where she teamed up with other female spies and traveled to Paris, France. There they joined the French Resistance Prosper Network. Soon after their arrival, the network was infiltrated and many were arrested. Khan was ordered to return to England, but instead she stayed on and continued to pass information on to England. Eventually she was arrested again and interrogated by the Gestapo. When she refused to speak, she was sent to a prison in Germany and then to the Dachau concentration camp. On September 13, 1944, Khan and three other female British spies were executed by the Nazi SS. In 1949, Khan was posthumously awarded the George Cross. 3. Belle Boyd (aka "La Belle Rebelle") Born Isabelle Boyd in Martinsburg, Virginia, in 1844, the beautiful Belle soon became the star attraction in Washington, D.C., social circles prior to the beginning of the Civil War. With the outbreak of the war, she returned to Martinsburg. When the Union soldiers occupied the city, Belle mixed with the officers and soon gathered information on troop movements, which she passed on to the Confederate forces. However, she is probably best known for warning Stonewall Jackson that the Union intended to blow up all the bridges around Martinsburg. With this information, Jackson, with a small number of troops, was able to surprise the Union troops and drive them from the area. In 1864, Confederate president Jefferson Davis asked Belle to carry letters for him to England. The Union Navy captured her ship, but the officer in charge fell in love with Belle and let her escape. The officer, Lieutenant Samuel Harding Jr., after being courtmartialed and discharged from the Navy, traveled to England, where he married Belle. After the war, Boyd toured the United States as an actress under the stage name of La Belle Rebelle. 4. Elizabeth Van Lew Crazy Bet, as she was known, was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1818 but educated at a Quaker school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After developing a hatred for slavery, Elizabeth returned to Richmond and freed all her family's slaves. She also went so far as finding where her freed slaves' relatives were and purchased and freed them also.
[ "Who pretended to be crazy?", "What was exotic dancer Mata Hari convicted of?", "Who did Belle Boyd pass on information to?", "What did Van Lew do?", "Who was an exotic dancer?", "What did Boyd do?", "Who passed on information to Confederateforces?", "What was the fate of Mata Hari?", "Who got information from Belle Boyd?" ]
[ [ "Elizabeth Van Lew" ], [ "espionage" ], [ "the Confederate forces." ], [ "freed all her family's slaves. She also went so far as finding where her freed slaves' relatives were and purchased and freed them also." ], [ "Margaretha Geertruida Zelle MacLeod" ], [ "warning Stonewall Jackson that the Union intended to blow up all the bridges around Martinsburg." ], [ "Belle Boyd" ], [ "executed by a firing squad on October 15, 1917." ], [ "Stonewall Jackson" ] ]
Elizabeth Van Lew pretended to be crazy so no one would take her seriously . Belle Boyd passed on information to the Confederate forces . Sarah Edmonds fought and spied as a man during the Civil War . Exotic dancer Mata Hari convicted of espionage and executed by firing squad .
(Mental Floss) -- Either I had a really short attention span as a kid and never made it past the first verse of a song -- which is entirely possible -- or there are some obscure lyrics to the songs we all know and love. 1. "The Teapot Song" goes on to further explain this little teapot character: I'm a clever teapot, Yes it's true Here let me show you What I can do I can change my handle And my spout Just tip me over and pour me out! 2. "Do Your Ears Hang Low?" I'm impressed that a children's song contains the word "semaphore." Do your ears hang high? Do they reach up to the sky? Do they droop when they are wet? Do they stiffen when they're dry? Can you semaphore your neighbour with a minimum of labour? Do your ears hang high? 3. "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" involves terrifying nightmares: Last night as I lay on my pillow Last night as I lay on my bed Last night as I lay on my pillow I dreamed that my Bonnie was dead. Mental Floss: 10 adult versions of children's songs 4. "Oh My Darling Clementine" I didn't know anything beyond the "Oh my darling" chorus, but there's a whole little tale that goes along with the tragic Clementine. There are a few variations. One of them goes like this: In a cavern, in a canyon, Excavating for a mine Dwelt a miner forty niner, And his daughter Clementine Light she was and like a fairy, And her shoes were number nine, Wearing boxes, without topses, Sandals were for Clementine. Drove she ducklings to the water Ev'ry morning just at nine, Hit her foot against a splinter, Fell into the foaming brine. Ruby lips above the water, Blowing bubbles, soft and fine, But, alas, I was no swimmer, So I lost my Clementine. How I missed her! How I missed her, How I missed my Clementine, But I kissed her little sister, I forgot my Clementine. 5. "Bingo" The earliest recorded version from 1888 adds two verses after the one that spells out the famous farmer's dog's name. They went like this: Thys Franklyn, syrs, he brewed goode ayle, And he called it Rare good Styngo! S, T, Y, N, G, O! He call'd it Rare goode Styngo! Nowe is notte thys a prettie song? I thinke it is, bye Jyngo, J wythe a Y -- N, G, O -- I sweare yt is, bye Jyngo! Mental Floss: Look What the Dog Swallowed! 6. "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" just keeps going: When the blazing sun is gone, When he nothing shines upon, Then you show your little light, Twinkle, twinkle, all the night. Then the traveller in the dark, Thanks you for your tiny spark, He could not see which way to go, If you did not twinkle so. In the dark blue sky you keep, And often through my curtains peep, For you never shut your eye, Till the sun is in the sky. As your bright and tiny spark, Lights the traveller in the dark, -- Though I know not what you are, Twinkle, twinkle, little star. 7. "Baa Baa Black Sheep" If you feel the need to deplete the rest of the barnyard denizens of their precious goods after you've taken the sheep's wool, you certainly can: Cluck, cluck, red hen, have you any eggs? Yes sir, yes sir, as many as your legs. One for your breakfast and one for your lunch; Come back tomorrow and I'll have another bunch. Moo, moo brown cow, have you milk for me? Yes sir, yes sir, as tasty as can be. Churn it into butter, make it into cheese, Freeze it into ice cream or drink it if you please. Buzz,
[ "What does \"My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean\" involve?", "what involves terrifying nightmares", "What is the dog's name?", "\"My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean\" involves terrifying what?" ]
[ [ "terrifying nightmares:" ], [ "\"My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean\"" ], [ "\"Bingo\"" ], [ "nightmares:" ] ]
There are some obscure lyrics to the children's songs we all know and love . "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" involves terrifying nightmares . After spelling out BINGO the dog's name, this song goes on about some fine ale . And after a girl drops a green and yellow basket, someone else takes it .
(Mental Floss) -- Even in the midst of the Civil War, there was still one thing the North and South shared -- a serious addiction to caffeine. Confederate troops were less likely to get a cup of coffee. In that respect, the Union clearly had an advantage. Not only did the North have more than two-thirds of the population and control most of the heavy industry, railroads, and financial reserves in the country, it hoarded supplies of the highly addictive little bean, leaving the Confederacy to wage its own war against java deprivation. Coffee: It's what's for breakfast, lunch and dinner Throughout the Civil War, coffee was as prevalent on the battlefields as it is in offices today. In fact, the Union army was fueled by the stuff to the point that, if there was no time to boil water, the Boys in Blue would chew on whole beans as they marched. And at night, Union campsites were dotted with tiny fires, each boiling a pot of coffee like a million miniature Starbucks. Beyond caffeine cravings, Union troops loved their coffee because it was, literally, the best thing on the menu. Before the advent of helpful (and tasty!) artificial preservatives, a marching soldier's rations were neither varied nor particularly appetizing. Typically, they consisted of salted meat, unleavened bread (accurately christened "hardtack"), and a little sugar and salt. It didn't help that Union supply chains were riddled with corrupt food contractors who charged the government top dollar for rotten, stale, and insect-ridden foodstuffs. Coffee, however, was almost always fresh because it was delivered in whole-bean form -- making it difficult for even the most dishonest supplier to skimp on quality. Not that they didn't try, of course. In fact, officials began requesting coffee as whole beans after some crooked contractors tried to up their per-pound profits by slipping sand and dirt into packages of ground coffee. In 1861, hoping to cut down on the time soldiers spent roasting and grinding beans, the army switched to a concentrated proto-instant coffee. The new concoction, called "essence of coffee," was made by boiling prepared coffee, milk, and sugar into a thick gloop, which soldiers then reconstituted by mixing it with water. The product reportedly tasted every bit as bad as you'd imagine, and thanks to the corrupt dairymen who sold the army spoiled milk, it also tended to cause diarrhea. Needless to say, the Union army was soon back on the bean. Southern discomfort Noxious as essence of coffee was, Confederate soldiers would have gladly downed a cup or two. But, because of a Union naval blockade, coffee (along with weapons, machinery, medicine, and other vital materials) was in short supply in the South. Before the war, a pound of beans would have set you back around 20 cents in Yankee dough. Once pre-war stockpiles ran out, however, the same amount was running as high as $60 in Confederate money. (Despite the undervalued currency, that was still a lot.) There was some coffee that made it into the Confederacy -- usually carried by steam-powered blockade-runner ships. But, for the most part, Southerners had to rely on coffee substitutes, including various forms of roasted corn, rye, okra seeds, sweet potatoes, acorns, and peanuts. Unfortunately, all these imitations lacked potency, tasted awful, and upset the bowels. The only slightly better alternative was tea made from the leaves of the native yaupon shrub. The good news was that it contained caffeine; the bad news was that it was incredibly difficult to digest. Luckily, there was one surefire way for Southern folk to get their coffee -- by making peace with the Union. Soldiers on the front lines often called informal truces so Rebels could swap tobacco for Yankee coffee and then dash back to their camps before they were reported missing. E-mail to a friend For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com
[ "What did the suppliers sometimes ground into the beans?", "What was a hot commodity in the civil war", "What was a commodity in the Civil War?", "When did the Union troops have coffee?", "What Union troops had it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?" ]
[ [ "sand and dirt" ], [ "coffee." ], [ "coffee" ], [ "breakfast, lunch and dinner" ], [ "Coffee:" ] ]
Coffee was a hot commodity in the Civil War . Union troops had it for breakfast, lunch, dinner . Suppliers sometime ground dirt into beans . Blockade kept coffee had to get for Confederate troops .
(Mental Floss) -- Everyone goes through a rebellious phase. And, if you're lucky, you'll be able to look back on those years and laugh. If you're less lucky, you spent those years on a reality show, so for the rest of time, millions of strangers can look back on them and laugh instead. In modern times, cats frolic among the ruins of ancient Rome. But, hey, it could be worse. You could be responsible for the fall of Western Civilization, just like Justa Grata Honoria, the Roman princess whose wild ways and (literally) naked ambition set off a chain reaction that culminated in the destruction of the Roman Empire. Barely regal Smart, conniving, and ruthless, Honoria possessed all the attributes befitting a Roman emperor, except for that pesky Y chromosome. As a young girl, she watched as her dimwitted six-year-old brother, Valentinian III, was crowned emperor of the Western Roman Empire, while she was set aside to await a suitable marriage. Hardly content to lead a quiet and chaste life, Honoria rebelled with aplomb, sleeping her way through the royal court while still in her teens. Although her after-hours habits caused quite the scandal, they failed to satiate her need for attention and power, so Honoria set her eyes on the throne. Employing her ample charms, she seduced her brother's royal chamberlain, Eugenius, and together, they plotted to murder Valentinian and seize power. But, alas, their scheme was soon exposed. Eugenius was executed, and Honoria was sent to a convent in Constantinople. Life as a nun was a fate worse than death for Honoria, but even that couldn't quell her ambition. She spent her years at the nunnery plotting one escape attempt after another. Finally, out of sheer desperation, she turned to sources outside the empire. Her savior would have to be powerful enough to defy Valentinian and risk open war with Rome. Only one man fit that description: Attila, king of the Huns. Attila the hubby Honoria got the barbarian's attention with a mutually beneficial proposal: If Attila would rescue her, she would marry him, and he would get half of the Western Empire as her dowry. Of course, Honoria was in no position to rightfully offer any portion of the Roman Empire. But she was betting that after marrying her, Attila would conquer the whole Empire, and she'd become queen to boot. Attila had secretly been planning a move against Rome for years, and Honoria's letter gave him the perfect opportunity to strike. Wasting no time, he told Valentinian that he planned to marry Honoria, and demanded the dowry he'd been promised. Naturally, Valentinian refused, and Attila used his status as a "wronged husband" to invade Roman territory in 451 C.E. The Hun armies quickly swept through the Empire, destroying everything in their path, and eventually they arrived in Rome. Like all the other cities before it, Rome would also have been annihilated were it not for the famine and disease that devastated the Huns during the invasion. Rome survived Attila's assault with the unlikely help of another nomadic enemy tribe, the Visigoths, but the Western Empire never recovered. Within a generation, the armies of the Goths, Franks, and Huns had overrun the area. The Princess bride Ultimately, Honoria became neither Roman empress nor a Hun queen. Attila never rescued her, and she was eventually sent back to Rome and left to her brother's justice. Not wanting to cause a scandal by having her executed, and unwilling to send her back into exile where she could scheme again, Valentinian settled on a suitable third option. After years of struggle, Honoria finally suffered the fate she had been dreading all along: She was married off to an elderly Roman senator, and the rest of her life went unrecorded by history. E-mail to a friend For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com
[ "What did he fail to do?", "Who plotted to kill the emperor of the Roman Empire?", "Who plotted to kill the emperor?", "Who did she offer to marry?", "what was plan b?", "Which fate did she suffer?", "Who did Justa Grata Honoria offer to marry?", "Who did Justa Grata Honoria plot to kill?", "Who did Honoria offer to marry?", "who is attila the hun?", "What fate did she suffer?", "What was that fate?", "What did Justa Grata Honoria plan to do?", "Who lost that war?", "What was the first plot?", "what happened after that?", "Who plotted to kill her emperor?" ]
[ [ "murder Valentinian and seize power." ], [ "Attila" ], [ "Eugenius," ], [ "Attila, king of the Huns." ], [ "used his status as a \"wronged husband\"" ], [ "was married off to an elderly Roman senator," ], [ "Attila" ], [ "Valentinian" ], [ "Attila" ], [ "king of the" ], [ "was married off to an elderly Roman senator," ], [ "Life as a nun" ], [ "murder Valentinian and seize power." ], [ "Rome" ], [ "Employing her ample charms, she seduced her brother's royal chamberlain, Eugenius, and together, they plotted to murder Valentinian and seize power." ], [ "She was married off to an elderly Roman senator," ], [ "Honoria" ] ]
Justa Grata Honoria plotted to kill her emperor of Roman Empire . When first plot failed, she offered to marry Attila the Hun . He failed to annihilate Rome, or marry her . She then suffered the fate she dreaded .
(Mental Floss) -- Fantasy football drafts are firing up, and workplace productivity will soon grind to a halt as half the office spends half the day managing their rosters in an attempt to get the next Steve Slaton off the waiver wire. Just because you're not a football fan doesn't mean you have to be left out of the fantasy mania, though. There are all sorts of alternative fantasy leagues you can join. Why not try one of these? Pick your breed of dog, then allocate your "funds" to help train and groom it into a champion on Showdog.com. Fantasy music league If you spend more time listening to the radio than watching sports, the Fantasy Music League might be right up your alley. In this league your job is to compile a roster that has more real-life chart movement and album sales than other owners' "labels." You shell out a certain salary to sign the acts you think have the most promise, and if they out-earn your competitors, you'll earn the fantasy world's equivalent of a Grammy. The label that's at the top of the standings for this season, Jenny Baird Records, boasts a roster that includes Fall Out Boy, Daughtry, Justin Timberlake and Fergie. Fantasy dog shows If fantasy leagues come any more adorable than this, we don't want to see them. Showdog.com allows you to enter a virtual simulation dog show league. You pick your breed of dog, then allocate your "funds" to help train and groom it into a champion. Your simulated dog can take on other owners' pooches in a dog-eat-dog competition to help ascertain the best way to breed a champion show dog. All of the glory, none of the fetch! Mental Floss: America's most lavish dog spas Fantasy water skiing Water skiing is great fun, but it takes some practice before you can do it well. Why not skip all of those embarrassing spills and noses full of water by just joining a fantasy skiing league instead? Pick your professional skiers, then get points according to how many buoys your slalom skiers pass, how many points your tricksters pile up, and how far your jumpers soar. Never again will you and your buddies just have to argue in vain about which one of you is really the most hardcore water skiing fan! Fantasy pro wrestling Like the violence of football but wish you had a fantasy league that stuck to a script? Try fantasy pro wrestling. Web-based E-wrestling federations allow you to draft a stable of grapplers and then receive points for their performance in the ring and appearances on broadcasts. (We're guessing the Undertaker is the fantasy wrestling equivalent of Peyton Manning: maybe not the top guy every year, but you know you're going to get consistently solid production out of him.)Mental Floss: Where are they now? WWF superstars Fantasy bass fishing The only thing more exciting than watching someone else fish is beating your friends at predicting who will get the nicest bass in their livewell! ESPN.com offers a Fantasy Fishing Challenge that allows angling fans to create a team of their favorite pro anglers while working under the constraint of a $100 salary cap. Each angler has a set "salary" that he earns, and when you sign one to your team they score you points according to their performances in the Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings. Fantasy Congress Just because you prefer C-SPAN to ESPN doesn't mean you can't find a way to waste several hours on a fantasy league each week. Try out Fantasy Congress. Although the game's Web site is currently down, FantasyCongress.com launched in 2006 to allow politics junkies to draft their favorite legislators and then rack up points according to how their Congressmen's proposed legislation fared, how often they voted, and their willingness to cross party lines to up their "Maverick Score." Fantasy eating Do you watch the Nathan's hot dog eating contest each Fourth of July and find yourself feeling pangs of jealousy because you can't match the competitors' gluttony? Now you can life vicariously through them! Krystal
[ "What can the wrestler site do?", "The website allows you to do what?", "what is showdog.com?" ]
[ [ "draft a stable of grapplers and then receive points for their performance in the ring and appearances on broadcasts." ], [ "Pick your breed of dog, then allocate your \"funds\"" ], [ "a virtual simulation dog show league." ] ]
Showdog.com allows you to enter a virtual simulation dog show league . Web-based E-wrestling federations allow you to draft a stable of grapplers . Krystal Square Off offers fantasy eating leagues for four to seven teams .
(Mental Floss) -- For most of us, college donations entail little more than occasionally dropping a small check in the mail after receiving repeated pleas for cash from our alma maters. Some people, though, tend to be a bit more individualistic with their generosity. Let's take a look at some of the quirkier donations schools have received: 1. Bequest puts jocks on the ropes In 1907, fledgling Swarthmore College received a bequest that was estimated to be worth somewhere between $1 and $3 million. If the school wanted the cash, though, it would have to stop participating in intercollegiate sports. Swarthmore badly needed the cash -- its entire endowment was only in the $1 million range -- but in the end, the school turned down the gift and the sports survived. 2. Ivy League has to produce homemakers When former Massachusetts Attorney General A.E. Pillsbury gave Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia $25,000 apiece in his 1931 will, he had a catch in mind: the schools had to use the bequests to combat the feminist movement that had "already begun to impair the family as the basis of civilization and its advance." Pillsbury envisioned the schools creating a lectureship that could help keep women in the home. 3. Auburn goes to the dogs When Miss Eleanor Elizabeth Ritchey, granddaughter of the founder of the Quaker State Oil Refining Company, died in 1968, she left Auburn University a generous gift of $2.5 million. She also gave the school something a bit more unusual: the responsibility for 150 dogs. Ritchey, who owned a ranch in Florida and loved to adopt homeless dogs, made the large cash donation contingent on the school finding good homes for all 150 of her dogs. The cash was then earmarked for veterinary research. Mental Floss: Videos: Dogs welcoming home soldiers 4. Bryn Mawr goes on the clock Did Bryn Mawr need any new clocks in 1957? It didn't matter. They were getting one. Philadelphia physician Florence Chapman Child left the school $50,000 in her will if they would also agree to take her 150-year-old grandfather clock. The doctor stipulated that the school's administrators had to "install it in an appropriate place, keep it in proper condition and repair, make no changes in the fundamental appearance, and are not to have it electrified." 5. Donor wants flowers in perpetuity For years, Indiana University offered a scholarship with a strange condition: the recipient was supposed to drive from Bloomington to Indianapolis once a year to put flowers on the donor's grave. The school gradually decided it was a bit much to ask a student to take a roadtrip to a stranger's headstone, though, so for 20 years it didn't enforce the requirement. Eventually the donor's attorney found out that the flowers weren't being placed, but instead of being indignant he worked with the school to remove the clause from the bequest. 6. Colleges find a fountainhead of cash In 2008, Marshall University received a $1 million gift to establish the BB&T Center for the Advancement of American Capitalism. The catch was that the school had to agree to teach Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" as part of its curriculum. BB&T executives said the requirement was designed to spark debate on the ethical underpinnings of capitalism. This wasn't the first time BB&T had made this sort of gift, either. In 2005, it gave the University of North Carolina Charlotte another million big ones to make "Atlas Shrugged" required reading for its students. 7. Small potatoes lead to big cash In 1950, the government had a surplus of potatoes and started looking for ways to get rid of the excess tubers. The Department of Agriculture decided to give the potatoes to Hiwassee College, a small Methodist school in eastern Tennessee. College president D.R. Youell told the government that he didn't want its charity, though. A short time later, the school received a $10,000 donation with a note praising the institution for taking a stand against "the dangerous trends toward socialism in our Government." Mental Floss: 7
[ "What is the largest donation that a college has passed up because of conditions?", "What does the donor's scholarship require?", "Who could have had $3million to cut its sports program?" ]
[ [ "between $1 and $3 million." ], [ "the recipient was supposed to drive from Bloomington to Indianapolis once a year to put flowers on the" ], [ "Swarthmore College" ] ]
Some colleges have received or turned down donations with strange strings attached . Heiress leaves $2.5 million to school that must find homes for her 150 dogs . Donor's scholarships requires students to place flowers on his grave . Swarthmore College could have received up to $3 million if it cut sports program .
(Mental Floss) -- From the moment Justice David Souter announced he'd be stepping down, Washington has been gearing up for a confirmation fight. But as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Judge Sonia Sotomayor yesterday, "Unless you have a complete meltdown, you are going to get confirmed." Robert Bork is not the only nominee who did not make it to the Supreme Court. Let's take a look back at eight nominees who didn't make it to the bench, at least on their first try. 1. Robert Bork In our time, the most famous rejected nominee is Robert H. Bork, a legal scholar and U.S. Court of Appeals judge with a long paper trail of conservative opinions. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, Bork could have tilted the Court decisively to the right. As a known quantity, he was an easy target for liberal opponents, who organized a campaign against him. He was rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee after 12 days of hearings. Mental Floss: Washington's struggle to find a chief justice 2. Alexander Wolcott "Oh degraded Country! How humiliating to the friends of moral virtue -- of religion and of all that is dear to the lover of his Country!" the New-York Gazette Advertiser wailed in 1811 over President James Madison's nomination of customs inspector Alexander Wolcott. Wolcott's strong enforcement of the controversial embargoes against Great Britain and France cost him support in the Senate and in the press. The Senate turned him down by a 9-24 vote, the widest rejection in Supreme Court history. 3. Roger Taney Roger B. Taney (pronounced tawny) is largely remembered as the chief justice who handed down the Dred Scott decision in 1857. With his sepulchral countenance, Taney is inextricably linked to the grim ruling that all blacks -- slaves as well as free -- were not and could never become citizens of the United States. But when President Andrew Jackson nominated him in 1835 as associate justice, opposition Whigs were still smarting from Taney's removal of government deposits from the Second Bank of the United States while he was a recess-appointed Secretary of the Treasury. The Senate voted to indefinitely postpone the nomination. However, after Chief Justice John Marshall died in 1836, Jackson sent Taney's name up again. He was confirmed, this time as chief justice. 4. Ebenezer Hoar You might think the Senate just couldn't stomach elevating to the highest court in the land a man with the name Ebenezer Hoar, but it seems the senators were offended by something other than aesthetics. As President Ulysses S. Grant's attorney general, Hoar had insisted on rewarding merit rather than political loyalty, thus blocking a well-trod route for patronage. So when Grant nominated Hoar to the Court in 1869, miffed Republican senators gave the virtuous Hoar thumbs down. Mental Floss: What was Marbury v. Madison? Who were Roe and Wade? 5 and 6. Wheeler Hazard Peckham and William B. Hornblower A senator has the right to reject a court nomination simply because the nominee is from the senator's home state. Upon this invocation of "senatorial courtesy" rests the demise of Wheeler Hazard Peckham and William B. Hornblower. Both men were nominated by President Grover Cleveland. Both nominees were New Yorkers, and New York Sen. David Hill invoked senatorial courtesy to squelch their nominations in 1894. (Peckham's brother, Rufus Wheeler Peckham, became a justice in 1896.) 7. Harriet Miers Some nominees withdrew themselves from consideration before they could be rejected. Such was the case of Harriet Miers, whom President George W. Bush nominated in 2005, but withdrew under criticism that she was unqualified. Mental Floss: Why there's a Mohammed statue at the Supreme Court? 8. Douglas Ginsburg Another withdrawal was that of Douglas Ginsburg (not related to current justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg), the conservative, former pot-smoking federal appellate judge who is a footnote in the Bork saga. After Bork was Borked, Reagan eyed the more moderate Anthony Kennedy for the seat. But Sen. Jesse Helms (R-
[ "Who degraded the country?", "How many nominees failed to get a seat?", "how many people have failed to get a seat", "Who else was rejected", "Who was rejected through home state courtesy?", "Who got a thumbs down?", "Who claimed Alexander Wolcott's nomination degraded the country?", "What number of Supreme court nominees have failed to get a seat on the high bench?" ]
[ [ "Alexander Wolcott" ], [ "eight" ], [ "eight" ], [ "Ebenezer Hoar" ], [ "Robert H. Bork," ], [ "Ebenezer Hoar" ], [ "New-York Gazette Advertiser" ], [ "eight" ] ]
A total of eight Supreme Court nominees have failed to get a seat on the high bench . Ebenezer Hoar got a thumbs down after blocking a well-trod route for patronage . Wheeler Peckham and William B. Hornblower rejected through home state courtesy . Newspaper claimed Alexander Wolcott's nomination degraded the country .
(Mental Floss) -- Have you ever been watching television and thought, "Wow, this soap opera is so good it could cause the downfall of a corrupt communist regime," or even, "I bet one day this show is going to send the first woman into space"? Well, maybe you're not giving the boob tube enough credit. Popular television shows have influenced politics in the United States and around the world. While others are busy blaming television for all of society's downfalls, we think it's time someone stood up for ye olde idiot box. After all, these 10 television shows didn't just entertain, they helped convince the world to get with the program. 1. "DALLAS" The Show that Overthrew a Dictator (Well, kind of.) "Dallas" was one of the most popular TV shows in history -- and nowhere was it more talked about than in Nicolae Ceausescu's communist Romania. How did the soap opera get past Romanian censors? With help from "Dallas" leading man, J.R. Ewing, of course. Because J.R. was portrayed as a despicable oil baron, Ceausescu's government presumably decided the show must be anti-capitalist. Whatever the reasoning, "Dallas" became a runaway hit when it arrived in Romania in 1979. A series about wealthy, beautiful people (evil or not) was an inspiration to Romania's poor and dejected masses. Eventually, the government decided such Western television was a bad influence, and "Dallas" was taken off the air in 1981. But by then, it was too late. The fantasies of Western life lived on in the imaginations of Romanians, and in 1989, Ceausescu was overthrown during a public uprising. Not incidentally, the actor who played J.R., Larry Hagman, visited Romania some years later and was treated as a hero. In an interview following the experience, Hagman said, "People from Bucharest came up to me in the street with tears in their eyes saying, 'J.R. saved our country.' " 2. "SEE IT NOW" The Show that Ended McCarthyism If you know your 1950s history (or if you saw the movie "Good Night, and Good Luck"), you know the impact crusading journalist Edward R. Murrow had on American politics. His vehicle for galvanizing change? The current affairs show, "See It Now," which premiered in 1951. Well known as a World War II radio correspondent, Murrow wasn't a fan of television initially. He wanted to go beyond the talking-head discussions and newsreels that filled most nightly news shows at the time. So when he finally decided to move forward with "See It Now," he did so on his own terms. The show's debut episode featured television's first live coast-to-coast transmission, which included a split-screen of the Brooklyn Bridge on one side and the Golden Gate on the other. Murrow also broke new ground by airing a day in the lives of Korean War soldiers. Of course, the show's most influential role was in exposing Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist fear campaign and opening Americans' eyes to the many lives and careers it was ruining. Thanks in part to fallout from Murrow's broadcast on March 9, 1954, the U.S. Senate reprimanded McCarthy for abusing his power, and McCarthyism came to an abrupt end. Murrow wasn't afraid to take on rogue senators, and later, he proved he wasn't scared to take on Big Tobacco, either. Two episodes of "See It Now" explored the link between cigarettes and cancer -- a brave move, considering television depended heavily on tobacco sponsorships at the time. But perhaps Murrow had a personal interest in the story. A three-pack-a-day smoker who regularly appeared on camera with a cigarette in hand, Murrow died of lung cancer in 1965. 3. "GENERAL ELECTRIC THEATER" The Show that Turned Ronald Reagan into a Republican In the early 1950s, film actor Ronald Reagan was at a low point in his career. So when Taft Schreiber, of
[ "Which show gave Romanians a view of a better life?", "What actor played J.R. Ewing?", "What gave poor Romanians a view of a better life?", "Where is Larry Hagman treated as a hero?", "Who was greeted as hero in the country?" ]
[ [ "\"Dallas\"" ], [ "Larry Hagman," ], [ "\"DALLAS\"" ], [ "Romania" ], [ "J.R., Larry Hagman," ] ]
"Dallas" gave poor Romanians a view of a better life . J.R. Ewing actor Larry Hagman greeted as hero in the country . Hubert Humphrey blamed comic for election loss .
(Mental Floss) -- Have you ever wondered about the origins and namesakes of our favorite spreads, sauces, and dressings? Here are a few stories that you can use to regale your friends the next time you chow down. Peppers were imported from the Mexican state of Tabasco to make spicy Tabasco sauce, giving the condiment its name. 1. Thousand Island Dressing Is the delicious dressing that gives a Reuben its tanginess named after an actual chain of islands? You bet it is. The Thousand Islands are an archipelago that sits in the Saint Lawrence River on the U.S.-Canada border, and there are actually 1,793 of them, some of which are so small that they contain nothing more than a single home. So why is the dressing named after an archipelago? No one's quite sure. Some people claim that early film star and vaudevillian May Irwin, who summered on the Thousand Islands, named it, while others contend that George Boldt, the famed proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria, gave the dressing its name because of his own summer place in the region. No matter who named it, it's tough to beat on a sandwich. 2. Ranch Dressing Yep, the beloved dressing and dipping sauce actually got its start on a real ranch. When Steve and Gayle Henson opened a dude ranch in California in 1954, they had an ace up their sleeves: a delicious dressing that Steve had concocted while the couple was living in Alaska. The couple did a nice business at their Hidden Valley Ranch, but guests were always flipping out over just how tasty Steve's dressing was. Eventually, the Hensons started bottling the stuff, and the popularity grew so quickly that they had to hire a twelve-man crew just to help mix up each batch. Steve's culinary creativity turned out to be lucrative; in 1972 Clorox forked over $8 million for the recipe. Mental Floss: Foods named after people 3. A1 Steak Sauce According to the brand's Web site, A1 has been around for quite a while. Henderson William Brand worked as the personal chef for King George IV from 1824 to 1831, and at some point during this employment mixed up a new sauce for the king to use on his beef. George IV allegedly took one bite of Brand's creation and declared that it was "A1." Brand then left the king's employ in order to go peddle his new sauce. 4. Tabasco Sauce Tabasco sauce is perhaps the most famous of all hot sauces, but where did it get its name? When Edmund McIlhenny, a former banker, invented the sauce in Louisiana in 1868, he didn't have a huge supply of chili peppers at his disposal. To keep cooking, he imported peppers from the Mexican state of Tabasco and slapped the region's name on his bottles. Mental Floss: The origins of salt, pepper and other popular spices 5. Heinz 57 Legend has it that Heinz 57 takes its name from H.J. Heinz's company formerly marketing 57 products at once, and except for the number, the story holds up. Heinz's Web site tells a story that Henry John Heinz was riding a train when he saw a billboard advertising 21 varieties of shoes. He so liked the idea he wanted to try it with his own condiment company. Thus, he started touting Heinz's 57 varieties. There was only one catch: Heinz marketed well over 60 products at the time. So where did the 57 come from? Heinz thought the number was lucky. Five was Heinz's lucky number, and seven was his wife's. He mashed the charmed digits together, got 57, and never looked back. 6. Tartar Sauce Fish's best friend is named after an alternate spelling of the word "Tatar," which was how Western Europeans once referred to almost anyone of Mongolian or Turkic descent. Many of these Tatars/Tartars ran roughshod over Europe in the time of Genghis Khan, but they knew how to cook. One of the dishes they left behind, beef tartare, came back into fashion in 19th-century France. These helpings of
[ "Thousand Island dressing is named after which islands?", "What is dressing named after?", "who imported peppers from the Mexican state of Tabasco?", "Tabasco Sauce's name derives from where?", "What was imported from Tabasco?" ]
[ [ "an archipelago that sits in the Saint Lawrence River on the U.S.-Canada border," ], [ "an actual chain of islands?" ], [ "Edmund McIlhenny," ], [ "the Mexican state of" ], [ "Peppers" ] ]
Thousand Island dressing is named after 1,793 islands in the Saint Lawrence River . Tabasco's founder imported peppers from the Mexican state of Tabasco . Hollandaise isn't actually Dutch; it's one of the most well known French sauces .
(Mental Floss) -- In his victory speech on Tuesday night, Barack Obama promised his daughters Sasha and Malia that they'd get to bring a new puppy with them to the White House in January. President Bush's dog Barney, left, plays in 2001 with Spot, the offspring of George H.W. Bush's dog Millie. It's a good thing Obama said "Yes, we can" to the girls' request to getting a dog; for all of his charm, ability, and oratorical flair, he could never be our nation's chief executive without a White House pet. Counting Obama, the country has had 44 Presidents, and only two of them -- Chester A. Arthur and Franklin Pierce -- left no record of having pets. Like Obama himself, the family pooch will have some big shoes to fill. Previous White House pets have set the bar pretty high. iReport.com: What pet would you want if you lived in the White House? Here are a few of our favorites: Watch Obama on "mutts like me" » 1. Billy: Calvin Coolidge's pygmy hippopotamus Calvin Coolidge may have been known for his reticence, but he showed little of his trademark reserve when it came to acquiring pets. After taking over the presidency upon the death of Warren G. Harding, Coolidge assembled a menagerie that would rival most zoos' collections. He had six dogs, a bobcat, a goose, a donkey, a cat, two lion cubs, an antelope, and a wallaby. The main attraction in his personal zoo, though, was Billy, a pygmy hippopotamus. Watch new baby pygmy hippo » Billy was born in Liberia, but was captured at a young age. He came into the possession of tire mogul Harvey Firestone, who gave Billy to President Coolidge as a gift, possibly because Firestone didn't want to feed the critter. (Even a pygmy hippo is still quite rotund; Billy was six feet long and weighed upwards of 600 pounds.) Coolidge donated Billy to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. Because there were only a handful of pygmy hippos in the U.S. at the time, Billy quickly went to work as a stud, an endeavor at which he found some success. He sired 23 little hippos, and many of the pygmy hippos you see in American zoos today are his offspring. Mental Floss: 7 crafty zoo escapes 2. The White House gators Herbert Hoover wanted to put a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage, and ... a gator in the Oval Office? It's true. Hoover owned a slew of dogs, but those weren't his only pets. His second son, Allan Henry Hoover, owned a pair of gators that were occasionally allowed to wander around the White House grounds. Sound crazy? Blame John Quincy Adams for setting the precedent. The sixth president also had a pet gator. His was a gift from the Marquis de Lafayette; it lived in a bathroom in the East Room of the White House. According to some reports, he enjoyed using the gator to scare his guests. 3. Fala: FDR's traveling companion What do you get the Depression-conquering president who has everything? A lapdog. In 1940 Franklin Roosevelt received a Scottish Terrier puppy named Big Boy as an early Christmas gift from a family friend. FDR immediately realized that Big Boy was no name for a presidential companion and rechristened the pooch Murray the Outlaw of Falahill, after a Scottish ancestor. For the sake of simplicity, though, he called his new pal Fala. After that, Fala became FDR's inseparable companion and traveled everywhere the President went. The dog "gave" $1 a day to the war effort, generosity that earned him the rank of honorary private in the Army. Each morning when FDR's breakfast tray came in, it included a bone for Fala. Fala also made a famous appearance in one of his master's speeches. When FDR was decrying personal attacks from his political opponents, he jokingly said that it was okay to mock him,
[ "What did Obama promise the girls?", "What did Barack Obama promise the girls" ]
[ [ "that they'd get to bring a new puppy with them to the White House" ], [ "they'd get to bring a new puppy with them to the White House in January." ] ]
Barack Obama promised puppy for girls; past presidential pets have been strange . What the heck? First lady Abigail Adams had a dog named Satan . President Harding's dog gave "interviews" and had a seat at Cabinet meetings . Original name of FDR's dog: Big Boy; President Grant had fighting gamecocks .
(Mental Floss) -- In the words of Vice President John Nance Garner, the vice presidency "isn't worth a pitcher of warm piss." Vice President Aaron Burr is best known for shooting and killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804. That may be true, but the characters who've held the job are definitely worth a few good pages of trivia. Join mental_floss in toasting seven backup plans that made this country great. 1. Chester Arthur: James Garfield's V.P. Chester Arthur took office under the thickest cloud of suspicion. As a lieutenant in Senator Roscoe Conkling's political machine, Arthur held one of the most lucrative positions in government: collector for the port of New York. For seven years, Arthur raked in approximately $40,000 annually (about $700,000 today), running a corrupt spoils system for thousands of payroll employees. With so much money and power, Arthur developed an affinity for fancy clothes and earned the nickname "the Gentleman Boss." But his luck didn't last. President Rutherford Hayes eventually stepped in and fired him from the post. Even with the kickback scandal and claims that he'd been born in Canada (which should've disqualified him for the vice presidency), Arthur still managed to get elected on James Garfield's 1880 ticket. After Garfield passed away 199 days into his presidency, Arthur didn't hesitate to sign the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. Much to the chagrin of Conkling, the Act revamped civil service by effectively killing the same patronage system that made Arthur very, very rich. In cleaning up civil service, Arthur also cleaned up his reputation, and he exited the White House a hero. 2. Henry Wallace: Franklin Roosevelt's second V.P. Henry Wallace was a dedicated devotee of Eastern mysticism. While serving as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in the 1930s, he allegedly sent his guru to Mongolia under the pretense of collecting grasses that could withstand drought. In reality, Wallace was diverting funds to help his guru hunt for evidence that Christ had visited Asia. But it wasn't Wallace's spiritual beliefs that landed him America's No. 2 job. Wallace was a big Franklin Roosevelt fan and supported his entire platform, which is why Roosevelt handpicked him as his third-term running mate in 1940. Wallace wasn't popular with the Democratic Party, but when Roosevelt made it clear he wouldn't run without him, the party acquiesced. As vice president, Wallace made many international goodwill trips. Most famously, he traveled to the Soviet Union, where he experienced a political transformation that resulted in him becoming an avowed Soviet apologist. His communist leanings did nothing for his image, especially once he became secretary of commerce under President Truman. In 1948, Wallace unsuccessfully ran for president on the Progressive Party ticket, espousing views that sounded shockingly Marxist. He even described corporations as "midget Hitlers" attempting to crush the labor class. But nobody can say Wallace didn't know how to own up to his mistakes. In 1952, he recanted his support of the Soviet Union in a magazine article called "Where I was Wrong." By then, however, his political career was over. Wallace spent the rest of his life conducting agricultural experiments on his farm in New York. 3. William Rufus de Vane King: Franklin Pierce's V.P. William R. King was sworn into office in Cuba, becoming the only executive officer to take the oath on foreign soil. King had gone to Cuba to recuperate from tuberculosis and severe alcoholism, but it didn't work. He died in 1853 after being vice president for just 25 days. That might not be the most memorable thing about King, though. It's widely rumored that the former V.P. was homosexual. Further still, he's suspected of being James Buchanan's lover. Neither King nor Buchanan ever married, and they lived together in Washington for 15 years before Buchanan became president. Of course, King's predilection for wearing scarves and wigs only fanned the rumors. President Andrew Jackson used to call him "Miss Nancy," and Aaron Brown, a fellow Southern Democrat,
[ "What was Chester Arthur job?", "Where did Chester Arthur work?" ]
[ [ "Arthur still managed to get elected on James Garfield's 1880 ticket. After Garfield passed away 199 days into his presidency, Arthur didn't hesitate to sign the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act." ], [ "New York." ] ]
Chester Arthur maintained lucrative employment as the collector for port of NY . Andrew Johnson took his 1865 vice-presidential oath drunk and belligerent as hell . Aaron Burr tried to conspire with Napoleon to conquer Florida, but failed . Both Aaron Burr and John Breckenridge were charged with treason .
(Mental Floss) -- It's Nobel Prize announcement week, and if you had Carol W. Greider, Elizabeth Blackburn, or Jack Szostak in your office pool, you're off to a good start (the trio will share this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine). As we await news of the rest of the winners, here are some stories about past Nobel laureates. Nobel Prize winners receive a medal and a cash award. 1. Robert Lucas, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on the theory of "rational expectations," split his $1 million prize with his ex-wife. If there were a Nobel Prize for Foresight or Timing, she should be nominated, based on a clause in their divorce settlement from seven years earlier: "Wife shall receive 50 percent of any Nobel Prize." The clause expired on October 31, 1995. Had Lucas won any year after, he would have kept the whole million. 2. Physicist Lise Meitner, whose work helped lead to the discovery of nuclear fission, was reportedly nominated for the Nobel Prize 13 times without ever winning (though nominations are kept secret, so we don't know for sure). This makes her the Dynasty of the Nobel Prize scene -- that show was nominated for 24 Emmy Awards but never won. Other analogies we'd accept: The Color Purple (11 Oscar nominations in 1985, no wins), the Buffalo Bills or Minnesota Vikings (4 Super Bowl losses each without a victory) and William Jennings Bryan (three-time Democratic nominee for President, losing twice to McKinley and once to Taft.) 3. People who refused the prize: • Le Duc Tho was awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize with Henry Kissinger for their roles in brokering a Vietnam cease fire at the Paris Peace Accords. Citing the absence of actual peace in Vietnam, Tho declined to accept. • Jean Paul Sartre waved off the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature. His explanation: "It is not the same thing if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre or if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prize winner. A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honorable form." • Afraid of Soviet retribution if he traveled to Stockholm to claim his prize, Boris Pasternak declined to accept the 1958 Prize in Literature, which he'd earned for Doctor Zhivago. The Academy refused his refusal. "This refusal, of course, in no way alters the validity of the award. There remains only for the Academy, however, to announce with regret that the presentation of the Prize cannot take place." Yevgeny Pasternak accepted the prize on behalf of his deceased father in 1989. • Swedish poet Erik Axel Karlfeldt won for Literature in 1918. He did not accept because he was Secretary of the Swedish Academy, which awards the prize. He was given the award posthumously in 1931. This was allowed because the nomination was made before Karlfeldt died -- no candidate may be proposed after death. Mental Floss: 10 technologies we stole from the animal kingdom 4. In 2007, 90-year-old professor Leonid Hurwicz became the oldest person to ever win (one-third of the Prize in Economics); at 87, writer Doris Lessing became the oldest woman (Literature). 5. DNA expert Kary Mullis -- 1993 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry -- was scheduled to be a defense witness in O.J. Simpson's murder trial. However, Simpson's lawyer Barry Scheck felt the prosecution's DNA case was already essentially destroyed, and he didn't want Mullis' personal life to distract jurors (he'd expressed an affinity for LSD.) 6. Nobel Laureates you must know: Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Elie Wiesel, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Jimmy Carter, Toni Morrison, William Faulkner, T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, Pierre & Marie Curie, Max Planck and Albert Einstein. 7. Big names who
[ "To whom did some Nobel prize winners have to give money to", "Who was nominated for the Nobel Prize 13 times?" ]
[ [ "ex-wife." ], [ "Physicist Lise Meitner," ] ]
More than one Nobel winner had to share or give prize money to ex-wife . Marie Curie was urged not to collect her second Nobel because of affair . Three U.S. presidents have won the Nobel prize . Lise Meitner was reportedly nominated for the Nobel Prize 13 times, but never won .
(Mental Floss) -- It's hard to walk down the aisle of a liquor store without running across a bottle bearing someone's name. A costumed reveler at a Captain Morgan party celebrates the rum named after the 17th century privateer. We put them in our cocktails, but how well do we know them? Here's some biographical detail on the men behind your favorite tipples: 1. Captain Morgan The Captain wasn't always just the choice of sorority girls looking to blend spiced rum with Diet Coke; in the 17th century he was a feared privateer. Not only did the Welsh pirate marry his own cousin, he ran risky missions for the governor of Jamaica, including capturing some Spanish prisoners in Cuba and sacking Port-au-Prince in Haiti. He then plundered the Cuban coast before holding for ransom the entire city of Portobelo, Panama. He later looted and burned Panama City, but his pillaging career came to an end when Spain and England signed a peace treaty in 1671. Instead of getting in trouble for his high-seas antics, Morgan received knighthood and became the lieutenant governor of Jamaica. Mental Floss: 5 drinking stories that put yours to shame 2. Johnnie Walker Walker, the name behind the world's most popular brand of Scotch whisky, was born in 1805 in Ayrshire, Scotland. When his father died in 1819, Johnnie inherited a trust of a little over 400 pounds, which the trustees invested in a grocery store. Walker became a very successful grocer in the town of Kilmarnock and even sold a whisky, Walker's Kilmarnock Whisky. Johnnie's son Alexander was the one who actually turned the family into famous whisky men, though. Alexander had spent time in Glasgow learning how to blend teas, but he eventually returned to Kilmarnock to take over the grocery from his father. Alexander turned his blending expertise to whisky, and came up with "Old Highland Whisky," which later became Johnnie Walker Black Label. 3. Jack Daniel Jasper Newton "Jack" Daniel of Tennessee whiskey fame was the descendant of Welsh settlers who came to the United States in the early 19th century. He was born in 1846 or 1850 and was one of 13 children. By 1866 he was distilling whiskey in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Unfortunately for the distiller, he had a bit of a temper. One morning in 1911 Daniel showed up for work early and couldn't get his safe open. He flew off the handle and kicked the offending strongbox. The kick was so ferocious that Daniel injured his toe, which then became infected. The infection soon became the blood poisoning that killed the whiskey mogul. Curious about why your bottle of J.D. also has Lem Motlow listed as the distillery's proprietor? Daniel's own busy life of distilling and safe-kicking kept him from ever finding a wife and siring an heir, so in 1907 he gave the distillery to his beloved nephew Lem Motlow, who had come to work for him as a bookkeeper. Mental Floss: The many myths of Jack Daniel 4. Jose Cuervo In 1758, Jose Antonio de Cuervo received a land grant from the King of Spain to start an agave farm in the Jalisco region of Mexico. Jose used his agave plants to make mescal, a popular Mexican liquor. In 1795, King Carlos IV gave the land grant to Cuervo's descendant Jose Maria Guadalupe de Cuervo. Carlos IV also granted the Cuervo family the first license to commercially make tequila, so they built a larger factory on the existing land. The family started packaging their wares in individual bottles in 1880, and in 1900 the booze started going by the brand name Jose Cuervo. The brand is still under the leadership of the original Jose Cuervo's family; current boss Juan-Domingo Beckmann is the sixth generation of Cuervo ancestors to run the company. 5. Jim Beam Jim Beam, the namesake of the world's best-selling bourbon whiskey, didn't actually start the distillery that now bears his name. His great-grandfather Jacob Beam opened the distillery
[ "What did Jack Daniel lose to?", "When was the real Jack Daniel born?", "Who did Captain Morgan marry?", "What country did Capt. Morgan plunder?" ]
[ [ "blood poisoning" ], [ "1846 or 1850" ], [ "his own cousin," ], [ "Cuban" ] ]
Capt. Morgan married his own cousin, plundered Cuba and won a knighthood . Jack Daniel died after losing a fight with a ... safe? Which best-selling bourbon whiskey was originally called "Old Tub?" Gin-maker Tanqueray descended from three-generations of clergymen .
(Mental Floss) -- Most people limit their gambling to March Madness pools or the occasional trip to Vegas. Celebrities, of course, tend to do everything on a grander scale. Let's take a look at some famous people and the high-profile bets on which they cashed in or lost big. 1. Truman defeats Dewey, Jimmy the Greek defeats Vegas Everyone remembers the "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline from the 1948 presidential election, but Harry Truman wasn't the only big winner that night. Legendary gambler Jimmy the Greek had bet $10,000 on Truman at steep 17:1 odds. His logic? His research showed that female voters weren't too keen on candidates with facial hair, which didn't bode well for the mustachioed Dewey. 2. Phil Mickelson has a nice 2001 PGA golfer Phil Mickelson had a hot hand during 2001. Fans might remember that two longshots won titles that year: the Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl, and the Arizona Diamondbacks knocked off the New York Yankees in a classic World Series. Mickelson was part of betting groups that had picked both squads. Their $20,000 bet on the 28-to-1 Ravens yielded a cool $560,000, and they hit again with $20K on the 38-to-1 Diamondbacks. And to think people used to say Mickelson couldn't get a big win. 3. Getting into the White House is tougher than free throws Last July, NBA star Shaquille O'Neal and a member of his entourage had a fiery debate about whether or not Shaq could just drop by the White House unannounced and be welcomed with open arms. After much back-and-forth, Shaq decided he'd give it a try. If he couldn't get past the gate, he would do 1,000 pushups. If he made it inside, his buddy would have to do the pushups. Unfortunately for Shaq, even the Big Aristotle needs an appointment to see the President. When O'Neal walked up to the gate, the Secret Service politely but firmly turned him away. He later told the Washington Post's Dan Steinberg that he was working off his debt in increments of 20 to 30 pushups. Mental Floss: Great photos found in presidential libraries 4. Paul Ehrlich's population bomb doesn't go off Even celebrity scientists have tried their hands at high profile gambling. Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich is famous for his grim predictions concerning overpopulation; he famously predicted in 1968 that 20 percent of the world's population would starve to death before 1985. As you might expect, these claims were somewhat controversial. When Ehrlich commented in 1980 that he would make an even money bet that England would not exist in the year 2000, economist Julian L. Simon had heard enough. Simon decided to book an unusual bet of his own with Ehrlich. Since Ehrlich's underlying Malthusian argument involved the depletion of natural resources, Simon made this challenge: Ehrlich could name whatever natural resource he wanted, buy $1,000 worth of it, and pick a time frame. If at the end of the time frame the commodities were worth more than the initial $1,000, Simon would pay Ehrlich the difference. If they were worth less than $1,000, Ehrlich would fork the difference over to Simon. If Ehrlich's predictions about dwindling natural resources came to pass, the prices of commodities would skyrocket and Simon would be out a lot of cash. Ehrlich was game. He spread his $1,000 evenly among chrome, copper, nickel, tin, and tungsten and told Simon to wait 10 years. Although the world's population shot up by 800 million people in the intervening decade, the metals' prices crashed. When the bet ended in 1990, Ehrlich had to cut Simon a check for $576.07. 5. Ringo says don't bet on a Beatles reunion By 1974, legions of fans were clamoring for a Beatles reunion, but Ringo Starr was having none of it. The drummer told London reporters that he had bet a thousand pounds that the Beatles wouldn't play together that year, and that he would be happy to throw a thousand quid down on the group never playing together again. Mental
[ "What did Jimmy the Greek do when Harry Truman won the White House?", "In which year did Ringo Starr put his money down against the Beatles reuniting?", "Who puts his money down in 1974 against the Beatles reuniting?" ]
[ [ "defeats Vegas" ], [ "1974," ], [ "Ringo Starr" ] ]
When Harry Truman won the White House, Jimmy the Greek hit the jackpot . Ringo Starr put his money down in 1974 against the Beatles reuniting . Arnold Palmer gambled to pay off his wife's engagement ring .
(Mental Floss) -- Over the centuries, people have had some very good reasons to dress up like a member of the opposite sex. After record-setting Olympics athlete Stella Walsh died in 1980, it was revealed that she had indeed been a man. And I'm not talking about people who live this way out of personal preference, or those who dress up for theater and entertainment. Here are just five examples. 1. Cross-dressing to join the army Until recently, women have rarely been allowed to serve as soldiers. So what was a gal to do if she wanted to serve her country? Naturally, disguise herself as a man and join the troops. At least 400 Civil War soldiers were women in drag. These included Union Army soldier "Frank Thompson" (also known as Sarah Edmonds), whose small frame and feminine mannerisms (rather than causing suspicion) made her an ideal spy, as she could spy on the Confederates disguised as... a woman! She wasn't the first woman to don a male disguise and join the army, though. During the Revolutionary War, women fought as men on both sides. Hannah Snell, for example, joined the British army to find her husband, who had walked out on her to enlist. Once her true sex was discovered (thanks to a pesky groin injury), she became a national celebrity in Britain, and made a post-war career of performing in bars as the "Female Warrior." Mental Floss: The Confederacy's plan to conquer Latin America 2. Cross-dressing to keep a royal family together With all the power play that went on in the court, the French royal family would go to great lengths to avoid sibling rivalry. In one of the more extreme cases, Philippe I, Duke of Orleans (1640-1701), was raised as a girl to discourage him from any political or military aspirations. This would make things easier for his brother, the future King Louis XIV. Philippe wore dresses and make-up, enjoyed traditionally feminine pursuits, and was even encouraged towards homosexuality. A girly man he might have been, but he married twice and even had a mistress. When necessary, he could even lead an army into battle. (This is the nation, after all, that gave us that famous cross-dresser Joan of Arc.) A brave commander, he would go into battle wearing high heels, plenty of jewelry and a long, perfumed wig. One of his wives claimed that Philippe's biggest fear when going into battle was not bullets, but the possibility of looking a mess. He avoided gunpowder (with the black smoke stains) and didn't wear a hat, to avoid ruining his hair. Mental Floss: 11 weird & wonderful wedding rings 3. Cross-dressing to win Olympic glory Dressing in drag has been part of the Olympics (on and off) since ancient times, when women were banned from the bulk of the Games. The Greek historian Pausanias of Damascus said that if a spectator was uncovered as a woman in male disguise, she was duly escorted off the premises... and thrown off a cliff. In later Games, the athletes started performing naked, and the crowd was also ordered to disrobe. It has been suggested that this was to ensure that they were all men. In the modern Olympics, there has been less disrobing -- and not much cross-dressing, either. Gender tests have been normal procedure since 1966 (for athletes, not spectators), so they couldn't really get away with it. Before that time, one of the strangest -- and most controversial -- cases was Polish sprinter Stanislawa Walasiewicz (aka Stella Walsh), who set 11 world records in her career, winning the 100-meter Olympic finals in 1932 with what one official described as "long man-like strides." After she died in 1980, however, it was revealed that she had indeed been a man. So had he deliberately set out to fool everyone all that
[ "Who were women in drag?", "Who won Olympic medals?", "What number of U.S. Civil War soldiers were women in drag?", "What were at least 400 soldiers?" ]
[ [ "At least 400 Civil War soldiers" ], [ "Stella Walsh" ], [ "At least 400" ], [ "Civil War" ] ]
Cross-dressers have: Spied, joined armies, won Olympic medals, been royalty . At least 400 U.S. Civil War soldiers were women in drag . Spy disguised himself as woman to seduce attache in French Foreign Service . Hindu women in Jodhpur, India, "go wild," dressing as men once each year .
(Mental Floss) -- Owning a professional sports franchise is my dream job. (I'm willing to relocate.) Of course, I could never afford my own team. There's a better chance I'll miraculously develop an unhittable slider, or learn to punt. NFL team owner Robert Kraft got his start in the paper business. You obviously must be exceedingly wealthy to become an owner. Did you ever wonder how all these people made all that money? I sure hope you did, because we went and did all this research. Here's a list of nine billionaire owners and how they built their fortunes. 1. Rich DeVos, Orlando Magic (NBA) In 1959, DeVos and high school friend Jay Van Andel started selling all-purpose cleaner. Their business grew to become Amway, which now brings in $6 billion each year under the ominous-sounding Alticor name. Whether you see Amway as an empowering direct sales company or a something resembling a cult, it sure was good to DeVos. Forbes estimates his wealth at $3.5 billion, making the paltry $85 million he spent on the Magic in 1991 a minor investment. 2. Robert L. Johnson, Charlotte Bobcats (NBA) Lower on my list of dream jobs is running a cable network that caters to urban youth. So I'm all kinds of envious of Robert L., who founded BET and sold it to Viacom for $3 billion in 2001. His fortune was depleted by an expensive divorce, but Johnson's estimated net worth is still $1.1 billion. His resume is full of firsts BET was the first African-American owned company traded on the NYSE. He was the first African-American billionaire in the U.S. And, in 2002, he became the first African-American majority owner of a professional sports franchise. 3. Robert Kraft, New England Patriots (NFL) I'd never given it much thought, but I'd always assumed Kraft bought the Patriots with big cheese money he'd inherited. But Kraft got his start in the paper business. His wife, Myra, is the daughter of Massachusetts philanthropist Jacob Hiatt. After Kraft finished Harvard Business School, he went to work with his father-in-law's packaging company. In 1972, Kraft founded International Forest Products, which is now part of the Kraft Group -- a diversified collection of companies ranging from Gillette Stadium to the New England Revolution (Major League Soccer) to Carmel Container Systems (Israel's largest packaging plant). Kraft is seen as a savior in New England -- before he bought the team in 1994, the Pats seemed destined for relocation to St. Louis. Plus he's made them really, really good, winning three Super Bowls this decade. Another reason I'm so keen on owning a team is the access to foreign heads of state. In 2005, Kraft met Vladimir Putin, who walked off with one of Kraft's Super Bowl rings. Kraft now claims it was a gift, but that might just be what you say when a Russian leader steals your jewelry. Mental Floss: How ex-presidents and prime ministers make ends meet 4. Hiroshi Yamauchi, Seattle Mariners (MLB) Despite America's strong resistance to Japanese ownership -- and despite his admitted lack of interest in baseball -- Hiroshi Yamauchi became majority owner of the Seattle Mariners in 1992. Yamauchi is the man credited with transforming Nintendo from playing-card company to video game giant. His 55-year tenure saw incredible growth. But that doesn't mean there weren't a few bumps along the way. Forays into instant rice, taxi service and short-stay hotels (also known as "love hotels") did not pan out. 5. Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys (NFL) Jerry Jones built an oil empire in the early 1970s, striking gas in the first thirteen wells he drilled. His father had given him a head start; Pat Jones sold the Modern Security Life Insurance Company for millions. An undersized guard, Jones was captain of
[ "What did Putin walk off with?", "Who found talented engineers for the aerospace industry and what did Russia's Putin walk off with?", "What ring did Putin get?" ]
[ [ "one of Kraft's Super Bowl rings." ], [ "one of Kraft's Super Bowl rings." ], [ "who walked off with one of Kraft's Super Bowl" ] ]
The NFL's Malcolm Glazer got started as an owner of Florida trailer parks . The Cleveland Cavaliers head was a pizza deliveryman and TV reporter . Baltimore Ravens chief found talented engineers for the aerospace industry . Russia's Putin walked off with NFL owner Robert Kraft's Super Bowl ring .
(Mental Floss) -- People have been eating pickles ever since the Mesopotamians started making them way back in 2400 B.C.E. Here are some even more important things you should know about them. Pickles have gotten credit for health and beauty and winning football games. 1. In the Pacific Islands, natives pickle their foods in holes in the ground lined with banana leaves, and use them as food reserves in case of storms. The pickles are so valuable that they've become part of the courting process, helping a man prove he'll be able to provide for a woman. In Fiji, guys can't get a girl without first showing her parents his pickle pits. 2. Cleopatra claimed pickles made her beautiful. (We guess it had more to do with her genes.) 3. The majority of pickle factories in America ferment their pickles in outdoor vats without lids (leaving them subject to insects and bird droppings). But there's a reason. According to food scientists, the sun's direct rays prevent yeast and mold from growing in the brine. Mental Floss: 8 disastrous product names 4. In the Delta region of Mississippi, Kool-Aid pickles have become ridiculously popular with kids. The recipe's simple: take some dill pickles, cut them in half, and then soak them in super strong Kool-Aid for more than a week. According to the New York Times, the sweet vinegar snacks are known to sell out at fairs and delicatessens, and generally go for $.50 to a $1. 5. Not everyone loves a sweet pickle. In America, dill pickles are twice as popular as the sweet variety. 6. The Department of Agriculture estimates that the average American eats 8.5 lbs of pickles a year. 7. When the Philadelphia Eagles thrashed the Dallas Cowboys in sweltering heat in September 2000, many of the players attributed their win to one thing: guzzling down immense quantities of ice-cold pickle juice. Mental Floss: 31 unbelievable high school mascots 8. If it weren't for pickles, Christopher Columbus might never have "discovered" America. In his famous 1492 voyage, Columbus rationed pickles to his sailors to keep them from getting scurvy. He even grew cucumbers during a pit stop in Haiti to restock for the rest of the voyage. 9. Speaking of people who get credit for discovering America, when he wasn't drawing maps and trying to steal Columbus' thunder, Amerigo Vespucci was a well-known pickle-merchant. 10. Napoleon was also a big fan of pickle power. In fact, he put up the equivalent of $250,000 as a prize to whoever could figure out the best way to pickle and preserve foods for his troops. 11. During the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, H. J. Heinz used pick-shaped pins to lure customers to his out of the way booth. By the end of the fair, he'd given out lots of free food, and over 1,000,000 pickle pins. 12. Berrien Springs, Michigan, has dubbed itself the Christmas Pickle Capital of the World. In early December, they host a parade, led by the Grand Dillmeister, who tosses out fresh pickles to parade watchers. Mental Floss: Curious, bizarre and storied state symbols For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com
[ "Which sports team claimed pickle juice helped them win?", "What does the average American eat?", "What southern state treat was in the article?", "What are pickles soaked in?", "How much pickles do Americans eat?", "The average american eats how many pickles a year?" ]
[ [ "Philadelphia Eagles" ], [ "8.5 lbs of pickles a year." ], [ "Kool-Aid pickles" ], [ "super strong Kool-Aid" ], [ "a year." ], [ "8.5 lbs" ] ]
Average American eats 8.5 lbs of pickles a year, according to Dept. of Agriculture . Southern state treat: Dill pickles soaked for week in Kool-Aid . Philly Eagles players said pickle juice helped them beat Dallas Cowboys in 2000 . Christopher Columbus and Napoleon were fans of pickle power .
(Mental Floss) -- President-Elect Obama's mother-in-law will be moving to Washington with the first family, at least temporarily, his transition team has confirmed. Marian Robinson will be the latest in a line of presidential in-laws who, for good or ill, lived under the same roof as the president. President Dwight Eisenhower and his mother-in-law, Elivera Doud, pose for pictures with some of the grandchildren. Here are four stories that confirm the old truism: While America can choose its president, the president can't choose his in-laws. 1. Ulysses S. Grant and 'The Colonel' You would think that the Civil War was settled at Appomattox, and no question of its outcome would have been raised in the White House of Ulysses S. Grant, who, after all, was the general who won the war. But you would be wrong, because living with Ulysses and Julia Grant was the president's father-in-law. Colonel Frederick Dent (his rank seems to have been self-selected) was an unreconstructed Confederate, a St. Louis businessman and slaveholder who, when his daughter Julia went to the Executive Mansion early in 1869, decided to relocate there as well. The Colonel didn't hesitate to make himself at home. When his daughter received guests, he sat in a chair just behind her, offering anyone within earshot unsolicited advice. Political and business figures alike got a dose of the Colonel's mind as they waited to meet with President Grant. When the president's father, Jesse Grant, came from Kentucky on one of his regular visits to Washington, the White House turned into a Civil War reenactment. According to "First Families: The Impact of the White House on Their Lives", by Bonnie Angelo, Jesse Grant preferred to stay in a hotel rather than sleep under the same roof as the Colonel. And when the two old partisans found themselves unavoidably sitting around the same table in the White House, they avoided direct negotiations by using Julia and her young son, named for the president's father, as intermediaries, Betty Boyd Caroli writes in "First Ladies": "In the presence of the elder Grant, Frederick Dent would instruct Julia to 'take better care of that old gentleman [Jesse Grant]. He is feeble and deaf as a post and yet you permit him to wander all over Washington alone.' And Grant replied [to his grandson and namesake], 'Did you hear him? I hope I shall not live to become as old and infirm as your Grandfather Dent.'" Mental Floss: 5 feisty first daughters The Colonel remained in the White House -- irascible and unrepentant -- until his death, at age 88, in 1873. 2. Harry S Truman and the Mother-in-Law from Heck Harry Truman and Bess Wallace met as children. He was a farm boy; she was the well-heeled granddaughter of Independence, Missouri's Flour King. When they married in 1919, Truman was a struggling haberdasher, and Bess's mother, Madge Wallace, thought Bess had made a colossal social faux pas. Until she died in 1952, Madge Wallace never changed her mind about Harry Truman. Her Bess had married way below her station. Madge had plenty of opportunities to let her son-in-law know it. The newlyweds moved into the Wallace mansion in Independence, and the three lived together under the same roof until the end of Madge's life. When Harry Truman was elected senator, "Mother Wallace," as Truman judiciously called her, moved with her daughter and son-in-law to Washington. In the family's apartment, she shared a bedroom with the Trumans' daughter, Margaret. And when Truman became president, she moved with them into the White House, where she cast her cold eye on the new commander-in-chief. "Why would Harry run against that nice Mr. Dewey?" she wondered aloud, as Truman was fighting for his political life in the 1948 presidential race, according to "First Mothers
[ "Whose mother-in-law scandalized by his firing of Gen. Douglas MacArthur?", "Where did the in-laws move into?", "What did Truman's mother-in-law do?", "What did Eisenhower and his mother in law have?" ]
[ [ "Madge Wallace," ], [ "Washington" ], [ "pose for pictures with some of the grandchildren." ], [ "pictures with some of the grandchildren." ] ]
Several U.S. presidents had in-laws move into White House with them . Pres. Truman's mother-in-law scandalized by his firing of Gen. Douglas MacArthur . Pres. Eisenhower and his mother-in-law had "mutual admiration society" President Grant's father-in-law gave his opinion freely at the White House .
(Mental Floss) -- Since the dawn of time, people have found nifty ways to clean up after the bathroom act. The most common solution was simply to grab what was at hand: coconuts, shells, snow, moss, hay, leaves, grass, corncobs, sheep's wool -- and, later, thanks to the printing press -- newspapers, magazines, and pages of books. The average American uses 57 squares a day and 50 pounds of toilet paper per year. The ancient Greeks used clay and stone; the Romans, sponges and salt water. But the idea of a commercial product designed solely to wipe one's bum? That started about 150 years ago, right here in the U.S.A. In less than a century, Uncle Sam's marketing genius turned something disposable into something indispensable. Toilet paper gets on a roll The first products designed specifically to wipe one's nethers were aloe-infused sheets of manila hemp dispensed from Kleenex-like boxes. They were invented in 1857 by a New York entrepreneur named Joseph Gayetty, who claimed his sheets prevented hemorrhoids. Gayetty was so proud of his therapeutic bathroom paper that he had his name printed on each sheet. But his success was limited. Americans soon grew accustomed to wiping with the Sears Roebuck catalog, and they saw no need to spend money on something that came in the mail for free. Toilet paper took its next leap forward in 1890, when two brothers named Clarence and E. Irvin Scott popularized the concept of toilet paper on a roll. The Scotts' brand became more successful than Gayetty's medicated wipes, in part because they built a steady trade selling toilet paper to hotels and drugstores. But it was still an uphill battle to get the public to openly buy the product, largely because Americans remained embarrassed by bodily functions. In fact, the Scott brothers were so ashamed of the nature of their work that they didn't take proper credit for their innovation until 1902. "No one wanted to ask for it by name," says Dave Praeger, author of "Poop Culture: How America Is Shaped by Its Grossest National Product." "It was so taboo that you couldn't even talk about the product." By 1930, the German paper company Hakle began using the tag line, "Ask for a roll of Hakle and you won't have to say toilet paper!" As time passed, toilet tissues slowly became an American staple. But widespread acceptance of the product didn't officially occur until a new technology demanded it. At the end of the 19th century, more and more homes were being built with sit-down flush toilets tied to indoor plumbing systems. And because people required a product that could be flushed away with minimal damage to the pipes, corncobs and moss no longer cut it. In no time, toilet paper ads boasted that the product was recommended by both doctors and plumbers. Mental Floss: 5 times drug companies promised too much Strength of going soft In the early 1900s, toilet paper was still being marketed as a medicinal item. But in 1928, the Hoberg Paper Company tried a different tack. On the advice of its ad men, the company introduced a brand called Charmin and fitted the product with a feminine logo that depicted a beautiful woman. The genius of the campaign was that by evincing softness and femininity, the company could avoid talking about toilet paper's actual purpose. Charmin was enormously successful, and the tactic helped the brand survive the Great Depression. (It also helped that, in 1932, Charmin began marketing economy-size packs of four rolls.) Decades later, the dainty ladies were replaced with babies and bear cubs -- advertising vehicles that still stock the aisles today. By the 1970s, America could no longer conceive of life without toilet paper. Case in point: In December 1973, Tonight Show host Johnny Carson joked about a toilet paper shortage during his opening monologue. But America didn't laugh. Instead, TV watchers across the country ran out to their local grocery stores and bought up as much of the stuff as they could. Also
[ "What did a U.S. man design in 1857?", "U.S. buys what?", "Who joked about toilet paper shortages?", "Ancient Greeks used?", "What did the Greeks use clay for?" ]
[ [ "aloe-infused sheets of manila hemp" ], [ "Toilet paper" ], [ "Johnny Carson" ], [ "clay and stone;" ], [ "to wipe one's bum?" ] ]
Ancient Greeks used clay,stone; Romans, sponges and salt water as toilet paper . U.S. man designs aloe-infused sheets of manila hemp in 1857 . Johnny Carson joked about toilet paper shortage, people bought out stores . U.S. buys $6 billion of toilet tissue annually -- more than any other nation .
(Mental Floss) -- Starting a legitimate business is hard, boring work. There's paperwork to fill out, employees to hire, and all sorts of other drudgery, not to mention the biggest hurdle of all: providing a product or service for which customers are willing to pay. President Ulysses S. Grant foiled a gold scam. In all likelihood, it would be much easier to just stumble upon some clever scam to line your pockets. Or so it would seem. As many aspiring scam artists quickly learn, when a business scam fails, it tends to fail in rather grand fashion. Just ask any of these four teams of not-so-smooth operators. A corny sea story Xenothemis and Hegestratos may not have been the world's first white-collar criminals, but they were certainly noteworthy for their incompetence. In 360 B.C., the pair stumbled upon what seemed like a killer plan to make some quick cash. Shipping was extremely risky at the time, and boats went down at sea with alarming frequency. To exploit this uncertainty, Xenothemis and Hegestratos devised a plan in which they would receive a cash advance to ship a load of corn from Syracuse to Athens. Due to the dangers associated with shipping, the buyer would take on full risk if the shipment didn't make it to Athens, so if the boat sank Xenothemis and Hegestratos could keep their cash. Instead of loading the ship with expensive corn, the conniving pair made a plan to sail an empty ship out to sea for a few days, then sink it and escape in lifeboats. Since the boat itself was insured, this plot seemed airtight, and the potential profit was great. Unfortunately, though, the boat's other passengers allegedly caught wind of the scheme during the attempting scuttling of the ship. These passengers were understandably a bit peeved at Hegestratos' attempts to drown them for his own financial gain. Hegestratos panicked and jumped overboard, at which point he drowned. Unable to sink the ship by himself, Xenothemis had to sail on to the port, at which point the buyer, Protos, wanted to know why his shipload of corn was empty. A legal battle followed, and although the verdict has been lost by history, it's safe to say that the late Hegestratos regretted the scam. When Friday went black Despite his prowess as a general, Ulysses S. Grant's presidency didn't go so smoothly. Ones of its most notable scandals occurred in 1869, when a group of speculators upended the U.S gold market. The plan started when financier James Fisk and robber baron Jay Gould formed a group of speculators with the goal of cornering the gold market, which would give the group the ability to manipulate the price. Of course, one can only corner the market if there's a fixed quantity of gold available. Otherwise, the government could just sell large quantities of gold, and the cornering effort would be an expensive failure. In an effort to avoid this fate, Gould and Fisk brought President Grant's brother-in-law Abel Corbin into their fold. Using Corbin's influence to get an audience with the President, the pair would argue to Grant that selling gold was a terrible idea that the government should avoid at all costs. The wily pair also used their influence at the White House to secure a position as assistant treasurer of the United States for Daniel Butterfield, who would warn them if the government started to sell gold. With their connections in place, Fisk and Gould started buying up gold in September 1869, quickly driving the price of gold up by around 30 percent. Once Grant and his advisors got wise to the situation, though, the government quickly sold off $4 million in gold to break the corner, effectively killing the inflated prices on September 24. As investors scrambled to get rid of their overpriced gold, the price plummeted sharply, and many involved in the scam lost huge amounts of money. Fisk and Gould managed to avoid big losses due to their connections in the treasury, but what would be known as Black Friday didn't earn them a huge windfall
[ "What did President Grant do?", "Who foiled a gold speculation scam?", "what was the scam created by president grant?", "What scam was common in 360B.C?" ]
[ [ "foiled a gold scam." ], [ "President Ulysses S. Grant" ], [ "gold" ], [ "Xenothemis and Hegestratos devised a plan in which they would receive a cash advance to ship a load of corn from Syracuse to Athens. Due to the dangers associated with shipping, the buyer would take on full risk if the shipment didn't make it to Athens, so if the boat sank Xenothemis and Hegestratos could keep their cash." ] ]
When a business scam fails, it tends to fail in rather grand fashion . 360 B.C. scam: Sink ship and collect insurance on goods . President Grant foiled a gold speculation scam . Moving company founder goes to prison for bait-and-switch pricing .