Trinny and Susannah no more
May 11, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
Lesson: few presenters have an innate ability to make a deep, trusting and authentic connection with their audience. If you find it in your employees, your partners, your friends etc...for God's sake appreciate it and don't try to change it!
I adored the BBC What Not to Wear show. The 'original' presenters, Trinny and Susannah, are beautiful, in their 40's, understated, with just the right touch of severity in how they dealt with their fashion victims.
But, unlike their U.S. counterparts
who have an often annoying, whiney and loud! approach, they never
crossed the line into rudeness or vulgarity. They combined impeccable
taste with quiet and intelligent determination, sex appeal, and a
compassionate touch of class. I never missed a show and learned 90% of
how to dress from watching it. I also learned about how to work with
resistant clients. I loved them and emulated them when working with my
lifestyle clients as well as with my business clients. I even
appropriated a variation of their original slogan on one of my site pages.
Business owners and managers can get stuck in a rut and live in denial. Often, their partners, employees and even their best friends will not tell them the hard truths. But we are not your best friends...and we will!
- Mary and Melissa - (with credit for our slogan to BBC 'What Not To Wear')
Alas, like other favorites, the show completely changed format..probably to appeal to a wider (translate: younger!) audience.
In contrast to previous seasons, the girls no longer pounce on unsuspecting victims. Instead, crowds of female volunteers who are desperate for some style compete for the duo's brutally honest wardrobe dissection.
From hundreds of applicants eager for the girls' cruel-to-be-kind treatment, Trinny and Susannah meet with a select few to learn more about their daily challenges.
Then they choose two of the most desperate cases for the complete What Not To Wear transformation. With full access to the women's lives for a day, Trinny and Susannah visit their workplaces and homes and talk to their friends and family.
I hate it now. There are elements of America's top model and its so sad to see my heroines putting on the Tyra Banks superior bitch manipulation routine. And what is with the Trading Places reality show wannabee bits where Trinny and Susannah switch places for a day with their chosen victims? What does it have to do with style and fashion? Why did they kill such a terrific show? Don't they know that we look to the BBC for something different?
I see on the web site that my heroines are soon to be replaced:
Supermodel Lisa Butcher and soul singer Mica Paris are lined up to present the next series of BBC ONE's What Not To Wear, due to air later this year.
The new duo promises to bring a fresh and vibrant feel to the series. They have a huge amount of experience working on their own styles and know how important image is in people's everyday lives. They have also been best friends for many years.
Fresh and vibrant..we know what that means - loud, obnoxious, phony and likely appealing to lowest common denominator of viewer. Yes, I know I'm being harsh but I'm upset and I take my style stuff very seriously. Sadly, the show comes off my favorites list but hopefully I can find the original show downloads on the BBC. An interview on Trinny and Susannah's page (I'm surprised its still there) exemplifies their originality and coolness:
Who's your biggest style icon? Trinny: I take different things from different people. As a woman in her 40s, I know what suits my body but I still long to be Sienna Miller, Kate Moss or Sarah Jessica Parker. The big mistake when you hanker after someone is you forget your own body shape. Kate Moss looks great but she has no tits and bandy legs, and that Bohemian chic just isn't me!
Susannah: you've got to find someone who's a similar body shape to you and whose dress sense you admire, and let them be your icon.
Has having children affected the way you dress?
Susannah: I think it gives you more confidence in a funny way. Being pregnant teaches you to experiment. You have to if you want to look good. And once you've lain on a bed with your legs spread, with who knows how many people looking at your nether regions, you lose any sense of embarrassment!
What were you wearing when you met your husbands?
Trinny: my hair was long, I was wearing jeans and I still had spots. That's all I can remember.
Susannah: I know exactly what I was wearing - crushed velvet leggings, really tight (Trinny mouths: "Oh my God!") and zip-up boots, an unfitted black jacket with a round neck and a sequin body underneath. I had very, very long hair. God knows where that look came from!
Trinny: it was an early 1990s moment!
Which three items could you not live without?
Trinny: it would have to be very wide-leg trousers, a pair of extremely high platforms to make my legs look longer and a single-breasted, one-button, knee-length coat.
Susannah: a pair of full-on dangly earrings that can be worn in the daytime as well as the evening, a really great bra (Susannah shows us hers). If you've got tits, Elle MacPherson's is the best bra. I can't live without a good bra and a pair of really well-fitting jeans such as Gap Long and Lean or Seven.
Update on Rhode Island statewide wireless network
May 3, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
MuniWireless » Blog Archive » Update on Rhode Island statewide wireless network
Rhode Island’s plan to deploy a statewide wireless broadband network (a mix of Wi-Fi and WiMAX) is taking shape with the launch of two pilots in Providence and Newport. The cost of the project is $20 million.
I’d like to thank Bob for sharing the latest news on Rhose Island’s network and to clarify that, contrary to reports in the mainstream press, the network may be used for public access through partnerships with service providers. For more information, visit the RI-WINS website.
Rhode Island: statewide wireless network
May 3, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
I initially got so excited about this..until I read the details. Not
for consumers? Some of the targeted applications sound pretty lame:
reporting size of beach crowds?
data about restaurant visits?
I'm not hopeful about the success of this initiative and don't understand why it is so limited. Probably the $5 million budget (and the power of Cox?). The small size and dense population make RI an excellent opportunity for statewide consumer wireless. Give RI citizens a $20/mo wireless broadband choice and I'd be following it with great interest about the value to small business, low-income citizens, and the economy overall.
Rhode Island wants statewide Wi-Fi
Tuesday, May 2, 2006 Posted: 0720 GMT (1520 HKT)
PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (Reuters)
America's smallest state is seeking to become its first to offer a wireless broadband network from border to border.
Backers of Rhode Island's $20 million project say it would improve services and make the state a testing ground for new business technologies.
The project is being funded by public and private sources, and once fully operational, users would pay $20 per month or a membership fee based on annual usage, said Saul Kaplan, acting executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, a partner in the project.
"We know the demand signals are there," said Kaplan.
Officials said the network would support services including business, education, emergency, health care and port security.
During the six-month pilot phase, for example, state health inspectors will test the system by entering data from restaurant visits into laptops and sending the information to the health department.
While the system is not being created for consumers, officials say it could have everyday applications, such as retrieving real-time information on the size of crowds at beaches or to access traffic information while driving.
asking the right questions – the value of failure
May 3, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
These are 2 divergent articles about education...but they seemed to go together. Both stories are inspiring and contradict the status quo.At curriculumless school, learning on students' terms - The Boston Globe By Nick Anderson, Washington Post | April 30, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Between rollerblade aerials and rail slides, Justin Reed described how he landed at a school that lets him do whatever he wants all day long. He burned out on highpowered Eleanor Roosevelt High School in his hometown of Greenbelt, Md., and lost interest in the college track. By 11th grade, he was ready to drop out. ''I just really hated school, and Roosevelt brought that out of me,' the 19-year-old said one spring afternoon. ''Being told what to do and what to learn. Having to do homework. Grades. Grade levels. Everything that this school stands against.'
''Ours is a place for children," said Daniel Greenberg, 70, a cofounder of the original Sudbury school, who still works there. ''We begin with freedom -- personal freedom and respect for personal rights." Education, he said, is ''an opportunity for a child or an adult to develop a path toward a meaningful life. The question is: How is that done best?"
If at first you don't succeed, don't worry
By Donald M. Murray, Globe Correspondent | May 2, 2006I had left school early each spring in the 11th and 12th grades, perhaps even in the 10th. Enough already. Everyone seemed to believe I was stupid, and I believed them. Now I know I was stupefied, not stupid. I simply did not learn the way my teachers had learned. What I did learn at North Quincy High was how to fail. It may be the most important lesson I learned in any school. We were visiting my grandson when he attempted his first steps. My wise son-in-law said, ''He had to learn how to fall, before he could learn to walk." It is essential to discover that the sky doesn't crack if you fail. I still get rejections, but I now know that those who fail me may not know as much as I once thought. I also know that failure is instructive. I just failed in a watercolor. It will not hang in the MFA, but it told me what to do the next time, which will be another instructive failure. And so I learn and then move beyond what I know to what I don't yet know. School wants only successes, but failure should be taught, encouraged, supported. If you get nothing in school but A's, try for an F. You may find your life's work.
menopause..big market, big business, women getting the shaft
May 3, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
Study Finds Few Therapies Work Well on Hot Flashes - New York Times
By DENISE GRADY
Published: May 3, 2006
For women who want a drug to ease menopausal hot flashes but do not want to take hormones, certain antidepressants and other medicines may help, researchers are reporting. But those medicines have side effects, little is known about whether it is safe to take them for a long time and they do not work as well as hormones.
My take...start all over. Forget the previous studies on hormone therapy. One week they are valid, the next week they are not. Then it was 'replace HRT with anti-depressants'. Now those are 'out'..at least this week. The latest attack is against BHRT (bio-identical HRT) made of natural compounds. And guess who is attacking in an attempt to stop compounding pharmacies from filling BHRT prescriptions..Wyeth! So what is the advice? Oh yeah...hot flashes and miserable menopausal symptoms are 'natural'.
"We hate to medicalize a natural process," Dr. Nelson said, but she added that severe symptoms should not be dismissed. "We want to take it seriously, but not everybody needs to be on prescription drugs for it."
My response: its up to the individual - especially those who work in a youth-culture work environment which is the plight of many businesswomen. Going broke (or worse) because you can't compete in the workplace with younger workers is NOT NATURAL!). And what about Viagra?
Ads for impotence drugs get new focus
By Associated Press | May 3, 2006
Levitra and Viagra now have new campaigns that forgo the provocative, depicting erectile dysfunction as a medical condition, not simply a lifestyle concern.
Men have choice about their 'natural process'..women should not relinquish theirs.