A Druze Soapmaker Driven to Help Heal the World

I admire Gamila Hiar for being an entrepreneur who makes pure products, and who works to promote peace, coexistence, and the advancement of women's causes.

Calabasas California Bans Outdoor Smoking--Hooray!

I like when there are signs telling me that I'm moving in the right direction. And I'm not talking about traffic signs. I've been working on a treatment for a screenplay, and since I started, lots of synchronicities have been appearing in my life.

For the last year or so, I've been thinking about where I would move to. After all, this town, Sarasota, is a bit of a letdown (understatement!) after so many years in Manhattan. But I've become smitten by my proximity to nature and all the warm, smiling sunshine.

California's been beckoning to me for a long time. It's got the climate I prefer, the entertainment industry (where I should be working), lots of raw foods restaurants (where I want to be eating), and now it's got Calabasas, which has decided to ban outdoor smoking. That's a pretty damn great sign that I need to move there!

I'm one of the original anti-smokers. I don't mean I was against people who smoked. I just hated the secondhand tobacco smoke infusing my hair, my clothes, and my lungs. For several years before I moved out of New York, I stopped going out to clubs because I could no longer tolerate their wall of choking smoke. That was a big hardship, because I love to dance, and I love live music.

When I was around 14, I would stroll on the beach (the Jersey shore) with my 12-year-old cousin Dale. We would go up to boys and ask for a cigarette. (Actually I only remember doing this once.) One afternoon when we approached a tall boy and asked, he gave us a cigarette. My cousin, who was doing my bidding, broke it in half right there in front of him while she and I said smoking was a bad habit to get into.

Some years ago, I created an online petition asking for smoking to be banned in all workplaces. Finally, the times are catching up with me! Smoking's being banned in more and more localities. I'm thrilled; it's not so easy being decades ahead of the culture.

And now, thanks to Calabasas, the OUTdoors is being protected as well. Brav-O!

Now I just have to figure out how to make a whole lot of money so I can move to Calabasas. Cross your fingers for me that I turn my treatment into a hot screenplay.

Scientists Say Mice Can Sing

The above link (click on the headline) is a news item featuring the actual audio of male mice serenading their mates (or their would-be mates). Nature at its finest! Almost as great as Owen Wilson singing in Starsky & Hutch! (Well, okay, I'm prejudiced.) I can't wait to see the music video of the first real live mouse to get a recording contract.

Eavesdropping From Far Away

As a former Manhattanite who's always amused to hear the odd things passersby say, I'm delighted to find Overheard in New York. Here's something I overheard in NYC many years ago, something I never forgot:

I was walking west on East 10th Street from University Place. As a couple walked past me, the man said to the woman,

"She pays her bills with psychic checks."

I'd love to create a site called Overheard in Sarasota, but I never hear people saying anything interesting in this town. Sad, isn't it.

Bill's Fruity Birthday Cake

Gee, President Bill's birthday cake (from this summer) looks like a raw vegan cake. Decorated with fruit. Maybe, just maybe, it is! If you know, we hope you'll let us know. Even if it's not raw, it's mighty pretty.

Catalogue of Songs that Mention Various Dictionaries

This was pretty quirky and I had to list it. This inspires me to make a movie called Dictionary. Or Dictionary Grrl.

Dan Meth's Smart-Ass Guide to New York City

As a former Manhattanite whose heart is still there, I love Dan Meth's smart and smartass interactive animated cartoon about The Big Apple. Since I used to live just a short walk from the East Village, and did most of my food shopping there, I clicked on that part first. As my mother said upon seeing Dan's smartass guide, "Any time you miss New York, you can watch this."

Rock and Roll & UFOs

There's a new book on the link between Rock Stars and UFOs. Its author, Michael Luckman, was on Coast to Coast AM last night. Fascinating stuff. And while we're on the subject of little known facts about Rock and Roll, I just discovered this website as well.

Deejay Dancing in Publix

Adam Sandler dancing in a supermarket in Punch Drunk Love

I grew up wanting life to be like a Broadway musical, with people spontaneously bursting into song & dance in the middle of their everyday lives. I can't say I've encountered that very often. But it happened today, Saturday! Right here in Sarasota.

In this hypohurricane weather, I went to Publix to buy some supplies. When I stepped through the automatic doors, right there in front of me was a teenage deejay spinning dance music. I could hardly believe it! I parked my shopping cart and began dancing. Right there inside Publix's entrance doors.

It was dinner time, and although there were other shoppers, I was the only one dancing. Once I hear compelling music I've just gotta dance. Middle-aged shoppers in the checkout area peered over at me, bemused. Teenage store clerks looked at me and smiled. When the music slowed down, I did some shopping, then came back to join a conga line of six employees and an eight-year-old girl. They were doing an intricate dance as the song instructed: "Slide to the left, jump back, spin around, cha cha." I'd never heard this one before, but it must be popular because the little girl knew the steps perfectly.

Turns out that the deejay booth--complete with a boombox with a built-in video camera and a black and white screen--is just a one-weekend promo. But I love the idea of dancing while buying salad greens and pineapple, any time. Why limit it to one weekend? When I got home, I sent a letter to Publix corporate, suggesting that a dedicated dance area become a permanent feature of the Lakewood Ranch Publix. Being the only supermarket in the country with dancing would get them tons of publicity. I can see it now, entertainment news and late night talk shows all talking about Publix. I like the year-round idea because it beats driving to Ibor City to go deejay dancing. I'll be going back to Publix Sunday to dance. Who knows--I might even become their first-ever salaried go-go dancer.

April 21, 2008:

I just discovered this awesome video of two guys dancing to disco in a supermarket!!! These guys are my soulmates!

Got Psi?

Dean Radin, the head of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, was on Coast to Coast am last night, talking about the bizarre and fascinating world of quantum physics and mass consciousness. A woman called in to ask if by playing the "psi" games that IONS has online a person could develop their psychic abilities. (She said it's been happening to her.) Dean's answer was a resounding yes.

So I'm off to play some of these! Click on the "Got Psi" headline to see some of these games, and visit the Psi Arcade for more. If you go and play these, we hope you'll let us know how they're affecting you!

10 Things You Should Do If You See A UFO

People make fun of the subject, but why not have an open mind?

Send This to Your Neighborhood Wino

http://www.cafepress.com/rfnm
The resveratrol is in the grapes;
There's no need to drink wine
To get this anti-cancer nutrient.

Scientists Cultivate 2,000 Year Old Date Seed

Israeli researchers believe it could help them to generate new medicines by uncovering the secret of why the ancient Judaean palm Phoenix dactylifera was so valued for its health-giving properties as well as its beauty and the protection it offered from the sun.

This is great news. Let's hope it inspires researchers to plant other vintage seeds.

ABC News Heralds Enzyme Study Results As Breakthrough of the Century

BREAKING NEWS!

from RawFoodsNewsMagazine.com

Your online source since March 2001 for news about the raw foods lifestyle

ABC News Heralds Colorado Professor's Enzyme Study

As "Possibly the Breakthrough of the Century"

Tonight, Thursday, June 2, ABC-TV's Prime Time Live featured a story on groundbreaking research that shows that a pill containing a few herbs (among them turmeric and green tea) creates enzymes in the body that reduce people's oxidative stress to the level of a newborn baby, thus preventing chronic disease and lengthening the human lifespan by perhaps 50 percent.

Dr. Joe McCord, the University of Colorado at Denver biochemistry professor who did the research, told reporter John Quinones that oxidative stress is what happens in the body when people eat! (As we raw foodists know, it's what happens when people eat cooked foods, but they didn't go into detail about this on the show, probably because these scientists don't even consider that some people might eat raw foods.) The professor said that "eating" causes oxidative stress, in which free radicals in the body get out of hand and cause disease and aging.

The herbal pill (Protandim) restores the enzymes that our bodies stop making as we get older. The restored enzymes then kill the free radicals, those nasty things that cause chronic diseases and aging itself!

So, although they didn't make the connection, this big news is as good as ABC News saying that eating a raw foods diet prevents disease and aging!!!!!

Here's the ABC-News story

Ask us about placing your raw-foods-related announcement on RawFoodsNewsMagazine.com

Style, Cosmetics and Raw Foods

RawStyle

We now have a sister blog on all things stylish that are also sound for our health and the environment. We invite you to visit it and post your comments!

Great Idea: An Owen Wilson Film Festival

An Owen Wilson Film Festival

When you search google for Owen Wilson, you get nearly 2.5 million references. (I purposely didn't use "google" as a verb here, because the verb sounds vaguely obscene, especially when used with Owen, who defines the word hot.) I wonder if it ever bothers celebs that they don't have time to read everything that's been written about them. I wonder if any of them ever tried to, and how much time they actually spent. I wonder who they are.

As a lover of both the written word and Owen, I've read my share of articles and essays about him. I'm citing this one because I like the tasty way this fametracker.com guy writes and I also like where his heart's at re: Owen.

Bicycles and Tricycles and Romance

In a post titled Mind Over Machine, the blog Joshua Birtles: Life, the Universe and Nothing quotes a lyric from the old song, "Bicycle Built for Two," which was written by Harry Dacre in 1892 and updated with a techy twist in a notable 1968 film:

"Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I'm half crazy all for the love of you. It won't be a stylish marriage, I can't afford a carriage. But you'll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two." --HAL, 2001: A Space Odyssey

I'm mentioning it because of the serendipity of happening upon Joshua Birtles' blog soon after posting the post below this about tricycle pedicabs. How synchronistic!

Sarasota Eyes Tricycle Cabs for Downtown

I used to live in Manhattan, where a guy named George Bliss (who I once directed in an art video) converted old bikes into pedicabs. Open to the elements, the PoNY Cabs, as they were called, were available as taxis for tourists and others braver than me. I loved the idea of the PoNY Cabs, but Manhattan, with its dense traffic, loud noise and polluted air, didn't seem like the ideal place for something so environmentally-forward. Now I hear that George is being forced to sell his fleet because of an insurance dispute over an accident in which no one was even injured. Here's a video clip about George's tricycle cabs.

Cut to 2005, and I've been a Sarasota resident for two and a half years. And I read that Sarasota is considering something similar. The nice thing is that--except for hurricane season--our downtown is a perfect venue for tricycle cabs. The weather's usually beautiful, the traffic's usually light, and there are lots of trees to sweeten the air. Here's what Joe Moraca's Sarasota Livin' blog says:

Another transit option may be coming to Downtown Sarasota. People power to get you around... read it in the Sarasota Herald Tribune

"Randy Giffen's thoughts are now taking shape as the Sarasota Surrey Cab Co.Giffen wants to introduce “pedicabs” to downtown Sarasota.

The transportation service would be similar to taxis but without the polluting combustion engines. Tricycle carriages, with licensed drivers, would carry residents and tourists to and from hotels, condos, theaters and restaurants. It’s an untried idea in a downtown where a county-operated trolley service recently failed to attract enough passengers.

“If it’s not done in a proper way, it could be an embarrassment for the city,” Giffen said. “It’s imperative that it be done right.”

I guess I can ride one to the water taxi stop...

Here are some really cool transportation ideas from an artist named John Lee. I so share his vision!

Paint By Number? No, Eat By Color & Vit. C

Here's an arresting splash of a page from the USDA about the benefits of eating produce that's vibrantly colored:

And here's a chart of the world's fruits and how they rate in Vitamin C content. Camu Camu berries are listed as having an "astounding" amount of Vitamin C. We want them growing in our backyard!

A Dessert to Adapt to Raw

Apricot Dessert Cones

Here is the recipe as posted with this amazing photo by Keiko on her blog nordljus:

Apricot and honey frozen cones

Makes 10

825g tin apricots, drained
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
2 cups plain greek-style yoghurt
3/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup crème fraiche or light sour cream

Place the apricots, sugar and water in a medium sauce pan over low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for
3-4 minutes.

Set aside to cool. Place the yoghurt, honey, vanilla and crème fraiche in a
bowl and stir to combine. Set aside.

To make the cones, cut out 10 x 15 x 30cm lengths of baking paper. Twist the baking paper to form a cone shape making sure there is no hole at the pointy end and staple to secure. Spoon 1 tablespoon of the apricot mixture into each cone. Top with 1/4 of the yoghurt mixture. Place upright in the freezer for 2 hours or until set. To serve, invert the cones on to a serving plate and peel off the baking paper.

Now all we need to do is adapt it! Send in your adaptations and we'll publish them here.