Living In the World, Not on It

Andy Rooney on Women Over Forty By:  Veronica Kavanagh ( View Profile )   Andy Rooney says: As I grow in age, I value women who are over forty most of all. Here are just a few reasons why: A woman over forty will never wake you in the middle of the night to ask, “What are you thinking?” She doesn’t care what you think. If a woman over forty doesn’t want to watch the game, she doesn’t sit around whining about it. She does something she wants to do. And, it’s usually something more interesting. A woman over forty knows herself well enough to be assured in who she is, what she is, what she wants and from whom. Few women past the age of forty give a hoot what you might think about her or what she’s doing. Women over forty are dignified. They seldom have a screaming match with you at the opera or in the middle of an expensive restaurant. Of course, if you deserve it, th...

In the 1970s, bigger was better. In the ’80s and ’90s, its popularity waxed and waned. But in the ’00s, that once-revered patch of lovely lady locks performed a vanishing act. We’re talking about pubic hair, folks, and the fact that once upon a time, people embraced the bush, but over the last decade, it has fallen out of favor as more and more women opt for bald vajayjays. Some people blame porn and a youth-obsessed culture that infantilizes women for the vilification of pubic hair, while others trace its demise to Sex and the City and Carrie Bradshaw’s introduction of the Brazilian wax to the mainstream. Whatever the case, the trend has caught on enough for a college-age man in Minnesota to say that he’d never hook up with a girl with pubic hair and that he’d be disgusted to undress a woman and discover a, as the Atlantic put it, “veil of genital fur.” But the tide may be changing on this “bare is better” mentality, or at least that’s what our friends at Jeze...

The three fastest-growing diseases in America today are diabetes, Lyme disease, and sports jerseys. Wearing a jersey used to be for kids. You be Tom Brady and I'll be Darrelle Revis. Now people with actual jobs are wearing them. At 6, it's adorable. At 36, deplorable. You can't swing your arms at an NFL game without hitting somebody in one. (A very good idea, by the way.) You say it's your way of expressing devotion to your team? I say try a hat. It doesn't make you look like an adult Trick-or-Treater.  What's your jersey dream? Someone shrieking, "Oh, my God! There's Brian Urlacher! Oh, wait. No, no. It's just Justin from purchasing."? Women in jerseys? Fine. But dude, you're really going out with another man's name on your back? Do you have no male pride? But like gluten-free beer, the jersey flood seems un-damn-able. But can we at least have some rules? Jersey Rule No. 1 : You may not wear a jersey past ...

This is the most unbelievable thing I've seen: "CHOUTEAU, Oklahoma -- An Oklahoma woman believes outrage over the Florida murder case almost cost her her life. The 26-year-old says a crazed woman tried to kill her because the woman thought she was Casey Anthony. It happened in Chouteau last Friday night, July 8, 2011, just days after the Casey Anthony verdict. Sammay Blackwell hopes she never hears this again: "You look like Casey Anthony, I'm like 'okay,'" she said. Blackwell doesn't think it's funny after what happened last week. Blackwell works at a convenience store in Chouteau and said Shireen Nalley came in that night around 10 p.m. and looked strange, very suspicious, then left after buying gas. "I just couldn't keep my eyes off of her," she said. Sammay got off work at 10:30 that night and walked out to her car, which was parked on the other side of the building, and got inside. "Began to back out and looked and...

Thirty years ago, the first space shuttle launched into the stratosphere. Chris Bray and his father Kenneth watched -- and took a picture. Then last Friday, the shuttle Atlantis took its final trip. Again, the Bray men were there. And again, the two snapped a photo to capture the moment. The side-by-side photos, which are up on Chris Bray's Flickr photostream , immediately went viral on the Web. The first shot shows 13-year-old Chris with then 39-year-old dad looking through binoculars at the space shuttle Columbia 's first launch on April 12, 1981, from the Kennedy Space Center . The second snap comes three decades later and recreates the same moment at the last shuttle voyage. The young son is now an adult. His father is now gray-haired. Chris Bray wrote on his Flickr page of the side-by-side images: "The picture we waited 30 years to complete." The younger Bray told the Washington Post , "We've always loved that first photo. Taking a similar on...

"I got this email from a colleague the Tuesday after Memorial Day: “Can’t come in today. Stomach bug.” I’m no detective but—with barbeque season officially starting the day before—a prime suspect immediately jumped to mind: the norovirus, the most common cause of food poisoning in the world. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 200,000 Americans contract food poisoning every day. But Philip Tierno, Ph.D., a microbiologist at New York University medical center and author of The Secret Life of Germs, believes the actual number is closer to 800,000. And in 4 of 5 of food poisoning cases, the attack happens at home—right (on the plate) under your nose. "Everyone in this country will have at least one incident of sickness this year attributable to a foodborne virus, bacteria, or toxin," Tierno told Men’s Health. Except that most of us won't know what hit us. Like my colleague, we'll chalk up the usually mild symptoms—nausea, diarrhea, cram...

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - A NASA astronomer from Huntsville will split $1 million as one of this year's two winners of what has been called "Asia's Nobel Prize." Dr. Gerald "Jerry" Fishman shares the 2011 Shaw Prize with Italian astronomer Enrico Costa for their discoveries about gamma ray bursts. The three annual Shaw prizes are named for Hong Kong media mogul Sir Run Run Shaw. They have been given since 2004 to living scientists for accomplishments in astronomy, life sciences and medicine. "I was completely shocked," Fishman said Wednesday. "I didn't know I was nominated." Gamma ray bursts were unknown until the 1960s, when they were first detected by satellites launched to search for evidence of nuclear test ban violations. Gamma rays are one signature product of a nuclear blast. It was "a complete mystery" where they came from, Fishman said, and it was "their unknown nature" that interested him. Fishman...

JUST when you thought it was safe: "The Duggar family continues to grow! Josh Duggar, 23, –- the eldest son of Jim Bob and Michelle –- and wife Anna, 22, welcomed their second child, Michael James, on Wednesday, TLC announced. The couple is sticking with their "M" theme, for their children's names. Little Michael James will join big sister MacKynzie, 20 months, at home. The couple's new son weighed 8 lbs., 5 oz., and arrived at 5:55 PM Tontitown, Ark., according to People, who was first to report the news. The newest Duggar is very close in age to his Aunt Josie (Jim Bob and Michelle's youngest child, who was born premature, but is now healthy), who is only 17 months old. "I think of Josie being born at only 25 weeks," Josh told the mag prior to the birth of his son, "and it makes us think about how precious life is and what a blessing each child is." The Duggars are back on TLC." And once again, the ball rolls downhill. Th...

Now, this is just disgusting: "The item is part of a new Women Who Rock exhibit at the Cleveland museum. Gaga went from rocking a rack of meat to having it preserved for the ages. Literally. The hand-sewn meat dress is now more of a beef jerky dress. Let us explain. The Argentinean slabs of tartare may have been barbeque-ready when Gaga put them on last September . The singer modeled the dress when she accepted the Best Video of the Year, "Bad Romance," wearing it to proclaim, as she put it , "I am not a piece of meat." But let's face it: The freshness date of the frock -- and matching meat boots -- have long since passed. A post on NPR explains the process for preserving the meat dress: The edible fashion statement "was kept in a meat locker, placed in a vat of chemicals and then dried out by taxidermists in California before being transported to the museum." Just one problem. It looked like a bunch of beef jerky -- which doesn't ...

Here's why: 'MANHATTAN — The city is set to sizzle under near record temperatures Wednesday as a heat advisory went into effect and the city opened cooling centers. The mercury is expected to touch 95 with high humidity — and no relief tonight. The heat is not expected to dip below 78. Tomorrow is expected to be even hotter, with highs of 97 forecast. Wednesday's heat matches the highest temperature ever recorded on June 8, which was in 1933, according to the Weather Undergound . Officials sought to get the word out abou t cooling centers located all over the city, including some of Manhattan's public space like libraries, senior centers and community centers. Experts advised anyone without an air-conditioned place to spend the day to travel to the closest cooling center, and to drink plenty of liquids throughout the day. Anyone who believes they may be suffering heat stroke is urged to call a doctor immediately or...

An interesting article: " Pink and Carey Hart welcomed a healthy baby girl to the world on Thursday. The musician decided not to go with a color-centric moniker to match her stage name, instead opting to dub her daughter Willow Sage Hart, a very nature-oriented name that seems to fit with Pink 's personality. After all, shortly before her birth she did tweet the following earthy message: "New Moon in Gemini today :) a good time to start something new.... Also called the Honey Moon." But of course the musician isn't the first celebrity to draw inspiration from nature when choosing a name for her child. Here's a look at a few other earthy baby names celebrities have come up with: Sage Many celebrities are fans of the herbal middle name Pink gave her daughter. Sylvester Stallone 's son Sage actually appeared with his dad in "Rocky V," but the name is more popular for female celebrity babies -- Toni Collette 's daughter Sage Flor...

Now, this is justice! "As a result of being found in violation of probation , Lindsay Lohan will be collecting trash, emptying trash bins, mopping floors and cleaning windows and restrooms at the L.A. County Department of Coroner's facility. "She won't be handling any dead bodies but she'll certainly see them,” Coroner Assistant Chief Ed Winter tells People of the actress, 24, who also has been ordered to complete 360 hours of service at the Downtown Women's Center, a homeless shelter located in L.A.'s Skid Row. Lohan must enroll in the two programs within a week and has a year to complete them, according to People . The actress – who previously completed a DUI morgue program following her second drunk-driving conviction 2007 – remains free on $75,000 bail (she was sentenced to 120 days behind bars Friday). The trial in her grand theft charge begins June 3. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of an additional year in jail." ...

I went to the hairdresser (finally) and completely forgot to bring a book, something I never do. I was bent out of shape - it takes about 45 minutes for the dye to soak in, which is all downtime - and I usually don't care to join the aimless twitters of the other customers. Ever notice that? It's usually women in there, and they just yak, yak, yak about mindless things. Or their children, which is where I totally lose interest instead of merely being bored. So I read. However, without a book, I had to begin weeding through the proffered magazines. Most were perfectly dreadful - Redbook, Home [whatever], Cosmopolitan (I remember my mother read that incessantly, and I never could get into it. It's a terribly stupid publication), etc. And then I came across Inside Jersey, which I might normally have bypassed, but emblazoned on the cover is the phrase "TOP HOSPITALS". Okay! This I want to read. It's a huge article, and then it breaks down into top rated hospitals ...

Eeeeeiiiiuuuwwwww! Read on... 'Here's some news to make your skin crawl: Bedbug infestations will explode this year, particularly in the summer, experts say. The bloodsuckers are already entrenched in the city and, like cockroaches, tend to thrive in July, August and September, said Jeffrey White , a research entomologist for Bedbugcentral.com . "I firmly believe that this year is going to be worse than last year," White said at a bedbug seminar Wednesday. "If we combine the seasonal trend, with the bugs getting more and more embedded in our community, that allows the bugs to make that resurgence all the more stronger." Nearly 7% of adults in the city - 404,000 people - reported bedbug infestations in 2009, the Health Department said. While cities are particularly vulnerable to bedbugs, even remote areas like Alaska have reported an 800% increase, White said. "It's not just a New York problem,...

Meet Dr. Goldberg Twenty years ago, when Nieca Goldberg was in medical school, heart disease was known as a “man’s disease”―something most apt to befall a 55-year-old businessman. Today the disease is the number one killer of U.S. women, claiming nearly 500,000 lives annually. Goldberg, now 50, devotes her career to helping fellow females protect their hearts at Total Heart Care, her practice in New York City. She also teaches the science of heart health as a clinical associate professor of medicine at New York University. But the doctor doesn’t have to look to research for evidence that diet, exercise, and stress management can prevent future problems. Even though she has a family history of heart disease, her habits have kept her health in check. “Making consistent, small, smart choices can have a huge effect,” says Goldberg. To find out how to care for your heart for the long haul, learn from this doctor’s daily practices. Start With Breakfast Have a low-cho...

I don't care for reading things off the screen and I'm not a technology nut so much as to give up my collections of books. But for Luis and his ilk (which are everywhere) this is a good article. If you walk out of the cinema this week with a burning desire to read Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love," you can download it onto your Amazon Kindle electronic book reader — if you have one—for $12.99. Then again you could just walk into your local Borders bookstore with a coupon and get the paperback for $10. Barnes & Noble will charge you $12.99 to read the book on its e-book reader, the Nook. But it's only $9.36 (shipping may cost you extra) if you order the paperback at bn.com. As a society, we have gadget-itis. No new machine that goes ping goes unsung. People stand in line for hours to purchase an iPhone barely distinguishable from the one already in their pockets. Amazon's newest Kindles sold out within days of going on sale. (Those who boug...

This morning: "Mexico's Newest Icon: 22-Year-Old Miss Universe From flags to Facebook, 22-year-old Jimena Navarrete has quickly made it clear what she plans to promote as the world's newest Miss Universe — her home country of Mexico. "I want the whole world to know about my country and my people," the Guadalajara native said after beating 82 competitors for global bragging rights at the pageant in Las Vegas. "I imagine that they're all going crazy in Mexico right now," she said through an interpreter. "I'm extremely proud and I'm sure they're very proud, too." She donned a flowing red dress, strutted confidently in a violet bikini, and said onstage that the Internet is indispensable and requires parents to impart family values. The model-turned pageant queen then posed for pictures with a Mexican flag and Mexico's last Miss Universe as congratulations from her countrymen came pouring in. "Her triumph is a s...