Hasta La Gadget!

The Lyin’ Ryan Lochte story has been full of unbelievable events:

– Lochte lies to police about being robbed in Rio.
– Lochte urinates on the walls of a gas station.
– Lochte vandalizes a gas station bathroom.
– Lochte lies on national television about the whole thing.
– The U.S. Olympic Committee and CEO Scott Blackmun have failed to punish Lochte.

And now, the Ryan Lochte story takes a new twist, with the athlete actually being rewarded. USA Today confirmed that Lochte will appear on the next season of Dancing With The Stars. Although the deal was struck prior to the Olympic games and before Lochte’s deplorable behavior in Rio, the fact that a national television network is going to give him airtime and make him part of their hit primetime show is unbelievable. They need to rescind the offer.

In addition, Lochte, who lost four sponsorships (Speedo, Ralph Lauren, Syneron-Candela and Airweave) after the Rio Games, has signed a new deal. Pine Bros. Softish Throat Drops has announced the swimmer will appear in a series of print advertisements and a commercial stating, “Pine Brothers Softish Throat Drops: Forgiving On Your Throat.”

Pine Bros. Chief Executive Rider McDowell said in a statement: “We all make mistakes, but they’re rarely given front-page scrutiny. He’s a great guy who has done incredible work with charities. I’m confident that Pine Bros. fans will support our decision to give Ryan a second chance.”

Of course we all make mistakes, but the difference is we’re not all Olympic athletes in the public eye representing the United States of America at one of the most prestigious gatherings of all the world’s countries. Being a great athlete is only part of being a great Olympian. The other part of it is acting like one. If you have the maturity of a child, make bad decisions and lie about it to the world, you’re not an Olympian. You’re not a role model. You don’t deserve to be a company spokesperson. Rewarding Lochte in any way is foolish and sets a bad example. What does it teach our kids? It says it’s okay to act like a fool and make stupid decisions. As long as you’re rich and famous you can get away with it and you’ll even be rewarded.

The solution

Here’s what really needs to happen to fix the whole Ryan Lochte mess.

1. The U.S. Olympic committee needs to punish Lochte and the other three swimmers immediately. Why haven’t they done anything yet? This should have been done over a week ago. There’s nothing left to investigate. It’s disgraceful and embarrassing.

2. The U.S. Olympic committee needs to pull Lochte’s medals.

3. The U.S. Olympic committee should make Lochte go back to Rio and clean up the gas station and work there for at least a week. Better yet, this is something Lochte should do on his own, without making a big deal of it and without telling anyone. Just show up and let it leak out to the media and watch how quickly the world forgives.

4. Stop treating Lochte like a hero. Allowing him to appear on Dancing with The Stars and giving him a new sponsorship deal is unheard of. Why would anyone reward him for his behavior? It’s a complete loss of any critical thinking.

The only parties involved in all of this that’s taking it seriously and doing the right thing are Lochte’s former sponsors and the Rio Police. Lochte has now been charged with falsely reporting a crime. If convicted, he could face between one to six months in jail, or the judge could choose to levy a fine instead.

Either way, it’s time for everyone else, especially the U.S. Olympic Committee which to date has done absolutely nothing to punish Lochte, to follow the Rio police and Lochte’s sponsors who dropped him, and not let him get away with this. It’s time to make sure the punishment truly fits the crime.

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First day of school? More like “first day of freedom,” at least according to one mom. 

Meghan Oeser, a mom of six who blogs at The Ultimate Spoon, posted a photo on Facebook on Wednesday to mark her children’s first day of class, and it’s not the typical back-to-school pic popping up on your Facebook feed. The comical photo features Oeser sipping on a bottle of Malibu rum through a straw and holding a sign that mimics the ones kids hold on their first day of school that includes their ages and hobbies. What sticks out on Oeser’s sign is the “Mom’s First Day of Freedom” banner at the top.

Oeser’s back-to-school board shows her interests, which include silence, “pooping alone,” and “spontaneous napping.” She also notes that she could use some work on laundry and not forgetting her kids’ names.

In the caption of the post, Oeser wrote that she’s a stay-at-home mom who loves “the s**t out of [her] kids,” but knows the chaotic reality of being a parent. 

“I’m a SAHM [stay-at-home mom]. I AM blessed. I wouldn’t have it ANY other way, but S**T…I’m DONE!!!” she wrote. “Momma’s tired.”

The mom also hilariously summed up what she won’t miss while her kids are away at school.

“I’m TIRED of f**king singing ‘Let it Go,’” she wrote. “I’m tired of looking at their poop because it slightly resembles Sheepy from ‘Doc McStuffins.’”

In two days, the photo has been shared more than 1,700 times. Oeser ended the post saying that all parents deserve to be celebrated, whether they’re sobbing at the bus stop on the first day of school or slightly happy to have a break. 

“All in all…we’re all PARENTS, and we’re in this s**t together.”

H/T PopSugar

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The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday closed the door on the Independent Map Amendment for the 2016 election, but not too tightly.

The ruling majority of justices in their decision singled out one problem with the proposed amendment that put it in violation of the state constitution. Fix that, the court said, and we’d give this another chance.

It has to do with two issues: First, the constitution says citizen-led initiatives like this one “shall be limited to structural and procedural subjects” of the General Assembly. Second, the Independent Map Amendment sought to set up an independent map-drawing commission in which the Illinois Auditor General — who is not a member of the General Assembly — would play a role.

“Independent Maps makes the policy argument that upholding the circuit court’s finding that the plaintiffs were entitled to judgment on the pleadings will ‘make it largely impossible to make meaningful reforms in the redistricting process.,'” writes Justice Thomas Kilbride, writing for the four Democrats on the court. “We respectfully disagree. The Auditor General is not the only potential nonlegislative actor capable of filling the duties outlined in its proposal.”

Later, Kilbride writes, “Our decision is not intended to reflect in any way on the viability of other possible redistricting reform initiatives.” (The full decision is here.)

Two years ago, the court was more explicit in ruling that term limits are not a subject that citizens can impose via a ballot proposal. (The court also had rejected a citizen-led term limits effort in 1994.) Thursday’s decision hints that absent the auditor general in the process, redistricting reform might make it onto a general election ballot.

But given the tremendously arduous process necessary to get any ballot initiative before the court — it starts with gathering a minimum of nearly 300,000 verifiable voter signatures — another Independent Map-style effort for the 2018 election is anything but certain.

“The Supreme Court rules give us the opportunity to seek rehearing and our legal team is weighing that option,” said Dennis FitzSimons, chairman of Independent Maps. But  FitzSimons’ statement did not indicate optimism. “…In short, the system is broken, and the way this Court interprets the Constitution seems likely to prevent its repair.”

The Illinois General Assembly could place a redistricting reform amendment onto the 2018 with three-fifths majority votes in the House and Senate. Lawmakers are not restricted in what they can amend.

Gov. Bruce Rauner has spent the summer giving speeches that emphasize the heavy public support for redistricting reform and legislative term limits. He wants the General Assembly to act on both when it returns to Springfield a week after the November election.

But there is virtually no chance of either being taken up in the Legislature, where Democrats hold three-fifths majorities and where its most powerful member — House Speaker Michael Madigan — has been the state’s most vocal and adamant opponent of both.

But Madigan is taking a gamble by fighting to preserve the current map-drawing system, in which Democrats have substantially boosted their power with maps they drew in 2001 and 2011.

Under the Illinois Constitution, new district maps following each U.S. Census are passed much bills in the General Assembly and signed into law by the governor. This is no problem when the House, Senate and governor’s office all are controlled by a single party. But if there are two parties involved, it’s a different story. If the House, Senate and governor can’t agree on a map, the constitution calls for creation of an eight-member commission with four members of each party to hash it out.

If the commission can’t agree, “Supreme Court shall submit the names of two persons, not of the same political party, to the Secretary of State (who) shall draw by random selection the name of one of the two persons to serve as the ninth member of the Commission,” says the state constitution.

The luck-of-the-draw option was inserted in the 1970 constitution because the framers believed it would force compromise. They had faith that state leaders would never leave a decision as important as drawing district maps to an all-or-nothing gamble.  Instead, the parties have opted three times to go for the luck of the draw.  Democrats won in 1981 and 2001. Republicans won in 1991, and their map helped win them the majority in the House for the 89th General Assembly (January 1995-January 1997). Those were the only two years between 1983 and today that Michael Madigan was not Speaker of the House.

Should Rauner run for and win re-election in 2018 and the system remains as it is, Republicans will have a 50-50 shot at drawing the new map in 2021.

Next: Soaring premiums, fewer choices on Illinois Obamacare exchange

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photo by Tina Franklin This article first appeared in Kobo Writing Life.

Do you ever wonder this? Have you ever asked yourself in the middle of the night, as you turn to look at your husband or wife in bed next to you, “Do I know everything I should about this person?”? This is exactly what makes the “marriage thriller” (GONE GIRL, THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN, THE MEMORY BOX, BEHIND CLOSED DOORS) the hottest, compulsively readable genre right now. It’s the page-turning thriller that hits closest to home–both figuratively and literally–and is the most unsettling because of this. The marriage thriller, a type of psychological thriller, is the most popular read these days because unlike the medical, political, or techno-thriller, the marriage thriller is incredibly plausible. It could happen to anyone. Anyone. And, it’s so under-the-radar, it can happen unknowingly. Yikes. That’ll put a shiver down your spine!

What makes these books so relevant is that while nearly everything is knowable these days–with search engines like Google and the fascination people have with documenting every waking moment of their lives with selfies and Facebook and Snapchat updates–it remains that a couple’s marriage is truly the last bastion of privacy. What goes on in someone’s marriage? Only the couple knows. Even more chilling is a story about a couple who doesn’t know everything about each other. So when readers get a front row seat into the private matters of someone else’s marriage and are privy to things the characters themselves don’t know, it is pure voyeuristic fascination. What’s more delicious than that?

In writing THE MEMORY BOX, about a woman who Googles herself and discovers the shocking details of a past she doesn’t remember, I was especially intrigued by the notion of not knowing everything about oneself. How could this be possible? Years ago I read any article in The New York Times about a teenager who Googled himself and discovered he was on a missing person’s list in another country. This, of course, was shocking and unbelievable to me, that someone could Google themselves and uncover something so personal about themselves that they didn’t previously know. That theme set THE MEMORY BOX in motion. When Caroline Thompson reads about some disturbing events of her own past, events she has no recollection of, she is afraid to even tell her husband about them.

The marriage thriller is chick-lit’s x-ray. It takes the familiarity of domesticity and exposes the hidden nest of secrets and lies and control and betrayals. If chick-lit has a happy ending, the marriage thriller may not. In fact, it most likely will have a shocking ending.

The reason I chose Farhaven, the fictional suburb that provides the setting for THE MEMORY BOX, is because I’ve always been intrigued by stories which have beautiful, upscale settings that juxtapose a dark, subversive storyline. THE STEPFORD WIVES introduced me to this idea. It provides the first misconception to the reader, that only decent, upstanding people could live in a place like this. I knew instantly that I wanted to set this psychological suspense in a bucolic suburb where the community of stay-at-home moms, a sub-culture all its own, would help highlight the juxtaposition of conformity and deception. Though Farhaven was imagined from a New Jersey suburb, I have received emails from readers as far away as Australia, England and Canada, who tell me they thought the story was based on their town. Creating a convincingly relatable setting is one of the surest ways to hook a reader. Another is to present her with characters she knows and interacts with on a daily basis.

If you love to read psychological thrillers (or perhaps you are planning to write one) the ones that resonate most will leave you thinking about your own spouse, wondering about your neighbor, and taking a hard look at the community you live in. Perhaps it will even nudge you to Google yourself.

Eva Lesko Natiello is the award-winning author of USA TODAY bestseller, THE MEMORY BOX, a psychological thriller about a woman who Googles herself and discovers the shocking details of a past she doesn’t remember.

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Another year, another successful Greek Festival!

It was a sultry, hot weekend until Sunday the 21st of August, where scattered rain often sent visitors inside or under the huge tents. Every year thousands of people come through Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral as guests and leave as friends. The annual Greek Festival is the cathedral’s four-day party for the community.

Okay, obviously I’m biased being Greek and that it’s my church, but it really is a great festival, and Marguarite, Anna, Dean and all the people who help put it together are amazing. Everyone comes from all around. There is music, jewelry, food – lots and lots of food – handmade pastries, bounce houses, wine, Zeus’ Juices, frappes, baklava sundaes, and of course – the dancers.

The dancers are exceptional, especially the Senior Dancers. Even dancers that are no longer part of the St. Con’s Senior Dancers come and still entertain the thousands of visitors we get for the four-day weekend. They practice all summer and have performances at various events throughout the region. Alumni of the dance group even come and participate, putting on an amazing show. One year, when their performances were rained out, the dancers came in their street clothes and danced for the thousands that had gathered to watch them.

Here are some performances you’ll enjoy. Alumni Greek Dancers and Senior Dancers.
Thanks to my friend Rosanne, I at least got to see these videos because I didn’t even get to see them dance once!

I had planned on it – even scheduled someone to work the booth so that we-who-dwelled-below in the church basement could get some dinner and see at least one of the performances. That didn’t happen. Instead, despite all the wonderful-smelling food around us, we ended up scarfing down fast food after it was all over. Sigh.

And a major part of the event, the renowned homemade pastries, almost didn’t happen. Cleveland Heights had a massive, destructive microburst storm on August 9th, that took down power lines, uprooted trees, and turned out the lights for days. In fact, my house (which is about a half-mile from St. Con’s) had no power for 52 hours. We were caught so unawares that our phones, laptops, and tablets were dead. We were also trapped when a tree from the front lawn was struck by lightning and fell across our driveway. After a burly white-bearded man with a claw-like bulldozer moved the tree, (and we now know what Santa does in the off-season), we went to the church to see if we could charge our equipment and have somewhere to work. They were in worse shape than we were, but a massive freezer truck was quickly donated to salvage all the food and pastries – nearly 100,000 of them.

This was my first year in charge of a booth, and I learned some valuable lessons which I am going to implement next year. Those of us in the basement go down early in the day and some of us never see daylight until the next day. My booth was called the Agora, but it wasn’t quite the scintillating ancient assembly area where artists, athletes, and philosophers met and discussed the world. We were selling t-shirts and a few chachkies, like bumper stickers, license plate holders and, for some reason, really tight wristbands that could cut off circulation. We were just feet away from the Gourmet booth that sold spices, feta, phyllo, cookies and of course, kalamata olives.

Other basement dwellers included the flea market, the loukoumathes booth (a delectable fried dough ball slathered in honey, nuts, and cinnamon), pastries and the occasional cooking demonstration. The closest we got to see the dancers perform was when the Jr. Dancers marched through the room and we applauded and cheered them. For a moment we all felt as if we were connected to the upstairs and the outside world.

Occasionally, we tried to schedule someone to help us so we could escape, but when we really needed it, our scheduled help never showed up or let us know in time so we could eat dinner. That wasn’t fun. So next year, I’m booking the booth staff early and making sure the back-ups have back-ups. The first thing is to ensure that every shift is covered so no one has to stay in the basement, like me, for 12 hours at a stretch.

For as long as I can remember there has been a Greek Festival. One particularly poignant year, my Uncle Mike, who was in a wheelchair by then, having lost his legs to atherosclerosis at a very young age, was at the end of the food line, operating the cash register. He worked for hours, hardly ever taking a break. He had devised the “stifado” recipe that is still served to this day. For some reason, all my cousins showed up at St. Con’s that Saturday afternoon. Usually we were never there at the same time. We convinced Uncle Mike to take a break and for an hour or so, we all sat around and talked, laughed, drank some wine, ate food, and had a wonderful sharing experience.

Two weeks later, we gathered again at St. Con’s, only this time for Uncle Mike’s funeral. But I always remember that festival with great fondness and appreciate that we had that final happy afternoon together.

Back then, we had the Agora outside, and while we were able to see everyone who came and went, we were also subject to the deluge. It came down in buckets and everything was soaked, including the workers, who cowered under a tent until it finally ended. I think that’s the year they decided it was better to put the Agora in the basement. I enjoyed it outside, but I do see the logic of keeping the consignment merchandise dry.

One think I really like about the festival is how everyone works together. I know for a fact that my political views don’t reflect the community. That’s fine. A lot of people don’t share mine either. What we do share is a common purpose and goal. We work together and despite differences, we achieve that goal.

Maybe Congress ought to come to our Greek Festival and see how it’s done. After all, we are Greeks, and we are the lodestar of democracy. Like my Yiayia always said, “1oo Έλληνες 101 πολιτικά κόμματα” (loosely translated, “100 Greeks, 101 political parties”). Argue, be passionate, and then go out, have some wine, and dance. It evens out in the end. Conservatives and progressives can become good friends, working towards a common goal: having a festival worth celebrating.

Next year, if you are in the area, be sure to come to the Greek Festival in Cleveland Heights. Drop by the basement, follow the succulent smells of the loukoumathes, and come say hello. I’ll be the one trying to sell you another t-shirt you probably don’t need.

I thought I’d share two of my favorite recipes for Uncle Mike’s Stifado and Loukoumathes.

Stifado


2 lbs lean beef stew
2 ½ lbs small onions
¼ cup olive oil
1 cup water
2 cloves garlic
¼ tsp. ground cloves
3 medium-size bay leaves
½ cup tomato sauce
½ cup dry red wine
¼ cup red wine vinegar

Slow cook meat in olive oil and garlic for 45 minutes. (You may need to use some of the water, so the meat doesn’t stick) Add tomato sauce, water, spices, wine, and vinegar. Simmer another 15 minutes. Add onions. Cook over medium flame until onions and meat are tender. If you think there is too much sauce uncover it and let it cook down.

Loukoumathes

10 lb flour
8 eggs
1 cup corn oil
1/3 cup orange or lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbs salt
2 large yeast cakes
4 ½ quarts water

Dilute yeast with a little sugar and water from the above quantities
Beat eggs, add oil, orange or lemon juice. Add yeast mixture, flour, water – slowly beat until thoroughly mixed. Beat for 4 minutes at medium speed.
Place in oiled container. Raise 1 ½ hours covered with plastic
Heat oil in deep fryer or deep sauce pan. Drop by teaspoon into the hot oil. Fry 3 to 5 minutes, turning puffs with slotted spoon until golden brown on all sides. Drizzle with honey and sprinkle with cinnamon and ground walnuts if desired. Best served warm and gooey.

Enjoy!

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