Valerie Reiss: April 2007 Archives

By Valerie Reiss, filling in for Amy.

Oddly enough, this week Deirdre Imus, wife to embattled shock jock Don Imus, came out with a book, "Green This! Volume 1: Greening Your Cleaning", about how to clean you home with fewer toxins. Turns out, she's also a vegan, and has even turned curmudgeon cum racist Don into one too.

It's her second book, the first one being, "The Imus Ranch, Cooking for Kids and Cowboys," a vegan cookbook. Deirdre also helms the Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology, an organization that aims to help: "identify, control and ultimately prevent exposures to environmental factors that may cause adult, and especially pediatric cancer, as well as other health problems with our children," according to its website.

All fascinating stuff. One can only imagine what conversations they're having right now. His timing--making racist comments and then getting fired--is probably pretty lousy for her book sales. Then again, maybe not. I'd be more inclined to buy her book, knowing what a hard time she's probably going through. Dunno. What do you think?

By Valerie Reiss, filling in for Amy.

I just logged on to Amazon and saw a little box that said "Valerie's Plog: 66 Posts."

Of course my first question was, "What's a plog?" So I clicked.

Apparently, a plog is this:

"Your Plog is a personalized web log that appears on your customer home page. Every person's Plog is different (hence the name) and the posts are sorted so the most recent entries appear at the top. Each post gives you the opportunity to provide feedback to the sender as to whether you liked the post or not. Your Plog only appears if you are logged into Amazon.com and is visible only to you."

This is weird because:

a) Retailers are blogging (or rather plogging). Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is a first.

b) There is a new word. I'm assuming product + blog = plog. And it's kind of fun to say: plog, plog, plog.

c) My plog is all written by Donna Marie Williams. I know her name because she's the author of Sensual Celibacy, a wonderful book about taking sex breaks to re-gather yourself. I interviewed her a few years ago for a story on spiritual celibacy. I also must have bought her book on Amazon.

d) My plog is spiritual. Donna mainly talks about not having sex before marriage, but in a non-preachy way. She also talks about Imus, high heels, and O magazine.

There's a little link that says the blog is syndicated from her site, here.

Though I'm consistently delighted and creeped out by how well Amazon appears to "know" me, this just seems downright odd. Especially since I've actually met this person.

Do you have a plog? Would you tell us on this blog about your plog? If it has you agog? Or in a fog? Or bored as a log? Ok, I'm stopping now. To go jog. And be a cog. (Sorry.)

By Valerie Reiss, filling in for Amy.

The wonderful author Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday at age 84.

Though I've buried many of the details of his amazing books deep into my adolescent psyche where they first bloomed (or rather, exploded), I know his snarky, brilliant, dark-yet-bright, absurd-yet-earnest, searing satires seriously shaped me--and zillions of others.

If you haven't, I urge you to pick up "Cat's Cradle" or "Breakfast of Champions" or "Slaughterhouse Five," because they're all wincing and soaring revelations, if a tad gritty--and often grapple with themes of existence, God, and religion galore. You should do this especially if you mainly know of him through "his" commencement speech--one of the Internet's first viral links, and frauds about 10 years ago.

At age 14, I scrawled this beloved quote from "Cat's Cradle" on my bathroom's "graffiti" wall (I had a cool mom):

"Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God."

And this, of course, was written nearby: "So it goes."

Here are many other great Vonnegut quotes.

The Times' obit today talks about his work, including the metaphysical elements, here. It says that this quote from his novel “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater,” "summed up his philosophy":

“Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’ ”

That's a philosophy that works for me. So it goes.


Do you have any favorite Vonnegut memories or quotes or books? Please share.

By Valerie Reiss, filling in for Amy.

Hi. I thought I'd take a moment and poll those of you reading about what you'd like from this blog. Technologically, it's hard for us to tell which posts "work" and which fall flat. So we'd like to know what you'd like to see more of, and what you'd like to see less of. I wish we had poll-taking technology on this blog, but in lieu of that, I've listed some topics you can comment on--say more, less, or the same--in the comment space here or by sending to this email: here. Also feel free to let us know about topics you'd like to see covered that I haven't mentioned.

Thanks!

Spiritual parenting
Yoga
Holistic health
Holistic weight loss
Alternative medicine
The environment
Holistic beauty products
Holistic home products
Holistic apparel
Energy healing
Relationships
Spiritual sex
Psychology
Spiritual counseling
Spiritual music
Spiritual events
Spiritual websites
Guided meditations
How-to suggestions (How to apologize, How to make bath salts, how to feng shui your bedroom, etc.)
Video content
Audio content
Information on how to balance your life
Lightworkers
New Age concepts about spirituality
Law of attraction
Spiritual book suggestions
Spiritual magazine suggestions
Spiritual movie suggestions
Personal sharings about Amy's life and family
Life transitions

That about covers it for me. Feel free to address this in the way that's easiest for you.

Thanks!

By Valerie Reiss, filling in for Amy.

Hi. So last night I went for my annual CAT scan to make sure that I still don't have cancer again. I know Amy's written about her fantasy of how hospitals should be--soothing music, healing, whole food, inspiring decor, etc. I'm with her.

I walked into--the admittedly more posh-than-most--CAT waiting room at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and there's Wolf Blitzer on the flat-screen saying "And which celebrity has cancer? Stay tuned to find out." Last time, there was a forest fire on CNN. And soon after Wolf, while I was chugging on my Raspberry Isotope Delite with Splenda (looks like fuscia Kool Aid), came Lou Dobbs, inspiring the 20-something male cancer patient next to me to start bitterly ranting about how illegal immigrants "breed" too much.

So I plugged into my 'pod to drown it all out. Ick. Then a nurse looks at me and says, "Vanessa?" I'm like, "Valerie?" she checks her sheet and nods. I go with her. She says they'd been calling my name. I said I'd been listening to my music to drown out CNN because it's all so depressing. She noted that I had a point, but that whenever something bad happens patients always ask to have CNN turned on. That depressed me even more.

Since we clearly don't know what's good for us when we're waiting for a stressful exam that could tell us just how long we have left on earth, I'm suggesting obligatory relaxation. Or humor. Anything but death, destruction, and hate.

As I was leaving, I looked around the now mostly empty waiting room and there were scattered bottles of the raspberry drink and empty paper cups with flexi straws. It looked like the remains of a kegger in the cancer hospital. Which, I guess, it was. One woman sat there, looking grim. The (bad) news was on, the Times was sitting there looking unwelcoming and gray amid the cup/bottle detritus. I had the thought, "I want to give her something." A thought, I might add, I would normally ignore.

But I handed her my Elle Decor that I had bought specially to get through this visit--I find listening to my own music and staring and pretty, shiny things is the best way to get through these. He face lit up and I saw that it was perfect. Perfect to not hold back the urge to give.

Anyway, I'm not sure what my point is, exactly, but I made it through CAT #zillion and managed to share a nice moment with someone also suffering in those unconscious waiting rooms. So though I feel like hurling (the raspberry stuff--full of iodine-- has a way of lingering). I also feel a teeny bit glad and proud and less alone.

By Valerie Reiss, filling in for Amy.Earth Day is upon us, Earthlings, and it seems like there is so much more happening now that in years past. I'm seeing a truly incredible upwelling of support, outrage, and determination to turn...

By Valerie Reiss, filling in for Amy.I don't know about you, but when I read about all the impending ecological doom, I feel pretty helpless. My heart clenches into a little fist of "No" so I don't have to think...

By Valerie Reiss, filling in for Amy.I have two friends on a juice and salad fast this week, Organic Avenue's touted five-day L.O.V.E. fast, based in New York City. You get small "meals" delivered all week. I thought their little...

By Valerie Reiss, filling in for Amy.Are you or someone you love suffering from cubicle-itis? That is, are they or you spending most waking hours in a little box o' gray? I know, most people imagine the offices here to...

By Valerie Reiss, filling in for Amy.Have you ever had the unfortunate experience of seeing (and hearing) a bird crash into a window?While on a silent Buddhist retreat, Jim Kullander, Omega Institute's editor-in-chief, saw two sparrows crash into his cabin's...

By Valerie Reiss, filling in for Amy.Hi, so I'm bragging and sharing: Dr. Andrew Weil's website just reprinted my B'net essay on my deep ambivalence about "The Secret."As I was checking out my story there (the sight of my name...

By Valerie Reiss, covering for Amy. I've been wanting to share my fascination/disgust/happiness at the growing number of giant food companies coming out with organic versions of their products. The first shock was the box of Organic Oreos I saw...

By Valerie Reiss, covering for Amy.You may or may not be familiar with the song ragingly popular about a year ago, "My Humps," by the Black Eyed Peas, featuring Fergie. It's catchy, but about as irritating as someone chewing on...

By Valerie Reiss, covering for Amy.Found this lovely little reminder on Treehugger today, it's the Want vs. Need Glass, cleverly designed to overflow at the first drop over need. It's a statement on water consumption.Here's what Trendhunter had to say:...