Harlequin Celebrates (Free e-books)

One of my many guilty pleasures, besides dark chocolate and ice cream, is romance novels. They're just so much fun! Easy, light, and you can always look forward to a happy ending. Rarely have I finished a romance novel, and not closed the book with a smile on my face. Well today, my friend Suman made my day, by sending me a link to Harlequin's 60th anniversary celebration site. In honor of the occasion, Harlequin is giving out FREE e-books, up to 16 to choose from, whether suspense and paranormal to tender romances and even a couple historical stories too.

You can download the books as a PDF or use an alternate format like ePub, eReader, or MS Reader. There’s something there for everyone, so hurry on over and download your books today.

Fun for All at Playland

Wednesday was my company's annual picnic at Playland Amusement Park in Rye, and I got to spend it in the company of two handsome fellows (my two knuckleheads/nephews). For those of you unfamiliar with the New York area, you might recognize Playland from a couple of scenes which appear in the movie "Big" with Tom Hanks. Here's one scene from the end of the movie when Josh finds the Zoltar machine and makes the wish to be small again.


I took these next photos of the boardwalk a couple of years ago when participating in a walk to raise funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.




And these are from today's fun filled evening.

America's Got Talent - A Star Is Born

On tonight's episode of America's Got Talent, Kelli Glover, blew the studio audience, judges and me away with a pure, rich and powerful voice. In the pre-performance interview, Kelli shared the fact that when she was 19 she auditioned for season one of American Idol but didn't make it. After losing, she struggled emotionally with not reaching her dream, and temporarily put her dream on hold - working in a casino for the past six years - until now. Unless she totally crashes and burns in a future performance, I totally disagree with Piers' comment that he's not sure she's likely to win the show, if she sings like tonight, she can win it all. She was phenomenal. A real powerhouse voice.

Emmy Nominations This Thursday

The Emmy nominations will be announced this Thursday, July 16th at 5:35 am on the West coast (8:35 am here in New York) and I'm crossing my fingers, and toes for good measure, that all of my favorites are lucky enough to hear their names announced as nominees, and they can don their modest frocks (maybe some Armani for the guys, and Badgley Mischka or better yet Chanel for the gals) to join the festivities on Sunday, September 20th for the award telecast.

I don't want to be presumptuous and assume it was all me, but at first glance it would appear that some Academy members must've read this here humble blog, because as requested in my 'Dear Academy' post and following his rousing performance at the Tony's, Neil Patrick Harris has been chosen as the Emmy host. Yup, you guys can thank me later.

A Long and Arduous Road

I was online visiting the ASPCA website today and read an article on a young Bronx woman arrested for burning a kitten to death in an oven. In yet another animal abuse article recently on CNN.com, a 75-year old woman killed a fawn, a little baby deer, with a shovel because it was in her flower bed. Reading these articles I remembered a quote I came across not long ago:


I guess we still have a ways to go.

Swearing and Biology

I was listening to WCBS 880 on my way in to work this morning when I heard an interesting piece on swearing from The Osgood File. According to the story, swearing is nature's aspirin and in fact there's a biological effect when we swear. A psychologist in England was at his wife's side during labor and witnessed his demure wife's expletive laced tirade during the worst of labor. Witnessing this he was curious as to whether there's a biological reason that people swear and he decided to hold a study using a group of undergrads. In the study, he asked the students to write down five swear words they'd yell out if they were to hit themselves with a hammer and five words they'd use to describe a table. Then the students were asked to place their hands in ice cold water and keep them there until the pain was unbearable. As the pain got worse, half of the students were allowed to use their swear words, and the other half had to use the words for table.

Well, the swearing did the job, and had a biological effect on the swearing students by increasing their heart rate and allowing them to endure the pain longer than the other non-swearing students and, supposedly they felt less pain after it was all over also.

So, next time you hit yourself with a hammer, stub your toe, or bang your funny bone...let'er rip. You'll feel better after.