By: Mary Fran BontempoTo hear an audio version of this post, click the play arrow below.Are we all on Candid Camera?You remember the premise; bizarre situations were set in motion on unsuspecting foils, whose reactions were then filmed for the rest of us to view. Hilarity ensued, mainly because we were in on the joke.But now I’m starting to think we’re all players in some real-life version of the show, except this time, [...]
By: Mary Fran BontempoTo hear an audio version of this post, click the play arrow below.For some it’s the sound of a child’s laughter. For others, a glorious symphony or the simple song of a bird.Personally, the sound that gets my endorphins flowing is a bit more mundane. It goes like this: “Vvvrrroooommmm!”Pass by the Bontempo household on any given day and chances are you’ll think you’ve stumbled onto a used car lot. [...]
By: Mary Fran BontempoTo hear an audio version of this column, click the play arrow below.Every time I look in the mirror, the frown line between my brows looks more and more like the San Andreas fault line. It’s deep, it’s underground, so to speak, and it has the ability to send seismic shivers down my spine.I’ve thought about Botox, but the mere idea of injecting anything, let alone poison into my face, [...]
By: Mary Fran BontempoTo hear an audio version of this column, click the play arrow below.Who says the news is all bad?Last week Fox News reported on a study that basically gave us middle-aged girls a pass on strenuous exercise. Not that we needed a pass, as most of us weren’t doing it anyway, but we’ll take the absolution.Now, three other studies not only confirm the first (“Women Who Exercise Often Hit Menopause [...]
By: Mary Fran BontempoTo hear an audio version of this post, click the play arrow below.Did someone pay them to figure this out?In a study that I’m certain will be up for Pulitzer Prize consideration, researchers at Penn State University have decreed that middle aged women are “happier with moderate exercise” as opposed to vigorous exercise. Apparently, the study found that women felt less stressed, less anxious and less depressed after less strenuous [...]
By: Mary Fran BontempoTo hear an audio version of this post, click the play arrow below.Good Lord, I hope they don’t give them a centerfold spread in the Wish Book.In a move that has everyone who associates Sears with conservative clothing and reliable, dependable merchandise scratching their collective heads, the venerable retail store and catalogue company, home to the eagerly anticipated Christmas Wish Book, has inked a deal with those sirens of stupidity, [...]
By: Mary Fran BontempoTo hear an audio version of this post, click the play arrow below.Earthquakes. Tsunamis. Floods. Famines. Pandemics. It smacks of apocalyptic predictions, but recently, it's been actual headline news. And those are just the “natural” disasters. Add to them the plunging stock market, global economic meltdown and terroristic mayhem, and it can give a gal a headache. Now, as if that's not enough, I have to worry about the possibility [...]
