Doctors at several health centers in MA are giving child patients from low income families coupons to farmer’s markets for free veggies and fruits in an effort to encourage healthier eating and fight childhood obesity.

18-year-old raised over $1,00,000 for The Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children.

Bone marrow stem cells are used to repair skin of pediatric patients with a rare, life threatening skin disorder.

http://webclipart.about.com

Please read my article/interview Wandering Educators with my brother, Eric, who just returned from the Maldives.

I’ve written a lot about summer in the past. Here are links to the most read entries:

Everything You Need to Know About Summer Camp – French Woods Interview

You Know it Feels Like Summer When

Ask the Right Questions Before Booking a Hotel

Where are We Going on Our Summer Vacation?

Dog Friendly Summer Travel Tips

25 Ideas to Enjoy the Last Days of Summer

Great Planning = A Great Vacation

Summer Driving Vacation – Have a Great Time WIth Your Kids

Summer Travel – Flying Solo WIth Children

I recently read an article about how Americans are now marketed to more than 5,000 times a day. How perfectly disgusting! Now I’m really starting to pay attention to just how many ways marketing invades my life, wasting my time, rotting my brain.

There’s a Secret Antiperspirant TV commercial out now where a woman is dancing at a nightclub with a guy, and she throws her arm up to sniff her armpits. I am supposed to sit on my couch while watching that and think, “Wow, I really need that product. The next time I sniff my pits in public, (and doesn’t everybody do that?) I know Secret will be protecting me.” And what about commercials for local restaurants with low quality camera work and horrible theme songs you just cannot get out of your head as you are tossing and turning in bed at night? And how emotional can I get about the brand of paper towels I use and the absorbency? How hard is it to choose the right paper towel brand when you go to the store? Even worse, what about the animated toilet paper commercial with the bears in the woods and the “residue” the t-paper leaves on their behinds? It’s hard to watch that ad while eating lunch. Gross. And I just love the commercials with stick-thin models devouring chocolates – as if they ever eat chocolate, or anything else. Don’t get me started on drug commercials that sell medicine that do nothing but make your illness worse – or kill you altogether.

And I don’t even watch TV that often.

Television is the most obvious venue for advertising, but there’s so much more to marketing than the idiot box. Here are just 10 of many thousands of ways:

http://www.webweaver.nu

• Ads on the back of stall doors in public restrooms. “Need your car towed? Call Charlie.” No, I don’t, Chuck. I just drank a quart of ice tea and need to use the facilities, if you don’t mind.
• Ads on paper placemats in your favorite local restaurant from other restaurants. Isn’t that competition?
• Ads in doctor, dentist, and other professional office offering more services to you. “We don’t just clean teeth, we cap them at a cost of $2,500 each. We also have tanning bed services.”
• Door hangars from solicitors telling you they will trim your trees, but fail to tell you they do not have a license, nor are they insured.
• Billboards on the highway with letters so small that you almost get killed trying to read it.
• Direct mail from politicians telling me why the opponents are corrupt and nothing about what they can do for me.
• Checking out at the grocery store, the cashier asks you to donate $1 to a charity, and you know that $1 will go to an executive’s salary and $0 will help anyone in need.
• All the cute items displayed at the pet store, that your pet now needs since you saw them. Naturally, your dog is picky about the design on his new toy shaped like a cat , so you better select carefully. And when it comes to your pooch’s haute couture wardrobe, be sure to get her a matching purse and hair bow, or she will be so depressed when you get home and may need to see a canine therapist.
• Sitting in the movie theater watching the pre-show ads, on a never-ending loop, selling me ridiculously priced junk food, asking me to patronize local businesses and buy tickets for more movies.
• Massive-sized products at the warehouse stores beckoning you to buy more than you will ever need (like a 6-gallon jar of yellow mustard too huge to fit properly in the fridge) to make the unit cost go down. Though in reality, if you cannot use it all, the unit cost will go up.

So tomorrow, when you are out and about, start noticing the bombardment of advertising you are so used to experiencing, you never even thought about before.

Oh, and please tell 1,000 of your friends about this article.

More and more people are working from home, including business executives. But that doesn’t mean their offices have to look like home offices. Please check out this great article about working from home, featuring my sister, CEO of Airlift Ideas.

Shelley Rosen from Airlift Ideas

LA Parent is the best regional parenting magazine! But it’s not just for parents in LA. There are so many fantastic articles and tips in there for parents everywhere. See for yourself by clicking here.

http://www.free-clip-art.com/

News – Forbes ranks Miami the Sixth Worst City to Live in the USA.

Rebuttal – I sit outside working on my sunny patio all winter long, (unlike clinically depressed family members who live up north and complain about the bitter temps and grey skies!) grow unbelievable organic tomatoes in my yard, eat the freshest citrus fruits in the world, leave my windows open for fresh air, run and walk daily outside, never wear a coat, go to the beach often and take advantage of all the cultural events in Miami year round and much more. I’m not suffering.

News – Tiger Woods apologizes for affairs and demands that the press leave his wife and kids alone.

Rebuttal – I’m all for apologies, and he did do that quite thoroughly and methodically. As far as being disgusted by the press hounding his family, he can blame ONLY himself (and what he refers to as his “behavior” as if that were his sidekick rather than his actions) for that.

News – Stowaway who climbs into the wheel of a cargo plane falls to his death after after plane takes off.

Rebuttal – This man should be the Grand Prize Winner of the Darwin Awards, and hopefully he did not reproduce before doing this. The apple doesn’t usually fall far from the tree, pun intended.

News – Accused killer, Alabama Professor Ann Bishop’s defense lawyer states he is sorry he called his client a “wacko.”

Rebuttal – No he’s not. Because she is.

News – After losing the gold to US skater Evan Lysacek, angry Silver medalist Plushenko comments that his sport is supposed to be “men’s figure skating, not ice dancing.”

Rebuttal – This is an arrogant sore loser talking, without grace and humility. His words are what make him a loser, not his performance on the ice.

Journalist, Dallas Woodburn, from CA interviewed Rachel for her role in creating Lilly Badilly’s music and working for Smart Poodle Publishing. Thank you Dallas! The interview is in the actual October 2009 issue of Listen Magazine and not online. If you are not familiar with Listen Magazine, it is a venue for highlighting teens who pledge to be free of drugs and alcohol and who are contributing to the community in positive ways. The magazine includes feature stories about teens, articles about reaching goals and staying motivated and just making the right choices in life.  What a great concept.

I have reworked a previous article I wrote about Jet Lag, and have made it a bit funnier. Check it out on Wandering Educators.

Click here to read.

I love themed travel! Book lovers will love this too!