1.00 USD =
1.06 CADDoes this mean we're even now??
Canadian Dollar Weakens as Central Bank Warn's It's Too Strong
12/08/2009
At Par
1.00 USD =1.06 CADDoes this mean we're even now??
Canadian Dollar Weakens as Central Bank Warn's It's Too Strong
Blogtastic
___________________________________________________Anyway, Lady Gaga may have been cooked up in modern capitalism’s test tubes, but she’s good.
___________________________________________________
Matt Langer
Snark Attack
___________________________________________________You gonna help me? You gonna look out for me?!
That gets me in the spot where my heart should be every time.
___________________________________________________
The 100 Greatest Quotes from The Wire
[via]
12/06/2009
Minus 22
TONIGHT, I was flipping channels when the weather broadcast caught my eye. Horrifying numbers made me do a double take, until I realized I wasn't really looking at Toronto, but at...
...Yellowknife.
Yes, it's going to be -22 degrees Celsius in the "Diamond Capital of North America". Yikes!
All of a sudden, I feel inspired to write a love letter to my hometown:
Dear Toronto,
It's only going to be -3 degrees tonight and I love you for it. Remember: No storms this winter and please send lots of snow for Christmas.
xoxo, missdelite
UPDATE (NOV.9th): It's the first storm of the season with light, blowing snow and a windchill of -7. I'm freezing my ASS off. Thank you, Toronto. Where's my fucking passport???
"Downtown" Yellowknife
DID YOU KNOW?
Yellowknife is located on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake at 62°27’N and 114°22’W, 201 air km northeast of Hay River.
Yellowknife’s name originates from the copper-wielding Chipewyan tribe which fought the Dene for many years. Organized gold mining began in the mid-1930s when Consolidated Mining and Smelting began operations at the present Miramar Con Mine site. During the gold rush days before the start of the Second World War, plywood shacks and shanties littered Latham Island, Peace River Flats and Willow Flats. The few remaining original buildings show the no-frills approach to construction. [Stats.gov.nt.ca]
Just in case you were wondering
Total Pop (2007): 19,155
Males: 9,700
Females: 9,455
Aboriginal: 4,445
Non-Aboriginal: 14,710
______________________________________________
NEW POST
Russ, Mike & Bill
...Yellowknife.Yes, it's going to be -22 degrees Celsius in the "Diamond Capital of North America". Yikes!
All of a sudden, I feel inspired to write a love letter to my hometown:
Dear Toronto,
It's only going to be -3 degrees tonight and I love you for it. Remember: No storms this winter and please send lots of snow for Christmas.
xoxo, missdelite
UPDATE (NOV.9th): It's the first storm of the season with light, blowing snow and a windchill of -7. I'm freezing my ASS off. Thank you, Toronto. Where's my fucking passport???
"Downtown" YellowknifeDID YOU KNOW?
Yellowknife is located on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake at 62°27’N and 114°22’W, 201 air km northeast of Hay River.
Yellowknife’s name originates from the copper-wielding Chipewyan tribe which fought the Dene for many years. Organized gold mining began in the mid-1930s when Consolidated Mining and Smelting began operations at the present Miramar Con Mine site. During the gold rush days before the start of the Second World War, plywood shacks and shanties littered Latham Island, Peace River Flats and Willow Flats. The few remaining original buildings show the no-frills approach to construction. [Stats.gov.nt.ca]
Just in case you were wonderingTotal Pop (2007): 19,155
Males: 9,700
Females: 9,455
Aboriginal: 4,445
Non-Aboriginal: 14,710
______________________________________________
NEW POST
Russ, Mike & Bill
12/05/2009
Picture This
Matthew McConaughey and Levi__Malibu
John Cho__GQ__Jun.09
Channing Tatum__Vanity Fair
Matteo Marzotto
Debbie Harry__1981
Johnny Depp__Vanity Fair__Jul.09
Eva Green
Ed Westwick__Sep.09
Agyness Deyn__Harper's Bazaar_Aug.09
George Clooney__Venice Film Festival
Kelis
David Bowie___________________________________________________
NEW POSTS
Nota Bene
#jerseyshore
Caught Tiger
Tiger the Whale
"I am Tiger Woods"
Camden Hamlet
Condo City (1)
___________________________________________________
12/02/2009
40 Under 40
WELCOME to Crain's Forty Under 40 class of 2009. Despite the tough economy, Crain's has once again identified a diverse group of New Yorkers who have excelled in their respective fields, from fashion to TV to the world of nonprofits.
Catherine Moellering, 37
Best & Co., President
WHEN Catherine Moellering’s parents agreed to pay for her to attend Harvard University, they hoped she might become a doctor or lawyer, or at least an investment banker.
Looking back, Ms. Moellering says, her folks should have known she would end up in retail. As a child, while her siblings were building spaceships out of Legos, she was using the blocks to construct a credit card imprint machine so she could play Store.
After college, Ms. Moellering rose through the retail ranks swiftly. Her first post was in the Bloomingdales' management training program in New York City, working in the men’s neckwear department. After Bloomie’s, she moved to San Francisco to work for the Gap on a fledgling project called Old Navy, staying long enough to watch it go from about 15 locations to 585.
In 2001, she joined Liz Claiborne Inc. to hone her management skills. There, she helped oversee a handful of brands, including then-white-hot DKNY, and served under the tutelage of retail all-stars like Angela Ahrendts, now the chief of Burberry.
“She’s bright [and] intellectually curious,” says Paul Charron, former chief executive of Liz Claiborne. “I think she is going to be influential on the New York stage for a long time to come.”
In her latest role, Ms. Moellering became president of posh childrenswear maker Best & Co. last year, just in time for the collapse in retail spending. The luxury line, a 130-year-old company, had already been losing money for years $10 million in 2007 alone. To stanch the bleeding, she pared the company’s vendor list to 20 from 300 and launched a wholesale division to lure less-affluent customers to the brand.
“I just fell in love with it,” Ms. Moellering says. Though sales last year were just over $10 million, she predicts big things for the company. “I think this is a $100 million brand.”
Jonah Staw, 33
Miss Matched Inc., Chief executive
WHEN Jonah Staw goes to work in the morning, he gets to sit at a desk made of a bunk bed and drink chocolate root beer from his office’s new soda fountain.
“I realized I’d be most successful if I tap-danced on the table instead of being a conservative businessman,” says the co-founder of the LittleMissMatched brand of socks and accessories.
He’s always had an entrepreneurial spirit. At age 8, Mr. Staw started his own postcard company, drawing birdlike images on special paper to sell at local bookstores in Berkeley, Calif.
“As an 8-year-old, you’re rolling in dough if you can buy an extra pack of Now and Later candy,” he says.
After an early career as an architect he designed and built his own dream house and a stint at design firm Frog, Mr. Staw launched Miss Matched in 2004.
The quirky sock company has since expanded to pajamas and bedroom furniture and has an upcoming apparel line for tweens. Last year, revenue jumped 28% from 2007, to $32 million, and Mr. Staw says e-commerce sales grew 80%. The brand is carried at Macy’s, FAO Schwarz, Bed Bath & Beyond and at 3,000 specialty shops.
But that’s not the endgame. Despite the recession’s chilling effect on retail, Mr. Staw plans to open a store in Grand Central Terminal this spring and is searching for another location. The expansion is part of a business plan underwritten by private equity firm Catterton Partners.
“People get a good idea but are afraid to go forward on it,” says Doreen Lorenzo, chief executive of Frog and a former colleague of Mr. Staw’s. “Jonah left Frog to start this business, and that takes a lot of guts.”
Ed Rosenfeld, 33
Steve Madden Ltd., Chairman and chief executive
MICHIGAN native Ed Rosenfeld has been immersed in retail his whole life. Dinner table conversation while he was growing up revolved around the family business, specialty department store Jacobson’s, where he worked cleaning the bathrooms and operating the cash register. Just after graduating from Amherst College, he moved to New York and worked as a retail investment banker for Peter J. Solomon Co.
When he wanted a change, he didn’t stray from his roots. Last year, he took the helm of footwear and accessories giant Steven Madden Ltd.
“I got tired of advising clients. I wanted to make decisions and actually live with them,” he says.
Heading a $457 million retailer during one of the worst periods in shopping history has certainly given Mr. Rosenfeld reason to make decisions.
The firm is distributing new bargain labels at J.C. Penney and Walmart to appeal to strapped consumers and has teamed with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen on a high-end shoe line that will hit shelves of retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue next month.
Though Mr. Rosenfeld could have used an easier first year, he has helped Madden weather the current economic storm better than most fashion firms. Same-store sales dipped only 0.5% for the fourth quarter, even as many other retailers have seen double-digit declines. In 2008, revenue grew 6%, though earnings dropped 21%.
Steve Madden, who founded the company nearly 20 years ago, says he relies on Mr. Rosenfeld’s steadiness.
“When things are unbelievable, he doesn’t jump up and down, and when things are bad, he does not panic,” says the footwear designer, comparing Mr. Rosenfeld’s calm to a “warm bath.”
__________________________________________________
LINK
You're a Douchebag
Accept it: your upscale lifestyle plants you squarely within the doucheoisie.
[EXCERPT]
THERE'S a fine line—a harrowingly fine one—between being the guy who sneeringly points out That Guy in public and actually being That Guy yourself. I am not, of course, suggesting that I’m anywhere near being a douchebag on the order of, say, bad-boy heir Brandon “Firecrotch” Davis. But a run-of-the-mill, everyday douchebag? Maybe sometimes. Possibly semi-often. The point is, the burgeoning class of people constantly calling other people douchebags are almost certainly members of the doucheoisie themselves. It’s the perfect insult for our times, because the insulter can congratulate himself for being provocative, slightly outré, a little extra nasty. But when it comes to wielding a word that originated on the playground, playground logic reigns: It takes one to know one. [...]
American Psycho: Business Card Scene (vid)
Douchebag: illustrated definition
_________________________________________________
BOOK
A MERGER has taken place between Peter Novobatzky and Ammon Shea's books Depraved English and Insulting English. The result? Depraved and Insulting English. "Some of the entries are lascivious," the authors say, "some revolting, and others derogatory. A few are all of these things." This book will provide blissful browsing for anyone who ever got a fourth-grade thrill from looking up naughty words in the dictionary or, later, felt a frisson of pleasure from using obscure but racy words that few others understood. Many of the terms here--such as coprolagnia, cypripareunia, hybristophiliac, peotillomian, and sacofricosis--sound downright illicit. More intriguing are the words that sound perfectly acceptable, like blissom, feist, and plooky. But watch out for the plooky fellow who lets out a feist when he blissoms; he's actually a pimply guy who farts silently while copulating with ewes. Eeew. -Amazon.com
__________________________________________________
NEW POST
Sylvie Guillem
__________________________________________________
Catherine Moellering, 37
Best & Co., President
WHEN Catherine Moellering’s parents agreed to pay for her to attend Harvard University, they hoped she might become a doctor or lawyer, or at least an investment banker.Looking back, Ms. Moellering says, her folks should have known she would end up in retail. As a child, while her siblings were building spaceships out of Legos, she was using the blocks to construct a credit card imprint machine so she could play Store.
After college, Ms. Moellering rose through the retail ranks swiftly. Her first post was in the Bloomingdales' management training program in New York City, working in the men’s neckwear department. After Bloomie’s, she moved to San Francisco to work for the Gap on a fledgling project called Old Navy, staying long enough to watch it go from about 15 locations to 585.
In 2001, she joined Liz Claiborne Inc. to hone her management skills. There, she helped oversee a handful of brands, including then-white-hot DKNY, and served under the tutelage of retail all-stars like Angela Ahrendts, now the chief of Burberry.
“She’s bright [and] intellectually curious,” says Paul Charron, former chief executive of Liz Claiborne. “I think she is going to be influential on the New York stage for a long time to come.”
In her latest role, Ms. Moellering became president of posh childrenswear maker Best & Co. last year, just in time for the collapse in retail spending. The luxury line, a 130-year-old company, had already been losing money for years $10 million in 2007 alone. To stanch the bleeding, she pared the company’s vendor list to 20 from 300 and launched a wholesale division to lure less-affluent customers to the brand.
“I just fell in love with it,” Ms. Moellering says. Though sales last year were just over $10 million, she predicts big things for the company. “I think this is a $100 million brand.”
Jonah Staw, 33
Miss Matched Inc., Chief executive
WHEN Jonah Staw goes to work in the morning, he gets to sit at a desk made of a bunk bed and drink chocolate root beer from his office’s new soda fountain.“I realized I’d be most successful if I tap-danced on the table instead of being a conservative businessman,” says the co-founder of the LittleMissMatched brand of socks and accessories.
He’s always had an entrepreneurial spirit. At age 8, Mr. Staw started his own postcard company, drawing birdlike images on special paper to sell at local bookstores in Berkeley, Calif.
“As an 8-year-old, you’re rolling in dough if you can buy an extra pack of Now and Later candy,” he says.
After an early career as an architect he designed and built his own dream house and a stint at design firm Frog, Mr. Staw launched Miss Matched in 2004.
The quirky sock company has since expanded to pajamas and bedroom furniture and has an upcoming apparel line for tweens. Last year, revenue jumped 28% from 2007, to $32 million, and Mr. Staw says e-commerce sales grew 80%. The brand is carried at Macy’s, FAO Schwarz, Bed Bath & Beyond and at 3,000 specialty shops.
But that’s not the endgame. Despite the recession’s chilling effect on retail, Mr. Staw plans to open a store in Grand Central Terminal this spring and is searching for another location. The expansion is part of a business plan underwritten by private equity firm Catterton Partners.
“People get a good idea but are afraid to go forward on it,” says Doreen Lorenzo, chief executive of Frog and a former colleague of Mr. Staw’s. “Jonah left Frog to start this business, and that takes a lot of guts.”
Ed Rosenfeld, 33
Steve Madden Ltd., Chairman and chief executive
MICHIGAN native Ed Rosenfeld has been immersed in retail his whole life. Dinner table conversation while he was growing up revolved around the family business, specialty department store Jacobson’s, where he worked cleaning the bathrooms and operating the cash register. Just after graduating from Amherst College, he moved to New York and worked as a retail investment banker for Peter J. Solomon Co.When he wanted a change, he didn’t stray from his roots. Last year, he took the helm of footwear and accessories giant Steven Madden Ltd.
“I got tired of advising clients. I wanted to make decisions and actually live with them,” he says.
Heading a $457 million retailer during one of the worst periods in shopping history has certainly given Mr. Rosenfeld reason to make decisions.
The firm is distributing new bargain labels at J.C. Penney and Walmart to appeal to strapped consumers and has teamed with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen on a high-end shoe line that will hit shelves of retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue next month.
Though Mr. Rosenfeld could have used an easier first year, he has helped Madden weather the current economic storm better than most fashion firms. Same-store sales dipped only 0.5% for the fourth quarter, even as many other retailers have seen double-digit declines. In 2008, revenue grew 6%, though earnings dropped 21%.
Steve Madden, who founded the company nearly 20 years ago, says he relies on Mr. Rosenfeld’s steadiness.
“When things are unbelievable, he doesn’t jump up and down, and when things are bad, he does not panic,” says the footwear designer, comparing Mr. Rosenfeld’s calm to a “warm bath.”
__________________________________________________
LINK
You're a DouchebagAccept it: your upscale lifestyle plants you squarely within the doucheoisie.
[EXCERPT]
THERE'S a fine line—a harrowingly fine one—between being the guy who sneeringly points out That Guy in public and actually being That Guy yourself. I am not, of course, suggesting that I’m anywhere near being a douchebag on the order of, say, bad-boy heir Brandon “Firecrotch” Davis. But a run-of-the-mill, everyday douchebag? Maybe sometimes. Possibly semi-often. The point is, the burgeoning class of people constantly calling other people douchebags are almost certainly members of the doucheoisie themselves. It’s the perfect insult for our times, because the insulter can congratulate himself for being provocative, slightly outré, a little extra nasty. But when it comes to wielding a word that originated on the playground, playground logic reigns: It takes one to know one. [...]
American Psycho: Business Card Scene (vid)
Douchebag: illustrated definition
_________________________________________________
BOOK
A MERGER has taken place between Peter Novobatzky and Ammon Shea's books Depraved English and Insulting English. The result? Depraved and Insulting English. "Some of the entries are lascivious," the authors say, "some revolting, and others derogatory. A few are all of these things." This book will provide blissful browsing for anyone who ever got a fourth-grade thrill from looking up naughty words in the dictionary or, later, felt a frisson of pleasure from using obscure but racy words that few others understood. Many of the terms here--such as coprolagnia, cypripareunia, hybristophiliac, peotillomian, and sacofricosis--sound downright illicit. More intriguing are the words that sound perfectly acceptable, like blissom, feist, and plooky. But watch out for the plooky fellow who lets out a feist when he blissoms; he's actually a pimply guy who farts silently while copulating with ewes. Eeew. -Amazon.com__________________________________________________
NEW POST
Sylvie Guillem
__________________________________________________
11/29/2009
He's Done
Elin Nordegren, wife of golfer, Tiger WoodsCorrection: Tiger Woods' Wife Kicks His Ass
Whoops! Last night, everyone was pretty sure Tiger Woods' "Operation: Lovetap" accident was followed by his wife smashing his car's back window to save him. Looks now like she was doing it to bludgeon him. Scorned lovers, coming up. FORE! [...]
COMMENT
I'm interested in seeing what happens next. Will Elin stay with him as she's done when he cheated on her before, or is the public humiliation too much this time?
No doubt she and the kids will be taken care of financially for the rest of their life, but her name will always be linked with this mess.
My guess is she'll dye her hair (her most distinct physical attribute) and remarry as she's young, attractive and rich. She'll publish a memoir, do some talk shows as the "scorned ex-wife of Tiger Woods", and put out a golf clothing line for women.
In other words, I'm not inclined to feel sorry for her as I think she'll come out of this smelling like a Swedish rose.
Tiger, on the other hand, will forever be a cad in the public eye. His halo's officially tarnished. Hardcore golf fans will overlook this latest transgression as long as he continues to out-perform his peers, but sponsors may not. If Nike drops his ass, he's done.
Time for Tiger Woods to Speak Out for His Own Good
It's not often that Tiger Woods gets outplayed. But it's happening right now.
In the hours since his early-Friday-morning accident, facts, innuendo and supposition have combined to put a minor one-car bump in a cloistered Florida subdivision onto front pages worldwide. Why? Because this story presses all the necessary buttons: celebrity, sex and violence. And if it's left to grow on its own, it's going to get much worse before it gets any better. [...]
Rachel Uchitel (r), alleged mistress of Tiger WoodsHow Tiger Woods Should Handle His Sudden PR Crisis
Tell it first, tell it yourself and tell it all. That is the tried and true formula for handling a messy public relations crisis in the smoothest possible way.
When Tiger Woods let 13 hours lapse after Friday's early-morning accident without issuing an explanation, he ceded control of his story not only to legitimate news outlets, but also to celebrity gossip mongers on the hunt for a tale –- made up or otherwise -– of adultery and mayhem. The story of Tiger's first major off-the-course bogey was in their sights and the race was on to fill in the juicy details. [...]
Elin Nordegren Plans Split from Tiger Woods
The holidays may bring a final showdown in the marriage of Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren, a source close to the golfer's wife tells PEOPLE, saying, "She plans to leave Tiger."
Another source says, "She's made up her mind. There's nothing to think about: he's never going to change," PEOPLE reports in its upcoming issue, on newsstands Friday. [...]
How Did Tiger Woods Meet His Wife, Elin?
Tiger Woods' Alleged Mistresses (slideshow)
Pat Burns Gets to the Bottom of This Tiger Woods Mess
Before he became a Stanley Cup-winning head coach, Pat Burns was a police officer and now that he's living in Florida, he's made some friends in the Florida Highway Patrol. So when Tiger Woods crashed his SUV into a tree in late-November, Burns reached out to his local police buddies to get the inside scoop on what really went down that night.
Burns revealed what he found out during an interview with CKAC Sports radio in Montreal this week. According to the former NHL coach, Woods was knocked in the face with a golf club by his wife, Elin Nordegren, and was left with a deep cut on his cheek and down two front teeth after she confronted him after reading text messages from one of the golfer's numerous mistresses. [...]
COMMENT
Too bad that this is a rehash of a story going around a couple weeks ago. Apparently, Burns is repeating verbatim what was going around. Tiger by the Tale
11/28/2009
Here to Stay
Richard Hatch, winner of Survivor (season 1)
Whitney Port, The CityDid an Indian Diplomat Help the Salahis Crash the White House?
The Secret Service is currently investigating how fameballs Michaele and Tareq Salahi crashed Obama's first state dinner, Bravo camera crew in tow. We have a theory: Their polo buddy, Indian ambassador Arun K. Singh, got them in on the DL. [...]
COMMENTS
Why aren't these people under arrest already?
And while we're at it, outlaw "reality" shows. They put actors and writers out of work, they encourage monkeyshines like these, and no good has EVER come out of them...And if you enjoy watching pathetic losers bumble through their lives, then why not just set up a live-cam at Walmart? [...]
A live feed at Walmart? Now there's a show!
But seriously, there's always been a niche on TV for people willing to make an ass of themselves for our amusement. Remember "Candid Camera"? How about "The Gong Show" or various pranks played on unsuspecting Man-in-the-Street types for late night talk show guffaws? It doesn't take a genius (like Mark Burnett) to refine and capitalize on the genre. The first and last few episodes of "Survivor" (season 1) were brilliant. Truly groundbreaking in how it illuminated age-old practices of sabotage, subterfuge and power play, all in the name of winning. Granted, most of it was scripted, but it was all plausible, which made it a winning formula and compelling TV.
Also granted, a lot of reality TV is crap. I don't watch any of the stuff you list and would rather stick a fork in my eye than do so. I do, however, acknowledge that there's a strong attraction to it by the viewing public and that it's not going to disappear. It'll continue to get more crude as it pushes boundaries of "acceptable" social behaviour, all in the name of ratings. It's already broken laws and caused deaths (in other countries). But obviously, it's fulfilling a need that scripted TV does not. Think about that. And from the comments above, people who watch and enjoy it are not all mouth breathers. Think about that too.
Personally, I'm waiting for the perfect reality show. One that doesn't bore me to tears, piss me off or disgust me at some point in its 30-60 minute run. Something that shows me the essence of humanity in an attractive format. I'm thinking along the lines of MTV's "The City", but with a greater variety of characters, tighter action and more dramatic storylines. Maybe if a producer married the writers from "The Good Wife" (this week's ep was awesome) with the real life calamities of pretty urban youth, then they'd actually convince someone like you that reality TV is worth your time and attention.
I leave you with a pic of Richard Hatch, winner of the first Survivor. To quote Amazon.com: "Here's where it all began. The first season of Survivor dominated the ratings in the summer of 2000, helped spur the reality-TV craze, and inspired countless water-cooler jokes about getting voted off the island."
Let's face it, reality TV is here to stay. Question is, are you in?
The Real WorldThe Real History of Reality
The manifest destiny of television technology is real-time viewing of all the places the audience is not. It's the ultimate peek into the neighbor's kitchen window. Or, the bedroom window. The entertainment conglomerates found a way to make televised life a business, so now there is a lot of it. [...]
The Real World moved the format ahead by staging an environment in which "reality" could occur in 1992. That landmark series married the secret cameras and setups of Candid Camera, to the explorative impulse of You Asked For It, to the personal revelations of What's My Line, to the technology of Evening Magazine, to the voyeuristic appeal of An American Family and Cops. The combination of techniques resulted in a format that is more structured and crafted than any that had come before. The premise comes in the architecture and the choice of city; the character creation comes in the casting; the storyline creation comes in the confessional interviewing, the choice of who and what to tape and the editing. The wide range of reality television series that we recognize today followed. They often came by way of the UK or other foreign television markets, where the concepts were born. An import, Big Brother, and a startup, Survivor, would break open the genre of staged reality in 2000. [...]
Big BrotherThe Decade Reality Evolved Into a Beautiful Beast
Here's a look at the reality genres that have come to define the decade. While some are better than others, making the whole "reality TV is bad" argument is now impossible, because it is everywhere and available in a million different forms across a broad and beautiful spectrum. We are living in a reality reality, and we're the better for it. [...]
Listicle Without Commentary: The 348 Best Reality Television Shows of the 00s, In Order, by Jon Caramanica_________________________________________________
NEW POSTS
Feel the Hate
Give Due Credit
QUOTE
_________________________________________________
Location: Toronto
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