Why you should never co-sign a loan

You may think you’re doing a good deed by adding your name to a loan. Don’t do it. You could be headed for big financial trouble.

What could be worse than being head over heels in debt with little hope of climbing out?

Try this: Your child (parent, significant other) is head over heels in debt and your name is on the loan.

It happens all the time. I remember meeting a 41-year-old photographer who had recently divorced and inherited $21,000 of his ex-wife's debt. A friend who thought he was involved in a great relationship started picking up the tab for his soon-to-be ex-partner. A parent co-signed for a credit card for her college-age daughter and is now stuck with $30,000 in credit-card debt.

For those of you who are toying with helping out a partner, parent, sibling or child, don't do it by co-signing a note. Adding your name to someone else's debt is a very serious financial step.

"You should never co-sign a loan," says Lynn Brenner, a personal finance columnist. If the primary borrower gets behind in payments, "the bank will come after the person they have the greatest chance of collecting from. If they thought they had a good chance of collecting from your son, they wouldn't have required a co-signer in the first place."

A risk to your credit rating

When you co-sign a loan, you are signing a legal contract that holds you responsible for the entire debt, say consumer credit experts. If the borrower does not repay, it can be reported on your credit record. If it goes to a collection agency, the agency will try to collect from you.

But the bank can do more than ruin your credit rating. It can sue you and get a judgment against you for the amount of the loan plus interest. "You must go to court and disclose all your assets," Brenner says. "It can even force the sale of your house." And, if the document is like most loan guarantees, it allows the bank to charge you its own legal fees in collecting the debt from you. A typical loan document is written in very small print on two sides of an 8” x 14” piece of paper.

"Very often people sign it without reading it, particularly when they want to help a child," Brenner says. They assume that the lender will exhaust every means of collecting from the primary borrower before it comes after the co-signer. "But the agreement typically allows the lender to decide who to go after," Brenner says.

Collectors go after the person who offers the best chance of recovering the money. If a loan becomes delinquent, a collector can choose to call you, harass you, rather than your friend or relative, if the collector sees that you have a much better repayment record. Even if the loan is repaid on time each month, another lender may consider the amount of debt that you co-signed when determining if you already have too much credit. In other words, if you’ve added your good name to someone else’s debt, it could be counted against you if you need a loan.

If you get stuck, try to negotiate

If you're already on the hook for someone else's debt, you may have to pay it off. Before you do that, you might try negotiating to see if you can get it reduced. That's what my new photographer friend did. He called the credit-card companies and offered to pay 65 cents on the dollar. It’s a little known fact, but you can negotiate with credit companies on how much you’ll pay of what is owed. Most credit-card companies will agree to a lower repayment amount rather than face having to wait months or years to get something -- if anything. In this case, the creditor countered with 85%. He ended up paying 75 cents on the dollar to settle the debt.

If you do that, be certain that you get a clean credit record as part of the negotiation. Get that in writing and follow up to make certain that your record is unimpaired. You should also negotiate a contract with the primary borrower before you pay off the debt.

Teens and credit cards

If you want to teach your teenagers about using credit, do it carefully. High school seniors are inundated by credit-card offers, says Gerri Detweiler, author of "The Ultimate Credit Handbook."

The average adult already has eight to 10 cards, so high schoolers are one of the few untapped markets. "They're a good risk because parents stand behind the debt," Detweiler says. Card issuers want them because teenagers tend to be loyal to their first card.

Establishing credit is an important step for young adults. It will help them rent their first apartment and perhaps help them get a job. But Detweiler says you shouldn't co-sign for a teenager because "you usually don't find out about unpaid bills until it's too late." The lender is not required to notify the co-signer until the primary borrower is in default, she says.

Detweiler suggests instead that you go through the mail solicitations with your teenager, pick a card and become the primary borrower yourself with your child as the co-signer. "He still gets the benefit of building the credit rating," she says. "But you get the bills so you know what's going on."

She also suggests that you set rules for what can be charged and how the bills will be paid.

If your child, parent, friend, is already in trouble, or if you are in trouble along with him or her, check out the National Foundation for Credit Counseling Web site. It also has a referral service for finding an office near you. Most lenders are happy to work with you when you indicate your willingness to whittle down the debt.

MARS TONIGHT



Just look in the east-southeast sky on any clear evening soon after darkness falls and you’ll see a fiery yellow-orange “star” blazing brilliantly.

Named for the Roman god of war, Mars is often called the Red Planet. But anyone who takes even a casual glance will see that it’s more like a yellowish orange — the color of a dry desert under a high sun. Mars is much like a desert, in fact, dry and covered in sandlike dust. So a desert under the sun is exactly what you’re looking at, since Mars is visible because of the sunlight it reflects our way.

From now into September, Mars shines with a topaz glow that is brighter than any other object in its region of the sky, except on those nights when the moon is in the general vicinity. As with any unusually close approach of Mars to Earth, this one makes Mars appear exceptionally brilliant and indeed, from now into the early fall, Mars will easily outshine Sirius (the brightest of all stars) and even Jupiter (the planet normally second in brightness only to Venus). Skywatchers should note, however, that to the naked eye Mars still appears as a point of light, not anything near as impressive as the moon. Telescopes are required to glimpse views of any features on the surface of Mars.

THE SETUP, BY THE NUMBERS

On Aug. 28, Mars will reach “opposition,” the moment when the sun, Earth and Mars form a straight line in space, with Earth and Mars on the same side of the all-important star. When a planet reaches opposition, it lies exactly opposite the sun in our sky: It rises at sunset, reaches its highest point in the sky at midnight, and sets at sunrise. The next opposition to bring Mars this close — closer, actually — will not occur until Aug. 29, 2287. The distance will be 34,603,170 miles.

THE SHOW GOES ON

Even after the main event this year, Mars’ inevitable fade-down will initially be very slow and gradual. In fact, it will still continue to shine at its absolute brightest magnitude of -2.9 through Sept. 2. (Astronomers use negative numbers on their scale of magnitude to denote the brightest objects.) Mars will still outshine Jupiter through Oct. 8. And it will continue to rival Sirius, the brightest of all stars, until Oct. 28.

How do you measure your best friend's value - THE DIAMOND



Diamonds possessing the best combination of the Four Cs - cut, clarity, carat weight and colour - are the most valuable and most beautiful.


CARAT. A diamond's size is measured in carat weight, and each carat is equal to 100 points. A .75-carat diamond is the same as a 75-point diamond or a three-quarter-carat stone. Diamonds of equal size may vary widely in value and brilliance, depending on their clarity, colour and cut.


CLARITY. Under the scrutiny of a jeweller's loupe, inclusions - distinct birthmarks - may be seen. They may look like tiny crystals, clouds or feathers. Diamonds categorised as internally flawless reveal no such inclusions. Flawless stones are most prized. Diamonds with very, very small inclusions are graded as VVS1 or VVS2. The larger the inclusion, the lower the grade and the less rare the diamond. Inclusions than can be seen with the naked eyed are graded 11 or I3.


COLOUR. Diamonds are graded by colour, starting at D and continuing through the alphabet. While many diamonds appear colourless, they may actually have subtle yellow or brown tones. They will be less rare and therefore less valuable then truly colourless stones, graded D. "Fancy diamonds - in well-defined colours that include red, pink, blue, green and canary yellow - are highly prized and particularly rare.


CUT. A well-cut or faceted diamond, regardless of its shape, scintillates with light. While nature determines a diamond's clarity, carat weight and colour, the hand of a master craftsman is necessary to release its sparkle and beauty. When a diamond is cut to good proportions, light will reflect from one mirrorlike facet to another and disperse through the top of the stone, resulting in a display of brilliance. Diamonds that are cut too deep or too shallow lose light that spills through the side or bottom. As a result, poorly cut stones will be less brilliant and beautiful and less valuable than well-cut diamonds.

When we were kids...


According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's or even the early 80's, probably shouldn't have survived. Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had nochildproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.) As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors! We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones. Unthinkable! We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all,no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms. We had friends! We went outside and found them. We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt. We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it. We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, nor rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them. Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade. Horrors! Tests were not adjusted for any reason. Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected, no one to hide behind. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law. Imagine that! This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. And you're one of them. Congratulations! Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.

Hot Rock Therapeutic Massage



Stone Therapy is the application of Hot Basalt and Cold Marble Stones in a thermo therapeutic massage. The stones are massaged gently and smoothly over the body with hot essential oils to bring about a deep state of relaxation.

The hot rocks penetrate the muscles and ease tension while the cool stones soothe inflammation. The alternation of hot and cold temperatures stimulates the circulatory system and assists the body in self healing.

This treatment also helps to harmonize the chakras and benefits all levels of healing by balancing the emotional, mental and physical energies.

The Benefits of Aloe Vera



Taken internally, Aloe Vera has been shown to have various beneficial effects on the body.

Blood circulation - a number of constituents have beneficial effects on blood pressure and coagulation.
Bone and joint disorders - due to its high mineral and amino acid content.
Detoxification - amino acids assist the liver and kidneys.
Digestion - One of its most popular useages these days is in helping any type of digestive or bowel disorder. Aloe Vera has received an enormous amount of positive Press for its benefits in helping IBS, irritable bowel syndrome. It is also useful with other digestive problems, including peptic ulcers or any type of stomach inflammation. Its properties are those of healing and soothing and so it is worth using as a part of a healing programme on any digestive complaint.
Laxative - It has a gentle laxative effect on the bowels.
Immune system - contains many ingredients providing antibacterial, antiviral and analgesic elements.
Skin care - moisturising and conditioning effects even when taken internally.
Burns and Sunburn - The soothing and healing qualities of Aloe Vera are well known for any type of burn and is especially popular for sunburn.

The precise method by which Aloe Vera works is not yet fully understood, but it is a great stimulator of the body's own immune system, which counteracts disease and disorder.

Properties

Aloe Vera contains an array of materials, including the following.

Acids - antimicrobial, anti-helminitic (anti-parasitic worms), wound healing for skin tissue and ulcers.
Amino Acids - required for repair and growth. Aloe Vera contains twenty of the twenty two essential amino acids.
Enzymes - catalysts enabling chemical reactions to take place.
Lectin - anti-tumour effects.
Lipids - principle structural components of living cells.
Minerals - calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium are all present in significant quantities.
Lactates and Salicylates - analgesic properties.
Phenolics - mild antiseptics and antimicrobials.
Polysaccharides - long chain sugars broken down to smaller ones via enzymes.
Urea-Nitrogen - pain killing effect.
Vitamins - contains 8 of the 13 recognised vitamins.

Contra-indications/Precautions
Not recommended during pregnancy.

Do you live from paycheque to paycheque?
Stop the cycle with tips on controlling your finances

More and more North Americans are living paycheque to paycheque, watching our bank balances rise and fall with the furrowed brow of a stressed stockbroker watching tech stocks bottom out. Worse yet, many of us don’t have the basic knowledge we need to keep our finances under control and keep ourselves out of debt.

That’s the premise behind John Ventura’s book, Beating the Paycheck to Paycheck Blues, an accessible guide to steering clear of financial woes when money is tight, and how to work your way out of debt when it begins to pile up. Ventura, a successful bankruptcy lawyer as well as an author, has these tips to offer on avoiding the paycheque syndrome:

Q: What are the biggest, yet most common, mistakes people make with their finances?

Carrying too much debt
“The cost of debt is horrendous,” Ventura says. From owning a home you can’t afford to carrying thousands of dollars in debt on credit cards, many of us are struggling to meet minimum payments without realizing how much debt costs us in the long run. For example, even if you always make the minimum payments on the $2,000 you owe to a credit card company, over the course of 20 years, you will have paid them roughly another $4,000 in interest. People also don’t realize the “real” cost of home and car ownership, and are crippled when a $500/month house payment becomes $800/month with maintenance and utilities.

Not having any money in a savings account
“So many people are just one paycheck away from defaulting on their debts,” Ventura explains. This could be avoided if some reserves were kept in savings. Start small by buying savings bonds, and build from there.

Q: What are the key steps to living on less and successfully beating the paycheck to paycheck blues?

A positive attitude
Whatever your circumstances — whether you’ve lost a high-paying job or your expenses have exceeded your income — Ventura stresses the importance of remaining positive and starting to think rationally about money. Re-define your idea of success so it has less to do with material wealth and more to do with personal happiness and security.

Budgeting
Understand how you spend your money. Record your various expenses every day for a month and then examine your spending history to see where you can cut back. “It’s usually a shock to most people — ‘I spend $40 a month at Starbucks?’” Ventura says.

Adopt simple budgeting techniques that work for you. It can be as involved as devising a spending plan of where and when money flows in and out of your household, or as simple as dividing your paycheck between separate envelopes labelled with different expenses (ie. rent, food, etc.) and putting whatever is left over into your savings account.

Know how to make more money
Identify ways to bolster your income, either by upgrading your skills through education and finding a better-paying job, or by taking on extra work or a second job. Don’t refuse a job simply because it doesn’t pay as well or better as the one you may have lost — those bills have to be paid somehow.

Know your options if you are in debt or facing bankruptcy
“A lot of people panic and freeze up when times get tough financially, and end up making bad decisions,” Ventura explains. If you know your options ahead of time, it’s much easier to cope. Sell off all extra sources of debt — like a house or car you can’t afford or contacting creditors and arranging lower minimum payments on your debts. These measures can help you dig your way out of trouble and avoid the last resort, declaring bankruptcy. To remedy the problem in time, you must recognize the signs of impending financial woes — like living off your credit cards, only making the minimum payments, and having to dodge irate creditors.

Know how to re-build your finances after serious money troubles
Learn how to live on little to no credit, or how to re-build your credit by securing and paying back a series of bank loans or the balance on a secured credit card. Re-establish yourself financially by proving yourself trustworthy with money.

A better body in 30 days

The road to a fit, fabulous body isn't short. But if you take one small step a day to improve your diet and workout habits, you may be amazed at how quickly you reach your destination! Read on for 10 tips that will help you get fitter, faster -- and check out our cool calendar for a full month's worth of practical advice! Incorporate these ideas into your life today and you'll be swimsuit-ready in no time:

1. "There's no question: it can be difficult to drag yourself to the gym when you're feeling beat from head to toe. But if you shirk your workout, you'll never know whether exercise would have energized you. A better strategy: Stick with the 10-minute rule. Force yourself to go out and exercise for at least 10 minutes. If at that point you still feel exhausted, give yourself permission to stop. But in all likelihood, exercise will help you feel better and you'll choose to keep going."

2. "Skipping meals and cutting calories will not improve your body; it will hinder your fat burning. This is especially true for women, who are natural fat storers. The less often you eat, the more likely your body is to hoard fat."

3. "Your exercise clothing should be something you enjoy putting on. It will cheer you up, give you positive affirmation to take better care of yourself, and put you in the right frame of mind for your workouts... You may be self-conscious at first about revealing your body and choose big T-shirts and other cover-ups. But if you're heavy, it's important to have the kind of clothing that protects skin from rubbing against skin. It may be better to wear clothing that is somewhat form-fitting so that the body folds are covered and protected."

4. "Physical activity: the larger picture:

• Less strenuous activities, when performed for longer periods of time, are just as beneficial as vigorous activities.


• All women should get at least 30 minutes of moderate activity a day.


• Brisk walking, recreational swimming, canoeing, vacuuming, and weight training are all good examples of moderate-intensity activity."

Using Music for Transformation & Healing



11 helpful free tips show how to listen to music for transformation and healing. This information reveals secrets to support recovery, meditation and spiritual growth through music healing.

1- Select Appropriate Music.

Most of us choose music that we “like” but will this give us the best results? In fact, often the music we are least attracted to will have the greatest benefit (when played in the right sequence). Let’s say you are very angry. So your first instinct is to put on some really angry music. Does it really help, or does it kind of perpetuate how you feel? Yet, on the other hand if you play some light and happy music, by comparison to how you are currently feeling, it will probably make you feel angrier! As you see, selecting music is not a simple one-shot process.

2- Consider Music Sequencing.

Sometimes it is necessary to first choose music that totally matches your current mood rather than the mood you wish to acquire. Consider arranging a series of different musical compositions in sequence that are customized just for your needs. For example, if you are dealing with depression, select a composition which represents depression in its extreme form, to you. Follow this with one that is only mildly depressing. Then select a neutral composition, and end with a composition which is clearly uplifting and motivating. Listening to music in a sequence like this allows for your current stress level or mood to be first honored and then to be gradually transformed.

3- Speakers Are Ideal.

It is ideal to listen to the music through speakers rather than headphones so that the cells of the body themselves may “listen” to the sound.

4- Prepare Yourself to Listen.

Take off your shoes. Stand relaxed, sit or lie down and breathe.

5- Listen All the Way Through.

It is preferable to listen to the musical composition all the way through, without interruption. This allows for the optimum response to the transformation process.

6- Foreground, Not Background.

We all have the tendency to use music for the background of other activities. Try developing the technique of just listening to the music, not doing anything else. This way, you will get the best benefit.

7- Your Response is What is Important.

It is through your response that the emotional/cellular memory may be released. Do not think that you have to just stay still and concentrate on the music! In fact, if the music inspires you to get up and do something or your mind begins to wander, allow, allow, allow! Allow all responses without judgement. On the other hand, do not begin listening to the music while you are already doing other unrelated activities. The important thing is to let the music embrace you totally.

8- Listen Actively, Not Passively.

Allow the music to reach your inner feeling, and respond freely to it. Everyone has a different manner of expression. You may experience visual images, thoughts, movement, an intensification of emotion, physical vibrations, sleep, or nothing at all.

9- Observe Mind/Body Connection.

A lot of research has been done recently showing that there is a definite connection between the mind and the body. (Actually this refers to the emotions too but it sounds succinct to say “mind/body.”) Even though music healing is often related to relaxation and emotional issues, there is the likelihood that this indirectly could have a benefit on physical illnesses as well.

10- Enjoy the Silence!

When the music stops, it is suggested that you bask in the silence for many moments. This will help integrate the feelings.

11- Use a Journal.

If you wish to record your progress in a journal, it can be helpful, but not necessary.


These tips were prepared by Howard Richman and are offered for free as a courtesy.

Magnetic Therapy

If you thought the benefits of magnets only appeared in physics text books and that their only practical use was in those cute plastic/metal stickers making them cling on to refrigerator doors, think again! Magnets have been used for therapeutic purposes for thousands of years and finds mention in ancient texts such as the Ayurveda and Atharvaveda. As is common with alternative healing procedures, this therapy has its share of sceptics and believers.

Faith Healing?

The sceptics feel that all this magnet therapy business is nothing better than a hoax or kindly put, a kind of faith healing. Patients start feeling better after undergoing magnetic therapy because they believe that they are getting better. The therapy itself has little scientific backing, it's only the patients faith in it that helps them find relief from aches and pains. A classic case of the Placebo effect.

How the Therapy Works

The believers are divided into two schools according to their belief regarding how exactly magnetic therapy works. While one school of practitioners attribute the benefits of the therapy to its effect on the nervous system, another school believes that the scientific principle known as the Lorentz force is at work. This means that when a magnet is applied to the human body, magnetic waves pass through body tissue and increase blood flow. Increased blood flow allows the circulatory system to carry blood's healing properties to the area of discomfort and the lymphatic system to carry away toxins hastening the body's natural healing process.

Magnetic Tools

The tools used by magnetic therapy practitioners include magnetic belts, knee caps, eye belts, magnetic collars and magnetic beds. For those concerned with the aesthetics of the magnetic accessories, magnetic jewellery is also available such as bracelets, necklaces and earrings.

The Benefits

• Magnetic Beds are said to help strengthen the spinal chord by improving blood circulation and brings relief from pain due to cervical spondylitis, slipped disc etc



• Magnetic Knee Caps are stated to be useful in relieving pain due to arthritis, gout and rheumatism



• Magnetic Hair Brushes are supposed to prevent hair fall and control dandruff



• Magnetic Necklaces are said to be effective against pain and stiffness in the neck region.

• Do not use a magnetic bed for more than eight hours



• Wait for at least one hour before wearing a magnetic belt around your abdomen



• Since magnetic devices attract metal products be very careful while working. Be cautious, for example, while removing utensils from the gas flame when you are cooking if you have a magnetic device on your body



• Make sure that magnetic devices are kept away from those wearing a pacemaker or defibrillator



• Pregnant women are advised not to use this therapy

Baryshnikov Heats Up The Set Of "Sex And The City"



The temperature on the set of Sex And The City rose a notch this week as Mikhail Baryshnikov shared a steamy on-screen kiss with the show's star, Sarah Jessica Parker.

Latvia-born Mikhail recently joined the cast as the new romantic interest of Sarah's character, Carrie Bradshaw. And script writers wasted no time in getting the two together, with the night-time smooch being filmed just days after he arrived on set.

Sarah, who recently gave birth to a baby boy with hubby Matthew Broderick, hand-picked the handsome dancer to play the coveted role of "Ultimate Boyfriend" Alexander Petrovsky – competition for the man who seems to be Carrie's Mr Right, Mr Big.

"When I understood the general description of the part, it was very hard to find anybody that could bring that sort of myth and legend," she said of the casting. "And while there are enormous movie stars who are extraordinary and obviously thrilling to watch on screen, people don't necessarily just fit the bill because of their name recognition.

"Mikhail is extraordinary, and this character is not like anyone we've ever had on the show before."

Easy Weight Loss with Raw Food



How is it that 40-year old Demi Moore makes a Hollywood comeback with a roll in which she bares almost all in a bikini next to 20-something actresses and looks just as good, if not better! Complaints have been circulating that Demi stole the show from the "stars" of the much-hyped Charlie's Angels sequel "Full Throttle". Demi's secret? The raw food diet! Although the diet has been criticized by the medical and scientific community as nonsense, recent studies have brought to light that all heated and most processed foods do indeed contain carcinogens, a brand of toxins that are often cancer-causing in tests on mice and rats.

What exactly IS the raw vegan diet? It is a diet that consists of unheated and unprocessed fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds....everything preferably organic and as fresh as possible.

Raw Food F.A.Q.

Q: What is the raw vegan diet good for?

A: its not just that the diet doesn't contain toxins, but it is also extremely nutrient dense. In heated foods almonst all of the nutrients are destroyed or damaged. So when you eat an all-raw diet you are getting 1000's of times more nutrients than you would otherwise get! This very natural diet is what we'd all be eating if we weren't in "civilization" anway! So it makes a person seem supernaturally young, beautiful, fit, healthy, glowing, vital and energetic - as in the case of Demi Moore. But you have to realize that this is our natural state. Demi should be the norm for a 40-year young woman. We're now just comparing her to a society that is radically un-natural and unhealthy, where we eat about 90-100% cooked and processed (denatured) foods.

Q: Is this scientifically proven?

A: New scientific studies show that we should be living until at least 160 years of age. But we've been caught in this cooked food trap for many thousands of years since humankind first discovered the ease of hunting meat compared with growing things. And we lived on meat and it helped us survive in cold climates. And we learned that if we heated up foods it made the foods last longer which helped us survive the winters in cold climates. But the reason the foods lasted longer is because we killed them. We cooked them and this killed the enzymes in them. Enzymes make the food ripen and enzymes make the food decay and go back to the earth after its season is passed. So cooking the food took that death out of it. However it also took the life out of it. So we got used to eating food with no life-force. But in today's society we are really fortunate because we are able to get fresh organic foods all year round! So there really is no longer any need to eat these dead denatured foods! Except that we are addicted to them. Toxins are highly addictive (toxins are what drugs, alcohol and cigarettes all have in common), and these foods are full of toxins!

Q: Don't you get bored on the raw vegan diet?

A: There are 100s of different kinds of fruits and veggies. If you combine only two or three at each meal, then you can literally eat a different combination of foods at each meal for the rest of your life! Then your taste buds become very sensitive. And then you don't need to eat as much, so your body really uses all the food you eat, so you actually get hungry between meals - which is the best spice! Nothing tastes as good as simple food when you are truly hungry! I'd like to see restaurants add a "frescada" section to their menus, the way they now have "vegetarian" sections. I think Frescada sounds much nicer than Raw. But even now you can always have a salad or fruit salad and many restaurants also serve fruit smoothies.

You do have to eat a balanced diet. Our food groups are vegetables, nuts/seeds, and fruits. You should have approximately equal amounts of these in your diet. If you have your kids on the diet as I do, you have to make sure they eat a lot of bulk. A lot of fruits and veggies. And a lot of nutmilks from sprouted almonds and sunflower seeds. A variety of fruits and veggies. There's a wealth of information available online. If you decide to do this diet is it important to study it. I think of it as an extreme diet. There are extreme benefits such as a body that isn't subject to any of the common causes of death today, and longevity. But as with an extreme sport, you have to be prepared and trained, because there are potential dangers.

Q: What are the risks involved?

A: This is brand new territory. I mean, its been done since Pythagoras (who made his students do a raw food diet for a month before he would teach them so that their minds would be clear!). But now for the first time the diet is becoming of interest to the mainstream of society. And nobody wants to spend any money to study it properly. So its like you have to take a leap of faith. Its for people willing to think for themselves and act on their own findings and studies. Some of the pitfalls are eating too many unsoaked nuts and dried fruit (hard on teeth), cutting out one of the three raw-vegan food groups completely for long periods of time, and worrying too much about whether you are getting enough nutrition. Of course you are! You are getting thousands of times more than you ever did before. But people can make you worry yourself sick. They just don't understand.

Q: Where can people find more information about this diet online?

A: We have a resources page where we list and link to every important raw vegan resourse we can find, including 1000's of free recipes, articles, online raw food stores where you can buy equipment and produce, raw food journals, books, events, retreats, raw food restaurants, online support forums, and consultants and practitioners at www.thegardendiet.com.

Q: Why are people so passionate about this?

A: The raw food diet has benefited people losing weight, preventing cancer, and overcoming depression, acne, candida and chronic fatigue. I have seen it help so many people. And beyond all this, I think it is the only diet that will sustain the growing population of this planet! If everyone adopted a raw-vegan diet it would be beneficial in so many ways, cutting down on pollution, preventing deforestation, helping people to become more peaceful, making our countryside more beautiful, and solving our crime, healthcare and social security dilemmas. It will naturally be a very slow process, but I think that ultimately this will be the diet that helps us bring this planet to a state of light and life.


~The human body is the best picture of the human soul.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) Austrian philosopher

Lunch with Candace Bushnell



Here are certain key elements to stories about Candace Bushnell, the New York writer whose weekly column "Sex and the City" was the inspiration for the hit HBO series of the same name, as well as for pretty much every book written by a single, formerly single or about-to-be single woman in the last six or seven years.

First, you write about how thin and blond and beautiful she is. (If you're being slightly snarky about the thing, you say that, at 44, Bushnell looks more fabulous than 38-year-old Sarah Jessica Parker could have ever hoped to be.)

And then you mention how much she smokes and the slightly edgy quality that the smoking adds to her usually girly, high-WASP voice. You note the height of her heels, the brevity of her skirt and the number of cocktails she orders in an hour. Then you do a quick run-through of her love life--key points: Ron Galotti, aka "Mr. Big"; Stephen Morris, the British venture capitalist whom Bushnell, according to the gossip columns, "stole" from her best friend, and Charles Askegard, her 10-years-younger husband, whom she married last summer after an eight-week courtship.

And, after all that, if you've got, say, a paragraph left to go, you might mention something else she's written, like her collection of four novellas, Four Blondes (Atlantic, $12), or her first novel, Trading Up (Hyperion, $24.95), published earlier this month.

I really wanted to not write that story. I wanted to write instead about Bushnell's literary influences--Waugh, Trollope, Balzac and, of course, Edith Wharton, all of whom she rereads regularly--and about her considerable, and often underrated, talent as a writer.

But when Bushnell strode into Smith and Wollensky in two-tone stilettos (four inches) and a tiny sundress (is there a size smaller than zero?) and lit her first cigarette before she even sat down at our table on the patio, I realized the temptation to go the other way was going to be far too strong.

"Why don't you have a drink?" she asks, having ordered a not-too-spicy Bloody Mary for herself. "Why don't you have a Bloody Mary?"

And before I've asked a single question, we are off to the races: Two women, sitting in the sun and having cocktails, talking about men.

"You have a boyfriend, right?" she says, right off the bat.

"I do," I say, feeling the tiniest bit uncomfortable, like maybe I should be "working," rather than chatting away as if I were a real "Sex and the City" girl myself. "Is that obvious?"

"Yeah," she says. "I could just tell."

"Well," I say, still hoping to put this conversation on some sort of higher intellectual plane, proving once and for all that neither of us is a bimbo, "you're the social anthropologist. What are the signs?"

"I think you have a certain sort of calmness about you," she says, "like everything's actually fine. And I'm sure you really like your boyfriend."

I'm trying to imagine having a boyfriend that I don't really like, but I don't mention that. Instead, I tell her that the whole calmness thing is a ruse. I've just had my 30th birthday, and I'm actually full of inner turmoil.

"Thirty is so nothing," she says, in a way that's mostly comforting but also a little edgy.

"When I turned 40," she says, "the day before I turned 40, I was at my mother's house [in Connecticut], and I just started crying hysterically, I'm 40, I'm never going to get married, my career's never going to come together, wah, wah, wah, wah, and my mother was just like, 'Don't be silly. Do not make this turning 40 into a big deal. It is not a big deal.' . . . And then I was driving back to New York, and I got pulled over by a cop.... The cop comes up to the car, and I start sobbing again, and he's like, 'What's wrong?' and I'm like, 'I'm turning 40 tomorrow and I don't even have a boyfriend.' And he says, 'Well ma'am, you look OK, so if I were you, I just wouldn't worry about it.'

"I had just broken up with someone," she says, catching her breath for a moment and sipping her cocktail through a straw, "and I'd found out that he was cheating. I'd gotten one of these horrible phone calls--this has probably never happened to you, but it's kind of happened to me a couple of times--where I did really like this guy, but he spent a lot of time in Los Angeles. ... And then I get this call from one of my good girlfriends, and she's like, 'Sweetie, I hate to tell you this, but this guy who you've been seeing....' It was like she ran into a girlfriend of hers, and they had a mutual girlfriend, and so my friend said, 'So how's that woman doing?' And the friend was like, 'Oh, she's doing great, she's dating this guy.' The same guy I was dating! And I was like, 'Are you sure it's not a mistake?' And she was like, 'No, it's not a mistake.' And then I confronted him with it and he still said it wasn't true, but then he admitted it. You know, it was like one of those awful things out of Maury Povich.... And then he said it was just because I was turning 40 and it was because I was desperate.

"I shouldn't tell you all this," she says, lighting another cigarette. "This makes for a really bad piece."

I tell her that I'd resolved not to do the typical Candace Bushnell piece, so maybe we should talk about Middle East politics or something.

"The only thing I think about Middle East politics," she says, "is how cruelly the women are treated there."

Before she can finish her thought, I get a phone call. Our photographer is on his way.

"Well," she says, "then we'd probably better not talk about Middle Eastern politics."

And then, without smoking or taking a drink or even batting a perfectly groomed eyelash, she asks, "Did you read the book?"

I tell her that I did, that I found Trading Up quite hard to put it down. And that I also happened to pick up the New York Times' review of it, which had come out that morning.

"I think it was really quite good," she says of the review.

She says she reads the reviews of her books, even though she'd often rather not, because they're pretty much unavoidable.

"I actually think the review in the Times was really good. I was really happy with it," she says. "But it's just so funny because I think in reviews, I tend to get reviewed a lot in some way. The article ends up being about me."

Funny how that happens.

by Debra Pickett - Chicago Sun-Times

~If you're a beautiful woman, you learn from an early age that your beauty is worth money.
Candace Bushnell

Aromatherapy - Lavender essential oil



Lavender is a scent with a long tradition in perfumes and Aromatherapy. Used by the ancient Romans and extensively in perfume and soaps since the 18th century.

Extraction of the oil
Lavender oil is extracted from the flowering tips of the shrub. Lavender is widely cultivated in southern Europe and Britain. The main source of Lavender is France.

Properties
The oil is widely used in aromatherapy to ease tension, tiredness and feelings of depression. Lavenders gentle yet powerful healing properties allow it to be used for burns and insect bites.

Usage
Blended lavender oil, when used for massage produces a relaxing, calming effect. A few drops of the oil in a hot bath will relieve anxiety and produce a pleasant drowsiness. In a cool bath the oil will refresh and energise.

Benefits

• Encourages calming, relaxing sleep. The clean, fresh fragrance gently wafts through the air, reducing stress and allowing sweet dreams to follow.


• Adds a fresh, natural scent to drawers and closets, clothing and linens. Lavender also keeps pesty insects away.


• Combined heat therapy and lavender aromatherapy will melt away tension and relax your muscles.


• A few drops of lavender oil mixed with your lotion is great for healing dry, rough, chapped skin.


• Release the refreshing scent of lavender in front of your keyboard to protect against carpal tunnel syndrome.


• Culinary Lavender adds a wonderful aromatic flavor to sweet and savory foods. Caffeine-free, natural Lavender Tea is deeply relaxing.