Who was the most important gunmaker in American history? There must be at least half a dozen -- and maybe up to a score if you thought hard about it -- leading contenders. Let me get into the spirit of things by naming, off the top of my head and in no particular order, Oliver Winchester, Samuel ... Views: 655
Here are a few tips for dealing with your post-pregnancy body and keeping the spark alive:
• Review your expectations. If you were under the impression that you'd slip right back into your hippest pair of jeans right after the baby was born, you may need to accept that for most women, ... Views: 818
It's only been two days since I started breastfeeding and my breasts are killing me. Why?
Once your milk starts to come. in, and the milk volume quickly increases -- which usually occurs sometime during the first week after delivery -- your breasts have a tendency to become overfilled, or ... Views: 756
Accomplished? On May 1, President Bush triumphantly proclaimed the end of combat operations, and he did it with a theatrical flourish. Attired in a Navy flight suit, the former Air National Guard trainee (Bush had actually cut short his flight training to participate in a political campaign) ... Views: 645
There's a term that young, single guys use for sexy moms: M.I.L.F. It's an acronym for Mother I'd Like to #$%@. Don't be insulted; it's the highest compliment a stupid man can pay you. (And don't be frightened. It's always muttered behind your back. No man would ever be so bold as to tell ... Views: 1549
He strolled into the room and quietly laid his books on a desk. Class would begin in about three minutes; soon the teacher would be droning on about something utterly irrelevant to his life. Entirely removed from his surroundings, the small plastic gadgets in his ears piped in the words that ... Views: 897
My stomach sank the moment we arrived home from the hospital with our newborn baby. There in front of the house loitered the narcotics gang that ruled our street in Harlem.
First to step forth was the head of the drug crew. He offered stiff congratulations as he peered at our precious bundle. ... Views: 583
You may have the sneaking feeling that there's something the presidential candidates aren't telling you about the federal budget. And you're right. Here it is:
Every expert who looks at the federal budget uses the same word to describe it: unsustainable. The federal government is $9.5 trillion ... Views: 713
When it comes to international issues, a lot of Americans aren't on top of the details. In 2007 only 36 percent of Americans could name Vladimir Putin as the leader of Russia, although maybe he's raised his profile here recently by pummeling Georgia into the ground. Let's not even speculate ... Views: 914
Mothers live in a permanent state of guilt. How come men don't? Mothers are guilty not just about whether they work and how much they work and should they work and where they work. But they are also guilty about what they do with the few moments they can call their own. A classic example of the ... Views: 761
As a parent, you accept from the start that it is all your fault. Every last inhibition, weakness and thing that goes wrong in your child's life is down to you -- however old they are. If they get bullied, bully, pick the wrong course at university or marry the wrong girl, it is all because you ... Views: 578
Arriving in the middle of the countryside fresh from the city with a young family, it is fair to say I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. I grew up in the city; the countryside was something you saw on TV if there was nothing on another channel. As an adult, I believed the city to be ... Views: 925
Absent with Leave
My husband left for London for two weeks. Let me see, how long have we lived here. Oh yes, three weeks. How pregnant am I? Seven months. How many children do I have? Two and a bit. Do I want to be here? No. Excellent. He has a deadline, he always seems to have a deadline. He ... Views: 764
"I heard you did a great job connecting with the audience and got all choked up with your acceptance speech for the Canadian Speaking Hall of Fame," said my friend Victoria.
"Yep, when I DO authentic, it works every time," I said with a chuckle.
I was kidding about 'doing' authentic, of ... Views: 518
You flinch . . . you lose.
Imagine skiing at over 130 mph on skis and you catch an edge. One instinctive flinch to catch your balance and you lose any chance at winning the race. The challenge is overcoming the protective instinct to throw your hands out for balance while maintaining ... Views: 664
100% of the prospects she asked said yes. Even the people that started by saying no, said yes. She's my nine-year-old daughter. Her name is Alex and the most amazing sales person I have ever seen.
We were at her brother's soccer practice with 75 minutes to meet her $200 goal for the American ... Views: 568
The first person I met when we bought our "fixer upper" brownstone in Harlem eight years ago was a manic crack addict named Salami. This menacing apparition bolted out of the abandoned house next door to inform me that he planned to take over our new abode.
"It ain't your house, Mama," he ... Views: 956
Cancer rates have been rising steadily since the 1940s. But this is mostly true in Western life-style societies. By understanding how this happened, we can all learn to protect ourselves better.
A Cancer Epidemic Started in 1940
Cancer rates have been climbing steadily since 1940. This is not ... Views: 561
In recent weeks, attitudes about the HPV vaccine have often shifted from fanfare to fear as newspapers, blogs and medical journals have inundated the media with conflicting opinions. While the public wants information about the vaccine in simple and clear terms, the potential benefits and ... Views: 1570
When I finished writing this story two meaningful events occurred. One day while discussing this with a friend she told me she had the same thing happen to her. She watched her dog be run over by the school bus which was bringing her home from school. Sharing Buddy's story helped her to ... Views: 692
The opening years of the 21st century are marked by milestones in the world of oil: the war in Iraq, the Shell reserves downgrade, Hurricane Katrina, and the breaking of the once unthinkable $100 per barrel barrier. Many have seized on these events as evidence that we are crossing the threshold ... Views: 1351
Weight gain on the job is so prevalent now, that some nutritionists have coined the term "the office 15" to describe the average of 15 pounds that about 45 percent of women gain just in the first three months of starting a desk job. And there are millions of American women who gain even more ... Views: 656
Research indicates that as many as 70 percent of U.S. firms still do not have successful talent management or succession planning programs. And yet many authorities continue to warn that, despite the current economic downturn, a war for talent is looming. Indeed, the current economic downturn ... Views: 966
Walter Martineck hardly knows Drew Peterson, a retired police sergeant in the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook, but he's a good friend of Peterson's stepbrother, Tom Morphey. So it was that Martineck found himself unwittingly drawn into the events of October 28, 2007, the day Peterson's young wife, ... Views: 749
Over the past two years, the O-N-E L-E-S-S campaign for Gardasil, the new HPV vaccine to protect against cervical cancer, has brought discussion about the human papilloma virus to the forefront, shining new light not only on the vaccine itself, but also on the issues that surround it.
HPV is ... Views: 620
When I was pregnant with my first child, I had no absolutely no idea what to expect. I went about my business as if nothing was different. At work I'd occasionally glance down at my growing belly as thoughts of chubby, quiet, smiling babies dressed in all-white filled my mind. I had convinced ... Views: 686
So you wants to parley like a pirate, do yee? Thar be certain matters to attend to afore yee can tack about and talk like a proper tar. Some landlubbers ain't suited for the seafaring life. If yee play golf on Sundays, unless yee cheat most grievously, yee will never speak like a salt. If yee ... Views: 2932
Lunch #1: BBQ Chicken for Champions
* One chicken breast, cut in half and pan fried in olive oil for 6 minutes a side.
* Add salt and pepper. Cut into strips. Serve cold dipped in dipping sauce.
* BBQ dipping sauce -- ¼ C (put in BPA-Free container)
* Veggies: steam ... Views: 979
You went in to this pregnancy with one goal in mind; bringing a new baby into your home. One of the most important ways you can prepare for this enormous event is to make plans for those first six weeks after delivery. Bringing a baby home is not about what color is right for the nursery or do ... Views: 857
When it comes to losing fat, success doesn't happen overnight. Sometimes it doesn't even happen over a few weeks, a few months or a few years. Don't rush it, don't crash and don't expect too much of yourself too soon. Life is for the living; for the making of mistakes and learning from them. ... Views: 685
Genes account for at most 15% of cancers. What matters most in prevention or getting the most of treatments is not our genetic makeup but the biology we create within our body to support our natural defenses against tumor growth.
The Genetic Fallacy
Most of us live with the false belief that ... Views: 570
Vegetables and protein (fish, poultry, meats, and beans) are the most common food aversions. Some children even reject fruits. The diet becomes extremely restricted to bland, white foods, including sweets, breads, pasta, crackers, pretzels, chips, and macaroni and cheese. These foods are ... Views: 1053
The recent XVII International AIDS Conference, which ended on August 8 in Mexico City, addressed new medications that fortunate Americans have at their disposal. Indeed, medicine and pharmacology have come a long way since 1983 when concerned representatives from thirty nations met at the World ... Views: 1305
Since the founding of the Moral Majority Coalition by Jerry Falwell in 1979, members of the American conservative movement and what has become its electoral vehicle, the Republican Party, have presented themselves as proponents of what they like to call "family values" and as leaders in the ... Views: 852
The recent XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City covered many interesting topics, including up-to-date medical treatments and the impressive increases in programs to address the AIDS calamity in Africa. Conspicuously absent was any discussion about the psychological vicissitudes ... Views: 850
T. Boone Pickens has broadcast his way right into the middle of a presidential election debate about United States energy policy. Americans are upset about $4 a gallon gasoline, and the iconoclastic oilman has bought a lot of air time to tell us what he thinks about the situation.
Pickens' ... Views: 996
When you first saw the title of this article, you immediately thought it was hogwash, right?
You were a bit disappointed, too, because doctors are supposed to be honest, and discuss only the treatments that have been scientifically proven to work; and everyone knows that there is no such thing ... Views: 562
Every American president has wrestled with the question of how best to fuel the country's transportation and other energy needs. Even Abraham Lincoln chose to reject an offer from the King of Siam (the same one of Broadway musical lore) to send over Asian elephants who could propagate here and ... Views: 1076
Attention, all grandstanding politicians, disgruntled sports fans, and anti-drug crusaders: don't waste your time trying to fight steroid use. You have a better chance eliminating caffeine from white-collar workplaces than you will compelling professional athletes to abstain from drugs that can ... Views: 1914
I was born because a man came to kill my father. If he hadn't showed up with a gun in his pocket and bad thoughts in his head, I wouldn't exist, much less have a story to tell. This tragic footnote to my conception left me feeling as if I had three parents: a father, a mother, and a ... Views: 847
One cannot read a newspaper or listen to the radio or TV without fish oil being mentioned. What, exactly, is it? Why all the hype now? Is it really as good as it’s cracked up to be? All are important questions; you need to know the answers if you want to stay healthy in midlife and beyond.
... Views: 462
In my work as a psychotherapist, I have seen a succession of women trying to reclaim the self. They come seeking relief from the pain of something that has gone awry in their lives, which could be anything from breaking up with a boyfriend to marriage wounds to a hypercritical boss to some ... Views: 1346
The XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City from August 3 through 8 has, as its stated goal, to conduct a forum that “promotes scientific excellence and inquiry, encourages individual and collective action and dialogues, and fosters accountability.” The conference’s impressive agenda ... Views: 1057
I have been surprised since writing my novel, "SILVER -- My Own Tale As Told By Me With A Goodly Amount Of Murder", by a particular question that readers have asked and the frequency with which it has been asked. The question assumes different forms, but it is chronic: "What is the difference ... Views: 838
How do pirates dress for Halloween? They can't strap on a peg leg, prop a plastic parrot on their shoulders, apply an eye patch and wrap a red bandana around their scurvy heads. That's no fun at all -- not for a pirate on Halloween. That would be like we landlubbers wearing a suit to a ... Views: 1167
So there I was, riding my usual train one day, in my starched white shirt, reading the newspaper and looking out the window, exceedingly happy, when I saw a book that another passenger was reading. The book was "Sliver", but I misread the title and believed that the book's title was "Silver", ... Views: 888
One of the advantages of reaching midlife is that we are finally finished with all those issues that make childhood and adolescence such a pain in the neck, such as needing set bedtimes as well as regular dental and eye checkups; having to worry about using protection during sex and about ... Views: 688
The New Russia may have finally embraced free-market capitalism, but Vladimir Lenin, founder of Soviet communism and one of the great murderers of the twentieth century, still casts a long shadow across the Russian landscape. Indeed, when I journeyed to Russia with my family last summer to ... Views: 760
Why do we always worry about the wrong things?
Confused by Fear
It would be a lot easier to enjoy your day if there weren't so many things trying to kill you before sundown. The problems start before you're even fully awake. There's the fall out of bed that kills six hundred Americans each ... Views: 847
One Simple Rule is Having a Big Impact.
I didn't invent the rule. I discovered it -- at a small, fast growing, highly successful company that implements simple practices with extraordinary results.
One day I was having lunch with Dwight Cooper, a tall, thin, mild-mannered former basketball ... Views: 2123