Read an interesting article in the NY Times this morning.  Since I eat pretty healthy and am not freaked out often by weird food, I figured I was already eating half of their suggestions.  Turns out my smug attitude was way off base. 

Here are the 11 they suggest - none are really weird and I don't really eat any of them. 

     Beets

     Cabbage

     Swiss Chard

     Cinnamon

     Pomegranate juice

     Dried plums

     Pumpkin seeds

     Sardines

     Turmeric

     Frozen blueberries

     Canned Pumpkin

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Big fan of this Op-Ed I just read in, you guessed it, the NY Times. 

I definitely agree that tax credits are a way to create incentives for renewables so the market can become more mature and cost-competitive.... don't even get me started on the spineless waste of space the EPA has become......  

Here's another interestings article on this topic - swiped the link from my friend Jen.

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As I sat here, reading the NYTimes and blogging, instead of working, I stumbled on this interesting article about how often we get interupted during work tasks and how long it takes to return to the task at hand....

The average knowledge worker switches tasks every three minutes, and, once distracted, a worker takes nearly a half-hour to resume the original task, according to Gloria Mark, a leader in the new field of “interruption science.”

Interruptions and the requisite recovery time now consume 28 percent of a worker’s day, the business research firm Basex estimates. The risks are clear. As one top executive told me, “Knowledge work can’t be done in sound bites.”

This is something I have a serious problem with....  phones ring, interns have questions, IM's ping, emails come in.... That's not to say that I'm not my own worst enemy.... this blog (how appropriately named!) the NYTimes, chitchatting in the office.... they all slow my productivity.  I leave work sometimes feeling like I was busy all day, but never accomplished anything.  I'm also a procrastinator, which doesn't help.  Firm deadlines seem to be the best way to keep me from getting distracted....   

One of the reasons I like working from home occasionally is that my unproductive-work time is filled with things like doing laundry instead of water-cooler chatter.  I'm about equally productive at home, but my non-work time is better utilized.  At times, I'm more productive at home, because the phone won't ring, and I'll log off IM - but I can still find ways to distract myself anyway...... 

I actually enjoy coming in on Saturdays to work, because it feels like I can get done in 6 hours what whould normally take me two full days to complete.  I'm less apt to internet-browse, because I don't want to be in the office any longer than necessary.  There is normally no one in the office to chat with and no emails/IMs hitting my inbox for the same reason.  I told my boss I was seriously considering taking off the occasional Friday and coming in on Saturday instead because I could be more productive....

OK - back to work, well, after I finish this last NYTimes article  :-) 

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It's Sunday - when we are home, that means, reading the NYTimes, a tasty egg breakfast, and Adam watching Meet the Press (which he is doing now) while I flee to another room in the house....

In the paper today was an article about this blooger who just got a book deal.  I got a link to this blogged forwarded to me a few weeks ago and his page is pretty amusing. 

Happy Sunday!

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Elliot Spitzer played a large role in making Wall Street folks lives hell..... When he was Attorney General of NY, he launched a very public attack on investment banks.  (Trying not to get into too many details).  As a result, we have an insane amout of compliance obstacles to overcome - many of them make it more difficult for us to do our jobs without really protecting the individual investors in a meaningful way.   (I'll stop there - there are BOOKS written on this topic). 

Turns out that Governor Spitzer isn't getting the last laugh.  What kind of freakin' moron getting caught up in a prostitution ring!!!!  I hope he has to resign!

I love the online magazine, Slate.  It has a great article on Spitzer today, comparing similarities between how he prosecuted Wall Street and his prostitution troubles.  Also - I love the word SCHADENFREUDE and I think this a phenomenal example of it. 

Here's another article on the topic - I think this one is phenomenally well written.  Have I mentioned before that I enjoy reading the NY Times?

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Interesting Op-Ed in the NYTimes today by Gloria Steinem.  I've found it interesting reading today - everyone hypothesizing Hillary's NH win over Obama. 

This is one of her most interesting excerpts:

So why is the sex barrier not taken as seriously as the racial one? The reasons are as pervasive as the air we breathe: because sexism is still confused with nature as racism once was; because anything that affects males is seen as more serious than anything that affects “only” the female half of the human race; because children are still raised mostly by women (to put it mildly) so men especially tend to feel they are regressing to childhood when dealing with a powerful woman; because racism stereotyped black men as more “masculine” for so long that some white men find their presence to be masculinity-affirming (as long as there aren’t too many of them); and because there is still no “right” way to be a woman in public power without being considered a you-know-what.

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I am an avid NY Times reader and enjoy starting my morning each day with some perusing.  The following is part of a movie review for Good Luck Chuck, that was too funny not to share.... doesn't look like this movie is even worth Netflix-ing. 

But the main audience for this dim little sex comedy has no particular interest in seeing Ms. Alba act. They want to see her in her underwear and also to confront one of the central cultural questions of our time: will she take her top off?

No spoilers here! In the meantime plenty of less famous women do take their tops off, which will make “Good Luck Chuck” a must-see for young men with a subscription to Maxim but no access to the Internet. The intended viewership seems to consist of guys who fantasize about sleeping with Ms. Alba, which may represent a reasonably large share of the population.

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I get a NYTimes email link each day and at the bottom it has "On This Day" which cites something newsworthy that had happened on this date.  Here's today's: 

On Sept. 20, 1973, Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in straight sets 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in a $100,000 winner-take-all tennis match.

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Last night, Henin defeated Serena in the Quarterfinals.  This is the third time that these two have met in a Quarterfinal this year, and Henin has won each time....  Henin was serving horribly and Adam and I resorted to yelling at the television after her numerous double faults (7 in the match) and inability to get a first serve in - she was getting around 50% of her first serves in - pathetic for the #1 Ranked woman in the world!!!  While extremely powerful, Serena wasn't moving very well - not that she has ever been very agile.  When Henin ran her back and forth, she didn't stand a chance and her net game was awful.  Her footwork was just pitifall, she wasn't moving well. 

The Williams sisters aren't known for their sportsmanship, AND never give the other player credit for playing well when they get beaten, but I didn't notice Serena behaving inappropriate last night... So, I found it intriguing this morning when I saw photos of the match and all the captions commented about "an ungracious Serena".  One of the photos was Henin/Williams shaking hands after the match and she seemed corgal - so that's a bit of a mystery.  Guess I should read a summary of the game and see if I missed anything.... 

Ungracious Serena

Henin goes on to play the winner of Venus Williams/Jankovic - Jankovic is seeded third, but I believe Venus is favored to win - they play tonight.  Yesterday, I had been confident that Henin would be able to take the Title, but if her serve is as bad as it was last night, Venus is going to trounce all over her second serve.

Nadal got ousted last night (4th Round)... impressive that he made it this far, considering his knees have been bothering him.  He had said last week that he would have pulled out of the draw by now if he had been any other tournament.  I think its nice he has such a drive to win this major AND managed to get this far before being beaten.  The match started late (the whole night was behind because Djokovic's match went so long and put the whole schedule over an hour behind) so I didn't watch too much.  Nadal wasn't playing poorly, but it was clear that he wasn't moving like he normally did.... 

Good bye Nadal

This afternoon, hopefully its still on when I get home from work so I can watch, Tommy Hass is playing Davydenko, a Russian that's seeded 4th.  Should be interesting if Haas can continue to play as well as he did against Blake.

Big night tonight - FEDERER vs. RODDICK.  I'm not a big Roddick fan.  He's got a big serve, so he can dominate when he serves, but the rest of his game isn't very impressive.  Once his opponent figures out how to block his serve, he looses his edge.  I think Federer may get a whoppin' the first couple of games Roddick is serving, but shouldn't have a problem moving on to the Semis.

STAY TUNED!!!

AH HA!:  I went looking online for what prompted the negative comment about Serena, and low and behold, she behaved in typical Williams behavior during the press conference. Here's a quote from the NY Times: From Williams’s perspective, she beat herself. “I think she made a lot of lucky shots and I made a lot of errors,” Williams, the eighth seed, said sourly during her postmatch news conference.  Why is it so impossible for those two (Serena & Venus) to occasionally give their opponent some credit for winning??? 

Update: I just couldn't let this go and went searching for more on the press conference comments... interesting/testy exchange between Serena and the press.... details here

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There's an article in the NY Times today about the draw.  I must say that I'm a little bummed to see the Women's side so top-bracket-heavy.  First, it makes the matches in the bottom half less interesting, but also, it gives Sharapova (and her insane schrieking) a better chance of getting farther in the tournament. 

Should be interesting to see if Djovokoc (I think I just butchered that spelling) or Nadal can prevent Federer from his fourth straight US Open victory.

The fun starts Monday.  Adam and I are going on Friday - so excited!!!!   Fingers crossed that the weather is cooperative.

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