Wii climbs to the top

This season we received dozens, maybe more, copies of new Nintendo Wii games. Many were included in our gift giveaways this year, but I kept one out for my grandson Robert: Toy Story Mania.

 According to my son Paul, he and the family attended the Orlando Disney Resort on the opening day of the newest Disney’s newest attraction 4D Toy Story Mania. “There was a four-hour wait just to get a ticket,” Paul told me. “But we all loved the ride.” According to my son, everything is in 3D, and you have to wear the 3D glasses during the ride. “It’s different from their other laser-shooting rides. Those are straight beams, where in Toy Story is all 3D…things you shoot at, what you shoot with and the ‘rooms’ you enter are all 3D.”

 Now Disney Interactive Studios has issued a Nintendo Wii version of the Disney park attraction called Toy Story Mania. If the game lives up to its promotion, then you should be in for hours of fun.

Fao Schwartz. For kids? Or adults?

Right now I am sitting in a small bagel shop and eating trout, goat cheese and basil on bagel. That sets the stage for the day I am having. It is definitely not like eating lunch at McDonalds or Subway. 

I am in New York City shopping for puppets and I decided to visit the biggest kids’ toy store…FAO Schwartz on Fifth Avenue and 58^th Street right off Central Park. With three levels of absolute joy it was hard to determine where to start. Everywhere there were stuffed animals…from the big elephants and giraffes to small dogs and cats. And in the middle of the first floor is this huge candy store which kids (and adults) can’t resist.

Throughout the store kids are encouraged to touch and hug everything they can get their hands on. There are books for the preschoolers with a comfortable area to sit and read. In their Muppet corner you can make your own characters by choosing your favorite Muppet-type body, and then add eyes, hair, hats, clothes and more. When I went, there was a 60 minute wait…so I guess it is popular.

There girl’s dress-up corner offers about 50 different outfits and they had a corridor with wild animals on both sides. Then there is the doll section with baby dolls being attended to by employees dressed up as nurses…I thought that was a bit much.

Everywhere the staff seemed very engaged in working and playing with the children. And the store was packed.

So if you want a day of fun (Just don’t bring any credit cards) be sure to visit FAO Schwartz in New York City.

When is the last time you visited NYC? And what’s your favorite place to visit with the kids?

Do you act? I am looking for you?

Have you ever worked with puppets? Or performed in a play? Then we may have the perfect job for you.

We recently published The Undercover Kids, a book for kids from 4th to 6th grades. We encourage kids to write and submit their own stories. As part of this program we are going into schools this fall with our author Gloria Smith Zawaski to introduce The Undercover Kids book series.

Our program will include large puppets and we are looking for someone to come with us to local schools in the Hudson Valley with our puppets Katie and Jake.

If you are interested or know of someone contact me, Terrie Goldstein, at publisher@excitingread.com.

As the world goes crazy

By: Terrie Goldstein, Publisher  Orig. Date: 12/20/2007

Do you ever fly off the handle when you get frustrated?

I remember when my kids were younger and I took my first job. I thought I had everything perfectly arranged for my kids after school care. Then the first snow came early and it came with a vengeance. Schools closed early. Buses were late. Nothing worked right. When I got home I stomped up and down the stairs in frustration not sure where to turn.

Luckily I had two older neighbors who lived close, one across the street, the other behind our house. Their grandchildren lived far away so they adopted my kids. I could call them and they would be there when the boys came home, whether it was early or late.

Now that my boys are grown with their own children, I look at the young parents in the supermarket checkout line. They are rushing to pick up their kids from school and then they are off to the supermarket for food for dinner. The kids want candy, cookies and everything that will ruin their appetite. Mom screams, “No. You can’t have that” and her child cries.

I often say to myself, “What should I do?” I usually keep life savers and silly erasers in my pocketbook for when I take care of my grandkids, but I know kids are taught not to take anything from strangers.

Now I try a simple solution. I turn to the mom and say, “Sometimes it’s just a bad day. Is there anything I can do to help?” Most times, it breaks the tension in the air and things calm down.

With our severe slump in the housing market resulting in a credit crisis, Wall Street is trying to determine if we are in a recession, where it costs more to buy less. According to Alan Greenspan, who headed the central bank for 19 years, growth in the current October through December period is expected to have slowed to a feeble pace of just 1.5 percent, or less.

If things get tougher, you will see more frustration on the supermarket checkout line. Just remember a few simple lines: “Sometimes it’s just a bad day. Is there anything I can do to help?”

Friday Movie Night

By: Terrie Goldstein, Publisher  Orig. Date: 12/13/2007

My husband and I love going to the movies. In fact, for the past year we designated Friday as movie date night. We look at the newspaper or go online and review what’s fun and what’s not.

We saw Enchanted. I loved it. My husband slept. I happen to enjoy the fantasy of a good Disney story. There is a great scene in Central Park with dancing, singing and a cast of 1,000s. (Well maybe not that many.) It left me feeling good about the world.

This morning I spoke to my grandson on the phone. We talked about his view of Enchanted. “I really like the movie, grandma,” he said. I reminded him that he didn’t like the witch. “She wasn’t a witch, grandma. She was the queen.” “And what about the serpent,” I asked. “That wasn’t a serpent. It was a dragon.” So I guess I stand corrected.

Last week we saw the Golden Compass. I never read Phillip Pullman’s trilogy and didn’t realize the controversy it stirs. Many catholic clergy are so incensed by the Pullman’s books that they warned parents not to take their children to see this movie. I actually agree with them but not because of Pullman’s atheistic view of the world, but it really is not a children’s movie although it is about children. It tells the story about a world that is blocked off from other worlds that exist and how a young girl will make a difference. The script was fair. The animation graphics were great. The young heroine is a starlet to watch. I enjoyed the movie enough that I took the first book out of the library. It’s an interesting read.

I am waiting for a holiday blockbuster but it hasn’t arrived yet

Talking’s Not Allowed

I met some friends for lunch and, of course, I’m late. I am in the second car stopped for a stop sign and the guy in front of me is just not moving. OK, so there is some traffic coming but give me a break. He could have made the turn. I sit. And then sit some more. It is only then I realize that my friendly car in front of me is on his cell phone. Apparently, we are not moving until he has finished his Gettysburg Address. In the holiday spirit, I sit patiently and wait. We finally move.

I wish more of us realized that driving requires our full time attention. I use to commute to Albany three days a week. I loved the time alone to listen to books on tape. After a while, I realized that I became so mesmerized by the story I was no longer truly concentrating on driving. At one point I actually passed my exit. I no longer listen to tapes. I do resort to singing rousing good tunes. In fact, now if you pass me on the road you may hear my rendition of “Georgia On My Mind.”

So please reserve your cell phone talk for non-driving time because the results of not doing that can be deadly.

For Women Only

Why when there is a line out the door for the bathroom at the local restaurant or theater it is always a women’s bathroom? I understand that closed bathroom stalls take up more room than urinals, but maybe there is more going on.

I remember that when I was pregnant with my boys, knowing where the location of the closest bathroom was a clear priority. Many years later, as a runner, I always brought several sets of underwear with me because I was concerned about urine leakage when I ran. It’s not something we talked about but I image it was a concern for many of my friends as well.

I remember when Bob Dole came out of the closet admitting he used Viagra, I wondered if women would finally feel comfortable talking about this problem of urinary incontinence that many of us have experienced throughout our lives.

Recently I spoke to Dr. Daniel Katz, director of the Bladder & Continence Center at Hudson Valley Urology. “The biggest misnomer is that it is alright to be incontinent,” says Dr, Katz. “The fact is that there is plenty that can be done to treat it.” According to the doctor this is a medical condition that is under-reported and under-treated even though it affects many women’s quality of life.

During the interview I was impressed with the number of treatments that are available to mitigate or eliminate urinary incontinence, from simple exercises to InterStim, which Dr. Katz calls a pacemaker for the bladder.

The first step toward relief is to see a doctor who is well acquainted with incontinence to learn what type you have. A urologist specializes in the urinary tract, and some urologists further specialize in the female urinary tract. Gynecologists and obstetricians specialize in the female reproductive tract and childbirth. A urogynecologist focuses on urological problems in women. Family practitioners and internists see patients for all kinds of complaints.

Have you ever realized that you were going to sneeze and crossed your legs hoping for the best? Maybe it is time to take urinary incontinence out of the closet and begin seeking help.

Autism Speaks

A beautiful video I stumbled upon – Please view and 
send to everyone you know…every little bit will
help.

The band, Five for Fighting, is generously donating
$0.40 to Autism Speaks for *each time* the video is
viewed the funding goes toward research studies to help find 
a cure.
When you have a moment, please visit the link below
to watch the video and pass it along to your friends
and family.
They are aiming for 10,000 hits, but hopefully we can
help them to surpass this goal. 

http://www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/videos/view/id/408214

Your children are our leaders of the future

This continues to be a very hectic time for me, especially in business. A number of employees moved … one went back to school, one moved to another location and one moved to a different company. So we are hiring. And then we are creating a new online community source for you, our current readers of both Hudson Valley Life and Hudson Valley Parent magazines.

Our Hudson Valley Life site will be unveiled at the end of this month. We continue to stretch ourselves, always seeking the best story, finding the greatest places for you to visit and researching what’s hot and what’s new in the region.
But as I sit at my desk on Saturday morning, side-by-side with two of my staff, I get a call. “Hi grandma. It’s me.” That’s my two-year-old granddaughter giving me an early morning hello. My face lights up and I smile.

               “What are you eating?” I ask. 
               “Strawberries.” 
               “How many did you eat?”  
               “One, two, three, four, five, six,” replies Lia.

The world has not changed because of the dialogue between Lia and me, but it means the world to me to listen and watch my son and daughter-in-law bring up another generation that will lead us out of the muck and mire that we find ourselves in.

Politicians need better sex education courses

Recently we learned that our New York governor strayed far from home with a 22-year-old prostitute. My husband and I wondered if he had seen The Bank Job, a true story about a group of amateur thieves who tunneled into the vault of a bank in London’s Baker Street and looted safe deposit boxes of cash and jewelry worth over three million pounds. The story involves murder, corruption and a sex scandal with links to the Royal Family – a story in which the thieves were the most innocent people involved. The sex scandal not only involved the Royal Family but members of Parliament who went to extreme means to keep their names out of the press. It actually worked for the English politicians, but not for our now-ex-governor.

I am not sure why I am so disgusted with this man. It is not like he did anything that others have not done before him. Many political leaders come to mind: Governor Rockefeller, President Kennedy and our very own President Clinton. Maybe I liked Eliot Spitzer’s no nonsense style, his sense of independence. I always hated back room politics and I thought that this new govenor would change some of that. Also his attitude toward the deveopment of upstate New York while supporting the downstate economy make sense. It was time we continued to support downstate and New York City, which is the hub of our state, while not ignoring the needs of our upstate residents. Then he found a call girl more enticing than the needs of those who elected him. When did he lose his focus? Does power always corrupt?

We are at war but not just in Iraq but here at home. We are at war with ouselves. We have lost the true meaning of what life is all about. We are social animals who should remember that each individual is capable of achieving great things. Now let’s get to it.