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Top 10 signs your kids are  going to be rock stars

Published January 22nd, 2009

10. Your son tried to score three speedballs from the school nurse during recess.
9. Other kids want iPods, yours is on them already.
8. You have to pay royalties for your own family videos.
7. What your parents called a bad attitude is now called “brooding and pensive.”
6. Your daughter owns more than three sets of “Happy Bunny” guitar picks.
5. He’s the only tee-baller with a posse.
4. It doesn’t bother you that total strangers are downloading your daughter.
3. She’s asking Santa to get her an agent.
2. You’re carpooling to an MTV reality series with Danny Bonaduce and the guy who played Screech.
1. Your son’s date to the Junior Prom was Pamela Sue Anderson.


Understanding and avoiding Ponzi schemes

Published January 22nd, 2009

When you hear about people getting tricked or conned out of their money, it can be easy to sit back and think, “I would never fall for that,” or “I’m too smart to get scammed.” However, as details continue to unravel in the alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernard Madoff, people across the nation are recognizing a harsh reality: anyone can become a target of fraud.

Madoff, a former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market, owned and operated an investment advisory firm and also managed a high-profile hedge fund. Hedge funds are portfolios of investments that often carry a lot of risk, but aim to generate high returns. These funds are typically set up as private investment partnerships that usually require an initial investment of between $250,000 and $1 million.

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Tia Today: Recipe for chocolate éclairs

Published January 22nd, 2009

I remember making chocolate éclairs years ago with my daughter.

Recipes include more than food ingredients. They list the order of the steps needed to successfully achieve the finished product. They tell you how to mix the ingredients, or how to insert the cream filling, or when to add the final seasonings.

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Cut your grocery bill, not nutrition

Published January 22nd, 2009

Are you having a cow over the price of meats? Out of financial necessity, perhaps the time has arrived to consider an inexpensive vegetarian diet for your loving family circle — at least once a week. In fact, the majority of the world’s people eat a mostly vegetarian diet made up of inexpensive commodities such as beans, rice, vegetables and corn.

Hooray! Vegetarianism is becoming more and more popular and is constantly mounting. One in four teenagers is a vegetarian, and it’s freaking out their carnivorous parents. I have been a vegetarian for about 22 years, and I have no idea how people can afford to buy meat, as opposed to vegetables, nuts, fruit and grain. Plus I spend precious little money at the doctor. The average family of four annually spends around $5,000 on beef, chicken, pork, fish and duck for the dinner table.

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Fine Arts Society, UIndy’s WICR promote the arts

Published January 15th, 2009

Central Indiana listeners are benefiting from a unique relationship between the Fine Arts Society of Indianapolis and the University of Indianapolis on broadcasts of fine arts and performing arts.

Located on the University of Indianapolis campus, Radio WICR (88.7-FM), the “local cultural voice” airs in high definition such music as jazz, classical and Metropolitan Opera, as well as traffic and weather alerts. The Fine Arts Society provides the programming during weekly morning and afternoon rush-hour traffic and throughout the night hours.

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Mike Watkins says life has been about achievements

Published January 15th, 2009

There’s the wrong side of the tracks, and then there’s the wrong side of the wrong side of the tracks. As a child in Greenfield, many of Mike Watkins’ formative years played out in the former, though he usually had a relatively clear view of the latter.

Nonetheless, Watkins, who was 47 when he first met his biological father, had achievement branded within him long before he first lumped the words “real” and “estate” into the same sentence.

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Tia Today: I-65 goes both ways

Published January 15th, 2009

Have you ever gotten on the wrong road by mistake? Or found yourself on the correct road, but going the wrong direction? I am chagrinned to admit that has happened to me right here in Indy.
I knew I wanted to go south on I-65 to Greenwood, but somehow in my tiredness, I found myself driving north into Indy. Distraction has many names. (No, I wasn’t on a cell phone… and clearly, the power of coffee is overrated.)

Yesterday I heard a man speak about setting your personal, non-negotiable priorities. He said all our other commitments shape themselves around those top priorities. He was talking about what beliefs set the direction for all other life decisions. Remembering those times (yes, more than once) on the interstate that I found myself headed in the wrong direction popped into my mind. (It’s nice to know my mistakes mature into memorable object lessons.)

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The American zeitgeist for dining out

Published January 15th, 2009

There are two types of eaters, conscious and unconscious, with unconscious eaters shoveling in whatever strikes them into their eagerly awaiting mouths with little regard for the health outcome.
Zeitgeist is defined as “the spirit of the age and its society”. It describes the intellectual, cultural, ethical climate, ambiance and morals of an era.

Do you eat for oral gratification and for the simple sake of filling a void, with no regard for balance, just flavor? All life in the universe is about balance. I believe food must be celebrated and perceived as more than something you put into your feed-bag to stop the growling. Healing begins at the dinner table. Food is medicine, and every spoonful counts toward a higher, more fulfilling quality of life. Our holy temple is one big biochemical factory, and what we put in them has a remarkable effect on how we feel at this very moment and the status of our health equity years from now. We react to food as sensitively as we do pharmaceutical drugs.

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Squirrel tastes like squirrel — rabbit tastes like chicken

Published January 15th, 2009

Things are getting a little squirrelly over in England.

It seems Britain’s beloved red squirrel, the cute one with the little tufts on his ears, is being crowded out by his American cousin the gray squirrel. The gray was introduced there some years ago in what apparently seemed like a good idea at the time. You know, like when some genius released 80 starlings in New York City in 1890.

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Our actions will dicate Dungy’s success

Published January 15th, 2009

As was rumored last weekend and half expected by most Colts fans, Tony Dungy officially announced his retirement from football Monday evening.

He got emotional during his press conference, and while I didn’t shed tears while watching, I felt a similar sadness. He’s more than earned the right to do whatever he wants, but it was tough to see him go.
And that’s not just for his on-the-field success. He went 92-33 in seven years with the Colts, was the first African-American head coach to win a Super Bowl and helped turn the Colts into a prestigious franchise for the first time since Baltimore.

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