Anne Scripps Douglas

Anne Scripps Douglas: proof perfect that money doesn't buy you everything.

In fact, Anne Scripps Douglas is proof perfect that money might not even buy you life, let alone a happy one. As the name might alert you (Scripps was Anne's maiden name, the Douglas came from her second husband) she was one of the heiresses to the Scripps newspaper fortune: a fortune well up there with the Hearst's and so on.

But being born into money didn't lead to that long and happy life we might think:

New York state police believe the daughter of slain newspaper heiress Anne Scripps Douglas jumped to her death from the same bridge her stepfather did after he killed her mother.

Police on Friday were searching the Hudson River near the Tappan Zee Bridge, around 25 miles north of Manhattan, for the body of Anne Morell Petrillo. Authorities say they found a note and believe she got out of her car on and jumped off the bridge Thursday evening.

Petrillo's mother, the great-great-granddaughter of Detroit News founder James Scripps, was beaten to death with a hammer in Anne's bedroom by her stepfather, Scott Douglas, on New Year's Eve in 1993.

Douglas fled and jumped to his death from the same bridge. His body was found three months after the slaying.

Somehow people who make their money seem to do better with it than those who inherit it.

Yes, I want one of these monsters

That baby there to he left is one of the top of the line models, one of the Viking Grills that I have my eye set on. The grill on the top contains 29,000 BTU burners (can you not already simply smell the dead animals crisping up nicely?) and then there's the two side burners for making sure the beans and the barbecue sauce are hot, the oven underneath to cook off what you want to roast instead of grill and of course all those warm drawers for everything else the outside chef needs.

The point about a Viking Grill though isn't to outequip your neighbour: or at least not the only point about them. If you're going to be cooking outside you want to make sure that your equipment is built for the task: which is why they're all made of stainless steel, they're built to the usual full commercial standards. This just isn't equipment that is going to fall apart at the end of the season: or, Lord forbid, in the middle of it. It's solidly made and will withstand not only whatever it is that you might cook on it, it'll also deal with being shut away for the winter and being hosed down for the fresh season.

But yes, there's more to these Viking gas grill, much more. That picture is of their top of the range effort but there's everything the heart could desire and the wallet afford available. All built to the same uncompromising standards of course, all containing those high energy grills, but offering you more or less of the surround dependent upon what it is that you want. Everything in fact from just the simple grill as it is, on its own, all the way up to that baby and passing through different combinations of sideburners, grills, storage, freestanding models and so on.

If you're looking to re-equip the garden for next year's outside cooking season well worth going and taking a look at what's on offer.

New Moon breaks records before release

Looks like we're in for at least a decade of Twilight movies then for the second Twilight movie, New Moon, is breaking records for advanced ticket sales.

TWILIGHT sequel New Moon has taken £�1million before even being released - as the fastest advance-selling film of the year.

Odeon and UCI cinemas reported that it had already sold 143,000 tickets.

The movie, starring ROBERT PATTINSON as vampire Edward Cullen and KRISTEN STEWART as lovelorn student Bella Swan, goes on national release on Friday.

Gosh, aren't we lucky people to be offered years and years worth of a vegetarian vampire who twinkles.

But then no one has ever accused Hollywood of not going for the easy money. If the Twilight books are selling (and if the author is holed up somewhere churning out more) then as long as people keep buying tickets for things like New Moon then the studio will keep pumping out the product.

As with Rocky and Harry Potter, (and in earlier times, the "Road to" movies) that's just the way that the place works.

Finding drug treatment

OK, so we know that addictions of all sorts are rampaging through our society. It's not just crystal meth, heroin, prescription drugs and alcohol, we're now seeing addictive behavior in all sorts of things, from eating to such formerly thought harmless things like exercise. The reasons for this are twofold. Firstly, we're so much richer as a society, meaning that people can actually become addicted: secondly, as part of that new richness we've increased our knowledge and now know much more about what addiction is. And part of that new knowledge is that we now know a great deal more about what works in drug treatment.

In times past really all we could do ws to try and keep the addict away from the addiction and hope for the best. Now, with the introduction of things like dual diagnosis we know that there are often underlying problems that must be treated as well as the addiction itself. Further, we know more about how specific addictions can be treated: the drug treatment of choice for those coming off heroin is now methadone, something which reduces the cravings while those underlying issues are addressed.

What has emerged from out new knowledge of drug treatment and addiction is that integrated onsite treatment programs work best. We need to take the addict not just away from the addiction itself but also from its milieu, so that there is no immediate backsliding. And we need to try different methods: for different people react better or worse to different methods of treatment.

Click through any of the links to find out more about this subject.

Nephelococcygia

Nephelococcygia is one of these constructed words: it originally had a very specific meaning and is now put to another but connected use.

Nephelococcygia has it's origins in Aristophanese, the Greek playright. It means "Could Cuckoo Land", his utopian city in the clouds in one of his plays. As such it has always had a secondary meaning of being a dreamer, of not paying attention to reality. For the point of the play was that such utopias do not work nor do they exist.

Nephelococcygia also has a more modern meaning: the study of clouds. Or rather, cloud watching. While this is fun and all, it's slightly unfortunate that it has been described with this word with its connotations of being an otherworldly dreamer.

Getting the truth about nursing

We all seem to get a lot of our information about jobs and professions from TV shows: which is slightly sad really for of course most jobs aren't anything like they are portrayed on TV. A lot of them are much more interesting: a very few are more boring (spies, for example, do not do anything like what Jack Bauer does at all).

The best place to actually find out what a job or career is really like is through the trade magazines. No, really, these magazines are written for the people actually already working in them: so they have to be true to life or no one will ever read them, knowing them to be false. So, for example, we could turn to one of the nursing magazines to find out what it's really like to be a nurse, rather than relying on a TV depiction like Mercy NBC.

In fact we can go a great deal further and find out about nurse salaries but looking at the top ten paid nursing specialties. Or if you're already there and trained and working, what about an investigation into the best scrubs: what are the best scrubs for your body?

It is true though, the best places to get the real inside information on jobs and careers are the trade magazines, those written for those already doing the job.

Meteor shower november 2009

Yes, it's that time of year again and we've the Leonid meteor shower making it's approach to earth. There are a number of different meteor showers that can be seen at different times of the year (and they may move around the year a bit as well) and the meteor shower for november 2009 is this Leonid one.

If you're over on hte West Coast the best time tio see the Leonids is, umm, right about now actually. If you're on hte East Coast or further east in Europe then, umm, sorry, but you've missed it.

There, isn't that timely and useful information for you? All hail blogging etc etc etc.

For the Holiday Season

Yes, it's that time of year again and the Holiday Season is looming. So the big question is what on earth do we buy all that army of people that we've got to buy presents for? Is there actually enough time between now and the end of the universe to select the perfect present? No, and that's why gift cards from Shop.com are such a good idea.

Instead of having to decide exactly what it is that we'd like to get someone all we have to do is think about which store they'd like to go shopping in and how much we want to give them to do so. Then we simply purchase a gift card for that store for that amount and we're done.

And no, we don't have to run around all of the different stores. Shop.com has gift cards from just about every retailer you can think of. So there's a huge selection, all in one place, and the holiday shopping can be done in just an afternoon.

Whew!

Who is Lorenzo von Matterhorn?

Lorenzo von Matterhorn is a fictional character within a fiction. In the TV show "Hor I Met Your Mother" one of the characters is back on the dating scene. And to succeed in this endeavour he creates a character, Lorenzo von Matterhorn.

This fake character is backed up by a series of fake web pages, describing Lorenzo von Matterhorn as Swiss, a billionaire, an animal lover and someone advised not to have penis reduction therapy.

When he casually drops this name to a girl she is intrigued enough to Google him, sees all of this and then when asked for a date obviously says yes.

Victory!

Get the best: you deserve it

Get the best: your deserve it....that's not a bad motto to live one's life by. For indeed of course there is only one attempt at all of this, this is not a dress rehearsal.

So if you're going to be buying, say, clothes, it makes sense to be buying the best like Patagonia.

The brand Patagonia started out with climbers and surfers who were aware that the market wasn't really supplying what they needed: the very finest outdoor clothes, made with the best quality materials and incorporating the very latest technology. Without those latter two of course the first is impossible. So they set about making what they needed. The same attention to only the best is what makes them the best clothes today.

You might think that you don't need Patagonia boots: after all, you're not about to go climbing in the Andes. But that is something of a mistake: none of us are really rich enough to buy cheaply. It's far better to have a few relaible and sturdy items which will last for years than the latest tchotchke from China that will fall apart ofter three weeks.

I've had one of the Patagonia backpacks and yes, they really are as good as advertised. Sturdily made, a great weioght to strength ratio and they last a long time. Well worth the money.

What is a TWILF?

If you're confused by all this modern terminology and technology thaen you'll get mystified by this new phrase, TWILF.

It's an adaptation of MILF which in itself is an ancronym for "Mother I'd Like to Fuck". No, not my own mother and not necessarily yours. Rather, a mature woman, radiant in hte prime of her liffe, that you have sexual fantasies about.

The TW comes from Twitter. So it means Twitterer I'd like to fuck.

All of which is most amusing and could be applied to anyone from Demi Moore to Stephen Fry.

The current furore is that a cartoon show on Al Gore's TV channel Current referred to Sarah aplin as a TWILF. Which is probably rather more insult than the lady deserves.

Cameron Diaz in The Box

The word on hte street is that Cameron Diaz's new film, The Box, is a right stinker. When people were asked to score it on a scale which normally goes from A to C they gave it an F.

There have only been two other movies in this decade which have received such an appalling score.

It doesn't look as if all that much was spent on the plotline either.

Cameron Diaz plays a cash poor mother who is offered a million dollars by a stranger if she will press the button on the box (see how they got the movie name? The Box, the box, geddit?). Then bad things start to happen around her like her son going deaf and blind.

Ho hum, this sotry has been around formillenia: it's Pandora's Box all over again. Back then the last thing out of the boxd was hope: which might not be what is in store for Cameron Diaz's film career if she keeps making stinkers like this one.

Carrie Prejean: eight sex tapes now

My, this story just keeps getting better. Apparently we're up to eight Carrie Prejean sex tapes now. Plus around 30 nude photos floating around.

Carrie Prejean, you will remember, is the Miss California who just failed to become Miss America. And then got herself involved in a legal fight with the pageant organisers: a fight which she folded in when the existence of a solo sex tape was revealed.

She also rather holds herself up as being a representative of the true conservative and Christian values of america: something which is really rather difficult when there are supposed to be eight sex tapes floating around out there of you.

It'll be interesting to see whether the tapes do get released or not....

Belle de Jour uncovered

The real name behind Belle de Jour has been uncovered. It's Dr. Elizabeth Magnanti.

There has for years been speculation about who it might have been: all sorts of unlikely people were suggested as possibly being the blogger turned author who wrote about her adventures in prostitution.

But now the secret is out: she's a research scientist who went on the game simply to pay the bills.

The other part of the secret, that she's a darn good writer, we've known for ages.

Yes, I do want one

Pictured to the left there is something which I'm really rather keen on getting hold of. It's a fire pit table. It's a clever little design that gets around the problem we've got with the traditionally designed fire or fireplace. That problem being of course that as soon as you put something in front of you to place things on then you've just put something between you and the source of the heat: which really isn't the point at all. You want the heat to be flooding all over you rather than being reflected away from you and/or simply heating up the table.

So the point about fire pit tables is that you've got the fire and the table combined. As you can see there you can each sit at the table, with a book, glass of wine, cup of coffee, and yet you're still facing the fire and getting the benefit of the heat. Which is, as above, what we're really trying to achieve here, staying warm and also being able to have somewhere to put things. The perceptive might also note that this is a boon for slow eaters: it'll help keep your food warm!

Now the reason I want one of these is because while we do indeed live in sunny climes we also live near an ocean. And some will know what that entails. While it's warm in the day and of course much of social life is conducted outside in gardens, come the fall of night it becomes quite chilly rather quickly. So something like a fire pit table is an excellent addition to the set of garden furniture: it extends by several hours the period of the day when one can entertain without finding ones teeth chattering and knees knocking. So another one for the purchase list.

Alizee Paradis: hot athlete

OK, so there are awards and there are awards: being the hottest female NCAA athlete of the decade may or may not be one of those awards that ranks highly in your estimation.

But it does seem to be one that Alizee Paradis has just been nominated for.

The reasoning seems to be that she is French Canadian (the exoitc and different is always hot) and has a taste for being photographed insmall bikinis: smaller than might be justified by her body weight. We of course approve of this latter habit in attractive young women but we're not sure if it's a skill in particularly short supply.

Oh, should we have mentioned that the competition and the award are being run by "Busted"? Yes, that does help to explain the above doesn't it?

The Heene's plead guilty in balloon boy case

OK, so it has to be said that this balloon boy case added to the gaiety and joy of the nation but it now seems to have come to an end.

The parents seem to have admitted that the whole thing was indeed a hoax and that they knew all along that the boy wasnt' in the balloon:

Richard Heene, the father accused of pulling a spectacular hoax by reporting his son, Falcon, was aboard a runaway balloon has pleaded guilty to a felony charge of attempting to influence a public servant.

Richard and Mayumi Heene appeared in a Colorado court on Friday. Mr Heene, 48, entered a guilty plea and his wife, Mayumi -a 45-year-old Japanese national who could have been deported if convicted of more serious charges - admitted a misdemeanor offense of false reporting to authorities.

Purely as a personal thing I hate it when pressure like that over immigration status is put on people in order to get them to plead: but there is a reason for the system.

Larry King baffles Carrie Prejean

This really is the story that keeps on giving, isn't it? Carrie Prejean and her efforts to, umm, well, be more than simply a Valley airhead?

OK, so there was the breat augmentation which she didn't pay for, then the Perez Hilton thing about gay marriage, then the entirely hilarious attempt to portray herself as a good little Christian conservative which fell over after the sex tape was released. And now this:

In the end both sides backed down and settled. But it was the detail of this agreement that prompted Ms Prejean’s latest implosion, this time on Larry King’s show. Asked to explain why she dropped her claim she repeatedly insisted that the question was “inappropriate”. When King pushed harder Ms Prejean attempted to storm out — but couldn’t work out how to disconnect her microphone. Instead, she sat at the interview desk without her earpiece, mouthing questions to an off-set handler as a baffled King tried to continue the interview.

I guess all she needs now is either to shoot a Moose or get a UI and she'd be about ready for prime time politics, don't you think?

There's water on the Moon!

One of the questions we've long wanted an answer to is the one: is there water on the Moon?

Of course, no one thinks that there's going to be running water on the surface: there's not enough atmosphere for that. But is there ice where the sun don't shine? Or perhaps water further underground?

Amazingly, we now know that there is indeed water on the Moon.

Nasa has found 'a significant amount' of water inside a crater on the Moon in a discovery that could pave the way for the first manned lunar base.

The agency announced that last month's audacious attempt to smash two spacecraft into the Moon's rocky surface to find ice was a major success.

Excellent news at it makes that idea of having a permanent Moon base that much easier. Roll on that, he exploration of the asteroids and by the way, where is my flying car?

Jayce Lee Dugard's rapist: cured by Jesus!

Hallelulah Brother! What joy there will be in heaven as one sinner repenteth.

Phil Garrido, the man who is alleged to have kidnapped and then raped Jaycee Lee dugard over a period of 18 years now claims that he has in fact been cured of his sexual deviancy by Jesus.

The story is here.

There is of course a slight problem with this very story: which is that he's claimed to have been cured only after he's been caught, arrested and charged. It would of course be extremely cynical to try and insist that if the Grace of Jesus had descended at some earlier date he should have let Jaycee go, wouldn't it?

Costumes aren't just for Halloween

Perhaps it's because I'm not originally an American that I think that costumes and dressing up are not just for Halloween. Where I come from we don't place that emphasis on that party day: so getting all dressed up isn't something we associate solely with that day.

And of course this is the correct way to look at things: getting dressed up is fun, putting on a role is fun and, if you're going to the right sort of parties at least, going to parties is fun. Anytime, any excuse is a reason for a costume party. For, of course, one of the things that happens is that female inhibitions slightly go to the winds: if one is playing a role, why not? So there are always those in girls sexy costumes which adds interest and spice to any evening.

Again because of my national background, there's something always rather interesting about those wearing things like the Lock-Lace Bodice costumes you can see if you click through: it's very similar to the sort of thing usually worn by the "principal boy" (who is of course the leading lady) in Pantomime.

Oh, and if you're going to have more than just that one costume party a year, do read through the blog for other tips: the one about making sure the make up matches the costume is only one of the good ones they've got there.

Why would anyone say Allahu Akbar

This is an interesting little post about the phrase Allahu Akbar. OK, so it's often used simply as an everday expression of joy, it's an integral part of prayers in Islamic countries.

It can also be a war cry: for Allahu Akbar (or Allahu Akhbar sometimes) literally means "God is Great". But it's aslo much more than that, for Allahu Akbar can mean:

Allahu Akbar can also be used as a fast and colloquial manner of converting to Islam. The simple repetition of the phrase three times, "Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar" is taken by most Islamic jurists as being sufficient expression of the core Islamic beliefs that those who say it are now Muslim. Traditionally (and perhaps anecdotally) those who say this either in battle or afterwards when captured will be deemed to have converted, become part of the Ummah (the Islamic community) and thus no longer be considered as enemies.

Teanne Harris

Yes, I agree, we should be praising Teanne Harris. The jilted bride with the heart of gold.

You can get more details at that link but the basics are simple enough. Teanne Harris was told by her fiance 6 days before the wedding that it was off. So she tried to get the deposit back on her Halloween themed wedding party: no go.

So, Teanne invited all the residents of the old folks home across the street to a Halloween party. On her wedding day that wasn't.

Bravo, Hurrah and a chorus of "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow" and so say all of us.

Damn right too, this blog's heroine of the day, Teanne Harris.

Absolutely nothing at all to do with this bloggers prediliction for redheads who enjoy their food, nothing at all.

Finishing off the house

As regular readers will know we're in the process of finishing off this new (to us) house down here and are now engaged in the final process of finishing off. You know the sort of thing, making sure the gates are properly painted, has the plumber left his number in case there's something wrong, getting the mailbox put up. Once we've finished all of that we can put it back on the market, sell and then start all over again!

But of course that process, especially where we are, takes months to actually manage. So there's still some debate between my wife and I as to whether we should have something like that farm bell, or dinner bell, above or not.

Sadly for both our states of mind we're both in two minds about it: both on both sides of the question according to what we've thought of last. Think of it this way as the background.

On the plus side, we're in a rural area, so it isn't like we're going to be waking up the neighbourhood when we use it. We've a load of dogs and cats that would learn that the clanging meant dinner time so they would come in from the fields. Heck, my office is some way from the house and I could be trained to do the same. That's the positive side of having a farm bell.

On the negative side, well, the animals all come in for meal times anyway: often before them and remind us in fact. My office isn't that far away: I can usually tell not just when dinner is cooking but what is cooking for dinner just by smell. So do we actually need a dinner bell?

Hmm, put that way the choice is really pretty simple, isn't it? There's no really good positive reason to have one other than it would be nice and there's no negative reason not to have one other than, well, we don't really need it but it still would be nice.

So that'll be we get one then, yes?

There is still crucifixion you know

You and I might have thought that it was all terribly out of date, consigned to the history books. But no, there is still modern day crucifixion. It is a little different, to be sure, but probably not something that we wish to bring back.

A man in Saudi Arabia was actually crucified today. At noon their time. His crime was to have raped a series of young boys and then leaving the youngest of them, aged only 3, to die in the desert.

For this his sentence was to be beheaded, his body then put up on a cross as a warning to other potential sexual criminals.

Yes, crucifixion still exists.

How to return a costume

Given the date how to return a costume sounds like a useful piece of advice. Or perhaps more importantly, whether you can return a costume. For it's not always true that we'll only get the one costume for Halloween, so what do we, should we, can we, do with any excess ones that we've got?

Well, perhaps the first and most important thing about holiday costume returns (and this applies year round of course, not just this week) is that yes, it is possible to return some costumes. However, it isn't possible to return all so the full details on what you can and cannot do are there at that link.

Probably the most important and obvious point to be made is that you cannot return things that you've worn and thus mussde up. Definitely no returns of underpants that have been worn for example (yes, even if it was the Superman costume and they were outside your tights).

Actually, a good rule of thumb (although do check, as I say, at the link for the full details) is that you can return really, properly, unused costumes: things that are still in the original packaging. Everything else, well, it depends.

The GDP report

OK, well, it's certain now that the US is coming strongly out of recession. Third quarter GDP rose over 3% on an annualised basis, meaning that the recession is obviously over.....for that is the technical definition of when it's over, that GDP is rising again.

There might still be concern about a W shaped recession, it might be that growth won't continue: and that's goiing to be the argument of those who want another stimulus. But for most economists this will be the sign that it's all over. Or rather, that it's not going to get any worse at least.

Getting your car parts

OK, so we all know that when we go to the garage we're going to get ripped off. So many of us try to do at least the simple repairs at home. And of course there are those who actually know what they're doing and do all of their repairs and modifications at home.

But that means that we need somewhere to get our auto parts. And just like everything else these days getting them online makes sense. A much, much larger stock than any one store could possibly have plus the best prices around. Oh, and shipping is free on orders over $50.

Yes, you really should check out the Car Parts Warehouse, just clik through the link above.

That Michael Jackson autopsy photo

There's a bit of confusion going on about whether there really is a Michael Jackson autopsy photo out there. The "out there" is the important part of that sentence.

For of course there are Michael Jackson autopsy photos: they're a standard part of any autopsy.

The question is whether someone has leaked one of them or not: and at least one reporter has said that someone has tried to interest him in it.

But then we also get to a confusion of the Michael Jackson autopsy photo: is it actually one of the official ones? Oe is it something that someone took with a cell phone when they shouldn't have?

At the moment we'll just have to wait and see.

Getting a loan

OK, so we all know that at times we need to get a loan. And sometimes we really, really, need to get a loan. When what we've got to hand simply won't cover things until the next payday. Which is why we might want to get a payday loan, or another type of very fast extension of credit. So why not check out: Get a Payday Advance - Payday Advances at Money Now! USA ?

The huge advantage of this site is that they're a comparison engine for the various different possible lenders. So instead of having to go around many different sites, or visiting offices or calling around you can simply check out the offers from 122 different lenders all in one place.

Andre Agassi on crystal meth

The Andre Agassi crystal meth story has broken. It's supposed to only come out in the US on friday, in People Magazine and Sports Illustrated. But extracts from his new biography ran in the London newspapers today. So of course there's no need to wait.

But the heart of the story is that Andre Agassi took crystal meth. You can read the whole story at that link.

Bay Bridge closure

This doesn't look good at all. The Bay Bridge is closed today after a piece fell off it last night.

It's not just that the infrastructure is getting old: this particular fault was seen as routine repairs were being done on Labor Day and the engineers had tried to lash something together. It's this repair that failed and came down onto hte roadway.

There's no news as yet as to when the bridge might reopen: it's possible that it could be a long time as a replacement part is manufactured.

Congratulations!

The M&A Advisor awards are nearly upon us: they're in 14th December in NYC.

For those who don't know this is one of those occassions when an industry acknowledges and honors their peers: in this case it's the mergers and acquisitions industry. The value is of course that it's the very people who know all about the sector who make the awards. So congratulations to Generational Equity who have 11 nominations: indeed, congratulations to all who have been nominated.

John Lynch

John Lynch has just been acknowledged as the most pierced man in the world. He had an extra 20 or so piercings popped into his arms just to make sure of the title when he went for the count with the Guinness Book of World Records. He says of course that he never really thought about going for the record: but then says that he had the extras to make sure that he got the record.

But then do we really expect consistency from a retired bank manager with over 250 piercings?

Betting on football

If you're interested in betting on football then there's a great site that you should find really helpful. It isn't just a bookmakers, although it does have links to them and a huge amount of information on who is offering what.

What it does offer is something called Livescore. That's the detailed information you're going to need if you're going to be betting on things like first and last scorer, how many corners in a half and all that sort of thing. Bit like a ticker tape from the stock market.

There's also a full and complete list of football fixtures, meaning that you'll never need to miss another match: nor the opportunity to bet on one. And yes, that list is international.

If football and betting on it are your thing then you really should be looking at this site.

More balloon boy story

There's more on that balloon boy story.

It appears that there was a media outlet already in on the story. Some TV show, although the investigators aren't telling us which one. Plus, and this is something of a surprise, the parents have both taken lie detector tests. Quite why isn't sure, for they don't actually work.

Finally, an ex-assistant is claiming that the father had told him all about attempting to do a hoax.

Difficult keeping things quiet really, ain't it?

Where to get your hire car

When off on a jolly, when travelling abroad to sunnier climes, of course we're all interested in getting a car to use while we're there.

However, doing a comparison shop isn't all that easy: you don't know which car hire firms are actually in which location and so you've got to trawl through all of the different sites. Until now that is: now there's a comparison engine which will do all of that for you. Take a look here at a sample location: Car Hire Spain.

They work out who is available at your location, they then interrogate them as to what is the best deal and then present it to you. An excellent idea and extremely easy to use. Well worth checking out.

Food snobbery

Well, quite, this does indeed rile:

Not for these people the common supermarket aisle; they source their beef from the most romantic Herefordshire hillsides and pick daintily at the most saintly of organic carrots. In some parts of Britain, this cashmere-clad notion of nutrition as a lifestyle choice borders on the obsessive. But fresh food to suit all pockets, as supplied by supermarkets, is one of the triumphs of the modern world. It may not be perfect, it may not be pretty — but it is not evil.

Not only is this not evil it's one of the massive and fabulous achievements of the modern age. The idea that everyone would have access to cheap and nutritious food at any stage of the year or seasons would have astonished our own grandparents, let alone those from eariler times.

What is it about some people that they decry the very things that make our times the best of times?

Getting the house finished and furnished

As regular readers will know we're in the process of getting this house (actually, it's morphed into two houses now) rebuilt, sorted out and restyled. Fortunately we're near the end of this process: workmen will be out in a week or two and then it's time to start dealing with how we furnish the place.

All of which of course has me looking online to see how we can best do that. For of course, an online store can have a hugely larger stock than chain of stores: rather than having stock that people want to look at, online the stock can be virtual. And of course you don't need to have that stock in every store. This then feeds back into much better prices for furniture bought online.

And that of course is what we find: great stocks and very good prices when we go looking for the necessary young adult furniture. And, yes, we find the same thing with the needed kids furniture and as they want bunk beds we can even find those too.

This is so much better than tramping through bricks and mortar stores. We have a better selection and better prices and I can have a beer while I'm looking (but shhhh! don't tell the wife that).

Matthias Schlitte

Wow, this is pretty weird. There's a professional arm wrestler out there called Matthias Schlitte. OK, I didn't even know there was such a thing as professional arm wrestling. But what's really weird is that he's got a huge right arm and and entirely normal left one. It's almost the opposite of say, Ian Dury, who of course had a withered left arm as a result of polio.

You can see links to photos and a video of a professional fight here.

But it's just weird, weird man.

Arachnophobia

Now this is getting it bad. One man is such an arachnophobe, so scared by spiders, that Halloween could actually kill him.

John Stafford is so scared of spiders that even seeing a shop display of fake ones can cause him to pass out. Doctors have said that his heart is so bruised from this over the years that something as simple as Halloween could kill him.

Jon Stafford is the arachnophobe's arachnophobe: simple seeing some spiders in a window display once made him pass out. He's tried various pills and hypnotherapy but nothing seems to help. In fact, he's been shocked and passed out so often over the years that his heart is now bruised. His doctor tells him that being shocked agin, such as by fake spiders put up for Halloween, could kill him.

Help with weight loss

OK, we all know how to diet: simply eat less. Yes, and if it was that easy we'd all be thin, wouldn't we? And as we all also know it isn't that easy which is why we're not all thin. What we all need while we're dieting is some help. You know, something that was tasty and nutritious, something we'd actually like to eat and which will do us good: without being high in calories.

Fortunately there is such a thing: diet bars. Have a click through that link to see how many of them there are too. And how many flavors.

That's actually a great site to get them from too: great prices, a full range stocked (far more than in any supermarket) and of course, being on the web, so convenient. Go have a look: dieting was never as easy as this.

Jackson's"This is it"

Michael Jackson's "This is it" can now be heard as a free stream if you want to hear what his first (and most certainly, not the last) posthumous single sounds like.

All the reviews are indicating that it's much better than his more recent stuff: partly because it's an old song but also it seems because Jackson himself didn't produce it. As can happen, he wasn't perhaps the best judge of his own work and it would appear that having other people produce and arrange it has made it better than those albums he did mostly on his own.

Fleshed out this way "This Is It" has the spring and warmth of classic Jackson ballads like 1979’s "She’s Out Of My Life," or "Human Nature" from "Thriller." The melody has a sweet fluidity and Jackson’s vocal ripples with far more feeling than heard on his last few overwrought, and overthought, albums.

While Jackson’s last disc of new material, 2001’s "Invincible," suffered from both mechanical sounding vocals and cold production, "This Is It" leaves more rawness around the voice, to moving effect, and uses its strings as purposeful enhancements, rather than as drenching sweeteners.

Paying for telecoms

One of the things this brand new world of digital information has brought us is this idea that we don't in fact have to buy our long distance phone calls from the guys who provide the copper wire to our house. But there's more to it than that: we don't have to buy our long distance phone calls from the guys who provide anyone else's phone either. Nowadays we can buy one of the Calling Cards and they change everything.

For, just like a long distance provider can buy, if we sign up to their plan, long distance minutes in bulk, then so can a provider of Prepaid Phone Cards . Once they've started to sell Phone Cards then they know that there will be a certain number of minutes that will be used. So, they can get a bulk discount. That bulk discount then gets passed on to us in lower per minute fees.

This might all sound a little complicated but it's really quite simple. Instead of us all having to pay the old, hugely high, per minute charges to talk to our families, say, in India, or China, or in my case, Europe, we're able to take advantage of these new services and keep in touch for much lower prices.

Hey, ain't capitalism great? More of what we want for a lower price?

About that Demi Moore bush pic

I've never really been able to understand the interest that keeps being shown in that Demi Moore bush pic.

OK, yes, she's a beautiful young woman, in hte prime of life, not wearing many clothes, this is very often of interest. But that's not what gets people searching for it again and again. (You can see the pic here.)

It's that she hasn't shaved her crotch: but why is that of such excessive interest? The picture was taken back in the 1980s, a time when women, by and large, simply didn't shave or wax there.

What is interesting is how the social standard has changed since then:

That's the change in the social mores: but that interesting question is why? What on earth has happened to make adult women decide that they should look like pre-pubescents? Hair there is, like hair on the chest of a man, a secondary sexual characteristic indicating sexual maturity. Why or how could there have become a social standard that one should not show that one is indeed mature?

Michael David Barrett

Michael David Barrett has been arrested by the FBI on charges arising from the Erin Andrews peephole video of a few months back.

According to them he did not simply film her once on a lucky chance, he was stalking her across the country and filmed her 8 times, in a number of different hotel trooms and at least two different cities.

Barrett was caught because he tried to sell the tapes to TMZ, the gossip site, and they informed the FBI. How about that eh, a gossip site with a conscience?

There's more on Michael Barrett:

Michael David Barrett was arrested Friday night as he arrived on a flight from Buffalo, N.Y., the FBI said. He faces federal charges of interstate stalking for taking the videos, trying to sell them to celebrity Web site TMZ and posting the videos online, the FBI said in a statement.

Erin Andrews peephole video

You remember all that about the Erin Andrews peephole video? Yes, that's the one, where the ESPN lovely, Erin Andrews, was secretly videod in her hotel room?

Yes, videoed through the peephole while she was naked in her hotel room? It appears that the case might have been solved.

The FBI have arrested a man and will be charging him later today with having made that tape.

Here's more on the Erin Andrews peephole video: case closed.

A Chicago-area man arrested at O'Hare airport who is accused of taping surreptitious nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews was due to appear in federal court late Saturday morning, authorities said. Michael David Barrett was arrested Friday night as he arrived on a flight from Buffalo, N.Y., the FBI said. He faces federal charges of interstate stalking for taking the videos, trying to sell them to celebrity Web site TMZ and posting the videos online, the FBI said in a statement.

Let's hope it's actually the right guy, eh?

Robert Halderman

Uh Oh, looks like Robert Halderman has got himself into a whole heap of trouble over here.

It's in relation to that David Letterman extortion case: he's been fingered and lifted for attempting to blackmail $2 million out of Letterman.

Doesn't matter that his allegations were actually true: he's still under arrest for demanding money not to repeat them.

Robert Halderman has been taken into custody over the David Letterman extortion case.

Robert J Halderman, commonly known as Joe Halderman, has been taken into custody over the extraordinary scenes that attended the attempt to blackmail David Letterman.

Looking your best

There are various ideas about how you should or could look your best. Diet and exercise of course, grooming probably, dressing well and so on. But technology has moved on from all of those simple things: there's so much more that medicine can do for us now.

For example, it's entirely possible to get fat in places where alomst no amount of exercise will get it off: and we'd have to be on a starvation diet to get rid of it that way.

That's why things like Liposuction are becoming so much more popular. Of course, it's not just to look good either: losing that weight can make you healthier as well.

Hey, technology marches on so why limit it just to the gadgets we buy? Why not use the advances in plastic and medical technology to better ourselves?

That David Letterman blackmail attempt

Quite the most bizarre story of the day: someone tried to blackmail David Letterman out of $2 million over allegations that he had been bonking female staffers on the show. Really? Rich, famous man in showbiz bonks women? Wow! Alert the media!

That the story wasn't in fact worth two million bucks is shown by the fact that Letterman didn't in fact pay it, he went to the authorities, set up a sting and then announced the whole thing on his show.

You can see a full report on the David Letterman extortion at the link.

An amazing scene played out on the Late Show last night as David Letterman revealed that he had been the subject of a $2 million extortion attempt. The blackmail was over the possible revelation of his having had affairs with staffers on the show. As a result Robert J Halderman, a producer on the "48 hours" show has been taken into custody reports say, although police have not yet released his name officially.

Accessing speedy cash

There are times when all of us feel the financial strain and that's what borrowing is all about. Being able to bring income forward from the future to now, so that we can keep going in order to make that income in the future. Such borrowing comes in many possible forms: from a loan from the bank, through a credit card balance to perhaps a payday loan.

The value of that last, a payday loan, is that it provides speedy cash, and there are times when we really do need cash in a hurry.

For example, I've had the need to pay a utility bill I wasn't expecting and I've needed to pay it fast. The mail wasn't being delivered right and so the one bill I did get was the final disconnection notice. Yes, they wanted cash and they wanted it by tomorrow: the bank account was empty (I wasn't budgeting for it) so what could I do? That's right, a payday loan was the solution: whatever I was paying to the loan company was going to be less than the reconnection fee (and damage to my credit report) and the electricity would stay on.

Payday loans aren't for everyone all of the time: but they're a very useful addition to the arsenal of options at our disposal.

That James Bond Test

This is really rather amusing. Would you like to be a spy? Especially, would you like to be a spy for MI6? James Bond's fictional outfit (or rather, the real world version of James Bond's fictional outfit?)

If you would, try going over here to find out about the James Bond application test.

No, passing it won't get you in but failing it will probably mean that you shouldn't try to get it. What they're asking you to do is to read your fictional cover and then answer questions on it. Not too hard, but if you cannot do it then you ain't got what it takes to be a spy.

Finding auto insurance

It's not just that there are laws in most places requiring us to have it: auto insurance is in fact more important than that. Even if we're driving some old clunker and we don't care what happens to our car there's still a need to get insured.

For there's always the (low) possibility that we'll hit someone else and thus be liable for their expenses. And it's not just their car either: what if they are injured and therefore we're responsible for their medical costs for however many years they need to be treated?

So getting the insurance is important: vital even. But there's no reason it should cost a fortune as well. Clearly, we want to get the best deal we can even on something so important. So have a look here for cheap car insurance quotes. Simply put in your zip code and then you'll be able to see what other information you need to provide and what the best deals are.

Yes, the insurance is something you want to have but there's no need to over pay for it, is there?

The Sun gets it very wrong

The Sun has a piece today about shag bands and rainbow parties.

Umm, no lads, sorry, but you've got taken in here by some urban myths. That little kids might think that shag bands mean what you say they mean is one thing. But no, it isn't true that in playgrounds around the country kiddies are having full on sex as a result.

As for rainbow parties, they don't even pass the laugh test:

But by far the most important problem with this story is that it entirely misses the fact that oral sex is treated differently in the UK from the way it is in the US. This was very well explained by Christopher Hitchens in Vanity Fair. In the US, as we all found out after Monica and Clinton, oral sex is regarded as something less than sex. In hte UK it is rather a very special treat that gets offered a long way into a relationship, not something that omes as a precursor to one.

No, this story is made up of less than whole cloth. It sounds like these stories of shag bands and rainbow parties are urban myths, continuations of that ever popular (it's been around at least since Thucydides was a lad) insistence that society is going to the dogs and that it's the children that are worst.

Customizing your ride

OK, so you've got your bike, or that hog to cruise the streets. What next? Yes, that's right, you'll want to customize your ride.

However, this can be, as we all know, an expensive proposition. The local stores and bike shops are only going to havew a mere fraction of the possible parts for you and they're going to be expensive: they can't store all 30,000 different variations for Goldwings, Harleys and the rest without it costing them a fortune.

Happily, there is an alternative: Memphis Shades. They do have all 30,000 parts in stock and as they are distributing nationwide they can offer great prices: up to 60% off list price in some cases.

So if you're looking to customize your ride why not do what we're all realizing we should be doing with other shopping? That's right, shop online.

That Derrion Albert video

A screaming mob beats a boy to death in a Chicago suburb and as a result of the new technologies like camera phones we get to see the video.

It's not pretty and it«'s not fun to watch: however, the real scandal is that this is just one of some 30 such deaths a year that happen in that city. And we never hear about the others simply because no one films them. Out of sight, out of mind as it were.

You can see the Derrion Albert video here.

Derrion Albert was beaten to death with split railroad ties on his way to the bus stop while going home from school in Chicago last week. A tragedy and a crime when such a 16 year old gets caught up in mob violence.

However, what is leading to this story making the front pages is that there is a video of Derrion Albert being beaten to death. Taken with a cell phone camera it is this video that makes Derrionn Albert's death different from the 30 or so that happen in Chicago the same way each year.

Finding the right drivers

One of the incredibly annoying things about the latest versions of Windows has been that a huge number of devices don't seem to have the right drivers for them.

Or should that be that Windows doesn't have the right drivers for the devices?

Fortunately, there's a way around this problem. There's a great site which has just about every driver you'd ever want or need.

Have a look here: USB drivers, Acer drivers and yes, of course, NVIDIA drivers (for of course we all know that it's the graphics chips that really cause the problems.

There are over 1 million drivers in their database so if you can't find what you need there then possibly you never will.

Well recommended.

Hijacked Amazon threads

This is really rather funny. We know that one of the great Amazon innovations was to allow customers to review the goods that were on sale. OK, that's great, customer reivews.

However, what's less well known is that some of those review threads take a rather different turn. For example, people rather than reviewing, make fun of, or satirise, the product or even the person doing the selling.

There's a great collection of these Amazon reviews up on the net now. Yes, all the favourites are there, the near insane Christian book, the Peter Andre record with Katie Price and of, course, the ultimate, Tuscan Milk.

Enjoy.

Furnishing the house

As regular readers will know we're redoing a house down here and we've been looking around, as you do, for the things which go with that. We're now at the point where we're starting to furnish it all and this has led to some discussion.

I'm a huge fan of second hand furniture: specifically antique. Prices have fallen so far in the last couple of years that at auction you can get some amazing bargains. However, I'm with Ian Dury on these things: just as he said he always bought new boots and panties and the rest second hand, I insist that beds and mattresses should be new.

Which has led me to this site selling beds. While I love Victorian Chesterfieleds, my bed and mattress is going to be brand new. There's all the usual advantages to buying on line here, better prices, larger selection and so on. But it's a really huge selection here. It might need some more narrowing down (more specifically, the input of the wife who will share the bed with me) but this French Rattan design looks great to me.

Sturdy, well made, well priced and so on: and it also fits in with much of the decor and patterns that we've already decided upon for the house.

Recommend the site if you're out there looking for beds.

Ernie Anastos and that YouTube moment

This has to be one of the funnier bloopers of recent times.

Ernie Anastos is the anchor for a New York TV station, part of the Fox Network. He's got something of a reputation as someone who shoots his mouth off inappropriately already. But this one from Ernie Anastos is simply special.

We think he meant to say "keep on plucking that chicken" but it came out as "keep on f***ing that chicken".

Thr problem is though, even in context, the plucking thing doesn't make sense either.

Problems with .pdf files?

If you're having problems with .pdf files then this looks like a reasonable program that you might want to try. Of course, we all know how to read .pdf files, but manipulating them without paying Adobe lots of money isn't that easy.

What it'll do is allow you to convert pdf to word for example, edit pdf and even work as a pdf creator. It seems to do most of what the hugely more expensive software does.

So, just to reiterate, if you're working with .pdf files and finding that you cannot manipulate them in hte manner you would like to, have a look at that program and see whether it can help. It's a vastly less expensive option than getting the full Adobe kit.

Dan Brown's new book

Dan Brown's new book, "The Lost Symbol" is now out and in the bookshops and good grief, it's a load of tripe.

It's the ever typical clunky language, monstrous absurdities with plot lines and gross stupitidies with writing style.

But the really sad thing is that it's going to sell millions upon milions of copies and make him even richer.

Can you tell that writers don't like it when another writer does well? You know, the sour grapes thing?

If only the world's most successful novel writer was actually a writer of good novels: or even a good writer.

More on the housing stuff

As you will all know we're still working on this house down here. Working on the outside of it now in fact. We've been looking around for a place that will give us proper shutters and I've just found one, thought I'd pass it on. If you looking for vinyl shutters then click through that link for a good place to go.

Looking for High School Musical?

Interested in the Disney TV show High School Musical? Interestd in not so much the TV show itself and the movie, but the songs?

Excellent, I've been able to find a decent little guide to the High School Musical songs.

There's a brief overview of the ploy of all three episodes so far recorded (in so far as there is in fact a plot) plus a listing of all of the songs on the High School Musical Soundtracks.

If that's the sort of thing you're interested in then that's the place to go. Just click through the link to see more.

Weird names for ships

One of the weird names for a ship has to be the Black Pearl. Think of the history of it for a moment. First it's an East Indiaman converted for the slave trade (eh? There was vastly more profit in the Indies), then it's sunk, after its been burned, then there's a deal with Davy Jones to raise it again.

At which point it goes off apirating in the West Indies. Eh?

The pirates were pretty much cleared out of the West Indies by the 1690s....the East Indiamen didn't get going until the 1730s or so and so, umm, well, anyway, where on earth did the name of the Black Pearl come from?

Someone been having a seance with Old Walt or something?

Getting peace of mind with home security

In these modern and complex times we all need to make sure that we can feel safe at home. Safe both while we're there and know that the home is safe when we'r7e not there. Thats why so many of us install a home security system.

But having decided to do that, which of the various providers of a security system should we use?
There are, after all, a number of different ones so how can we go about making a choice?

Well, let's think through what you might actually want in a system. Obviously, a good price to start with. How about one that starts at a $ a day, less than the price of a cup of coffee? One that's been named a "best buy" by Consumers Digest, that would be nice. 24/7 customer monitoring and been in business since 1874....well, that leaves us with only one choice, ADT.

Click through any of the links to see what they can do for you: and you can get a free consultation too!

Leah Lust and Tiffany Shepherd

Leah Lust, the star of one of the movies in the "My First Sex Teacher" series, labours under something of a problem.

For she was indeed a teacher, and would rather be teaching than what she's doing now. Before, she was Tiffany Shepherd, a teacher in Florida. When money got tight she took a part time job as a bikini clad hostess on a fishing charter. Just a hostess, no hanky panky or anything.

But she got fired from that as the school board were horrified that a teacher might be a "bad role model".

Pretty strange, eh? Getting fired for something innocuous and ending up in porn as a result.

Getting online algebra help

So what do you do if you are looking for Algebra 2 help? No use really running to Mom and Pop for they've changed the whole of math since they were at school (no, really, they have). What would really be useful is if there was some place that offered free online algebra help. And, fortunately, there is.

Algebra help is available simply by clicking through any one of the links in this post. But don't worry, it's not like you're going to have an algebra tutor standing over you, hitting you with a rule every time you forgetwhat x or y are, or how to solve a quadratic equation.

No, the algebra tutoring takes place online, with an online algebra tutor, so that there's no worries about working at your own pace, wanting to go over stuff again or repeat any section. And no, your tutor does not become bored or frustrated with you.

Really, try it out, you can work at your own speed and take your time over it: or you can race through it just as fast as you understand it. Entirely up to you.

Kari Ann Peniche

Oh my, Kari Ann Peniche does seem to have got herself into a spot of bother here.

To set the scene: there's an Eric Dane sex tape out there now floating around the internet. This stars Eric himself, his wife, Rebecca Gayheart and yes, Kari.

OK, fine, sex tape with a trio, so what? Well, the problem with the Eric Dane sex tape is that Rebecca Gayheart and Eric might have paid Kari to be there you see.

And the problem with that is that Kari Ann Peniche is currently suspected of being smoething of a madam amongst the Hollywood set. So the police have the tape and are trying to see if Kari was acting on a professional basis there.

That might not turn out so well.

Rebecca and her hubbie

Rebecca Gayheart seems to have found herself in an interesting situation. For a sex tape that she made with her husband, Eric Dane, is now being flashed all over the internet.

Actually, Rebecca Gayheart's problem isn't so much that she made a sex tape with her husband: such behaviour, while odd, is not in fact illegal. No, what's causing the possible problems is the third person in Eric Dane's sex tape.

That would be Kari Ann Peniche. And the problem that her involvement is causing with the Eric Dane sex tape is that Kari Ann Peniche might in fact have been there on a professional, not freem basis.

Even that should not be too much of a problem if it were not for the fact that Kari is being investigated for romours that she is a madam.....and that's really quite illegal and is the reason that the police are studying the tape so diligently.

Finding commercial mailboxes

One of the nice things about being out here in the country is that, well, we're out here in the coutnry. One of the bad things about being out here in the country is that at times, we're out here in the country.

And that has an impact upon our mail deliveries. The mailman won't come to the house at all: we have to use a commercial mailbox system at the bottom of the road, shared with the other houses around us. That's not all that much of a problem except that the commercial mailbox itself now needs replacing. And that's not just something that you can buy from the store on the corner, is it?

So I've been looking around and found a decent online supplier of a commercial mailbox. Now all I need to do is get the neighbours to sign up to replacing the old one, right?

One slightly naugthy thought does occur: they run a referral service, giving payouts if people get referred through your blog. Should I get one of my neighbours to order the new commercial mailbox though this blog?

Cash for clunkers

Cash for clunkers suspended.

My word, I love stories like this. So the politicians gear themselves up to solve a problem and then fall flat on their faces trying to do so. They put aside a billion bucks for a four month program to get car sales moving. The money runs out in four days.

Just brilliant, don't you think?

Imagine what fun national health care is going to be run by these guys?

Darlene Haynes

Yurk, quite the most disgusting crime. Darlene Haynes has been found dumped in hte closet of her apartment. OK, so far, just another everyday murder.

But Haynes was 8 months pregnant and the baby was cut out of her: no one knows yet pre or post mortem.

Ya gotta be pretty sick to do something like that, cut the baby out of someone. Sheesh.....

Where to play poker?

Yes, we know, there are puritans in the US political system who insist that it is simply immoral, by their view, that you should play poker. Thus they have foisted their morality upon you and said that you cannot play poker.

Well, sorta, for of course there are myriad places where you can indeed play poker online. The question is, which of them do you want to choose to use? Why not have a look at this PKR Review? They appear to have tables running from the playing for pin money to amounts that scare me.

They also run a system whereby you can get a break at sign up. So have a look at the PKR Bonus by clicking through that link. And you can pick up the PKR Bonus Code there.

Quite simply, there are so many sites out there that you can use it's worth finding out about them and seeing which ones offer you a head start, like those bonuses.

Anabela Janke

Anabela Janke has got herself involved in a very weird little story indeed. She is 42, originally Portuguese but now American and she has a little sideline in appearing in porn movies. OK, that's legal so what?

Well, her husband was the Town Manager of Fort Myers Beach and when the Mayor got ahold of the information about Anabela Janke decided to fire her husband.

Quite what for nobody is really sure: you cannot fire a man for what his wife does in her own time. Expect a lawsuit soon enough.....

The benefits of lead generation

It's a long time since I ran a company actually doing this but then lots of my life is a long time ago. But perhaps worth pointing out again the value of lead generating firms like Blueberry Telemarketing.

The thing about your salesforce is that you hired them because they were good at selling. You know, sitting in front of someone who probably does want your product, or something like it, and is really just waiting to be persuaded to sign on the dotted line.

What you don't want them doing is blindly running around the country trying to find out who might want the product, who might be interested, you want them spending their time purely and solely with qualified leads.

This is where telemarketing comes in. Their staff, the trained professionals on the phone, will first source a reasonable database for you to prospect upon. They'll then clean it, bring it up to date, get names, phone numbers and addresses correct. Then they move on to qualified lead generation: finding the decision makers within the target compaies, seeing if they are in the market at the moment, trying to check budgets and then, perhaps if worthwhile, making the appointment for your salesforce to make direct contact.

In this manner a good telemarketing firm can keep your salesforce where you've trained and are paying them to be: pitching your products to interested and possibly willing buyers full time. Using the right firm is well worth it.