The Kitchen Think

Into the Woods

All this week, my kids, my husband and I will be knee deep in dust and lake water at Camp Mather, a family camp open to San Francisco residents which is sooooo popular that families must go through a lottery process to get a spot.

Camp Mather is a place where city kids get to run wild and run free in packs, playing all day with kids their own age.  Kind of a "Lord of the Flies" thing.  There's a lake, a pool, pollywogging, crafts, volleyball, basketball, ping pong, fishing, biking, hiking, horseback riding....you name it.

Meantime, parents get to take a load off in lawn chairs reading and watching the world go by.  And the best part:  I DON'T HAVE TO COOK ANY MEALS!  Camp Mather families are fed three square meals a day in the dining "hall."  Needless to say, concerns about "No Child Left Inside" are set aside by all for at least a week.

The other great thing about Mather is that it's totally off the grid.  No cell service, no Internet, no nothin'!  Which is a round-about way of saying that I won't be posting new blogs this week. 

The beauty of the blog is that readers always have access to the archives...which I invite you to peruse in my absence.  In cast you need a little guidance, below a list with links to five of my favorite recent blogs which I invite you to enjoy.

Have a great week.  I'll be armed with my flyswatter and sun screen thinking about you.

Oogled By Google!
Is someone online watching
you?  Why zooming into
Google's new "Street View"
mapping service is turning
into a creepy experience
for countless computer
users. 

Summertime Envy
Some working parents
say summertime makes
them envious of stay-at-
home parents.  But
running Camp Mom
isn't as easy as it
sounds.

If the Shoe Fits...
Are you a shoe slave? How
much pain are your willing
to endure to have your feet
look fashionable?  And what
does all this say about you?

Paging Dr. Google, Stat!
Is the Internet the first place
you turn now when you or
someone in your family
feels sick?  Why playing
doctor isn't the safest
bet.

Money Matters for the Swing Set
Does your 12-year old want an
iPhone?  Does your 6-year old
want a digital camera?  Isn't
time these kids learned about
the value of money?

Not so Live Earth

Let's be honest.  It's going to take a lot more than a bad Alicia Keyes/Keith Urban cover of "Gimme Shelter" to save the planet from our environmental habits ("She screamed like someone was pounding a nail through her foot," reads this amateur review on Craig's List).

I mean, how many of the millions of people worldwide who "answered the call" and "signed" Al Gore's Live Earth online 7 Point Pledge over the weekend are going around today chanting "I WILL shut off my equipment and lights whenever I am not using them...I WILL shop for the most energy efficient electronics and appliances..."?

I apologize for the Monday morning sarcastic quarterbacking.  But hey - even Dave Matthews was crackin' cynical during his Live Earth performance Saturday night at Giants Stadium in New York, when he told the sold-out crowd of 52,000 "I hope you all enjoy the walk home." 

Comedian Chris Rock was only half-joking when he announced to the Wembley Stadium audience "I pray that this event ends global warming the same way that Live Aid ended world hunger."

And when Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles asked the London crowd "Can you help save the earth?", and barely got a rise, he retorted "we might be screwed if that's the response."

I'm not the only one who came away from this "wake-up call" weekend feeling skeptical about the impact a 24-hour, 7-continent rock show will have on our "global climate crisis" (although I do have the Al Gore lingo down).

"Live Earth is a win for global yawning" reads the headline in the U.K.'s Telegraph today, declaring the worldwide musical extravaganza merely "adequate" and saying "that as a platform for stadium politics, it was a dismal affair."  The Telegraph thought even less of London show closer, Madonna:

"If you wanna save the planet, jump up and down!" urged Madonna. Can global warming be stopped by an out-of-breath, middle-aged, super-rich narcissist in a leotard and high heels?"

To be fair, Live Earth was catching a lot of heat before the music even started (read "Just How Green is Live Earth" on Forbes.com)...and way before Al Gore III stole the spotlight from his dad and got caught going five-leaf green (and prescriptive) at 100 mph in his Prius.

But I actually think the Live Earth bashing has more to do with a burn out on BIG, LIVE, GLOBAL consciousness-raising concerts, than it has to do with people not caring about the future of our planet. 

A record 10 million did log on to watch streaming video of the concerts live on the Internet, and promoters are still saying that Live Earth was watched or listened to by 2 billion people worldwide either on radio, TV or online.

And although I joked about Al's 7-Point Pledge, I must admit that as I watched the broadcast on and off throughout Saturday, the short "climate crisis solutions" which aired during the breaks were thought-provoking, if not grossly mis-named.

As this Weekend Edition report on NPR points out, since the term "greenhouse effect" first hit our lexicon back in 1988, Americans have finally come around and now understand the threat facing our planet.  And in the past two years, with the media now on the bandwagon thanks to Al Gore's tireless efforts and his Hollywood-backed "An Inconvenient Truth," many of us have begun taking steps on our own to change our wasteful lifestyles.

Way before Live Earth, I had informed my husband and kids that as a family, we were taking three small steps to be more environmentally conscious:

1)  We're now using cloth grocery bags made of recycled material, ending our dependence on "paper or plastic" (unless we need a paper bag or two to stuff our recycling in)

2)  We've stopped buying bottled water and are just using "Hetch-Hetchy" in our Nalgene bottles when we need outdoor or travel waters, and

3)  We are slowly converting over to CFLs as our old light bulbs burn out.

And we didn't even need Madonna, Fergie, The Pussycat Dolls, The Foo Fighters, The Police, Akon, John Mayor OR Leo DeCaprio to inspire us.

Have you taken steps toward being more "green?"  What have your done, and do you have some tips to share, or thoughts on the Live Earth concert?  Click below on "Comments" and tell us what you're thinking.

I'll send an s.o.s. to the world
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle 

 

What Heat Wave?

They tell me there's a heat wave out here in the West.  That California, Arizona, Nevada and its neighbors are on fire with record setting triple-digit temperatures.  That fire danger has gone past "extreme" to "holy-crap-we're-all-gonna-burn!"  That seniors are dropping like flies in Phoenix.  That desk jockeys in Boise are getting the go-ahead to play hooky and tube the River instead.

Thing is - I just don't see any of it from where I'm sitting.

This is what I'm seeing at my house this morning.  And here's hint for any of you who have never experienced San Francisco in the summer:  that white stuff you see blowing through the trees out my back window is NOT smoke from a nearby grass fire.

Just because I live in "sunny" California doesn't mean I actually get to see the sun in the summer.  I live in San Francisco.  More specifically, I live in San Francisco west of Twin Peaks...in the Sunset...which I never see in the summer because it's too damn FOGGY!

PG&E wants me to keep the house temperature set at 78.  I wish!  Our house thermometer - as of 6:30am this morning - reads a "toasty" 63 degrees.  We'll be lucky if the temperature outside our house warms up to that today. 

While the rest of you are frying, my neighbors and I are freezing!  We've got the fleece on and the Duraflame log ready to light up.  The kids are eating steaming bowls of soup for lunch and begging for hot chocolate. 

Summer isn't supposed to be like this.  I shouldn't have to rely on my peri-menopausal hot flashes to keep me warm!

It's times like these that Mark Twain is often quoted as saying that "the coldest winter I ever spent was my summer in San Francisco."  But according to urban legend and myth-buster website snopes.com, Twain never said that.  Well, if he didn't say it, he sure as hell was thinking it as he endured face-numbing winds and fog wet enough to drown your geraniums.

Yea, Yea, Yea.  I know the scientific explanation for the fog.  The red hot Central Valley sucks moisture in from the ocean through the Bay like a big vacuum, creating a "natural air conditioner." 

Forecasters say temps along the coast are expected to be in the high 60's, low 70's today.  Hah!  Come out here to the coast my meteorological friends - and while your teeth are chattering you can recant that forecast. 

My husband finds the fog "romantic."  I find my husband insufferable.  He can enjoy San Francisco's quaint summer weather all he wants this weekend.  I'm packing up the kids and we're heading for the sun.

Have a great weekend and stay cool.  Or warm - depending on where you live.

We're havin' a heat wave, a tropical heat wave
The temp'rature's rising, it isn't surprising
She certainly can can-can.

Soldiering On

In a few hours, my family and I will be flying out of El Paso, after our annual pilgrimage to see my sister and brother-in-law who work as teachers in this dusty, brown west Texas border town.

And we will all be doing so with a wider perspective on the major and most contentious issue facing our country today: the Iraq war.

I purposefully do not blog about the war here.  It's not the right place nor the right forum to rattle on about such a complex and controversial matters. 

But I believe that one's opinions about the war does not color one's support of our troops:  the men and women who fight our wars and who are practically invisible to the majority of Americans they are representing in the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Except for what we see on TV and read in the papers, my family and I are totally isolated from the war.  In San Francisco, we know no one who serves in the military - and are only acquainted with a few who are contractors in Iraq.  And I would venture to guess that you could say the same.

That is, unless you live in a place like El Paso.  El Paso is the home of Fort Bliss, which if you read this recent article from The El Paso Times, is undergoing the largest transformation of an installation in the Department of Defense right now.  Fort Bliss will soon be THE training spot for troops heading to the Middle East. Its troop population is expected to grow by 30,000 by 2011.

Needless to say, this is a military town.  And because my brother-in-law is retired military - we have the privilege each year to go on base and look around.

We all had lunch and shopped around in the Bliss PX yesterday, and the change from our visits in previous years was dramatic.  The PX is brimming with troops and their families...with nearly every soldier wearing the patch on his or her shoulder signifying that they have served at least one tour in Iraq or Afghanistan. 

These are young men and women who have seen what I will never see, and who are literally on the front lines of conflicts our country will likely be involved in for the rest of my life, if not my kids lives. 

And although I intellectually "get it," my children do not.  But our short afternoon at the PX watching dozens of soldiers getting their heads shaved in the barber shop, eating a meal with their families or emailing home on their laptops in the WiFi zone is a reminder to all of us that these people aren't just names on a list of "fallen" in the paper or at the end of The Newshour on PBS. 

They are brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, fathers and mothers who will, within weeks, probably be back in the streets of Baghdad or the mountains near Kabul, risking their lives for us.  They experience loss everyday in a way I can't fully comprehend, but understand just a little bit better because of my visit to Fort Bliss.

So while I'm celebrating the 4th of July with my family safely back home in San Francisco - watching fireworks and eating hot dogs - I'll also be thinking of the Fort Bliss family as well, and wishing them a safe Independence Day.

Stars and Stripes Forever with fireworks. 

iPhone Phrenzy

Steve Jobs ought to be ashamed of himself.

He and his brilliantly evil marketing wizards have completely convinced my tweener son, his friends, their friends, their friends friends, and most of their parents - that life will not be complete unless they own an iPhone.

If it weren't for the fact that this highly anticipated electronic device costs $499 - along with the problematic reality that he's a little scared of crowds in the dark (plus - I'd never let him) - my son would probably be camping out with all the CraigsListed line-holders (with a going rate of $1000) and other phone-atics who are currently warming sidewalks at AT&T stores across the globe.

The hype is so huge - the frenzy so great - that even the late breaking news from AT&T that iPhone service plans will range from a mid-level $59.99 to a downright pricey $99.99 month, have failed to curb the enthusiasm (although shareholders were far from thrilled, driving Apple stock down a few points yesterday).

The concerns voiced by well-respected techie skeptics about the iPhone's smallish touch-sensitive screen, its speed, its not-replaceable-by-the-user battery, and its price  - are no match for the Death Star that is the Apple marketing team.  No child, no adult is safe from the Buzz Machine.

The only way Steve Jobs can pay back his debt to society for this clever assault on our senses and sensibilities - is to start using his marketing team for the greater good. 

After the iPhone roll-out this Friday, put them to work selling fitness to our fat masses...healthy foods to our junk-addicted population...crucial school bonds to a taxed out public...heck - why not throw in immigration reform, a new national health care plan, even an Iraq war exit plan. 

I mean, this is a man who could make kids crave vegetables with just a well-produced 20-minute online video that turns them into Pavlov's dogs when they see anything green on their plates.

Just put Jobs on the job, and you've got a line around the block for iBroccoli. 

In the meantime though, we're just going to have to settle for the coolest phone ever.

Now it's your turn to weigh in on the iPhone frenzy.  Click below on "Comments" and give us your perspective on the iPhone and its indispensable buzz machine.

"I want you all to stop focusing on the iRack, and start focusing on the iRan...."

For some more reviews of the iPhone, read "11 iPhone Gotchas" in today's WaPost,  "Matching the Ballyhoo, Mostly" in today's NYTimes, or listen/download "The iPhone Cometh" on today's Talk of the Nation on NPR.

 

Paris Free! Crime Pays!

Now that Paris Hilton is out of jail (read it, see it, on TMZ.com), and before she goes on her confessional media tour starting tonight with celebrity lapdog Larry King on CNN,  I've got one question:  why does anyone need to pay Paris Hilton for anything?

You no doubt heard about last week's ABC vs NBC bidding war over Hilton's first post-jail house interview, which reached a cool million dollars before both networks were shamed into coming to their senses, and claimed they never, ever participated in checkbook journalism (paying for news maker interviews). 

During last week's unbelievable media scrum over exclusive rights to the hotel heiress's prison story, The NYPost ran an article about how crime is paying for Paris.  For instance, Getty Images is paying the Hilton's $300,000 for exclusive access to photograph post-jail Paris for People Magazine.

The sickest thing I heard was that Paris's "fee" for showing up at nightclubs and other events in L.A. in order to draw crowds and have her picture taken at said nightclubs or events, will probably go up to about $100,000 per appearance. Whoa!  I didn't even know there was money in being a drunken party hopper!

But back to my question:  why does a young woman who, according to her own website, stands to inherit $50 million...whose father is worth an estimated $300 million and whose grandfather is worth one billion...need to be paid for anything, much less her photo.

I mean, doesn't it just infuriate you off that while you're making a monthly Costco run to get bulk paper towels and meatballs in order to save a few bucks....the Hilton family negotiates deals with top tabloids in order to get just a wee bit richer?

Sure it makes you mad.  But does it anger you enough to ignore the whole thing and NOT go out and buy that People mag, or watch Larry King tonight?

Are you burned out on Paris, or do you plan to tune into her not-so-simple life?  What do you think about the influence tabloid news tactics are having on "the real" news?  Click below on "Comments" and share your thoughts or rants.

The Greatest Show on Earth?

Come one, come all!  The circus is in town.  Town Hall that is.

In one ring of this San Francisco City Hall three ringer, we've got the "now he lives here, now he doesn't" act involving my district (?) supervisor, Ed "the Wandering" Jew. 

In another, you've got supervisor Chris Daly and his loose cannonball act...shooting rumors and unsubstantiated allegations of cocaine use at Mayor Gavin Newsom before a packed crowd.

And in the center ring, you've got a ton of unfinished or even ignored business that our City leaders can't get to, because they're too distracted by the shows going on in the other two rings.

Oh - and there's an election coming up. 

The City That Gets Things Done?  Pleeeeeease.  San Francisco's elected officials are like small children at The Greatest Show on Earth, unable to focus on anything because they don't know where to look.

There's no doubt which two rings are more entertaining.  But the center ring is the ring that has the most impact when the performers actually get off their trapezes and high wires and do the jobs they were hired to do. 

And how about us - the constituents and voters?  We're like bored parents who've seen it all before, and now just find all the clowns scary.

What do you think about all the uproar at San Francisco's City Hall?  Click below on "Comments" and tell us how you feel.

For the benefit of Mr. Kite
there will be a show tonight
on trampoline.....

Why Di?

What was it, rather, what is it about Diana that continues to captivate us, nearly 10 years after her death?

With what would have been the Princess's 46th birthday coming up July 1st - and a concert in her honor to be held that same day - we are in the midst of yet another Diana-thon by the media. 

The power of the People's Princess to fascinate has not waned one bit, as evidenced by my frantic rush to read the excerpt in this month's Vanity Fair from Tina Brown's new book, The Diana Chronicles.  I mean, what new juicy tidbits about the over-exposed Princess could Ms. Brown possibly reveal at this point?

According to The NYTimes review of The Diana Chronicles, it's not about any new information the author has dug up on Diana, but rather how Ms. Brown frames Diana's life "by astutely revealing just how powerful, and how marketable, her story became in the age of modern celebrity journalism."

As Brown and The Times point out, Princess Diana's karmic appearance in our culture was perfectly timed with what is often called "the modern age of celebrity."  However, I think it could be argued that Diana's fairytale romance, courtship and wedding was the media circus - er - I mean event - which actually jump-started the celebrity and pop culture era we are still, for better or worse, immersed in.

Regardless, Diana still fascinates - a burden her sons now share and bear.  Princes William and Harry are on their own media tour this week, in advance of the Concert for Diana which they conceived of and helped organize.  You can watch the interviews they've granted recently to the BBC, and to the Today Show's Matt Lauer, which ran this morning.

If these two young men got anything from their mother (besides her looks-thank goodness), it was a lesson in how to handle the media horde.  The boys obviously didn't get it from their grandparents, as anyone who has seen the movie The Queen can attest.

They've learned that the beast needs to be fed every now and again, or it gets grumpy and aggressive and makes a meal of you whether you want it or not.  But it's not just the media that's hungry for news of the royals.  It's the public as well, which gobbles up any Diana-related snacks it's thrown, no matter how tiny or even distasteful. 

If we didn't buy it, they wouldn't serve it up.  Doubleday publishing wouldn't have put a price tag of $27.50 on yet another book about Diana, nor would it have had a first printing of 200,000 copies, if it didn't think its product would fly off the shelf.  And although The Diana Chronicles did not crack the NYTimes bestseller list in its first week, it did make the top of its Editor's Choice list.

So just what is it about Diana that still sells books, magazines, TV shows and concert tickets?  Click below on "Comments" and tell us your memories of the Princess, and why - or why not - you still follow her "story."

Moons and Junes and ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
Ive looked at love that way
But now its just another show
You leave 'em laughing when you go
And if you care, don't let them know
Don't give yourself away
I've looked at love from both sides now...

Cereal Killers

Dora the Explorer won't be seeing Toucan Sam during her adventures for awhile.

That's because Kellogg's, the world's largest cereal maker, announced today that it's raising the nutritional value of the cereals and snacks it markets to children under 12. 

And if that cereal or snack, say Froot Loops or Pop Tarts, doesn't currently meet those nutritional standards, you will not be seeing commercials for it on children's TV until the calorie, sugar, fat and sodium content is brought down. 

BTW, Kellogg's didn't do this out of the goodness of its healthy heart.  It did so in order to avoid a lawsuit threatened against it and Viacom (parent company of Nickelodeon) by two children's advocacy groups.  (You can read more about this on the ABCNews website or at  NYTimes.com)

The Kellogg's announcement is just the latest victory in the war on obesity, which is threatening the current generation of kids with a shorter lifespan filled with health problems -  if they keep eating fat-laden fast foods, snacks and of course, cereal killers like Froot Loops (which I've blogged about before and which - incidentally - has NO fruit in it!).

For obsessed label readers like myself - here are the new "voluntary" guidelines Kellogg's will follow:  one serving will have no more than 200 calories, no trans fat, no more than 2 grams of saturated fat, no more than 230 milligrams of sodium, and no more than 12 grams of sugar.

Cocoa Krispies, for instance, is going to have to undergo a recipe change to meet the new standards, because it has 14 grams of sugar.  And yes - the picture at left is from a box in MY cupboard. 

Am I a hypocrite because I promote healthy eating habits in my blog, and then have Cocoa Krispies in my cupboard?  I think not, because I've been teaching my kids to read the labels, and tell them that a splurge ever now and again isn't going to kill them.  In fact, the Cocoa Krispies share cupboard space in my kitchen with the Life, Wheaties and oatmeals which my kids eat more often than the sugary snap, crackly and pop stuff.

They know, thanks to constant drilling from me, that it's your overall eating habits as well as your physical activity level that matter. 

I'm glad that, at least for awhile, my kids won't be blasted with killer cereal ads while watching cartoons this summer.  It's definitely a step in the right direction as we try to find solutions to our nation's obesity epidemic

Now - is there something that can be done about all the cheap, bad toy commercials?

What are your thoughts on sugary cereals and how they're marketed to kids?  Do you think the solution to the obesity epidemic lies with food manufacturers and marketers --- or the people/parents who eat and buy them?  Click below on "Comments" and join the conversation.

There's a big bird named Toucan Sam
With a pretty colored beak just like a candy cane
I wonder if he'd be so nice (be so nice)
As to take us to Fruit Loop Paradise....

The Soprano's Swan Song

I've been running errands in the car all morning - listening to various talk radio shows, like this morning's Talk of the Nation on NPR which featured the Chron's Tim Goodman, regarding the series finale to The Sopranos.

Everybody's got their own opinion - everybody's got their own theory - everybody's got their own ending.  Brilliant!

I also heard on the radio this morning the Journey song "Don't Stop Believin'," used in those final tense moments in the diner...and happened to catch some things in the lyrics which I haven't heard discussed yet. 

Here's a segment of that song, taken from LyricsFreak.com:

Working hard to get my fill,
Everybody wants a thrill
Payin anything to roll the dice,
Just one more time
Some will win, some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on.....

Just that single stanza says so much about The Sopranos, about viewer expectations, about Tony's life being - literally and figuratively - a gamble, and about the "movie never ends" ending to the series. 

And one more random thought about the lyrics:  "Working hard to get my fill (PHIL)"  Brilliant!