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An increased number of luxury tabletop and home entertaining lines, and some 25 new and returning companies were among the highlights in Tabletop & Housewares at the summer 2008 New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF), held August 16-21, 2008, at New York City's Jacob K. Javits Center, Metropolitan Pavilion and Passenger Ship Terminal Piers 92 & 94. »

"No matter how old you are, you need to eat your oatmeal…" advises Dana Jacobi in her book, 12 Best Foods Cookbook (Rodale, 2005). As one of the highly touted "super foods," that is food that contains high amounts of antioxidants and other phytonutrients, oats (Avena sativa) are as good for you as they are good to eat. »

In Woody Allen's 1977 comedy classic "Annie Hall," Allen and Diane Keaton are standing in line at the movies as a man behind them is loudly discrediting Marshall McLuhan's theories. Allen turns to him and says, "I happen to have Marshall McLuhan right here" and then pulls the philosopher and educator from behind a film poster. Allen breaks character and says to the camera, "Wouldn't it be nice if life were really like that?" »

So far, you've done everything right. Your receiving procedures are impeccable and your walk-ins are immaculate. Your FIFO system (First In, First Out) is working like a well-oiled Swiss watch, and there is more hand-washing going on than in a Senate subcommittee. »

Were Charles Dickens to come back and declare that these were the best of times and the worst of times, he would undoubtedly be labeled an optimist. »

I have a marketing problem. While for the most part I've been consulting and teaching marketing in the graduate school of business, I've run into an economy that makes my students and clients feel like they are salmon swimming upstream. They'd much prefer to be white-water rafting downriver with a big wind at their back. »

Many years ago when I first went off to college, I learned to cook. Part of the reason was that I liked to eat and, being a poor college student, it was easier to eat well by eating at home. But the other reason was that I found that the old adage of the way to a man's heart being through his stomach worked the other way as well. »