Carol From Russia – Part I

Hi there,

I am sorry to all my fans if I have been a bit delinquent in answering my webmail, but I have been traveling in Russia to all sorts of small towns and big cities—some with limited web access. As it takes sometimes 6-8 hours for me to answer all of my mail and questions on the site, I have not had that kind of time in any one place for the last month.

However, I thought that perhaps you would forgive me for this fact if I would share my experiences in Russia with you.

I am still a bit of a technical “loser” as I forgot to check my webmail until I got a pleading email from Vlad (my webmaster at Attention Interactive) asking for me to please check my mail and answer.

Actually, I love to answer my mail, but half the time I’m in disbelief I’m actually getting any mail at all, and half the time I forget. And what mail I get! You guys really ask good questions! You are paying attention and I am proud of you all…..

Anyway, I will take you along on the journey that is Russia and when I have more than just one hour I will answer the questions that were posted in the last month! (I am writing this offline at 4:30-6am St Petersburg time! Imagine? And I will post it when I get web access.)

First of all, I have been traveling in some of the smallest towns and cities in Russia because since I was a kid, Russia has just fascinated me! And for good reason, I believe. The History is just amazing and incredible; especially to an American who has only 200 or so years of history to drawn on. For me, WWI and WWII were another generation and fought a world away. The Russians, on the other hand, were front and center and absolutely the object of Hitler’s lust. Russians tell me they lost over 20 MILLION people in WWII to Hitler’s war machine. Neighborly, Hitler was NOT! It is hard to think that Hitler wanted to raze St. Petersburg (then known as Leningrad) and flood it to make a big lake! When you see the beautiful buildings and architecture you understand what a loss this would have been. (Just think Le Hermitage!) But he also wanted to kill most of the residents and keep only a few hundred-thousand Russians as SLAVES!

He already had the invitations to his Victory Party in the famed St Petersburg Astoria Hotel made up! The Astoria Hotel was across from the German Embassy in the city, and Hitler wanted a full victory-worthy reception!

What a different world it would have been had Hitler succeeded!

I don’t think as Americans we have ever come that close to being annihilated.

Anyway, I believe that some of the towns I have visited have not changed since pre-communist days! That is really amazing to a person like me, who was born in NYC, as the city that changes while you sleep at night!

But it’s the people that make this country so fascinating!!

I mean, they look like us. For example, my boyfriend (who is a Russian) has my coloring: big, round, blue eyes, and brown hair. You could mistake him on the street for an average Caucasian American male until he opens his mouth. They just don’t think like us!

Besides the fact that he is extremely intelligent, he looks at a situation without empathy and without emotion. He looks at the actual center of the problem. I, on the other hand, look at everything the problem is; the emotion, who is involved and the relationships of the people involved. In reality, most of the time when I look at the situation as he looks at it, I am able to resolve it immediately. If I look at it my way, I get bogged down by the relationships and the emotion. It takes me longer to figure out the resolution!

Maybe it is just me and maybe I am too empathetic. But, man, being able to clear out some of the emotion of a problem and to just see the actual problem has been a relief.

It is also interesting to see how a non-American/non-Canadian is able to see our country and put to use English words. This is cute and charming and sometimes really funny. And it certainly sets Russians apart! In Russia most people don’t speak English so don’t think you are going to go to Russia and it is easy to get along. Even if they take English in school, the theory is way different than the practice. When you do get a Russian who speaks English or who will try to speak English, it is disarming.

Alexei, my boyfriend, is the perfect example. He eats “smashed” potatoes, and asks me to do him a ‘Favorite’-instead of a favor! And well, if you think about it he is correct, too, as he takes things literally! We do smash the potatoes and he is special to me so I will do something for him because he IS my favorite! I mean, he asks me to do him a favorite and I just about melt. He could ask me to do anything for him…..and well, he knows it.

But also, it took him being his “literal” self in Whole Foods Market for me to see how important it is to BE Literal.

One day he kept asking me: how do they have ORGANIC SEEDLESS GRAPES?

Well, here we go I thought, I have told him how organic works- why is he asking me again?

“Well,” I start out in that wisecracking way that I am when I think I have answered a question for him more than once and I think it is a language problem, “I told you what organic is: they do not use conventional DDT’s or chemicals on the plants. They are as found in nature.”

“But, Organic seedless grapes….” He kept quietly repeating.

“What do you not understand?” I am thinking and I try to placate him: “They grow them in clean soil. Soil that has been fallow without chemicals for 7 years-“
“But ORGANIC SEEDLESS grapes,” he kept repeating patiently.

What is he driving at??

He is making me crazy; I have answered this question so many times….”as found in nature…”

“But, Organic SEEDLESS grapes.” He patiently repeats again!

Oh my gosh! He is right because he is taking everything he sees on a literal basis, he is asking how can grapes be SEEDLESS and ORGANIC when the very definition of organic is “as found in nature” and, well, God did not make seedless grapes—man created them in a hybrid fashion! He was right and, of course, I had to apologize because I was not ‘getting’ what he was asking.

I am not so literal and I am used to Marketing practices which mislead the consumer. Therefore, he has become my consumer barometer because he picks out the inconsistencies of marketing that his literal sense of the English language makes apparent to him but not to me……

But this is just language.

There are so many customs in Russia that I find so incredibly different. For example, do not pass the salt from one person to another directly to their hand. This will make a Russian “rewind” like a video and force your hand to the table where you MUST put the salt down on the table so that they can pick it up. No matter how many times I tell my boyfriend that this is a superstition that is a left-over from the days where salt was an instrument of trade (like gold). To pass it from one hand to another without a bag meant that you could be cheated as salt could stick in the cracks of your hand and you could short change someone.

It does not matter. Drop the salt or drive your Russian dinner guest from the table.

Another rather strange custom is that you can drink alcohol right on the street! You can walk down the street or hang out on a street corner with an open bottle of whatever you wish: beer, vodka, or wine! No one stops you. The police do not care. It is amazing to see people at the end of the workday walking home with an open beer and a cigarette.

Which reminds me—they smoke everywhere. Even in Italy, which is THE smoking capital of the world where babies are practically born with a pack in their hand, they have No Smoking Laws. But Russia just won’t give in and every time I arrive back in Russia and I walk into the lobby of the hotel I am startled to see people walking around smoking in the elevators and even at dinner. Just as I am about to say something to the people I am with, I remember and catch my breath (mostly because I’ve got a lungful of smoke) and remember: they CAN smoke everywhere.

This includes their cars, buses, taxi’s…..which reminds me: Russian drivers are not like any drivers in the world.

I mean, I grew up in NYC! We are THE “he who hesitates is lost” city of the East! But we do not compare….

I have driven Mercedes in Italy and motorbikes in India; Audi’s in Brazil and Ferrari’s in France, but my managers and friends will not allow me to drive in Russia. Russian drivers bring new meaning to the idea of “your heart pounding in your ears.” Where in other countries it is the joy of a FAB car that makes your heart pound, here it is the experience of kamikaze driving that is not for the faint of heart.

Even Russians who have been in America for a bit of time who come back to Russia and drive end up cursing under their breathe for being stuck in one spot for half an hour as no one waits in a line.

If you want to turn left, first, you have to fight the cars that come from behind you and cut you off turning left in front of you. Then you have to battle the drivers who just push through the red light.

Police are everywhere, but Russians tell me you just pay them and move on. No points on your license…..so no real incentive to follow rules…..

Most people (at least 50%) of the country have LADA’s that are pre-World War II anyway, so one more scratch does not matter. But the fact that they have these cars, and they still are in good shape and they still run, is unbelievable. Their motto is: if it runs and gets you there, it is a car. And anyone is a taxi. If you have a car, you can be a taxi. They have taxis, for sure. But you can just step into the street and wave your hand and anyone can stop and pull over and if they are going your way, they will negotiate a price and give you a ride. Hitchhiking, it is called in America, and we warn our teenagers NOT to do it. In Russia, it is an art form: to pick the right car and the right time to step into the street to flag down that car, to wear the right clothes that will make a driver pull over (not every driver pulls over) but that does not scream money so that you can negotiate a fair price for the ride….

And believe me, on a cold Russian winter night, you WILL dress the part to get a ride. Either that or you freeze to death in the street. Nothing like getting home quickly when it is cold out.

Speaking of home, I have noticed that Americans are very interested in what the outside of the house or apt looks like. “Curb appeal” is the technical term. Russians, on the other hand, take painstaking care of the inside of their house. I have been in buildings that actually look condemned from the outside only to find the most brilliant apartments done with painstaking care inside.

And their sense of History is unrivalled! They do not take down a building because it is old. In fact, it becomes a celebrated part of their history, unlike Americans who take down a building the minute it celebrates its 20th year or if it is sitting on a great parcel of land, even more reason to clear it off and build new.
Speaking of Old and New. It is amazing to see little old Russian women selling pickles and cabbage on the streets of major cities in plastic baggies—right in front of huge new futuristic shopping malls.

This is really where the past meets the future in Russia.

100 rubles, less than $4 American, is a tip worthy of a hotel housekeeper going to a dictionary to learn to say “God Bless You” in English. While the bag of choice for Russian women with money is the $10,000.00 Birkin by Hermes. The difference between the have and have-nots is as wide as Russia is BIG!

It takes 10 hours to go from St Petersburg to Harbinsk. (In America NY to LA is only 4.5 hours)

I haven’t yet figured out North to South yet. Or if they go from Sun to Snow like we do in America from Florida to Maine.
Oh and speaking of Snow. Have I yet mentioned the SNOW? Or how about shoveling snow?

In a country that manufactures snow from September to May, it is unbelievable that they do not shovel the sidewalk. To see these little 90-year-old babushkas (Russian for grandmothers) walking on ice and snow to sell their pickles for 50 rubles in little rubber boots on dreary winter days is just beyond belief. I say ‘beyond belief’ because if they fall, there is no recourse. In America an un-shoveled sidewalk would be a lawsuit waiting to happen. Here there are NO lawsuits, which is somewhat of a relief because they have a greater sense of personal responsibility than we do in America but at the same time they care less about some public safety issues: stairs to metros and icy sidewalks being just a couple of examples.

How about plowing the streets you ask? What’s the matter, can’t you drive?

Russians drive on snow, ice, rain, sleet-if it is in the road they will drive over it. (See paragraph above on Russian drivers!)

No right or wrong on either side, just different; just one thing in a long line of little things that makes us so different from each other.

But these are just outwardly things. I am constantly amazed how differently they think, and the food they eat (they juice everywhere!) and how they view the cold war with America (this has led to some lively discussions with Russian ex-military), and how they celebrate holidays (chicken is the bird of holiday feasting for example)
Oh and how- just for the record: Russians hardly EVER say sorry or thank you. So don’t feel bad if they don’t thank you when you do something! It is just not the custom.

But I think THAT blog is for next week—right AFTER I answer my webmail.

See ya then!

Supermodel tells it like it is

Written by Bob Rozycki, posted on www.westfaironline.com

The shelf life of a fashion model is four years at best.

Supermodel Carol Alt was able to parlay her “product” – herself – into a career that has spanned three decades using a strong work ethic and fearless business savvy.

“I’ve been around for 30 years in the modeling industry and have never been without a day of work. And that’s really a feat in itself if I do say so myself,” Alt told the World of Fashion class at Roy C. Ketcham High School in Wappingers Falls on Nov. 13.

“Some girls came, and some girls went,” she said, but others such as Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley, Lauren Hutton, Brooke Shields and Elle Macpherson have had staying power.

“We’ve been around because there’s something different in the way we think. And the difference is that we think in terms of business.”

Alt told the students of Susanne Shand that “the business of fashion and the business world are really one in the same.”

Great clothes, great shoes, great fashion and great parties aside, modeling is “the hardest job you’ll ever love in your life,” Alt said. “If you’re not 100 percent focused on this business and this career; it’s not what you want to do. This takes everything you have out of you. It’s nights, it’s weekends, it’s holidays, it’s birthdays, as my sister can attest to.

It’s everything. So once you decide you want to do this, the most important thing is to focus. And that’s what I was able to do because I came into this business as a 17-year-old kid. I didn’t know from anything. Alt was waiting on an ROTC scholarship as a high school senior, when she decided to try her hand at modeling. “Always have an alternate plan,” she said. She got the ROTC scholarship, but found modeling more appealing.

Alt told the students – who are studying design as part of the curriculum – there are a number of aspects to the fashion industry in addition to modeling, including agent, photographer, stylist, and studio prop handler. “But behind all of that the real engine that makes this whole thing run is the designer. Without the designer, the model has no job. Nothing to wear. Whoops! Without a designer you don’t have anyone to print in a magazine … a photographer doesn’t have a job.”

Designers never work by themselves, she said.

“There’s the business mind and the creative mind. Gianfranco Ferre had Dario (Pagliuca). And Valentino had Giancarlo (Giammetti). There’s always a creative mind and a business mind.”

When Alt faced the end of her lifespan as a model in 1983, she asked, “What do I do now?”

She knew marketing would be the key to her success.

“Marketing is everything. You can have the best product in the world; no marketing? Nobody knows about it. You can have the worst product in the world and the best marketing and you have a hit,” she said.

“My product is me; that’s all I got. I’m not creating anything … other than showing up in a studio and having my picture taken. I made other people’s creations look great.”

She considered doing a poster as a means of marketing herself. She took the idea to her agency. “They looked like I was crazy. John Casablancas said no way. I went to my agent and asked how can I do this without John.”

She did the poster and followed it up with four others, all successful.

But she said it got boring. While living with model Janice Dickinson, Dickinson and her sister, Debbie, landed a calendar assignment for Suntory beer in Japan. So Alt asked why not a calendar for herself? She made the suggestion to her agency and they gave it to another model. “I did my own and had five successful calendars.”

In 1987, Alt was onto exercise videos. Then it was two books on health. And then it was her own skin care line.
Alt told the class that to find something that they each really love and stick with it.

“It’s a real long (life) to do something you really don’t love to do.”

Her parting advice to the class was:
“My wish for all of you here is that the decisions you make further what it is you want to do and don’t hinder it. As you get older and you get out in the business world you’re gonna see that’s probably the most difficult thing in the whole world; to do the thing that’s right to further your career and at the same time make you feel good about what you’re doing.”

The 515 Chemicals Women Wear

Very interesting article from Jstine van der Leun… check it out.

We think it’s a treat for our body when we exfoliate, moisturize and polish, but are we actually making ourselves sick? A recent study by Bionsen, a natural deodorant company, estimates that the average woman wears 515 chemicals a day — from eye shadow ingredients linked to cancer to perfume ingredients linked to kidney damage.

In September, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found extremely high levels of lead in lipstick. In addition, recent research from the Washington, D.C.-basedEnvironmental Working Group (EWG) showed that teenage girls are exposing themselves to potentially hormone-altering substances by engaging in that seemingly-innocent coming-of-age tradition of applying makeup. Yet, despite the dangers, women need to bathe and groom — and most of us like a little extra color on our faces. So what can we do to stay healthy and still look good?

The quick answer is: Use fewer products and educate yourself. The average American uses 10 products every day, and chances are, she doesn?t know what?s in them. “It?s simple: Read the labels and be a smart shopper,” says Leann Brown of EWG. “Buy from companies that disclose their formulations.” Since producers aren?t required to make their ingredients public, many choose not to. “A company that discloses all ingredients and keeps out ingredients of concern will probably have lower risk products than cosmetics with mystery ingredients,” says Brown. These transparent products are likely to be equally effective — your hair will be just as smooth, your cheeks just as bright — but without the lurking health hazards.

When shopping, there are a few key ingredients to be avoid. However, due to lax regulation, you may find them in products marked “organic” and “all-natural,” so be on the lookout. Choose from the many nail polishes that have been reformulated to remove a common “toxic trio:” Dibutyl phthalate, a reproductive toxin; toluene, which affects the nervous system and may cause headaches; and formaldehyde, which can cause allergies and irritation. Stay away from sodium lauryl and laureth sulfate, which are spopular in cleaning products, such as body washes, as they can cause skin irritation.

Triclosan and triclocarban, which pop up in antibacterial hand soap, can damage both the thyroid and the environment. Instead, use plain soap. If you wash for 20 seconds, you?ll be just as germ-free.

Finally, stay away from parabens, common in shampoos, lotions and shaving gels. These preservatives have been so widely and publicly exposed as toxic contaminants that it is now relatively easy to find clearly-marked parabens-free products. Brown also counsels cutting out fragrance completely, since the term “fragrance” is poorly defined and could contain any number of mysterious and unhealthy synthetic compounds.

If the ingredients sound too long to remember, the Cosmetics Database offers a free pocket-size ingredients guide, where you can also find out more about over 50,000 products. If improving your health and helping the environment isn?t enough, think about this hidden benefit: Eliminating every mascara with toxic ingredients will make choosing from the overwhelming array of drugstore brands (Thickening! Lengthening! Double-thickening and lengthening!) much quicker and easier.

HOW DO HOLLYWOOD STARS GET THOSE SMOKIN’ BODS?

Few topics generate more headlines than the nitty-gritty details of how Hollywood celebs get and maintain their fabulous physiques. Some of their workout and diet programs aren’t for the weak of will, but all are sure to deliver results–for those can survive them, that is.

The workouts

Actress Ricki Lake, 39, has dropped an astonishing 127 pounds over the past few years, from 250 pounds to 123 pounds—all without surgery or pills, she says. Lake told Us she lost those last stubborn 20 pounds by following a strict 1,200-calorie-a-day diet. For exercise, Ricki now takes 90-minute hikes and does weight training three times a week.

Oscar winner Renee Zellweger, 40, is an avid swimmer and yoga enthusiast, but running is her true passion, reports Marie Claire. “That’s my alone time….my thinking time,” she has said. Zellweger jogs up to five miles per session several times a week, and when she hits the gym, she focuses on circuit training.

Dropping that baby weight

Few things are more mind-boggling than when celebs regain their pre-pregnancy figures in record time. Being a mom myself, I can affirm that it takes patience and consistent effort to get back in shape after nine months of pregnancy. These days, many Hollywood stars recapture their taut physiques almost immediately after birth—-some only a couple of months after delivery! Here are their secrets.

Brunette stunner Jessica Alba lost almost all of the 25 lbs. she gained during pregnancy just three months after giving birth to daughter, Honor Marie, in June 2008. “Jessica went from a size 8 to a size 4 pretty quickly,” Alba’s personal trainer, Ramona Braganza, told People.

Alba, 28, who has been a fitness fanatic for years, got back into shape by following a low-fat, low-carb diet and working out six times a week. Jessica’s exercise routine centers around cardio workouts using an elliptical machine and treadmill, as well as circuit training and core exercises. “[The workouts] were horrible,” Aba has said. “I cried.”

Few things can strike terror in the hearts of women more than having to strut down a catwalk in their underwear in front of millions of people. Well, that’s exactly what supermodel Heidi Klum had to do–not once, but twice! In Nov. 2008, the 36-year-old mother of three bared her superfit physique in her skivvies at the 2008 Victoria’s Secret Runway Show. Klum, who’s now pregnant with her fourth child (husband Seal is the proud dad), maintains her hot bod with rigorous strength training and cardiovascular exercise three to five times a week and consumes a moderate 1,700-2,000 calories a day.

Extreme eating

Defying age apparently isn’t a problem if you’re supermodel Carol Alt. Alt, who at 48 looks as radiant as she did in her modeling heyday in the 1980s, attributes her youthful good looks and fit body to a raw food diet. Basically, this means she feasts on lots of uncooked fruits and vegetables, limits processed foods and doesn’t heat food above 118 degrees. “This is guilt free eating. My body got younger and my face got younger,” Alt has said. While eating only raw foods isn’t a program most people can follow, it’s hard to argue with the results.

When pop star Beyonce Knowles needed to drop weight fast for her role in the 2006 musical Dream Girls, she turned to the controversial Master Cleanse diet. Knowles, 27, told reporters she lost 20 lbs in two weeks on the extreme diet. The cleanser, which is basically a juice fast where dieters drink only the prescribed blend of cayenne pepper, lemon, maple syrup and water several times a day, has been used by other celebs like Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and actor Billy Bob Thornton to drop the pounds quickly.

A saner approach

For those people who want to get in shape without resorting to exercise binges or extreme diets, it’s doable: Eat healthier and be more active on a consistent basis. Boring advice, but effective.

Written by Samantha Chang. Originally published on: www.examiner.com

WHOLE FOODS RESPONDS TO CAROL’S LETTER

Carol Alt is a longtime patron of Whole Foods Market, yet she was finding lately that there were fewer and fewer products available there that suited the demands of her raw life style. For example, they would advertise “raw almonds”, when in fact they had been pasteurized in California. Or if a food item originates in a foreign country, it’s UV radiated before being sold in U.S. markets and Whole Foods adheres to that rule. While she understands that most markets insist on those types of processes, Carol does not wish to eat foods that have been subjected to her idea of harmful treatments. “When almonds, for example, have been pasteurized”, Carol says, “They can no longer germinate, which is important to me. UV radiation kills the enzymes that are good for us. I, for one, prefer to deal with the natural bacteria that might occur on raw foods than to be forced to eat irradiated or pasteurized items.

“Then there’s the raw milk issue. Do you know that there’s a ‘coven’ of people in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen devoted to raw milk? You have to know someone who knows someone before you’re allowed to join it, because it’s a felony in New York to sell raw milk! How ridiculous is that?! If you obtain raw milk from a farm, it can only be for your own personal use and you can only give a donation to the farm, as opposed to actually purchasing the milk, unless they have a real (meaning taxable) sales stand. Naturally, the farmer and his family are all drinking the raw milk that they don’t sell or give away; they aren’t getting their milk from a supermarket, for heaven’s sake. Well, guess what: If it’s good enough for the farmer’s baby to drink, it’s good enough for me!

“I was able to find – online, of course – a farm in California that would sell me 100% raw almonds. Another company sells me the raw pickles that I love and I give them to my friends. We all used to buy these things at our Whole Foods market, but they made it so difficult for us to get the items we need that we now shop online.

“So…I wrote a letter to Whole Foods a few months ago. I wanted to know why I could no longer find the truly raw products that I was looking for, such as pickles, even though they carry raw sauerkraut; or Just Picked frozen orange juice, which is not a concentrate nor pasteurized – it’s the pure juice as you’d drink it, but frozen. How come the Whole Foods in California can sell raw milk, but the one in New York, where I live, can’t?

“I have to say I was really happily surprised when I received a response from Whole Foods in the form of a phone call from one of their in-house RAW FOODS chefs! It showed that they had actually read my letter and taken my concerns seriously. The chef was very knowledgeable and she gave me a lot of pertinent information. Her basic answer to my specific questions was ‘it’s the law’.

“I interpret that to mean the law of supply and demand. If enough of their customers were as concerned about their health and what they put into their bodies as I am, stores like Whole Foods would make sure that they supplied the products we demand. They could at least make it easier for their customers to locate and identify the raw foods that they do stock. A huge company such as this has it within its power to be lobbying the lawmakers to use common sense when it comes to regulating the foods that the public should have the right to choose for itself.

“I wish that everyone I know would just sit down and write a letter to Whole Foods, or to their own neighborhood healthy foods market, and request that they increase their stock of raw foods AND make it simpler to locate those foods within the stores. I’m really getting tired of having to constantly phone or write my local stores, just to verify if a product they tout as “raw” really, truly is.

“Remember: I had cancer once upon a time and the only “treatment” I chose to follow was a raw food regimen. I absolutely believe it saved my life and that it’s the only way to keep my body healthy…for the rest of my life. I love it; I love the flavors of the foods I consume; and most of all, I love the way I feel. I just want the organic/health food grocers to get on board and stock as many of the raw foods as they possibly can. I really don’t think that’s asking too much.”

Carol was happy that Whole Foods cared enough to address her issues, at least by making that phone call in response to her letter. Now she’s keeping tabs on the changes that may result from that interaction. As things progress (or not), she’ll keep everyone posted.