Good Housekeeping has released their June 2009 issue. Featured in this month’s magazine are articles on giving up diet pills, coping with job loss, finding the perfect swimsuit, and saving $10,000 this year.
“I’m Done with Diet Pills!
Meet five women who gave up the gimmicks — and lost 412 pounds.
Burn fat! Suppress your appetite! If only it were as simple as the sellers of quick-weight-loss products would have us believe. These five women all hoped that dropping pounds would be easy — and all turned to diet pills. What they learned: Even if pills seemed to work, it wasn’t for long, and often the price was miserable side effects. In time, they each found a sound weight-loss program based on nutritionally balanced menus and, in most cases, exercise as well. And when they did, a funny thing happened: They finally lost the weight that had plagued them. Here, their inspiring stories.
- Annie Bennett lost 75 pounds with a heart-healthy diet
- Cheyenne Luken lost 100 pounds by joining LA Weight Loss
- Sarah Napier lost 76 pounds with Jenny Craig
- Donna Burke lost 100 pounds by trying NutriSystem
- Kimberly Daur lost 61 pounds by joining Jenny Craig
Coping with Job Loss
If you or a loved one has lost a job, there’s tough emotional terrain ahead. Here, how to navigate it.
Judy Lederman knew that sales were slow — very slow — at the department-store chain where she worked as a public relations manager. But that didn’t make it any less of a shock when she was summoned to corporate headquarters in New York City one day last spring and told her position was being eliminated. Lederman, a 49-year-old single mother from Scarsdale, NY, had always been the employee who got superlative reviews, so she believed she would be safe if any cuts were made. She remembers her supervisor tearfully apologizing after delivering the news. “I didn’t know how to respond,” says Lederman. “Should I have tried to make her feel better? Should I have said, ‘Oh, don’t worry about me. My daughter and I may be homeless, but it’ll be OK’?” she recalls with gallows humor.
As she left the building, Lederman tried to focus on everything she had to do: Consult a lawyer. Update her work portfolio. Schedule doctors’ appointments for herself and her 16-year-old while they still had health insurance. “My mind was spinning like a disc in a broken CD drive,” she says. Out of habit, she began dialing her work voice mail and then realized, “Wait, I’ve been fired. Why check voice mail?”
Lederman is far from alone. With more than 4.4 million American jobs lost since the recession began in December 2007, and the unemployment rate at its highest level in 26 years, chances are you or someone you know has faced a job loss. And even if you are still employed, you’ve probably wondered, at least in passing, “Am I next?”
Although layoffs may now be common, they haven’t become any easier to deal with. “Losing your job is like identity theft: Your sense of who you are can vanish,” says Debbie Mandel, author of Addicted to Stress: A Woman’s 7-Step Program to Reclaim Joy and Spontaneity in Life. And your feelings in response to that loss, whether it’s yours or that of someone you care about, can be surprising and tumultuous — and can hit you deeper than you ever anticipated. Here, experts and women who have been there share how you can get through this tough, uncertain time.
Find Your Perfect Swimsuit
Tempted to cover up at the beach this summer? Don’t — check out these comfortable, confidence-inspiring swimsuits that flatter every shape and size.
Save $10,000 This Year
Find out how to benefit from the new tax laws.
Despite all the talk about the benefits of the new administration’s economic initiatives, you may be left wondering, “But what’s in it for me?” The answer: probably some much-needed cash.
Between the February stimulus (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) and President Obama’s foreclosure-prevention program (Making Home Affordable), it’s the rare taxpayer who will wind up empty-handed. “There’s something for everyone, and quite a lot for some people,” says Brenda Schafer, an analyst with the Tax Institute at H&R Block.
Here are specifics on new incentives that’ll put more money in your pocket:
- Buy a Home — Save Up to $8,000
- Keep on Working — Save $400
- Refinance a Mortgage — Save About $200 a Month
- Buy a New Car — Save $200+
- Help Your House Go Green — Save $1,500+
- Pay for College — Save $2,500
- Modify a Mortgage — Save About $400 a Month, Plus $5,000
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Bird Talk has published it’s June 2009 issue! Featured in this magazine are articles on making a bird themed planter, making your parrot behave as a team, sound proofing your home with plants, love-birds, and Spinifex pigeons.
Editor’s Note
My name is Tori. That’s T-O-R-I, and it is not short for Victoria.
You may be wondering why I am writing this month’s editorial note. Laura has been locked out of her office, after my clever ploy of distracting her with the sweet potato fiasco in Jessica’s cubicle. You see, I had to take over this editor’s note. It was about all these human-specific articles, with tips for keeping the cage clean and how to soundproof with plants. Ahem, might I point out this is BIRD TALK magazine, not HUMAN SPEAK magazine? I am on the cover, and I declare those articles as useless as wax paper. I cannot chew wax paper; therefore, it has no use to me, or any reason to be at the bottom of my cage.
First off, keeping the cage clean? Are you mad? I work diligently, day-after-day, to make my cage as messy as possible. That is my job as a bird. Also, my job is to be noisy, so why would you soundproof me with plants? And I can’t even chew on those plants? What use is a plant if you can’t tear it up?
As for the memo to African greys, Parker and Pepper … I have one for you: Eat your memo, and tuck it into your rump feathers. That is what paper is for, dear cousins (twice removed). Your compliance will be noted by the amount of shredded paper that you leave at the bottom of your cage.
After the editors rejected my article ideas — “Chew This!” and “Why Peach Faces Rule!” as well as my cover blurbs “Scream Louder!” and “Tips & Tricks For Destroying Your Cage (and getting a new one to replace it)” — I couldn’t take it anymore. I would like to point out that not only am I the cover bird, I also grace the table of contents and one of the main articles. How could you not see how my articles would have made this issue pop?
Bird Fairy Gardens
Make a bird-themed planter.
The latest landscaping craze is fairy gardens; decorative planters that have a theme. You can buy fairy houses and miniature accessories and create cute, miniature-themed worlds among your plants. Using little bird mementoes and flair, you can make your own little bird-themed container plant. They are fun to have as décor for your front porch, or create one for your bird-loving friend as a one-of-a-kind gift.
Save It For Later
Cook once, serve all week.
Not too long ago, I was a commitment-phoebe when it came to cooking; the less ingredients the better and the less time, even better. One commonality made me re-think my kitchen routine: having picky eaters; both kids and parrots. I’ve seen my fare share of meals gone to waste, totally ignored or flung across the room. That’s why, once I found recipes that worked, I bought more tupperware and ZipLock bags. Now I set aside one or two days a week to cook the pasta dish the kids love and the rice-and-bean medley the birds run down to their food bowls for. I have birdie bread and muffin mixes to thank for family-fun baking sessions; the boys mix it and I bake it. Two half-hour sessions a week give the flock a bit of crumble yum daily for the entire week.
It’s A Team Effort
A well-behaved parrot is everyone’s responsibility.
One of the biggest challenges that parrot owners contend with is getting everyone in the house on the same page. Consistency and agreement are critical to any training plan. Just ask any teenager who has played their mom off their dad to extend their curfew. A united front is critical for behavioral success.
The challenge with parrots is that they are long-lived, extremely observant and very smart. Fortunately, all of these wonderful attributes also contribute to the solution. You don’t have to outwit your parrot, you simply need to understand that every interaction with it is a training session. Everyone must agree what you are trying to teach the parrot and how you are going to do it.
Sound Advice
Sound proof your home with plants.
Tessa, our lovebird, always happily chatters away in her cage and I love the sounds of her boundless energy and endless joy. But some days, especially when I am at work on the computer, I’ve often thought I should have a tiny caution sign with a silhouette of a person holding a finger to the mouth that reads, “Quiet Please: People at Work!” Instead of a sign though, I have found a better way of reducing noise level in a room — I use houseplants!
Clean That Cage
Tips & tricks for keeping the cage clean.
We’ve all been there (or are going to be there). Flung food on the cage bars, poop in those impossibly hard-to-reach places and the dog wolfing the scattered bird seed and pellets as if it’s buffet night with the family. Certainly after a long, long day at work, cleaning the cage is the last thing on our minds. So we put off cleaning until we have free time, and then wonder, three weeks, later what that smell is emitting from the bird cage. (Is that corn? Dog, you were supposed to eat that!)
The Three Faces Of Lovebirds
Peach-faced, Fischer’s and masked lovebirds show off their unique feats.
A half-shredded palm leaf toy, a pile of feathers and a layer of paper strips are all bundled up in the corner of the cage, and standing atop the mess is a peach-faced lovebird, nibbling a paper strip in her beak. She’s building a nest: an elaborate pad to which she’s been carry strips of paper and palm to all day.
Not Your Average Pigeon
The spinifex pigeon looks & acts like a quail.
Spinifex pigeons (Geophaps plumifera) are widespread and locally common in the arid interior of north-central Australia, where the white-bellied G. p. plumifera and G. p. leucogaster are found, and in central-western Australia, which is the range of the isolated red-bellied G. p. ferruginea. Although named because of an apparent close association with Triodia and Plectrachne spinifex grasses, the birds are not confined to areas with spinifex groundcover, nor are they found in all places where these drought-resistant grasses grown.
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The Connecticut Magazine has released their May 2009 issue. Featured in this month’s magazine are 50 Connecticut dishes you should try before you die, Angels & Demons, teeth whitening, mini face-lifts, brow lifts, hair restoration, fractional laser resurfacing, and a home decorating and remodeling guide.
50 Dishes To Try Before You Die
Although Connecticut is a veritable paradise of gastronomical delights, there are certain signature dishes that anyone who considers themself a true resident should try at least once. Here are 50 to get your started.
Happy Days
From his memorable turns as Opie Taylor and Richie Cunningham to his latest directorial effort Angels & Demons, Academy Award winner Ron Howard has enjoyed a long and successful Hollywood career while maintaining that “aw shucks” charm.
Change You Can See and Feel
We look at the latest trends in teeth whitening, mini face-lifts, brow lifts, hair restoration, fractional laser resurfacing and more. Looking better doesn’t have to take weeks anymore!
Special Section: Home Decorating & Remodeling Guide
Looking to make some changes to your house or yard? Let us inspire you with a trio of recent makeovers, then help you get it done with our comprehensive list of products and services.
Columns And Departments
Lary Bloom’s Notebook
The high-profile divorce case of United Technologies chairman George David and his Swedish countess wife has provided all the lurid fireworks anyone could desire.
First
Sorting out the sources for state budget deficit projections, playing brain games with Charles van Doren and exploring the new Connecticut Science Center. Plus, spring fashion trends, My Little Red Book and more.
This Month
The monthly assortment of plays, shows, exhibitions, fairs and events as well as a chat with always-perverse director John Waters and a visit to Two Boots in Bridgeport.
Travel/Ski Towns in Summer
We journey to four renowned ski towns that offer as much to do in the summer as they do in the winter.
The Connecticut Table
Top-of-the-line dining at Winvian in Morris and The Study at Yale in New Haven. Plus, a recipe from the new Barcelona cookbook, Table Talk and the state’s most comprehensive dining guide.
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EatingWell has released their May/June 2009 issue. Featured in this month’s magazine are articles on making seasonal, farm-fresh produce the center of your diet, grilling healthy, 5 healthy and quick weeknight meals, High fructose corn syrup, HFCS, and kitchen tips.
Eatingwell in Season
If you could do just one thing for your health, says this doctor, it would be to make seasonal, farm-fresh produce the center of your diet.
On a sunny Friday, Preston Maring, M.D., the associate physician-in-chief at Kaiser Permanente’s Oakland hospital, leaves his office to go food shopping. Just downstairs, on the sidewalk in front of the hospital, a farmers’ market is in full swing. Roberto Rodriguez is arranging flats of organic strawberries so fragrant you can smell them from 10 feet away. In the stall next door, stalks of rhubarb and artichokes are piled high near bouquets of garden roses. On a table, paper bags are overflowing with a potpourri of market produce and flowers. “Pick-of-the-market bags,” Maring explains. “If you are too busy to shop, you can just reserve one of these.” Everywhere, people are smiling and saying, “Hey, Preston!”
If it seems as if Dr. Maring, a tall, graying man, knows everyone at this farmers’ market it’s because he does: he started it. In 2003, Maring helped to get this market off the ground and then persuaded Kaiser to start farmers’ markets at 30 other hospitals. Says Maring: “If we can just get people to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, we can really impact people’s health.”
He also set about revamping the hospital food system by getting the health-care company to buy more fresh produce from local farms. In 2006, Kaiser Permanente purchased only 25 of the 250 tons of produce served in 20 Northern California hospitals from local farms. In three years, that amount has risen to 74 tons. The Kaiser project now serves as a model for hospitals around the country and is part of a worldwide initiative to make health care more sustainable, called Health Care Without Harm.
Healthy In A Hurry
Enjoy succulent beef tenderloin, roast chicken and more without ever turning on your oven.
Does anything inspire more “oohs” and “ahs” than golden, juicy cuts of meat hot off a grill? Hardly. We wanted in on this game, so, never ones to be shy, we bought a testosterone-doped grill that arrived at our house in Connecticut on a flatbed truck and had to be off-loaded with a forklift.
For a time, we lived in grill bliss: seared steaks, jerk-rubbed pork chops, oohs and ahs aplenty.
Then we realized we were going to have to haul that behemoth in and out of the garage at the beginning and end of every grill season. Getting it indoors last winter was no problem. It was all downstairs. Yeah, somebody’s back bore the brunt of it, but two Advil and the job was done.
For months, we missed the grill fare, but summer comes inevitably, even in New England. And then came the epic struggle. Upstairs to the deck, six steps that might as well be six flights—the two of us struggling under the grill like the middle-aged oafs we are, the dog barking, the rail bulging as the thing knocked against it.
What we’ll do to get back to those oohs and ahs. Yes, we’re now ensconced in the usual fare from the grate: chicken and chops, caramelized right over the heat. But to bring out the best in the grill—and the most admiration from an audience—we like to break out the big cuts of meat: the pork loins, the legs of lamb. Cut into a crispy, brown turkey breast and get ready for your big bow!
5 Budget Friendly Weeknight Meals
The other day I heard my mother-in-law, who was visiting, yell at some corporate bigwig on the evening news to “Give us our money back!” Like many of us, she’s thinking about her finances these days. Eating at home more often is one easy way to cut costs. But by how much? We started calculating the price tag for recipes in EatingWell a couple of months ago. It turns out that eating healthfully at home can be pretty affordable compared with going out. And we’re not talking about converting to a strict beans-and-rice diet every night of the week. We’ve even included New York steak and wild Alaskan salmon in this lineup of weeknight meals and they all come in at $4.50 or less a serving—a fraction of what they would cost in a restaurant.
These meals are so affordable, in part, for the same reason that they’re so good for you: we don’t overdo it on meat. Eating less meat or even vegetarian meals occasionally is healthy. When we include meat or fish in our recipes, we recommend a reasonable-size portion of 3 to 4 ounces per serving. That may seem small if you’re used to plate-size porterhouse steaks, but we promise that these recipes won’t leave you hungry. We make sure they also include plenty of whole grains, veggies, fruit and flavor. Besides the New York steak (on kebabs with potatoes and peppers) and the salmon (with a spicy red pepper sauce and grilled zucchini) we’ve also got a pizza topped with arugula and fresh tomatoes, huevos rancheros with green salsa and oven-fried fish-and chips. I definitely can’t fix the stock market for my mother-in-law. But I can offer these five recipes as a personal financial stimulus plan that’s both tasty and healthful.
Nutrition Watch
What’s So Bad About High Fructose Corn Syrup
“It’s natural, nutritionally the same as table sugar and has the same number of calories,” say ads for high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Others call the sweetener “a growing health hazard,” “naturally evil,” and worse. For now, the naysayers seem to be winning: the number of foods flaunting “No HFCS” labels is rising steadily. Even Snapple and Pepsi recently launched new beverages sans HFCS. But what’s the truth about HFCS? Here’s what we found when we looked at the science.
Is HFCS the main culprit in the obesity epidemic?
The theory sounded logical in 2004, when an article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition proposed it. The study’s authors—including Barry Popkin, Ph.D., director of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill’s Interdisciplinary Obesity Center—pointed out that from 1970 to 1990 Americans’ intake of HFCS increased by more than 1,000 percent. The researchers also noted that, during that same time, the proportion of Americans who were overweight or obese increased from about half to two-thirds.
Singling out HFCS turned out to be unjustified, Popkin now admits. “Dozens of human studies on HFCS and energy intake and weight change show that our hypothesis was wrong.” The American Medical Association came to a similar conclusion last June, when it announced: “High-fructose corn syrup does not appear to contribute more to obesity than other caloric sweeteners.”
Kitchen Tips & Techniques
How to Make Fruit Jams, Butters and Chutneys
Freeze or Can Ripe Summer Fruit for the Best of the Season All Year Long.
Can’t get enough of ripe summer fruit? Preserve it for the rest of the year in a batch of fruit butter, jam or chutney. Think of these recipes as basic guidelines that leave you plenty of room to experiment. Just prepare the fruit as directed and let your imagination run wild. Try chutney, a spicy-sweet-sour condiment made with fresh and dried fruit, sugar, vinegar and chiles. Serve it alongside simple roasted meat or pan-seared tofu steaks. Fruit butter and jam are similar; both are sweetened fruit spreads, but fruit butters are made by cooking down the fruit mixture until thick and sticky instead of adding pectin to set the mixture as you do with a jam. Both are delicious spread on whole-grain toast or stirred into plain yogurt. These recipes work with any fruit in any season. Give jars of peach chutney as a summer party favor or wrap up homemade apple butter for the winter holidays. Whether you have a marathon picking session at your local berry farm or stop by a farmstand for a flat of cherries, spend a little time in your kitchen preserving the best of summer.
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Taste of Home has released the April/May 2009 issue of Healthy Cooking. Featured in this magazine are articles on beating diabetes, 4 contest winning recipes with 7g of fat or less, using a rainbow palette to pick healthy food, Caroline Shively, salad dressing recipes, and stretching to stay fit.
Eat to Beat Diabetes
Nowadays, the idea of enjoying a little sugar isn’t so hard to swallow
A new day has dawned for those with diabetes, and the future is filled with sweet possibilities. That’s because sugar is no longer considered the culprit it used to be.
Doctors once solely blamed sugar for increasing glucose and wreaking havoc on the body. Studies later revealed that sugar has the same effect on blood glucose as other carbohydrates.
Today, experts recommend monitoring the total amount of carbs in a meal plan as opposed to focusing on sugar alone.
This means that most diabetics may include a sensible amount of sugar in their diet … and that’s sweet news.
By the Numbers
Contest-winning recipes with 7 g of fat or less
You liked them so much, we’ve pleased to give you even more main-dish recipes with 7 g of fat or less! As a bonus, all these recipes are previous contest winners! Do you have a recipe that’s good enough to win?
- Sausage Pasta Stew
- Three Bean Casserole
- Stir-Fried Veggies With Pasta
- Tangy Meat Sauce
Color it Healthy
A rainbow’s palette provides the perfect guide to help pick foods that boost your health.
Did you enjoy the colorful recipes from pages 38-52 in our April/May 2009 issue? Read on for even more health info and 10 bonus recipes!
Purple
From vitamins and fiber to powerful antioxidants that may help keep cancer at bay, vibrant violets are some of the best good-for-you foods around. We focused on eggplant and plums in the bonus recipes.
Red
Red foods such as tomatoes may help prevent breast and prostate cancer and heart disease. Strawberries contain powerful antioxidants, which may protect brain cells and boost our immune system.
Green
Gorgeous greens vary in flavor from mild to sweet to peppery and offer many health benefits. You’ll find fiber and vitamins in green produce, as well as antioxidants that promote vision and reduce the risk of some cancers. Brussels sprouts and kale are two healthy choices.
Yellow/Orange
Yellow and orange foods pack a hefty dose of antioxidants! From vitamin C to beta-carotene, orange and yellow fruits and veggies keep your eyes perky and your immune system healthy. Try these recipes featuring carrots and pineapple.
My Healthy Life
Fox News correspondent Caroline Shively shares her cooking secrets
This issue, we got to know a little about one of our readers, Caroline Shively of Fox News. Turns out she reads our magazine and enjoys cooking from it!
So what did we learn from her? When Caroline’s not on the go covering national headlines, she’s busy cooking, spending time with her husband and trying to stay fit. Try her bonus recipe and read more of our interview. And learn even more about her on the Fox News site.
Healthy Salad Dressing Recipes
Zesty salad dressings to help you use your calories wisely
Salads can be deceptive – while the vegetables are healthy, the dressing and other toppings can blow a day’s worth of calories in one sitting if you aren’t careful.
These delicious dressings will add extra flavor to your salads while helping you stay on your diet.
Stretching to Stay Fit
This reader has an easy and affordable way to “reach” toward his fitness goal every day.
Looking for a simple way to integrate fitness into your day? Trying to improve or expand an existing workout? It’s not too much of a stretch to say that the solution is stretching!
Not only is stretching simple and economical, but it increases your flexibility and agility and helps keep you feeling your best.
Seemingly passive activities like sitting on the couch watching television can cause unused muscles and tendons to tighten. So, if your idea of stretching is reaching for the TV remote control, it might be time to loosen up those muscles…and do some stretching exercises!
It’s well-documented that stretching reduces the risk of injury and improves workouts, but stretching can enhance your daily life, too. Stretching primes your body for everything from golfing and snow shoveling to shopping at the mall and playing with the kids.
Stretching every day also reduces stress, improves your posture and can even help ease back pain. Plus, stretching doesn’t involve expensive equipment…and there’s always time to sneak in a stretch or two—no matter where you are.
A Tour of the Healthy Heart
What is the healthy heart? It’s the heart that most people are born with—a powerful, four-chambered miracle of efficiency about the size of a clenched fist.
A healthy adult heart pumps five quarts of blood through 60,000 miles of flexible, smooth tubing every minute. Arteries carry blood away from the heart, bringing oxygen and nutrients to every part of the body, including the heart muscle. On the return trip through the veins, the blood carries very little oxygen.
For the healthy heart, “tired blood” flowing into the right side of the heart is an easy problem to solve. The heart pumps the blood into the lungs, where waste such as carbon dioxide is discharged. After loading up with oxygen, the blood flows back to the left side of the heart, which—once again—pumps it to every tissue in the body.
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Running Times has published their May 2009 issue! Featured in this issue are articles on 3 tough, targeted workouts, Lyle Knudson, and August Knox.
Hammer When It Matters: 3 Tough, Targeted Workouts
Last time around, I introduced Go Zone Racing. Go Zone Racing seems intuitive; some brush it off by saying, “Anyone can say run faster at the end.” But this misses the point.
Go Zone Racing isn’t just “go faster at the end.” It encompasses and reinforces what great coaches and athletes have taught us for years -you must plan for success, not hope for it. This strategy involves breaking the race into smaller pieces, with a different directive for each piece, that builds to a successful result. It requires that you focus your mental state on successful strategies across the entire race. After working with runners at all levels, I’m convinced that a lack of attention to race planning is a chief reason breakthrough performances or even expected performances aren’t as common as they should be.
To help instill the Go Zone Racing concepts, I’ve described the Top 3 Go Zone workouts below. No matter whether you’re prepping for the 800m or the half marathon, these Go Zone workouts practice the winning Go Zone Racing strategy.
Progression Runs
Nothing is better for preparing you to use the Go Zone Racing strategy than a progression run. In a progression run, the latter part of the workout is completed at a faster pace than the initial parts. Like all speed work, there are thousands of possible progression runs, but I’ve found two types to be the most effective.
Run to the Next Level
It’s 6 o’clock on a Tuesday evening at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. I’m talking with Neil about the reasons behind a recent race disappointment and with Dave about his spring marathon mileage buildup. Newcomers Joe and Monica wait to discuss pace for their upcoming intervals; meanwhile, around 10 more experienced runners warm up together, rehashing the past weekend, debating the relative merits of various post-workout watering holes, or planning the next West Valley Track Club beer mile.
All of these athletes have joined the club for one basic reason: to improve. And, although each may see a different aspect of the experience as most important, all have found something in the mixture of group training, weekly workout schedules, and socializing that has enriched their running experiences.
I did all my best running, modest as it might have been, solo. I became intimately familiar with the pitfalls that can result from training without a coach or experienced training partners, even as I read every available book on the theory and practice of training and worked toward a Ph. D. in exercise physiology. Now, after discovering how much the camaraderie of team training and team competition can enhance someone’s enjoyment of the sport and improve their performance, I understand well the pull that brings this group to the track each week, and I try to ensure that their experience with the club benefits their running.
To figure out whether joining a club and/or working with a coach can help your running, you need to figure out what your needs are, and understand what a club or coach can bring you. For most runners, finding a club may be a better first option than searching for a coach. Most clubs do offer coaching, and a good, diverse club composed of experienced runners can take over much of what a coach offers. As pointed out by Bill Clark, a former world-class distance runner who coaches the South Bay wing of WVTC, much of the coaching and guidance available to club runners comes from teammates on group runs.
Never Too Old – Secrets of Late Starting Elites
The phenomenon of the “overnight sensation” might be so common as to be cliched in the entertainment industry, but it’s almost unheard of in American running. The path to running greatness is nearly identical for those at the top: four years of high school competition, followed by another four in college, and then several more seasons struggling upward through the ranks of the track or road racing elite, learning the ropes and paying one’s dues before being able to finish in the medals or money. But every so often someone comes along and ignores that roadmap, bursting into the front pack without any significant background in running.
The latest such phenom is Kelly Jaske, who placed second at the USA Half Marathon Championships in Houston in January in 1:12:06. It was a huge breakthrough for Jaske, who didn’t start running until she was in law school at Harvard, and whose marathon PR was just under 2:50.
Over the years there have been other elite or semi-elite runners who have enjoyed similar success without an extensive running background. Mike Reneau qualified for the 2008 Olympic trials marathon with the Hansons-Brooks squad after a career as a wrestler in high school and college. Aileen Condon played field hockey and lacrosse before becoming a top finisher in New York-area races with a track 10,000m PR of 34:07. And Jill Gaitenby Boaz became the poster girl for no-background running success: As a Boston College senior, she watched the Boston Marathon from a roadside party on Heartbreak Hill; a few years later she would run 2:36:45 there to place 14th as the first American. She represented the U. S. in two world championships in the marathon and won the USA title at that distance in a then-PR 2:36:10.
A closer look at these athletes, however, belies the scenario of instant success achieved the first time they laced up a pair of running shoes. All of them had some athletic experience, even if they didn’t have the running background common to most top runners. And they all certainly possessed the potential for running success, even if realizing it was delayed.
“You’re not going to run well if you don’t have the inherent ability,” says Jack Daniels, who is currently working with Reneau in Arizona. “People with talent would probably have done well five or 10 years earlier in their lives. It’s true that once they mature they have a better chance to take advantage of their bodies. The added strength they have in their 20s might help them avoid injuries a little better, too.”
Lonely Heights
Lyle Knudson: Running’s Forgotten Coach
The tall blond man sits by the window in his favorite breakfast place, hunched over a plate of poached eggs at 9,100 feet in the Rocky Mountains. It is 10 degrees outside and even colder with the stinging wind. Not a great morning for running. But, as with most days, decent enough to talk about it. Talking about running, after all, helps the tall blond man feel in touch.
Once upon a time, he was current and relevant, a coach everyone in the running world knew well. He coached seven Olympians, two before he turned 30. Launched the women’s track and field program at the University of Colorado. Was named Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year at Florida. Served as head coach of the women’s Pan American team when the Pan Am Games still mattered. Perhaps most notably, he introduced a training model so deep and complex that even now, decades later, almost nobody understands it. If it didn’t produce such miraculous results, it would’ve vanished years ago, just like the tall blond man who invented it.
Excellence
And the Problem with Deals with the Devil
If there’s a rule about deals with the devil, it’s that you don’t realize you’re making one at the time. Especially when the devil in question walks with a cane and looks more like Kris Kringle than Beelzebub.
He said his name was August Knox and that he was a researcher working to beat multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’s disease, and all the other muscle-wasting disorders the world has ever known. Maybe he was. He was peddling a dream, and you don’t look a gift horse too strongly in the mouth.
You remember BALCO, right? Well, suppose BALCO had visited you at age 42 and asked if you wanted to be a guinea pig for a new product. Kringle/Knox wasn’t with BALCO, obviously — they’d been out of business for years — but that’s what he was peddling. Test samples of a new product, guaranteed undetectable by conventional tests, that would tune up your muscle efficiency not just by enough to roll your performance back to age 30, but to match you with the best of them.
Could you win an Olympic medal? No guarantee there, but you’d be in the hunt. There was only one catch: If humans were like rats, you’d peak in a year and stay there for 18 months. Two years, if you were lucky. After that? Well, once the rats had started to decline they’d done so rather precipitously.
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June 2009 Smart Computing has been published. This issue features articles which help you identify whether your old computer is upgradeable and still salvageable. Providing extensive tips on upgrading your old computer to make it more efficient and save you money!
Read Before Burning
Don’t Pitch Your Old Computer Just Yet
Everyone faces a time when he has to decide whether to pitch his old computer and buy a new one or try to extend the life of his current machine. There’s a variety of factors to consider, including hardware requirements for new operating systems (if you’re planning to upgrade to a newer operating system), compatibility of new parts with the old system, and the hardware requirements necessary to run new software.
All factors point to the bottom-line question we have to ask ourselves: Can my computer still operate at the level I need it to? Before you answer this question for yourself, read the following pages in this month’s feature package. You may be surprised at the tweaks and upgrades you can perform to get a few more miles out of your computer.
Time To Toss The Computer?
Computer parts are very affordable these days, especially items such as DDR2 memory, which costs significantly less than DDR3 but hasn’t yet been supplanted by DDR3 in many motherboards.
When a computer’s performance starts slowing down, it doesn’t mean that it’s becoming obsolete. Most likely, you just need to perform some basic maintenance, such as defragmenting your hard drive, cleaning out your Startup folder, and possibly running a malware scan. Maintenance alone will usually give your computer a performance boost.
Granted, that isn’t always the case—the computer’s hardware may be insufficient and cannot conduct the operations you need it to. But again, in this case, it doesn’t mean the computer is dying—you may just need to upgrade some parts, and this is where the following articles come in.
Upgrade Your PC’s Memory
The Easiest Way To Boost Performance
When it comes to your sluggish computer, exercising patience can seem like an epic challenge. While browsing the Internet, you’re forced to wait what seems like forever for each page to load. Viewing and editing the pictures from your camera’s memory card takes ages, and playing music from your hard drive while working on any other project causes your whole computer to freeze. You’ve endured these tests of patience for long enough; it’s time to upgrade your PC’s memory.
What Is Memory?
If you open up your computer case, you’ll find one or more thin rectangles positioned upright on the motherboard. These are memory modules. Memory is used to store temporary information that the computer needs to run an application. Although there are other factors, the amount of memory your computer has affects how quickly your computer can process data. Even if you have the latest and fastest processor, a lack of memory will cause your computer to perform sluggishly.
Think of the relationship between your computer’s processor and memory as a mathematician who is trying to solve a complicated equation on a single square inch of paper. She must write out a formula, and in order to solve the problem, she must erase parts of her paper to make room for new information. The mathematician may be a genius, but without enough space to write out the formula, solving the problem takes a great deal of time.
Upgrade Your PC’s Optical Drive
Easy Come, Easy Go
You have a high-definition camcorder, a digital camera, and an iPod, and now your PC’s digital media library is filled with thousands of music, photo, and video files. It might be time to think about getting an optical disc drive that can meet your media needs.
You’re probably wondering what an optical drive has to do with your PC’s media collection. With the right type of disc burner, you can transfer those files to CDs, DVDs, or BDs (Blu-ray Discs) to enjoy elsewhere, such as in your car or on your TV. Optical drives can read and write files, such as documents, music, photos, and HD (high-definition) videos. You can archive several gigabytes of data inexpensively because bulk packages of CDs and DVDs are relatively inexpensive. Additionally, by writing media files to CDs and DVDs, you can free up storage space on your hard drive, and the discs can also serve as a backup of your media library.
Upgrade Your PC’s Video Card
Process Photos, Videos & Graphics Faster
Does your computer seem slow when you edit videos and photos or play video games? Does the computer limit you to analog low-resolution video, even though your LCD can display digital high-resolution video? If the answer to either question is yes, an upgrade to your video card—the component that provides your PC’s video output and connects to your monitor’s video cable—is in order. Additional advantages to a new video card include the ability to edit and play back HD (high-definition) video content and span your Desktop background across two (or more) monitors. We’ll show you what to look for when buying a video card and provide instructions for upgrading the video card.
The type of video card you can use largely depends on the type of expansion slots available on your motherboard. Most computers and motherboards purchased in the last three years feature one or more PCI-E (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) slots, while older computers may offer a single AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) slot or standard PCI slots. As you might guess, the PCI-E interface provides the best performance of the three, but you can still find a limited selection of video cards that feature the AGP and PCI interface for legacy computers.
The users manual included with your PC or motherboard should indicate which type of video card the PC uses. Barring a users manual, you can open up your PC’s case to determine what type of card you need.
Upgrade Your PC’s Power Supply
Invest In Quality & Power Efficiency
In order for a computer to operate, it requires at least two things: data and power. Data is provided by the hard drive, whereas the power required to run every component in your computer is produced by a PSU (power supply unit). Its single job is to convert electrical power from the wall outlet into functional power for your entire PC. However, the PSU is often the most overlooked component inside your computer’s case, even though it serves as the central conduit through which power is managed.
Most standard PSUs are square and include vents or fans for cooling. They’re constructed of some kind of metal and have a large bundle of colored cables extending from one side. At the end of these cables are connectors that are designed to attach to specific plugs on components or chassis fans. (We’ll address the names and compatibility of each connector when we walk through the installation later.) In general, a PSU appears inconspicuous on the outside of a PC case, but it connects to every part on the inside.
Why Invest In An Upgrade?
One of the primary reasons to upgrade your PSU is to add more wattage overall. If you’ve recently installed a new high-end video card or an extra hard drive or optical drive, you’ll want to test the fortitude of your PSU and whether it can provide enough power to your whole system.
Upgrade Your PC’s Storage
Install A Second Hard Drive
Nature abhors a vacuum, your garage will accumulate as much stuff as it can hold, and you’ll eventually fill your hard drive. Not to worry. When you’re running out of space—thanks to the thousands of photos, audio files, and video clips on your drive—you can add a supplemental drive easily enough.
How To Buy
A cutting-edge 2TB (terabytes; equal to 2,000GB) hard drive cost $299 at press time, but you’ll get more for your money with a lower-capacity model, such as a $72 750GB drive. (There are also fast SSDs, or solid-state drives, but they cost much more per gigabyte.) Here’s how to buy the right hard drive.
First, open your computer case and verify that there’s a free hard drive-sized bay. If there isn’t, consider buying an external drive. Alternatively, read the “Replacement” section at the end of this article for notes on replacing your existing hard drive outright. Most of the following buyers’ advice and installation steps will still apply.
Next, check to see whether your computer’s motherboard (or hard drive controller card) has an unused SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) header, or port, as shown in one of the photos in this article. If so, you can buy a SATA drive, which means a better selection and an easier setup.
Upgrade Your PC’s Processor
Give Your System A Better Brain
The CPU is usually considered to be the brain of a computer. These days, there are only two major competitors left in the CPU world, Intel and AMD, and both are constantly at work to improve their products at a furious pace. When you hear the old adage that a computer is obsolete almost as soon as you buy it, that may be a slight exaggeration, but the truth of the joke largely falls at the CPU’s feet.
The CPU is the primary engine inside your system. Software gets written to take advantage of whatever features and speed the CPU can provide. For example, most CPUs now integrate special routines for accelerating multimedia tasks. Multimedia software developers know this and write their programs to take advantage of these capabilities. In the same vein, the traditional design of CPUs involved having one “core” that ran as fast as possible, but now the focus is on having multiple energy-efficient cores in one chip doing more total work with less heat and power consumption.
This is why people find themselves needing new computers. It’s not because the hardware gets physically slower (usually), but because new software keeps being designed for new hardware improvements. Fortunately, you can get many of a new system’s benefits simply by replacing the CPU.
Upgrade Your PC’s Motherboard
Give Your System An Internal Makeover
Right on the heels of upgrading your CPU, you may find yourself also considering a motherboard upgrade. The two often go together, although they can be handled separately. A motherboard upgrade (which usually includes a newer chipset) can give you a range of benefits. Sure, you can have a faster FSB (frontside bus) and support for more modern architectures so you can run faster CPUs, but also consider some of the other features a motherboard upgrade can bring.
For starters, integrated video is a lot better than it used to be, not only faster but also more vibrant and capable of displaying things such as HD (high-definition) video. Onboard audio has seen similar improvements, moving from noisy stereo to sterling 5.1 surround sound. Newer motherboards have more SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) ports, including eSATA (external SATA; for high-speed external drives) and more RAID (redundant array of independent disks) options for helping to protect and accelerate the data on those drives. By upgrading your motherboard, you can expect more overclocking tools, support for newer card slot formats, and so on.
Most major brand systems are sold with fairly ho-hum motherboards. When people buy a new PC, they’re usually looking at things such as processor speed, hard drive capacity, or a certain kind of video card. Specifics about the motherboard are rarely ever given, in part because the vendor doesn’t waste money on motherboards with nonessential features.
Out With The Old
Recycle, Reuse, Or Donate?
Unlike an old piece of furniture, computer parts don’t often make good hand-me-downs. PC hardware changes so frequently that it’s likely another PC can’t use your leftover memory, video card, or processor. You shouldn’t just throw the equipment in the garbage because it may contain lead, mercury, cadmium, and flame-retardant plastic that is toxic to the environment and a threat to everyone’s health. It’s best to recycle or donate your old, unusable computer parts.
Recycle
Many electronics manufacturers, including Apple, Dell, Epson, Lenovo, and Sony, offer recycling programs to process, donate, and reuse devices and hardware. Typically, a manufacturer will recycle its own products free, but most charge to process components made by other manufacturers. In some situations, only specific products will be recycled free. Therefore, you’ll want to contact your PC’s manufacturer about whether it will recycle components that were manufactured by other companies.
The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has set up a Plug-In To eCycling program that works with computer manufacturers to orchestrate take-back programs for desktop PCs and laptops. The program also provides other opportunities to donate and recycle your computer hardware, such as local collections where you can drop off unwanted technology for reuse/recycling.
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Condé Nast has published the May 18, 2009 issue of The New Yorker. Featured in this magazine are articles on President Obama’s collegiate tour, Manny’s Music, enviroment, and the apocalypse.
Comment
College Try
The President’s campus tour.
With summer almost here, and the green shoots on the ground (if not on the Dow) grown to leafy fullness, the White House has completed an annual springtime chore: choosing among the many invitations from colleges and universities for the boss to address the graduating class. This year, three were accepted. On May 13th, President Obama speaks at Arizona State University, in Tempe; four days later, at the University of Notre Dame, in South Bend, Indiana; and, five days after that, at the United States Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Maryland.
The Talk of the Town
Engine Trouble
A vigilante’s quest against idling vehicles.
Talk story about George Pakenham who alerts drivers to the city’s prohibition against letting engines idle for longer than three minutes.
The Wall
Rock stars immortalize Manny’s Music.
Manny’s Music, one of the largest of the West Forty-eighth Street musical-instrument stores, is closing soon, and among the matters yet to be resolved between Manny’s owner, Sam Ash Music, and Manny’s founding family, the descendants of Manny Goldrich, is the fate of the hundreds of publicity photographs of musicians that line the store’s walls. Many of them are inscribed with personal notes to Manny, who died in 1968, and to his son Henry, who is seventy-six and retired.
Green Collars
An environmental eye-opening for aspiring welders.
Aspiring ironworkers in New York City must complete a three-year apprenticeship. They take classes two evenings a week and on occasional Saturdays, and they spend most of the third year practicing things like arc-welding single-V butt joints and slicing through inch-thick steel plates with oxyacetylene torches. One recent Wednesday evening, approximately two hundred of them arrived at the training center of Locals 40 and 361, on Thirty-sixth Street in Astoria, and encountered a scene of a type that has gladdened students’ hearts since the time of Thomas Edison: a classroom furnished with a screen and a movie projector. It was Earth Day, and in its observance the apprentices were going to be shown “The Greening of Southie,” a documentary about the construction of an environmentally friendly luxury apartment building in an old working-class neighborhood in Boston. Some of the third-year students were feeling nervous—the city’s licensing exam for welders was a week away, leaving them little time for last-minute practice in the center’s welding booths, which resemble oversized shower stalls—but few could have been as nervous as Ian Cheney, who had directed the film and agreed to introduce it. Making a movie about green construction is one thing; screening it for actual construction workers is another. Cheney wasn’t wearing steel-toed boots, a do-rag, or a split cowhide welding jacket, and his arms and neck were neither bulging with muscles nor heavily tattooed, and he had to warn the ironworkers that they might see people in the film wearing Boston Red Sox insignia. “If that’s shocking to you,” he said, “just close your eyes.”
End-Times 101
Graduate studies in the apocalypse.
It was a sunny spring day when Michael Taussig, a professor of anthropology at Columbia, wrapped up his graduate seminar on the apocalypse (official title: “Preëmptive Apocalyptic Thought: The Angel of History Reconsidered in Light of Climate Change, the War on Terror, and Financial Meltdown”). Meanwhile, the World Health Organization was warning of an imminent swine-flu pandemic, the gross domestic product shrivelled for the third quarter in a row, and Senator Arlen Specter became a Democrat.
Annals of Science
Don’t!
Why children who are patient prosper.
In the late nineteen-sixties, Carolyn Weisz, a four-year-old with long brown hair, was invited into a “game room” at the Bing Nursery School, on the campus of Stanford University. The room was little more than a large closet, containing a desk and a chair. Carolyn was asked to sit down in the chair and pick a treat from a tray of marshmallows, cookies, and pretzel sticks. Carolyn chose the marshmallow. Although she’s now forty-four, Carolyn still has a weakness for those air-puffed balls of corn syrup and gelatine. “I know I shouldn’t like them,” she says. “But they’re just so delicious!” A researcher then made Carolyn an offer: she could either eat one marshmallow right away or, if she was willing to wait while he stepped out for a few minutes, she could have two marshmallows when he returned. He said that if she rang a bell on the desk while he was away he would come running back, and she could eat one marshmallow but would forfeit the second. Then he left the room.
Letter from Malaysia
Eastern Promises
The best hope for reforming a corrupt state.
about opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and the ethnic and religious problems facing the country. Anwar Ibrahim has come back from six years in prison on corruption and sodomy charges to become the best hope for a more democratic, less corrupt Malaysia. This is the same Anwar Ibrahim who had once been at the heart of the Malaysian establishment. He was poised to succeed Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad until he launched an attack on “nepotism” and “cronyism” in his own party, the United Malays National Organization. The “cronies” included members of Mahathir’s family and in 1998, Anwar was removed from the cabinet and from UMNO. He was charged with corruption and sodomy and was beaten while awaiting trial. Mentions accusations that Anwar is a Jewish agent. Released from prison in 2004, Anwar eventually returned to Parliament in a landslide. In the next general election, possibly as soon as 2010, Anwar Ibrahim may well become Prime Minister.
Annals of Finance
The Death of Kings
Stories from the end of a financial era.
about the financial meltdown as seen from the offices of bankers, hedge-fund managers, analysts, and others in the financial sector. Most people may now recall a moment of clarity, an inkling of doom. A private-equity executive the writer talked to said that he sensed the jig was up when his cleaning woman took out a subprime loan to buy a house in Virginia. A big-wheel hedge-fund manager had his epiphany at a Goldman Sachs hedge-fund conference during which he found himself questioning the rapid accumulation of dynastic wealth by the people in the room. The final sign, the big wheel felt, was the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, which cost an estimated three hundred million dollars. A month later, Lehman Brothers collapsed. Some who foresaw the implosion underestimated its power and duration.
The World of Business
Drink Up
The man behind Two Buck Chuck.
about vintner Fred Franzia and Two Buck Chuck. Fred Franzia owns forty thousand acres of vineyards, more than anyone in the country; crushes three hundred and fifty thousand tons of grapes a year; and his company, Bronco, has annual revenue of more than five hundred million dollars. Recently, Franzia celebrated the sale of the four-hundred-millionth bottle of Charles Shaw, known as Two Buck Chuck, which is sold for $1.99 at Trader Joe’s. Franzia’s objective is to sell as much wine as possible—he sells twenty million cases a year now, making Bronco the fourth-largest winery in the U.S., and would like to reach a hundred million. He believes that no bottle of wine should cost more than ten dollars.
Fiction
“In The South”
by Salman Rushdie
Books
The case for William Hazlitt.
Review of Duncan Wu’s “William Hazlitt: The First Modern Man.”
Briefly Noted: “The Song Is You”; “Apologize, Apologize!”; “The Complete Game”; “The Last Witch of Langenburg.”
The Current Cinema
“Star Trek.”
by Anthony Lane
The Theatre
“Waiting for Godot.”
by John Lahr
Poems
“Delphiniums in a Window Box”
by Dean Young
“Lines on the Poet’s Turning Forty”
by Ian Frazier
“Bleecker Street”
by Philip Schultz
Critics’ Notebooks
St. Vincent, at Webster Hall.
by Sasha Frere-Jones
“Compass in Hand,” at MOMA.
by Andrea K. Scott
Mark Morris’s “Romeo and Juliet,” at the Rose Theatre.
by Joan Acocella
Tables for Two
Delicatessen
by Leo Carey
Pop Notes
The New York Dolls’ “’Cause I Sez So.”
by Ben Greenman
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People has published it’s 11 May 2009 issue. Featured in this issue are:
Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon share exclusive photos of their intimate seaside wedding in the Bahamas
Brad Pitt, a pregnant Angelina Jolie and their brood enjoy some family time on the beach in the south of France
New Orleans’s Neville Brothers play the Big Easy for the first time since Katrina
As she gets her life back on track, Britney Spears earns more visitation with her sons
Their White House quest ended, Elizabeth and John Edwards talk about the presidential race, health care and more
After surviving years of drug addiction, Robert Downey Jr. proves he’s one superstar in Iron Man
Rob Lowe’s legal woes continue as a second nanny files suit
All grown up, Christina Ricci roars into the multiplex in Speed Racer
After 17 years on the air, Montel Williams says goodbye to his talk show
Men prove that the job of bridesmaid isn’t just for women anymore
D.C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey hangs herself two weeks after being convicted of running a high-end prostitution ring
Hollywood A-listers hit the red carpet for the Metropolitan Museum’s annual Costume Institute Gala. Plus: a PEOPLE Exclusive! Giorgio Armani on making the dresses for the night’s big stars, including Julia Roberts and Katie Holmes
For Mother’s Day, Good Charlotte’s Joel and Benji Madden, Michael Bublé, Flavor Flav and other music stars pose with their No. 1 fans
Heroes Among Us
After a five-year search, Libba Phillips found her sister – and now gives hope to others seeking missing loved ones
Think you’ve got a lot going on in your head? Meet Jill Price, who remembers every single day of her life from the age of 14
Are plastic baby bottles safe? A new report raises concerns
American Idol’s Final Four – Syesha Mercado, David Cook, David Archuletand Jason Castro – reveal their secrets for surviving the competition
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Conde Naste has published the May 11 issue of The New Yorker magazine. Featured in this issue are articles on interrogating torture, the flu and the border, and what is it about the word “swine” ?
Interrogating Torture
How to account for the past.
by Philip Gourevitch
The Talk of the Town
Standstill
The flu below the border.
by Alma Guillermoprieto
Samela’s Shammash
Sammy Davis, Jr.,’s menorah for sale.
by Lizzie Widdicombe
By Any Other Name
What is it about the word “swine”?
by Lauren Collins
The Financial Page
Monsters, Inc.
How banks got big.
by James Surowiecki
Annals of Innovation
How David Beats Goliath
Secrets of highly effective underdogs.
by Malcolm Gladwell
Reflections
The Fifth Blade
Evolution and the razor.
by Adam Gopnik
Shouts & Murmors
Making Friends
by Amy Ozols
Onwards and Upward with the Arts
The Art Doctor
Conserving contemporary art.
by Rebecca Mead
Department of Education
The Instigator
L.A.’s charter-school crusader.
by Douglas McGray
Profiles
Brain Games
The Marco Polo of neuroscience.
by John Colapinto
The Reporter at Large
The Long Shot
Contemporary China finds its auteur.
by Evan Osnos
Fiction
“The Autobiography of J.G.B”
by J. G. Ballard
Books
Helen Gurley Brown, cosmopolitan.
by Judith Thurman
Briefly Noted: “How to Win a Cosmic War”; “The Parents We Mean to Be”; “Natural Elements”; “Out of My Skin.”
Gerard Manley Hopkins’s radical poetics.
by Adam Kirsch
The Theatre
Eugene O’Neill’s “Desire Under the Elms.”
by Hilton Als
Pop Music
The choral approach of Grizzly Bear.
by Sasha Frere-Jones
The Current Cinema
“X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” “Fighting,” “Tyson.”
by David Denby
Poems
“Galveston, 1961”
by Richard Wilbur
“Obscurity and Regret”
by C. D. Wright
“Hackers Can Sidejack Cookies”
by Heather McHugh
Critics’ Notebook
“Merchant of Venice,” at BAM.
by Hilton Als
“The Late Film,” at BAM.
by Anthony Lane
Mastodon, at the Fillmore New York.
by Sasha Frere-Jones
Tables for Two
Shang
by Andrea Thompson
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