Latinismo!

They sat in the car with the engine softly humming. They watched as Brian unlocked the front door and stepped into the house.

“If you can’t do this you better tell me now,” Jessie demanded as his fingers rested on the ignition key.

“I can do this. It’s my idea,” Tania blurted out with confidence that pleased her.

Through the corner of her eye she could see a sneer on Jessie’s face as he turned the car off. She decided to ignore it for now. He was a chemist after all, she thought, not a pre-school teacher. They got out of the car and walked up the short walkway to Brian’s front door. Tania thought of how stupid it was just walking up to the front door. Months of amateur surveillance, years of being tortured by memories, un-measurable hours with Jessie, and useless investigations into the rehab where Brian and her sister met. Now nonchalantly walking up to the murderer’s door seemed unceremonious and comical.

“What is the matter with you?!” Jessie hissed as he grit his teeth.

She looked at him, “What?”

“No, you what? What are you laughing at?”

“Bad habit. I laugh when I’m nervous,” she mumbled realizing that if she was unconsciously laughing out loud, she may not be as put together as she thought.

He signaled for her to stand on the corner of the stoop. He stood on the other corner and rang the doorbell. He gave her one last discerning look.

She gripped the syringe. Ten years waiting for this moment to get justice for her sister. All the preparation was nothing compared to spending so much time with creepy Jessie. Creepy. Kind of like Brian. She almost tripped as she stepped on a package. Tania kicked at it and saw it was a package from the pharmacy. From its size she could tell it was stuffed with prescriptions.

“I can’t do this”

“What?!”

“Yea, I just can’t,” she turned away and didn’t look back.

“Yes?” Brian called behind the door.

Jessie watched as Tania walked away. He stood motionless. The door swung open.

“Yea, what do you want?” Brian stood with disheveled hair holding the door open.

They stood staring at each other.

“I…” he looked down on the stoop and noticed the package. He picked it up and handed it to Brian, “Did you drop this?”

image credit: tkambler http://mrg.d80Bsp http://mrg.bz/oghGjm

I’d been hearing about Sleep No More, what’s become New York City’s most infamous theater experience, for months. Finally, I went.

I’d describe it as Macbeth-meets-murder-mystery-theater set in a haunted house. It was amazing and unlike anything I’ve ever seen before here in NYC (eat your heart out Fuerza Bruta). My only regret would be that I knew too much about it ahead of time. So instead of sharing all the dirty details (like how I got blood on my coat*) or giving you special tips (like which character to be sure to follow for the best part**), I thought I’d concentrate on the one thing that would most interest a traveler: the setting.

*It was fake blood.
**Don’t worry, there is no such thing as ‘best part.’

Sleep No More takes place in “The McKittrick Hotel” (a.k.a an event space on Manhattan’s West Side, but you wouldn’t know it once inside), which The New York Times described as “A 1930s pleasure palace.” Every inch of the space is intricately decorated to instantly transport you to that golden age. From the wallpaper to the geometric floor patterns to the light fixtures and the furniture, the attention to detail is truly amazing. The creepy cast also dons gorgeous vintage threads and the experience is set to (mostly) retro tunes. At the conclusion of the show, guests end up in a bar where a very hip jazz band provides the live soundtrack to the myriad of indescribable thoughts you have on what you just saw.

If you aren’t lucky enough to score tickets to the show (which recently extended through to the end of March), you can have your own rendezvous with the past at one of these amazing American art deco hotels:

The Chatwal, New York
Charlie Chaplin and W.C. Fields called this Times Square hotel their second home when they frequented its original Lamb’s Club. That same club’s walls still stand today in the form of the Lamb’s Club Bar and Restaurant, where guests can get comfy in chrome and red leather chairs, and drink bespoke cocktails. Upstairs, 83 rooms decorated with suede-covered walls and leather-wrapped closets make it easy to transport you back to the golden age of travel.

The Essex House, New York
This hotel that sits on Central Park South has been a city gem since 1931. It recently underwent a $ 90 million dollar renovation, but remained true to it’s ’30s art deco roots.

The Raleigh, Miami
We can’t discuss art deco hotels and not include one of Miami’s best. At once relaxed and sophisticated, The Raleigh exemplifies South Beach and Miami’s art deco charm. One of 41 Hotels built between 1940 and 1942, a period called “Boom over Miami,” The Raleigh is situated among Miami Beach’s parade of art deco hotels on Collins Avenue.

The Elysian, Chicago
First time visitors are struck by the amount of white marble in the lobby of The Elysian, offering an instant transport to days gone by, but also a breath of fresh air.

Hotel deLuxe, Portland
One step into this Portland hotel and you’ll be transported to 1930s Hollywood. Each room is uniquely decorated with touches of oak and mahogany furnishings, sumptuous headboards, and retro crystal and Lucite lamps, which all tastefully balance art deco and modern.

The Sunset Tower, Los Angeles
A discussion about Art Deco wouldn’t be complete without a stop in L.A.. And no other hotel recalls the Hollywood of decades past more than The Sunset Tower. Recently renovated and restored, the hotel’s original 15-story building was designed in 1929 and served as a residence for the likes of Errol Flynn, John Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, and Howard Hughes.

As President Obama puts the finishing touches on his State of the Union address, his campaign released a three-page memo Monday outlining the state of Obama’s bid for re-election against Mitt Romney.

Conclusion: This year, a weakened president can defeat a weak Republican nominee.

Looking ahead to the Florida GOP primary, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina ignored the victories of Rick Santorum in Iowa’s caucuses and Newt Gingrich in South Carolina’s primary, except as prima facie evidence of Romney’s stumbles. Although he was the winner in New Hampshire’s primary, Romney is traveling a rutted path toward the nomination — one that will hobble him when he faces the president, Messina asserted.

The memo to “interested parties” is a metric-supported bit of bravado — the kind Messina particularly favors — offered up to Obama supporters and the media. The conclusions he describes about Romney are unchanged from the campaign’s pre-primary phase of the race. But the data he assembles from exit polling are used to bolster assurances that Obama, however weakened by the economy and his record in office, can defeat Romney because the former Massachusetts governor is not what most voters say they want in 2013 and beyond.

Independent voters have rejected Romney in three Republican contests; he’s not doing well among deeply conservative voters; most Republican voters say they are lukewarm about him as a nominee; and he lost among every income group in South Carolina’s primary except those earning more than $ 200,000 a year, Messina said.

Anticipating Romney’s reluctant release Tuesday of information from his 2010 tax return (and an estimate for his 2011 return), Messina argued that Romney’s foot-dragging about documenting his tax status and success at Bain Capital “further weakens the central premise of his candidacy” because the GOP front-runner has said his business acumen qualifies him to be president during tough economic times. “What is he hiding?” Messina taunted.

The memo offers yet another preview of Obama’s plans to go after Romney on policy terrain, in addition to the candidate’s issues of “character” and “values.” The president wants to draw crisp, clear contrasts against his GOP challenger, and Democrats have already staked out ground for 2012 on which to do just that. Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night will further define that campaign strategy on pocket-book issues that appeal to the middle class, including independent voters.

Messina’s memo argued that Romney has no plan to address the housing crisis, which has been devastating in Florida; he alienates older voters because he has favored a Republican plan to privatize features of the Medicare program and reduce benefits for some Social Security recipients through means-testing and hikes in the retirement age; would raise prescription drug prices for seniors if he repealed the health care reform law, as he seeks to do; and is out of step with Hispanic voters in Florida and elsewhere because of his hard-line approach to immigration.

“Romney has simply been unable to connect with the voters he would need to win in November,” Messina concluded. “If he recovers from his loss in South Carolina to eventually secure the GOP nomination, he will have one of the lowest favorability ratings among nominees in recent memory, and will be the first nominee in years with a negative rating that outpaces his positives.”

The Obama campaign memo was released just as the Gallup Organization updated its diagnosis of American’s feelings about the state of the country. Americans are deeply dissatisfied with the nation’s economy, the size and power of the federal government, and the moral and ethical climate in the nation. Levels of satisfaction have been dropping in those categories since before Obama came to office — as measured against the findings in January 2008, Gallup reported Monday. Concerns about the size and power of government have been rising since January 2002, according to polling.

Gallup recently reported that polling during past elections suggested that Obama as the incumbent has better odds of re-election if both his job approval ratings and economic indicators show signs of recovery by March. 

WASHINGTON – The economy is off to a fast start in 2012.

The outlook for hiring is improving now that unemployment benefit applications are near a four-year low. Inflation is tame, business travel is rising and the depressed housing market is showing signs of improvement after three dismal years.

That’s the picture shaped by a flurry of data Thursday. And it follows other reports showing the economy started the year with vitality. Companies are hiring more workers, consumer confidence is up, factories are cranking out more goods and bank lending is on the rise.

Economists are optimistic. But they caution that it is too early to say the recovery is accelerating.

“There’s no doubt that the economy is getting better, we just shouldn’t get carried away,” Mark Vitner, an economist at Wells Fargo, said. “We haven’t shifted into a higher gear.”

Even with six months of solid job growth, unemployment remains painfully high at 8.5 percent. Inflation-adjusted wages fell over the past year. Housing continues to weigh on the economy. And a recession in Europe is expected to weaken growth in the U.S. and abroad.

Still, Thursday’s reports were encouraging:

• Fewer people sought unemployment benefits last week than at any time in nearly four years, the Labor Department said Thursday. Applications last week totaled just 352,000 after the biggest seasonally adjusted drop in more than six years.

The four-week average, which smooths out fluctuations, dropped to 379,000, the second-lowest such figure in more than three years. When weekly applications fall consistently below 375,000, it usually signals that hiring is strong enough to push down the unemployment rate.

• Manufacturing expanded in the Northeast in January, according to surveys by the Federal Reserve banks of New York and Philadelphia. That follows a report from the Fed that said factory output across the country surged in December by the most in a year.

• Inflation appears to be peaking after rising steeply last year. Consumer prices were unchanged in December, in part because gas is cheaper. Lower inflation gives consumers more spending power and allows the Fed more leeway to keep interest rates low.

• Total spending on business travel rose 7.6 percent last year, the Global Business Travel Association said last week. That helps companies like Southwest Airlines, which reported higher fourth-quarter profit and revenue.

• Union Pacific Corp., the nation’s largest rail operator, says it transported more cars, oil, industrial parts and chemicals in the final quarter of last year. CEO Jim Young predicted “slow but steady economic growth in 2012.”

• JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, said its lending to businesses rose 12 percent in the October-December quarter compared to the same period a year earlier. Tight credit has been a major reason why smaller businesses have been unable to expand and hire more workers.

A recovery hinges on strong job growth. Hiring was solid in the final six months of last year, capped by December’s net increase of 200,000 jobs.

Still, the job market has a long way to go before it fully recovers from the damage of the Great Recession, which wiped out 8.7 million jobs. More than 13 million people remain unemployed. Millions more have given up looking for work and so are no longer counted as unemployed.

And wages aren’t keeping up with inflation. The department said in a separate report Thursday that average inflation-adjusted hourly earnings dropped 0.9 percent last year.

Without more jobs and higher pay, consumers might have to cut back on spending. That would weigh down growth next year. Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the economy.

Another major hurdle is housing. In December, builders ended their third straight year of dismal home construction. And 2011 was the worst on record for single-family home building, the Commerce Department said.

Still, signs of improvement surfaced toward the end of the year, when builders started more single-family homes in each of the last three months.

And the average rate on the 30-year mortgage fell to a record low of 3.88 percent this week, according to Freddie Mac, the eighth record in the past year.

So far, low rates have done little to boost home sales. But a survey of homebuilders this week showed many are more optimistic about this year after seeing a rise in the number of people looking to buy.

“We expect further sustained gains in starts and permits over the next few months; a real recovery is getting started,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.

___

AP Real Estate Writer Derek Kravitz contributed to this report.

The world can be roughly divided into two parts – TV lovers and TV bashers. Television, for most of us, is a good stress reliever. The following people, on the other hand, are the ones bringing a bad name to TV. As in the case of all good things, these party poopers make you want to smash your TV with your bare hands. I present you a list of people who bring out murderous tendencies in regular humans with their antics.

Highly Overrated Actors on TV

David Spade
Just Shoot Me! before I do, as David Spade keeps attempting to suck the joy out of television! Saturday Night Live showed us the amusingly sarcastic side of David Spade. After Rules of Engagement, the audiences decided that they have had enough versions of his sharp-tongued, dwarfy and skirt-chasing characters.

David Caruso
Take a bow, Lieutenant Horatio Caine, as David Caruso enters this list with honors. He chooses to portray every complex emotion by wearing and removing his sunglasses. To that, he adds some crass one-liners delivered in a deep monotone. Crime solving on CSI: Miami hits a hilarious low.

Sarah Jessica Parker
Sex and the City may have created a sartorial revolution, but the equine-faced Sarah deserves a lot of flak for portraying the thirty plus Carrie as a giddy sixteen year old. Thank heavens for the Vivienne Westwood outfits and the Manolo Blahnik footwear that shifted the spotlight from Ms. Parker’s juvenile attempts at acting.

Jennifer Love Hewitt
This Ghost Whisperer had her job all sorted out. A maximum of two expressions fleeted across Jennifer Love Hewitt’s face throughout the time the show was aired. A collective sigh of relief was heard in some quarters when this show was abruptly pulled off the air.

Miley Cyrus
A chubby face that sings in a high school, Miley Cyrus fulfills the requirements for being a preteen idol. As far as her acting abilities are concerned, the less said, the better. Let us hope she manages to gain some of that when she loses her baby fat.

Charlie Sheen
Was Charlie Sheen actually acting on Two And A Half Men? If not for the laughter track, it seemed like a reality show, giving a glimpse into his personal world. The slow speech, the lost eyes looked so natural, it could be termed ‘method acting’, except for the fact that it was not.

Ashton Kutcher
The role of Michael Kelso on That 70′s Show embodied the spirit of Ashton Kutcher. He followed it with Punk’d, which reinstated the fact that Ashton Kutcher equalled bad television. He seemed to have done a huge favor to television audiences by moving over to the big screen. We can now touch our remote without the fear of getting punk’d. Rejoice!

David Hasselhoff
So what’s with this list and the name ‘David’, as they all seem to hatch a conspiracy to annihilate television? Before all the episodes of drunken rants happened, David Hasselhoff was a Baywatch star (not actor, but star) who didn’t even bring any star value to the show. Can’t really blame the guy, can you, when you had Pamela, Carmen and Yasmin grabbing all the eyeballs.

Other Overrated Actors on TV

The stellar names above deserved a special mention, for reasons of mass aversion. Here are a few more actors who have unknowingly unleashed an epidemic of misery on the viewers. Let us hope they spare us the agony of viewing them on television in 2012.

1. Teri Hatcher (Desperate Housewives)
2. Fran Drescher (The Nanny)
3. Minka Kelly (Charlie’s Angels)
4. Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal, Brothers and Sisters)
5. Spencer Pratt (The Hills)
6. Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
7. Gillian Anderson (The X-Files)
8. Ron Eldard (Arresting Behavior)
9. All the Disney Horrors – Selena Gomez, Ashley Tisdale, Raven-Symoné, Demi Lovato and the likes.
10. The Cast of The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless

These actors have played a part in television being called the ‘idiot box’. However, dislike is a very subjective term, and you are obviously free to dispute this list. Acting prowess aside, they have managed to inadvertently give us some comic relief, putting a smirk (not a smile!) on our faces. After all, isn’t this a part of entertainment too?

The NFL playoffs are now overshadowed by the tragic death of 21-year-old Michael Philbin, son of Green Bay Packers’ offensive coordinator Joe Philbin. Michael Philbin had been reported missing on Sunday, after no one had heard from him since about 2AM on Sunday morning. Philbin had been out with friends near Oshkosh, Wisconsin when he was last seen.

An employee working in a building near the Fox River reported hearing ice breaking and someone calling for help at around 2:30AM. Philbin’s body was recovered on Monday afternoon, and police were able to positively identify him later that day.

The last official word from the Packers came before a positive identification was made of the body, and the coaches and players were not speaking to the media out of respect for the Philbin family. Obviously, when tragedies such as this occur, they dwarf the importance of the NFL playoffs or anything related to sports.

The investigation into Philbin’s death is ongoing and there is no word at this time why he may have been out on the ice or if he was alone. The Fox River is reportedly notorious for producing unstable ice, even during very cold winters. Given the unseasonably mild winter conditions in Wisconsin so far this year, it is believed that the Fox River ice was especially weak and would have been unlikely to hold the weight of a person.

The Packers are scheduled to play the New York Giants on Sunday afternoon in Green Bay.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s annual inflation eased to 4.1 percent December, the lowest level in 15 months, giving the government more room to tilt economic policy away from restraining prices and towards supporting sagging growth.

The annual rate of headline consumer price inflation was slightly ahead of expectations of 4.0 in the benchmark Reuters poll of economists, but below November’s 4.2 percent, reinforcing the view of many that the central bank is poised to ease monetary policy.

“The month-on-month CPI was lower than the same month in the past few years. That means inflation is no longer a main concern for policymakers,” said Zhiwei Zhang, an economist at Nomura, in Hong Kong. “China is more worried about an economic slowdown now and will continue the policy easing cycle.”

Beijing cut the ratio of cash banks are required to hold as reserves by 50 basis points in November to 21 percent, the first such cut in three years, in a move to boost corporate credit lines and help firms counter faltering demand at home and abroad.

The December figures was the closest that inflation came in 2011 to hitting the official target of 4 percent for the year, leaving the average rate above 5 percent.

That’s still too hot for China’s conservative policymakers, who are reluctant to shift policy settings too quickly towards all-out growth mode and argue that fine-tuning is all that is required to keep the economy on a stable expansion path.

But evidence of slower economic growth is mounting, even while inflation is still not yet as tame as Beijing might like.

The country’s customs agency said on Tuesday that China’s exports and imports grew at their slowest pace in more than two years in December, fresh evidence of cooling domestic and global economic conditions that could push Beijing towards a more pro-growth policy stance.

China’s annual economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2011 may have slowed to 8.7 percent from 9.1 percent in Q3, according to the latest Reuters poll.

The National Bureau of Statistics is due to publish GDP and other economic activity data at 0200 GMT on January 17.

In month-on-month terms, the consumer price index rose 0.3 percent in December from November, after a 0.2 percent fall in November. The figure is not seasonally adjusted.

The latest data also showed that food prices, a major source of inflationary pressure in China, rose 9.1 percent in December from a year earlier, compared with an increase of 8.8 percent in the year to November.

(Reporting by Aileen Wang and Nick Edwards; Editing by Alex Richardson)

By Josh Ong

Published: 09:44 PM EST (06:44 PM PST)

Microsoft’s head of software design for Windows Phone has admitted that the company completely redesigned its mobile operating system platform as a response to Apple’s iPhone and the “sea change” it created in the industry.

Joe Belfiore, one of the first engineers brought to the new Windows Phone team when it was formed, made the comments in an interview with The New York Times.

�Apple created a sea change in the industry in terms of the kinds of things they did that were unique and highly appealing to consumers,� he said. �We wanted to respond with something that would be competitive, but not the same.�

According to the report, “once the iPhone exploded into the marketplace, Microsoft executives knew that their software, as designed, could never compete.” In December 2008, Microsoft’s then head of mobile engineering called a meeting to decide the fate of its aging Windows Mobile software. Seven hours later, Myerson and his team decided to scrap the OS and start again from scratch.

�We had hit bottom,� said Myerson, who recently replaced Andy Lees as head of the Windows Phone division, adding that doing so gave the company “the freedom to try new things, build a new team and set a new path.�

Former Microsoft manager Charlie Kindel compared the decision to start over to mountain climber Aron Ralston’s now famous accident where a boulder fell on his arm and he was forced to amputate it.

�This boulder comprised of Apple and Blackberry rolled on our arm,� he said. �Microsoft sat there for three or four years struggling to get out.�

While designing the new operating system, Microsoft deciding to strike a balance between Apple’s highly-controlled approach and Android’s more permissive strategy. It upset handset makers by instituting strict rules on the level of technical specifications required for Windows Phone devices in an attempt to avoid the fragmentation and performance issues that had plagued Windows Mobile and, to some extent, Android.

�It�s not just about software,� Albert Shum, general manager of the design studio for Windows Phone, told the Times. �It�s about the whole end-to-end experience.�

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer experienced “some hesitancy” after his first look at an early version of Windows Phone, according to Myerson, but the team made revisions to address his concerns.

The decision to start over was costly, as the two years that it took the software giant to create Windows Phone left iOS and Android with a huge opportunity in the smartphone market. Android held 25 percent of the worldwide smartphone market and iOS 16.6 percent in the third quarter of 2010, while Windows Mobile had dwindled to 2.7 percent. Windows Phone’s first year on the market failed to reverse the trend, with Android holding 52.5 percent share an iOS claiming 15 percent, while Microsoft’s portion slid to 1.5 percent in the third quarter of 2011.

The first reviews of the platform praised Windows Phone for its unique tile interface when it arrived in fall 2010, but they also noted that the operating system was several years behind Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. Sales of Windows Phone devices since then have failed to gain significant momentum.

Myerson himself admits that the platform has faced an uphill climb because of the time it lost. �Entering the market so late with this experience has created some special challenges for us,� he said. �I think if we were there earlier it would be different.�

The mobile OS will have a second chance in the U.S. market early this year when the first Windows Phone-based Nokia devices arrive. Nearly a year ago, the Finnish handset maker announced that it was abandoning its Symbian OS in favor of a close partnership with Microsoft, but the first phones resulting from the deal have yet to arrive in the U.S..

The two companies are reportedly set to unveil the flagship Nokia Ace smartphone at the Consumer Electronics Show next week. The handset is also rumored to receive a $ 100 million marketing push from Microsoft, AT&T and Nokia, but even AT&T’s own executives have confessed their belief that Windows Phone will see “a lot of challenges” in going up against its more-established competitors.