Earthquake Drill in Los Angeles on November 13 -- Get Prepared

Imagine my surprise to read on the front page of the November 11th Wall Street Journal that at 10 a.m. on November 13th Los Angeles is having a major earthquake drill.

According to the Journal article, scientists realized their harping on the need to be prepared was not being taken seriously by people. So the scientists decided to take a new tack and make a gigantic earthquake drill like a city-wide block party to encourage people to participate.

I immediately went to the website of www.shakeout.org to register and get more information. And I printed out the instructions for what to do when an earthquake hits, which apparently are different than the ones I learned years ago.

I'm also updating my emergency contact information (contact people outside California to whom everyone in the family should call in if no local phone service) and thinking about what other preparedness tasks I've let slide over the years.

If you live in Los Angeles, go register at the site. And if you don't live in Los Angeles, tell any friends or family who do that they should check out this site before Thursday.

Oh, yes, the earthquake is going to be a mock 7.8 magnitude.

Google Deal Will Bring Us Millions More Books to Add to Our Reading Pile

The October 29th Wall Street Journal article by Jeffrey A Trachtenberg and Jessica E. Vascellaro announced “Google Deal Opens Web to Millions of Books.”

This deal is the result of a large settlement between Google and the publishing industry and will “make many millions of digital books available on the Web, with payments to authors and publishers for their use.”

I had mixed feelings when reading the article. As an author, I thought this sounded like a good deal to possibly have an additional revenue stream for one’s books. As a researcher, I thought this sounded like a good deal to have the contents of more books available at the click of one’s computer. As a reader, I thought “oh, no, more books to read.”

I recalled to mind a New Yorker cartoon showing a man sitting in an armchair surrounded by his bookcases. On the floor stands a single book facing the man and saying “Read me.”

Now there will be “many millions of digital books” at our fingertips saying “read me.”

Read the whole Journal story at http://snipurl.com/googlebookdeal.

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Do-Gooder Scrooge, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, Google, digital books, New Yorker

Ode to the Lowly Quotation Mark in Literary Novels

I very much enjoyed Lionel Shriver’s essay “Missing the Mark” in the October 25th Wall Street Journal. Shriver bemoaned the fact that several current literary writers have given up using quotation marks, thus making it even harder than ever to read literary fiction. He says:

According to the National Endowment for the Arts, nearly half of Americans do not read books at all, and those who do average a mere six a year. You’d think literary writers would be bending over backwards to ingratiate themselves to readers – to make their work maximally accessible, straightforward and inviting. But no.

He then goes on to give several examples of dialogue passages without quotes from bestselling authors – passages that make very little sense. In one case I thought a sentence was a description of the weather when it was actually dialogue from one of the characters.

As the author of a (non-literary) novel with quotation marks, I was upset to learn that several bestselling literary authors are making it harder for readers to enjoy novels, thus perhaps discouraging reading of all novels.

I hope that all of these authors are shown this essay by Shriver. And that they then make a pact to use quotation marks in their next novels.

And, oh yes, I love these sentences of Shriver’s:

Reading heated dialogue without quotes is like watching chase scenes in “The Bourne Supremacy” with the sound off …. Surely most readers would happily forgo “elegance” for demarcation that makes it easier to figure out who’s saying what when their eyelids are drooping during the last few pages before lights-out.

Do you have any opinion on the use of quotation marks in novels?

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Do-Gooder Scrooge, Lionel Shriver, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, literary novels

First Bill Gates-Jerry Seinfeld Television Ad: Not a Winner

You heard it here first. On August 21^st I posted about the proposed Microsoft ad campaign featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates– see http://snipurl.com/seinfeldgates. I said I couldn’t see how these proposed ads would work to make Microsoft seem more hip.

The September 8^th Wall Street Journal article by Nick Wingfield and Suzanne Vranica titled “Critics Say Gates-Seinfeld Duo No Laughing Matter” had some harsh comments about the first ad in the series. (I had seen the ad a few days earlier and thought it off the wall without contributing to updating the Microsoft image.)

In the Journal article I particularly appreciated the quoted comments by Leslie Smolan, chief strategy officer at New York branding firm Carbone Smolan Agency:

Despite this attempt to be cool, the commercial does nothing to change Microsoft’s brand image. It’s big, it’s got deep pockets – certainly deep enough to buy any celebrity it wants. What it doesn’t have is creativity, the key ingredient Microsoft has always lacked.

That’s kicking Microsoft where it hurts!

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Microsoft, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, Jerry Seinfield, Bill Gates, Carbone Smolan Agency, Leslie Smolan

National Suicide Week Is Sept. 7-13 With No Help From the FDA

The September 3^rd Wall Street Journal article “Elevated Rise of Teen Suicide Stirs Concern” by Sarah Rubenstein made me see red. Here’s a paragraph from the article:

The rise in suicides coincided with Food and Drug Administration advisories about antidepressants that led to an October 2004 decision to require strong “black box” warning on all antidepressants’ labels.

Hello, what did anyone think was going to happen after the FDA required “black box” warnings on antidepressant labels, scaring parents who took their children off the medication?

I’m going to provide the pull-out box from the Journal article because the information in the box is so revealing:

· 1990-2003: The suicide rate for people 10 to 24 years old slid more than 28%.

· 2003-2004: The FDA issued advisories on antidepressants and required “black box” warnings on labels

· 2003-2004: The suicide rate for young people rose 8%.

· 2004-2005: The teen suicide rate slipped but remained elevated.

In my opinion it was criminal of the FDA to suggest that teen suicides were on a rise due to antidepressants, conveniently overlooking the fact that people who take antidepressant medication often take it because they are already suicidal.

I hope that any parents who yanked their children off antidepressants because of the FDA’s advisories have now taken their children to be re-evaluated by a mental health professional and have re-considered medication.

On the bright side of National Suicide Week, read my blog post at http://snipurl.com/armysuicides for some reassuring news about the U.S Army’s new approach to preventing suicides.

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National Suicide Week, teen suicides, U.S. Army suicides, Do-Gooder Scrooge, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, Sarah Rubenstein, FDA, black box, antidepressants

Buyer Beware: Exercise Caution When Getting Estate Planning/Tax Advice From a Newspaper (Even The Wall Street Journal)

I was pleased to see the article by Karen Blumenthal titled “It’s an Election Year: Is Your Will Updated?” on the front-page of the Personal Journal section of the August 27^th Wall Street Journal.

My new company Miller Mosaic, LLC has just launched the website www.estateplanningforyou.com to help people avoid probate by explaining that a living trust is needed in addition to a will. Thus I was really pleased that the Journal was getting the word out about this important estate planning subject.

Can you imagine my surprise when I read the entire Journal article only to find no mention of a living trust? In other words, if you read the Journal article and did everything advised in the article, all you would have is a will.

AND ONLY HAVING A WILL MEANS THAT YOUR ESTATE HAS TO GO THROUGH PROBATE.

The information in the Journal is WRONG because only having a will and thus making your estate go through probate can create major problems for your family. Don’t let this happen!

Check out the brief free video at www.estateplanningforyou.com to learn why you need a living trust in addition to a will to save your estate from going through probate.

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Estate planning, will, living trust, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, Miller Mosaic LLC, do-gooder, Scrooge, avoid probate

When Will Fashion Designers Stop Encouraging Anorexia?

Queen Latifah in a gown by designer Tadashi Shoji adorns the front-page of the Personal Journal section of the August 21^st Wall Street Journal. The accompanying article by Christina Binkley titled “Dressing Women of a Certain Size” describes the opportunity Tadashi seized upon when he started offering versions of his fashion collection in sizes up to 24.

These large sizes, of course, are sacrilege in the designer community, where a “plus-size” model may wear a size 8 even though the average for American women is a size 14.

And it was particularly enjoyable to read about former model Paige Adams-Geller who had the audacity to suggest to high-end jeans manufacturers that they consider designing for women who wear a size 10. When the designers said they didn’t want someone that size wearing their brand, she started Paige Premium Denim – jeans for up to size 28 (4X).

In an August 14th Journal article titled “Slim Chance: an Aspiring Model’s Challenge,” Christina Binkley relates the story of 18-year-old Tatiana Stewart. Although Tatiana is a size 4 at 6’2” she is told at fashion-modeling auditions she must lose weight.

This fashion-industry insistence on stick-thin models is a gross injustice both to the models who are made to sometimes starve themselves to death as well as America’s young women who are constantly subjected to ads of super-thin models with the toll those ads take on the self-image of the young women.

What I don’t understand is why America’s mental health workers don’t form a national coalition to pressure Madison Avenue and the fashion designers to stop insisting on starvation-thin models. Now that would be a worthwhile mission.

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Queen Latifah, Tadashi Shoji, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, Christina Binkley, fashion models, Paige Adams-Geller, Paige Premium Denim, Tatiana Stewart

Holy Cow! Microsoft Doesn’t Know the Difference Between Young and Old

My younger daughter handed me the front-page of the August 21^st Wall Street Journal and asked “What’s funny about this article?”

The article in question was “Microsoft Enlists Jerry Seinfeld In Its Ad Battle Against Apple” by Suzanne Vrancia and Robert A.Guth. It wasn’t the title that was funny; it was the lead paragraph:

Microsoft Corp., weary of being cast as a stodgy oldster by Apple Inc.’s advertising, is turning for help to Jerry Seinfeld.

I thought for a second and replied: “What’s funny is that Jerry Seinfeld is old. If Microsoft wanted a younger image, why not get a young up-and-coming comic?”

Exactly. And apparently Seinfeld will appear in ads with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates “and receive about $10 million for the work.”

I immediately looked up the ages of Seinfeld and Gates. Seinfeld turned 54 in April and Gates will turn 53 in October. Did Gates want someone his own age standing next to him so people wouldn’t wonder at the boy genius all grown-up? Or did the old stuffed shirts of Microsoft’s new advertising agency have no ideas for younger yet well-known comics?

Note to advertising agency: Spending $10 million for an aging comic is not the best use of Microsoft’s funds. How about $4 million for a younger yet well-known comic and let Microsoft spend the remaining $6 million on getting the Windows Vista system to work decently?

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Microsoft, Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Gates, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, Windows Vista, do-gooder, Scrooge, Apple

Reliving the 1970s with Derogatory Media Portrayals of Women and Limiting Reproductive Freedom

Last week on Twitter someone drew attention to a new BMW ad that would have been right at home in the mid-70s. That was the time when I taught newswriting classes at Temple University Center City and had a large collection of newspaper articles and ads that featured derogatory portrayals of women. I tweeted that I’d already been part of this battle. Did we really have to fight it again?

And then right on the heels of that throw-back to the un-liberated ‘70s comes the July 31^st article by Stephanie Simon in The Wall Street Journal titled “Treating the Pill as Abortion, Draft Regulation Stirs Debate.”

Apparently there is a draft regulation circulating within the Department of Health and Human Services that “treats most birth-control pills and intrauterine devices as abortion because they can work by preventing fertilized eggs from implanting in the uterus. The regulation considers that destroying ‘the life of a human being.’”

I can’t even write about this topic because it makes me so angry. Again, the battle for women to have control over their reproductive organs has already been fought. Must it really be fought again?

On Sunday night I saw the new Batman movie THE DARK KNIGHT. Part-way through the endless violence sequences I asked myself what makes this movie so popular at the box office. Why do so many people want to see larger-than-life characters being brutally vicious to each other? And we call this entertainment.

I’ve just reviewed the military spouse winning essays of the “Tell-Your-Own-Story” contest that I co-sponsored with YourMilitary.com in connection with Lifetime TV’s ARMY WIVES series. Several of the essays described the difficulties when a spouse is deployed. And as I write this post I’m also in an email conversation with a deployed National Guard member.

The juxtaposition of fake violence and real violence seems surreal, as does returning to the ‘70s with its derogatory media portrayals of women and the limiting of reproductive freedom.

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Scrooge, do-gooder, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, Stephanie Simon, BMW, Twitter, The Dark Knight, Batman movie, YourMilitary.com, Lifetime TV, Army Wives

Vitamin D: Needed for a Shield Against Diseases as Well as for Strong Bones

“It’s D-Lightful: Vitamin D Gets Its Moment in the Sun” announced the July 15^th Wall Street Journal Health Journal by Melinda Beck. And the article went on to explain that, while Vitamin D is known for being crucial for strong bones, there’s new research suggesting it also protects against a wide variety of diseases.

Did this news upset me at my age? (Over age 51 the amount of D needed increases.) Not in the least – because only yesterday my new doctor had blood drawn to check my Vitamin D level. The week before, at my first visit to him, he had explained that he’d been finding too low levels of D in his patients.

And since January, when I had my annual gynecological exam, I’ve been taking a Vitamin D supplement daily because my gynecologist told me to do so. (I didn’t ask him why – I just did what he said.)

According to the Journal article, the strongest source of natural Vitamin D is ultraviolet B rays from the sun. These rays convert a form of cholesterol into vitamin D in the skin.

Turns out all of us who have given up sitting in the sun to avoid skin cancer have deprived our bodies of an important vitamin. The Journal article quotes John J. Cannell, founder of the nonprofit Vitamin D Council in Atascadero, California, as saying that Vitamin D “turns into a steroid hormone that’s involved in the maintenance of over 200 human genes.” (See www.vitamindcouncil.org for more info.)

The American Academy of Pediatricians is already recommending that breast-fed infants get 400 international units of supplemental D daily. And the National Osteoporosis Foundation says adults over age 50 should get at least 800 to 1,000 international units to prevent fractures.

The next time you see your doctor, regardless of your age, ask about being tested for a Vitamin D deficiency. It turns out it’s important to be “exposed” to the sun after all – just in a safe (artificial) way.

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do-gooder, John J. Cannell, Melinda Beck, Scrooge, Vitamin D, Vitamin D Council, Wall Street Journal, WSJ

Information Overload: A Full-Page Ad in The Wall Street Journal Makes Me See Red

Today my younger daughter wanted me to read an article on information overload. I told her I didn’t have time to read about it – I was living information overload.

And as an example of information overload, I want to carp about a full-page ad on the back page of the first section of the July 5^th Wall Street Journal. It took me some time to decipher the ad, so I’ll lay it out for you the way I read it:

Pictured on an email screen was an email message to Wives (and Husband) of G8 Leaders with the subject line: A Matter of Life and Death. Here’s the entire email ad (boldface was in the ad as was the misplaced comma separating the subject and the verb in the first sentence of the second paragraph):

“Dear G8 First Ladies (and First Man),

“Every minute of every day a woman dies in childbirth. That’s half a million women dying each year – and over 80% of these deaths are avoidable. But there’s the good news – the person with whom you live can help stop this happening. Really.

“The 30 of us, write to the 8 of you, women to women (and, with respect, also to you Herr Sauer), on behalf of all women … please do what you can to put this issue at the top of the political agenda. We now have the knowledge to crack it – we just need the political will.

“At this year’s G8, your 7 husbands (and 1 wife) have an opportunity to make history. There is a real chance. Please do what you can – on behalf of us all.

“With urgent best wishes,”

And there followed 30 identified head shots of such women as Gwyneth Paltrow, Yoko Ono, and Dame Judi Dench. Then at the very bottom of the ad were these words: Please join these inspirational women and many more as part of the campaign to reduce maternal mortality. www.whiteribbonalliance.org

Now I’m all for improving safety in childbirth. But honestly – does Dame Judi Dench (whose acting I adore) truly think that the above ad – seemingly written by someone who does not speak the Queen’s English – will motivate anyone, especially the heads of states with major economic and security issues, to do anything at the G8 about safer childbirth?

When I read the full-page ad, all I could think of was: The money spent on this ad could probably save at least one woman’s life. And what’s the proposed solution? All the ad says is: “We now have the knowledge to crack it – we just need the political will.”

If the 30 powerful women whose head shots “sign” the ad put their heads and resources together, they could probably come up with solutions that could make childbirth safer even in third world countries. (For example, what about having some of these inspirational women record basic health messages with subtitles in whatever language is needed?)

Instead we’re to believe that these 30 powerful women are truly waiting for seven women and one man to talk to their heads-of-state spouses about trying to prevent childbirth deaths. Now that’s information overload.

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Dame Judi Dench, do-gooder, G8, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scrooge, Wall Street Journal, Whiteribbonalliance.org, WSJ, Yoko Ono

The Berenstain Bears … and Too Much Online Marketing Information

Remember the children’s book “Berenstain Bears and Too Much Birthday.” In my family we used to take that expression “too much” and add a different ending.

Tonight, after finally filing over three months of Wall Street Journal articles, reports, ezines, and emails connected with online marketing, I’ve had “too much internet marketing information.”

I have notes for my notes of sites I want to explore – Gather.com, Flock, Twhirl, Blogher. And this week’s Wall Street Journal had new ones I hadn’t heard of before – Yoono, Minggl.com, FriendFeed. (Where do these names come from – Minggl? What’s wrong with plain Mingle?)

Every time I read the info from one internet marketing guru, he or she directs me to another such guru in a different niche. Talk about Alice down the rabbit hole! I’ve already gotten to the stage of hallucinogenic mushrooms!

Tonight I definitely feel like the intro from my June 16^th post:

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall

“White Rabbit,” Jefferson Airplane

There was one compensation for my filing spree – I listened to “The Very Best of Peter, Paul and Mary” while stuffing papers into various file folders. The CD includes my favorite P,P and M song – “Stewball.”

What happened to the paperless world we were promised? If only…

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Berenstain Bears, Jefferson Airplane, White Rabbit, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, Gather.com, Flock, Twhirl, Blogher, Yoono, Minggl.com, FriendFeed, Peter Paul & Mary, Stewball