USA TODAY articles from May 2003

USA TODAY archives from May 2003

Confusion reigns in workplace fashion. (Your life).
May 1, 2003... Have you ever been inappropriately dressed at work or a business function? If you answered "yes," you are not alone; if you answered "no," you may be wrong. According to a study completed by California State University, Sacramento, marketing...

Executives emphasize succession planning. (Your Life).(Paul McDonald)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Executives plan for many contingencies to protect their businesses, including who will one day fill their shoes. In a survey by RHI Management Resources, a national consulting services firm providing senior-level accounting and finance...

If something can go wrong ... (Your Life).
May 1, 2003... A survey by The Creative Group, a specialized staffing service providing marketing, advertising, creative, and web professionals on a project basis, suggests there's truth to the old saying, "What can go wrong, will go wrong." Two hundred and...

Prospects for 2003 college graduates. (Your Life).
May 1, 2003... Pres. Bush's proposal to provide unemployed Americans with up to $3,000 to pay for job search services will not benefit the 2,300,000 college students expected to receive associate's, bachelor's, and master's degrees this spring, according to...

What seniors want in restaurant dining. (Your Life).(Richard Ghiselli)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... For alert restaurateurs, seniors--with their income, free time, and expanding baby boomer-fueled numbers--represent a golden market opportunity. What these potential customers like is important, but what they don't like is even more so, argues...

Investing: how long is "long term"? (Your Life).
May 1, 2003... The media presents almost a daily diet of stories about retirees who have returned to work or near-retirees who have postponed retirement because their portfolios were decimated by the stock market decline. We read about parents forced to send...

Tips for kids' safe hospital stays. (Your Life).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... No child likes going to the hospital, and while parents worry about what could happen there, families are surprised when they find out how much they can do to make a youngster's experience in the hospital safe and successful. Yale-New Haven...

Remember to fight forgetfulness. (Your Life).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... You are a woman who forgets names and misplaces the car keys. Are you losing your memory? Probably not, according to the Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource. For the majority of healthy women, there is very little change in thinking or memory...

TV crisis coverage draws viewers. (Your Life).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Not only will television news channels continue their rise in popularity, but so will the "crisis of the moment" coverage on cable news channels that reached its peak after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and continues during the war in Iraq,...

Chicago leads in Internet accessibility. (Your Life).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... With the growth of the digital economy, a "Big 7" of U.S. cities has emerged as leaders in Internet network accessibility, according to an Ohio State University, Columbus, study. These cities, all of which are among the nation's largest, will...

Cell phone users show lack of courtesy. (Your Life).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... While the use of mobile phones has grown in popularity over the past few years, the level of courtesy among cell phone users has dwindled, suggests a survey of executives by Accountemps, a temporary staffing service for accounting, finance, and...

Curb caffeine to cut bathroom trips. (Your Life).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... If that extra cup of coffee in the morning sends you running for the bathroom, you might want to rethink your drink, physicians at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas suggest. While it's not true for everyone, Gary...

Warm weather calls for outdoor rooms. (Your Life).
May 1, 2003... Following a winter spent snuggled inside their homes, consumers are ready to move outside for warm-weather relaxing, entertaining, and just plain fun. What better way to enjoy exterior spaces than by creating a fully equipped outdoor room? ...

Ten tips for tiny spaces. (Your Life).
May 1, 2003... The 87% of Americans who describe their home as small to medium in size know the importance of using every square inch to maximum efficiency. Rather than making their space look bigger, people want a cozy, intimate feel and prefer to use their...

Virtual reality will change your reality. (Your Life).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Virtual reality (VR) literally is going to change the face of business, communication, and health care in the next 10 to 20 years, John C. Briggs, CEO of the VR company Activation, told the World Future Society. "Virtual reality is best defined...

Defining America's role on the global stage. (American Thought).
May 1, 2003... ON MARCH 5, 1946, at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, with Pres. Harry Truman at his side, gave one of the greatest speeches of our time. Its power and majesty are not limited to time and place,...

Preemptive war: a prelude to global peril? (National Affairs).
May 1, 2003... IN THE IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. began a war against global terrorism. Soon thereafter, America abandoned its Cold War strategy of containment, embracing the doctrine of preemptive warfare aimed at...

A foreign policy framework for the future. (State Of The Nation).
May 1, 2003... FOLLOWING THE FAVORABLE OUTCOME of events in Iraq, America needs to develop a framework for conducting foreign policy in an increasingly unmanageable world. In no previous historical era has one country held such a preponderance of power. It is...

Suing the president: members of Congress are endeavoring to prevent Pres. Bush from abrogating treaties without Congressional consent. (National Affairs).
May 1, 2003... ON JUNE 11, 2002, 32 members of Congress, led by Dennis Kucinich (D.-Ohio), filed a lawsuit to block Pres. Bush from withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. It named the President, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Secretary...

Bush at war: tactics, but no strategy. (World Watcher).
May 1, 2003... THE BATTLE FOR BAGHDAD was not a war. Wars are designed in strategic terms. Battles are tactical. To destroy a country or a regime, no matter how terrible, cannot be a strategic objective of an American government--not the America I know. ...

NAFTA at 10: an economic and foreign policy success. (Worldview).
May 1, 2003... IN DECEMBER, 1992, leaders of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico signed the historic North American Free Trade Agreement. Although NAFTA remains a lightning rod for critics of free trade, by any measure used, it has been a public policy success. ...

Retirees as job market assets. (Business & Finance).
May 1, 2003... AFTER YEARS OF WORKING as a bookkeeper and 15 years of selling dental supplies, Florence Klein decided it was time to do what she wanted to do as opposed to what she thought she should be doing. She entered Kingsborough Community College,...

When a company moves abroad, shareholders pay! (Economic Observer).
May 1, 2003... IN A SKIT from the New York Financial Writers Association "Financial Follies," the performers sang, "It is little wonder why we smile/We found an offshore domicile/We like the sunshine on our backs/And it's perfect for escaping tax/We're all...

Stock market declines' effect on the Social Security Reform Debate. (Economics).
May 1, 2003... Slumping stock markets have opponents of personal accounts claiming vindication. The situation shows, they argue, that only a traditional government-mn, defined-benefit Social Security program can provide adequate retirement security. As...

There are better ways to cover routine news. (Words & Images).
May 1, 2003... THERE ONCE MAY HAVE BEEN some logic in having two-dozen reporters or more, many equipped with cameras and microphones, cover a public event such as a trial, a crime scene, a suspected criminal's home, or a police activity. But whatever that...

College isn't for everyone. (Education).
May 1, 2003... APPROXIMATELY 15,000,000 Americans are enrolled in college, although about half of them probably shouldn't be! During the junior year of high school, students and, to a greater extent, their parents start to fret about getting the teenager...

Tempered enthusiasm. (Sports Scene).(Hockey teams. Stanley Cup. )
May 1, 2003... "THE AGONY OF DEFEAT" has been a popular topic in this space for many years. Little wonder. A column is personal, and nothing quite matches my fanaticism for losing. All told, my favorite sports teams have captured exactly one championship in a...

Spanish paintings' influence on French artists. (Museums Today).(Manet/Velazquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting)
May 1, 2003... IN 1779, 14 years before founding the Musee du Louvre in Paris, Charles-Claude Flahaut wrote to the French ambassador's office in Madrid, stating, "I know there must be paintings by the great masters lost and forgotten in the attics of Spain,...

Reexamining modern art. (Museums Today).(Modern Masters: Corot to Kandinsky)
May 1, 2003... IN 1905, Pablo Picasso was beginning his ascent to the pinnacle of the art world. One of thousands of struggling artists living and working in the bohemian Montmartre district of Paris, the 24-year-old Picasso would emerge from obscurity two...

New England's crown jewel: the White Mountains of New Hampshire: condominiums and townhouses provide the perfect home base for a fabuluous family getaway in the lush forests of the Northeast. (Going Places).
May 1, 2003... "IT'S A BIG WORLD out there; why keep going back to the same place?," asked a friend late last summer upon learning that we would once again be taking our family vacation in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. We'd also visited there the year...

Preventing sports-related injuries. (Athletic Arena).
May 1, 2003... SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE and, with the weather becoming balmy across the country, many people, young and old alike, are flocking to softball, baseball, and soccer fields to pursue one of their chief passions--sports. Unfortunately for many of...

Women with epilepsy: may not be getting adequate health care. (Medicine & Health).
May 1, 2003... EPILEPSY affects 2,300,000 Americans and 50,000,000 people worldwide. One of the most-common chronic neurological disorders, it begins most frequently in children and older adults. In fact, one has a 10% chance of having a seizure by the age of...

Gambling, psychology, and state politics. (Psychology).
May 1, 2003... LEGAL GAMBLING has been increasing significantly in recent years, as have the apposed expenditures for pathological or compulsive gambling. Congress created the National Gambling Impact Study Commission (NGISC) in 1999 "to conduct a...

The environment as sacred ground: interactions between environmental and religious groups are increasing in frequency and importance. (Religion).
May 1, 2003... A LONGTIME SOURCE of societal change, religion has the potential to affect fundamentally how humans relate to the natural environment. Ritual was central in regulating the use of trees, rivers, and other resources by indigenous peoples and...

Are we on the brink of a new little ice age? Potential cooling of the oceans and atmosphere is twice as large as was experienced in the worst winters of the past century in the eastern U.S. and is likely to persist for decades to centuries after a climate transition occurs. (Science & Technology).
May 1, 2003... WHEN MOST OF US think about ice ages, we imagine a slow transition into a colder climate on long time scales. Indeed, studies of the past million years have shown a repeatable cycle of Earth's climate going from warm periods (interglacial, as...

Hollywood plays the national pastime. (Reel World).
May 1, 2003... MY PASSION FOR THE MOVIES has always been what gets me up the hill, from obtaining enough education to teach film at the college level to exploring a myriad of cinema subjects in numerous books. Yet, as my father has always said, it was only a...

Hollywood's dilemma about posthumous releases: audience's reactions to films distributed after the death of their stars have reflected mixed results. (Entertainment).
May 1, 2003... WHEN JAMES DEAN DIED with two movies yet to be released, Warner Bros. Pictures saw catastrophe. Jack Warner bluntly observed, "Nobody will come and see a corpse." He could not have been more wrong. Both Dean films--"Rebel Without a Cause"...

Something old, something new, something boxed, something blue: spanning 94 years, from 1909 to 2003, there are DVDs that will appeal to collectors and movie fans alike. (Entertainment).(Product/Service Evaluation)(Buyers Guide)
May 1, 2003... AS THE DVD MARKET continues to expand, some interesting trends are emerging. New films are coming on market much faster, sometimes within a couple of months of their theatrical release. With the exception of certain blockbusters collectors feel...

Rolling stock. (What's New?).(Kitchen island/serving cart.)(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2003... * When we put together the article "How to Furnish a Perfect Patio" (USA TODAY, March 2003), careful thought went into exactly what furniture, grill and accessories, and storage pieces we would need. Somehow, nobody thought of one basic...

Culinary multitasking. (What's New?).(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2003... * Face it, there is just so much space on your kitchen counter to accommodate the avalanche of appliances that so temptingly entice you with the wonders they can help you perform to dazzle family and friends. Either you whip them in and out of...

A month (or more) of sundaes. (What's New?).(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2003... * Sure, a freezer full of ice cream is enough to satisfy most of your dessert cravings, but every once in a while you may have a yen for the soft-serve variety. You can either pack up and head for the nearest Dairy Queen or other purveyor of...

Waffling. (What's New?).(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2003... * After serving the first breakfast utilizing our new waffle maker, the question was raised as to how long this treat has been available. A bit of research led to the discovery that waffles have been around since about 1744, making them older...

Fill, flip, finished. (What's New?).(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2003... * We've heard it for years: Breakfast is the most-important meal of the day. Yet, most of us rush out the door each morning with some meager excuse for nourishment. Now, fluffy flapjacks (or blintzes or omelettes or eggs over easy) no longer...

Grinding it out. (What's New?).(Grinder fro spices)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2003... * Bland is out and spicy is in as Americans' palates are learning to coexist with a wide range of ethnic foods, as well as hot dishes that are really hot. Supermarket spice sections are growing almost exponentially, with tins and jars of exotic...

Cookware cavalcade. (What's New?).(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2003... * At one time, the only choices when buying pots and pans were the sizes to fit specific tasks. If you had to fry an egg or two, you needed a small pan; if you were going to boil a large chicken or corned beef, you needed a big pot. Today, as...

Making garbage beautiful. (What's New?).(Brief Article)(Buyers Guide)
May 1, 2003... * As beautiful as your kitchen may be, the never-ending production and accumulation of garbage can detract from it. Whether you use a garbage can, paper and/or plastic bags, or whatever else you might collect it in preparatory to disposal, the...

Food fest. (What's New?).(Buyers Guide)
May 1, 2003... Each year, hundreds of new products hit supermarket and specialty food store shelves. Many die a quick death, never attracting consumers' attention, though others manage to achieve success either by filling a demand that up till then had gone...

Meat market. (What's New?).(Buyers Guide)
May 1, 2003... While those people residing in the Sun Belt may not see what the fuss is about, having had the ability to use their outdoor grills all winter, we who suffered through months of snow and frigid temperatures have just thawed out and returned to...

What's to drink? (What's New?).(Buyers Guide)
May 1, 2003... It might seem that there's a Starbucks on every other corner, but that may be deceiving since there are growing signs that more and more Americans are turning away from coffee and leaning towards tea and other beverages. Herbal drinks in...

Take an animal to dinner. (What's New?).
May 1, 2003... Once infants and toddlers reach the stage of eating solid foods, that seemingly triggers a battle between tot and parent to get the youngster to try unfamiliar dishes. Who among us doesn't remember being on both ends of the "Open your mouth and...

Why didn't I think of that? (What's New?).(Consumer products)(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2003... * Many people--especially, we're sure, postal workers--regard the morass of catalogues filling America's mailboxes as an annoyance. Others welcome them into their homes with eager anticipation. We admit to falling somewhere in between, often...

Dish towels that work. (What's New?).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Few things are as frustrating after doing the dishes as trying to dry them with a towel that fails to accomplish its one real purpose--drying dishes. Some of the culprits are made from nonabsorbent fabrics that tend to become sodden so quickly...

Targeting warm weather. (What's New?).(Consumer products.)(Brief Article)(Buyers Guide)
May 1, 2003... Target, the discount chain that somehow always finds ways to come up with exclusive licensing arrangements with some of the biggest names in the industry, is at it again--now that the warm weather is here--with the Swell by Cynthia Rowley &...

Protect that noggin. (What's New?).(Buyers Guide)
May 1, 2003... * There are over 81,000,000 bike riders in this country. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recorded more than 600,000 bicycle injuries last year and found that bike accidents land more kids in emergency rooms than any other athletic...

Speedo towards summer. (What's New?).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... We have all been dumb enough to do it a million times. What man hasn't left his cash and/or keys in his shoe or under a towel while he takes a dip at the beach or in the hotel swimming pool? Do we really think we're fooling anyone? Speedo...

Wall board. (What's New?).(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2003... * Among typical household chores, ironing ranks up there with those that most define the term "chores" Undoubtedly, one of the reasons for such apathy is the ironing board, a usually ungainly accessory that is annoying to open and close,...

Where am I? (What's New?).(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2003... * The latest toy for luxury car buyers is a built-in Global Positioning System (GPS) that will take them to their destination via an onscreen dashboard map. Until recently, however, pedestrians--particularly hikers--were on their own, save,...

Navajo Land, Navajo Culture.(Book Review)
May 1, 2003... BY ROBERT S. MCPHERSON, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS 2003, 301 PAGES, $19.95 The Navajo Nation dominates Southwest Indian culture and is the largest of Native American tribes. How they fared and changed in the 20th century is the subject...

What! me worry? (Parting Thoughts).
May 1, 2003... SONGS, especially popular ones, often reflect the human condition. An example is songs dealing with love, both about winning and losing it. The same can be said about worries. Not long ago, everyone was singing, "Don't Worry, Be Happy." It was...