Help Haiti!! And then reward yourselves...

Dear Readers, Please send something to Haiti relief. This is the saddest, most apocalpytic thing I can remember. We all have to help these poor people.Think if it were your city, your neighborhood.Your children!By the way, I LOVE Diane Sawyer and her coverage. It's human, it's passionate.
Then, on a lighter note you can reward yourself if you are lucky enough to be in NY or visiting, you must run to the incredible revival of the Arthur Miller play "A View From the Bridge!"
Of course I love anything he wrote, and believe him to be our greatest playwright.
This production is with Liev Schriber and Scarlett Johanson (sp?) for star power but the entire cast is sensational. The direction riveting and the whole nite is a time in the theater that I haven't had in years!
Saw "Avatar" and loved it!Not really my cup of tea...all the special effects I thought, but they are staggering! And it was like escaping into another world for two hours. Harry Potter for adults.
Reading the sizzling new political book Game Change. Along with the few gossipy
things that have already been published, it offers much more. I am a political junkie and can't get enough of the backroom stuff and it's a treasure trove. Cant put it down. Plan on reading it in one fell swoop this weekend.

me on the radio again...

I just guested with my favorite guys Bill and Mark at GrowingBolder!
For some reason I can't link to it here...but this is it...(just copy this and paste)
http://growingbolder.com/media/entertainment/television/susan-silver-537562.html

or just go to the site....http://GrowingBolder.com
and scroll down to the the link that says "radio"...Jan2. I'm there.
Hope u like it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Dear Readers, For the dreaded New Year' sEve this year I decided to stay in bed and put the bad year to rest as soon as possible. I think everyone feels that way.Instead, my friend Stan, who had a rough year himself, decided last minute to have friends in and I forced myself to go.
Good idea! It wasn't so much a "party" as a gathering and it was lovely, the food was great, the company good and I was home by 10.
It has not been the greatest year either financially or healthwise for me and others and 2010 feels like a good number to look forward to...new decade and all that.
I do make resolutions but not fanatically as I am too old to think I will keep them!
But there is a feeling of hope and a better future and I wish that to all of you!

I just got back from Israel!

Dear Readers, I've just taken one of the best trips of my life! I'd been to Israel
a few times in the past, but then had many other places I wanted to see. And to be honest, I was a little afraid to go due to the threats of terrorism.
Boy was I wrong!
I went with a group called The Friends of the Israel Defense Force. It helps the soldiers in various ways and it was the most well run, exciting, fabulous experience I ever could have wanted.
(THIS IS NOT POLITICAL...THIS IS ABOUT THE KIDS...JUST LIKE YOUR KIDS.)
Sometimes when you go with groups, as I do, you get a nice group but a badly run tour, or the opposite. Well this had everything!
Super planning with incredible stops at army, navy, airforce bases and real quality time with the kids. An interim two days at a spa...soldiers and massages..what could be better?? Plus all the usual historic and fascinating tourist stops that people of any faith can appreciate.
And as for danger...nothing! I felt as safe walking the streets as I do in NY...maybe safer.
In Israel, this tiny country, everyone is compelled to serve for 3 years when they become eighteen. Boys and GIRLS! The girls do a lot of specific interesting work at the screens looking for infiltrators across the borders and most of the air controllers are women too.Therefore, everyone is in the same boat and the kids are extremely mature and given incredible responsibility for the safety of their country.
(I feel that most of us in America don't give enough attention or support to our
brave girls and boys who volunteer.Plus they are sent far away and are really on their own.We could learn something from the Israelis in this regard to their kids.)
In Israel, everyone knows everyone...you can drive the country in a few hours...and
therefore the kids are everyone's kids..and they are given great respect, care and
after care.
I have a couple of American friends there whose kids are in the service and they told me one night a son was on guard duty and his walkie talkie failed. So he called his Dad on the cell phone and they "kept him company" all night!Amazing. I can't imagine how difficult it is for the parents...anywhere.
But in Israel they are guarding and fighting in their own neighborhoods. They are
faced with a stress level that is awesome and they are patriotic in a way that is
inspiring.
Another guy on the trip and I decided to become "parents" by adopting a soldier and sending him to college. The kids who are not financially equipped in Israel can't all get GI Bill type help, their resources aren't enough,so organizations like Friends of the IDF step in and help. And the kids are asked to do 130 hours of community service as well as serve in the military!
I cant wait to get the photo of my soldier/student and look forward to returning next year and meeting him in person.
I'm attaching a link that will show my trip and me...with some of the these kids.
http://www.israelsoldiers.org/missions.html

not so fast...

Well, Dear Reader, I am still trapped into the AcaiBerry Scam! I returned from my trip...next blog...and there was another package of the dreaded acaiberrydetox!!!
Of course the box wasn't marked or labeled in any way so I had to open it and even though I had cancelled...read last blog..etc. there it was again.
Again I called the phone and no one answers, went on the web site with "instant chat,no waiting" guess what..I'm still waiting.
And worst..Visa/Master card tells me I have to CHANGE MY CARD TOTALLY to get rid of them. American Express, I hear, would do it for me.
Guess what my next two calls are!

ACAIBERRY....BERRYBAD

Ok, DearReaders: Consumer alert! Do not be as dumb as I appeared to have been.
Somewhere, somehow I must have responded to an offer that said "free"...for the
Demon 'acaiberry' which is all the rage for dieting and detox.
At some point after the fatal move, I got some bottle, believe me I would not have paid for it, and I never opened it as I knew it was a scam. And I forgot about it.
So, when my next credit card came with a bill for $79.95 plus $2.50 for a "foreign exchange deal," I had no idea what it was for. Hmmm said I.I have no recollection of the name, Wellnesslab.
No, I don't remember charging said amount. So I called the number on the bill and no one ever came on the line....(after 20 minutes of holding to boring music and a soothing voice saying how important my call was to them.Sure it is.)
I then called the credit card company and put in a dispute.
A few minutes later I realized what it might be, so I went and dug out the bottle
and there was another name on it "Acaiberrydetox" and another phone number and I called and sure enough it was one in the same. A Free sample which turned out to be
a SCAM!
The person in Cyprus...yes Cyprus for a Florida company maintained I had not returned it and cancelled as it said I had to or I would be billed for the whole amount.
I thought it was free, said I.
Oh no, said he. Not after thirty days if you don't cancel.
Where is this written? In something at the bottom of their website which i asked to be directed to and clearly never have seen before.I looked at the site, nope, never saw it.
I cancelled now! Believe me. I cancelled!
Now, nohow no way would I have ordered from this site as it clearly looks to be just what it is, a "freebie" that turns into a life committment.
So, somewhere somehow I must have checked a box on some sight I trust and lo and behold...scammed!
So, DearReaders dont' ever check a box on a freebie and stay away from AcaiBerry...thank you berry much!

Pilots are even worse!

Ok, now the have found that the pilots of the wayword plane were not sleeping. Worse!
They were on their f'ing computers!
It's bad enough to eat dinner with someone on their blackberry, to be talking to someone who is tweeting, now we have to worry about pilots on their computers?
I'd feel better if they had fallen asleep. At least that would have been an accident. This was purposeful schmuckiness.
I have had it with gadgets! Kids dont know how to read or relate to humans, they are so busy with their Wei's or however it is spelled.
Young people are unable to write a real sentence.
Now I sound like an old fart but I don't care. People, we have to do something to return to normal human contact.
I say this of course as you read my blog...oh well...do as I would like you to do, not as I do..or something like that.

THE PILOTS FELL ASLEEP!!!!!

Ok, now I'm freaking out. I just got back from Minneapolis visiting my family. Well, a few weeks ago. But tonight the news said that a flight to Minneapolis went on to Wisconsin because THE PILOTS FELL ASLEEP!!
WHAT?Are you kidding me?
The Pilots on a Northwestern flight were out of communication for over an hour and
it is "suspected" that they had fallen asleep! There is now an investigation.
Well, yeah!
The airplane consultant on ABC said that for years the pilots association has tried to make it a point that pilots need more sleep. Oy!
Now I'm really wondering if I want to take those trips I have planned.
One maybe..but both?
Maybe the Stewardesses or flight attendants or whatever should go back to sitting
on their laps as they used to do!

Addie and Me

For those Dear Readers who remember my little Precious Boys from my column, I
went to visit them this weekend. And there is now a Precious Girl. These kids are
some of my cousin's grandchildren...and she let's me kind of borrow them once
and a while. They are beyond the beyond!
I know everyone thinks their kids and grandkids are the smartest and cutest..
but...well...how about a 2 and 1/2 year old who when told we have the same
birthday month, gets her older cousin to make a birthday card to give to me
with her "signing" scrawl? A genius I say!! And adorable too...
And the boys...the little guy is reading up a storm..another genius and gorgeous and
his brother...is handsome, still sweet and smart, but a young man of 9!!time is flying too soon for me.

Jon and Kate...get lost!

Ok, enough already. I am so sick of these two acting like children rather than
caring for their children. It's not fun anymore. This tit for tat TV appearance
trying the case in public is absolutely past the point of idiocy.
These two have got to go away!

New TV Season

It's Wed.. night and I'd been looking forward to 2 new sit-coms that I'd read about
and seen previews on. One is everything it's tauted to be and more..the other leaves
a lot to be desired.
"Modern Family" is the single funniest show I've ever seen! Honestly. A few regular
big laughs (I require at least 3 a half hour to score it A)and one hysterical fall out of bed gag that is brilliant and A-plus.

The show is about an extended family, one gay couple, one older man with a younger
wife and one typical over extended yuppie parented, kid over programmed group.
Great writing, terrific performances among them Ed ONeill from Married with Children,
and a few hitherto unknown guys playing the gay couple who are really terrific.
One of the creators is Chris Lloyd from a lot of great other shows and Steve Levitan
who has good credits also. They really deliver. Watch it. You'll thank me.

The other show...created by Bill Lawrence who did Scrubs, one of my favorites,
doesn't score with 'Cougar Town.'

Being a 'cougar,' a woman who dates younger men, is something I am not uh...unfamiliar with. The show could have been good if it had been less "on the nose." That is, every sort of stereotypical negative concept of such a woman is hit over the head in the character of Courtney Cox. It is kind of embarrassing. She is so overloaded with shtick and bad habits that I really feel for her.

The other characters are a little bit better conceived, but the sex jokes are too much and too horny. Does the word 'desperate' sound familiar? I might give it one more time just because it is a show that I should have written and would have liked to sellif I were still in the biz...and I'm a glutton for punishment.

I watched five minutes of 'Eastwick' from the movie Witches Of...and so far...ick!
It has a Desperate Housewives voice-over and reaches for humor...and doesnt get it.
If it gets better I'll let you know next time. But hearing words "yeast infection" lets me know that I shouldn't hold out a lot of hope. Yuck AND ick!

"Dancing with the Stars" is a huge yawn this season and as for Tom Delay otherwise
known as The Hammer or the Exterminator in Congress...where's a good rodent killer
when you need him? The answer...dancing!

I'm encouraged...

I now read both the obituaries and the wedding announcements on Sunday. (Actually to be
clear, I read the obits every day, but that's another column.)
In today's wedding pages, among the usual couples and the gay couples, there was a new addition. An old couple!
She is 75 and he is 77.
Her photo was alone, none of him. But I won't read into that. She is smiling like the cat who ate the canary. And I don't blame her one bit. You go girl!
Among all the 30 somethings and twenty kids...too young I'm afraid to really know who they are let alone who they should marry, there are rarely people over 50 getting married.
Since, as I say frequently I am "between 50 and death" that always depresses me.
I love reading the stories of how they met and sometimes broke up and got back together again. How they conducted long distance relationships. But in the end, they knew they
had met "the one." How their parents actually introduced them. Well, that's one I
don't identify with...at this point. Although my mother could be up in Heaven looking around for me.
So now, this older couple, without much detail, but hey...they do wind up together. I just wish there had been some tips included...like how in the hell did they meet? Where? Were they fixed up?
But I wish them all the best! I have a lot riding on this one...mostly hope for myself!
Yet, I'd rather meet "HIM" now...while we can still move around more easily!Get busy, Mother!

thank u laura bush

I always liked Laura Bush. We may have been in different political parties,
but she was a lovely, classy First Lady. And once again, she has done the
right thing.
She came out today in favor of President Obama's speech to school children.
Well...duh! How sad it is that she had to do so.
What is wrong with people these days? If the President can't make a speech
to kids about staying in school, why even have a President?
If we have so little respect for the office, why not just run amock...with hate
speech and talk radio running things and telling us what to think.
Is the Right so hysterical that we cant even have a tradition...which is what
it is for the President to talk to kids...continue because they are so afraid of
him?
It gives credence to the thought that because he is Black, maybe they can't
accept him in the office.
Newt...never one of my favorites...has come out against the hysteria and
recommended the speech.
We should be up in arms over this attempt at delegitimizing Barack Obama.
Enough is enough! Elections have meaning or they don't. Which is it?

Ted Kennedy

I have two photos of myself and Teddy Kennedy displayed in my house. One is the usual, standing next to him at a fundraiser, and the other is different. I'm laughing and so is he and I have my hand on his chest. I don't remember why or what we were saying but it is a great picture.
I really didn't know him, but just had met him briefly. But I feel so sad this weekend, watching
the days of mourning.
I've learned so much about him as a man. I had no idea of his kindness, his perpetual caring for others, his ability to make everyone a friend.
So much had been written about his larger than life, often troubling aspects. But they pale in
comparison to the successes of his life, his ability to live and enjoy life, even with tremendous tragedy.
I remember being in college when JFK was killed, and where I was when I heard. I remember
my then husband waking me at night to tell me Bobby had been shot, and sleepily saying "no, that happened in 1963." The cliche "end of an era" fits here more than most.
I also think how fortunate they were, this huge family to have each other. As an only child, I can
only envy their experiences shared in good times and bad.
As political foes remembered their friendship with him, I wonder why cant every politician behave as he did. Fight hard for what they believe and then be a human, decent person afterward.
It makes me sick the way politics is conducted these days. Indeed the end of an era.

me on the radio with 2boomerbabes

I'll attach the link...i start at the 33 minute mark...http://www.2boomerbabes.com/
Since I think of myself as the REAL boomerbabe,I was suprised to meet this great team
of gals at the Bookfair.
They asked me to guest on their very successful show and we agreed not to sue each
other for the name!

HEY! STOP YELLING!!!

Whoops...caps in emails are the equivalent of yelling, I'm told. So I'll stop
if they will. They, being TV talk shows,pitchmen and disruptive "constituents"
attending town meetings.
I got the to the point where everytime Billy What's His Name started pitching
whatever product at a decibel level enough to bring down a building, I would
turn off the sound. Now I know you aren't supposed to talk badly about the
dead, but when he passed away, the first thing I did was call a friend and say
now we can watch commercials again!
But he wasn't alone. The group gaggle of Sunday morning talk shows had
long been yelling at each other, just as the extreme pundits of both parties
would talk over each other...same result...a headache!
But now these "voters" are storming the townmeetings where believe it
or not, our Representatives of government are attempting to explain
complicated issues and yes...hear our response. This is wrong because
these (usually) rightwing verbal terrorists are making communication
impossible and it's pissing me off!
There are memos which have put out talking, or should I say "YELLING"
points, and this is not what democracy is supposed to be about.
So...stop the yelling! Start the listening!YOU HEAR ME?

The Bachelorette

Ok, first I can't believe I'm watching the damn show again, in the first place.
Second I can't believe I'm making comments on it.
Actually I'm too lazy to go through the sign up on the ABC TV Message
Board and I have to vent somewhere.
So...here we go!
This show stinks! For those of who you who have a life...the girl who is
the Bachelorette is a nice girl with a nice body, not that pretty...and
clearly a little insecure.
I mention that because she requires that each of the guy's fall in love
with her and tell her numerous times!And we have to hear about it
over and over and she and the guys have to articulate the same
bull ten times an hour! Boring!
At the end, she lets the really cool guy go and picks another one...
a guy who is handsome and really crazy about her.
Plus the poor guy had to undergo the incredible indignity of
not being able to "perform" on their first "sleepover!"Aand
all of America knowing it! But the second time he could...thank god.
But...he is an "8"...and the other guy was a "10!"
She however is an "8" as well and like feels comfortable with like.
She mentioned numerous times that the first guy had always been the
"dumper" not the "dumpee"...and she obviously was scared to pick him.
This particular season, has been filled with 'dramatic' surprises etc etc .
and clearly is fixed. Drawn out for ratings and our emotional rollercoaster
ride is now over.
I dont want to hear the word "journey" and people spilling their feelings
to total strangers ever again!
I hope I never watch this show again. But...I can't promise.

Michael Jackson Memorial

Of course I watched it, along with zillions of others around the world and I'm so happy
to report that it was a beautiful,tasteful and appropriate event.
In spite of the insanity of the press coverage, the family pulled off a classy affair and
it was very sad to see the beautiful children mourning. It was interesting for me to
see the family...all those brothers united in uniform and feeling and the closeness which
makes me realize it's no fun being an only child, inspite of the fractious moments a
large family goes through.
Brooke Shields was especially meaningful in humanizing Michael...as they were two
little kids thrust into the spotlight. And she remains one of the most gorgeous women.
The songs, the film clips, the speeches..except for Al Sharpton, but what else is new...
all were lovely memories and uplifting.
Good job Jackson Family. Goodbye Michael.

Gov. Palin

Newsflash: I just saw Sarah Palin morph into Irwin Corey! Remember him? the old
guy who talks double talk? Huh? What?
I think she just resigned because..? something about fish floating.
She totally rambled and was incredibly wierd. But then I always
thought she was a joke.
Maybe now she'll just go away. But on the other hand, as a Democrat...

On Michael Jackson

ENOUGH ALREADY!!!
What is wrong with us that we have given his passing
more press than JFK's?
Great performer, possible pedophile, definitely disturbed...ok. I got it.
Stop printing, broadcasting, talking about him.
There is a very difficult world out there and it has kept going and
we should be paying more attention!
Enough!