Blogs on More

Here’s what’s caught our eye on the ‘net today:

Here’s one for the reinvention inspiration files: The Toronto Star reports: “it’s the 40-something female multi-taskers juggling jobs, families and mortgages who edge out their classmates of either sex at any age, new research shows.” That does not surprise me at all.

While you’re there check out their profile of the Soup Sisters.

Over at the Globe and Mail there’s a nice profile of Elizabeth Gilbert. I freely admit I have not yet read Eat Pray Love. Am I missing a great read? Laura over at 11d’s review hasn’t convinced me yet. But with Julia Roberts starring in the film slated to be released this summer I might just have to.

Lost Boys fans will be sad to note that Corey Haim has died.

And if you’re about to have a coffee break, drink your coffee at lunch to help prevent diabetes. (Calgary Herald)

I was really glad to see Meryl Streep win at the Golden Globes (here’s a clip of her in the press room, where I find her answers smart and classy as usual); I have to admit that Julie & Julia was the surprise movie of the year for me - I really enjoyed it and found it inspirational. Go passionate women!

What did you think of the awards?

Also, I wanted to be sure to announce our winner of the giveaway contest. The comments were all so good that I picked a random number and that’s the comment that won: #23: “My husband and I don’t argue very often and if we do have a serious discussion we try to remain calm and under control. We very seldom yell at each other and try to reason with each other if we disagree-so compromise is always our best strategy. We have been married for 43 years and so far we are still madly in love with each other!!” - Sheila.

Stay tuned for a post around some of your comments; they were really great. Thanks for participating and keep reading for more giveaways and opportunities to share your wisdom!

If your kids are now home for the holidays and you have yet to see them release the game controller, here’s a story for you: Boston mom calls 911 over 14-year-old’s video game habit.

If you’re interested in what the big deal is about World of Warcraft and its ilk, Laura at Geeky Mom has been running a fascinating series on the game on her blog called WoW Wednesdays - check it out.

Today marks the winter solstice, or the longest night/shortest day of the year - and the official beginning of winter. Besides pagan feasting (does this mean I’d be justified in ordering Chinese take-out tonight?), I tend to think of today as the make-or-break day for holiday panic.

This year I’m ahead on food, decor and gifts, and behind on cards, exercise, and sleep. I still want to know why it seems like caring about certain holiday things seems to be a sex-linked trait. Is it all nuture, or is there something more biological going on? Do we blame Martha Stewart?

In case you’re panicking, here’s a round of up some of the holiday content and advice we have to offer:

Last minute gift inspiration
Trim holiday spending
Free holiday fun!
Dealing with difficult holidays
Grieving over the holidays
Modern manners and holiday etiquette
Don’t drink through the holidays!
Palate-pleasing appetizers
Cheap and chic dinner party ideas

Avatar premieres this week and Sigourney Weaver graces our December/January cover. And she looks fabulous, both in clips from the film and on our cover.

I confess I’ve had a not-so-secret crush on Sigourney Weaver since I first saw Alien. I was too young for the scary bits in 1979 when the film was released, but I had a memorable date during its re-release in the hype leading up to Aliens in 1986. I remember ranting most of the way home to my date about the lack of really powerful women characters like Ripley when he confessed that he’d just been hoping I would be scared and lean up against him. He didn’t stick around for my Working Girl phase. (I fortunately have not yet had an Ice Storm phase.)

So reading Margy Rochlin’s profile was not just part of my job but it made the fan girl in me happy. Not only does Weaver talk about her debut in sci-fi, she shares about her empty nest anxieties and her 25-year-old marriage. I wish I could link you to the piece, but it’s one of the ones we’re not able to run on the site so you’ll have to go get a copy of More if you don’t already have one. (But I can and will link you to Diane Selkirk’s web-exclusive piece on Reena Lazar, a much less well-known role model who uses film to help bring peace to teens - kind of her own avatar project in a way.)

Women in film really can influence us. Lieut. Ellen Ripley gave me a taste of women badasses (as MTV named her) that I’ve never quite lost. Which film characters have shaped your view of women?

Here’s what we’re reading today:

From Judith Warner at the New York Times online: “In this economy, getting the old face and belly looking tighter may, for many middle-aged women, be as crucial as having an eye-catching résumé.” I think I might have a slight case of bag-lady syndrome myself.

From the New Yorker, quite a thoughtful piece by Ariel Levy about Caster Semenya: “’I think it is the responsibility of South Africa to rally behind this child and tell the rest of the world she remains the hero she is and no one will take that away from her.’”

If you missed Shinan Govani’s column on eating with his back to Jennifer Aniston, well, go read it now. (National Post)

What you might want to know about healthcare: Medical association takes heat for Pfizer funding, and The man from Pfizer (both from the Globe and Mail).

And lighter fare for Friday: A gallery of the year’s most amazing scientific images. (Popsci.com)

Related pieces on More.ca: The truth about Botox, Ageism in the office and of course don’t forget to check out our gift guide and enter our contest. (It’s a really, really nice box of gifts.)

Controversy over 47-year-old Demi Moore’s hips! David Graham at the Toronto Star reports on the ongoing discussion regarding whether Demi’s Moore’s hips were Photoshopped to be smaller on the cover of W magazine. The Daily Mail even published superimposed photos online, with the Demi Moore cover over a shot of catwalk model Anja Rubik. Moore herself has asserted the hips are hers, posted the original picture on her Twitter feed.

Whether or not this is a tempest in a teapot, the best part of the whole kerfuffle for me has been discovering Demi Moore’s UR Wanted project on YouTube. If you decide to enter, be sure to send us the link to your video. Oh, and - what do you think about those hips?

So this week Amazon announced that its wireless reading device, the Kindle, is now available in Canada, joining the Sony Reader. Despite being an avid “ink on dead trees” reader, I’m thinking about investing in one of these things so that I can carry more books with me on trips and on public transit.

The release got me thinking about technology that’s rocked my world. The GPS is probably the latest one that’s really made me feel like the future is now: I realized road atlases in print format are pretty much over and that it’s unlikely my son will ever navigate a family vacation by searching out square D4. In fact, he may never actually get lost. As his mother I think I’m glad, although some of my best moments have been when I was completely, utterly lost - like the time in Rome that I accidentally ended up in St. Peter’s Square.

But other moments were the first time I tried a web browser, the first time I saw a Roomba at work (robot cleaning! Not that we have one yet.), and the first time I used Abebooks.com to track down an out-of-print book rather than go ask at the local used bookstore.

I remember when I first got my own record player in my own room, and promptly went about wearing the tracks out of Grease. Since then, the list of technology I’ve owned includes a hand-me-down 8-track player, a cassette recorder, an AM-only portable radio, a boom box (with two tape decks, the envy of my friends), a Sony Walkman, a VCR, a CD player, a DVD player, and an iPod. I’m starting to feel the guilt about landfill about now. But out of all of these I think it’s the iPod that’s most changed my relationship to music, divorcing it from albums and moving towards playlists for every mood and occasion.

Which technology’s rocked your world lately?

So it’s official: The queen of daytime talk is hanging up her crown - at least when it comes to her show. I think the most memorable or significant part of the show for me in recent years has been the book club. What will you miss, if anything, when Oprah’s show is off the air?

You may remember Sandra Tsing Loh’s previous piece on the end of her marriage. Now she’s written an essay sparked by a read of Ayelet Waldman’s book Bad Mother that not only continues her saga but is almost gut-wrenching to read.

Other things we’re reading today:
- a very cool home that houses three generations (New York Times’s T Magazine)
- Sarah Hampson’s interview of Jeannette Walls (author of The Glass Castle) at the Globe and Mail
- Maybe I will get the Nintendo Wii (National Post article on the gaming system’s workouts)
- Also at the National Post: Custody battles in the age of the Internet chat
- Also an update on one of the women who’ve graced our cover lately: Robin Wright (Penn) - note the brackets; she’s also changed her hair.

Found something we should be reading? Link to it in the comments below!