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Dianetics: Modern Science of Mental Health

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Yes, I SWEAR by this technology of the mind. I just got back from a month of intensive work with Dianetics, and I have not only handled my grief and depression over my mom's death, but I dealt with some psychosomatic ills as well. All very direct, very incisive counseling tech. Dianetics is the only science of the mind we've got which consistently gets RESULTS. Read the book, which is now available with a great glossary in the back.

ROC Retinol Products

ROC over-the-counter retin-A beauty creams are great for wrinkly skin, assne, mending small cuts, and those pesky pre-zit skin formations that just sit there and fester.

Greatest Chinese Food in New York

I ain't kidding!

Now, I might be crazy to post my rave on the internet, because, who knows, maybe ten thousand people will say, "Gee, we oughta check this place OUT!"

Fortunately, with this blog's readership somewhere near the population of Anvil Canyon, Death Valley, I should still be able to get a window seat there anytime, without prior reservation. I DARE someone with connections to read this blog and tell a thousand friends about the food at THE COTTAGE.

The menu is a array of Cantonese, Szechuan, and Peking styles. Most are rich and savory dishes, and some are fused with Malaysian and even Continental cooking styles. There is, for example, a scallop appetizer that comes with a slightly spicy peanut sauce which will blow your mind.

My favorite thing to do is take advantage of their fixed price, two course dinner that comes with two glasses of wine. The "choose one from column A" format is the only similarity this food has with the old greasy spoon New York chop suey brand of Chinese food. For you not only choose from a great selection of appetizers and entrees, but you also get to pick your wines from an impressive list. Two courses, two wines: $16.99 per person! Really!

When I am in San Francisco, I always try to make a stop at Brandy Ho's Hunan on Columbus. Good Szechuan and Cantonese and Peking classics there, too, but you will NEVER be able to just order a plate of chau bok choi with garlic. The waitress just stabs her pencil at the menu where "mixed vegetables" can be found. Not so at The Cottage. Young Cantonese speaking wait staff may LOOK like they could decapitate you with one Oddjob-style flick of the wrist, but they are always most accomodating. There's even a "build your own" stirfry section that offers tons of great choices for the mix.

The Cottage
33 Irving Place
(corner of 16th Street)
Union Square-Gramercy
212 505 8600

The Cottage is located

The Blasters

To peg these brilliant performers as a Rockabilly band is missing the beauty and range of their songwriting.


Sometimes you hit a nice vein of gold when you hear a good bar band, and they seem to be on to something good and raw, but you need a pickaxe and a lot of time to weed the slag from the Au. On the other hand, The Blasters are a veritable mountain of that shimmery element called American Rock n Roll. It's just sitting there in front of you in all its glory. There is no effort in enjoying The Blasters, for they just hand out the dynamite.

The songs range from Chicago blues to driven California surf guitar instrumentals to Memphis to Detroit to right down deep in our collective heart.

Seba Med Antiperspirant

Not wanting to slather aluminum on your skin?

Seba Med, similar to brands familiar to Americans: Almay or Aveeno, makes hypoallergenic products. Their roll-on anti perspirant is a great product. Effective but doesn't irritate skin and it doesn't contain aluminum in any form.

In Australasia, I can pick this up at drug stores in Hong Kong and Malaysia, and here in Bali at the Bali Deli. I was delighted to see that amazon also sells the product, albeit with a hefty price tag.

Conjugated Linoleic Acid

Wikipedia has a pretty good definitition of CLA.


I got interested in it when reading the ingredients of an expensive diet supplement bomb available in Hong Kong. Gimmicky diet aids are so expensive, even in a cheap town like Honkers, so I figured I could find some of the active ingredients in the States.

My doctor said that there is really only one risk for me: there is a chance that my good cholesterol count will decrease. So he tested me just before I started the supplement, and he will test my blood again in a few months from now. If this stuff is killing me, I'll stop taking it. But for now, the results are amazing.

I got interested in it because I am no longer the spring chicken I once was. I have been several body types: dumpy, normal, model thin, athletic, and flabby. I have been size 13, I have been a 1. In my peak condition, I was weighed underwater to get an accurate fat count, and I came out at 11.8%. And I was still having my period, so it wasn't as if I was damaging my system. I was just very fit in my twenties, lifted weights regularly, and ran a stairmaster like a cartoon character.

Hit with menopause in my forties, I discovered that my body was storing fat around my middle. In Singapore, got weighed on one of those body mass scales and it came up 25% body fat. Gross me out! I imagined a layer cake of organs, skin and muscle with a slathering of fat icing and a bone garnish!

In those first months of "the change" my BACK started jiggling when I walked. It was a horrible sensation, and sometimes all it took was drinking a glass of wine and I could feel a spare tire inflating around my middle. Being a pear-shaped gal, I had never before had the disgusting sensation of carrying weight there.

But the CLA really started changing my torso. I have heard that CLA makes a person eliminate fat more easily, and you do notice a laxative effect. But other than that, I feel no odd effects.

I have been taking it for the last seven months, with two breaks of about 3 weeks, give or take, each time. During the breaks I noticed a real backslide, but it takes only three days of being on the one-gram dosage to feel normal again. I don't weigh myself, I just go by the fit of my jeans and I look out for the jiggle sensation of walking.

But so far, the CLA has been utterly amazing. Check it out with your doctor, like I did, if you want to try this stuff yourself. Probably everyone's dietary situation is different than the next person's.

Verdelho

Just tried a new grape I didn't know about: Verdelho.

Last Thursday, celebrated visit from gal pal Jane and her new beau, by serving big green salad, asparagus, and grilled fish and chicken. Topped it off with 2005 Ibis Landing Verdelho from Donegal Wines, Australia.

A great grape... none of that grabby aftertaste peculiar to a lot of dry whites. This is a complex, crisp, light colored wine that reminds me of eating a walnut and pear salad: layers of flavor, each note distinct. Nutty but also citrus-y: can you dig it? Not one hint of syrupiness, either (as in, gasp: Chardonnay). Utterly smooth finish and danged inexpensive. Due to absent mindedness, we chilled ours for less than an hour, although we had been storing it in the music studio, our coldest environment here. Haven't lost a wine, yet, in the music cave, and I gotta say, the wine need not have been chilled within an inch of its life (a common mistake of mine).

Here's what's great about Australian wines today: excluding within the borders of Oz, the prices are low for perfectly good table wines, and growers are trying out a lot of uncommon grapes. Verdelho is one, and its revival is a kind of scientific success story, almost like cloning a dodo. And, thanks to Mr Bill at Lotus, Bali's been flooded with the stuff.

There are enough grades of Verdelho that a vintner could go for either a dessert wine or something more like what Donegal created, but it was so good, I would have opened another to enjoy with a light dessert. The Ibis would stand on its own very well as a sipping wine at a cocktail party. Was great with those grilled white meats but would be nice with fruit and cheese or even a slice of toast. Almost like falling in love, I was ready to try it with meringues or raspberries or something fun like that!

Rust No Longer a Problem!

Ever get a rust stain on your clothing? I sat on a beautiful chair caned with water hyacinth reeds, and, because they used poor quality nails to construct it, my linen shirt picked up little pin pricks of rust on my shirt! Nothing washed them out. Not Magic Wand, not that Oxy laundry additive, not Goo Gone, not the 1-2-3 system from American hardware stores like OSH. I let that shirt hang in my closet for a couple of years, barely worn, and then impossible to wear.

THEN, in Bali, of all places, I found a bottle of Whink rust remover. At our famed Ace Hardware in Kuta.

I tried it on the shirt, and every single stain of rust came out. I tell you, that shirt had been ironed (usually sets stains for good), washed about 10 times, inundated with chemicals, and the Whink just took care of that rust. Without harming the fabric of the shirt in any way.

So: get this stuff if you have rust stains to take care of.

Coconut Drink from Hainan Island

The Hui Li Food and Drink Factory makes one darn good drink of coconut. This rich drink does contain sugar, but it's a nice treat for those special occasions when you can afford a caloric splurge.

Serve just the way it's shown on the classy black can: in a wine glass. Or drink it straight from the can, and imagine you're rushing along in Second Class on the Hong Kong - Beijing rail trip.