USPS Ella Fitzgerald Stamps

On Jan. 10, 2007, Ella Fitzgerald—“The First Lady of Song” and widely acknowledged as one of jazz’s most innovative vocalists and in my opinion the best jazz vocalists to ever sing —will be commemorated on a postage stamp as the 30th inductee in the U.S Postal Service’s Black Heritage series, a much over due recognition. The image used for the stamp is based on a photograph taken around 1956 by renowned illustrator Paul Davis.

For those in New York, the first-day-of-issue dedication ceremony takes place in New York City at Jazz at Lincoln Center, located on Broadway and 60th Street, 5th floor.


Ella Fitzgeral got her start as an entertainer in 1934 when she entered and won an amateur competition at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Her talent was first recognized by Chick Webb, who hired her to sing in his orchestra; by 1938, they had a hit record with “A-Tisket, A-Tasket.” After Webb died in 1939, Fitzgerald took over the band and further sealed her reputation as one of the rising stars of jazz.

Mostly known for her extraordinary, three-octave vocal range and flexibility, Fitzgerald’s uncanny gift for pitch, rhythmic sense and impeccable diction allowed her to master the art of scat singing (the vocalization of unintelligible syllables).

Using her voice much like a saxophonist or trumpeter taking a solo, she was a natural fit for bebop and soon found herself playing with Dizzy Gillespie and eventually with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Count Basie and Joe Pass.

"She would be very honored, very pleased and a little surprised," said Ray Brown Jr., Fitzgerald's son. "She didn't go through life expecting all the accolades that she got. She was just happy to do her thing and be the best that she could be."

Fitzgerald was never one to stand on formality, Jacobs said. Once the two pulled on raincoats over their pajamas, piled into Fitzgerald's Rolls Royce and went to breakfast at a McDonalds.

Over the years, Fitzgerald won 13 Grammy Awards and many other honors, including the National Medal of Arts, presented to her in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan. She was one of five artists awarded Kennedy Center Honors in 1979. In 1989, the Society of Singers created an award for lifetime achievement, called it the "Ella," and made her its first recipient. In 2005, Jazz at Lincoln Center inducted Fitzgerald into its Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame.

My favorite Ella Fitzgerald song: Black Coffee

The Five Funkiest New Gadgets (Time Online)

Emtrace company shows off their Widget Station, an all in one desk clock that can show live weather and traffic reports, during the Consumer Electronics Show sneak peek. Eighty companies unveiled their latest products for the media before the start of the 2007 CES show that began on Monday.

Apple Punch

Apple Punch - CEO Steve Jobs unveils along awaited iPhone & Apple TV

pple CEO Steve Jobs delivered the keynote address at Mac World Conference and Expo in San Francisco and unveiled a potentially tech industry changing products that could push Apple ahead of the tech product war games.

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"Apple is going to reinvent the phone," Mr. Jobs told attendees.

5 Ways To Reduce Your Stress Against Rudeness

I had always thought as a general Know Before You Go that Los Angeles would have the rudest people. However, I’ve now lived in the area almost 5 years and I can confirm it’s not Los Angeles, but Sherman Oaks, CA that has the rudest people in the entire county.

I live in the Sherman Oaks area and I travel to different part of Los Angeles on a weekly basis. I’ve found that I have friendlier encounters in Los Angels and surrounding neighborhoods than I have ever had in Sherman Oaks.

With that said, here are 5 ways to reduce your stress when confronted by rudeness.

* Don’t take it personally. Perhaps the offender is having a bad day or maybe they are so use to being the subject of rude people that they themselves have become the rude person.
* Size up your annoyances. Is it really worth making a fuss over something small, or is it a waste of your time and emotional well being?

Close to wear I work, I recently went to lunch even though my injured back was hurting me. As I stood in line waiting for my turn a women in a very stylish business suite walked in front of me and started to place her order. During this I kept asking myself should I say something? Is it really worth it? By the time she was done, I just knew I would want to kick myself if I didn’t say something. So quietly, politely but firmly I said, it’s normal practice to get behind the person at the front of the line. She was taken back and genuinely apologized. I smiled warmly and accepted her apology and that was that.

Sometimes, people honestly do not realize that they’re being rude. I know I have had my head filled with everything going on in my life and just wasn’t paying attention.

* Set a good example. Rudeness begets rudeness. If you speak sharply to the bank teller, don’t be surprised if you get the same treatment in return.
* Laugh it off. If you can’t come up with a friendly joke, just chuckle and change the subject.
* Count to ten. When someone’s behavior makes you angry, take a few deep breaths and ask yourself, “Is it really worth blowing my stack over this?”

As I mentioned earlier, I currently have a hurt back and I’m noticeably limping. In the grocery store yesterday, there was a cart on the right coming towards me and my cart already in the isle going the other way. I saw a young women quickly walking towards me. Knowing she wouldn’t be able to get through I backed my cart up (limping) and moved to the right. However as she was about to pass me I could see she hand no intention of recognizing my effort. So I simply said “Your welcome” and left it at that. She didn’t turn around and there was no way for her to not hear my voice (I speak loudly), however I hope she got the message that when someone dos something polite, the least you can do is say thank you.


Find A College

Here are a guideline for invitations according to the Emily Post Institute

The Event	When to Invite
Anniversary party	3 to 6 weeks
Bar or Bat Mitzvah	1 month
Bon Voyage party	Last minute to 3 weeks
Casual party	Same day to 2 weeks
Charity Ball	6 weeks to 3 months
Christmas party	1 month
Cocktail party	1 to 4 weeks
Debutante Ball	6 weeks to 3 months
Formal dinner	3 to 6 weeks
Graduation party	3 weeks
Housewarming party	A few days to 3 weeks
Informal dinner	A few days to 3 weeks
Lunch or Tea	A few days to 2 weeks
Thanksgiving dinner	2 weeks to 2 months

Do you care if your eating cloned meat?

The FDA's announcement last week that meat and milk from some cloned animals is likely perfectly safe to eat has biotechnology companies jumping for joy. Cloned-animal products could be welcome in U.S. grocery stores by the end of 2007. The fact that 64 percent of U.S. consumers apparently don't want the stuff hasn't yet dimmed the excitement (Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology survey, 2006); and since the FDA won't be requiring any special labeling for the products, maybe it never will.

Technically, you may already be eating it. Livestock cloning has been going on since at least 2002. In 2003, the FDA issued a voluntary ban on food products from cloned animals and their offspring until the organization could look into the safety of those products. The milk, meat and other animal products that were on store shelves before the ban were never labelled as coming from clones, and the later ban relied on voluntary self-regulation within the livestock industry. It has never actually been illegal to sell cloned animal products.

According to scientists who have been researching cloned livestock for the FDA for the last four years, there is no difference at all between the products of clones and those of non-clones. Based on their findings, the FDA has approved the sale of food products from cloned cows, pigs and goats and their offspring. Researchers report that there is not enough evidence yet to determine the safety of cloned sheep products.

By definition, a cloned animal is an exact genetic copy of its "parent." So logic would imply that the composition of its milk or flesh would be exactly the same as that of the animal whose DNA scientists used to create it. To clone a specific animal -- say, animal A -- you take a donor egg (from any animal of the same species) and remove the egg's nucleus, where the genetic information lives. You then insert the nucleus of a cell taken from animal A. The egg now contains the DNA of animal A. An electric current then stimulates the egg to begin its growth, and the result is an animal that is a genetic copy, or a clone, of animal A. (See How Cloning Works to learn more.)

If the FDA's decision stands, then in the initial stages of the cloning process, the cloned animals would most likely be used for breeding purposes. For instance, a milk supplier would clone the cow that produces the most milk and then use those clones to breed more of the same. The "cloned milk" in the grocery store would then be the product of the cloned animal's offspring, not of the clones themselves, since the clones would be more valuable as breeders. Still, experts say that it's possible a clone would be used for milking purposes once its breeding days were over. In that case, you'd be drinking milk that came directly from a clone. But that would be the exception to the rule, at least for the time it takes for cloning to really take hold in the livestock industry.

While many companies and cloning advocates are thrilled with the FDA's decision, there are quite a few critics in the scientific community. Their objections encompass a broad range of topics, but some of the biggest complaints include:

• Cloning is an unproven technology. There has not been enough time and testing since livestock cloning began to know if it's really safe for mass consumption in the long run.

• The FDA's decision not to require special labeling means that people won't have the option to chose not to consume cloned products without doing a lot of timely research or going vegan. It also means that any unexpected consequences (allergies, for example) of eating cloned animal products will be impossible to trace.

  However, it's possible that consumers will be able to tell if they're buying products from cloned animals or their offspring by default: With surveys showing that so many people are wary of cloning in the food chain, food suppliers who don't use cloning in their breeding process may start putting "no clone" labels on their products, much like you see the "no growth hormone" labels on some products today.

• Cloning reduces diversity in a given population, making livestock more vulnerable to disease.

• Since cloning is more expensive than natural breeding, an insistence by the top U.S. suppliers on perfected, cloned animals would cut small ranchers out of the livestock market (four companies slaughter and package 84 percent of livestock products sold in the United States, according to the Humane Society).

And then, of course, there is the moral and ethical debate that inevitably surrounds cloning in any form. What are the overarching implications of removing sexual reproduction from the mammalian equation? What will it mean for the future of livestock? What will it mean for the future of humans?

While the FDA has determined that cloned animal products are safe, this is only a preliminary decision. The FDA will wait until April 1, 2007, to make a final decision. This gives the public time to weig

Flu Season - Some Helpful Suggestions

• Flu Vaccinations

• What You Can Do Now To Prevent Getting Sick or Getting The Flu

• If You Are Already Sick

• All Natural Remedies With A Side of Raised Eye Brow

• Some Facts That Should Be Known

• Other Helpful Information

"Since I do an abundance of online research, a friend of mine who had the flu asked me last week, if I had read or heard anything about a flu outbreak. At the time, I knew a couple of people who were sick but hadn't given it any thought. Than I asked around and found out that indeed a good portion of my friends were sick. This weekend, I started developing sickie symptoms. So I figured it was time I do a little more research and write an update for potential sickies and those who are reading this from home."