(Reuters) – Hollywood’s landmark Grauman’s Chinese Theatre has a new name after a Chinese company purchased naming rights to the famous movie house and tourist destination.
The one-time site of the Academy awards will now be called the TCL Chinese Theatre following a 10-year deal with Chinese TV maker TCL Corp, its owners said on Friday.
Opened in 1927, the building had been named for Sid Grauman, a Hollywood showman who helped finance the theater’s construction. The theater hosted red-carpet premieres for “The Wizard of Oz” and other classic films and now is the site of about 40 movie premieres annually.
The landmark draws about 4 million viewers each year. It is fronted by an ornate Chinese pagoda and the hand and footprints of famous film stars captured in cement.
The deal with TCL will fund upgrades and preservation of the historic site, theater owners Elie Samaha and Donald Kushner said in a statement.
(Reporting By Lisa Richwine)
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“Comforting” isn’t a word I usually associate with salads, but this week I put together five grain salads that fit that bill. Over the years I have developed a number of delicious whole grain salads that combine various grains with vegetables, herbs and often nuts, tossed in a tangy dressing. I have also married many a grain and vegetable in a pilaf. I decided to bring both concepts together in hearty salads that I’m calling “skillet salads;” each one is heated through in a skillet just before serving.
You can get ahead on all of these by cooking the grains or noodles ahead. Whole grains freeze well and keep in the refrigerator for three days. Then it’s just a question of preparing vegetables, herbs and dressing. Even if you don’t cook the grains ahead you can prepare the other ingredients while they’re simmering.
I make a meal of these at lunch, and serve smaller portions as sides or starters for dinner. If you want to serve the warm, tangy grains on a bed of salad greens I recommend spinach or sturdy greens like frisée or dandelion greens that will stand up to the heat of the salad and won’t wilt beyond recognition when topped with something warm.
Skillet Beet and Farro Salad
This hearty winter salad can be a meal or a side dish, and warming it in the skillet makes it particularly comforting. Cook your farro until you see that the grains have begun to splay so they won’t be too chewy and can absorb the dressing properly.
For the Salad:
2 medium or 3 small beets, roasted
1 cup farro, soaked for 1 hour in 1 quart water
Salt to taste
1 ounce lightly toasted pistachios (scant 1/4 cup)
1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs, such as parsley, tarragon, marjoram, chives, mint
Freshly ground pepper
For the Dressing:
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
Salt to taste
1 small garlic clove, minced or pureéd
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons walnut oil
Crumbled feta for garnish (optional)
1. Roast the beets and meanwhile cook the farro. Place in a medium saucepan with the soaking water and bring to a boil. Add salt to taste, reduce the heat, cover and simmer 45 minutes to an hour, until the grains have begun to splay. Turn off the heat and allow to sit for 15 minutes or longer in the water. Drain through a strainer set over a bowl.
2. While the farro is cooking, make the vinaigrette. Whisk together the vinegars, salt, garlic, and mustard. Whisk in the oils. Pour into a wide frying pan or saucepan and add to the farro, along with a couple of tablespoons of the farro cooking water. Peel and dice the beets and add, along with the herbs and pistachios. Stir over medium heat until heated through and serve, with a little feta sprinkled over the top if you wish.
Yield: Serves 6
Advance preparation: The cooked farro and the roasted beats will keep for 3 or 4 days in the refrigerator.
Nutritional information per serving (6 servings): 304 calories; 19 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 5 grams polyunsaturated fat; 11 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 milligrams cholesterol; 27 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 61 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 6 grams protein
Note: If you want to reduce the fat and calories in this dish, substitute buttermilk for some of the oil. Be careful not to allow the dressing to come to a boil when you heat it in the pan or the buttermilk will curdle.
Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”
The FAA stepped in Friday to assure the public that Boeing's new 787 "Dreamliner" is safe to fly. The AP spoke with Kevin Hiatt, Flight Safety Foundation CEO & President, who says mechanical issues with new aircrafts are not uncommon. (Jan. 11)
Tokyo—
An open valve on the aircraft caused fuel to leak from a nozzle on the left wing used to remove fuel, a company spokeswoman said. The jet is out of service after spilling about 40 gallons of fuel onto the airport taxiway in Boston due to a separate valve-related problem.
The causes of both the incidents are unknown, the JAL spokeswoman added.
There is no timetable for the plane to return to service.
On Friday, the U.S. government ordered a wide-ranging review of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, citing concern over a fire and other problems, but insisted the passenger jet was still safe to fly.
JAL and local rival All Nippon Airways Co fly 24 of the 49 Dreamliners delivered to end-December.
(Reporting by James Topham; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Catherine Evans)
The Rules, a dating instruction manual of yore by two ladies named Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider (they know what they’re talking about ’cause they’re married!), should, by now, have gone the way of the cave drawing or the horse and buggy, as a relic of times past. It was initially published in 1995, nearly 20 years ago, and we don’t even want to calculate what that means in dog years. But alas, it’s still hanging around, lurking in the bookshelves of various bricks and mortar stores where such things are sold; lingering on Amazon.com and giving us coquettish looks; promising such things as actual, official answers in the ongoing struggle to win a man and make him put a ring on it (I’m paraphrasing, of course).
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Far from aging gracefully and going away, it’s been updated to bring it up to speed with the newfangled ways in which we do things, you know, on the Facebook and World Wide Web and whatnot. Of course, business-wise, this makes sense. It’s a best-seller! In fact, there’s a whole franchise of Rules books, described by Elle as “one of the best self-help books of all time.” So why wouldn’t Fein and Schneider and their publisher hope to make some more money with a new installment of the book that promises answers to pressing social media-dating questions like these: “How long should I wait to respond to his text message? Can I friend him on Facebook? Why did he ask for my number but never call me?”
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Well, they would. Grand Central Publishing released the book, Not Your Mother’s Rules, on January 8, and it’s ranked number 4 in dating books on Amazon. One would presume from the title and the pitch that the ladies behind it hope that the younger generations will lap this stuff up, just like their moms did.
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Of course, it’s a self-help book, so I am predisposed to dislike it. Self-help books, especially those about dating, often fall into a category that could be better described as, well, undermining. The problems with such books for me are multifold. One, they posit that human relationships can be commoditized; that there is one path that works for all in terms of getting what you want. (They also presume, in a stereotypical manner, that what we all want is the same, and, I think, infer there’s some ongoing battle between men, who want one thing, and women, who want the opposite.) I don’t think those messages are true, and I don’t think they’re particularly healthy or helpful, either.
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Further, self-help books are published to make money. Those that say they’ll teach a reader how to get married or get the relationship they want do so by preying on the bewilderment, confusion, insecurity, and desires of women (and sometimes men, too). Sure, dating is hard. Sure, it’s difficult to find “the right person.” But the process should also to be fun, experiential, silly, weird, unique, and something we learn from. Figuring out what you want for yourself by doing it, that’s a great thing. Making dating about adhering to some code that a couple of people came up with and want to sell you so they can make money, well, that’s not so great. Women and men may read this stuff because they think it can’t hurt. Sometimes it feels good to believe that there are rules that can be followed to get what we want; it means we need only have the dedication and commitment to follow those rules, which is way easier than, for instance, thinking for ourselves deeply and making our own decisions, and having courage and believing in ourselves.
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Some of the advice in this book may not be categorically awful. Simplified to “don’t act like an obsessive”; “pause before you rush to do something you regret”; and “take care of yourself!” some instructions could actually be quite handy as a common-sense reminder. But categorizing it as stuff women need to follow to snag a man makes it highly problematic, even if the occasional tip is not so bad. And stuff like this, “New chapters include rules for text flirting: women under 30 wait 30 minutes to respond to a man’s text; older women should wait 4 hours,” as Pat Kiernan wrote today on his blog, is particularly disheartening, and inherently sort of woman-hating. Control your texting, The Rules ladies say. “Women shouldn’t take the first step to initiate any relationship — and that includes online dating,” they told the New York Daily News. Once you have a guy, ignore him, “at least for a little while.” And don’t sext until you’re married. That might save us from a few political scandals. But is this the kind of advice women need, in this day and age?
If there was to be an excellent dating self-help book for the year 2013, I’d hope it would tell people to trust themselves. To behave as they see fit, according to the situation they’re in, regardless of age, because they are smart, lovely people who deserve the good things they put out into the world, and even if they make mistakes, they’ll find their way and do the right thing. That self-help book would tell women to stop reading dating self-help books, and instead to behave as though they knew they were wise enough to decide for themselves what they should do, to interpret the signs and make the right moves, or make the wrong ones and deal with that, too, instead of adhering to some rules that aren’t really the way we are at all. It would most of all tell everyone to be themselves, and stop pretending to be something else. Because The Rules, and those who follow them, create some weird perceptions among men and women. Suddenly anyone who does text someone right back is perceived somehow as needy or “too easy to get.” That’s especially odd given that a four-hour delay in a response, when you could respond quite easily, is actually rather rude. Would that we could rid the world of such descriptions as “hard to get” altogether, because more important than playing games or appearing a certain way (difficult to get?) is finding someone you care about and behaving a way that shows that you do. Why do we persist, instead, in making everything so convoluted and difficult?
We can only hope, I suppose, that as time progresses these tips will become as ancient and quaint-sounding as, for example, the instructions in Miss Leslie’s Behavior Book, published in the 1800s. Until then, a word of advice. Follow your instincts; if it feels right, it probably is; don’t believe everything you read in dating books, and maybe, do yourself a favor: Don’t read dating advice books at all. But DO read Miss Leslie’s, for snippets such as this:
Now, that’s helpful advice.
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Pop star Britney Spears on Friday called it quits with both fiancé Jason Trawick and as a celebrity judge on “The X Factor” talent show.
Spears, 31, and Trawick, 41 – her former agent – got engaged in December 2011.
“Jason and I have decided to call off our engagement,” Spears said in a statement. “I’ll always adore him and we will remain great friends.”
The couple began dating in May 2010, following a turbulent few years in Spears’ personal and professional life in which she lost custody of her children, entered rehab and shaved off her hair.
Trawick added in a statement: “As this chapter ends for us a new one begins. I love and cherish her and her boys and we will be close forever.”
The wedding would have been the third for Spears. She divorced dancer Kevin Federline, with whom she had two children, in 2006.
The singer also spontaneously married childhood friend Jason Alexander during a trip to Las Vegas in 2004. That marriage lasted 55 hours before the singer annulled the union.
Spears and Trawick announced their split the same day that the “Toxic” singer confirmed she was leaving “The X Factor” after just one year as a judge on the Fox singing show, saying it was time to get back to making music.
“I had an incredible time doing the show and I love the other judges and I am so proud of my teens but it’s time for me to get back in the studio.
“Watching them all do their thing up on that stage every week made me miss performing so much! I can’t wait to get back out there and do what I love most,” Spears said of her “X Factor” departure.
Spears’ most recent album, “Femme Fatale,” was released in March 2011.
Celebrity website TMZ.com reported on Friday that Spears was in talks about a long-term residency gig in Las Vegas. The gambling city is already host to stars like Celine Dion and Shania Twain, who perform under long term contracts.
Spears was recruited to “The X Factor” with a reported $ 15 million salary after a 14-year singing career that made her one of the biggest pop stars of the 2000s.
But audiences slumped and the TV show lost about 3 million regular viewers from its first season. Many fans and TV critics found Spears bland and boring.
The exit of Spears leaves “X Factor” creator Simon Cowell searching for two new judges to lift his show past its NBC rival, “The Voice,” in the ratings when it returns in September.
Judge and record producer L.A. Reid announced in December that he would be returning full time to his job as the head of Epic Records.
Spears took “The X Factor” gig with singer Demi Lovato, 20, in May 2012 to fill the judges’ seats left by Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger, who were both fired by Cowell a year ago.
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant and Eric Kelsey; Editing by Eric Walsh and Carol Bishopric)
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With the nation in the grip of a severe influenza outbreak that has seen deaths reach epidemic levels, New York State declared a public health emergency on Saturday, making access to vaccines more easily available.
There have been nearly 20,000 cases of flu reported across the state so far this season, officials said. Last season, 4,400 positive laboratory tests were reported.
“We are experiencing the worst flu season since at least 2009, and influenza activity in New York State is widespread, with cases reported in all 57 counties and all five boroughs of New York City,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a statement.
Under the order, pharmacists will be allowed to administer flu vaccinations to patients between 6 months and 18 years old, temporarily suspending a state law that prohibits pharmacists from administering immunizations to children.
While children and older people tend to be the most likely to become seriously ill from the flu, Mr. Cuomo urged all New Yorkers to get vaccinated.
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said that deaths from the flu had reached epidemic levels, with at least 20 children having died nationwide. Officials cautioned that deaths from pneumonia and the flu typically reach epidemic levels for a week or two every year. The severity of the outbreak will be determined by how long the death toll remains high or if it climbs higher.
There was some evidence that caseloads may be peaking, federal officials said on Friday.
In New York City, public health officials announced on Thursday that flu-related illnesses had reached epidemic levels, and they joined the chorus of authorities urging people to get vaccinated.
“It’s a bad year,” the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, told reporters on Thursday. “We’ve got lots of flu, it’s mainly type AH3N2, which tends to be a little more severe. So we’re seeing plenty of cases of flu and plenty of people sick with flu. Our message for any people who are listening to this is it’s still not too late to get your flu shot.”
There has been a spike in the number of people going to emergency rooms over the past two weeks with flulike symptoms – including fever, fatigue and coughing – Dr. Farley said.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Mr. Cuomo made a public display of getting shots this past week.
In a briefing with reporters on Friday, officials from the C.D.C. said that this year’s vaccine was effective in 62 percent of cases.
As officials have stepped up their efforts encouraging vaccinations, there have been scattered reports of shortages. But officials said plenty of the vaccine was available.
According to the C.D.C., makers of the flu vaccine produced about 135 million doses for this year. As of early this month, 128 million doses had been distributed. While that would not be enough for every American, only 37 percent of the population get a flu shot each year.
Federal health officials said they would be happy if that number rose to 50 percent, which would mean that there would be more than enough vaccine for anyone who wanted to be immunized.
Two other diseases – norovirus and whooping cough – are also widespread this winter and are contributing to the number of people getting sick.
The flu can resemble a cold, though the symptoms come on more rapidly and are more severe.
Thousands of landowners downstate have sold their rights to drill for oil and natural gas for upfront fees ranging from $50 to $350 per acre, plus a cut of the profits.
Others are fighting to prevent the drilling out of fear that they could be exposed to drinking water contamination, earthquakes, toxic gases and industrialization.
In the middle of this battle are Illinois legislators who have yet to pass laws to deal with horizontal hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking. The issue is expected to be taken up again this year.
Horizontal hydraulic fracturing has opened up vast reserves of natural gas deposits in the U.S. that until now were impossible to tap. The drilling technique uses pressurized sand, water and chemicals to crack open layers of rock that trap such fuels hundreds or thousands of feet below ground.
The stampede to unleash such fuels has been compared to the Gold Rush of the 1840s. And in addition to the money being made by landowners in selling drilling rights, the fracking rush has brought jobs to other parts of the country.
"Other states have found the way to find the sweet spot to protect the environment and bring jobs; we should not miss that boat," said Tom Wolf, executive director of the Energy Council at the Illinois Chamber of Commerce.
For people desperate for jobs, a shale gas boom downstate can't come soon enough. Many counties are dealing with unemployment rates that top 10 percent.
Proponents of fracking hope to inject new life into areas of the state where a once-vibrant coal industry has declined precipitously. At the same time, there's a fear drilling will never begin unless the companies that want to extract the gas know what regulatory risks they face.
"If legislation doesn't pass at some point this year, from the state's perspective the risk is that the industry might invest elsewhere in other states that have more favorable conditions to invest in and develop these sorts of wells," said Leonard Kurfirst, a partner at Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP in Chicago who practices environmental law, chemical product liability litigation and regulatory compliance.
The state has laws to deal with gas and oil wells, but those regulations date to 1983 — before modern horizontal drilling techniques were used.
Without meaningful regulation, some landowners are learning that their property rights don't necessarily extend to what's buried beneath the surface. Some have found that their mineral rights were sold years before or that if enough neighbors give permission to drill, they can be forced to join them. Others, who want to test their drinking water for the presence of fracking chemicals, are learning they could be denied access to such information if companies claim it's proprietary.
Commonly referred to as the New Albany shale play, the gas lies in the Illinois basin, a 60,000-square-mile area that encompasses parts of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates New Albany holds 11 trillion cubic feet of shale gas, approximately enough to meet the needs of about 5 million households for 30 years, according to the American Gas Association.
Hydraulic fracturing has been around for more than 60 years, but the modern methods that have led to the shale gas boom were not used until the turn of this century. Unlike vertical wells of the past, modern horizontal wells vastly multiply the exploitable area of a well and involve more chemicals and water.
According to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, about 250,000 gallons might be used to frack a vertical well compared with as much as 5 million gallons to frack a horizontal well.
Southern Illinoisans Against Fracturing Our Environment (SAFE) is one of several organizations and environmental groups that want a moratorium on fracking in Illinois until a task force looks into the risks associated with hydraulic fracturing and recommends what kinds of regulations need to be in place.
The Illinois Chamber of Commerce is among those opposed to SAFE's proposal, which is similar to what New York state adopted with a four-year-old moratorium that has stalled natural gas development efforts.
"There is no energy source that is perfect for the environment or the economy. If there was, we would be using it," Wolf said.
Without regulations in place, a tacit moratorium already exists, Wolf said, explaining that drillers won't go forward with wells only to learn later that they face environmental regulations, new taxes or other unexpected hurdles.
The chamber released a study last month from David Loomis, a professor of economics at Illinois State University and director of the Center for Renewable Energy, estimating that downstate fracking could create 1,000 to 47,000 direct and indirect jobs depending on how many wells were drilled and what level of local resources were used.
Opponents countered that such jobs studies tend to be overly optimistic and don't take into account harmful environmental and quality-of-life issues that could come with fracking.
The Notre Dame coach interviewed with the Eagles on Tuesday and has a second meeting with the team set for this weekend, according to a published report. Meanwhile, Kelly continued to confer with NFL people about what it's like to coach at that level, a league source said early Saturday.
Kelly was on vacation the past few days -- though it was not believed to be a European jaunt, as multiple outlets have reported -- and the New York Daily News reported that "the Eagles and Kelly have agreed to revisit talks when he returns this weekend."
Comcast SportsNet Chicago reported that Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie's private jet is in Chicago, though no specific reason was given. But the NFL Network's Albert Breer may have quashed the notion of a Kelly meeting by reporting the Eagles will interview Seahawks defensive coordinator Gus Bradley on Saturday in Atlanta.
The conversations with NFL folks have been set up via Kelly's camp and began before his interview with the Eagles last week, but a league source told the Tribune they continued into the weekend. It doesn't preclude Kelly's return to Notre Dame at all, but it suggests more than a passing fancy with the idea of coaching at the next level.
There has been precious little in the way of enlightenment from South Bend, Ind., during Kelly's apparent dalliance. And all of it indeed may be a way to strong-arm Notre Dame into meeting the demands of a head coach just a few days removed from a championship game appearance -- a disastrous championship game appearance, but a shot at a title nonetheless.
Athletic director Jack Swarbrick sent word through a spokesman that he would have no comment. There are people close to Kelly who had not been updated about the situation a few days into it, and there are team members who as of Friday night who had not received any communication at all from staffers on the subject.
One person familiar with the Eagles' view of the first interview says there was "strong mutual interest" between the two parties, and the Tribune's David Haugh reported Thursday that Kelly previously had reached out to an NFL coach to see how professional jobs differ from college gigs.
None of that precludes a return to Notre Dame with a new contract and more money for Kelly and his assistants, which for most of the week seemed the most likely scenario -- and still may be -- though the reported second meeting with the Eagles is an intriguing complication.
Notre Dame begins classes on Tuesday and the Irish were believed to have a team meeting of some kind set for Monday. That seemingly would put an imperative on Kelly to make a decision and get a deal done, with either side, within 24 or 48 hours.
The Eagles, meanwhile, had more interviews set with more head coaching candidates into next week. That doesn't preempt a spate of cancellations, of course, if they found their man in Kelly.
bchamilton@tribune.com
Twitter @ChiTribHamilton
AT&T (T) on Friday announced the addition of the Lenovo (LNVGY) IdeaTab A2107 to its line of tablet PCs. The 7-inch slate is equipped with a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, 3G connectivity and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The IdeaTab A2107 also includes a 3-megapixel rear camera, a microSD slot, a front-facing camera and a 3550 mAh battery. The tablet’s display isn’t nearly as good as the competition, however, sporting a mere 1024 x 600 resolution with a pixel density of 170 pixels per inch, falling short of Google’s (GOOG) similarly priced Nexus 7.
[More from BGR: Samsung cancels Windows RT plans in U.S.]
“The Lenovo IdeaTab is a great option for those in the market for a compact, multifunctional tablet at an affordable price,” said Chris Penrose, senior vice president of emerging devices at AT&T. “Connecting it to the AT&T network keeps customers connected while on the go to what matters most.”
[More from BGR: ‘Apple is done’ and Surface tablet is cool, according to teens]
The IdeaTab A2107 is available now for $ 200 without a two-year agreement or $ 100 on contract.
This article was originally published on BGR.com
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