Proving your age is an asset in a job search

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://emj.cbdr.com/artieimages/vp/ar5f5lc6cszpnkdpcnvp.gif?time=3/8/2011%205:52:00%20pm" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://emj.cbdr.com/artieimages/vp/ar5f5lc6cszpnkdpcnvp.gif?time=3/8/2011%205:52:00%20pm" /></a></div>Beth Braccio Hering, Special to CareerBuilder <br /><br />Worried that age might be a strike against you when applying for a job? Present yourself the right way and experts agree that you can turn that potential negative into one of your selling points.<br /><br />"The key for older job seekers is to embrace rather than hide from what they have to offer future employers," says Tamryn Hennessy, national director of career development for Rasmussen College. "A lifetime of a variety of employments, household and family obligations and volunteer accomplishments can be assembled into a résumé and interview that a younger job seeker simply cannot offer."<br /><br />So get set to put your experience to good use by doing these three things:<br /><br />1. Concentrate on the job<br /><br />If you spend your time demonstrating how you are the right candidate for the position, age need not even enter into the equation. "Never be defensive about your age or even focus on it at all," states Martha Finney, a Santa Fe-based employee engagement and career management consultant and co-author of "Unlock the Hidden Job Market." "Focus on who you are and how what you bring to the table would meet the company's strategic objectives."<br /><br />Hennessy suggests highlighting your suitability right from the start by looking at the key action words from the job description (such as "analyze," "design," "inspect," etc.) and matching them to your history. "Focus on your past experiences -- including non-industry, volunteer and family obligations -- where you have demonstrated accomplishments under these action word categories. Use the exact same action word and apply it to your experience, always being sure to offer quantifiable results."<br /><br />2. Have confidence in your past<br /><br />Lavie Margolin, author of "Lion Cub Job Search: Practical Job Search Assistance for Practical Job Seekers," advises older job seekers to get in the mindset that age is a strength. "As opposed to a recent college graduate filled only with potential, the mature worker can demonstrate a track record of accomplishment throughout his career."<br /><br />Let your years of real-life experience shine by presenting evidence of qualities employers value. These may include:<br /><br /><br />The ability to meet deadlines<br /><br />Loyalty to a company, industry or cause<br /><br />Flexibility and adaptability<br /><br />Problem-solving skills<br /><br />A strong work ethic<br /><br />Leadership<br /><br />Teamwork<br /><br /><br />To generate ideas, look at past performance reviews. Not only will this help provide concrete examples, but select words of praise can be incorporated into your application or interview to add credibility (as in, "My direct supervisor at company X noted in my evaluation that my thorough research on our three main competitors was instrumental to selecting the launch date of our newest product.").<br /><br />3. Having equal confidence in your future<br /><br />If worries over new methods or technologies are putting a dent in your confidence, take a class or two to get up to speed. Since one of the greatest fears about hiring older workers is that they are too set in their ways and unwilling to learn new things, this action also can show employers your enthusiasm for continual growth.<br /><br />By law, age should not be a consideration for employment, yet many job seekers receive subtle (and not so subtle) clues that it may be an issue. If concerns about age do come up, try to tactfully redirect the conversation back to your abilities. Another tactic is to show that you are comfortable and happy with where you are. "Stress the great stage of life you are entering, one with fewer family distractions that will allow you to be the most reliable and dedicated employee possible," Hennessy suggests. Also worth pointing out: "Younger workers may have less understanding of what they want to do exactly in their career," Margolin notes. "An older worker has a better understanding of his interests and how they fit best into the market."<br /><br />Watch, too, that you aren't blaming age when there is actually a different problem. "Don't assume you're increasing your chances of landing a job by applying for jobs that are beneath your experience level," Finney notes. "Overqualified for the position' isn't always code for 'too old.' Hiring managers wisely want candidates who are appropriate for the job level, so if you're experiencing a long string of application rejections, don't lower your sights, raise them. Only go after jobs that appropriate for your skill sets and experiences."<br /><br />Finally, remember that employers want to hire likeable people who fit into company culture and can do their job. Treating interviewers as friendly equals and relating to them with relaxed confidence never goes out of style.<br /><br />Beth Braccio Hering researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues for CareerBuilder.com. Follow @CareerBuilder on Twitter.

Proving your age is an asset in a job search

Beth Braccio Hering, Special to CareerBuilder Worried that age might be a strike against you when applying for a job? Present yourself the r...

Read more »

Marlene Dietrich Gets Personal in Charlotte Chandler's New Biography

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWqT5xMUzvfuoskrE1oYJZirvPmMu4Lx_nJnfzUY9cE2Gnwe4Ov-4d054059j5CkCqzmKPL6eMuqt3yW0zKgce3exOYyhlDiAgAvguW_rZgNqbsPTPQ6VkYJlBcszzbJyUGQOj0xRedQOY/s1600/dietrich-hat-desire+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWqT5xMUzvfuoskrE1oYJZirvPmMu4Lx_nJnfzUY9cE2Gnwe4Ov-4d054059j5CkCqzmKPL6eMuqt3yW0zKgce3exOYyhlDiAgAvguW_rZgNqbsPTPQ6VkYJlBcszzbJyUGQOj0xRedQOY/s400/dietrich-hat-desire+a.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Prolific biographer Charlotte Chandler has written on the life of a different film legend every year for the past 6 years, beginning with <u>It's Only a Movie: Alfred Hitchcock</u> in 2005. Her latest, <u>Marlene</u>, has just been published by Simon & Schuster.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC3BHcYpOMMpE1XztFTKE__nggcm-5u8r3uHCwTgstg3c9O9YwnG3Yfew58sRnWlhecngnKdR_d8TafFnV7gbEyqvKCxXVYFrvlDfzIPa7MlW7DSSaAqzZaGKw0TpVDuNP1nsbrHzQlrAm/s1600/400000000000000350608_s4%255B1%255D.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC3BHcYpOMMpE1XztFTKE__nggcm-5u8r3uHCwTgstg3c9O9YwnG3Yfew58sRnWlhecngnKdR_d8TafFnV7gbEyqvKCxXVYFrvlDfzIPa7MlW7DSSaAqzZaGKw0TpVDuNP1nsbrHzQlrAm/s200/400000000000000350608_s4%255B1%255D.png" width="130" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Chandler's biographies are based on personal interviews. She includes filmography and career details, but her style is to convey the story of a life in the first-person as much as possible, using the subject's own words. This conversational approach gives the reader a sense of being in the room, listening in, as the story of a remarkable life unfolds. </span><br /><br /><a name="more"></a><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSaDCSVfKbkQExeQ0-EszJ2y8RaiB2Mu1DLVYoUq_HbEh_h4AHCHxylY6yxxmhliLa7muNx4EGcy4zZRrak2MERtimQgDdnYgBiswWahtXJjdo6ppp-iJYM3ghG-w1WQdipq_NSA29H7B7/s1600/groucho.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSaDCSVfKbkQExeQ0-EszJ2y8RaiB2Mu1DLVYoUq_HbEh_h4AHCHxylY6yxxmhliLa7muNx4EGcy4zZRrak2MERtimQgDdnYgBiswWahtXJjdo6ppp-iJYM3ghG-w1WQdipq_NSA29H7B7/s1600/groucho.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Groucho Marx</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">The author's career as a biographer began with <u>Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends</u> in 1978. Written during Marx's lifetime but published not long after his death, it became a bestseller. Chandler returned to the genre years later with her 1995 Fellini biography, <u>I, Fellini</u>. But it was with her first book for Simon & Schuster in 2002, <u>Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder</u>, that Charlotte Chandler’s biographies became frequent and consistently titled, each with the annotation "A Personal Biography."</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Who is Charlotte Chandler? Her Simon & Schuster bio is sketchy - we are told that she has written many bios, lives in New York and is on the board of the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The back cover of <u>Hello, I Must Be Going</u> includes a picture of Chandler with Groucho who sits at a piano. Her biography of Alfred Hitchcock contains photos of Chandler with the director as well as his daughter, Pat. The dust jackets of Chandler’s biographies are strewn with the praise of film world luminaries: Isabella Rossellini, Michael Caine, Jack Nicholson, Pat Hitchcock, director Michelangelo Antonioni, producer David Brown and others. <i>Vanity Fair</i>, which has published excerpts of many of her books, proclaims that Chandler “sets the gold standard for celeb bios.”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">In a recent interview with <i>Kirkus Reviews</i>, Chandler was asked how she managed to gain access to so many of the most famous, and often famously difficult, stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. About Groucho Marx she recalled that someone had given her his phone number, she called and, though Groucho refused to be interviewed, he invited Chandler to dinner. Then, over dinner, Groucho asked why she hadn't been taking notes on their conversation. It was Groucho who later introduced her to Billy Wilder.  </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Henri Langlois, film archivist and founder of the Cinématheque Française, introduced Chandler to Hitchcock, Mary Meerson, also of the Cinématheque Française, introduced her to Dietrich, director George Cukor introduced her to Katharine Hepburn…and Bette Davis, ever the formidable outlier, called Chandler herself, the only one of the author's subjects to do so.</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">  </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4qSAXmtoGpmHW2Szn3_pMWZwm7n299CRgkecQ6jm5fQx4n_KqIHpAoy0_FF_iPmIlGifHA1uKvZaWK_uFg1emIvW7IFxUAyKXxjGkFXHZLc3QL9ppE4Ui1KLFBpFQXb3x6ybmbT8Jt8dB/s1600/Douglas+Fairbanks+jr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4qSAXmtoGpmHW2Szn3_pMWZwm7n299CRgkecQ6jm5fQx4n_KqIHpAoy0_FF_iPmIlGifHA1uKvZaWK_uFg1emIvW7IFxUAyKXxjGkFXHZLc3QL9ppE4Ui1KLFBpFQXb3x6ybmbT8Jt8dB/s1600/Douglas+Fairbanks+jr.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Connections abound between Chandler's subjects, most of whom knew and worked with each other, and occasionally one story will overlap into another. For example, Marlene Dietrich and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. had an affair that lasted for years, and the gentleman had many memories of her. He told Chandler about a series of miniature nudes he sculpted of Marlene and how he eventually decapitated all of them to protect her reputation in the event of his demise. This anecdote is told in detail in the Dietrich biography. It is also woven into the Hitchcock biography, in abridged form, in a section on <b>Stage Fright</b>.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Fairbanks was the friend of many film legends and a substantial resource for Chandler; he is quoted in each of the biographies of hers that I’ve read (Bette Davis, Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn, Hitchcock). Equally well-connected and forthcoming was George Cukor, who is quoted in the Davis, Hepburn and Hitchcock books. What I wouldn’t give to have access to the stack of notes and tapes Chandler must have made over the years…</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Charlotte Chandler met Marlene Dietrich in 1977, when the legendary star was 76 years old and living in Paris. Dietrich’s greeting to her future biographer was, “I don’t mind meeting you because you didn’t know me before, when I was young and very beautiful.” Moments later she added, “It can be a curse being beautiful, after a certain point, as it slips away…” </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiftABVvSa6MuXETbboSw_NLl5walI2PbAZvvMEn-em7QwoEWk0TunOb-ELtAfhM0CFKXid1sS2rpA_h0jixgNRtfvxx2ra-55ats9FW6xaz3NsyJwC39A8pRIhGNQ_rpvMrxHfoYvwDOlu/s1600/dietrich+in+the+40s+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiftABVvSa6MuXETbboSw_NLl5walI2PbAZvvMEn-em7QwoEWk0TunOb-ELtAfhM0CFKXid1sS2rpA_h0jixgNRtfvxx2ra-55ats9FW6xaz3NsyJwC39A8pRIhGNQ_rpvMrxHfoYvwDOlu/s200/dietrich+in+the+40s+a.jpg" width="165" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dietrich in the 1940s</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">I have read and watched much about Marlene Dietrich, from her memoirs (<u>Marlene</u>, 1990), to various biographies, including her daughter Maria's lurid opus, to Josef von Sternberg’s eccentric autobiography (<u>Fun in a Chinese Laundry</u>, 1965), the page on the CIA’s website about Dietrich’s work during World War II and Maximillian Schell’s Oscar-nominated documentary (<b>Marlene</b>, 1984). I have to admit that I had something of a “tell me something I don’t know” attitude before I sat down with Chandler’s book. She did.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">There are revelations large and small of all kinds...Dietrich's mad plot to kill Hitler, details of her introduction to Ernest Hemingway on the <i>Île de France</i><i>,</i> the lie she told JFK about his father...Dietrich's memory of her grandmother’s lavender eyes, her habit of giving her hand-me-downs to husband Rudi's mistress...her hatred of knitting because it reminded her of World War I in Germany.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Chandler knows how to set a scene and tell a story. She nimbly leads the reader through Dietrich’s early years, the arc of her career, her personal life and into her late years, when she “closed the door” and retreated inside the rooms of her small apartment across from the Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris. Among the many voices heard of those who knew Dietrich at different points in her life and career are her one-time arranger and accompanist, Burt Bacharach and her friend and fellow Paramount star, Mae West.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">  <br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkhV2cJInf9Udbh8Z_2zmrVzwEeYEY-Vlq0i62zRFoPOaTjzAM_Ffb-4aa31veQDBcJdByUoQa0JLCzeM2plQrvrF88jpAjpT0Vghly50GGSSmjJjGuTrRNmIs6PVaUWqCuR2_m0ySXt5a/s1600/dietrich+%2526+maria+50s+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkhV2cJInf9Udbh8Z_2zmrVzwEeYEY-Vlq0i62zRFoPOaTjzAM_Ffb-4aa31veQDBcJdByUoQa0JLCzeM2plQrvrF88jpAjpT0Vghly50GGSSmjJjGuTrRNmIs6PVaUWqCuR2_m0ySXt5a/s320/dietrich+%2526+maria+50s+a.jpg" width="217" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maria and Marlene, early '50s</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Maria Riva is Dietrich's only child, and Riva's own sensationalistic 787 page version of her mother's life was published shortly after Dietrich's death. Maria is not a direct source for Chandler's book but her youngest son David, who produced and directed a documentary on Dietrich in 2001, speaks at length. His references to his mother as an "Emmy-winning actress" caught my eye - I'd not heard this before and checked the Emmy website. Maria is listed as having been nominated for a Best Actress Emmy in 1952 and 1953. However, Imogene Coca won in 1952 and Helen Hayes won in 1953.</span></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Charlotte Chandler remarked to <i>Kirkus Reviews</i> that Marlene Dietrich had originally been perceived as "another Garbo" very early in her Hollywood career. It happened that <span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Dietrich came to Hollywood as talkies were coming in and MGM was carefully transitioning Garbo, its great star, to sound. When <b>Morocco </b>and <b>The Blue Angel </b>struck box office gold, Paramount saw in Dietrich its opportunity to trump MGM and Garbo. The two actresses were to have distinctly different careers, though both were deemed "box office poison" (along with Katharine Hepburn and others) in the late '30s. However, no one imagined that Dietrich’s film career would outlast Garbo’s (or anyone else's) by several decades or that she would successfully reinvent herself as a high-ticket stage performer.</span></span></span></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Chandler told <i>Kirkus</i> that though she didn't interview her, she did meet Garbo. Her impression was that Garbo was too bitter about the past to make a good interview. Asked if she thought Dietrich also became bitter, Chandler responded, “not at all. She loved what happened to her," adding that Dietrich hadn’t expected any of it and “she felt she owed her great life to Josef von Sternberg,” her mentor and the director of seven of her most memorable films.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I enjoy Charlotte Chandler's uniquely readable biographies. I've read more heavily documented books (the fascinating Barry Paris tome on Louise Brooks comes to mind) and books concerned almost solely with a life on film </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">(David Thomson's excellent "Great Stars" series entry on Bette Davis), but for a pleasurable foray into legendary firsthand memories, Chandler is hard to beat.</span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij7H9ALMGn0pRU7mjtGXaYrarl7UnuIQTFEqAcXQ-ZJ-cqDcd_vHLZxMvob51LLzGw6nhIZjPJvzut3AASBown_4DEyb7WQnQQu9Yonv2I2UX6Im0oMRdJ0FTpCevgQMCInJ59MG4Ls98/s1600/Marlene+sculpture+by+Hanford.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij7H9ALMGn0pRU7mjtGXaYrarl7UnuIQTFEqAcXQ-ZJ-cqDcd_vHLZxMvob51LLzGw6nhIZjPJvzut3AASBown_4DEyb7WQnQQu9Yonv2I2UX6Im0oMRdJ0FTpCevgQMCInJ59MG4Ls98/s400/Marlene+sculpture+by+Hanford.JPG" width="258" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marlene Dietrich sculpture by <a href="http://dolls.clarkhanford.com/"><b>Clark Hanford</b></a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Biographies by Charlotte Chandler</b>:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends</u></span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u></u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>I, Fellini</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>It's Only a Movie: Alfred Hitchcock, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>The Girl Who Walked Home Alone: Bette Davis, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>Ingrid: Ingrid Bergman, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>Not the Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>She Always Knew How: Mae West, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>I Know Where I'm Going: Katharine Hepburn, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><u><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">Marlene: Marlene Dietrich, A Personal Biography</span></u><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><i>Thanks to Simon & Schuster for a review copy of <u>Marlene</u></i></span></div>

Burt Bacharach Charlotte Chandler Classic Film and TV Cafe Douglas Fairbanks Jr. George Cukor Greta Garbo Groucho Marx Josef von Sternberg Mae West Marlene Dietrich The Lady Eve (author) Marlene Dietrich Gets Personal in Charlotte Chandler's New Biography

Prolific biographer Charlotte Chandler has written on the life of a different film legend every year for the past 6 years, beginning with It...

Read more »

Pushing Through the Pain

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.endaches.com/images/back_pain/back_pain_250x251.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.endaches.com/images/back_pain/back_pain_250x251.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy of <a href="http://www.endaches.com/index.php?Keywords=Acute+Lower+Back+Pain&search_type=related2&cat2=Severe+Back+Pain&r=c%3E[X6lZXOp[YNvZ3:u%27f%3Evt%3Cvt%3C4%3C2%3C2%3C23545715%3Ctuzmf2%604/dtt%3C3%3Cjoufsdptnpt%60bggjmjbuf%606%60e3s%60efsq%3CCfiubk%3CCfiubk%3C2859%3C2859%3Cdmfbo%3Cmjtujoht%3Czbipp%3C%27jqvb%60je%3E::d16982e65655:4418cb3125c3f4fdc%27enybsht%3E2341ec3b:1fgdf393e9d4634f641:997&rd=1">here</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table>I've been dealing with some lower back pain this week.  Over the weekend I did a lot of baking for Easter (5.5 hours worth!) and for some reason, being in Joel's kitchen for that length of time has been killing my back.  I never noticed this in my other kitchens though.  <br /><br />Anyhow, yesterday at the gym I did W1D1 of C25K.  I'm not pursuing this program regularly, I simply forgot my magazines that I read while on the elliptical/ArcTrainer and had to find another distraction to keep the time ticking by.  About three-quarters through the C25K, my lower back started to spasm again like it did on Saturday.  In typical Hilary fashion, I would have used any excuse to cut the workout short and go home, but I actually really wanted to finish.  As I reached 26 minutes, shooting pains started resonating through my hips and I had to get off the treadmill.  The pain was literally taking my breath away.  Since my daily workout goal is 35 minutes, and I was only at 26, I figured I'd give the recumbent bike a try since I could sit down comfortably with a nice back rest.  In the end, I could only do 8 minutes on the bike and I had to stop.  By the time I left the gym I was limping out to the car.<br /><br />The back spasms continued all night long, but getting some sleep definitely helped.  I plan to take the day off from the gym and just do hand weights when I get home.  I don't want to chance injury.  <br /><br />What I am proud of here is my perseverance with the workout.  I'm of the mindset that if I take just a day off from exercise, I fear that I may never go back.  It's only been 4 solid, consistent months of hitting the gym and I don't yet feel comfortable with my discipline.  Still, I was proud that I pushed through the pain, until I couldn't walk, and still got most of what I needed to get done accomplished.  Still, I'm very mindful of the signals my body is giving me, and she wants a break!

Exercise Success Pushing Through the Pain

Courtesy of here . I've been dealing with some lower back pain this week.  Over the weekend I did a lot of baking for Easter (5.5 hours ...

Read more »

I do NOT like this book

<b>The book </b><br />I'm on chapter two of A Course in Weight Loss, 21 Spiritual lessons for surrendering your weight forever, by Marianne Williamson. I wonder, exactly what does "surrendering your weight forever" mean?<br /><br />I've decided this book is a bunch of crap. Lesson two is even more stupid than lesson one. It's titled Thin You, Meet Not-Thin You. I got about four pages into this lesson and realized I don't like this author.<br /><br />Marianne talks about Divine Mind, and "One in Whose hands it will dissolve forever". Seriously? Sounds kind of Harry Potter-ish to me. If she's talking about God then why doesn't she just say "God"?<br /><br />When I read "Fat cells will dissolve permanently when they are dissolved through the power of love." I almost couldn't stop laughing. That's news to me. I thought those little guys were with me for life. I knew they could shrink, but I didn't know a little love could get rid of them.<br /><br />I'm sure she was speaking figuratively and not literally, but so much of her writing is like a puzzle. It sounds nice but it doesn't make any sense.<br /><br />Lesson one, tearing down the wall, which involved looking at the darkness in my life, was a terrible exercise. Dredging up old grievances and sadness in my life did nothing for my soul. Examining them in detail was horribly depressing. <br /><br />This is by far the worst weight loss book I've ever read in my life, and I've read a lot of them.<br /><br />After reading this book for a few days, I remembered buying another Marianne Williamson book several years ago. I had totally forgotten about that book. I can't remember the name of it. That was when I respected Oprah and she was promoting it at the time. I hated that book. In fact, that's when I was very involved with my church, reading the Bible daily, and of course, daily prayer. I found Marianne's writing offensive, and I still do.<br /><br />I think there might be some value in this book. Sadly, so much of it is New Age garbage that you have to try to weed through to get to anything worthwhile, I really don't think it has much overall value.<br /><br />I did a little research on Marianne last night and found an interview she did several years ago. Personally, I think she's a little crazy. Sure, we're all a little bit crazy, but most of us aren't out there selling our brand of crazy to the masses.<br /><br />Buyer beware<br /><br /><b>And life goes on</b><br />It's only Tuesday but yesterday was long! After a couple of sleepless nights over the weekend (thanks to that damn book), I awoke exhausted on Monday morning. I felt like I hadn't slept all weekend. I managed to drag myself to the gym, but my heart wasn't in it.<br /><br />Saturday I had done a new upper body workout that killed my triceps, biceps and deltoids. My arms are still very sore. After purchasing a great new magazine that I totally love, "Muscle and Fitness <b>hers</b>", I read about doing supersets or compound sets. I remember doing these years ago, but had forgot all about them.<br /><br />You pick two or three exercises for one body part and then you complete one set of one exercise and go immediately into the next one, alternating until you complete all sets. Compound sets are a great way to get better results in less time, stimulating muscle growth while also bumping up fat loss. I also found it a lot less boring.<br /><br />After the gym I only had a half day of work because I had a dentist appointment. I go three times a year for a cleaning, but this wasn't a normal visit. It was to "look at my crown". I had a crown put on a molar three years when my dentist saw a "shadow" in the x-ray. I had no pain in that tooth but he convinced me I needed a crown, which resulted in three years of cold sensitivity and often pain.<br /><br />The "looking at my crown" turned into a two-hour root canal. My dentist is a "pain-free" dentist and I didn't feel any pain, other than sitting there for two hours while he drilled, prodded, poked, drilled some more, more poking and prodding and more drilling. I had my iPod cranked up but I had no idea it was going to be two freaking hours in that chair.<br /><br />I was on nitrous oxide the entire time so I was in happy land.When I came home I took a Valium he had prescribed because as soon as the numbness wore off I wasn't in happy land anymore. After dinner, a bowl of delicious homemade beef vegetable soup I made in the pressure cooker (my new best friend), I became violently ill. Like I thought I was going to die ill. I couldn't stop throwing up. It was horrible.<br /><br />I'm not sure what made me so sick. This is the first beef I've eaten in over two years. It was fresh, as well as all the vegetables. Maybe it was a reaction to the Valium, but I've never had that happen before.<br /><br />At least I'm over it now and I've tested out the crown. I can drink ice water and let it hit that tooth without screeching in pain. I guess it was worth it.<br /><br />Now, off to the gym. I have some new glute exercises to try (from the magazine - love it!).<br /><br />One last thing, as my friend <a href="http://gravelandrust.blogspot.com/">Roxie </a>often says....be kind to yourself today (and others). :)

I do NOT like this book

The book I'm on chapter two of A Course in Weight Loss, 21 Spiritual lessons for surrendering your weight forever, by Marianne Williamso...

Read more »