Jeremy Piven Called a Liar

I guess I should preface this by saying I have been a big fan of Jeremy Piven. Although he has made some terrible terrible choices in movies (PC U is one of them), his talent has always shined through. He makes that show Entourage. Gadget Man and I are constantly rewinding his one liners so we can see him perform them again. Anyway, he has gotten a ton of flack b/c he dropped out of his Broadway show due to mercury poisoning. Apparently, he used to eat sushi every day. Anyway, his producers didn’t believe him and are pursuing it through arbitration with the actors union.

Mercury poisoning from fish is well-documented. Pregnant and nursing women, as well as children have been advised to avoid certain fish for fear of this poisoning.

It is such a shame that we can’t trust our food supply. It is also a shame that Piven has to suffer through the stress of having to defend himself on top of the effects of the poisoning. I hope Piven will make something good come out of all of this and use his clout and celebrity to get our government to crack down on those poisoning our waters. Finally, all of this should serve a reminder to all of us (including myself): practice moderation; no good can come from eating one thing in excess every day.

Read “Jealousy” on Chicago Moms Blog

Please read my post “Jealousy” on Chicago Moms Blog where I contemplate why the news of my ex-boyfriend’s third child on the way makes me feel jealous (and then I feel angry for feeling jealous — ugh!).

My Vampire Obsession

(MILD SPOILER ALERT: if you haven’t read Twilight and New Moon and plan to, don’t read this post. However, I really don’t give anything truly important away)

At a recent girls’ night out, a friend could not stop gushing about “Edward.” Finally, I realized that “Edward” is a character in the teen literary sensation Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I enjoy Young Adult Literature and fantasy. Furthermore, just hearing someone my age so into a book intrigued me. I ran to the library to get myself a copy. Well, just a few pages into it and I was hooked. It is one of the most suspenseful books I’ve ever read. I can’t say it’s that well-written in other ways. Among other issues, I was getting quite bored of reading various forms of the word “stumble” (Bella, the main character is clumsy beyond believability, and this is coming from a fellow clumsy girl). Anyway, since the book is so suspenseful, and such an easy read, it was very hard to put it down. I took it with me in the car to read at traffic lights: I brought it to pick up Eva at the bus stop; I put the kids in front of the computer on PBSkids.org just so I could read more of it. Laundry, dinner, and my sleep were sacrificed for a couple of days until it was finished. Apparently, I’m not the only one to get this way while reading Twilight. I found a whole blog dedicated to moms addicted to Twilight. I’m really concerned about what’s going to happen with my family life, because there are three more books to this story. I couldn’t wait to read book two, New Moon, which I have almost finished, but I’ll have to take a break after this because I have to get going on Three Cups of Tea for my book group. I bet I plow through that just to get to read about my favorite Vampire again! (Jacob is actually more my type. I once dated a Seneca Indian — yummy! Besides, Jacob loves Bella for who she is not what she smells like).

Addendum:  National Public Radio just aired a book review of the Twilight series.  The reviewer is a Georgetown University professor, so it makes me feel a bit vindicated about loving the series so much.

Stay Up to Date on This Week’s Torah Portion

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it, but I’ve been going to Torah study every Saturday morning at my synagogue. I just got turned on to this website which will give you a brief cartoon (yes, it’s animated) summary of the week’s parsha. I love it! Check it out!

I’ve Been Quite the Little Homemaker

I’m feeling a bit like the “happy homemaker” lately. Yesterday, Charlie was under the weather with the gastrointestinal/ respiratory virus going around (coughing fits and diarrhea, yeah!). Anyway, I kept him home from school. After dropping Eva off at school (no bus b/c it was raining — yes, I spoil her sometimes), Charlie and I went to the post office to mail a package, then on to the doctor’s office for the official, “it’s a virus” diagnosis. When we got home, Charlie rested with a DVD while I got to work making my first batch of barley soup from scratch. Two hours and two loads of laundry later, the soup was ready to eat. I loved it and I felt very proud. One load of laundry went in while Charlie napped and I folded the first two loads. Then I met Eva at the bus and began dinner’s second course, sesame udon noodles with spinach (Martha Stewart’s recipe that I have tweaked over the years). Next, I made some chocolate frosting to top the extra cupcakes I had made for my cake decorating class.

Although these were all pretty mundane tasks, I have to say that at least I felt like I accomplished something. The laundry part doesn’t count because I never feel like I’ve accomplished something there. I can do a million loads and the next day the hampers all seem full. Anyway, I quit practicing law because it took years to accomplish anything. Being a mom, there are little rewards everyday: healthy yummy soup , satisfying noodles with leftovers and delicious organic cupcakes in the freezer to enjoy on a couple of Shabbats to come (typically, we only have candy/cake/cookies as a dessert on Shabbat). Of course, non of this day’s accomplishments were as important as getting back the pension for a couple hundred employees, but what I do matters to the four of us anyway.

Selma Hayak is My New Breastfeeding Hero

by Mary Cassatt

One of my sister Chicago Mom Bloggers wrote about Selma Hayak nursing a sick baby in Sierra Leone. You can see footage of the Nightline show here. I really wish we would see more of this on camera. Whenever an actor has a baby on t.v., I’m always waiting to see if they will show the baby nursing. They never do! Perhaps if we see more people in the media (whether it is just acting or real), more women would want to do it. I wonder if Barbara Walters caught that show. I know how much breastfeeding makes her uncomfortable.

Bad News for Children: MMR Split No Longer an Option

Once again, the pharmaceutical companies are dictating how doctors care for us. According to one of my favorite doctors on vaccines, Dr. Bob Sears, author of The Vaccine Book, doctors can no longer get the MMR vaccine in individual doses for measles, mumps and rubella (note: if the link does not take you to the article, look for his January 22, 2009 article). He fears that Merek, the company that makes it, may NEVER make this available again. For more in dept coverage, and advice, go here to his article dated January 22, 2009. My review of his book is here. There are more reviews from the “Moms Blog” sites where I post (in this case, it is D.C. Metro Moms Blog).

What can we, as parents do about this? I’m not sure. Do we lobby our doctors, Merek, the Surgeon General? Why not all three!

Mercury in High Fructose Corn Syrup?

Recently, the medical community has been so quick to say, “Oh, we’ve eliminated mercury in most of the vaccines, yet autism is still going strong, so it couldn’t have been the mercury.” Oh yeah? Well it has just been discovered that there is mercury in High Fructose Corn Syrup. This stuff is in everything and has been blamed (though some deny it) for America’s obesity problem. Perhaps mercury is still to blame for America’s high rate of autism, but not only was it in our vaccines, it has been in our food all along! (David Sloane does a good job of explaining why many, many more foods have HFCS in them here in the U.S. than in any other nation).

In our household, we try to avoid it altogether. It is so difficult! Take salad dressing, for instance. HFCS is in almost all of the dressings. If you stick to buying organic, you will never have to put that stuff in your mouth. However, if you like soda pop or salad dressing (not organic) good luck! Thank G-d I can always count on Paul Newman’s dressings. They NEVER have HFCS. Parents, if we unite against this stuff, maybe it will go away! Insist that your food be free of HFCS and soon it won’t be manufactured here anymore. This IS a political matter people! The Corn Refiners Association is very powerful in the U.S.A. No one will help us but ourselves.