Buyer beware, part 1

My neighbor came over today with a problem that I could not solve.

She is trying to decide what dietary supplement she should use. She clutched in her hand a sheet with lists of products that she was investigating. She was frustrated.

"This is a big story," she agitated. "Who knows what's good and what's not?"

Good question.

First of all, if one is considering taking any kind of supplement, one should do a lot of research, or talk to a dietitian, nutritionist or your doctor. There are plenty of all of those to be found. Whether or not they can be trusted is another post altogether.

Consider this statement on the front of an FDA website about dietary supplements:

FDA, as well as health professionals and their organizations, receive many inquiries each year from consumers seeking health-related information, especially about dietary supplements. Clearly, people choosing to supplement their diets with herbals, vitamins, minerals, or other substances want to know more about the products they choose so that they can make informed decisions about them. The choice to use a dietary supplement can be a wise decision that provides health benefits. However, under certain circumstances, these products may be unnecessary for good health or they may even create unexpected risks.

Second, one should consider that not everything on the Internet is necessarily accurate, or true. And because dietary supplements are not regulated by the FDA, you should be cautious about claims made by manufacturers of these supplements.

By law (DSHEA), the manufacturer is responsible for ensuring that its dietary supplement products are safe before they are marketed. Unlike drug products that must be proven safe and effective for their intended use before marketing, there are no provisions in the law for FDA to "approve" dietary supplements for safety or effectiveness before they reach the consumer. Also unlike drug products, manufacturers and distributors of dietary supplements are not currently required by law to record, investigate or forward to FDA any reports they receive of injuries or illnesses that may be related to the use of their products. Under DSHEA, once the product is marketed, FDA has the responsibility for showing that a dietary supplement is "unsafe," before it can take action to restrict the product's use or removal from the marketplace. (Source: Overview of Dietary Supplements, FDA)

Take for example this site, ConsumerLab.com. It sounds very impressive - but is it? I located an "About Us" button on the bottom of the page, which sent off alarm bells. Why is the button at the bottom of the page? I clicked the button and found this information, at the bottom of the page:

KEY MANAGEMENT:
Tod Cooperman, M.D., President Dr. Tod Cooperman is a noted researcher, writer, and speaker on consumer healthcare issues. Dr. Cooperman is also the Founder of PharmacyChecker.com (http://www.pharmacychecker.com/), an evaluator of Internet pharmacies, and CareData Reports, Inc., a leading independent evaluator of consumer satisfaction with managed care (now a division of J.D. Power and Associates). Dr. Cooperman is a graduate of the Boston University School of Medicine.

William R. Obermeyer, Ph.D., Vice President for Research Dr. William Obermeyer joined ConsumerLab.com from the U.S. FDA (Food and Drug Administration) where he was a Natural Products Chemist guiding research activities of various natural products and educating the public, academia and industry on the safety and proper manufacture and testing of dietary supplements. Dr. Obermeyer is an internationally recognized authority on pharmacognosy (the science of natural products) and serves on the Executive Board of the AOAC Technical Division for Reference Materials. Dr. Obermeyer received his Ph.D. from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science.

Lisa K. Sabin, Vice President for Business Development Lisa Sabin joined ConsumerLab.com from Prevention Magazine where she was an Account Executive working with healthcare and consumer products companies. Prior to that, she worked for Hearst Magazines, in the Brand Development Department, managing the merchandising of products under the names of its publications, such as Popular Mechanics, Cosmopolitan and Esquire. Ms. Sabin is a graduate of Rutgers University with a degree in Communications.

Elena Suzuki Yoo, CN, Japan Manager Elena Suzuki Yoo coordinates ConsumerLab.com's activities in the Japanese market. Ms. Yoo brings experience in international business and Japanese medical/nutritional writing and translation. Ms. Yoo holds a Certified Nutritionist degree from the American Health Science University in Colorado and a B.A. from Japan Women's University (Nihon Jyoshi Daigaku) in Tokyo.

OWNERSHIP, AFFILIATIONS, AND SOURCES OF REVENUE: ConsumerLab.com, LLC is a privately held company based in White Plains, New York. It is not affiliated with manufacturers of health and nutrition products. Revenues are derived from sales of online subscriptions, books, CL's Product Review Technical Reports, advertisements on its Web site, as well as Voluntary Certification Program fees, and license fees from both the re-publication of its proprietary information and the authorized use of the CL Seal of Approval.

So ... they really had nothing to hide. Some key words in there are Boston University School of Medicine, FDA, Prevention Magazine, and nutritionist.

Is this enough for you to become a member? I would find an alternate citation confirming that all this information is accurate, from at least one other reputable source, but that's me.

The point is, don't take anything at face value. More to come ...

The 'granite ceiling'

Women in New Hampshire comprise 47 percent of the workforce, 61 percent of recent college graduates, and just over half of the state’s managers and professionals, but represent a minority of those serving on governing boards and in executive positions, says a January report from the New Hampshire Women's Policy Institute.

Here are some other interesting facts from the report:

• Women represent 9 percent of directors of publicly held corporations, 21 percent of
financial institution directors, and 26 percent of hospital trustees in New Hampshire.

• Women in New Hampshire comprise 80 percent of the workforce in banking and in
hospitals, and about one-quarter of senior executives and one in five CEOs. Representation in financial institutions has increased in recent years, particularly among credit unions.

• National research suggests having three or more women on a board maximizes
contributions to governance. Most of the state’s hospitals and half of the credit unions had this level of representation; the majority of banks, trust companies, and public companies did not.

• Women represent the majority of college graduates in a shrinking pool of younger workers.

• Nationally, women are responsible for 83 percent of consumer purchasing, including 89 percent of new bank accounts and 80 percent of healthcare decisions.

Do you have an interesting story to share about breaking the "granite ceiling?" If so, write to the publisher at sjcald@comcast.net.

Target, focus, divert

I just had to comment on this story, seeing as how I'm as clueless as writer Martha Beck purports to be in this story on CNN.com (but originating on Oprah.com).

It's about flirting! Something I have never mastered.

I have a friend who lives across the street She tosses her hair, she gazes into men's eyes as if they are not only the most important man in the room, but in the whole Universe; she touches them occasionally on their forearm.

She gets a lot of notice. It goes something akin to what Beck writes:

We'd been waiting 30 minutes for someone to take our order in a busy Mexican restaurant when my friend Cathy decided to take extreme measures.

"Watch this," she whispered. Then she tugged the clip from her hair, opened a collar button, and tossed her head like a frolicking foal. Almost magically, she went from being simply beautiful to what is referred to in the vernacular as "like, totally hot."

Three waiters rushed our table like linebackers. Cathy fluttered her lashes at one, cooing, "Hon, could we order now?" It was a virtuoso performance of attraction in action.

It helps if the hair on the head is long and blonde.

Over to the opposite side of the spectrum, also from Beck:

As "Psychology Today's" contributor Joann Ellison Rodgers described the flirtation ritual: "Women smiled, gazed, swayed, giggled, licked their lips and aided and abetted by the wearing of high heels; they swayed their backs, forcing their buttocks to tilt out and up and their chests to thrust forward."

In researching this article, I recently tried enacting these behaviors in a local Starbucks. Sure enough, I attracted immediate male attention: An elderly gentleman asked me if I needed medical help. The answer was yes. I think I ruptured something.

Now this I can relate to! I do, and always have, hunched over slightly to distract attention away from my ... er ... huge tracts of land (big tits). I don't even realize I'm doing it - until my shoulders start aching and I have to go get a massage - a fine tool for stopping.

I have not stopped since I developed big tits (about fifth grade); why change now?

OK, well Beck gives three steps to attracting attention from whoever it is you want attention.

If you use the three steps above in quick succession, you'll become an attention magnet. It's like a trick move in martial arts: Target your person of interest, focus entirely on them, then abruptly divert your attention. Pow, pow, pow!

For the kiddies

A few weeks ago now, my friend Jennifer Karin Sidford gave me a copy of her new children's book. It looked like a winner then, and it looks like a winner now that it's out in the shops.

The DreamStarter Book contains 50 pages of story beginnings ... as in, Jennifer starts the story and the kids, with their parents, with whoever or alone, figure out where it goes from there.

In the first beginning, for example, a little boy looks in the mirror while brushing his teeth and sees a key inside the mirror. He reaches for the key, grabs the key and ... whee! You're off! (Her lead up is more expansive and literary than this, of course.)

All of the beginnings childhood imaginings and 'fears' ... castles, wolves, pirates, unicorns, dragons, Ninjas. The Wolves of Scotland brought back memories of a book I read as a young adult, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, so when I read it, I actually started concocting a storyline to finish the story.

I think it's a great way to stimulate a child's imagination and maybe stimulate some future writers, as well as obviously interacting with your child(ren) in a meaningful way.

This is Jennifer's third published work.

The DreamStarter Book Cold Tree Press Softcover; 63 pages (including ideas on how to use the book for activity time and as a game) $12.95

She's happily married?

We don't know what to think about this story on CNN.com, but culled from Oprah.com.

I contemplate divorce every day. It tugs on my sleeve each morning when my husband, Will, greets me in his chipper, smug morning-person voice, because after 16 years of waking up together, he still hasn't quite pieced out that I'm not viable before 10 a.m.

If you contemplate divorce every day, should you not go ahead and get one? Or is the author, Ellen Tien, being satirical, as suggested in the accompanying comments?

We had a hard time slogging through the whole piece, so we picked out some salient points for your consumption.

To be sure, there will be throngs of angry women who will decry me for plunging a stake into the heart of holy matrimony. "My husband is my lifeline," I've heard said (and that's bad news for the aorta). "My husband and I never fight" is another marital chestnut -- again, bad news (not to mention a big fat lie), since according to the experts, the strongest relationships are the ones in which people can continually agree to disagree. "My husband is my best friend," others will aver.

No. Your husband is not your best friend. Your best friend is your best friend. If your husband were your best friend, what would that make your best friend -- the dog? When a woman tells me that her husband is her best friend, what I hear is: I don't really have any friends.

Not entirely sure we go along with this statement. Our husbands are our best friends. We tell them everything - and we don't compete with them over whose outfit looks the best today.

Having choices is a cornerstone of strength: Choosers won't be beggars. "Thinking about divorce is kind of like living in New York City with its museums and theater and culture," a doctor friend of mine said. "You may never actually go to any of these places, but for some reason, just the idea that you could if you wanted to makes you feel better."

Maybe one day, marriage -- like the human appendix, male nipples, or your pinky toes -- will become a vestigial structure that will, in a millennium or two, be obsolete. Our great-great-great-grandchildren's grandchildren will ask each other in passing, "Remember marriage? What was its function again? Was it that maladaptive organ that intermittently produced gastrointestinal antigens and sometimes got so inflamed that it painfully erupted?"

Yes. Yes it was.

Until that day of obsolescence, we can confront the dilemma and consider the choice a privilege. Once upon a time is the stuff of fairy tales. As for happily ever after -- see appendix.

Well, perhaps one day the institution of marriage will be obsolete. But we like to think of a couple we met recently, 61 years together, who still say "I love you" to one another every day.

What do you think?

A masseuse for newborns?

Check out this post, "Tao of Celebrities," on Guidespot.com for some "thrilling" tidbits about celebs and how they live.

The author is Mary Swenson of Newburyport.

Weddings: United on the molecular level

This is a great wedding story from the New York Times.

The couple profiled here met in 2005, on an (unspecified) online dating service. They were married on Aug. 8.

Last Hanukkah, they bought a microscope and traveled to Connecticut just to get pond scum samples to magnify.

Obviously, they are both into science. Translate "pond scum" into "baseball," or whatever you're into, and read on.

At the end of their first date, Mr. Wolkstein took her hand as she got into a cab and asked when he could see her again. Ms. Blitzer flashed a smile and replied, “A.S.A.P.” — a phrase she then repeated after each of their next nine dates.

These people are pretty high society, but don't be put off if you are not.

In May 2007, Mr. Wolkstein asked Ms. Blitzer to get gussied up for a business brunch for six. When no one else showed up, Mr. Wolkstein admitted it was a setup. Switching to the table where they first met, he dropped on one knee and asked her to marry him.
Her reply?: “A.S.A.P.”

It's a nice story, and something like it could happen to us all (if it hasn't already).

Got a great story about how your romance progressed, or about your wedding? Send it to us!

(We promise not to publish a photo of you that emphasizes the see-through nature of your wedding gown!)

Cashing in on Canadians

From this report on WMUR.com, it seems that Canada is now supplying at least an equal number of visitors to New Hampshire vacation spots as Americans (although technically, Canadias are Americans, in that they live on the same continent).

While the bad economy has kept many Americans at home, businesses said it helped bring more visitors from the north.

"Oh, yeah. More than half are from Canada," said Ruxandra Iomscu of T-Shirt City.

From Canadian flags on the hotels to Canadian license plates in the parking lot, it's hard to miss just how many people have come from north of the border. Olivier Fourier, of Quebec, said he drove down for the weekend for a cheap vacation.

"I thought it was really cheap, and there are no taxes here, and all is cheaper than where we come from," Fourier said.

One U.S. dollar is worth about $1.05 Canadian, up significantly over past summers.

So while people in the states are actually looking for the ultimate "staycation" adventure, Canadians are doing the same.

Interesting how these words get infused into our lexicon. Staycation is the new term for people taking vacations close to home due to high gas prices and other economic factors.

The Greater Newburyport Chamber of Commerce recently ported that 49% of visitors to the city were from Massachusetts, while 19% were from other nearby states, mostly New Hampshire.

Around 11% of the visitors logged at the Chamber's information booth were from foreign countries, and of that most were from Canada.

The message in all this? People are tripping down here for a weekend out in tax-free New Hampshire - and Canada has newspapers and other marketing venues.

It's not too late to be trendy in 2008

There is (at least one) company that tracks color trends several years ahead. I want that job!

In December 2007, Color Marketing Group, the leading international association of color design professionals, announced that genuine concern for the environment remains the strongest influence on the colors we’ll see and buy next year.

"Our members specify color for everything from paint and furniture to cars and carpets," said Jaime Stephens, executive director of CMG. "They track trends several years ahead, and they’ve rarely been wrong in more than 43 years."

So - are you all looking "green?" It seems that people want things they wear, and use, to look "green," no matter what color they are.

In 2008, looking stylish means looking natural. Materials will look hand-made, un-dyed and unbleached. Products will look more like what they're actually made of, with lots of texture and all the natural imperfections proudly showing through. Off-whites, sandy and linen-y colors, rock and soil colors, brownish-greens – the colors of nature are seriously fashionable now.

Does that mean all my pink tops are seriously unfashionable?

I've never been one to wear a lot navy blue - blue being the "trust me" color - but this year, while buying your fall attired, think deep, vibrant navy so dark you'll swear it's black.

So ... why not just wear black? Oh well, onwards.

Metallics are in, but they should be coppery, or bronze-y. Guess that DKNY Jeans shirt I just bought at TJMaxx with (disappearing) metallic lettering and the Life is Good rosy pink one were right on target (no pun intended).

I love that DKNY shirt, by the way. It's my new favorite garment. As soon as it comes down off the line, it's going on my body.

Ah, well, we get to colors that are good for the fall - Moroccan reds, glowing oranges accented by rosy pinks (Hey! Pink!), sunny golden yellows and lots of turquoise.

Color Marketing Group forecasts color trends up to three years into the future for its members, many of whom must plan ahead for product, space and materials introductions.

Good thing they had thick skins

Think things are bad in presidential campaigns these days?

According to this story by biographer Kerwin Swint on CNN.com, negative campaigning began with John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

Things got ugly fast. Jefferson's camp accused President Adams of having a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman."

In return, Adams' men called Vice President Jefferson "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father."

As the slurs piled on, Adams was labeled a fool, a hypocrite, a criminal, and a tyrant, while Jefferson was branded a weakling, an atheist, a libertine, and a coward.

Even Martha Washington succumbed to the propaganda, telling a clergyman that Jefferson was "one of the most detestable of mankind."

Human nature hasn't changed much, has it? Or perhaps it is, and was, just politics - Adams and Jefferson resumed their previous friendship (by letter) until both their deaths, which occurred on the same day - July 4, 1826.

Fortunately for Adams, he didn't live long enough to see his son go down in flames (in that we lost his bid for re-election as president) in 1828.

The slurs flew back and forth, with John Quincy Adams being labeled a pimp, and Andrew Jackson's wife getting called a slut.

One paper, the story continues, reported that Andrew Jackson's mother was a "common prostitute."

Social networking is linked to employee retention

Do you have a profile on LinkedIn? Do you know what LinkedIn is?

How about MySpace, Facebook, Twitter or Flickr?

Blogger Ari Herzog examines employers blocking employee access to social networking tools and the repercussions of same.

Great read.