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Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

AM LIVE Dec 3rd 2013 Dream Holiday

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Breaking Video News - Storms, Ice, Heat Hit US Ahead of Holiday Week

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Breaking Video News - Storms, Ice, Heat Hit US Ahead of Holiday Week

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Surge of Holiday Packages Delays UPS Shipments

A high volume of holiday packages overwhelmed shipping and logistics company UPS, the company said on Wednesday, delaying the arrival of Christmas presents around the globe and sending angry consumers to social media to vent.

A collision of factors, including a higher volume than expected and recent patches of bad weather, caused the delays, UPS spokeswoman Natalie Black said.

The company projected 132 million deliveries last week “and obviously we exceeded that,” Black said, without disclosing how many packages had been sent.

“For now, UPS is really focused on delivering the remaining packages,” Black said. “You might not see trucks, but people are working.”

Customers awaiting deliveries should expect packages on Thursday or Friday, and those with delivery guarantees will get the appropriate refunds, she said.

In addition, packages shipped via UPS for Amazon Prime customers, who pay $ 79 a year for 2-day shipping, can ask for additional refunds – Amazon’s stated policy for missed deliveries is to offer a free one-month extension of Prime.

UPS had not yet coordinated with Amazon yet, nor has it determined what percentage of the undelivered packages were from Amazon, Black said.

“If customers from Amazon were impacted, we’ll work with Amazon to resolve that,” she said.

Frustrated consumers took to social media, with some complaining that gifts purchased for their children would not arrive in time to make it under the tree by Christmas morning.

“Really @UPS would have been better had you delivered our package yesterday like it was scheduled,” tweeted a user named Heather Bender, who added the hashtags #UPSFail and #NoSantaGiftForMySon.

“Package was delayed in transit & not received as guaranteed. Disappointed 9 year old,” said a Twitter user named Jennifer Marten.

Others on social media urged shoppers to be more appreciative of the delivery company’s work during the holiday season.

“While others take vacation and time off in December, remember we aren’t allowed ever to be off in December. Ever,” Donny Ratcliffe, who identified himself as a UPS driver for the last 20 years, said on the UPS Facebook page.

“So when you see your family and complain that your package is held up, everyone who moves your package is working and doesn’t get the Xmas experience you get. Be thankful for that,” he added.

Newsmax – America

Surge of Holiday Packages Delays UPS Shipments

Pope, Off Script, Nods to Atheists In Holiday Call For World Peace

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Pope, Off Script, Nods to Atheists In Holiday Call For World Peace

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

30 Iraqi Killed, 44 Wounded As Arbaeen Holiday Ends

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30 Iraqi Killed, 44 Wounded As Arbaeen Holiday Ends

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Crazy quilt of weather snarls holiday travel

A powerful storm system spawned rare December tornadoes in the South, dropped crippling ice and snow in the Midwest and brought unseasonably warm temperatures from the mid-Atlantic to New York City. Meteorologist Mike Seidel reports.

By M. Alex Johnson and F. Brinley Bruton, NBC News

Freezing rain, snow and ice swirling in and around unseasonably warm patches created a bizarre patchwork of weather conditions over dozens of states Sunday, wreaking havoc for millions of holiday travelers.

The massive storm, covering at least 35 states, carried a little bit of everything:

Heavy snow from Oklahoma to Wisconsin — as much as 10 inches predicted through Sunday.

Flash flood watches across 11 states from Texas to New York.

Ice storm warnings in parts of northern New England.

Record highs in other parts of the Northeast.

Possible tornadoes, with the highest risk Monday from Texas to Tennessee.

“What really worries me tornado-wise about this situation is one, people don’t usually expect tornadoes in December,” said Greg Forbes of The Weather Channel. “Two, they are going to be in some cases farther north than people expect.”

The Midwest, meanwhile, was digging out from another major snow dump. Parts of Iowa had recorded 6 inches by 5 p.m. ET Sunday, and dangerously cold air was moving in behind it to lock in ice hazards.

With wind chills expected as low as minus-25 in some counties overnight, Alex Mihalakis and his 6 year-old-son, Jace, were out helping clear off sidewalks, cars and driveways in Dubuque for people who weren’t able to get out.

“We can’t buy anybody anything, so we decided to help them out with this snowfall,” Mihalakis told NBC station KWWL of Waterloo.

Jeffrey Phelps / AP

A police officer tags a car that spun out Sunday along Highway 172 in Green Bay, Wis. A winter storm was wreaking havoc across several states over the weekend.

“We’ve had pretty poor weather conditions two weeks in a row leading up to Christmas,” said Christopher Dolce, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel. “There’s been a considerable amount of winter storm activity all the way back to the days before Thanksgiving and a lot of travel woes continuing into December.”

About 665 flights had been canceled and 5,750 more had been delayed across the country at 9:30 p.m. ET Sunday, according to the aviation tracking website FlightAware.com.

Many were in or out of major hubs like Houston’s Bush International, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver International and Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, where 136 flights had been canceled.

Get the latest weather news and your local forecast

The weather was suspected in at least eight deaths, including that of a driver who was killed Saturday afternoon on an icy road near Kansas City, Mo., police said, and two people in Mississippi who were killed as a result of gusty winds.

Five people also drowned in Kentucky, NBC station WLWT of Cincinnati reported — three in one vehicle in Bardstown, which became submerged in the Rolling Fork River, and another man in Carroll County, whose vehicle tipped over on top of him after getting stuck in a creek. A fifth body was recovered from an abandoned vehicle in a flooded ditch in Ballard County.

The large storm system surged into the Midwest on Friday. On Saturday night, a line of thunderstorms stretched from southern Louisiana to Indiana, and at least two suspected tornadoes hit Arkansas, injuring at least five people.

A man in Rena Lara, Miss., was killed Saturday when wind flipped his mobile home.

And another person died Saturday when the car he was driving struck a fallen tree in the road in Jasper County, Miss. A woman in the car was critically injured and taken to the hospital.

Meanwhile, a major ice storm was barreling toward New York State and northern New England, knocking out power to thousands of customers. About 52,000 customers in upstate New York and 315,000 in Michigan were affected, utility officials said.

But balmy, warm weather was also moving ahead of the front, with other parts of the East Coast seeing highs in the 70s along with high humidity. New York City’s Central Park hit a record 65 degrees Saturday.

The system created wildly swinging weather patterns almost county to county. In Bennington, Vt., the high reached 63 degrees Sunday, compared to 37 in Albany, N.Y. — only 40 miles west.

John Yang and Erik Ortiz of NBC News contributed to this report.

Related:

‘Holiday travel nightmare’: Winter storm, tornadoes could spell Christmas misery

Snow, sleet and commuter chaos as winter storm pounds Northeast

This story was originally published on Sun Dec 22, 2013 1:40 PM EST

Crazy quilt of weather snarls holiday travel

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Ice and snow frustrate US holiday travel rush

A traveler walks through Terminal 3 at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2013. The National Weather Service issued a hazardous weather outlook for north central Illinois, northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana Saturday morning. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Travelers check in at the American Airlines ticket counter at Terminal 3 in O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2013. The National Weather Service issued a hazardous weather outlook for north central Illinois, northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana on Saturday morning. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Passengers walk through Terminal 3 at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2013. The National Weather Service issued a hazardous weather outlook for north central Illinois, northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana on Saturday morning. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Holiday travelers check in at the United Airlines ticket counter at Terminal 1 in O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2013. The National Weather Service issued a hazardous weather outlook for north central Illinois, northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana on Saturday morning. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

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CHICAGO (AP) â€” A storm with a 2,000-mile footprint threatened to frustrate Christmas travelers from Texas to Nova Scotia with a little of everything Mother Nature has to offer, from freezing rain, ice and snow to flooding, thunderstorms and at least one tornado in the South.

Some of the millions of people hitting the roads and airports Saturday squeaked through before any major weather hit, but as the afternoon wore on, cancellations and delays started to mount at major aviation hubs. Forecasters said roads that are passable one minute could become treacherous the next as a cold blast on the backend of the storm turns rain to ice and snow.

Making it harder for forecasters to stay a step ahead, the system was a weird swirl of wintry and spring-like weather as it passed over areas in the Midwest. While ice was accumulating in Oklahoma and elsewhere, downing trees and power lines, Memphis, Tenn., was enjoying spring-like weather, with temperatures reaching into the 70s.

Authorities said a suspected tornado injured three people and damaged three homes Saturday evening near Hughes, Ark., which is just 35 miles southwest of Memphis. And David Cox, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Jackson, Miss., said a second suspected tornado touched down near Dermott in far southeastern Arkansas, injuring two people and damaging about 20 homes.

Powerful straight-line winds, too, were causing problems and were being blamed for pushing vehicles off of Interstate 40 near West Memphis, Ark., which backed up traffic in both directions for miles.

“This is a particularly strong storm with very warm, near record-breaking temperatures in the East and very cold air in the Midwest, and that contrast is the sort of conditions that are favorable for not only winter weather but also tornadoes,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Ed Danaher in College Park, Md.

The worst of the storm was only supposed to hit Chicago on Saturday night, giving those traveling from, to and through the Windy City a window at the start of the holiday rush.

About 350 flights had been canceled, nationwide, as of 5 p.m. EST, according to aviation tracking website FlightAware.com. Most of the disruptions were affecting flights in and out of major hubs like O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, where a steady rain was falling Saturday night. included Dallas/Fort Worth International and Denver International airports were also affected Saturday.

It’s bad timing for the estimated 94.5 million Americans planning to travel by road or air during this holiday season, which runs from Saturday through New Year’s Day, and those hitting the roads for some last-minute shopping.

Darren Hall, 45, of Raymore, Mo., normally drives to St. Louis for the holiday, but decided not to risk it because of the freezing rain hitting the area and the promise of worse to come. Instead, he was waiting for a train at Kansas City’s Union Station.

“You don’t have to deal with all the roads. It’s safer, less hassle,” Hall said.

The storm had several bands of strikingly different weather.

In the upper Midwest, forecasters were expecting 6-8 inches of snow north and west of Chicago and in Wisconsin.

It was already bringing significant ice accumulations to Oklahoma, southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, splitting trees and snapping power lines. That was expected to change over to snow by Saturday night.

Northern New England was bracing for an ice storm Saturday night and into Sunday that forecasters said could bring more than a half-inch of ice to parts Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, which would make roads treacherous and cause widespread power outages.

“We’ve lined up hundreds of additional out-of-state line workers and tree trimmers in addition to all the GMP employees who will be working until all power is restored,” Vermont Green Mountain Power spokeswoman Dorothy Schnure said.

The weather service issued a flash flood watch from Arkansas northeastward through parts of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, with up to 4 inches of rain projected. With falling temperatures, some of that could be freezing rain by Saturday night in the St. Louis area, weather service meteorologist Jon Carney said.

In Indiana, the National Weather Service posted flood warnings along southern and central Indiana streams and predicted the highest flood crests along the East Fork of the White River since April 2011.

While the Midwest and Plains were preparing for ice and snow, residents down South were concerned about tornadoes, which are uncommon this time of year. Tornado watches were in place Saturday night for an area stretching from southern Louisiana to southern Indiana, which was also expected to get buffeted by powerful thunderstorms.

Rain and ice in Oklahoma were blamed for two fatal traffic accidents and thousands of power outages. A 16-year-old boy died early Saturday after his car crashed and overturned on U.S. 64 near Tulsa, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. And Oklahoma City police said a woman was killed Friday night in a collision on a slick roadway.

Forecasters said up to a half-inch of ice could accumulate across the middle of the state.

A woman sleeping in a hotel in western Michigan city of Holland was injured early Friday when a motorist lost control of his car on an icy street and slammed into the wall outside her room, MLive.com reported.

The weather wasn’t the only headache maker. A baggage-equipment breakdown lasted for hours at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, creating a backed-up line of travelers that stretched onto the sidewalk outside one of the terminals.

If there is a silver lining, it’s that Christmas happens mid-week this year, AAA spokeswoman Heather Hunter said.

“When a holiday falls on a Wednesday it gives travelers more flexibility of either leaving the weekend before, or traveling right before the holiday and extending the trip through the following weekend,” Hunter said.

___

Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo., Lisa Rathke in Montpelier, Vt., David Sharp in Portland, Maine, Jeff Amy in Jackson, Miss., Ken Miller in Oklahoma City and Shelley Adler in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

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Ice and snow frustrate US holiday travel rush

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Target cyber breach hits 40 million payment cards at holiday peak

Target cyber breach hits 40 million payment cards at holiday peak
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By Jim Finkle and Dhanya Skariachan

BOSTON Thu Dec 19, 2013 7:06pm EST

Merchandise baskets are lined up outside a Target department store in Palm Coast, Florida, December 9, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing

BOSTON (Reuters) – Target Corp said hackers have stolen data from up to 40 million credit and debit cards of shoppers who visited its stores during the first three weeks of the holiday season in the second-largest such breach reported by a U.S. retailer.

The hackers worked at unprecedented speed, carrying out their operation from the day before Thanksgiving to this past Sunday, 19 days that are the heart of the crucial Christmas holiday sales season.

Target, the third-largest U.S. retailer, said on Thursday that it was working with federal law enforcement and outside experts to prevent similar attacks in the future. It did not disclose how its systems were compromised.

Target did not detect the attack on its own, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

The retailer was alerted its systems might have been compromised by credit card processors who had noticed a surge in fraudulent transactions involving credit cards that had been used at Target, according to the source, who was not authorized to discuss the matter.

The timing of the breach could not have been worse for Target, coming just before three of the four busiest days of what has been a bruising holiday season for retailers, with the highest level of discounting in years. Target itself last month lowered its profit forecast for the year after disappointing sales in the third quarter.

Complaints from customers began to surface on social media as they learned of it early Thursday morning.

“Most of these attacks are just a cost of doing business,” said Mark Rasch, a former U.S. prosecutor of cyber crimes.

“But an attack that’s targeted against a major retailer during the peak of the Christmas season is much more than that because it undermines confidence.”

Investigators are still trying to understand how the attack was carried out, including whether hackers found a weakness at Target’s own computer network or through credit card services vendors. It was not immediately clear what percent of the transactions at its brick and mortar stores had been compromised but the company said its online business had not been affected.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, who headed a multi-state probe into a 2007 data breach at TJX Cos, said in a statement that her office was talking to Target about the breach and how the company is addressing it, and plans to work with other Attorneys General to determine whether the company had proper safeguards in place.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a public statement that he had asked Target for more information as well. Lawyers said that there will almost definitely be class action suits against Target.

The affected payment cards include Target’s REDcard private label debit and credit cards as well as other bank cards, Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder told Reuters on Thursday. She declined to say if the incident was affecting store traffic.

The largest breach against a U.S. retailer, uncovered in 2007 at TJX Cos Inc, led to the theft of data from more than 90 million credit cards over about 18 months.

Since then, companies have gotten far more adept at identifying intruders. But criminals have responded by developing more-powerful attack strategies, spending months on reconnaissance to launch highly sophisticated schemes with the goal of extracting as much data as they can in the shortest period of time.

Representatives for J.C. Penney Co Inc, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Best Buy Co Inc and Home Depot Inc told Reuters they believed their systems had not been compromised in similar attacks.

Target will provide more details on costs related to the issue at a later date, Snyder said. She declined comment when asked if Target expected potential fines from MasterCard, Visa and American Express or saw a possible increase in merchant fees.

“It’s so early in this investigation,” Snyder said.

Avivah Litan, a Gartner analyst who specializes in cyber-security and fraud detection, saw costs for Target. “They are going to pay for any fraud on the card,” she said. “They will get fined (by card issuers) for non-compliance with payment card security standards. Their merchant fee will probably go up a few basis points.”

Target’s shares closed down 2.2 percent at $ 62.15 on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday afternoon, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index fell 0.06 percent.

ANGRY CUSTOMERS

Target warned customers in an alert on its website that the criminals had stolen names, payment card numbers, expiration dates and security codes.

The company had identified the breach on Sunday and had begun responding to it the same day, Snyder said. She declined to explain why the retailer waited until Thursday to alert customers about the breach.

Krebs on Security, a closely watched security industry blog that broke the news on Wednesday, said the breach involved nearly all of Target’s 1,797 stores in the United States.

The U.S. Secret Service is working on the investigation, according to an agency spokeswoman. A Federal Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman declined to comment.

Unhappy customers began to weigh in early on Thursday, posting complaints on Target’s Facebook page.

“Thank you Target for nearly costing me and my wife our identities, we will never shop or purchase anything in your store again,” said one posting.

“Shop at Target, become a target,” remarked another. “Gee, thanks.”

Target’s Snyder said it has been getting an “extremely high” volume of calls from customers and is adding employees to its call centers to answer questions on security breach.

Krista Brewer, 27, a student at Bridgewater State University at Braintree, Massachusetts, sent Target an email and canceled her credit card on Thursday because she had used it multiple times in recent weeks at the store.

“If they don’t do anything for the customers who had their cards put at risk, such as coupons or a special deal, I think I will avoid shopping there in the future,” she said. “I’m very security conscious, and they aren’t saying exactly how the breech happened.”

JPMorgan Chase & Co, one of the biggest U.S. credit card issuers, said it was monitoring the accounts involved for suspicious activity and urged customers to contact the bank if they noticed any.

An American Express spokeswoman said the company was aware of the incident and was putting fraud controls in place.

Major card brands typically offer their cardholders zero liability and cardholders should contact their issuer if they spot suspicious transactions, a Visa spokesman said, adding that a breached account does not necessarily result in a fraudulent purchase.

“This could hurt the end of the holiday season if for no other reason than many of their customers have to cancel cards ahead of holidays,” said Janney Capital Markets analyst David Strasser.

The breach also comes at a time Target is trying to build its online business, which by some estimates is only 2 percent of sales.

“All consumers will hear is that Target is not a safe place to use your credit card. That impacts trust, which in turn can impact retail’s fastest-growing and most trust-sensitive touch points: online and mobile,” said Carol Spieckerman, president of retail strategy firm newmarketbuilders.

Still, consumers tend to have short memories with these things, so even if it is bad now, it will likely be less of an issue next quarter, said Gartner analyst Litan.

“(Consumers) care more about discounts than security,” she said.

(Additional reporting by Siddharth Cavale, David Henry, Marina Lopes, Phil Wahba and Peter Rudegeair; Editing by Kirti Pandey, Rodney Joyce, Lisa Von Ahn, Jilian Mincer, Peter Henderson, Phil Berlowitz and Bob Burgdorfer)

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VIDEO: Fun and Fit Stocking Stuffers For Kids

Sweet snacks, superheroes, and stylish duds are just a few of the last-minute stocking ideas we’re sharing for the important kids in your life. What really makes these gift picks special is that each and every one of them encourages healthy habits while still making things fun!

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VIDEO: Fun and Fit Stocking Stuffers For Kids

Thursday, December 12, 2013

VIDEO: These Adorable Holiday Cookies Come With a Tasty Surprise

Not only are these present-shaped cookies adorable and oh-so fun to decorate, but they also house a delectable surprise: a candy center. Watch the video to see how they’re constructed and for decorating and flavor inspiration. Then preheat the oven, because it’s time to bake!

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VIDEO: These Adorable Holiday Cookies Come With a Tasty Surprise

Monday, December 9, 2013

BLACK FRIDAY: Bank Runs & National Bank Holiday?

BLACK FRIDAY: Bank Runs & National Bank Holiday?
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Sunday, December 8, 2013

Thanks So Much for Your Holiday Card! It Stinks

Thanks So Much for Your Holiday Card! It Stinks
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(Newser) – Notice how impersonal and self-promotional holiday cards are these days? “Today’s cards may appear more personalized—with photos of spouses, kids and pets,” Eric Hoover writes at the Washington Post. Yet on the backside of each card, “I usually find no trace of ink, no original message.” Just a few years ago, most holiday cards included some kind of missive—or at least a signature. Now it’s a made-to-order card with a standard greeting or, even worse, “imperatives such as ‘dream,’ ‘smile’ and ‘laugh out loud.’ Can’t we wish each other well without giving orders?”

Hoover spears a few major offenders, like the couple that sends him a fridge magnet of their son each year, and friends whose card included a sonogram of their child: “Yes, this glimpse inside our friend’s uterus made me feel closer to her. Much too close.” Hoover admits that he and his wife aren’t blameless (they pay an artist to draw a spiffy image for their holiday cards) but they also take time to write about 60 handwritten messages per year. “Even some of the most harried parents we know manage to spend several hours a week on Facebook, usually posting updates about their kids. Why not log off and spend a few minutes writing something personal?” Click for his full piece.

Opinion from Newser

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Go Ahead And Mail Your Boring Holiday Cards

Go Ahead And Mail Your Boring Holiday Cards
http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2013/12/08/simonsantasuperman-81f88cf20c73f49a2ff81bf7db2140d06363d499-s6-c30.jpg

After he and his son Simon encountered both Santa Claus and Superman in an ice cream parlor, NPR

After he and his son Simon encountered both Santa Claus and Superman in an ice cream parlor, NPR’s Alan Greenblatt sent out this holiday photo in 2010.

Courtesy Alan Greenblatt

It’s always chic to make fun of holiday letters. People can’t win, whether they earnestly recount their fellowship missions to poor countries (self-important), brag about European vacations (must be nice) or simply bore with accounts of school plays or travails in their gardens.

The habit of knocking holiday letters is now not just snark shared between friends, but has become an annual journalistic tradition.

Holiday letters can be “insufferable” and “deadly boring,” Laura Vanderkam complains in Fast Company. “There’s often a subtext of social competition,” according to Peggy Drexler in The Wall Street Journal. And those are in articles that defend the tradition.

“Dear friends and relatives, it’s not you — it’s your holiday cards. They’re ridiculous!” Eric Hoover tweeted Friday, promoting his Washington Post article on the subject.

In previous years, some have argued social media have made the whole idea of sending out holiday cards not just superfluous but annoyingly redundant.

“There’s little point to writing a Christmas update now,” Nina Burleigh wrote last year for Time. “The urge to share has already been well sated.”

The holiday card has indeed, like so much else, been forever altered and perhaps endangered by the Internet. What I don’t understand is the urge to dance on its grave.

Perfectly Posed

Hoover’s complaint is that too many photo cards look like they’ve been torn from some mythic catalog of My Great and Clever Self and are wholly impersonal. He’s put off not just by the preening he sees in the perfectly arranged family photographs, but the fact that he’s receiving pre-printed messages that have nothing to do with him.

“Even the font seems smug,” Hoover writes.

Oh, smug font. How upsetting.

There’s no question that people have mixed motives when they send out their cards. No doubt they want to put the best face on their own lives, offering an annual report marked more by pride, perhaps, than honesty.

Does this surprise anyone? Would it somehow be more festive to recount the slings and arrows, the illnesses and petty failures that may have marked or even dominated the year just ending? In sending out a mass mailing, even to family and friends, there’s a thin line between heartfelt and TMI.

It’s Just A Joke

I started sending out holiday cards maybe about 25 years ago. My photos have always been jokes, admittedly inspired at first by the idea of mocking the type of wholesome photo — often showing the family, with the dog, gathered by the tree — that was the style at the time.

Like Halloween costumers, I usually make fun of some moment in the news. Some of the images have been in poor enough taste that I ended up breaking down and including a letter as well, to soften the tone.

In recent years, I’ve come to enjoy writing and sending letters on their own merit. It’s a way of lending greater coherence to my own life’s story — and connecting with people I’m often otherwise barely in touch with — that maybe works better than a 10-second tweet or series of status updates.

Some people, in some years, like the letter a lot better than the gag photo.

Thinking Of You

But what’s the harm if they don’t? It’s a friendly gesture, not a writing contest. And, as Drexler points out in her Wall Street Journal article, it’s not as if many people are in any great danger of having friends send them more than one letter per year.

Whether driven by the desire to boast or amuse or simply good, old-fashioned guilt, holiday cards and letters are almost certainly well-intentioned. Like any gift, they are a sign that a person thought of you when you were absent, demonstrating that you have been in her thoughts, if only for a moment, and thus have some meaning in her life.

That’s true even if the attempt was lame. If you wouldn’t send back a letter stamped “Return to Sender: Insufficiently Moving,” why would you complain about it in print?

Good will to men, you know?

News

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Friday, November 29, 2013

11 ways to do your holiday shopping without going insane

Now that Thanksgiving is over and we have entered into fully sanctioned retail hysteria, the dread of what the next few weeks have in store for you may be kicking in. The stores you normally haunt comfortably have already been transformed into teeming hellscapes – and it’s only going to get worse.

Is it possible to get through the season in a manner that is both generous and not crazy-making? Can you shop without losing your mind? Yes. And it’s easier and less likely to leave you sobbing in the corner of a Wal-Mart. It just takes thinking outside the big box.

Get a game plan. Holiday gift giving is not a magical, somehow spontaneous thing. Let’s not pretend otherwise. So have the potentially awkward conversation with your loved ones about expectations now. Rather than winding up this year, again, with a big pile of mutually exchanged useless crap, talk about setting limits. Be frank about the number of gifts you all can reasonably exchange, and the budget you can realistically abide by. Beats the hell out of spending the post-holiday season broke and dealing with customer service at the exchange window.

It’s called the Internet. Perhaps you’ve read about it in the papers. You can order anything off it, and have it delivered! Amazing. But in case you’re unpersuaded: Many sites offer free shipping, and their Cyber Monday deals are as good as whatever’s going on in their chaotic stores right now. And it sounds obvious but — when you go on a site, look for any discount code that may be offered. Write it down so you can claim it at checkout. If you don’t see any, check on sites like retailmenot.com – there may be hidden savings codes you can use anyway.

Not all stores are evil. Saturday is traditionally “Shop Small” day, but any day this season that you put your money in a local business is a good one for your community.

Buy refurbished. Almost any company that makes things with an on/off switch sells refurbished models. Factory refurbished items are generally high quality and deeply discounted, and you can usually order them directly from the manufacturer. You can, for instance, right now save $ 200 on a MacBook Air, or get a KitchenAid mixer that normally goes for $ 350 for only $ 200. Who needs to stampede the store for Black Friday deals?

Think “game show runner-up” prize. There’s something surprisingly impressive about a big quantity of an ordinary item. You can get the starving grad student in your life a case of macaroni and cheese for under $ 40. Or give the lip balm addict in your life a year’s supply of Carmex. Bonus points if you can gobble up the last of a beloved, recently discontinued item.

Give something that keeps giving. Everything you could want has an “of the month” club. Surely someone you love would enjoy 12 months of jerky. Or get a subscription to something beyond the usual magazine rack fare — go old-school and bestow a zine.

Give the gift of nostalgia. Truly, this was what eBay was made for: the chance to reconnect with a talisman from a fondly remembered time. Get a stack of comic books from your boyfriend’s childhood, a promotional photo from your BFF’s teenaged TV show obsession, or a not-so-vintage college-era item of clothing for a family member. Trust me, the nineties girl in your life would love a copy of Sassy.

Go for experiences over items. I’m not talking about those “Good for one [household chore]” coupons that will be either forgotten or resentfully carried out when actually redeemed at some future date. I’m suggesting instead that it’s nice to have something tangible that doesn’t contribute to the household clutter – a restaurant gift certificate, tickets to a show or sporting event, or a series of classes. Be unexpected – isn’t it time your recipient saw some professional bull riding or a Zydeco band?

Get artsy or crafty, even if you are not artsy or craftsy. If you can bake or build or write a song, have at it. But if not, you can still make something creative and personal. Buy some vanilla beans today. Split them and put them in a clean glass jar. (You probably already have a few in your recycling.) Pour some not-even-top-shelf vodka, bourbon, or rum over, cover, and shake every few days. By Christmas you’ll have amazing vanilla extract for a baker friend. Or just grind up some dried fruit – apricots or prunes work nicely – with a little water, a pinch of salt and a few drops each of honey and balsamic vinegar. Bam! Fruit spread! Or two words: Homemade. Nutella.

Many photo-printing sites, like Snapfish and Mpix, offer square prints, so you can turn your favorite Instagram shot of some clouds or your feet into something totally wall-worthy. Or get a small stretched canvas and a basic set of acrylics, and let your kid create an abstract masterpiece the grandparents will go nuts for. And never underestimate the power of a great music mix.

Or just buy some art. The wonderful 20×200, which was offline almost all of 2013, just relaunched as YouShouldBuyArt. Prints start at just $ 24. The name is a hint. Tiny Showcase has a brilliant selection, and a portion of the proceeds from many of the works go to the charity of the artist’s choice.

Know that everybody is a fangirl/boy for something. If you can’t score something brilliant that speaks to your recipient’s favorite movie/book/TV show/game on Etsy, you fail at Internet. Right now, there are people in your life who don’t even know how much they’d love a “You crapped on my heart” shirt or a Redrum necklace. But I promise they would. And it won’t give you a nervous breakdown to get it.

Salon.com

11 ways to do your holiday shopping without going insane

Thursday, November 28, 2013

VIDEO: Challah Pumpkin Bread Pudding Is a Thanksgivukkah Miracle

We all love classic bread pudding; it’s cozy, comforting, and ideal for holiday dinners and brunches. Add to that the season’s most beloved ingredient (pumpkin) and it only gets better. But wait, we’re not done yet! We’re paying homage to Thanksgivukkah by adding rich, eggy challah and tart cranberries to the mix. All in all, it’s a great way to use up leftover challah from the holiday feast. Watch the video to see how it’s made, then print out the recipe.

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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Storms upending some holiday travel on East Coast

Storms upending some holiday travel on East Coast
http://thedailynewsreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/492a8__?media=photo&contentId=93995a81f6aa4e27440f6a706700e434&fmt=jpg&Role=Preview&reldt=2013-11-27T14:21:37GMT&authToken=eNoFwrENwCAMBMCJLD3Gb2bOCYawIJLqUKRg2burvrm96pTenEABAteZ8zs2eyRpPtVWJLQ8ywxSvgASzrds87lQQ4TH2fXkhLY.jpg

Travelers wait in line to check in at the Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013, in Los Angeles. More than 43 million people are to travel over the long holiday weekend, according to AAA. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A man sleeps at the Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013, in Los Angeles. More than 43 million people are to travel over the long holiday weekend, according to AAA. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Passengers board a BoltBus during a light rain, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013 in New York. A wall of storms packing ice, sleet and rain could upend holiday travel plans as millions of Americans take to the roads, skies and rails Wednesday for Thanksgiving. So far, the deadly storms barreling into the mid-Atlantic and Northeast have not resulted in many flight delays or cancellations, but forecasters were expecting the weather to worsen throughout the day. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Tara Fitzsimons, a 20-year-old student who is traveling to Chicago, reads a book on her iPad while waiting in line to check in at the Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013, in Los Angeles. More than 43 million people are to travel over the long holiday weekend, according to AAA. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Passengers wait for a BoltBus to arrive during a light rain, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013 in New York. A wall of storms packing ice, sleet and rain could upend holiday travel plans as millions of Americans take to the roads, skies and rails Wednesday for Thanksgiving. So far, the deadly storms barreling into the mid-Atlantic and Northeast have not resulted in many flight delays or cancellations, but forecasters were expecting the weather to worsen throughout the day. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

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CHICAGO (AP) â€” Bands of heavy rain, ice and snow were upending some holiday travel plans on the East Coast as millions of Americans took to the roads, skies and rails Wednesday for Thanksgiving, but the wintry mix was not causing the widespread gridlock that had been feared.

So far, the storms barreling over the mid-Atlantic and Northeast have not sent flight delays or cancellations rippling out beyond the region to other parts of the nation’s air network, and forecasters said the storm would start to loosen its grip on the East Coast as the day wore on.

“Yes, I’m worried,” said Sylvia Faban, an 18-year-old college freshman waiting to launch into the heart of the wintry mess in New York from Chicago, where skies were a clear crystal blue. She and a few travel buddies could do little more than slump down on top of their bags at O’Hare International Airport and wait.

“I’m checking the weather in New York,” she said as her fingers pecked at her smartphone.

As of early Wednesday, more than 230 flights to, from or within the United States had been canceled, according to the air tracking website FlightAware.com. Most of the scrapped flights were in or out of three major Northeast hubs: Newark Liberty International, Philadelphia International and LaGuardia.

Some of the longest delays were affecting Philadelphia-bound flights, which were being held up at their points of origin for an average of about two hours because of the weather, according to website. The Philadelphia area was under a flood watch with 2-3 inches of rain forecast to fall before colder temperatures turn precipitation to snow.

Roads there were snarled. A multi-vehicle crash closed the westbound lanes of the Schuylkill Expressway â€” Interstate 76 â€” in the Philadelphia area after eastbound lanes were closed due to flooding on what is traditionally the year’s busiest travel day. One lane was later reopened in both directions.

The storm system that developed in the West over the weekend has been blamed in at least 11 deaths, five of them in Texas. But as the storm moved east it wasn’t as bad as feared.

A large area of rain was spreading over the Northeast and was expected to gradually move out into the Atlantic and the Canadian Maritimes as the day wore on. Wind was a concern, especially Wednesday morning in Boston. Parts of southeast New England were under a high-wind warning with the potential for wind gusts of up to 60 mph, said Chris Vaccaro, spokesman for the National Weather Service headquarters in Silver Spring, Md.

There was a residual band of snow behind the storm that, as of Wednesday morning, was stretching from western Pennsylvania to West Virginia and into parts of the southeast. It was expected to pivot into parts of the Mid-Atlantic by Wednesday night.

“This is a fairly typical storm for this time of year,” Vaccaro said. “Obviously, it’s ill-timed because you have a lot of rain and snowfall in areas where people are trying to move around town or fly or drive out of town … but fortunately, we’re at this point going to start seeing a steady improvement in conditions across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.”

More than 43 million people are to travel over the long holiday weekend, according to AAA. About 39 million of those will be on the roads, while more than 3 million people are expected to filter through airports. The weather could snarl takeoffs and landings at some of the busiest hubs on the East Coast, including New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Boston and Charlotte, N.C.

Transportation officials advised travelers to check with their airlines and reduce speed on highways. Travel experts suggested airline passengers might be able to have penalty fees waived if they wanted to change their bookings because of the weather.

Weather woes aside, there were some things for travelers to be happy about this year. The Federal Aviation Administration last month lifted restrictions on the use of most personal electronic devices during takeoffs and landings, and some airlines, including American, have already begun allowing passengers to stay powered up from gate to gate.

“I’m always down for Wi-Fi,” said a jazzed-up Chris Reichert, a 20-year-old film student at Northwestern University who was headed from Chicago to Baltimore.

His excitement was lost in the generational gap with some older passengers such as Phyllis Dolinko, 79, of Highland Park, Ill., who was bound for LaGuardia.

“I have a cellphone (but) I really wouldn’t do that anyway,” she said of using in-flight services to browse the Web. “That’s discourteous,” she sniffed.

Her main weather concern was not that she wouldn’t be able to make it to New York City to see her family (her flight was listed on time), but rather that high winds on turkey day might prevent the city from sending up giant balloons for the parade.

Most of the country was spared by the weather, and many travelers were pre-occupied by nothing more than whether they’d make a tight connection. Travelers at O’Hare were even surprised by how quiet and orderly it was.

Others, like Pat Wilson in suburban Detroit, were just excited to set off on a new journey.

She and her immediate family have never ventured from home before for Thanksgiving, but decided to get on an Amtrak train from Dearborn to Chicago after her 9-year-old granddaughter said she really wanted to go there.

“She requested it,” said Wilson, 65, adding that the visit will almost certainly include a stop at the city’s American Girl store, a mecca for girls who are fans of the specialty dolls.

___

Associated Press Writers Don Babwin in Chicago, Jeff Karoub in Dearborn, Mich., and Kristi Eaton in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

Associated Press

U.S. Headlines

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Battle for holiday shoppers heats up

NEW YORK (AP) — This holiday shopping season, it’s Amazon vs. everyone else.
Business Headlines

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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Holiday shoppers are expected to buy more online, and be more mobile, this year

Holiday shoppers are expected to buy more online, and be more mobile, this year
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Computerworld – Holiday e-commerce is expected to jump 14% to 17% this year compared to 2012, despite shoppers’ financial worries and a shorter
holiday shopping season.

Specific shopping days, like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, are expected to show strong sales, according to Kate Dreyer, a
spokeswoman for ComScore Inc.

“Over the past several years, each holiday season has seen the continuation of many online shopping trends that are not necessarily
new but nevertheless shape the dynamics of the season,” Dreyer wrote in a blog post. “The holiday shopping period continues to kick off earlier and earlier — with an increasing number of retailers offering
deals on and even before Thanksgiving Day — and Cyber Monday rises in prominence and promotional activity.”

Online shopping should be strong enough this year to actually blur the lines between Black Friday, which is the day after
Thanksgiving when people tend to flock to retail stores, and Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving when people tend
to make a lot of online purchases from their office computers.

“Many U.S. consumers are going online for holiday deals on the biggest shopping day of the year for brick-and-mortar retailers,”
a Nielsen report released Monday said.

The Nielsen study showed that 51% of those surveyed plan to shop online on Black Friday instead of dealing with packed parking
lots and throngs of grumpy shoppers at the mall. And 46% said they would be doing online shopping on Cyber Monday.

According to comScore, though, people aren’t just sitting in front of their laptops or desktops to do their buying. A third
of the average leading retailers’ monthly traffic now comes exclusively from mobile devices.

Shoppers also are increasingly using their smartphones and tablets to “showroom,” which means they check out an item, like
a bicycle or a sweater, in the store and then actually purchase it online. ComScore reported that 76% of the people it surveyed
say they showroom “sometimes.”

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on
Twitter at @sgaudin, on Google+ or subscribe to Sharon’s RSS feed . Her email address is sgaudin@computerworld.com.

See more by Sharon Gaudin on Computerworld.com.

Read more about e-business in Computerworld’s E-business Topic Center.

Netflash

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Friday, November 22, 2013

VIDEO: Power Up Your Metabolism! Pre-Holiday Pilates Workout

By adding light weights to traditional Pilates exercises you can increase your lean muscle mass while training your core. Celebrity trainer Juliet Kaska created a full-body Pilates workout using an exercise band, light dumbbells, and ankle weights to build metabolism-boosting muscle – exactly what we need heading into the holidays. If you don’t have these props, don’t worry: this workout is still effective without them. Press play and get your Pilates on.

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Sunday, November 17, 2013

VIDEO: "Holiday" Nearly Beats "Thor" As Race-themed Films Soar

With Leonardo DiCaprio’s The Wolf of Wall Street moving from this weekend to a Christmas Day release, box-office analysts expected a particularly easy win for Thor: The Dark World , in only its second weekend of release. Instead, the god of thunder nearly got a beatdown from The Best Man Holiday , the latest race-themed film to score a hit this year. With a boost from from teen moviegoers on Saturday, Thor squeaked out the win for the second straight weekend with $38.5 million, according to studio estimates from Rentrak.

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