Town Talk
Snap! Another loaf bites the dust. Baltimore designer Marybeth Shaw witnessed a little too much bread carnage in Paris in 1992. While the savvy French were already into reusing their totes, or “sacs,” Shaw noticed that these green grocery shoppers had to snap their crusty baguettes in half in order to get them home. Two decades and a slew of design awards later, Shaw has crafted the solution: a stylish, roomy, reusable tote that safely chauffeurs groceries or on-the-go items, plus an easy, snap-on quiver for carrying a newspaper, flowers, or baguette! Each Sac à Baguette is made of canvas cotton and leather, with color schemes inspired by the lively cities of New York (black with a cobalt blue lining), San Francisco (camel and chocolate with a bright yellow lining), and Rotterdam (gray and espresso with a bright orange lining). Not tempted yet? Consider the tote’s zip-out liner and the promise of more accessories to launch in the future. A must-have for the on-the-go city girl. Sac à Baguette is available at The Store Limited in Baltimore or at sacabaguette.com.
Written especially for Baltimore Style Magazine by Zoe Hickerson
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 07/08/10 at 01:14 PM
In our July/August issue, we may have been a little too jazzed up (did we mention there’ll be wine?) when we announced that the Baltimore Museum of Art’s upcoming Jazz in the Sculpture Garden concert series was free. These ticketed events will be happening on select Saturdays in July and August and will feature such artists as Auguste Rodin and Alexander Calder. Meanwhile, let your ears be tickled by the sounds of Steven Kroon, Carl Grubbs, and others. Contact the museum for ticketing information. 443-573-1700. http://www.artbma.org
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 06/22/10 at 04:55 PM
A Boom With a View? You bet.
Where’s the best rooftop view, closest to the White House, for the perfect July 4th fireworks display for America’s 234th birthday? The P.O.V. Roof Terrace and Lounge on top of the W Hotel. While those Roman Candles are flashing red, white and blue, The Honey Brothers will be performing their swank and fun (and very intelligent) ukulele folk-indie band (think R.E.M., Rock Lobster and Pink Martini meet Einstein and Ukes!). When the band takes a break, popular DJ, Sky Nellor, will be pick up with her creative, sexy spinning (hey, if she’s good enough to spin for Bill Clinton, Sports Illustrated, and Elle Magazine, she’s going to be great for us).
Specially crafted cocktails and hors d’oeuvres cooked up by Jean-Georges Vongerichten will be flowing as freely as the music.
The Boom with a View package, which includes a Wonderful Room as well as tickets for two for the rooftop celebration, are available for $619 and can be purchased by calling 1-877-WHOTELS or visiting Boom With A View. Beginning Monday, June 14, individual tickets for the evening (without Wonderful Room) will be sold for $200 per ticket by calling 202.661.2478.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 06/17/10 at 12:24 PM
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel at Tysons Corner might not be the classiest Ritz in the country, but the location is shopping-amazing. It’s attached to Tysons Corner Center Mall, where Lacoste, Anthropologie, Juicy Couture, L’Occitane, Stuart Weitzman, De Beers, Betsey Johnson, Abercrombie & Fitch, Forever 21, J. Jill, Kenneth Cole, West Elm, BCBGMacaZria meet Saks Fifth Avenue, Lebanese Taverna, See’s Candy and more meet up just to keep us, the shoppers, happy!
For after shopping, the spa is indulgence squared. Take a dive in the saline pool (no chemicals!), and then check in for a 50 minute Reiki Energy Healing, Self-heating Mud massage—or really hit the pampering hard with the Ultimate Day of Beauty, which is 300 minutes of a Therapeutic Massage, a European Facial, a gourmet Spa luncheon, a Deluxe Manicure with Paraffin and Deluxe Pedicure with Paraffin. Hello! This is called service.
Last but not least, the food here is excellent, as is the bar (very comfortable and welcoming). The name of the restaurant is unfortunate - ENTYSE—but don’t let that throw you. The farm-to-table approach of cooking doesn’t let down—highly recommended, the Organic Amish Chicken with Potatoes Puree, Glazed Vegetables and Chicken Jus—and is accompanied by picks chosen by the very charismatic Sommelier Vincent Feraud.
If you’re looking for the perfect Mother’s Day getaway, look no further than this Ritz property.
The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner
http://www.ritzcarlton.com
1700 Tysons Boulevard
McLean, VA 22102
Hotel (703) 506-4300
Spa (703) 506-2694
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/25/10 at 02:12 PM
So who, in Baltimore, offers private late model, luxury sedan service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with experienced, business-attired drivers, for a flat rate fare, with airport “meet and greet” services (if so requested), and airport transfers, point-to-point services, event transportation, etc., etc., etc.? ExecuCar. For those who travel a lot, you’ve probably used the ExecuCar services already, as they’re found in D.C., N.Y.C., San Francisco, L.A., and 10 other major business cities. Having ExecuCar in our city comes not a moment too soon; with the new Hotel Monaco downtown we needed to bump up our luxury travel. We needed something more comfortable than a taxicab and more cost-effective than a limousine. This is just another way that Baltimore is turning away from its Smalltimore reputation.
Book your ExecuCar reservation online, or call (800) 410-4444
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/22/10 at 07:59 PM
The lobby is seeped in history-meets-society. The halls smell like a new pack of cards. The rooms are as distinguished as Brioni suits. Here, smack on the cusp of the White House lawn (one long block away), is the historical, Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, Beaux-Arts architectural wonder—the luxury 4-star Willard Hotel.
If you’re looking for the best hotel to hit the snooze button on early in the morning to take advantage of the Smithsonian Museums, the Willard is the place to bed down. And if you are a museum fanatic, you really will want to stay close, as the Smithsonian consists of not one museum, but 19 museums, 9 research centers and over 140 affiliate museums around the world. Lucky for the D.C. traveler, you only have to cover the first 19.
The hotel offers major indulgence, with all the basics of a luxury hotel (huge rooms, marble bathrooms, heavy wooden furniture, flat screen TVs, wired-to-the-hilt everything, and then some). And the 17 pieces of equipment (including treadmills, cycles and weight training) in the Fitness room, followed by a spa treatment (or two or three), will help you pump up or wind down for or from the museums.
WHY STAY? This is the real Washington, D.C., where all the Presidents have been staying or eating almost since the day it opened in 1818. Calvin Coollidge lived here; Ulysees S. Grant took his afternoon cigar and brandy here; Abraham Lincoln was smoked in pre-inauguration by famed detective Allan Pinkerton to keep him safe from a possible assassination; and more pedestrian celebrities joined, among them, Gypsy Rose Lee, Emily Dickinson, P.T. Barnum, Houdini, Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, P.T. Barnum and more. Perhaps the most amazing celebrity incident came when, in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his “I Have a Dream.”
WHERE TO EAT?
Café du Parc is an amazingly authentic French bistro (they’re quite rare in the States, actually), where most D.C. natives go for their puff pastries and morning breakfast meetings. And even though the Occidental Grill and Seafood restaurant might overpower it with history (and photos to back up that history), the food at Café du Parc is perfect for any meal… and so easily accessible from the guest rooms or off the street (plus, no stuffy suits and ties required). Highly recommended is the pate plate.
WHAT TO DO IN-HOTEL?
The Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa at the Willard offers 80 minute Swedish Massages that make leaving the hotel to visit the D.C. museums and monuments almost seem second in priority. Why leave to go anywhere when you can be this indulged.
The Willard Washington Interncontinental Hotel
1401 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W.
Washington, D.C., 2004
1-877-270-1390
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/18/10 at 07:44 PM
Mickey and Minnie have come back to the 1st Mariner Arena, bringing with them the usual Disney suspects: Donald Duck, Goofy, Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket, Timon, Pumba, Nemo, Buzz Lightyear, all the princesses and more.
This year the choreography is particularly spectacular, as if the cast and crew took some sort of magic fairy dust, because there’s not a dull step. The lighting crew deserves a special round of applause, as they backdrop and forefront the skaters, making them appear as if they’re skating inside a rainbow.
Maybe no other town loves to bring its kids to a Disney show as much as Charm City. This is a Baltimorean’s ritual. So get your tickets fast!
WHAT:
Disney On Ice—100 Years Of Magic
WHERE:
1st Mariner Arena, Baltimore
WHEN:
February 3-7
TICKETS:
Ticketmaster.com
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/03/10 at 07:33 PM
People who live in Baltimore often think it’s a big hassle to go the 45 miles to D.C. because of the traffic. They’d be right. It kind of is. But there are alternatives. On the weekdays, the MARC train is easily accessible and very inexpensive (don’t even think about taking an Amtrak unless you want to spend an extra $20 or so for no real reason). The weekends, Amtrak is the only way to get back and forth from Baltimore to D.C. without a car. But there’s even an alternative for that. Drive on in to the New Carrollton metro station, park and take the metro into wherever you want to go. The worst part of driving to D.C. is driving IN D.C., so ditch the car early and enjoy the benefits of public transportation.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/01/10 at 11:50 AM
Some of the tastiest food in Virginia can be found at the Tides Inn — which also happens to be Travel and Leisure’s number one choice for Best Resort in Virginia (and the only Virginia resort mentioned in their Top 100 issue last year). The evidence for the reason of the accolades can be found, first and foremost, in the savory fare of executive chef T.V. Flynn.
The 50 year old inn sits along the shores of the Rappahannock River. The river — a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay — snakes along the southside of The Northen Neck of Virginia (on the northside, flows the Potomac) — just three hours from Baltimore — and lucky visitors can dine on Flynn’s grilled oysters, while they overlook the water and wait for the tasty Seared Sesame-Encrusted Tuna. The tuna is so fresh (the one rule at the Tides is that nothing frozen is ever cooked here) that those without a high marine biology I.Q.‘s, might swear it had just been caught off the dock. There’s something exquisite in the way Flynn pulls together the crunchy vegetables and seared outer part of the fish, blends it with the sushi-grade rare meat inside, and then serves it on top of black, chewy, seasoned wild-rice. It’s one of those dishes that, once eaten, becomes a daily crave. A conundrum! How can a diner choose between a new favorite and all the other delicious sounding food served up from such a focused, epicurean menu? One can’t, which is why the Tides often gets people coming in for longer weekends. There’s just to much to do here — and too much food to eat — to leave early.
It’s very impressive to have a chef of such standing found in a place where a traffic jam is a “Combine followed by three cars,” says George Beckett, the Tides’ official tour guide (and co-owner of the Northern Neck Heritage Tour group — nnht.com). The year round population skinnies in at around 50K, yet — thanks partially to the reputation the Tides has given the island, and partly to the island itself — high season tops out at 100k (leaving a much longer line of cars behind those Combines).
Bicycles, boats, box lunches and babysitting services queue up nicely on the to-do list for a long weekend getaway splurge here. As do croquet, nature trails and golf (the par 72 Golden Eagle Golf Club, designed by George Cobb, has beauty, wild life and a lot of water—requiring at least two different tee times to feel duffer-satisfied). And for oenophiles — not the ones who lip off vintages at parties as fast as they lap up the freebie canapes, but those who actually know how to admire legs — the vineyards around the Tides Inn are worth the exploration; which is where Beckett comes in — not only is he familiar with each vineyard, his grasp of the area’s history — along with his humorous vernacular — makes the trip a valuable frolic.
There are nine vineyards on the Northern Neck, with more purportedly on the way. The white wines tend to rule the day (for those who love a good Bordeaux, the reds just aren’t quite strong enough yet, but they’re getting there). Highly recommended are the Athena Vineyards and Winery (athenavineyards.com), the Vault Field Vineyards (vaultfield.com), the Ingleside Vineyards (inglesidevineyards.com), and, most impressive of all, the White Fences Vineyard (whitefencesvineyard.com) — it being the closest to the Tides. Nestled in front of this particular vineyard are two gigantic corkscrew sculptures marking the entrance. (A cute off-side story. The town of Irvington doesn’t allow large signs, so Bill Westbrook, the owner, had two monuments made instead, i.e., the corkscrews.) A wine tasting with a food pairing (by genius chef, Anne Kirkmyer) here is the only reason to be pulled away from Flynn’s cooking — once.
Flynn is just that good.
The 125’ “boats” (they don’t take up the entire view of the river) and their International guests stop in from all over the world to stay and eat at the Tides. The mood here is always set for taking it easy and taking it in—it, being the sweet views and Flynn’s Tasmanian Salmon, grilled with a perfect, perfect, perfect honey glaze, and his Filet Mignon, served with cheddar grits and snappy green beans, which almost threaten to make a diner forgo the signature She-Crab soup, chock full of soft-white fresh local crab. But, it’s a simple matter — a bowl is required.
The rooms, decorated in a calming British Colonial theme (dark, enormous wooden furniture and rice beds, against creamy colored walls) seem more luxury than “family beach week,” and the big soaking tub seem more appropriate for a glass of Virginia wine than rubber duckies and toddlers. But don’t think for a minute that children don’t belong here. This is one of those destination resorts that magically blend families and couples, without either one’s ambiance feeling interrupted.
A family should always start their stay by walking the boardwalk from the main part of the inn to the pool — and proceed from there to join the CrabNet Kids (ages 4-12), where they can go crabbing, learn to babysit an oyster bed, build sandcastles and do arts and crafts. Suffice to say, the kids spend as much time outside as possible, with counselors there at all times (parents are invited to stay and interact with the kids, or go off and play by themselves. For girlfriend getaways, the spa beckons, and the cute little shops in the town of Irvington are within walking distance from the inn; they run the gamut from dressy clothing boutiques, to southern garb, to souvenir tee-shirts, all the way to needlework and yarn shops. Plus, the hotel also has a roomy gift shop with everything from gorgeous handmade knits, to books, to Little MissMatched socks and more. For couples, the spa really does become the focus (it’s no surprise that the resort is becoming a major wedding destination) — the hot stone massage for two (using heated basalt river rocks and VOYA organics aromatherapeutic products), followed by a Chesapeake Seaweed Leaf Wrap, is a couple’s blessing.
Family, friend or simply favorite kisser, do take a dining companion or two for dinner in the Chesapeake Club restaurant. And for a treat, send a request into the kitchen, asking Flynn to make your dining decisions, then sit back and enjoy everything. Expect nothing short of crabcakes that can even give Baltimore a run for its money, and some fresh fruit straight from the chef’s garden to make the trip back to Charm City seem so much closer — because, after all, you will be coming back soon.
The Tides Inn
480 King Carter Drive Irvington, Va.22480-0480
Hotel Direct: 804-438-5000 Toll free: 800-843-3746
tidesinn.com
Weekends in October will once again bring together friends and fine wine in Virginia’s Northern Neck. The Women Wild About Wine Weekends at the Tides Inn returns in time for October’s wine harvest and Virginia’s wildly popular wine month.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/04/09 at 12:41 AM
Not long ago I was visiting a new yogurt shop in Fells Point, Mr. Yogato (at 35 calories a cold, yummy serving), and failed to notice a new, neighboring store, Green Rider. However, my colleague, Laura Wexler, came by my desk the next day to tell me her husband had become quite excited over the idea of purchasing one of the new Low-Speed Electric Vehicles (LEVs) that were sold there.
What the heck was I going to do with a, um, scooter? That was my first thought. The second reaction came from our eleven year old daughter, when I told her how “green” the scooters were supposed to be. She went into paroxysms. “No, Mommy, no! You can never get a motorcycle!” After having told her horror stories about drugs, alcohol and motorcycles, I was glad to see that at least one of the warnings had stuck. “Calm down. I would never get on a motorcycle, Jenkins.”
Three months later I found we were in need of another car, so we did what most people would do—we hit the car dealerships. Only—one thing kept gnawing at me. Did we really need a second car, when, for the most part, I’d only be using it to get to the Light Rail? I’m a big fan of the Baltimore Light Rail, because I’m a huge proponent for working on a better environment (and saving money… and not being stuck in traffic jams… and having an extra 20 minutes to read without everyone wanting something from me… etc.).
So, after giving it much thought, we headed down this Saturday to have brunch at Kali’s Mezze on 1606 Thames St. (they have the most delicious omelets in town—and at an exquisite cost), and for some Mr. Yogato yogurt. Then we headed in to purchase a Green Rider Motorino Electric Scooter.
The pros:
- no gas (saving me at least $10,000 a year!)
- no insurance (another big, monthly savings)
- no license registration (although you have to have a driver’s license to drive one)
- no tags or inspection (hello!)
- no parking costs (they can park on a sidewalk—just like a bike)
- can be driven on a non-highway road, just like a car
- a 10% tax credit
- the costs is between $2000 and $2300 (or approx. $125 a month for 2 years)
- not at all noisy (thereby cutting down on noise pollution)
- range of about 30 miles on single battery & 50+ miles with duel battery
- they’re cool as heck! (We bought a yellow and black XPh)
The cons—not many:
- highest speed is 30 miles an hour (average off-highway speeds)
- this isn’t Europe, e.g., less people on motor scooters means less car drivers are on the lookout
The extras:
- you will need to pony up for a helmet or two (in case you have a rider)
- you will need a chain lock
- you’ll probably want a tarp to put over it for rainy days
- you’ll most likely want an extra little lock box to hold other items than your helmet
- i.e., do factor in another $200 bucks, give or take, to the price to cover the above.
For those who want to try before they buy, owner, Ray Carrier rents the LEVs ($25 for two hours; $10 each additional hour; or $50 for the day). He also sells Pedego Electric and Electric folding bikes (called “umbrella” bikes).
It only took a few minutes for us to make the decision to purchase our new Green Rider scooter. It might take a few months to make sure our daughter understands the difference between getting on a motorcycle that can hit the highway, hard, versus a scooter that’s used for environmental purposes. Yes, there are still danger issues, but we’ll teach her these important facts about our electric scooter: we can’t go over 30 miles an hour; we are faithful helmet wearers; we don’t plan on going on any big roads; we’ll watch all driveways and intersections—as well, as the front tires of the cars in front of us—at all times. In other words, we’ll make safety our priority—as it should be when driving anything motorized. Plus, we’ll save the big rides for the Light Rail.
Green Rider
714 S. Broadway St.
(410) 522-5857
GreenRiderUSA.com.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 09/08/09 at 10:16 AM
One of the factors in our decision to move to Baltimore was the weather. Baltimore weather is really quite perfect if you enjoy changing seasons—which I do. After being loaded down with a tropical 6 months of South Carolina heat, the summers here are tempered loveliness; after enjoying 6 months of who-knows-what-weather-the-day-will-bring in Paris, the consistency of all the seasons here are a relief. Baltimore has excellent hard rains, blazing sunshine-y days, exquisitely fresh and colorful Autumns, and just enough snow to build a couple of snowmen and snuggle with a loved one over steaming mugs of hot cocoa. Life here really is good.
Style devoted an entire issue on the question “Baltimore: North or South?” a few years back, trying to touch on whether Baltimoreans thought they were southerners or northerners—with the final answer being somewhat split down the middle. But having grown up in Manhattan, where my father lived, and SC, where my mother lived, I’ve not been able to pinpoint either the south or the north into the Baltimore population. Baltimoreans are simply that—Baltimoreans. Trying to put my finger on what, exactly, being a Baltimorean means, eludes me as much as someone asking me who our daughter looks more like: her father or mother. She doesn’t look like either of us—she has a bit of this and that from both of us, but she, plain and simply, looks like herself.
I am reminded of a quote from Colette: “You do not notice changes in what is always before you.” Perhaps because I am new to this town, I’m able to enjoy these changes more than most people who born and raised here. During the next few weeks, Summer will segue into Fall, and our daughter will go from being an elementary school kid into a middle schooler. These changes fairly hum and vibrate in the air around me, and as corny as this sounds, I just can’t imagine a better place to be than right here—in Baltimore—right now.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/26/09 at 11:24 AM
All this media blab about Swine Flu is, for the most part, just that… media blab. Right now that is. Make no mistake. Having the flu is no piece of cake no matter when you get it. In fact, I’ve just come out of a three-week stint of flu (possibly swine, possibly seasonal), with a heavy dose of pneumonia thrown in for good measure, and I can cold guarantee that I don’t want to go that route again. Unfortunately, the time might soon be upon us when we will have to be more diligent than we’ve been. And, to be honest, I’m not sure that many of us have been very diligent.
Not to name names, but I’ve met quite a few parents recently who’ve had children that were infected with the flu, and yet they let the kids out of the house to go to camp, gymnastics, birthday parties, the like. “Why?” I’d ask, bewildered. “She has a fever.” The reply, “The fever is under 100 degrees. It’s no biggee. I’ve given her Tylenol. She’ll be fine.” Um. Right. She might be fine. But come on. What about those of us with asthma? We really don’t do fine with the flu. Letting someone out in public who has been infected with the flu can have serious consequences.
It never occurred to me that I had asthma. I’ve always thought my cough was a nervous cough. I didn’t have allergies. I didn’t smoke. I took in a lot of fresh air. I’m basically a good person, etc. But a couple months ago I caught yet another cold that dragged on well beyond the one month mark. Finally my family said, “Enough of this hacking. Go to the doctor before one of your lungs flies out and hits one of us on the head!”
When it comes to going to the doctor, I’m like a man. I’d just as soon my watch-cha-ma-call-it fall off before I step foot in a physician’s office. Nothing against doctors. I’m just not a fan of taking medicine. Plus, I hate waiting around.
Enter Dr. Albert Digerolamo. Dr. D. to his patients. He came in to the examining room, shook my hand, and proceeded to spend a good amount of time with me, after which he asked if I’d ever been diagnosed with asthma. “Nope,” I said, with a wracking cough, proud to be so healthy. To make a long story short, I walked out of there with prescriptions to combat an asthma that I was sure I did not have, promising myself to never ever go back to this Dr. D. guy again. My friend, who is a nurse, said, “Give him a chance. I meet doctors all the time. He’s great. He knows what he’s talking about. Give the medicine a try. Just trust him on this one.”
One horrid cold, one horrible flu and one debilitating case of pneumonia later, I can honestly say that Dr. D. probably saved my life. Had I not been on the steroid inhalers early to get my lungs in better shape, I’m fairly certain my body would have closed up shop once that flu hit. As it was, I ended up in the hospital, gasping for air. But at least I was breathing. Had Dr. D. not put me on inhalation therapy… well, I just have to wonder.
Now, I’m not suggesting that we trust anything a physician tells us. I’m a huge patient advocate. My hard and firm rule about going to any doctor is the following: make a list of every question you have, and then make sure that you don’t leave the house without adding five more questions to that list. We must take responsibility for our lives. To ask a doctor to be solely responsible for our well-being is neither fair to the physician nor to ourselves.
Which is another why I’m a Dr. D. aficionado; his patience with me in answering all my questions, allows me to be a better patient.
I liked him so much that I set up an appointment for my ten year old daughter. He was fantastic with her. He sat her down, looked her square in the face and went over everything a good, responsible adult should go over with a kid approaching the teen years. Did we have firearms in the house? Did she sit in the backseat of the car at all times? Did she use the Internet? If someone approached her that she didn’t know,” etc. Now, I drill these types of things into my kid until she’s so bored her eyes roll into the back of her head. But, believe it or not, many parents just don’t. Many parents—although loving—can do stupid things, such as forget to talk to their kids about important things… or let them go out in public with the flu.
Which brings me full circle to where I started with this article. Did I really have the swine flu? No clue. By the time the flu did infect me, the CDC had stopped recommending the H1N1 diagnostic test. Hospitals only take nasal swabs, and those offer anywhere between a 40%-69% false negative when it comes to detecting the H1N1 flu. But had I had the swine flu, it still might not give me immunity for the next round of H1N1 that’s expected to hit soon. It’s highly possible that the strain will have mutated into something really strange and new and horrible by then. So here’s a little advice. Come the end of August, start really paying attention to this stuff. Teach your kids how to wash their hands, often, while singing Happy Birthday twice. Work with your nail biters to get them to kick that habit (read: How To Break The Fingernail Biting Habit). If for heaven’s sakes, if your kid has a fever, keep them home. Don’t let Tylenol mask the symptoms. And if you don’t have a doctor, head on over to Dr. D.‘s office. He has late office hours, you don’t have to wait long, and in the short time I’ve known him, I can honestly say, I’m getting to where I kind of trust the chap with my life.
For More Information:
Dr. Albert Digerolamo
Family Medicine Associates
35 E Padonia Rd
Lutherville Timonium, MD 21093
(410) 683-3330
For more information about the H1N1 Virus (Swine Flu), visit the CDC’s website.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/07/09 at 10:04 AM
Where do people go in Baltimore to enjoy a good plate under the sun? These local restaurants offer an outdoor ambiance that is as fine as the food.
FELLS POINT
Kali’s Court
The View: Lush, leafy, walled courtyard, with dramatic flaming torcheres at night.
What to Order: Opt for the grilled dorade or bronzini and pretend you’re somewhere along the Adriatic.
Details:
1606 Thames St.
410-276-4700
kaliscourt.com
Directions to Kali’s Court
Arcos
The View: Charming walled courtyard filled with intimate niches for supping and sipping.
What to Order: Whatever you order, pair it with a tasty margarita, made with a “secret house blend” and a hint of orange.
Details:
129 S. Broadway
410-522-4777
restaurantearcos.com
Directions to Arcos
Shuckers of Fells Point
1629 Thames St
410-522-5820
The View: Tourists tend to take over the wrought iron tables stationed under blue awnings with blinking neon beer signs in the windows and twinkling lights above. The water view from the tables is one of the best in Fells Point. And it’s a bit of a hidden treasure— it has little street visibility, so many people don’t realize it’s there.
What to Order: Swordfish De Gallo in a tequila infused pico de gallo with ice cold house draft after house draft after house draft.
shuckersoffellspoint.com
Directions to Shuckers of Fells Point
Bonaparte Breads
The View: The calmest area of the Harbor, with umbrella tables on an esplanade squooshed up to the very edge of the water. (Caution: breakfast and lunch, only, and the staff could benefit from a semester of Courtesy 101.)
What to Order: A pain au chocolat and a sweet iced coffee.
Details:
903 S Ann St.
410-342-4000
Directions to Bonaparte’s Bread
LITTLE ITALY
La Scala
The View: Very quaint. Two decorative wrought iron tables on a porch that’s in the heart of Little Italy. The ambience and people watching is the thing.
What to Order: The Bruschetta is amazing and popping with fresh flavors. A glass of chianti sets the mood. Highly recommended: the Tenuta Marchese Antinori. P.S. Slip inside for a game of authentic Bocce.
Details:
1012 Eastern Ave.
410-783-9209
lascaladining.com
Directions to La Scala
FEDERAL HILL
The Bicycle
The View: An airy garden-like spot with close-together tables.
What to Order: Nothing says summer like the water-melon salad or crab cakes with a sweet corn emulsion.
Details:
1444 Light St. #1
410-234-1900
bicyclebistro.com
Directions to The Bicycle
Rusty Scupper
The View: One of the best views of the Inner Harbor and the downtown Baltimore skyline, from the third-flood deck.
What to Order: Simple is best. Opt for the shrimp cocktail and ogle the yachts passing by.
Details:
402 Key Hwy
410-727-3678
selectrestaurants.com/rusty
Directions to the Rusty Scupper
Little Havana
The View: Once you get past the chain-link fence, it’s water, water everywhere.
What to Order: Minty mojitos, what else? Or the bottomless mimosas at Sunday brunch.
Details:
1325 Key Hwy
410-837-9903
littlehavanas.com
Directions to Little Havana
INNER HARBOR
Babalu Grille
The View: Tourists on the plaza during daylight hours, drunken college students after 10 p.m.
What to Order: Summer demands ceviche.
Details:
34 Market Pl.
410-234-9898
babalugrill.com
Directions to Babalu Grill
McCormick & Schmick’s
The View: Tourists and boats cruising the waters of the Inner Harbor.
What to Order: Wash down your sautéed soft-shells with a Black-eyed Susan martini - vodka, rum, O.J. and pineapple juice.
Details:
711 Eastern Ave.
410-234-1300
mccormickandschmicks.com
Directions to McCormick & Schmick’s
Sullivan’s Steak House
The View: You’ll be too busy watching the waitresses in their über short skirts and fishnet stockings to notice the small patio, bustling tables and harbor view.
What to Order: The Honeydew Melon. Bacardi Grand Melon, Midori, Hiram-Walker Sweet and Sound and fresh pineapple juice make any view spectacular.
Details:
One East Pratt St., Suite 102
410-962-5503
sullivansteakhouse.com
Directions to Sullivan’s Steak House
The Capital Grille Baltimore
The View: Plenty of shaded tables allow tourist and boat watching without too much squinting.
What to Order: The cold shellfish platter with a pound of baby lobster for starts, and a side order of vidalia onion rings.
Details:
500 E Pratt St. # 100
410-703-4064
thecapitalgrille.com
Directions to The Capital Grille Baltimore
Woody’s Rum Bar & Island Grill
The View: Third-floor perch overlooks the throngs on Thames Street and the harbor’s edge right across the street.
What to Order: The island wings marinated in a special grilled pineapple barbeque sauce are standing ready to pair with any good drink.
Details:
821 S. Broadway at Thames
410-555-1212
woodysrumbar.com
Directions to Woody’s Rum Bar & Island Grill
HARBOR EAST
Cinghiale
822 Lancaster St
410-547-8282
The View: These gourmet tables are under an awning and overlook the Harbor East Marina—plus, these tables can be reserved.
What to Order: Prezzo Fizzo—the Chef’s Choice of Antipasti—is perfect for outdoor noshing. And order the Cinghiale Cocktail: fresh orange juice, fresh basil, and a splash of soda on lovely Aperol liquor. Yum.
cgeno.com
Directions to Cinghiale
LOCUST POINT
The Wine Market
The View: Pretty to the nth degree. A garden setting in a courtyard, with a backdrop of historic brick buildings.
What to Order: The mediterranean lamb ”burger” on flatbread and absolutely any wine that hits your fancy. This is the grapes of mirth.
Details:
300 Franklin St.
410-575-7045
the-wine-market.com
Directions to The Wine Market
THE ART’S DISTRICT
Tapas Teatro
The View: Smack on North Charles Street under the blazing sun, bring a high count sunscreen and sunglasses, but enjoy the hustle and bustle of the street crowd.
What to Order: Sangria and tapas, tapas, tapas (slipping in some Boquerones)!
Details:
1711 N. Charles St.
410-332-0110
tapasteatro.com
Directions to Tapas Teatro
SOUTH BALTIMORE
Nick’s Fish House
The View: The underside of the Hanover Street Bridge.
What to Order: Anything from the raw bar and a few ice-cold Buds.
Details:
2600 Insulator Dr # 1
410-347-4123
nicksfishhouse.com
Directions to Nick’s Fish House
MT. WASHINGTON
The Mt. Washington Tavern
The View: The Sky Bar opens during dinner and is a partially covered roof top deck, surrounded by greenery—if you’re in need of a tropical setting, come here.
What to Order: The Chesapeake Salad with chopped apples, jumbo crabmeat and shrimp—and wet your whistle with a white Albariño Spanish wine by the glass.
Details:
5700 Newbury St
410-367-6903
mtwashingtontavern.com
Directions to The Mt. Washington Tavern
BOLTON HILL
B Bistro
The View: The shaded sidewalk tables overlook the grand town houses of Bolton Hill.
What To Order: House dill-cured gravlax salmon over tossed organic greens and a chilled glass of Sauvignon Blanc.
Details:
1501 Bolton St
410-383-8600
b-bistro.com
Directions to B Bistro
UPTOWN
Gertrude’s at BMA
The View: The Baltimore Museum of Art’s lush sculpture garden.
What To Order: The mussels steamed with chardonnay, roasted garlic and caponata eggplant.
Details:
10 Art Museum Dr.
410-889-3399
coastalcookingwithjohnshields.com
Directions to Gertrude’s at BMA
Carma’s Café
The View: Quiet and shady Charles Village side street.
What To Order: “Sno-Joes,” frozen blended coffee drinks, or “Zambonis,” frozen blended smoothies.
Details:
3120 Saint Paul St
410-243-5200
Directions to Carma’s Café
Ambassador Dining Room
The View: A secluded flower-filled courtyard with a fountain.
What To Order: The gorgeous whole Goa fish tempered with a mango lassi.
Details:
3811 Canterbury Rd.
410-366-1484
ambassadordiningroom.com
Directions to the Ambassador Dining Room
CANTON
Bo Brooks
The View: Canton’s expanding waterfront and the neon signs of Tide Point and Domino’s Sugar.
What To Order: A dozen jumbo-jimmies and get crackin’!
Details:
2701 Boston St
410-558-0202
bobrooks.com
Directions to Bo Brooks
HUNT VALLEY
Oregon Grille
The View: A big garden-surrounded patio for sunny days, and a cozy enclosed porch for rainy days, all surrounded by some of Maryland’s most beautiful hunt country and horse farms.
What to Order: Why, Chilled Blue Point Oysters and a Lobster Martini, of course.
Details:
1201 Shawan Rd.
410-771-0505
theoregongrille.com
Directions to the Oregon Grille
GREENSPRING STATION
Stone Mill Bakery
The View: Shady terrace tables overlooking a quiet lawn and interesting sculptures are the place to be in the summertime.
What to Order: Lemon Pepper Salmon and leave room for the scrumptious home-made desserts!
Details:
10751 Falls Rd # 123
410-821-1358
stonemillbakery.com
Directions to Stone Mill Bakery
Tark’s Grill
The View: A little courtyard surrounded by shops, with high top tables, low top tables, a fireplace for the nippy nights and an ambience that is pure upscale liveliness.
What to Order: The Crabatini—huge jumbo lump crabmeat with Old Bay, and surprising wasabi and lemon.
Details:
2360 W Joppa Rd # 116
410-583-8275
tarksgrill.com
Directions to Tark’s Grill
OWINGS MILLS
Linwood’s
The View: The entire outdoor patio is covered in boxwoods and flowers, with huge pear trees shading the white tablecloths and gorgeously prepped meals. Reservations a must.
What to Order: A fresh Pineapple Martini (infused for 48 hours) complements the Heirloom Tomatoes with Cripsy Goat Cheese.
Details:
5 Crossroads Dr., Owings Mills
410-356-3030
linwoods.com
Directions to Linwood’s
SPARKS
The Milton Inn
The View: Next to a 260-year-old fieldstone building, on a covered terraced, surrounded by lush landscaped gardens.
What to Order: Sunday brunch a la carte and a mimosa—and for non-Sundays, the Blackened Shrimp, Jumbo Crabmeat Gazpacho and a bottle of Cru champagne.
Details:
14833 York Rd.
410-771-4366
miltoninn.com
Directions to The Milton Inn
HISTORIC HAVRE DE GRACE
Tidewater Grille
The View: Outside deck seating or the new 4-seasons porch, either way, you’ll have amazing views of the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay—and an oh la la sunset. p.s. often there’s live music.
What to Order: Fresh little neck clam steamers and a bottle of Shoofly Buzz Cut White wine makes you feel like at your annual beach vacation every night.
Details:
300 Franklin St.
410-575-7045
thetidewatergrille.com
Directions to Tidewater Grille
ELLICOTT CITY
La Palapa Grill & Cantina
The View: Enjoy the weather, plants and umbrellas on a patio and ignore the parking lot—the veiw is the vibe. The cantina turns into a club atmosphere as the night wears on.
What to Order: A house sangria or the la Palapa and some quesadillas.
Details:
8307 Main St., Ellicott City
410-465-0070
lapalapagrill.com
Directions to La Palapa Grill & Cantina
Photo of Gertrude’s at BMA.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/02/09 at 11:00 PM
My niece has come to stay with us for the summer. She and my daughter are inseparable. And she and I have a lot in common. For instance, I used to bite my fingernails to the quick. Something she has been doing ever since I’ve known her. Naturally, my sister has tried everything to get her to stop biting. Nasty tasting applications, gloves, bribes, the possibility of a new car—you name it. Nothing has worked. As a former hairstylist—and someone who had spent a great amount of time working on skin and nails—I found myself ruminating on the problem. And then it came to me—a real solution to break the nail biting habit.
Which was great, because I have a friend who is a nurse, and she had said to me, “She needs to stop because this swine flu, this H1N1, might hit hard. Nobody needs their hands near their mouth.” Which, of course, gave me pause for thought. Any flu is a good reason to keep fingers away from a mouth.
How To Stop Biting Your Fingernails
Before you read on, a few things to consider/understand:
- The nail biter has to be at a stage where they really want to quit biting their fingernails. They have to be at the stage where they are cognizant of the fact that they need to quit, but they just don’t know how to break the problem.
- The solution has the possibility of harming the fingernails temporarily (and the nail bed permanently if used too long, i.e., as in a year, e.g., the nail bed can deform the shape of the nail, a fungus can grow, etc.). I’m more concerned with the temporary damage than the latter, because most people won’t want to do this for a year, and, even if they do, long term damage is still only a possibility. And I’m actually not very concerned about the temporary damage, either, because if you’re reading this, you know that any damage done to severely bitten nails, is nothing compared to the damage done to, well, severely bitten nails.
- Purchase false nails at any drugstore or online (recommended: Nailene So Natural Nail Kit
). If they come with a sticky film on the back, rub that film off. Make sure the nails come with fingernail glue, or purchase the glue separately. It will be in the same general area of the store… in fact, it should be on the same shelf.
- Size each fake nail to fit each fingernail. You do not want the fake fingernail to be too wide or too short. It should cover the nail, as much as possible, but it should also look slender.
- Cut the nail down so it is very short. At this stage, you do not want the fingernail poking above the top of the finger. Cut from the bottom of the fake nail—not the top.
- Soak the hands in warm, soapy water, then push the fake nails gently into the cuticle bed—gently—and just a teeny bit. The fake nails should be under the cuticle, but barely. Just enough to hide the fake nail and not give the biter reason to pull from there.
- Dry nails, put them aside. Dry hands.
- Put wax paper down and have person rest their hands on top of the wax paper (this way, if some of the glue spills over, the person’s finger does not become superglued to the table.
- Apply glue to the fingernail directly, making sure that it is quite covered.
- This part must be done, fast! Position the fake nail onto the fingernail—trying to get it just a smidge under the cuticle (and if it hurts, do NOT put it below the cuticle!). Then press and hold. It helps to use tweezers to set the nail in place, and then I use a large emery board to push and hold the nail while the glue sets. If you use your own finger to push and there is any glue contact, you might become glued to the fake nail, too! Obviously, something you do not want. An emery board will pull away from a fake nail if it is in contact with glue. If the nail is at a slant or not positioned right, you can fix it, but you must do it within the first few seconds. Just manipulate it around until it’s set, then push and hold.
- Hold for around 30 seconds.
- Once the nails are all on, do not wash the hands for at least five minutes—just to give everything a chance to harden.
- File down or buff any rough spots.
- Now is a great time to add fingernail polish, if you so choose. I recommend no polish at first, to give the person a feel of what real nails look like.
Why this works.
Once someone who sees real fingernails on their hands, they tend to want to leave them alone. Also, fake nails are not very gratifying to bite. They don’t have the same consistency or texture, and, in fact, all the pleasure of biting is removed with fake nails.
Caution! The peeler!
Fake nails can be fun as heck to peel off! Make sure to check for any peeling activity. Add glue to areas that might have been tampered with. In severe cases, soak the fake nails off (there are solutions out there), and reapply a whole new set of fake nails. In worst case scenarios, it usually takes at least three days for someone to be able to start peeling fake nails off. (Peeling is also what causes the temporary damage.)
Expect growth, fast! It is not surprising to see the white tips of real fingernails showing after a week! Within 2-3 weeks, the nails will probably be long enough to exchange polish for fake nails (although the participant might need a few more weeks of wearing false nails to keep the biting need at bay.
What to do once the nails are grown out.
Make sure the participant is ready to leave their real nails alone. Then remove the fake nails, buff down any roughness, apply something like Duri Rejuvacoat
If a real fingernail breaks, it sets up prime biting time again. So always keep an emery board, fingernail clippers and a band-aid at the ready. File down, clip or pop on a band-aid if there is a fingernail break. Let the nail grown out under a band-aid OR add a fake nail to the one broken nail until it grows out.
Disclaimer
Please note that we have cautioned against the possibility of damage. Also note—biting nails causes damage, too, so this might just be a better alternative.
This technique can be used on children, but caution must be heeded! It would be best to wait until a child is older than 8 years of age. And children must keep fingers with fresh glue away from their eyes and mouth. Nails for teens are available.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 07/14/09 at 09:39 AM
I’ve lived a lot of places in my life—my favorite place being Paris, of course. The quality of life in Paris (the food, the wine, the shopping, the parks, the museums, the sites, the scenes, the metro… oh la la, perfection!) is second to none. I came to Baltimore half from Paris and half from South Carolina (where I split my time evenly). I came because my family lives here. There have been many surprises in getting to know the city. On one hand, Baltimore is a big city. On the other hand, Baltimore seems smaller than other cities that aren’t half its size in population. It often seems very small. As Baltimorean Jonathan Murry told me, when people around here ask what school they went to, they reply with what high school they attended—not what college.
Recently I was at a party where I met some new people. We talked about what it was like moving to Charm City. Both couples told me that it had taken them a long time to integrate and find people willing to open up to them. I began nodding my head in agreement, as this, too, had been my experience. What floored me was that when I asked them how long they’d been here, one replied, “15 years,” and the other, “7 years.” Neither couple (both with children, no less) had had very much luck getting their foot in the door until recently. All of which made me think about France and the French.
In fact, I’ve been lucky enough to meet wonderful people in both Baltimore and France—yet I do see why people can feel as if they are outsiders in both places. There’s a discerning quality about Baltimoreans and the French. Both cultures tend to be very respectful (forget what you hear about the rude French—you will only find them in huge touristy spots, where they’ve met way too many rude tourists!), but both cultures tend to keep things close to the vest. That is, until you’ve earned your way into their hearts. Why this is, I’m unsure. Perhaps it’s because people seem to read more in Baltimore—and the French read everything—both are cities filled with educated, well-read people. The more we read, the more we have to think before we make decisions… we begin to know too much, which makes us not jump so fast. Could that be it? I don’t know.
Also, both Paris and Baltimore are big on experimental theatre. It’s a wonderful, unique quality about each city—not found so much in other towns. Just look at the Creative Alliance and The Stoop Storytelling Series as two wonderful examples of this.
It took me about a half a year to really integrate with the French, and the same with Baltimoreans. Maybe because I write for popular publications and people want to open up more and talk about their cities more—but I’m not sure. I also have no clue where this particular blog post is going, other than the fact that it just struck me how very much Baltimoreans and the French are alike. And I simply wanted to share that bit of insight.
Oh, one other thing… for those Baltimoreans who love French food, Cindy Wolfe has her finger on the pulse of that particular quality of life. As someone who has written the Paris Guide for USAToday for years, and, hence, eaten at all the best restaurants in the City of Light, I can absolutely recommend Wolfe’s food as highly as I can recommend that of Alain Ducasse or that gastronomic wild showman, Pierre Gagnaire. Your money and time is well spent at one of Wolfe’s restaurants.
Petite Louis
4800 Roland Avenue
Baltimore, Maryland
Phone: 410.366.9393
petitlouis.com
And Patisserie Poupon has les pain au chocolats (chocolate croissants) and other pastries as good as you can get at Ladurée or Pierre Hermé in Paris.
Patisserie Poupon
820 E. Baltimore St.
Baltimore, Maryland
Phone: 410-332-0390
Oh, yes, we also have our Light Rail. It isn’t exactly the Paris Metro, but we’re getting there.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 06/19/09 at 03:24 PM
Heading out on the N.C.R. (Northern Central Railroad ) trail for a bike ride—for a 14-plus-mile round trip ride to get organic homemade ice cream, midway—has to be one of the best things to do in Baltimore… in fact, in Maryland. I’d even go so far as to rank it as one of the seven wonders of America.
The trail—an old railroad trail that’s now covered by dirt—once transported precious cargo (including Abraham Lincoln) from Baltimore to NY (read more about The N.C.R. Trail in depth). Now it’s a tree-lined dirt road that’s as flat and as easy on the thighs, as it is gorgeous and peaceful for the eyes.
Case in point—I hadn’t been on a bike in over two years, yet was able to do the entire trip without needing to catch a second wind once. With mile posts along the way, shady spots with benches on which to sit, bridges overlooking Gunpowder Falls’ rippling waters, a nature center, horse farms, etc., and only two non-major roads to cross, there’s nothing to stop even the laziest couch potato from getting out and taking in some exercise here (for those who don’t have bikes, there are bike rentals along the way).
And that midway treat? A biker can park a car at many of the parking spots along the way—the bike paths are snug up against the lots—but the best place to start is the Paper Mill Road parking lot. There are plenty of spaces, and parking here allows a rider to get in that full 14-plus-mile trip—and with that many miles under the belt, anyone has earned the right to stop off at the Monkton General Store for an extra scoop of organic ice cream or one of the 20 flavored snoballs.
Also read Sarah Achenbach’s in depth article about The N.C.R. Trail, and find out where to park, to rent bikes, to rent kayaks, etc..
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05/28/09 at 01:29 PM
The ultimate in coolness has come to Baltimore—and we mean cool, as in a great place to go and freezing goodness to eat. Mr. Yogato, a yogurt shop with a twist, which has had amazing success in DC (1515 17th Street NW - mryogato.com), has opened a sister shop in Fells Point. Don’t even think about heading to your freezer for a treat until you’ve legged it down Broadway to grab some of their yogurt. The list of toppings alone will give an idea of how fun this yogurt shop is.
As will the look of the place. Walk in and you follow a real yellow brick road, surrounded by tables filled with games (Operation, Connect 4, Pictionary, Candy Land, etc. Plus, an Atari Video Game is on the way!). Over near the huge window are old-fashioned, art-deco soda fountain stools. In the back is a “fake” patio, complete with turf, old tin patio chairs (painted in bright colors) and a tin glider.
Add to that, non-fat yogurts (30 calories a serving!), with fresh, fresh, fresh blueberries, blackberries, melon, etc., whatever-is-in-season-etc., and then wild fun kid toppings, such as Captain Crunch, Fruity Pebbles, Cracker Jacks, Toasted Mini-Eggos, etc., and you wouldn’t be able to help but think to yourself, “Man, this is so smart, it probably took a rocket scientist to come up with this idea.” And you’d be right.
Meet Jessica Jensen. She and her friend, Steve Davis (the brainchild behind Mr. Yogato) are both true blue rocket scientists who work at www.spacex.com developing NASA award winning rockets—when they aren’t busy whipping up fun yogurt ideas. (Note: Jessica Jensen is proof that life isn’t always fair where DNA is divvied out—she’s that smart, that fun, and gorgeous enough to be in Vogue.)
But back to the fun yogurts. Ever heard of mixing frozen yogurt with Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil? And then eating it? And then not only living to tell the tale, but living to be an evangelist for it? It happened to me. There I stood, with multiple frozen yogurts to try, and umpteen fresh fruit toppings, and yet I braved the Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil combination because it’s just in me to be adventurous. So when you see me wearing a burka at the beach this season instead of a bikini, it’ll be because I’ve down too much of this. I’m addicted. Please try it.
Other people dive just as religiously into the creamy yogurt and the tangy yogurt (always available) and whatever two other flavors are available that day, such as the stawberrio, chocolato, black cherry, cappuccino, choco-hazelnut, mango, peach, etc.
This is a shop with a lot of etceteras!
For instance, other yogurt toppings range from chocolate chips, oreos, peanut butter cups, etc., almonds, walnuts, pecans, etc., gummi bears, junior mints, tim tams, etc, apple sauce, mandarin oranges, kiwi, etc., and even mochi, etc., etc., etc., and always one fresh homemade topping from mryogato-fellspoint.com
Hours of Operation:
Sunday - Thursday: 11:30am - 11pm
Friday - Saturday: 11:30am - 12am
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05/27/09 at 02:58 PM
I’m big on shopping local. Supporting local. Talking about local. And having just moved to Baltimore a year ago, I’m still in the exploring stages of finding the best of local goodies. And I get the impression that no matter how long I’ve lived here, I’ll still run across new finds… even in my own neighborhood.
The Baltimore Coffee & Tea Company is within walking distance of my house and I’ve just discovered it. Now, once discovered, I’m not letting it go anytime soon. This place is *locally owned and amazing (and another reason to take the Light Rail... it’s directly off the Timonium Business Park stop). If you’ve ever been to Paris, you know what a great tea shop is—and this is a great tea shop. And coffee shop. And ice cream shop. And sandwich and pastry shop. And gift shop. It really has everything—including tables in which to enjoy the fare, and an amicable staff. Walk in and the first thing you’re hit with is the phenomenal smell. The exquisite blends of hazelnut, vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom, lemon, rose, orange and other scents swirl around, making it hard to decide what to order. That’s where the staff comes in. If you can’t decide what to have, they’ll tailor something to fit your mood. They know what’s good.
You can buy Baltimore Coffee and their tea, Eastern Shore, at Wegmans (they carry the fair trade brand), and Grauls Market, but you’ll also want to visit their own store for their massive variety. Their line of teas and infusions (fruit blends) is serious business for the tea aficionado: Brassica, Bewley’s, Walton, Stash, Chanakara, Ty-Phoo, Kusmi, Fortunes, 24 Tea Bags, London Fruit & Herb Company, Taylors of Harrogate, PG Tips Sport, etc., and they’re even the exclusive seller in the Tri-State area of Yorkshire Gold Tea Bags (they have a hard time keeping this tea in stock). Plus, their own Eastern Shore brand offers enough variety on its own to merit a visit (Peach Melba Tea, Green Tea With Cherry, Tea Forte Raspberry Nectar, Nantucket Mint, Blackberry Summer, Blueberry Lemon Tea, etc.).
And onto the coffees. This is where coffee junkies go when they die and head to heaven. There’s an entire section of the store devoted to coffees, three-coffee-bags deep—everything from standard coffees, to flavored coffees. The biggest flavored seller being Snicker-Snicker (made with chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla and hazelnut, and it really tastes like a snickerdoodle cookie), and the Friendship Blend (toasted almond, hazelnut, french vanilla and cinnamon). What makes the flavored coffees so good is that the beans are not thrown into a vat with the flavors mixed together, but rather, the beans are flavored separately and then put together. And a word about the beans. They come into the company, green, from Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala (and the Fair Trades are from Peru, Guatemala, Papua New Guinea and Colombia). They’re roasted that day. And they aren’t mixed, e.g., if you get Fair Trade, those beans have been roasted in a machine separate from the non-Fair Trade beans.
As an added bonus, the shop makes salads, sandwiches and pastries (made in the kitchen, fresh, each morning) for those who want to eat, along with a nice selection of gourmet ice creams. And there are gifts peppered throughout the store (if you need to pick up that little something for someone, the Portmeirion Cotton Tea Towels are a great all-around gift for anyone).
Mostly, though, just come in and talk to the staff and get them to whip something up for you, and then have a seat and soak up this local brand of excellence. And then tell someone else about it, because we need to support local, always… but don’t tell too many people, because, after all, The Baltimore Coffee and Tea Company is perfect enough to be a secret.
*How local? In true Baltimore fashion, we found out where the owners went to high school! Stan Constantine, the President, went to Towson High and graduated in 1969. Norman Loverde, the Vice President, went to the Polytechnic Institute and graduated in 1975. These are Baltimore boys, born and raised.
The Baltimore Coffee & Tea Company
9 West Aylesbury Road
Lutherville, Maryland 21093, U.S.A.
800-823-1408
(410) 561-1080
Fax: (410) 561-4816
Timonium Hours of Operation: Monday-Friday 7:00 am - 6:00 pm (EST) ~ Saturday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm (EST) ~ Sunday 9:00 am - 4:00 pm.
Annapolis Phone: 410-573-5792
Annapolis Fax: 410-573-5795
Annapolis Hours: Mon-Sat 7 AM - 8 PM, Sun 8 AM-5 PM (EST)
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 04/13/09 at 11:48 AM
I used to be a hairdresser. The reason? I had this horrendously bunchy, bumpy, curly, wavy hair and I lived in high humidity year round. While everyone else had straight, blond hair, my head of tresses stuck out like a freaking, big fat fever blister on the lips on date night. So I’ve done every trick in the book to figure out what to do with my hair. And, in figuring out what to do with mine, I managed to mess up a lot of hair on other people along the way. Finally, after all these years, I’ve got it all straight—my hair, first, and a ton of great tips on how to do just about anything to just about any type of hair to make hair look great.
Here are just a few tips. (You can find more hair tips and tricks here, and also learn how to cut your own bangs here.)
- If you want to cut your hair but you’re dastardly afraid of how it might look, try face framing under your length. What do I mean? Put all your hair into a ponytail or chignon… just pull it off your face and clamp it back. Then, with a comb, section off a small bit of fringe all around your face. Then cut it as short as you want. You’ll have an idea of what you’ll look like with shorter hair, and you’ll be able to judge if you need to cut shorter or not as short. If you think it all looks horrible, let your hair down and the majority of the fringe will be hidden within the longer hair, and what isn’t hidden won’t look bad at all.
- Hair that has been chemically processed needs good shampoo. Do not buy cheap shampoo. Also, many times colorists and hairstylists get a commission from the products they sell, so make sure you trust your colorist before you go plunking money down on hair products. Having said that, do support your local hair salon and colorist, if what they say makes good sense to you. If you need to save money, don’t buy the conditioner. A bad conditioner can be heavy and weigh your hair down, but it won’t hurt your hair.
- The rule of thumb for washing hair so that your color stays longer: wash only the roots and let the suds run down the strands; condition only the strands so that the roots don’t get so greasy so fast.
- It’s hard to do, but if you can delay washing your hair an extra day, that’s an extra day your color will hold longer.
- If you have curly hair and you want to cut bangs, make sure that the section around your face is not too thick. Start with fringe and make sure to blend the fringe in an upside down u-shape. Do not cut straight across until you’ve first tried this.
- If you have bone straight hair and you want to wear curly hair for an important date, make sure to set the hair that you’ve curled with a curling iron, onto brush rollers while the hair is still warm, e.g, curl with curling iron, pop onto brush roller, go to next strand to curl. Spray with setting spray or hair spray. Let the hair sit on the brush rollers while you apply makeup. Then remove the rollers. This gives the cuticles time to “settle” in and tighten up into a better holding curl.
- For those who have curly hair and want straight hair, I swear by the ghd IV Ceramic Styler
. I’ve been caught walking three miles solid in a heavy mist, and my hair stayed bone straight. I really cannot recommend this ceramic iron enough. Every penny I plunked into it has been paid back in two solid years worth of good hair days. Enough said.
- Hair products are not something I’m really crazy about, because, for the most part, they just gunk up the hair. But when making curly hair go straight with a ceramic iron, TIGI S Factor Dream Drops
make hair so shiny. It’s really a great product for ceramic straightening.
For more reading on Hair:
- More Tips and Tricks On Having Great Hair
- Sarah Fox’s article on Curly Hair Karma
- Laura Wexler’s article on Curly Hair
- Beauty Budget - Cut Your Own Bangs
Come visit me on Twitter.com/StyleAve.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 03/31/09 at 12:34 PM
I’m such a yarn head. When I left my home in South Carolina, I gave away furniture that had been in my family for over 150 years, tossed anything that remotely resembled a collectible, packed everything I could in ten boxes and said, “to heck with the rest,” but the one thing I could not throw away was my yarn. The yarn took up a large chunk of room in the small Budget-Rent-A-Truck (an impossible thing to drive). And once in Baltimore, the first thing I got out of the moving van was the yarn. I’m just a yarn head—there’s no way around it.
There’s something wonderful about the prospect of what a skein of yarn can become. I can’t read patterns to save my life, but I can knit glorious blankets and make incredible dresses and shirts for my daughter, because yarn becomes my muse. The possibilities of what can be created make my insides dance. Corny, huh? But it’s true.
There are two yarn shops that I frequent a lot (and please, if you know of more, comment below!). Both have exquisitely gorgeous, quality yarn supplies. Both offer classes. And both have knit-alongs (planned and drop-ins).
The Black Sheep Yarn Shop
10868 York Rd
Cockeysville, MD 21030
410-628-9276
blacksheepyarnshop.com
LovelYarns
846 w.36th St
Baltimore, MD 21211
410-662-YARN
lovelyarns.com
Also, if you’ve seen the knitted tree in the papers or heard about it on the news, you’ll find it in Hampden at LovelYarns. (Psst! While looking for a photo of it, we found one from a young woman in London England laurafallulah.blogspot.com—quite a lovely writer and fabric artist—come on back to Baltimore, Laura!)
Want to talk with me on Twitter? Come join me: Twitter.com/StyleAve.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 03/21/09 at 01:43 PM
- Celebrate Spring. That light, bright strip of color in that accent piece (the sofa pillow or pottery)? Paint one wall to match and complement and accent more.
- Want Spring curtains? Move the curtains you have down a little, and leave foot of window at the top for the sunlight to stream in. Above the window, fashion twigs and artful leaves to complement outside.
- We remove heavy sweaters in Spring, right? Consider doing the same for a room. Put one heavy furniture piece in the basement, and replace with a lush green plant.
- Forget conservative photo placement. Be creative. Cover entire kitchen & bathroom w/ favorite black & whites in plexiglass boxed frames.
- Place mirrors to pick up natural window light. Group different sized antique mirrors together as you would photo frames.
- An hour before bed, use a heating blanket to warm things up. Before you jump in bed, turn blanket off & thermostat way down. Sleep like a baby and save money.
- Need to budget your beauty more? Water down your shampoo—works beautifully if you do two washings anyways. Put conditioner only on the hair ends. Work in good, then rinse.
- Revamp your lamp shades for fast, fun interior design tweaks. Dye with beet juice or blueberry dyes or grass (ground with a mortar and pestle, and paint on stripes or polka dots.
- No money but carpet stains everywhere? Lightly brush beet juice over the whole carpet, then clean, for a new, lush, red carpet!
- Or dye wall-to-wall stained Berber carpet into an earth color by staining entire carpet w/ tea. Experiment with different tea tannins before you begin.
- If the wood floors need sanding, try painting a “carpet” on them first, e.g., checkerboards, diagonals, stripes, or paint a motif. If you don’t like the look, sand off the paint. If you love the look, you have a new floor with half the work.
- Take advantage of Michael Korr’s neon look by painting scarves w/ neon paint, then use those to accent your black outfit.
- Puffy eyes in the A.M. Forget expensive products. Soak cloth in salty ice water and press against eyes repeatedly. Love the old skirt or dress, but hate the long hem? Fold the hem inside, haphazardly, then stitch (or tape, in a pinch), to make a bubble skirt or dress.
- Mascara really clumpy? Don’t buy new mascara yet! If the date life is still good, let the tube sit in boiling water for ten minutes before using (w/ cap shut tight), to heat and unclump the goo.
- In a pinch, use mascara in a dual way… as a mascara and as an eyeliner. Moisturize eyelids, then dab mascara w/fingers and smudge as needed.
- Save on expensive skin care. Get your good skin on! Change your pillowcase every night. Pillowcases are loaded w/ grease & bacteria.
- Try these twelve steps to great Audrey Hepburn looking skin (and how to get rid of a bad spot.) An Inexpensive, Natural Way to Great Looking Skin.
- Want to grow hair? Stop trimming it. All hair has split ends. If you need smoother looking ends, use silicone products.
- No budget but need new curtains? Buy inexpensive white sheets, apply strips of masking tape, paint with acrylic paint, remove tape. Voila. Striped curtains.
- Feeling sad? Have the icks? But don’t have money for a feel-good shopping spree? Rearrange the furniture in your favorite room. Change can invigorate and rustle up a new outlook.
- You’ve come to the end of your favorite scented bath gel, lotion, etc.? Soak a cloth in the last bits of smell-good. Let the cloth dry. Then use as a closet or drawer sachet.
- Extend your interior (and exterior) paint jobs. Keep some of the paint from each room in small squirt bottles. Scuffs? Dab w/ paint.
- Need to stock up on food but you don’t have extra shelf space? Don’t build an add-on just yet. Instead, add small planters on top of jars of dried foods, connect planters to jars using a fat ribbon. Place anywhere you’d put a plant.
- Need planters but no budget? Take your collection of old coffee cups (the ones that need to be culled, but they are too sentimental to let go). Start plant cuttings inside the cups and put on a shelf as cute bookends (attention roots.. add pebbles at bottom for drainage).
- Take mass transit. The more we support it, the better it becomes, the cleaner the environment. Think of Europe!
- They don’t typically give antibiotics for sinus infections in Europe. They use herbal first. Try Sinupret. Order online from Bionorica.com, or your local drugstore carries children’s syrup. Completely natural. Plus, less expensive than a doctor’s visit.
- Before you buy, remember: America knows how to market. Ask yourself if you’re really buying the packaging or the product.
- Save on spending money on chemicals. Strip all wood furniture down and start using only Linseed oil. Furniture is gorgeous, house smells incredibly fresh.
- Love all those baby clothes, but don’t want to save them or give them away? Get bits made into a “remember” quilt or scrapbook.
- Someone has a beautiful hand-me-down for you, but you think you can’t wear that color? Think again. Anyone can wear any color. Anyone. It is the depth, warmth, coolness of the color that will dictate the type of that color that you can wear.
- Charm up a room for pennies. With coffee table books, add antique puzzles and games. Conversation pieces to remember.
- Perfection is never as beautiful as the slight quirk that shows off the full picture. Add quirky sculpture of dog lifting leg
- Create surprises: a broken vase w/ spider plants trailing out; small quotes painted in a doorway; acoat rack w/ photos; a wheelbarrow used as a book dispensary.
- Some days your hair looks better w/ a flat iron than others. Why? Is it the product? You don’t need to go buy a different brand. Save your money, first, and pay attention to the direction from which you pull your roots away from your scalp.
- Beauty Must Do - Smile. A smile hides so many imperfections (people are overcome by a smile and overlook any flaws). Plus, smiling retrains your brain to be happy - it’s neuroscience!
- Smiling will also keep puppet mouth wrinkles away. Learn to smile more. If you have them already, smiling will still lift them up.
- Eyebrow shame - over plucking looks like “hey, look at me, I over plucked!” Try to tweeze yourself to save on money. Nix the unibrow, strays, grays and leave the rest to frame your eyes. Real beauty is natural, not forced.
- No special serums will make your hair and fingernails grow faster than a good massage. Type and massage scalp to get the blood flowing. When the blood flows, growth is more advanced.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 03/05/09 at 03:43 PM
I’m an ex-hairstylist and still-hair-obsessed fanatic (what else can you expect from someone who grew up in the humidity-soaked south with frizzy, frantic, curly hair?). So I’ve had a lot of experience with do-overs, over-do’s, do’s and don’t's (you should see my high school year book photo - can someone say “Sun-In”?), and, well, you name it. After so many years of umpteen hair experiences, I’d better have some tips to share with you. So here goes:
- The GHD flat iron makes your hair 100% humidity proof. Curly, lumpy, frizzy hair after using the GHD in 100% humidity = straight, silky hair, unfazed by humidity.
- Want to grow your hair? Stop trimming it. All hair has split ends. If you need smoother looking ends, use silicone products on the ends to “seal” the split ends closed.
- European-style segues into American-style. Baby jaw clips look great holding twisted hair strands on each side of your head (strand thickness should be pinkie finger width). Cute!
- No time to wash you hair? You can get away with a fast, front hair wash in the sink for a quick fix.
- Another quick fix for dirty hair. If you’re hair is really thin & oily hair, wear a high ponytail with hair gel on the head to “hide” the greasy look. And if you aren’t a ponytail wearer, learn the art of backbrushing, fast . (It’s easy!) Otherwise, ignore it. You’re the only one who notices.
- Time to budget your beauty? Don’t gasp, and don’t gasp at this tip, either: water down your shampoo—two washings anyway and your hair is clean. You don’t always need the full-on concentrated shampoo to get clean hair. Put conditioner only on the ends of your hair. Work in good, then rinse.
- Curly hair just hanging strange and stringy? Try a salt water spritz (think of Beach Curls). Then flip your hair upside down and scrunch.
- Want to keep your hair cleaner, longer? Easy. Change your pillow case every night, or flip it over and change every other night. Pillowcases harbor grease and bacteria.
- Having trouble with your scalp’s skin staying consistent—especially when traveling? Try rinsing with the same bottled water each day (if you’re a traveler, make sure the bottle is sold at your destination). Using the same water will help keep your scalp’s PH unshocked and stable.
- Gray hair peeping out from your temples? Make a thick, thick tea and dab the tannin on your grays for a quick fix (lighter tea for blonds, darker for brunettes). A dab of permanent dye to tide you over until you have the full head of hair done is even better.
Sarah Gilbert Fox, the senior editor of Style magazine in Baltimore, Maryland, loves to talk hair. Read more from Sarah at her Style Magazine blog, or visit her live at Twitter.com/StyleAvenue.
Karma Trouble with Curly Hair?
Click here for more, excellent Curly Hair information.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/25/09 at 01:11 PM
True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new, wrote Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author of The Little Prince. And during these hard times—when it seems the long winter is hanging on, the economy is hanging on, and we’re barely hanging on—perhaps the best thing we can do for ourselves is to transform this glumness into a self-made creation that brings happiness to our home. Here are some easy, inexpensive ideas to tempt your muse. (P.S. Don’t forget to check our Style Beauty Tips, too.
- Feeling sad? Have the icks? Rearrange the furniture in a favorite room. Change can invigorate and rustle up a new outlook.
- Revamp your lamp shades. Dye completely with beet juice (for a lush red) or blueberry juice (for an indigo blue), or paint stripes or polka dots on your shades.
- If your wood floors need sanding, try painting a “carpet” on them first. If you don’t like the look, sand off the paint. If you love the look, apply a layer of Polyurethane and you have a new floor with half the work of sanding.
- Is that knick-knack collection an eyesore to everyone but you? Consider a private area in your bedroom for the collection, and open up the more public part of your house to simplicity.
- Want dark paint but fear it? Find a photo of a look you love, trust the look and take the leap of faith. Just paint. Chances are that you’ll end up loving the new look.
- Go unconventional in big bathrooms: add an overstuffed chair, a bookcase, toss in a quilt, put plants and antique photos everywhere, and maybe a watering can. Make your bathroom more than a utility spot.
- If the money is tight but the carpet stains are everywhere, lightly brush beet juice over the entire carpet, then clean, for a burgundy rush. Or dye your wall-to-wall into an earth-tone color by staining the entire carpet with tea. Experiment with different tea tannins before you begin.
- So you need new curtains desperately but have no budget for the ones you want? Buy inexpensive white sheets, apply strips of masking tape to the sheets (horizontal or vertical), paint with acrylic paint, let dry, then remove the tape. Trim the side-ends of the hem and pop the curtain rod through. Voila. You now have fresh looking, striped curtains—and nobody will know the difference.
- Kids need new curtains? Let kids paint on inexpensive sheets and then hang those as curtains. Or give kids an ego boost - pin their newly designed sheet-curtains to your living room curtains (remove for company, if needed).
- You’ve come to the end of your favorite scented bath gel, lotion, etc., and you don’t want to buy more, but you don’t want to lose that lovely smell? Soak an old piece of cloth in the last bit of liquid. Let dry. Then use the cloth as closet or drawer sachet (or pop it into your car!).
- Extend your interior (and exterior) paint jobs. Keep some of the paint from each room in small squirt bottles. Scuffs? Dab with paint.
- Stick your television in a bookcase. Whey you’re not watching, hang a small tapestry in front. Pop a small plant in front of the tapestry. Your television set has disappeared until the next season of American Idol.
- Need to stock up on food but you have no extra shelf space? Forget building an add-on right now. Instead, take small small planters filled with house plants, and place on top of same-sized jars of dried foods—connect planters to jars using a fat ribbon in a color that matches your curtains. Place anywhere you’d put a plant, or bunch together in an interesting arrangement.
- Also, if you have a collection of coffee cups that need to be culled, but you’re just too sentimental to let them go, put plant cuttings inside the cups and put the cups on a shelf as cute bookends (attention roots.. add pebbles at bottom for drainage).
- An hour before bed, use a heating blanket to warm things up. Before you jump in bed, turn blanket off & thermostat way down. Sleep like a baby and save money.
- Strip down all the wood furniture in your house and start using only Linseed oil. Your furniture will be gorgeous, your house will smell incredibly fresh, and you’ll save on expensive, unnecessary chemicals.
- Love all those baby clothes, but don’t want to save them or don’t want to give them away either? Get bits made into a “remember” quilt.
- Have white pillowcases ready for spend-the-nights. When kid comes over, let your kid design a special pillowcase for their spend-the-night friend. The pillowcase can be a lasting, cherished memory.
- Skyn Iceland the ANTIDOTE makes you feel like your pores ate peppermint and now they’re going aaaahh!
- Mascara really clumpy? Don’t buy new mascara yet! If the date life is still go, instead, let tube sit in boiling water for ten minutes before use(w/ cap shut tight), to heat and unclump the goo.
- Put ice on eyes before applying creamy eyeshadow and concealer to help skin be glide-able smooth.
- Cheek skin too loose when applying cream makeups? Hold ice on skin for 30 seconds first for a smooth glide.
- Apply hair gel or hairspray to toothbrush to tame eyebrows. Add brow color to the gel or spray, first, if needed.
- A small Q-tip dot of bright yellow eye shadow on center of eyelids goes a long way in making eyes shine bright.
- Twelve steps to great Audrey Hepburn looking skin (and how to get rid of a horrid zit.) An Inexpensive, Natural Way to Great Looking Skin.
- Best thing for legs after shaving? Arbonne Skin Conditioning Oil. Baby-tummy smoooooth.
- Uh-oh. Don’t forget to check nose, chin, ear hairs. Have a friend spot you in sunlight… then correct.
- Many dermatologists recommend Dove soap. French dermis say to follow w/ same bottle water rinse every time. Will keep skin unshocked and same PH.
- Have a week to work on your fingernails? Type. The constant “massage” makes fingernails grow very fast.
- Dry a cold sore fast. Keep dabbing Milk of Magnesia on to dry it, don’t touch. Goes away fast.
- Skin breaks out when humid weather comes? Regardless where you are, use same bottled water on face when rinsing every time. If you want invigoration: use sparkling water.
- In a pinch, use mascara as eyeliner. Moisturize eyelids, then dab mascara w/fingers and smudge as needed.
- Get your good skin on! Change your pillowcase every night. Pillowcases are loaded w/ grease & bacteria.
- Leave a little bit of water on your face before you moisturize. Water molecules help take the lotion a little deeper.
- If you’re in the market for a new scent, Kenzo L’eauParKenzo Pour Femme is amazing, unique, and clean clean clean.
- Have a pimple? Use a concealer that is a shade or two darker. Dark undereye circles? Use a shade or two lighter.
- America knows how to market. Ask yourself if you’re really buying the packaging or the product.
- The first thing I’d do is ask, “Who are your clients? Are they people like me? Have you had experience dealing with people like me.” Choosing a financial analyst should be just like choosing a doctor. Every minute of the day he/she should be working on and helping people with your condition. That’s number one.
- Number two. I would want to know what his/her investment philosophy is. “What’s your outlook on the world, the economy, the stock market?” That can be very different from broker to broker. Ideally, you want to find an adviser with a philosophy that matches your philosophy for the relationship to work.
- Number three, don’t be afraid to ask about their track record. “How have you done for your clients? Show me some specific returns. May I have their numbers to contact those clients to see how they’ve done?”
- Fourth, ask how they’re compensated. Are they commissioned based - every time the broker calls you and asks you to do something, are they getting something? Or are they fee based. Not that one is bad and one is good. Like now, the trend in our industry is to go fee based, but there are cases where that is absolutely not the right thing for the client. For example, why should a widow with one million dollars of Exxon stock which she’s owned forever, well, why should she pay you an annual fee to babysit that stock? Most fees these days are ranged between 1% and 2% a year… on a stock like that, she’d be paying $10,000 to $20,000 a year on a fee-based arrangement… that’s an example as to how a fee based model is ridiculous. My business right now is half and half, and I let my clients pick. If that client says to me, “I want that percentage for my Exxon stock,” I’ll immediately say, “No, you don’t.”
- Fifth, ask this: “How is your compliance record. Have you ever had a complaint.” I’m happy to say in my 20 year career, I’ve never had one complaint ever. You can go to NASD.com and put in a broker’s name and get his compliance record; or you can ask the branch manager if the broker has a clean record. Compliance records can, however, be a bit unfair in our industry… because even if a complaint is without merit, if a customer writes a letter of complaint, it goes on the broker’s record… but you can ask your investor about that… and that’s fine. Chances are, they’ll be able to clear it up. What you want to avoid is an investor who has had a history of complaints.
- The best makeup on women over-40 is always going to be subtle makeup, and we only learn subtle when we understand what subtle really means. Go to the nearest mall and study older women. Think to yourself why one woman really looks good and one woman really looks desperate. You don’t want to desperately want to look young. Analyze.
- You don’t have to wear any makeup if you don’t want to. Feel free to have a sexy hairstyle that shows you care about your looks, and forgo the extra makeup process. A little dab of moisturizer is all you need (recommendations and swear by’s: L’Occitane’s Immortelle, Stella McCartney CARE line; Steven Victor MD).
- If you do want color on your face, consider purchasing one lipstick that can be used for both lips and cheeks (we’re talking almost identical ingredients here). The trick to using lipstick as a blush is to make sure that your skin is well-moisturized so the color will blend in smoothly. (recommended: Tarte Lipstick - Saucy is a color that goes with just about any complexion; Yves Saint Laurent ROUGE VOLUPTÉ Silky Sensual Radiant Lipstick SPF 15 in either Peach Passion or Sweet Honey).
- Don’t get sucked into lip liners. They’re fun and defining, but not a budget necessity.
- If you want to do eyes, stick with mascara. And hands down, for the older woman, Givenchy Phenomen’ Eyes Mascara is the thing. Perfect for those who need reading glasses just to open the tube!
- If you need some foundation and don’t want to look made up… another hands down: Smart Shade by Almay. And while you’re at it, get their under eye concealer. You won’t ever need powder again. (Powder enhances wrinkles.)
- Need a good cleanser? Completely Clean Anti-Aging Thermal Cleanser by Avon is a spa in a bottle—no kidding. Wet your face, apply the cleanser, feel it heat up! The granules remove the dead skin that sits on the surface of our face making us look deathly. Apply a good moisturizer after using (*see above).
- Consider ditching the lipstick for lip balm, instead. Lipstick is thicker and tends to enhance the fine lines. A non-sparkling lip balm, such as Sulu’s Vanilla Blossom or Jack Black’s Acai Berry and Vanilla will not only moisten your lips, but make them look sweet and youthful (and they taste great!)
- If you must, must, must do powder, try Paul & Joe Creamy Powder Compact Foundation or Bobbi Brown’s Sheer Finished Pressed Powder
- Spend a week making up different parts of your face, and get your friends to answer this question, at the end: if you had to be stuck on a deserted island, which makeup should you take with you? It’s just possible that they’ll all tell you the one thing you looked best in… and you can forge ahead happily into a free and easy beauty regime based on that.
- Wash your hair, and make sure your bangs stay wet through the cutting process.
- Part your hair down the center.
- Now part off a section of hair into a pie-shaped triangle. Use the ends of your eyebrows as your guide from where to part, and some place on the top of your head on your middle part, as the intersection for your eyebrow sections to meet. CAUTION: The farther back your parts meet, the thicker your bangs will be—it is not recommended that you go beyond your ears, or you will have a big, glob of short hair on top of your head and you will be sad. For fringe bangs, your pie-shape should be very shallow… almost not a pie shape at all, but rather a few strands at the eyebrows, to about a ½ inch where they meet the part in the middle of your hair.
- Comb the pie shape of hair straight down into a section that spans the length of mid-eyebrow to mid-eyebrow, and clamp this section of hair, tight, using your index and middle finger (you get to act like a lobster for a minute… fun, fun!) Keep your fingers horizontal (use your eyebrows as your guide).
- Trim below your clamped fingers in a straight line (take care not to clip your skin!). Even though it seems as if you are cutting your bangs straight across, some of the hair will have to “travel” longer distances to land where they normally land, hence, you have a bit of a inverted, face-framing u-shape in your cut.
- Voila! You have now cut your own bangs.
- Cut your hair an inch longer than you think you want. Hair shrinks when it dries and you don’t want to be (pun) caught short.
- Hold your hair out when you cut, instead of against your forehead, for a less blunt look.
- For a feathery look, hold your hair straight up when you cut.
- Once you have cut your hair straight across, using your clamped fingers as a guide, go ahead and have a little fun. Cut some hairs a bit shorter than others, making sure to always have at least half the hairs the same clipped-finger length. This will allow you to get playful but still have your solid base.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/24/09 at 10:38 AM
Can’t get enough neat ideas to make you feel pretty? Style has a new list just for you.
Do you have any tips you’d like to add? We’d love to hear your comments.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/23/09 at 01:15 PM
Part Two: Exclusive investment advice from financial guru, Jonathan Murray, including the top five things to look for in a broker. (Click here to read Part One with Jonathan Murray.)
Do you have a difficult time trying to figure out how to train different people to handle their money?
One of the things experience gives you is the knowledge of different ways that people learn. For instance, engineers and scientists learn very analytically. They don’t want to hear about the big picture and macro themes. They want to know how the sausage is made. For them, they want to see charts, historic evidence, and they want facts and analysis. And that’s fine. And that’s the way they learn. Other folks - say the artistic types—they learn graphically. Draw them a picture about what their money can do. Draw buckets; demonstrate to them that one bucket of their money is for their college fund, one bucket is for their retirement and one is for their aging parents. Other people just want to know that you, meaning I, know what they want.
What’s the most important aspect of a successful, good financial planner?
To listen. Once you’ve truly understood your clients’ needs, what their goals are, you repeat that back to them, “Okay, so what I understand, you and your family have this thing with money, you don’t talk about it,” or “you’ve created a particular environment, one child you feel good about, one if you give them money, they’ll blow it,” and they’re shaking their head, going, “Yeah yeah yeah”. When you reflect back to the clients what their needs and concerns are, then that’s the ticket right there. That’s the solution. Once they know that you know what they need, the providing the actual solution is the easy part. You can plug them into any investment solution. Too few investors do this. It is all about their agenda and what they want to push. “Hey, I’ve got a stock that’s selling, gives a two week high, selling with a cash flow and blah blah blah.” People don’t want to be crammed with some product from somebody that they don’t even know that well. What does that broker know about your needs and your interest? Did they take the time to ask about you and your goals? Or to ask about your risk tolerance and philosophy? All those things are so important. Much more important than the actual investment recognition. Because in the end, it’s 100% about trust. If your client can’t trust you and know that you truly have their best interest at heart, then the rest doesn’t’ matter.
So what do you tell those who are investing? This market is awful.
Now, more than ever, it’s important to step back and try, as best you can, to ignore the day to day volatility of the market and remember why it is that you’re investing. What specifically are you investing for? For example, you sound fairly young,—- you’re not close to retirement, so if you do step back and ask, “Why am I investing?” and telling yourself, “Well, I’m really investing in my 401k, etc., well, I’m investing this down the road, when will I touch that… maybe when I’m 60, 65 years old…” well, if that’s the case and you’re still in the accumulation part of your life (accumulating shares of stock), then why would you want the stocks to be anything other than low today? Where you want them to be high and at their highest, is the day that you retire. Because that’s the day that you’re going to cash them in. So whether you’re going to invest for your retirement or your child’s education, remembering the purpose of your investment will help you weather these volatile times. For the older investor—those clients who are ready to retire—perserving what they have is of paramount importance. They must protect that nest egg, and a good investor will insulate that through stock market volatility. For those people, it’s a totally different set of prescriptions than for a younger investor. For the older investor, we would recommend, much more bonds, CD’s and municipals, because the biggest risk they have is that their retirement nest egg gets cut in half, and they can’t afford that. The secret is that nobody knows what the future will bring, you can’t predict that, so as a resolve, for every client you have to make sure you’re prepared for any outcome. Older investors, therefore, should be much, much more conservatively positioned than younger investors who can withstand more volatility and risk. So even though nobody could see this recession coming to this extent or degree, if you’ve done your job properly to begin with, your more conservative investors were positioned for this.
Can you have a good gut reaction or a bad gut reaction to an investor? For instance, if you sense this investor is a shyster because of the clothes he wears, or his flashy jewelry, should you run?
Not really. You just have to be careful. Hear him/her her out first. Here are five things to look for in a broker.
How do you get people who don’t invest, to start thinking about investing? So, I’ll go to the kids in elementary and talk to them about not putting all their eggs in one basket. Kids are always great. “Here’s a pencil. You put all the money in that stock and it does terribly… you break that pencil. If you’re a successful investor, you invest in a number of different companies.” I show them lots of pencils wrapped with a rubber band, and I tell them, one pencil is like one stock, it’s extremely volatile, but a bunch of stocks together will have strength. They get that. Teaching children the power of compounding is exciting. I say, “Would you rather have one million dollars today or one penny a day, doubled every day for a month?” Of course they all say, “I’ll take a million dollars.” Then I show them the math. A penny doubling every day for a month, comes to over four million dollars. “Here’s why and here’s the magic, that Einstein talked about,” I tell them. “In the beginning it’s nothing, but as you go along, the shape of that growth isn’t geometric, but parabolic. So that in the first part, the early years of investing, it’s hard to see the benefit, but down the road, five years, twenty years down the road, you are earning interest on a rapidly increasing asset. So, back to that penny doubling every day… in the early part of investing you have, nothing. You have 1 cent, 2 cents, 4 cents, 8 cents, 16 cents… but late in the month, all a sudden you’re doubling $20,000 to $160,000, and then you start doubling $160,000 to $320,000, and the next day to $1.2 million.” That is the magic of long term successful investing. The problem is, as human beings, we get frustrated after a short period of time and give up. We forget that the real benefit to successful investing is down the road.
Jonathan Murray and his twin brother, David, may be the most personable, invigorating investment gurus in America, appearing on the “Today” show and MSNBC with their financial advice. And their popular book, “Two for the Money: Financial Success for the Sandwich Generation” (Da Capo Press), is now out in paperback.
Click here to read Style magazine’s original five questions on part one’s Take Five with Jonathan Murray.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/18/09 at 03:27 PM
Bye Bye Breakouts (and that One Bad Zit!)
It never ceases to amaze me the amount of products people purchase to combat acne, before they even try the more common sense route. What’s good for the cut on the foot is certainly good for the bump on the face. I’m speaking about soaking in hot water, or, rather for the face, using hot compresses. The hot compress solution is a bit more time-intensive than most chemical and medical solutions, but the hot compress solution is also quite often more effective and always, always more cost effective. Do try this at home!
1. Wash your face with a simple, perfume-free soap (I highly recommend Dove soap). Use your hands. If you must use a washcloth, make sure it is fresh out of the laundry; otherwise, it can harbor bacteria.
2. Rinse your face with cold water.
3. Boil water and place in a bowl. (For severe acne, try adding salt to the water. e.g., nothing heals like ocean water!) Lightly dip the tip of a clean washcloth or a clean paper towel into the hot water. Gently press the tip to the acne-area of your face, being cautious to test the heat before you press, e.g., under no circumstances should you put water on your skin that is too uncomfortable!
4. Repeat ten times on same spot. If you have different areas or spots, repeat ten times for each area. Your face should be very red in the areas where you’ve placed the hot compresses; therefore, do this at night, or at least two hours before going out.
5. Wash again with soap and hands (if you are using a washcloth, you need to use yet another clean washcloth than the one you originally used).
6. Rinse again with cold water.
7. Pat skin dry with a clean towel.
8. Do not add moisturizer to the problem areas (never touch the moisturizer in the jar, or the tip of the moisturizer jar—always remove what you need with a Q-tip, as your fingers harbor bacteria).
9. Change your pillowcase every night. Every night the pillowcase must be new. Or turn the pillowcase over to the new side, and change your pillowcase every other night. Your pillowcase harbors bacteria.
10. Make sure that when you brush your teeth, that you use a bit of soap around your mouth after you brush, as toothpaste can cause breakout reactions, too.
11. Get out of the habit of touching your face. Period.
12. If you travel a lot, considering using the same bottled water as your final rinse. This keeps your skin’s PH consistent and, voila, Audrey Hepburn skin beckons you.
We love this natural method—and budget-conscious way—of skin cleansing!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/18/09 at 12:12 PM
Owners Roseann and Robert Glick have taken their first foray into the restaurant industry, opening the very comfortable, eat-and-stay-a-while Village Square Café this past December. When Style asked why they decided to open at this time of economic decline, Roseanne laughed and said, “We didn’t plan it that way! It’s been in the works for a year and a half.”
The Glicks knew there was a void in the Cross Keys market since the closing of the Cross Keys Market and Deli and The Roost over a decade ago, and they wanted to re-offer the concept of dining using a quick-serve model. But make no mistake. Quick-serve is not fast food. The Mt. Washington Pizza (made with artichokes, kalamata olives, fontina and grilled season vegetables) is about as far from a Big Mac as you can get. And a Bacon Double Cheeseburger can’t touch the gourmet Roland Park Omelet (with Hickory smoked bacon, Vermont cheddar cheese and a wonderful helping of fresh, home-grown spinach). So far, the customers favorites tend to be “The Big Breakfast,” with eggs, bacon and pancakes—all home-made; the Turkey Club made with house-roasted, hand-carved turkey, served on any kind of bread, but suggested on toasted sourdough; the Garden Sandwich, with grilled vegetables, portabello mushrooms, peppers and goat cheese on foccacia; or the burger (using local Fell’s Point meats!)... all made with hand-cut French fries that absolutely nobody can resist (sorry, hips!). And if you have room for some exquisite dessert (and who doesn’t?!), the brownies are a yummy must-digest.
There is a variety of seating options at the Village Square Cafe: sit at the counter and chat with the staff or sit at the window counter, looking out at the plaza of the Village Square (looking directly across at Child’s Play); grab a seat at the farm house table, destined for large groups or individuals who would like to get to know other people; nab a spot on the sofas and garden benches (cosy up with a newspaper and a cappuccino); and the Village Square Café also has marble table tops that seat two or four along a banquette. The walls were faux painted by local artist, Kelly; and a mural, inspired by a Jean Paul Gaultier skirt, was painted on the back wall by Hungarian born artist, Balage, who now resides in Baltimore. “My mother-in-law, who owned Ruth Shaw (it was recently sold to Ray Mitchner last year), had met Balage and he was proposing various mural scheme on the back wall, and she introduced him to this skirt that had great color and movement and said, ‘I envision something like this on the back wall.’”
The food and the interior both get high praise for excellence, but the heart of this business is the reintroduction of community. Says Glick, “Half of our customers come in to tell their tales and bemoan the loss of the Cross Keys Market and Deli and The Roost .... both important community gathering spots in northwest Baltimore. It’s exciting to see people back at Cross Keys that we haven’t seen in over 10 years—and to hear doctors and shop owners tell us the same thing. A community gathering spot is what we strive to be.”
Roseann Glick’s choice: The Veggie: stuffed with portabello mushrooms, red and yellow peppers, seasonal vegetables and goat cheese.
Robert Glick’s choice: The Rueben: a classic rueben served with corned beef, sauerkraut, Russian dressing, and grilled on Rye bread.
The Mother-in-Law’s choice: The thin crust pizza (a special pizza is served each day—or order off the menu).
Style magazine’s choice: Challah Bread French Toast: Two giants slices of French toast, served with whipped butter & Vermont maple syrup.
Village Square Café
66 Village Square in Cross Keys
410-433-CAFE (2233)
villagesquarecafe.com
Hours:
Mon-Fri:
7:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Sat-Sun
8 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Click for Directions and Map to Village Square Café at Cross Keys.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/29/09 at 02:05 PM
While most of Charm City was socked in by ice this week, Style magazine took a ride over to meet Baltimore artist, Carol Brody. Her unique beadwork is sold at the Baltimore Museum of Art’s gift shop and Bijoux at Greenspring Station.
Her bead collection comes from all over the world. She particularly uses Czech glass and Japanese seed beads. All her clasps are either vermeil or sterling silver. “I don’t use the ordinary lobster clasps,” Brody says, “because they’re ordinary. I want my work to be special, and what I specialize in is unexpected combinations of color and material.”
She crochets her beads, by loading them onto a strong, thin thread and then crocheting them into a long tube until she gets to the length she wants. Her bead weaving techniques are based on ancient methods, and any bead is game: African beads, carved clay beads, etched ceramics beads, African coral beads from Essaouira, fresh water pearls of many colors and hues, Swarovski and other crystals that have finishes that range from matte to shiny.
Brody constantly strives for a rich combination of texture, color and form, while, at the same time, making jewelry that will fit with many different styles of clothes and situations. One of her necklaces is made with lemon Citrine and matte vermeil balls, and is a perfect example of using asymmetrical with symmetrical shapes, and matte beads and with shiny crystals. It’s really a perfect piece of wearable art for jeans or dressing up.
Brody has already been acknowledged on the Baltimore art scene. She’s an artist member of Baltimore Clayworks, and once owned a store in Greenspring Station called Crafts Concepts, where her pottery was sold. She’s also been juried in national and international exhibits.
With her professionally artistic background, one would think Brody’s price tags would be prohibitive. Wrong. This is jewelry at a sweet-spot price (ready made can sell for as little as $35). But the real jewel works are her unique, customized pieces, and they range a bit higher. She can work with anyone’s old beads and redesign something special from them—focusing on the scale, color preference and personal style of whomever the wearer will be. Needless to say, Brody customizes jewelry By Appointment Only.
Style recommends a perfect Valentine’s Gift: find a family heirloom that’s been gathering dust, and have Brody turn it into wearable art. Contact Carol Broday at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/28/09 at 08:42 PM
Vasarri owner, Gail Kandel has just sold over 45+ inaugural gowns. Baltimore is in tune with the trends, and it’s nice to know that the gowns were bought here, and not in DC or NY. And that Vasarri sold so many inaugural gowns won’t come as a surprise to Baltimore fashionistas. Kandel definitely has the goods.
Plus, Kandel has her finger on our pulse on how we’re shopping and what we’re buying. Even in this trying economic time. In fact, last March she was quoted in Women’s Wear Daily (WWD).
“Our customers are still shopping, but they’re very cautious. Where they used to buy more at one time, traffic is down. People are buying one thing at a time. So for me, I walk by more things now where I used to try them out. Now, if I am not in love, I don’t do it.” Kandel pointed to the Palm Beach, Fla.-based handbag from Zina Eva that features colorful patent clutches and zipper-detailed carryalls wholesaling from $129 to $269. “These bags are great, I like them very much,” Kandel said. “And it’s a great value. Someone who buys Chanel will always buy Chanel, but they’ll pick this up as a fun bag. Plus, they are totally available. They’re delivering to me in any color in two weeks.”
When Style magazine went on Twitter to ask people what they thought about Vasarri, we were surprised to get such fast feedback. Sometimes responses can take hours—or even days—but asking about Vasarri brought immediate reactions:
twitter/catherinette @StyleMagazine I love their handbags. And they carry BCBG!
twitter/cameronbarry @StyleMagazine Yes. I bought a cocktail dress, shoes & shawl there for my 12/27 wedding.
twitter/brauchi @StyleMagazine When I feel down, I go there. I feel better just opening their door. They have so much great stuff!
Vasarri
1636 Reisterstown Road
Pikesville, MD
410-415-6333
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/19/09 at 06:47 PM
The first time I ever visited the city of Fontainebleau, France was totally by accident. In fact, I tried desperately to by-pass it so I could get to another city, any city, other than Fontainebleau. To me, the name conjured up honky-tonk dives in the south, where people poured out of a white shack (and out of their dresses), and the only thing that cost a dime was the flashing neon sign that blinked out into the swamp and away from the city: “Fontainebleau, Fontainebleau, Fontainebleau.”
But I had a problem. I had a bad ear infection that was pounding as loud as one of those neon signs, and I couldn’t take another moment in one more place other a hospital emergency room.
So I drove to the hospital and was diagnosed with a busted eardrum. And guess what? I was not allowed to catch my plane the next day. In fact, I was not allowed to fly for a month!
So what did I do? Well, I did what any American would do in a situation such as that. I got a hotel room and sat alone with my luggage and wondered what in the world I was going to do. I mean, it’s one thing to spend time in France when you’ve put it in your budget and scheduled in the museums to see and the places to go and the crepes to eat. It’s another thing when your budget has become puny after an already long trip in France, and suddenly your trip is going to be even longer than the initial first run. But things could have been worse. I could have been stuck in Newark for a month. So I did what anybody with any sense would do and made the best of it.
And here’s what I learned. You can’t get much better than Fontainebleau for living. And I’ll tell you why.
Just about any hotel you get will somehow overlook the famous Chateau. I stayed at Hotel de Londres and got a room with gorgeous French windows that opened up right onto the magnificent view of the famous historical stairs where the very histrionic Napoleon ended his reign. In fact, the only thing between those stairs and that hotel is a street.
Now most people will tell you that you can’t miss Versailles and you can’t miss the Cathédrale Notre Dame de Chartres, but I will stand here all day long and tell you that you can easily miss them and the tourists and souvenirs shops. If you want to see a Chateau—a real palace where Kings stayed—then Chateau de Fontainebleau is the best bet. Sure, the place has its moments of being crowded, but never the way Versailles is crowded, where the crowds sort of push you from beginning to end.
Fontainebleau is a Chateau where you can take your time going from room to room; where you can feast your eyes on the small bed and huge chambers of Napoleon Bonaparte; where you can walk through the ballroom that Henri II built— incidentally, in honor of his mistress; and on and on you can go. And when you are finished inside, you can buy an ice cream cone and take a canoe ride, all by yourself if you want (and can row with an ice cream cone), to the little island that houses Napoleon’s octagonal office. You can take a horse drawn carriage ride. You can take a little train through the town and around the Castle. You can take a walk through the diverse gardens. Or, if you want, you can buy a baguette and cheese from town and have a little picnic in front of some of the same statues made by the same artists who made the same sort of statues at the Louvre; and you can feed the peacocks that come from a long line of peacocks that have resided there.
Once you are finished with the Chateau (and you can spend one hour or all day there and feel satisfied either way), you can go eat! Because eating is what one does when one is in France—and because the eating in Fontainebleau is as good as any restaurant in Paris—as long as it is French food. I recommend La Petite Alsace, and, as well, La Cave de Duc is lovely.
When you are finished with eating and Chateauxing, then try legging it up Rue de Sablons for shopping, because there the shopping is diverse and exciting. It’s a basically if-you-want-it-they’ve-got-it gig, and it’s a sweet journey. Don’t forget to dip in and out of the cheese shops and the boulangeries for some snacks along the way. Then, circle around towards the Market (and hope you are lucky enough to be there on either Friday or Sunday morning), check out the shops along the church road, and take a right back onto the main road to shop some more. Get the picture? There’s a lot of shopping to do in Fontainebleau and nothing is lacking.
For kids there is a Carrousel smack in the middle of town, right next to a yum-yum Creperie. And, of course, there is all that stuff to do at the Chateau!
You probably wouldn’t want to stay in Fontainebleau for a week; it’s not that kind of town. Well, actually, it is, but only if you’ve done Paris enough that you want to explore living someplace near Paris. Paris is, after all, only 45 minutes away by train or car.
However, staying in Fontainebleau overnight, or even for two nights, would be well worth your money and time. I highly recommend it for people who just want to do something else besides Paris and they have a day or two to knock off before catching the airplane home.
Oh, I forgot to mention Barbizon, the famous artist colony that is just kilometers away, and jam-packed with art galleries; and Milley-la-Foret, just as near, with its mediaeval marketplace; and the Fontainebleau forest, famous for its rock-climbing, horseback riding, hiking; and… well, the list goes on and on. So, maybe if you are thinking of going, you should make that stay last three days.
Hey, I never did finish my story. After that waiting period of a month was over, and my ear was healed and I could return home, well, I did what anybody with any sense would do. I called in to work sick, again, stating that, well, I had to stay an extra month, because, well, you know how the French medical system is. Then, smugly, I went and ate a crepe.
La Petite Alsace
26, rue Ferrare
77300, Fontainebleau
01-64-23-45-45
La Cave du Duc
24, rue Ferrare
77300, Fontainebleau
01-64-22-05-05
Reel Books
9, rue de Ferrare
77300, Fontainebleau
01-64-22-85-85
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Hotel de Londres
1 place General de Gaulle
77300, Fontainebleau
01-64-22-20-21
www.hoteldelondres.com
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/08/09 at 12:58 AM
What do you get when you put together: a cone of sweet potato fries with mango ketchup and citrus aioli; and a chicken salad made with, yum, Benne seed boneless breast of chicken pieces, Bibb lettuce, white cheddar, diced green tomatoes, pickled okra, matchstick sweet potatoes & Bepperdews with creamy honey mustard dressing; and a smoked turkey sandwich with brie cheese, Granny Smith apples,sprouts, lettuce, tomato & honey mustard on Ciabatta (The Alonsoville)? All served inside warm, welcoming booths, amidst burgundy colored walls and large windows looking out onto Pratt Street? Miss. Shirley’s Cafe, at its newest location, inside the Constellation Energy building, filled to the brim with Aquarium visitors and downtown employees—and an excellent lunch that will just make you feel happy with the world. Caution: you’ll want to arrive early so you can chuckle to yourself while your food arrives at your table as the crowd lines up outside the door. And if you’re not in the mood for lunch, you can always default to the Pumpkin Cheesecake-Stuffed French Toast, filled with pumpkin cream cheese with whipped Cream & Graham Cracker crumbs. Just don’t expect to go follow this lunch with a jog. Probably a stroll down the Inner Harbor will be about as much as you can do, because, after all, who can resist cleaning their plate at Miss Shirley’s Cafe.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 12/30/08 at 03:29 PM
Ask yourself this one question. Do you really want to live in a town that offers only Walmart, malls and conglomerate cinemas? No. You want to live in a town that has character and charm. Opera might not be your thing, but you like knowing it’s there. Purchasing a handbag for $1500 might seem prohibitive, but knowing you have the shop that houses those handbags makes you feel prouder about your city. The little shop around the corner that has gifts that are just a wee bit more expensive than what you can get on Amazon or eBay, also offers you a piece of mind, because, hey, when you need to get out and just touch, look, feel… that shop is there.
Now, right now, please support your local shops and boutiques. They’re the shops that could benefit from your patronage. They’re the shops we need to support. They’re the shops that will leave our town less picturesque if they have to close.
If you don’t want to live in a giant mix of Walmart and McDonalds, then look inside your wallets and see if you can help keep these merchants healthy. Take advantage of the sales that are going on and purchase the gifts you need for 2009 now… right now… at your local shops.
This is not about advertising. This is not about marketing. This is about your local economy and all the things you love and hold dear about your town.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 12/29/08 at 01:43 PM
Written by Style’s online associate editor, Jessica Krznaric. As the environment turns more eco-friendly and natural food sellers are on a rise, I couldn’t help but wonder how far to make changes in my lifestyle. After picking up my organic eggs and whole wheat pasta in my cloth grocery bag, I headed off for an afternoon of leisurely shopping. Scanning for the right store, I caught sight of the Body Shop.
Stepping inside, I noticed that the makeup was neatly stacked in piles and bins, looking back at me with a quiet stare. My first confrontation with natural makeup and I was as overly anxious as a young child to try, touch and feel, as my eyes darted in all directions. Through my exploration, I uncovered the shop’s ingenious philosophy of natural ingredients being used to create natural beauty. Not looking to shy away from natural beauty, I made the very drawn out decision of selecting a pink champagne eye shadow and a matching rose colored lipstick.
Inquisitive to learn more about natural makeup, I read up on the eye shadow and lipstick’s ingredients later that evening. The eye shadow’s components could be traced back to South Africa. Its consistency was made from the all natural miracle oil called marula. Found in the South African Namibia tree (also famous for Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt), the oil claims to create a smooth barrier over the eyelids to hydrate and restore the skin. Interesting.
The lipstick was made with marula oil as well, but it also had organic beeswax, grape seed oil and lanolin in its genetics. All used to condition and moisturize the skin, the beeswax specifically preserved the lipstick, while the large amount of fatty acids found in the grape seed oil worked with the body to restore smoothness. Lanolin is a rich moisturizer made from the wool of sheep, whose extracts protect the skin. And all of these elements rested on my face, a fascinating concept in itself. Did it feel different from my typical drugstore bought products?
It did! The Body Shop’s all natural eye shadow was intense, brightening up my eyes. The coverage was concise and crease resistant, long-lasting and light to wear. My customary eye shadow made my eyes looked dull and and made me feel less attractive in comparison.
The Body Shop’s lipstick was soft and refreshing and was one product that actually worked well with chapped lips. Glancing over to my normal lip gloss, it smelled great, but that was all. Truly there was no comparison, and a subtle rearranging of my makeup bag was about to be put into motion.
By: Jessica Krznaric
The Body Shop Eye Color!
The Body Shop Garnet Lipstick.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 12/23/08 at 01:15 PM
The first time I ever applied eyeshadow, I was probably nine, it was probably my sister’s makeup, and I’m absolutely positive the eyeshadow was robin’s egg blue. I looked gorgeous. All I had needed was to put on her glittering white lipstick (am I showing my age here?), and any man would want to marry me. Right there. On the spot. The only problem—besides the fact that I was only nine—was that the lipstick had not yet been opened. So what did I do? I did what any younger sister would do at a time like that. I opened it. I applied it. And there, in the mirror before me, was the new me, the most beautiful new woman in the world. Forget that I looked like I had white-out on my prepubescent lips. I was now myself, only better. And that’s what makeup has always meant to me. The tool that brings out the “better” version of the person in the mirror.
Of course, it’s all a trick. No matter how often I apply my under eye concealer just so; no matter how many times my mascara doesn’t clump; no matter the fact that I cover my cheekbones with blush to perfection, I’m still the same old girl who tromps around my house in ratty slippers, gnaws at my fingernails, and curses at idiotic commercials on the television while I mainline Lifetime TV docudrama movies. Still, who cares if makeup is just a trick? A Christmas tree is just a Douglas Fir without the lights on, but on go the baubles and LED’s, and suddenly it’s Christmas. I’m just a woman with all the body parts allotted to me, but on goes the makeup and suddenly I’m glamor personified.
In fact, I loved makeup so much that after my sister pummeled me for going through her makeup, all I (the daughter of a Harvard Professor and a mother who was a University Art Professor) ever wanted to do with my life was become someone who applied makeup for a living. I wanted to be the cosmetic queen. So what did I do? Well, I went to beauty school.
Don’t get me wrong. Beauty school was great and I was great for beauty school. I did great hair. But that’s for another story. Having a cosmetician license didn’t preclude dabbling in makeup. The minute I was out of beauty school, I applied for a job at the nearest hair salon that sold cosmetics. I wanted to make people beautiful from the top of their head to the bottom of their necks even if they had crepe-y necks… (and I did great crepe necks).
By the time I was out of beauty school and had gone through college and become a novelist and then editor, I had segued from the creamy blue eyeshadow and white-out lips, to the wine powdered eyeshadow with a dab of white frost under the brow and Clinique Black Cherry lip gloss on my smacker, to the wild bright colors of Borghese everything, to, finally, a subtle stroke of all the good things I’d learned, leaving behind the mistakes and drama.
I’ve never really understood why female birds are given the dull feathers, while the male birds are given the fabulous colors (think male peacock here), because as female human beings, it seems a required rite of passage for us to apply (with generous amounts of hormone-produced motivation) as many makeup colors as we can possibly load up on our pale faces. Darwin, where are you when I need an explanation? Why oh why did the guys get off so easy, with their morning shave and rapidly pulled on jeans, while we, the girls, had to spend hours making sure our hair was just right in order to go anywhere—even the grocery store?
Who knows. Who cares. Thank the Universe that those days of applying makeup like a clown are long behind me. I’ve managed to get out alive, and without having plucked out (permanently!) too many eyebrows in the process (I can now go peacefully into old age without adding color where hair should be). And I’ve discovered tricks that I can now pass on to other women who actually do want to get the makeup right.
These tips are for the women who’ve passed the initial pile-it-all-on makeup phase, and have landed into the just-do-something-with-my-face stage… these makeup tips are for women who want to budget their bucks and budget their time.
Ten Make Up Budget Tips and Tricks
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 12/19/08 at 04:48 PM
Not all bangs are created equal—and while we’re on the subject of equality, unless you want to look, well, weird, bangs cut equal in length will create a fairly awful appearance. Why? Because bangs should frame your face, much the way your eyebrows do—and only the strangest looking eyebrows grow in a straight line. It’s always best to have a professional give you an initial hair cut and style, but after you get your style just right—and when it starts to grow out and get unruly—don’t be afraid to give yourself a trim and save a few bucks. Cutting your own bangs can be painless and inexpensive—and downright fun, once you get used to it. (And pssst… remember, hair really does grow back!)
Step by Step Guide—How to Cut Your Own Bangs
Important Tips to Cutting Your Own Bangs
Where to get your hair cut in Baltimore:
About Faces has more great hairstylists than all the hairstylists in NYC combined. Plus, they carry Darphin skin care… oo la la.
For more good information on hair, read Curly Hair Karma..
Sarah Gilbert (Fox) is the author of Hairdo and a former hairstylist, who cuts her own bangs regularly and still hasn’t mastered the technique of making sure the little hairs don’t fly all around the bathroom in the process. “Cleaning up is always the hardest part.”
If you have any hair questions for Sarah, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 12/11/08 at 04:22 PM
So, recession, depression, economic crunch or crisis, whatever you want to call it, those high-end ways of entertaining ourselves need to be cut in half or put on the shelf for the time being. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun. For less than the price of one entree at a fancy restaurant, adults can play these games with other adults, or with their kids, and get back to the real point in life—having fun. Plus, these games can be played again and again. That foie gras you had last night can only live on in your memory.
1.) Nerf Cosmic Keep Away
by Hasbro
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a, well, not any type of ball we’ve ever seen, and that’s what makes it so much fun—screaming fun. And funny. This ball comes with electronic, colorful wristbands which the ball gives commands to—if the ball says blue, the person wearing the blue wristband has to make a move. Three games can be played with Cosmic Keep Away: Keep Away; One-Minute Keep Away; and Team Countdown, where one team has to complete twenty passes by keeping the ball away from the other team. If you’re in the mood for laughing so hard your stomach hurts—this is the toy for you. Perfect for the beer drinking crowd and the apple juice drinkers—but don’t mix the two, please. $27 - Nerf Cosmic Keep Away
2.) Hollywood Dominoes
by Parker Brothers
If you haven’t rediscovered dominoes as an adult, then, baby, hop on the bandwagon. The twist on this particular game is cute, of course. Who doesn’t want to be a star—at least for fifteen minutes?! And even though you can’t rub shoulders with the likes of Demi Moore, Selma Hayak, Ashton Kutcher, Charlize Theron, Penelope Cruz, Bruce Willis and other A - List Celebrities, you can play their game—they’ve created and endorsed this game. But back to dominoes. If you love canasta, or you’re a bridge fanatic, or you just want something different to do other than watch TV, dominoes might just be the perfect alternative for you. Expect at least two hours of a hugely good time. $38 - Hollywood Dominoes Premier Edition
3.) Pink Ouija Board
by Parker Brothers
Yes! Yes! Yes, yes, yes! Yelled Meg Ryan in “When Harry Met Sally,” and it’s what we tried to do when we were in high school and asked the Ouija board if one of us would die that night. Remember those creepy evenings when the little Ouija disk moved across the board to point out our early demise? Well, years later we’re still alive, and now we have kids of our own (and some of them even have kids of their own)... and it’s time to share the doom and gloom and have some fun! For those who never had the luxury of finding out when they would die by the magic of the Ouija Board, it’s never too late to learn. Simply set the board game down, place your hands on the disk, and think hard about getting an answer to a mysterious question (most of us ask about death, of course!). And if death isn’t your thing, this particular Ouija board is pink, which might very well leave you asking: “Will the next love of my life appear soon?” You’ll want that the disk moves to Yes! Yes! Yes, yes, yes! p.s. Good for the beer gang on down, but if the apple juice gang plays, make sure to search for cute questions—leave death to those who can handle it. $41 - Ouija Board - Pink
4.) Cranium Wow Game
by cranium
Oh, the tub of the mighty purple clay! You might be the lucky player who draws one of the 600 cards that tells you to build a “cheeseburger in paradise” in sixty seconds; or you’ll have to pretend to make up a bed in one minute, tops, with nothing but air to use as your material; or you’ll have a glorious sixty minutes to sketch a nose dive. The sky’s the limit when it comes to you acting out, sketching, sculpting the absurd, in hopes that someone will understand your clues to the answer. Cranium is fun, but this edition is really swank, because of the plastic figurines that come with their own wigs, which move across the board every time you get your team to finally understand that that funny thing you’re trying to build with the clay is a roller derby queen. Any kid, from grown up to toddlers, can draw and sculpt. In fact, most of the kids will do a better job than you, so watch out! $30 - Cranium Wow Game
5.) Partini
by Parker Brothers
One might think that, because of the title of this game, it was meant to be played drinking Martinis. And don’t let us stop you, because it would be hilarious to be a bit tipsy and watch someone else who’s a little tipsy trying to toss a ball into a cup from a strange angle before you do. But it’s just as fun doing this with the kids while you’re all high on soda pop and life. There are so many games in this one game that you can host a family Partini marathon. Mime your way, hum your way, act your way through the holidays and have a blast. $28 - PARTINI
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 12/09/08 at 02:27 PM
My Aunt Lisa may have been in my life from the day I was born, but she really “came into” my life when I was five, and she arrived for a visit in her little blue car during the time when my father had sailed out of my life in his big blue convertible with his new upgraded wife. Youth and innocence kept me from understanding the pain and misery that had broken my planet, but also allowed me to completely envelope myself in Aunt Lisa’s joie de vivre. How better to explain what magic she brought to a child, than to share the words that sprang from our mouths when she walked in the door of our childhood Baltimore home. “Aunt Lisa is here! Aunt Lisa is here!” we’d squeal.
She was that type of woman who always kept a sweet smile on her face. She was regally gorgeous. She drew little puppies and cats and flowers for us; and, even more important, she wrote a column for The Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus, Georgia, and often wrote about us… mentioning our puppies and cats and flowers. We had acquired a veritable zoo because of our knack for rescuing animals that were pregnant. My Great Aunt Ella named one litter of kittens, “By, Far, Too and Many;” and that was the sort of thing Aunt Lisa would write about in her column, and then come to show us – the wide-eyed Gilbert children. “Wow, I’m in the newspaper?!” I’d ask, with my thumb in my mouth, my blanket trailing the floor.
“But, why yes, darling? If not you, why should anyone else be in the paper?” she would say.
Suddenly we were important little people. Not because of our new found fame, but because someone understood that we were worth writing about – and not worth being left behind.
There was another thing Aunt Lisa loved to write about as much as us – she loved to write about France. Oh, how she loved France! In fact, she loved France so much that, until I was an adult, I always thought she was French! She’d spent a long, glamorous honeymoon in Paris, bringing back photos of her new husband sipping coffee in the café; fashionable women walking their dogs; her, turning to smile back at the camera, with a scarf flapping around her neck from the wind flying off the cars zooming down the Champs Elysées. She spoke about the Loire Valley, Versailles, Fontainebleau, and a little old man smoking a cigar in a little French town, saying something in French to her that we didn’t understand when she said it back to us, but it didn’t matter, because understanding what he said was not the point. It was that he had spoken to her in a foreign language at all… and that she could say it back to us… with a look of sheer bliss on her face as she recalled his words.
She brought the real France home to us, so that when we struck out on our own, we weren’t in search of the Eiffel Tower — we were in search of that little old man who spoke French in the small towns.
Sometimes we never find that elusive thing for which we search. But I’ve found that old man on every visit to France; and his counterpart, the old woman who wears an apron and sweeps the store front. And maybe that’s the beauty of France… we really do discover those things in which we seek when we visit. We go to France and take off our judgment hat. Back home at the Waffle House, we see the heavy man smoking a cigar and we are flooded with verdicts about his life. In France, we see that same man smoking a cigar and we see him for what he is: a human being just making his way in life, the same as us – only with much better bread!
This month, fifteen years ago, my mother died. This month yesterday, my aunt died. And you know, just when I think I’ve lost them, I head over to France and I find them again — the element of them. And that really does matter. There’s my mother in her Keds, taking photos of the Seine. There’s my aunt, waltzing down the Champs Elysées. They haven’t really died. They’ve just, as Oscar Wilde said, “Gone to Paris.” And whether I go on a plane, or I just go, I get to join them.
Copyright © Sarah Gilbert Fox
Originally published on www.bonjourparis.com
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 11/24/08 at 12:54 PM
Most Baltimoreans don’t realize how truly small Edinburgh, Scotland is. For all its hype as one of the leading cities to visit in the United Kingdom, Edinburgh is really just a small, compact, accessible, charming, very friendly, exquisitely posh village that one can walk in a few hours, and visit within a few days. Add to that, a castle and the five-star luxury Rocco Forte Collection’s Balmoral Castle Hotel, and basically this is the most perfect town on the face of the earth.The Balmoral is right next to the Waverly Train Station (and, in fact, there used to be an underground pathway from the inside of the hotel to station), which makes getting here a breeze, even for the most jet lagged traveler. Its Princes’ street address signifies two major goodies: you’re not only in the main shopping district of Edinburgh, but you’re going to have incredible views of the Edinburgh Castle, the Sir Walter Scott Monument and Princes Street. And, indeed, the 188 recently refurbished suites offer up these views.
The eclectic country-meets-modern decorated rooms in the colors of the Highland mists, moors and heathers (think Scottish kilts, blended with modern decor) are the epitome of comfort; with oh-so-high ceilings and square footage practically unheard of in the UK, a bathroom to die for (sumptuous shampoo, soap, and shower gel amenities, French windows that open wide, heated towel racks and heated floor tiles!), and a bed that magnetically pulls you towards it (with exclusively designed Johnston’s of Elgin blankets on every bed), the conundrum is that you won’t even know where to begin with your self-indulgence!
So don’t even start there.
Instead, before you even visit your room, take the Afternoon Tea inside the Palm Court Drawing Room, overlooking the famous Edinburgh Castle. (They don’t call it High Tea in Scotland; it’s either Cream Tea or Afternoon Tea; the more posh the place, the more likely you are to get Afternoon Tea.) In comes a tiered set-up of canapés and scones: Heather Honey Scones, Chocolate Scones, Raisin Scones, Dundee Cakes, Selkirk Bannocks, served up with Clotted Cream (who can resist!) and Strawberry Preserves. And there are Finger Sandwiches (Scottish Smoked Salmon, Egg Mayonnaise, Plum Tomato and Chives, Roast Beef, Ayrshire Ham with Gruyère Cheese, Cucumber and Milled Pepper) that are every bit as delicious as the marvelous variety of pretty homemade Pastries at the very top of the tier. And, of course, don’t forget the always flowing Tea, Coffee and Bollinger Champagne.
After you’ve had your fill of, perhaps, the best food in the UK (and we aren’t even talking about the restaurant yet), then head to the Balmoral Spa, voted this year as Scotland’s top Urban Day Spa by Conde Nast Traveler Readers’ Spa Awards. This is where you’ll be glad you reserved the “Simply Spa” package, which comes with a one-hour organic Ytsara Treatment; a Manao Head, Face and Body Treatment (where a heavenly smelling herbal poultice is placed all over your body, followed by a floral body rub); and the Nuat Namman Body Oil Ceremony with a tropical aromatherapeutic acupressure massage. After, skinny it into the Finnish sauna and Turkish steam room, then cool off and jump into the clear, 15 meter pool, and dry off in the candle-lit, scented Relaxation Suite, sipping fresh-fresh fruit juices and reading all the newest fashion magazines.
By this time, of course, you’ve built your appetite back up and it’s time for dinner at the Michelin double-starred number one restaurant, where Chef Jeff Bland will start you off with something exceedingly delicious, such as Seared Scallops with Baby Spinach Soup and Salt Cod Ravioli, Langoustine and Poached Quail Egg or the Baked Morel Mousse, Green Asparagus, Morel Fricassee and Confit Egg Yolk. Segue into the Loin of Spring Lamb, Boulangere Potatoes, Peas, Baby Gem and Tarragon Emulsion or, for the fish lover, the Fillet of Halibut with Ratte Potatoes, Poached Scottish Lobster and Caviar Cream. Finish off with the Lemon Soufflé with Strawberry Shortbread and Strawberry Sorbet, because, well, you just have to have the Strawberry Shortbread while in Scotland, period. Yum.
And, now, you can visit your room!
Or let’s just say you had too much to eat at Afternoon Tea and you want to forgo dinner. Then you really can take advantage of your luscious room. Reserve the Pajama Party package (ask for the gorgeous Presidential Suite!) where you can sneak down to the spa for whatever treatment you want, whenever you want, or have a spa therapist come to your room to give a mini back rub and manicure, all while you watch flicks, drink champagne and snack on comfort food. And, yep, you can even work in your P.J.’s because each room has two telephone lines; fax-modem lines and broadband Internet connection, as well as an interactive national and satellite television. And seasoned European travelers will be happy to know that the individual air-conditioning is a blast of arctic luxury on those rare days in Scotland when the air gets toasty.
With all this, you won’t even want to leave the hotel to visit the Balmoral Castle — after all, you can view the Castle from your window while you sip champagne.
Copyright © Sarah Gilbert Fox
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 11/24/08 at 12:02 PM
I’ve had curly hair since before I was born. I know this because hair doesn’t get this spirited unless you have good (on some days) karma or bad (on some days) karma. And judging by my reaction to my curly hair, I must have spent my past lives beating the crap out of my people while they toiled and I waved around a mutton leg during a feast giving unreasonable orders—curly hair was my consequence, my comeuppance.
Now, I don’t really believe in past lives. I rank past lives right up there with trying to keep my hair straight on a humid day, neither gets you anywhere but back to where you are—in this century, with this head of hair. But when I look at the glossy, straight haired women in my office, it’s hard not to think that our hair was put on our heads for a karmic reason. The sleek blondes must have been good people in their past lives. They were meant to fit in— everywhere—the country club, sororities, through a doorway. But not those of us with our springing, frizzing, bursting-out-all-over curls. We were left to make our own path— after we’d spent the first part of our lives trying to fit in by trying to tame our Medusa locks.
For me, it all began with the almighty orange juice cans that promised straight hair glory… if I could manage to get my curls to curl around the curve of the can. A big if. The first rule of thumb with curly hair is that it will only curl the way it wants to curl, and guiding a curl will only lead to a feeling of hopelessness.
After the OJ cans, a Lebanese friend introduced me to the pull-wet-hair-as-tight-as-possible-into-a-ponytail-and-wrap-ponytail-smack-up-against-the-head-and-secure-with-bobypins-until-hair-dries-76-hours-later method. It was actually a pretty adequate method, providing the places where the rubber band and bobby pins crimped the hair weren’t too unattractive—and there was only 6 percent humidity in the air.
Segue to the TV show Charlie’s Angels, starring lovely haired Farrah Fawcett. Ha! For a brief shining moment, providing the humidity wasn’t too heavy and the stars and moons lined up the right way, those of us with curly hair had it over the stick straight haired girls. Our hair could hold the glorious tube curls that had to run up the sides of our heads just so. Spritz in a little Sun-In for some brassy red highlights (that were meant to be blond) and— oh yeah—hello, beauty. (Note: I burned my high school senior pictures.)
And for about ten brief shining minutes, curly hair was in. Unfortunately, so were perms, and naturally, the sleek hairs had it over us. They could get perfect (and, okay, perfectly ugly) ringlets, while those of us with curly hair were left with our mass of confusion.
Further proof that curly hair was a karmic thing. We were supposed to suffer to make up for past regressions.
Or so was my theory. And from listening to others in the same frizzy situation, it was obvious that my theory was as sound as E=mc2 science.
Travel did nothing to help me come to terms with my hair. As a curly haired friend of mine once said, “Having curly hair in Paris is about as acceptable as having venereal warts.” Not ever having had those, I could at least commiserate with those who had because I understood the full-frontal anguish that came with having curly hair. And she was right. I’ll eat blood sausage if anyone can send me a picture of someone with curly hair legging it up the Champs Elysees. When I lived in Paris, I slept with one large Velcro curler in my hair. If I could at least keep my bangs tamed, that would be fine. I was, after all, getting older. Hence, the battle of the hair cuticles was beginning to wear me down.
Cut to (bypassing years of desperation and frustration while trying anything that came down the pike that promised sleek, tamed hair) the beginning of the new millennium and the exquisite hair tool called the ceramic ionic flat iron. Of course, no tool under $100 would work, but I didn’t care if I had to spend $500 plus; if the tool really proved to make my hair straight and hold it through a deluge of rain and humidity, I’d steal from our daughter’s college funds if I had to. Easily justified. If Mommy is happy, Baby thrives. If Baby thrives, Baby will grow up to be a smarty-pants and win scholarships to Harvard.
Our daughter is only ten years old, and although she is not yet old enough for the Ivy Leagues, she is thriving. Naturally, I chalk this up to my $250 GHD ionic flat iron
Finally, after decades of hair discontent, I have found hair happiness. Or almost. Now when people give me compliments about my straight hair, I feel an urgent need to explain that I really have curly hair. And when I meet other women who wear their hair naturally curly, I feel I’m a traitor. I do have a medical reason, though, for needing straight hair. Or at least I think I do, or I did, or I dreamed it up or something. It sounds good, any way. Of course, I haven’t forgotten the karmic factor. My hair won’t let me. Just when I’ve gotten the kinks worked out, I started to sprout gray hair. What’s next, you karmic gods? Chin hairs? At what age do ear hairs cut in? And if I cut them back? Then what?
The moral of this story is: Be good in this life, so you don’t have to come back in the next life living bad hair days. I’d like to stay and try to explain, but I’m heading outside to my car. Someone once told me that the only time a woman will ever notice chin hairs is when she’s driving down the road, looking in her rearview mirror, and I want to catch this stuff early.
Sarah Gilbert Fox first got her writing start as a beautician who had written a short story called “Beauty School” for Roy Blount, Jr.‘s book, “It Grows On You.” From there, she went on to finish beauty school, and cut hair at The Celebrity Styling Shop to earn money to make her way through college. Her Master’s Thesis was the book Hairdo, published by Warner Books (now Grand Central Publishing) to high acclaim; the book went on to be published in 14 different languages. She recently moved to Baltimore, primarily to test her theory of “High Humidity Effects of the Ionic Flat Iron on Curly Hair on York Road”.
Copyright © Sarah Gilbert Fox
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 11/18/08 at 12:13 PM
I took the Baltimore Light Rail for the first time last week. It was strange, because I’d been meaning to take it for some time, but the longer I waited, the bigger deal it became. So I kept putting it off and I kept putting it off, until finally one day I said, “I’m going to drive myself nuts if I don’t do this,” so I drove on down and hopped on the darn thing.
But not without the trepidation that comes from imagined, built up fear. First I had to park. Then I had to walk to the automatic ticket dispenser and try to read the screen with the sun blasting in at an angle to cause glare on the monitor and *sear out my retinas. And then I had to take the bull by the horns and ask someone nice to help me.
And this is what I found out. People in Baltimore are really nice! At least the riders of the Light Rail are really nice—which has lead me to believe that the drivers I’ve been cursing at under my breath all these months on I-83—the ones who refuse to inch over and let me in a lane, or who would never think to leave me space to pull out of a Royal Farms parking lot while they sit at a red light—those people have to be Philadelphians, because the folks who take the Light Rail are nice.
So there I was, trying to see past the glare to get my ticket and I finally asked these three men next to me to help. Two had taken the Light Rail already, but one was a Light Rail virgin, too. Just like me.
It was a good move talking to them and getting their take on this fabulous form of transportation, as well as the ins and outs. I wish I could have remembered their names. They had given me their cards (guys, if you’re reading this, please post a comment!). What one of them said as I disembarked made a true impression on me. “Remember, this was a great adventure for you.” And he was right. And I’ve been having that same great adventure almost every day since.
Basically, here are the top ten things you need to know about Maryland’s Mass Transit Baltimore Light Rail:
1.) A round trip ticket / Day Pass costs $3.50 and a Month Pass to commute on the Light Rail will cost $64.00 (for those who don’t qualify for special fares).
2.) There are all kinds of discount passes for people who fit the specific pass category, and I seem to be in the minority of those who don’t merit a pass. Visit the MTA Maryland website for Light Rail Special Fares.
3.) So far, nobody has ever checked my ticket; you’re on an honors system. But I hear that if you’re found without a ticket, horrible things happen to you, e.g., your hair begins to fall out, your teeth turn green, you turn into a Philadelphia driver and, well, I think you get a $30 fine or something.
4.) There are schedules online and plastered up all over the Light Rail stops, but I haven’t graduated to that level yet.
5.) It’s better to catch the morning train at the Timonium stop if you’re heading downtown, than the Lutherville stop, because you tend to get good dibs on a rush hour seat.
6.) If you have my Light Rail karma, no matter which train you catch, in which direction, you’ll always end up sitting backwards.
7.) From Timonium Lutherville to downtown, the ride is approximately 20 minutes long and the scenery—chugging through Jones Falls and past Lake Roland, especially in the Autumn and the Spring—is as gorgeous as anything you’ll see in New England.
8.) A Light Rail pass is also used for the local bus, the express bus, and the Baltimore Metro Subway (MTA Core Service).
9.) Any Light Rail information, including the Light Rail schedule, can also be found here: Baltimore Light Rail Information.
10.) Baltimore Light Rail riders are really, really nice!
As a p.s. This morning the Light Rail was a little more crowded than usual. Halfway through the ride, I stood up and requested that the lady standing beside me take my seat. It only seemed fair. I was really chuffed with myself for having come up with such a nice thing to do. And during these hard economic times, perhaps we should all think a little bit more about doing these same random acts of kindness. We all want to be kind, but sometimes we just forget to go that extra step. So here’s a little reminder. The next time you have a seat on the Light Rail, how about sharing it halfway through. This is how the world gets better and better.
——————
p.s. Yes, I know, I know, there have been unusual problems, but the Baltimore Light Rail is on the mend!
——————
*Thanks to our reader, Richard Carson, for a correction. Bravo, Mr. Carson!
Photo curtesy of The Bergennet Network.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 11/10/08 at 10:26 PM
Okay, I know it sounds a little sad, but after my amazing mother died, I didn’t have anywhere to go for holiday dinners. I had two options: one, I could cook at home for my husband and daughter—which I did every night anyway, so doing it for a special occasion hardly seemed, well, special; or two, we could dine out… which usually meant eating Asian food. The problem was that the Asian restaurants that stayed open during the holidays didn’t tend to be very good—or at least the ones I found. 
However, since I’ve moved to Baltimore, I’ve found the perfect Asian cuisine, so Christmas 2008 will find us sitting at a table in Hunt Valley in the Shawan Shopping Center inside the truly exquisite Green Leaf Restaurant.
I love sushi. I make sushi. I’m a sushi connoisseur. So when I tell you that the Green Leaf is the champion sushi maker in Baltimore, you can believe me. The rice is cooked perfectly; the sushi is so fresh that it obviously swam right up to the chopping block; the nori is an excellent quality nori (e.g., not fishily overpowering the fish!). And for me, just as important as the taste is the cleanliness—Mr. Clean must be part-owner of this establishment.
The decor offers mood dining. The mauve walls and green plants set the tone for a comforting time… something we can all use right now. And the staff is a friendly lot. I always feel welcome coming here.
But back to the food, because, indeed, that’s what’s important. Nothing falls short and the specials are so good you have no choice but to over-order—how can you not have at least some sushi with whatever else you’re ordering—and how can you not try the shrimp and mango noodles, served with a lime dressing (and if you see someone eating it, you’ll understand that not ordering just isn’t an option).
For picky kids the Green Leaf can tailor orders to please, but bring extra cash for the Ramune – the Japanese marble sodas. I’ve never known a kid not to want at least three, and the sodas are baby-sitters worth the money—keeping the kids busy long enough for you to enjoy a lingering dinner.
The downside? Green Leaf falls short only in the area of sustainability cooking, e.g., they aren’t using only local products. But if we are going to have true Asian food, we have to forgive that and get back to ordering a plate of California Rolls and a side dish of Agedofu.
Baltimore Style highly recommends the Green Leaf restaurant.
Green Leaf Restaurant
Address:
Shawan Plaza 11313 York Rd.
Hunt Valley, MD 21030
Phone:
410-771-0030
Hours:
Mon-Fri 11:30AM - 10:00PM
Sat 12:00PM-10:00PM
Sun 4:30PM-10:00PM
Website:
www.greenleafcuisine.com
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/29/08 at 08:51 AM
