O, The Oprah Magazine articles from September 2006

O, The Oprah Magazine archives from September 2006

We hear you! Bookish delight.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... What a wonderful Summer Reading issue [July]! Imagine how awful life would be without new books: the smell of fresh ink and paper, the breaking of an unbroken spine. Or used books: bought in a musty bookstore, littered with curious scribbles in...

We hear you! Bookish delight.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... Your July issue was absolutely spectacular. As an English major, I'm biased, of course, but also sincerely grateful for a magazine so chock-full of literary brilliance. Please consider starting another magazine devoted to books, or at least...

We hear you! In praise of dog ears.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... Like novelist Erin McGraw, who was quoted in "Shelf Awareness" [by Deborah Way, July], I, too, mangle my books, dog-earing pages and highlighting beloved passages I later transcribe into a computerized file I call Keepers. I've saved quotes...

We hear you! Mining offense.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... Thank you for Jeff Goodell's report on coal mining in southern Appalachia ["You Fight for What You've Got, Even If It's Only Worth a Dime," July]. It's heartening to see publications like O highlight environmental issues so intimately linked to...

We hear you! Bosom beauties.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... "How Men Really Feel About Breast Implants" [by Tom Chiarella, July] was a perfect read. When I went from an A cup to a C ten years ago, I awoke from the surgery thinking, What did I do? I was no longer athletic but voluptuous. Tops that were...

We hear you! An apple fritter and a prayer.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... After reading "The Binge from Hell (and Back)" [by Anne Lamott, July], I now know I'm not the only person on earth who has conversations with God about baked goods. Thank you, Anne, for your honesty, wisdom, and humor. I don't feel so alone in...

We hear you! Simple pleasures.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... Thank you so much for "Is There Anything Better Than a Tomato Sandwich?" [by Celia Barbour, July]. It brought back memories of childhood summer days and of my mother, who ate tomatoes as though they were apples. They're best enjoyed simply,...

We hear you! Bye-bye (belly) blues.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... Eve Ensler hit the nail on the head about body hatred in her June article, "Belly, Dancing." When I was 12, my great-grandmother told me I'd be fat when I grew up--as if I didn't hate having a tummy when my friends were slim and flat. Her...

We hear you! Water waste.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... Please retract your suggestion to ditch the car wash for a hose and a bottle of wax in your June article "Burn Fat, Save the Earth" [by Dusty Horwitt]. Car washes are required by code to dispose of contaminated water properly; when you wash...

Here we go!
September 1, 2006... YOUNG OR OLD, RICH OR POOR, COUNTRY GIRL or city slicker--it doesn't matter: At some point, every one of us gets out of bed, grabs a hot shower, downs a cup of coffee, goes to the closet, and decides that we haven't got a thing to wear. This...

Live your best life.(Poem)
September 1, 2006... I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more...

Out of the closet: what's in the O reader's wardrobe? Our oprah.com poll found out.(O-ZONE)
September 1, 2006... GO FIGURE THIS MONTH: CHATTY MOVIES, A NEW KIND OF WEB SCAM, A DO-GOOD VACATION & MORE 100 Items of clothing the majority of respondents estimate they own [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 60 Percentage who have not seen the back of...

Talky pictures.(The List)(movie review)(Movie review)
September 1, 2006... In director Hans Canosa's new film, Conversations with Other Women (1), a long-divorced couple (Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart) are reunited at a wedding, where their shared past emerges through fleeting flashbacks and gimlet-sharp...

ScreenGems: three new films worth standing in line for.(Trust the Man, The Illusionist and All the King's Men )(Movie review)
September 1, 2006... * It's sheer pleasure to watch David Duchovny as a desperate househusband in the romantic comedy Trust the Man. With flawless timing and a sly smile, the former X-Filer steals the show--impressive, considering he shares the screen with Julianne...

Hollywoodland.(Film)(Movie review)
September 1, 2006... EVEN BY HOLLYWOOD standards, the 1959 death of George Reeves, television's first Superman (no relation to Christopher Reeve, who played the Man of Steel on film), was the stuff of legend and scandal. When the 45-year-old actor was found in his...

Reality--the Hellish and the heavenly.(TV)(Extreme Makeover Home Edition)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... TO THOSE WHO CONDEMN REALITY TV AS A medium for glorifying our basest instincts, we respond: For every sleazy Paradise Hotel, there is an inspiring Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Here, the least redeeming and most uplifting examples of three...

TiVo This.(Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip)(Television program review)
September 1, 2006... Even if the show's only virtues were its creator (The West Wing's Aaron Sorkin) and its two stars (Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry), we'd be a captive audience for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, the new series about the backstage drama at a...

What's playing in John Legend's ear?(Music)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... JOHN LEGEND IS A good bit humbler than his surname suggests. As he works on the still-untitled follow-up to his platinum-selling debut, Get Lifted (Columbia), the artist who was singing gospel and playing piano at age 5 says merely that the new...

Travel well, do good.(Making It Better)(Relief Riders International)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... The only thing sweeter than exploring a dazzling, far-flung destination is improving the lot of those who live there. Relief Riders International (RRI), a Massachusetts-based adventure travel company, makes globe-trotting as gratifying for the...

Identity crisis: somebody would love to take out a loan in your name, charge a vacation to you, even mortgage your home. Here's how to stop them.(Scam Watch)
September 1, 2006... THE GOOD NEWS: Banks, major retailers, and the FBI have become hypervigilant in fighting identity theft. The bad news: The use of stolen personal information to obtain credit cards, loans, etc., has become a massive black market industry with...

The Coolest Award you've never heard of: have you written a great book that tackles issues of race and culture? Henry Louis Gates Jr. may be calling you.(Books)(Anisfield-Wolf Book Award)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... WHEN HARVARD scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. phones writers to tell them they've won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, they often express shock--not least because they've never heard of it. The Cleveland Foundation began giving the award almost 75...

Video free-for-all.(Site to See)(YouTube Inc.)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... If you took a photo-sharing Web site like Shutterfly, wired it to show videos instead of snapshots, and then gave it the search ability of eBay, you'd be getting close to what's great about the addictive Internet phenomenon YouTube.com. Though...

Nugget.(O-ZONE)(Finding the Deep River Within)(Excerpt)
September 1, 2006... "List consciousness is a state of mind that is entirely future-oriented. With a subtle but constant quality of rushing, it operates on the premise that life will happen once everything is crossed off The List... When you are in list...

Why it's harder to receive than to give: you'd be wholeheartedly thrilled with that gift, that compliment, that declaration of affection--if it weren't for the wary little voice in the back of your mind wondering how you'll ever be able to reciprocate ... or did the giver really mean it ... or what's the catch? Martha Beck helps make the good things in life a bit easier to take.(advice, etc.)
September 1, 2006... YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD THE story of Pandora. In Greek mythology, she was history's first woman, whose curiosity led her to open a gift from the gods--a forbidden box--loosing suffering upon humanity. Depending on which scholar you talk to, her...

Dr. Phil: "Your right to control your daughter has expired": Phillip C. McGraw, PHD, on a love-struck teenager ... an antisocial husband ... and a frustrated girlfriend.(advice, etc.)
September 1, 2006... Q I'm concerned about the amount of time my 18-year-old daughter devotes to her boyfriend. She spends four to five hours a day on the phone with him because he attends college out of state. Her plan was to transfer from community college to a...

Suze Orman: "it isn't easy for him to deal with you as the main breadwinner": why is my husband buying so much expensive stuff? ... Can I afford to send my kids to private school? ... Do we have any recourse with a bankrupt builder?(advice, etc.)
September 1, 2006... Q I have a high-pressure job that often keeps me at the office from early morning until late at night. As a result, I make more money than my husband does. Lately, he's been dropping thousands of dollars on expensive gizmos like a flat-screen...

Heather Raffo's aha! moment: wait a minute--was that her city we were bombing? Where scores of her close relatives still lived? Watching a war on TV, the actress faces the gulf in her own identity.(advice, etc.)
September 1, 2006... IN THE WINTER OF 1991, I WAS JUST another sophomore at the University of Michigan, majoring in literature and training to be an actor. My mother is American and my father Iraqi, but because of my blonde hair and Midwestern accent, no one would...

The rule of 10-10-10: by asking herself three easy--and utterly profound--questions, Suzy Welch has managed to solve just about every personal and professional quandary in her life. An amazing, spectacularly snappy guide to decision-making.(advice, etc.)
September 1, 2006... BACK IN MY 20s, WHEN I WAS STILL TRYING TO FIGURE OUT how to do it all--the perfect mommy/good wife/successful career woman/happy homemaker thing--I happened to be seated next to a kindly older gentleman at a dinner party. In the course of...

The O list: "a few things I think are just great.".
September 1, 2006... What a Croc! "I love a multitasker. This faux-crocodile leather piece serves as a wallet by day and a sleek little clutch at right." ($115 for matte finish, $140 for shiny, Lodis; lodis.com) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Face Time ...

The urge to purge: that perfectly good bike just sits there. So does a set of seen-on-TV knives and a dress that did you no favors. We say: sell them, swap them, give them away!(O to go)(Website list)
September 1, 2006... Sell It * FREE CLASSIFIED ADS: Craigslist.org is probably the best-known site for free online ads (it has forums for 300-plus communities), but some newspapers--including The Washington Post and The Miami Herald--have also begun offering...

We interrupt this magazine ... phones ring. E-mails beep. Colleagues step in to chat. Now, where were you? Oh, yes, having your time blown into a thousand unproductive little shards. Julie Morgenstern helps you take back your day.(working)
September 1, 2006... I KNOW A WOMAN WHO'S AN INCUR-able optimist: She shows up for work actually believing she'll get through her to-do list. Slipping into her desk chair, bagel in one hand, latte in the other, she decides to check her e-mail before diving into the...

The power of nice: no, you won't finish last. Advertising whiz Linda Kaplan Thaler, who built a wildly successful business in a notoriously tough field, makes a pitch for nods, smiles, lavish praise, and strategic chocolate.(working)
September 1, 2006... I LEARNED A LOT OF FOUR-LETTER words growing up in the Bronx, but none more potent than the one my parents taught me: nice. Not to be confused with wimpy, nice calls for strength and self-confidence. It's the most undervalued quality today....

Look what we found: the new leg work: a kiltish skirt with lacy tights or wild argyles or sedate opaques: changing your hosiery is fall's speediest, least pricey way to give clothes a new mood.(getting dressed)
September 1, 2006... Sexy fishnets (Calvin Klein, $14) and two-tone forties-style ankle-straps (Kate Spade) parlay a nouveau-preppy plaid kilt (Bottega Veneta) into evening material. Call this the opposites-attract strategy: vampish hosiery with sportier, more...

The originals: we love the idea of a style uniform: a look so easy, consistent, and yours that you'd always know what to wear--and what to shop for. Meet five women who figured it out for themselves.(getting dressed)
September 1, 2006... Dress Code: Shapely Crystal McCrary Anthony, 36, lawyer, film producer, author, and BET-F TV host * STAPLES: Dresses--"they allow a woman to be a woman," says Crystal. She'd wear this sheath to look like "a classy, sexy mom" while picking...

A style of your own.(something to think about)
September 1, 2006... If you want to develop a more personal look but haven't, what's holding you back? Do you not know what to buy? Or do you feel defeated before you even begin shopping? Kendall Farr, author of The Pocket Stylist, has helped hundreds of women put...

Look what we found! The best of fall's new scents, a serious skin serum, and more. Here's what O's beauty editors--Valerie Monroe and Jenny Bailly--fell in love with this month.(beauty)
September 1, 2006... A dizzying array of fragrances presented itself to us this season, and we dutifully sampled each one to come up with an assortment that included something bewitching for everyone--and every occasion. Start here with the new Badgley Mischka...

Ask Val: you've got questions? Our beauty director, Valerie Monroe, has answers.(beauty)
September 1, 2006... Q I use lip balm often, and when I stop, my lips flake and peel immediately. Have they developed a dependency? There's a myth that if you use balm or gloss continuously, your lips will become dependent on it, as if they stop producing...

Shopping for beauty: what your skin really needs--and what's a lot of hooey. Jenny Bailly separates the must-haves from the mistakes.(beauty report)
September 1, 2006... HERE'S A STAGGERING NUMBER FOR you: $8 billion. That's what Americans shelled out for facial skincare products last year, according to market research firm Kline & Company. "Waste not, want not," that's our motto. So we went on a quest to find...

Write, she said: you probably think you're too busy to go beyond instant messaging. Kate Spade hopes people will use her new collection of cards to scribble briefly, frequently, spontaneously. Katherine B. Weissman takes note.(comfort zone)
September 1, 2006... KATE SPADE DOESN'T DO E-MAIL--that's how committed she is to the (hand)written word. "Intimacy of contact is important to me," she says, although lengthy epistles aren't her style: "A spontaneous little FYI is fine." In the early days of...

If they can do it ...: Condoleezza Rice works out. Hillary Clinton does, too, and so do Karen Hughes, Margaret Spellings, Loretta Sanchez .... Julie Scelfo asked these powerhouses how they stay fit to rule, and discovered a potent secret: exercise.(body wise)
September 1, 2006... * Condoleezza Rice Secretary of State "You would think waking up at 4:30 and having to exercise and get dressed and be at my desk by 6:30 in the morning would be difficult," says Rice, one of the most powerful women in the world, "but it's...

Superior gluteriors!(body wise)
September 1, 2006... Your familial gene pool may not have graced you with the luscious rear orbs on which entire music videos (and ballads and low-budget movies and urban clothing lines) are based. Thank the Lord science stepped in. Using electromyographic...

A trainer in the palm of your hand.(body wise)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Celebs aren't the only ones with personal trainers on call. Now you can have a coach whenever, wherever, by downloading workout sessions onto your iPod, PDA, or handheld video device. The caveat is that any Jane can channel her inner Fonda and...

The Couch Potato's Workout (could this be exercise?).(body wise)(The Couch Potato Workout: 101 Exercises You Can Do at Home!)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... IF PHYSICAL activity is such a long-forgotten concept that even the thought of going to the gym makes you break out in a sweat (albeit a cold one), The Couch Potato Workout: 101 Exercises You Can Do at Home! has a few suggestions for you....

Invisible fitness move of the month.(body wise)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Next time you kick off your shoes, try a little fancy footwork from Rupa Mehta, founder of Nalini Method, the NYC fitness craze that encompasses yoga, Pilates, aerobics, ballet, and resistance training. To start, stand in bare feet, bending...

Got a minute?(body wise)(Minute Workout: Total Body Toning with Minna Lessig)(Video recording review)
September 1, 2006... Then you have time to exercise. A new DVD, 1 Minute Workout: Total Body Toning with Minna Lessig, features 127 sixty-second fitness segments of varied intensity. You can choose which muscles to target (upper body, lower body, abs, or all of the...

Got 20 minutes?(body wise)(reducing exercises)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... ... and you want to squeeze the most burn out of every last nanosecond? In 20 minutes, you can torch 200 calories, promises Keli Roberts, a Los Angeles--based trainer and spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise. "The key," she says,...

Heartburn & cancer: is there a connection?(body wise)
September 1, 2006... HEARTBURN--that burning sensation rising from the pit of your stomach to the back of your throat, often lodging behind your breastbone--was considered just a harmless nuisance until studies in the past several years linked it to a deadly...

Faking happiness.(body wise)
September 1, 2006... We've all plastered on the occasional smiley face at work to deal with a difficult boss or client. But one recent study shows faking happiness consistently on the job raises the risk of heart disease. Lead investigator Dieter Zapf, PhD,...

Body awareness training.(body wise)
September 1, 2006... Myth: Pickpockets are petty, unskilled criminals. Fact: They're master snatchers who can nab your wallet in about four seconds, according to Cedric Mitchell Sr., a Washington, D.C., metro transit detective. And many make a nice living doing...

Preventing illness may be dangerous to your health.(body wise)
September 1, 2006... IN TAKING SUPPLEMENTS to help prevent cancer, could you unwittingly be substituting one ill for another? A new report from ConsumerLab.com (CL), a company that tests and certifies supplements, suggests that you may be loading up on lead. ...

The way to eat: David L. Katz, MD, sorts out the healthy, the harmful, and the hype.(body wise)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Q Can you advise me on the type of food that could enhance my dull complexion? I also have dark circles under my eyes. --R. SIVA Hamilton, Ontario Some people have made fortunes by claiming there are foods that translate...

The way to eat: David L. Katz, MD, sorts out the healthy, the harmful, and the hype.(body wise)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Q Do you know of a safe product that suppresses appetite? --DONNA MALONEY New Tazewell, Tennessee If you're looking for a pill or potion you can safely take forever to control appetite and weight, then no. Stimulants such as...

The exercise dropout's fitness plan: finally! A strategy for anyone who thinks she's too overweight or out of shape to get with a program. Carol Mithers brings you up to speed.(body wise)
September 1, 2006... THIS IS HOW THE TRAP WORKS: You're really overweight, you're finally ready to do something about it, and you know that exercise is a vital part of any successful weight loss program. But you're too heavy to just get up and get moving. When you...

Is work a pain? We've got your back: is sitting at work for hours (or being on your feet all day) doing an achy-breaky number on your beleaguered spine? Miriam Nelson, PhD, and Lawrence Lindner have a few simple moves that will straighten everything out.(body wise)
September 1, 2006... IF YOU COME HOME FROM WORK with an aching back, you may need to show your office equipment who's boss. The object is to arrange your workspace so that no part of your workspace so that no part of your body has to stretch, tilt, bend, or...

You think you're tired? There's ordinary, everyday tired. And then there's dizzy, feverish, might-as-well-be-dead tired (the chronic fatigue syndrome that caused Laura Hillenbrand to write much of her best-seller in bed). But tired or supertired, the point is, it's not all in your head. Mary A. Fischer reports on the discovery of a genetic basis for CFS. Plus: some of the more usual suspects that may be wiping you out.(body wise)
September 1, 2006... THE APRIL MORNING SHE HEARD THE report on NPR, Laura Hillenbrand began her day as usual. Dragging herself out of bed, she took a shower and then spent the next three hours recovering from it. While in the bathroom, she mulled over the news:...

Exhaustion is also a symptom of ...(body wise)
September 1, 2006... NOT TIRED EVER? THEN YOU'RE EITHER 22, OR ABOUT TO BE A BILLIONAIRE BECAUSE YOU know something the rest of us are willing to pay good money to find out. Most women are far too familiar with doing a sort of caffeinated, sugar-buzzed dog paddle...

The Soul of a New Cuisine: African-born, Scandinavian-raised, the dazzling chef Marcus Samuelsson has rediscovered the tang, spice, simmer, variety, and imagination-igniting pleasures of a continent's cooking.(great food)(The Soul of a New Cuisine: A Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... WHEN MARCUS SAMUELSSON WAS ready to write a fourth cookbook, his agent suggested something personal. Like, maybe, Marcus Cooks at Home. A wide audience was practically guaranteed: After all, Samuelsson is the photogenic (read: handsome),...

March of the Martinis: it's a block party with a twist--of lemon, plus gin, vermouth, ice, and great neighbors. Laura Fraser on the delightfully icebreaking tradition known as the Martini Walk.(great drink)
September 1, 2006... SOME PEOPLE, WHEN THEY'RE NEW TO TOWN, INVITE the neighbors over for cocktails. But when Jonathan and Kimberly White bought a house in Hillsborough, California, in 1998, they brought the cocktails--martinis, to be precise--right to their...

reading room.
September 1, 2006... Welcome to Paradise How does your garden grow? If you asked the 37 photographers whose works appear in Picturing Eden (George Eastman House/Steidl), a vivid companion volume to the George Eastman House's traveling exhibition, their answers...

Books That Made a Difference to Andrea Lee: Russia! Africa! Suburban New Jersey in the 1950s! The novelist's favorite books take you places you never knew you wanted to go.(Column)
September 1, 2006... I BEAR PHYSICAL EVIDENCE OF MY lifelong passion for reading: a wide, crescent-moon scar on my left knee that dates from when I was 9 years old. But let's set the stage. In the mid-sixties, before it was considered criminal neglect to let kids...

Oprah talks to Janet Fitch: seven years ago, Janet Fitch's gorgeous White Oleander knocked Oprah's socks off. Today, with her long-awaited second novel, Paint It Black, coming out this month, the writer talks about the nuts, bolts, and bolts of lightning of writing and how "in our imaginations, we can be anyone.".(THE O INTERVIEW)(Interview)
September 1, 2006... I FIRST TALKED WITH JANET FITCH IN 1999, THE YEAR I CHOSE her debut novel, White Oleander, for my book club. Page after page, I fell in love with a story that deeply moved me, and vivid passages that described the sky as the color of peaches...

"You two have so much in common": if you were one of Amanda Robb's single friends, trust us, you didn't want her to fix you up. Until she took an intensive course in professional matchmaking and learned, among other things, what men and women really want, the importance of background checks, and why once-married guys in their 40s are ripe for the picking.(connections)
September 1, 2006... HI. MY NAME IS AMANDA, AND I'M a romance junky. My addiction struck early, when I was in kindergarten and first watched the Star Trek episode in which Mr. Spock is sprayed with euphoria-inducing spores from a plant on Omicron Ceti III and winds...

Lisa Kogan tells all: what do a super-saleswoman, the theater expert upstairs, and a Chihuahua named Spartacus have in common? They all keep our columnist sane, connected, and looking like $11,000 ... give or take.(connections)(Column)
September 1, 2006... SHE THINKS I NEED A BETTER BRA, A lighter workload, a man with money. If she were my mother, I would have to strangle her. But she is not my mother; she is Margaret Forbes, the finest saleswoman on the face of the planet. "What are you, insane?...

The two self-defeating habits of otherwise brilliant people: it's hard to say which is more poisonous--pointing the finger at other people when something goes wrong, or beating up on yourself. Either way, says conflict expert Anna Maravelas, there's a better solution. Dawn Raffel takes note.(connections)
September 1, 2006... GOT RAGE? CORPORATE PEACEKEEPER (AND REFEREE of last resort) Anna Maravelas thinks we all have too much of it at work, at home, in our cars, on line for double decaf latte. And she's not gonna take it anymore. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Forgiving my father: he cheated on her mother, left his children, moved to another country. Decades later Katherine B. Weissman journeyed to Mexico to offer him love and understanding--if not for his sake, then for hers.(connections)
September 1, 2006... HE IS SLEEPING WHEN I COME IN, A reprieve. He's always been thin, but he is bonier now, and very pale. I sit by the bed and watch him breathe. Wearing a red beret, covered with a roughly woven blanket, his beaky, handsome nose more prominent in...

Shopping smart 2006.
September 1, 2006... 34 PAGES FROM NOW, YOUR FALL SHOPPING WILL BE IN THE BAG: You'll know what to buy, how much to spend, and how to be one smart cookie in the stores.... Further on, you'll be steaming mad at what some women are finding on their husband's hard...

Shopping: the master class.(SHOPPING SMART '06)
September 1, 2006... The Art of Bargaining When a salesperson gives you a price, your next move is to ask, "Is that the best you can do?" You might then counter with "And if I pay cash?" With these two little sentences, one O editor managed to get $200 off an...

The good shopper: organic flowers. Fair-traded coffee. Local produce. If every one of us made a few tiny, easy adjustments to our shopping lists, we could--no exaggeration--change the world. What are we waiting for? Barry Yeoman gets us started.(SHOPPING SMART '06)(Buyers guide)
September 1, 2006... BEFORE 2001 THE COFFEE-growing families of Xanica, a tiny village in Mexico's Oaxaca State, had no electricity, no place to buy groceries, no money for girls' education. "These people lived in dirt poverty, under the thumb of a large plantation...

It's fall--let's go shopping!(SHOPPING SMART '06)
September 1, 2006... Looking for a few good clothes describes our state of mind--yours, too?--every September. You want a wardrobe smart enough to handle a complicated life with many moving parts--both hardworking days and lighthearted nights. You'd like pieces...

It's fall--let's go shopping!(SHOPPING SMART '06)
September 1, 2006... Berry Lips THERE'S NEVER BEEN a more deliciously wide range of options for lips, from the deep, eating-fresh-raspberries-out-of-a-pail stain to the rich, velvety, ultra-glamorous opaque. How-to: When you're wearing a bold berry...

Where to put your money now: the first step to great style isn't an expensive outfit--it's the well-designed bag, watch, and shoes that are classic enough to last. We've got chic, solid choices at all prices (starting at $20).(SHOPPING SMART '06)(Buyers guide)
September 1, 2006... Bags Finding quality and function in one sleek package. * BIG BAGS are in, but that extra weight can strain your back. Our solution is the "lunch" bag: a clutch tucked inside your tote to take along when you leave the office to eat or do...

Breathing space.
September 1, 2006... Catch this dramatic moment just before dusk as a storm moves in to darken the fiery sky above the Connecticut River. PHOTOGRAPH BY JOE STANDART

You got nailed!
September 1, 2006... YOU GOT NAILED! Going through pockets, checking collars for lipstick, hiring a seedy gumshoe to tail the louse--so retro! Today's suspicious spouse has an arsenal of spyware that can slip her right into her husband's computer, read his...

A woman's eye on war: while instinct compels most of us to flee from danger, Anja Niedringhaus rushes toward it, camera focused. Her majestic portraits cut through the chaos to capture the human face of war. Lauren Iannotti finds out where she gets the courage.(Biography)
September 1, 2006... THREE IMPORTANT LESSONS THAT Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus learned in Sarajevo in 1992: If you are the only person you can see, there's danger lurking. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If a...

Cape town: the short, chic new capes are the coziest idea since cocoa. Snuggle up.(Fashion)(Buyers guide)
September 1, 2006... Warm up to capes gently with a swingy, jacket-inspired version. CALVIN KLEIN JEANS, $129, Dillard's; 800-345-5273. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Pom-poms and popcorns in snowy ribbed cashmere are terrific snuggle material. WHIM, $627, Barneys...

Sport to street: borrowed from gym gear and yoga clothes, these pieces are a sleek way to do weekends.(Fashion)(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... * It's no sweat to look coordinated in a hoodie and cropped bottoms from designer STELLA McCARTNEY, who has lately moved into the sports arena with cool, slouchy-chic clothes for Adidas. Top, $180, and pants, $250; shopadidas.com. ...

Behind the masks: after the sins of summer--too much sun, not enough moisturizer--eight terrific facial treatments offer salvation.(Beauty)(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Vitamin C, kiwi water, and licorice extract help fade the leftover freckles of summer; the peel-off formula makes the process fun. Biotherm Pure Bright Peel-Off Mask, $24. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Salicylic acid in step one boosts cell...

The Soul of a New Cuisine: a joyful African homecoming: mango couscous, a garlicky soup called callaloo, beet-ginger chutney, spicy chicken, and vegetable stew (for story, see page 243).(THE RECIPES)
September 1, 2006... Mango Couscous 1 cup couscous 2 Tbsp. olive oil 1 clove garlic, minced 1 mango, peeled, pitted, and cut into 1-inch cubes (about 1 cup) 1 jalapefio chili, seeds and ribs removed, finely chopped 1/2 cup raisins 1 ripe...

Shop guide: (all prices are approximate).(Buyers guide)
September 1, 2006... COVER/HERE WE GO P.57 Prada jacket, $4,300; 888-977-1900. Martin Katz earrings; 310-276-7200. Christian Bedat for Bedat & Co. watch; 877-233-2826. Munnu bangle, Barneys New York; 212-826-8900. SUZE ORMAN P.94 Anne Klein New York pants,...

"Every sunrise is like a new page, a chance to receive each day in all its glory".(what I know for sure)
September 1, 2006... I REMEMBER BEING 15 YEARS OLD, standing in the drugstore three corners from my house, waiting for the September issue of Seventeen to arrive. I was a faithful reader all through my teens, until I turned 18. But the back-to-school issue was the...