When I was in LA, it was great to see a little bit of home…The Nicole Kidman Star.

Check out this great virtual site of the Hollywood Star Walk by the Los Angeles Times.

and for more info .

A great site for all of your Hollywood Fame info.

Article Los Angeles Times: HOLLYWOOD STAR WALK – Take a virtual tour of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Times’ virtual tour puts readers on the streets of Hollywood to visit the nearly 2,400 stars on the Walk of Fame.

Select a category to learn more about the bombshells, cowboys, crooners and other entertainers who are honored on the walk. An interactive map then takes readers to the exact location of each star along the sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street.

Read more about the stars in a database that uses more than a century of the archives of the Los Angeles Times to go deeper into the lives of hundreds of fan favorites, as well as those whose names are no longer well-known.

About the Hollywood Star Walk

The Los Angeles Times’ Hollywood Star Walk provides both a virtual tour of the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a database of the stars and organizations enshrined on the sidewalks along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street.

Questions and Answers:

• How was this site created?
• When was the Walk of Fame created?
• How are stars awarded?
• How many different kinds of stars are there?
• Who has the most stars on the Walk of Fame?
• Why doesn’t Clint Eastwood have a star?
• How do you determine dates of birth and death and locations?
• How does Grauman’s Chinese Theatre differ?
• Where did the biographies for the project come from?

The Hollywood Star Walk virtual tour follows the actual order of the more than 2,400 terrazzo stars on the Walk of Fame, which stretches along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street. This order was created based on work by Times researchers to catalogue the locations and generate points on a map for each. Each star was photographed.

The virtual tour is powered by an in-depth database—created using more than a century of the archives of the Los Angeles Times. On the database pages, the locations of the terrazzo stars appear on a map as close as possible to their precise location. In addition, those maps may include other places meaningful in the star’s life.

Because some entertainers have been awarded stars in multiple fields, about 2,100 individuals or groups are represented among the more than 2,300 Walk of Fame stars.

The Times has completed entries for more than 800 stars and more are coming soon. As The Times continues to add biographies, articles and photos, readers are invited to help make connections between stars and the people and places that were meaningful to them.

As new stars are awarded, they will be added.

The Times was unable to locate three stars listed by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, those honoring Akim Tamiroff, Richard Crooks and the film career of Geraldine Farrar, who also has a star for her music career, on the west side of the 1700 block of Vine Street. Each still has a page in the database.

@claresmith75’s birthday celebrations continue with dinner and a girlie night at Alice in Wonderland….if we can make it through the hailstone and storm threatened roads.

@claresmith75:  At hoyts chadstone with @Codenamemax for Alice 3d after jam factory was closed – managed to get tickets via @famdragon awesome work! Sat 06 Mar 20:21

@codenamemax:With the birthday girl about to see Alice 3D (@ Hoyts Chadstone) http://4sq.com/8ctcdj

There is a review below but I cannot wait to don those 3D glasses and see for myself….us kids at heart, @claresmith75 and @codenamemax hope to be taking back into the magical world of make believe.

RAVE Movies: Alice in Wonderland Trailer Review: B+(trailer too.)

A tweet from @claresmith75: @simonlazenby och awwweeeeeeee i am very excited too! Fri 05 Mar 15.21

We all gathered for Birthday celebratons for Princess Clare

@claresmith75: I’m at FOG Restaurant & Bar w/ @codenamemax @simonlazenby @dikerr. http://4sq.com/coXCzQ Fir 05 Mar 21.17

I think someone is a little excited about their birthday celebration. Happy Birthday @claresmith75 from everyone at Code Name Max.

Thanks to a tweet from @noesisresearch I looked into this great site female-friendly travel, holidaygoddess.com

noesisresearch: this website http://holidaygoddess.com/ now all I need to do is decide where to go…hmmm… http://bit.ly/9J5p3R   Thur 4 14.11

Female-Friendly Travel online at holidaygoddess.com.

There are over 30 Holiday Goddess Editors from around the world who would like to meet you on Facebook. They  come from all over the world – from Dubai to Melbourne via New York. They’ve also shared some amazing career adventures, covering your favourite magazines, newspapers, radio stations and TV channels. Holiday Goddess editors have worked for Vogue, Elle, Grazia, Cosmopolitan, Lonely Planet, Luxe Guides, Conde Nast Traveller, the BBC, The Sunday Times, The Sydney Morning Herald – and Mad magazine!

Check out the great website for information such as Dialling Codes, Time Zones & Other Essentials,  Planet-Friendly Travel,  Travelling with Children to printing your own  Designer Luggage Tags

Discover destinations from the unique Goddess perspective.  Handbag Guides are packed with lots of tips for travelling from facials to fashion, the best nightspots, and great places to eat out.

Four Handbag Guides available but according to the holidaygoddess site more are coming.

The Handbag Guide to Paris

The Handbag Guide to Sydney

The Handbag Guide to London

The Handbag Guide to New York

Holiday Goddess Quarterly

You can even sign up to their Holiday Goddess Quarterly which has the kind of offers, deals, exclusives, secrets and insider information that only their 30+ editors can give you. Plus, in every edition, free downloads and extras, for all your travel needs.

Holiday Goddess Quarterly

Questions, comments and corrections are always welcome at holidaygoddess@gmail.com

If you have a business enquiry please contact Pippa Masson at pippa@curtisbrown.com.au

If you have a media enquiry please contact Alison Carmichael-Rulten at acrulten@hotmail.com

How often do we send flowers and are left wondering if they were okay.  You receive the phone call to thank you for the lovely flowers, but are they really “lovely.”  Just a week ago I sent flowers to a friend in hospital and was very pleased when she SMSed a thank you with an image of the flowers.  I then knew exactly what was sent.

Thanks to Springwise for alerting us to a concept in New Zealand where every order placed online the florist emails back to you a photo of the actual flowers sent.  A great idea!

Springwise: Florist confirms each bouquet with an e-photo.

One of the keys to e-commerce success is to ensure that customers know exactly what they’re ordering. That has been an elusive goal for florists, thanks to fluctuations in flowers’ appearance and availability; the result is that customers must typically take it on faith that they’ll get something similar to what they saw online. In an effort to bring new transparency to the process, New Zealand florist Roses Are Red emails their customers a digital photo of the very bouquet they ordered, so the purchaser can see exactly what was delivered.

The Auckland-based company delivers flowers, plants and gifts throughout New Zealand, with a full 99 percent of deliveries dispatched directly from its offices. If a customer isn’t satisfied with what they see in the photograph, Roses Are Red offers a full replacement guarantee.

Roses Are Red has been offering this digital photo service since they went online back in 2001, but few other florists have followed their lead. Nevertheless it’s a safe bet that others will be compelled to do so soon, since consumers are increasingly demanding unprecedented transparency in everything from ski slopes to real estate agents. Could you be the first to enjoy transparency triumph in your area?

Website: www.rosesarered.co.nz
Contact: enquiries@rosesarered.co.nz

A quick tweet from codenamemax : 5 dishes perfected out of 10 for the year! …what will the next 5 be! …. Sun Jan 31 03:47:59 +0000 2010

Yes, I am taking time out to perfect cooking some dishes this year. I know that this might shock some of you, the ones that think that I can’t do anything domestic! Well watch out kids… The new chef is in the house!  So I watched Jamie Oliver on TED and was totally inspired by getting out the old fry pan or wok and here I am.

I have been on the food bit yesterday about nutritional info at takeaway outlets and then looked at the Green Trash’s Daily Blog about NoTakeOut

I decided to look into the susbcribe to NoTakeOut and was thrilled that, for free, they email you daily, a recipe complete with ingredients mainly fresh. It’s so super cool! I just love it!  I am just going to start tomorrow….

NoTakeOut provides the recipes, the step-by-step instructions (like, how do you make it so that every dish is ready to serve at the same time?) and an ingredient list that’s organized the same way your grocery store is, so you don’t have to waste time muttering to yourself in the meat aisle.

THE SKINNY:No more mediocre meals cobbled together last minute. No more trolling recipe websites to figure out what side dish might work with steamed halibut. No more shopping fiascos — like when you arrived home without eggplant for the ratatouille. NoTakeOut.com helps you plan, prep and cook an entire meal, not just one dish. They provide a complete menu, a shopping list and a game plan – basically, we help you organize to go from kitchen to table with ease.

Their menus call for seasonal, fresh ingredients, are uncomplicated and designed to be cooked in under an hour. So whether it’s mango, cilantro or pecorino, we’ll bring new tastes to your table and even get you to make nice with some spice.

WHO’S IN THE KITCHEN at NoTakeOut.com – David and Kurt, two dads with day jobs and serious cooking hobbies, and Susan, an award-winning food journalist and author who lives – too good to be true — in France, where she founded and runs On Rue Tatin, a cooking school.

HOW THEY GOT COOKING: It started with a craving, of sorts. David and Kurt, long-time friends, loved to cook but longed to expand their repertoire. And they wanted to help some of their food-loving, cook-shy friends produce a significant meal worthy of serious table-time with friends and family. They envisioned a website to give really busy people the ideas and the tools to get organized and get cooking. So they enlisted Susan, a food expert, to help plan and structure menus to be delicious, seasonal, sophisticated and easy.

‘Making mealtime manageable’ is kind of a mantra for THEM. When you say you’re busy, They get it: you’re taking care of kids, working, shopping, maybe grabbing a workout – oh yeah, and the laundry… You don’t need another hassle!  Their goal is to make food, meals and dining-at-home an easy family ritual and a daily pleasure.

Subscribe, and you get a daily email with everything, from the grocery list to the garnish.

You can check out Past Menus

Or look at Articles in Food for Thought

Example of NoTakeOut recipe

The Herald Sun featured an article about : FAST-food outlets may be forced to provide a calorie counts on their products in a radical plan to fight Victoria’s diabetes epidemic.

McDonald’s already voluntarily gives nutritional information on the packaging of all its products.

The new plan is based on a similar program in New York and would make it compulsory for major fast-food outlets across the state to have the calorie content on menus.

Mr Brumby said: “Calorie disclosure at fast-food stores is proving successful in other parts of the world, such as New York.

I am personally still getting over a meal at the Cheesecake Factory Restaurant in LA and that was a few years ago now.  The size of one meal would have fed 3-4 people.  My mum’s chicken meal looked like aprox. a chicken and a half.  HUGE.

My question is: Is it what is in the meal or is it the size of the meals?

My grandparents ate white bread, had salt in their soups and cooked vegetables, ate butter and cream in moderation and cooked their roast potatoes in dripping.   Their meals were at regular times. They all lived to between 89-92 years. My Nanna had never been to hospital. They did have cereal for breakfast, lunch included a piece of fresh fruit and dinner was usually meat and three veg. and a small portion of stewed fruit and icecream. They drank tea, very little coffee and soft drink for special occasions.Very little takeaway…maybe occasionally fish and chips.

But their meals were much smaller.  Pa could slice the Sunday roast thinly to feed us all and there would be some left over for tomorrow….and you would never go looking for leftovers.

Even the healthy salad sandwich is huge now and the bread size sold for sandwiches is nearly twice the size it was. Are we actually eating the equivalent of 2 salad sandwiches? Would we be better off just having Nanna’s tomato and lettuce sandwich with a scraping of butter on the old sized white Tip Top bread sliced thinly, not for toast.

Should the nutritional info be listed in health food outlets? Maybe it will help us to make a better choice….all I can say is…don’t upsize your meal because that’s where the problem starts! They convince you it is value for money.   In the US the meals are upsized for you already.

Article : The Los Angeles Times: Diners digest the new menu facts

Visits to a few L.A.-area restaurants reveal how customers really feel about the nutritional info law

Californians have a rep, deserved or not, for being health conscious — asking for dressing on the side and meats that are grilled instead of fried. So are they leaping to devour the nutrition data now available in restaurants? And what surprises does the information hold?

To get a sense, we visited a few local eateries. At the places we went to, information was usually on the table or, if not, brought quickly when asked for — but we spotted very few patrons interested enough to check it out.

Sure, a few diligently study it. Some are only dimly aware of it. And others know about it but don’t think they need it.

At a Hollywood Denny’s, we found Los Angeles-based graphic designer Anthony Briggs, 58, having dinner with a friend. “I don’t take it into account,” he said of the nutrition facts sitting on the table with the condiments. He doesn’t need to, he added: A heart attack 20 years ago made him aware of the cholesterol and saturated fat in what he eats — he navigates menus with care and leaves plenty on his plate.

He usually orders the same things. Tonight it was barbecued chicken (650 calories and 3 grams of saturated fat before factoring in the side dishes).

Briggs thinks the information should be available. “And I think people should pay attention, but I’m pretty sure they don’t.”

Where we found the information: on a brochure provided with the menus.

The good, bad and ugly: No one goes to Denny’s expecting health food, but there are some decent choices, most under the “Fit Fare” label. The Fit Fare grilled chicken breast sandwich, which comes with fruit, is 450 calories. Cobble together a breakfast of two egg whites, four strips of turkey bacon, fruit and an English muffin with margarine for a reasonable 426 calories. Most of the hamburgers are what you’d expect — 940 calories for a bacon cheddar burger — and chicken strips will run you 560 calories without the sides. Beware the “Rock Star Menu,” on which the Los Lonely Boys Texican Burger is 1,020 calories and 19 grams of saturated fat, and the Hooburrito is 1,430 calories and 15 grams of saturated fat.

At an IHOP in L.A.’s Miracle Mile district the next morning, 16-year-old Jasmine Gums of Inglewood was sitting with her mother, Margaret Mallard of L.A. Gums was eating an egg white omelet with spinach; her mother was halfway through her eggs, hash browns and sausage. Both approve of the law — Gums said she was startled when she saw the calorie counts for the first time at a Mimi’s Cafe. She knows calories well enough to choose something healthful, she added, but still enjoys perusing the nutritional info.

Mallard says she occasionally peeks at the numbers, noting details such as the saturated fat. But it doesn’t influence what she orders: “I’m just in general a bad eater. I knew I was going to have pancakes. My daughter looks at the menu and says, ‘This has too many calories,’ But me,” she adds, laughing, “I’ll just get a Diet Coke to compensate.”

Both thought the labeling law was a good idea: “Some people are health conscious,” Gums said, “and they like to know what they’re eating.”

Where we found the information: written on the menu.

The good, bad and ugly: “IHOP for Me” is where you’ll find the restaurant’s under-600-calorie offerings for adults and kids, such as the blueberry harvest grain-and-nut combo for 570 calories and the tilapia hollandaise for 370 calories. Watch out for the quick two-egg breakfast at 850 to 890 calories (the bigger number indicates higher-calorie side dishes) and the chicken clubhouse super stacker sandwich at 1,080 to 1,490 calories. Beware the super-rich breakfasts, such as the New York cheesecake pancakes at 1,270 calories and the south-of-the-border burrito at 1,450 calories.

At Coco’s Restaurant & Bakery in Culver City, friends and fellow retirees Elizabeth Rubien and Celeste Cass were having lunch, a weekly ritual.

Cass sometimes checks out the information passed out with the menus but said that she’s generally careful about what she eats and figures she knows what’s loaded with butter, salt and sugar and what’s not. When she wants to splurge, she does.

Rubien isn’t a fan of the law: “I don’t think it’s going to do that much good,” she said. “I think there are very few people who are going to sit and study it. It’s just another thing that’s going to cost restaurants money, and, like other businesses, they can hardly stay open the way things are.”

Where we found the information: on a laminated sheet that’s provided when asked for.

The good, bad and ugly: The chain’s “Fit and Lively” menu features a tomato, basil and egg-white omelet at 350 calories and a Southwest angus sirloin at 400 calories. On the regular menu, the Southwest chicken salad is 730 calories, and the Samuel Adams beer-battered fish and chips is 1,250 calories. Feel like something sweet? You may not, after finding out that a slice of cream cheese pie with cherry topping is 910 calories.

At a Starbucks on Melrose Avenue, Vince Weir was just polishing off a multi-grain bagel with cream cheese and an iced coffee. The L.A. actor and bartender was vaguely aware of the menu labeling legislation and knew Starbucks provided nutritional information in brochures stacked near the cream and sugar, although he’d never checked them out.

He did think providing the information was a good idea — in brochure form, anyway. On menus? Not so much. “If I’m about to have a steak, I don’t want to see that it has 800 calories. No, I don’t like that.”

Where we found the information: brochures placed near the sugar and cream.

The good, bad and ugly: Starbucks limits calories-per-item to 500, but best bets are items like the spinach, egg white and feta wrap at 280 calories and the blueberry oat bar at 250 calories. Things start to add up when you add a beverage: A venti vanilla latte with 2% milk is 320 calories, and a grande hot chocolate is 300 calories. Breakfast becomes a hefty deal when you start with a blueberry scone at 460 calories or a slice of banana bread at 490 calories.

At the Cheesecake Factory in Sherman Oaks, friends Jackie Wise and Roberto Izarraras were sitting down to dinner. She had just perused the nutritional information, which was bound into a little book and placed on the table along with the menus. And she wasn’t too happy about it.

“I was shocked,” Wise said. “The calories you can kind of figure, but the sodium was unbelievable. I come here rarely, and it’s usually to treat myself, but when I did look at some of the stuff — like the pizzas — if I were inclined to get one, I wouldn’t, because of the calories and sodium.” On this occasion, she ordered a grilled chicken tostada salad at 1,140 calories and 2,151 milligrams of sodium.

Izarraras’ go-to favorite is the crispy chicken Costoletta, at 1,238 calories. Being on a diet steered him to something he hoped was better because it wasn’t breaded — the teriyaki chicken. A good move? Maybe not. It had a fraction of the fat of the other dish — but the fact book clocked it in at 1,403 calories. Both diners said they take some part of their meal home with them. With the new info, “I’m more inclined not to go for those dishes every time, perhaps,” Izarraras said. “Certainly for the cheesecake, I’d think twice.”

Where we found the information: Before you even ask, the waiter plops it down on the table with the menus.

The good, bad and ugly: The Cheesecake Factory isn’t known for being kind to diets, but there are a few things that are tolerable. The “Weight Management” dishes are lower in fat and calories than most menu offerings — 598 for grilled chicken. Some lunch dishes aren’t bad, such as the grilled salmon at 484 calories. The chain’s new “small plates and snacks” menu may have toned-down portions, but calories are still high on items such as onion rings. Most regular entrees are more than 1,000 calories and loaded with salt, and as for the cheesecake — if you have to ask, you can’t afford the calories.

Photo Kirk McKoy/Los Angeles Times

Brandflakes for Breakfast featured an article about  how your website sounds.  Check out the sounds of Code Name Max.

Your favorite website could sing a song, this is what it would sound like.

The Code Organ has some complex algorithm magic that analyzes the code of any url, and turns it into music. Because the world needed this.