Ovomaltine chocolate bars

I am obsessed with these chocolate bars. Not only because they are delicious, but also because they are rare -- they are completely unavailable in any store or on any web site in the US.

Country of origin: Switzerland

Flavor: milky and sweet, with the bitter, malty tang of Ovaltine crystals that are mixed right into the chocolate.

Texture: first smooth, and then slightly stickier and gritty as the drink powder bits melt on your tongue after the chocolate surrounding them has disappeared.

If you love milk chocolate, and you have a friend or family member traveling to Switzerland, ask them to bring some back for you to try.



We had two bars in our home a day ago, and now they are gone!

I'm so there!

I'm dorkily excited to see The September Issue.

I've had two face to face run-ins with Anna Wintour. One was many years ago near Times Square, and she accidentally looked me right in the eye. Her gaze turned my blood to icewater in my veins. It was awesome.

The other was very recent, as I was leaving Scuderia after a meal with a friend. I thought, wow, that's a slightly overdressed, very lean 45 year old European lady standing in our way in the doorway - oh wait...

we spied on her and her young male dinner companion for a few moments but they did not sit down in Scuderia, opting instead for the tried and true Conde Nast staple, Da Silvano, right across the street.

Will we eat even one small piece of popcorn during this film? Would Anna?? I think not!!

Desperate times call for sensible measures

Although the notion of growing one's own vegetables in a community plot is a little twee for me, the rest of this article is a big "no duh."

A "legacy of the recession?" This should have been a legacy left by our grandparents' and even our parents' generations, who bought only what they could afford and saved every penny. How did all of this go out of the window?

American gothic?

Celebrities before and after Photoshop

I found this interesting exploration of celebs before and apres photoshop while trolling the internet this morning.

While some of these celebs needed a bit of help with their complexions (Brittany Murphy), and others were nipped and tucked two jeans sizes smaller (Kelly Clarkson), for the most part, in these images Photoshop was used to improve the image itself: punchier colors, better contrast, easing wrinkles from the clothes.

Let's face it, celebrities are dang good looking to begin with - it's not "all Photoshop."

It's also interesting to see the reverse of your expectations: that Photoshop has been used to erase the extreme definition of Cameron Diaz' hip bones and add curves to a narrower than expected Penelope Cruz.

What do you think? Without Photoshop, are celebrities just like you and me?