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18: Percentage of households that watch "American Idol," today's top-rated TV show

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23 hours, 15 minutes: Average time Americans tuned to local radio stations in 1993

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19 hours, Louis Vuitton Replica Watches 15 minutes: Average time Americans tuned to local stations in 2005

52: Percentage of Americans who read daily newspapers today

81: Percentage who read daily papers 40 years agoSource: Wired magazine

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PARENTING

Helping parents resist the siren song of marketers. by Valerie Weaven-Zercher

The branding of childhood is almost clich茅 by now. Who hasn't heard the statistics? Kids recognize logos by 18 months old. The typical first-grader can name 200 brands. The average American kid watches 40,000 commercials a year. The corporate takeover of childhood is so evident that even Parents, a glossy magazine chockablock with advertisements, can publish-with no trace of irony-an article subtitled "How Corporations Turn Our Kids into Consumers."

Less examined until recently, however, are the ways parents themselves have become marketing targets. The increase in marketing to children can actually distract parents from jewellery pandora seeing how businesses target them directly, writes journalist Pamela Paul, author of Parenting, Inc. Indeed, long before the child in the shopping cart can point to the SpongeBob fruit snacks or beg for the Cinderella bed sheets-in fact, even before he or she is born-parents' desire to raise safe, healthy, smart, and happy offspring is being rigorously studied and engineered. The "mom market" is estimated to be $1.7 trillion annually, according to Paul, with the toy market aimed at babies between birth and age 2 totaling more than $700 million a year.

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If numbers aren't proof enough that a new era of parenthood consumption has dawned, a visit to a baby or children's superstore should suffice. There you'll find videos to make your baby a genius, $150 diaper pails, luxury strollers, and crib mobiles operated by remote control. One baby superstore chain has stores containing more than 20,000 products. Then there are the services that accompany the burgeoning raft of consumer goods: baby sign-language classes, toddler gyms, and baby-name consultants.

Walking through Babies R Us after reading Paul's book or jour- nalist Susan Gregory Thomas' Buy, Buy Baby (both of which investi- gate the rise in marketing to par- ents), it's easy to look askance at such overkill. Yet even those who consider themselves critical of consumer culture sometimes find the anxiety of early parenthood destabilizing. There's a "subtle form of persua- sion enforced by not only mar- keters but also by colleagues and friends," says Katherine Turpin, assistant professor of religious education at Iliff School of Theology, and a mother of three who has written about branding and faith. Even parents who shelter themselves from commercial media can find it "hard to resist the attractions of consumer culture," Turpin says, "especially when they are layered over with a middle-class ethos of obtaining 'what's best Fake Chole Handbags for our kids.'"

But you don't have to be middle-class to be vulnerable to advertisers' claims. Thomas says that many electronic toys for young children are marketed to working-class parents-especially parents who speak English as a second language-who may think they aren't qualified to offer their kids a sufficiently "educational" start in life. "They become convinced that the toy itself becomes the teacher, that there's value in giving the toy that role," Thomas says.

CONSIDERING THE EVIDENCE, it is tempting to view marketers as corporate bullies out to hoodwink anxious parents. In an era of Web-based viral marketing, however, that portrayal is not entirely accurate. These days, parents who blog often review products, such as the latest baby sunglasses or personalized onesies, and corporations are only too happy to provide them with free product samples. Then there's network marketing, which follows in the tradition of Tupperware parties. Parents-usually mothers-sign up as consultants ; with companies to sell baby cloth- j ing or educational toys to their 路 friends, relatives, and neighbors, s Thomas says both phenomena are j due to young parents' tendency to France uniform \cf0 depend on friends rather than! family for advice and support. 脥 "Gen Xers tend to be very suspicious of authority," Thomas says. "They take their cues from their peers."

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While the most effective route to a Gen-X parent's purse is through her Gen Xers are susceptible to parent-targeted marketing via more traditional advertising venues as well, "We were the first generation to grow under uncensored, unprotected Thomas says. "When inner life is so informed and shaped by the rubric of marketing, it's almost impossible to disentangle yourself." In Buy, Buy Baby, Thomas quotes fellow journalist John Seabrook, who has written about the "marketer within"-the voice of marketers that many Gen Xers internalized during a childhood bathed in television commercials. "Marketing no longer seems like an alien, external, manipulative force," Seabrook said. "Rather, it's just part of your world."

Gen-X parents may be particularly vulnerable to marketers for a more psychological reason as well. "Marketers say Generation X shops compulsively to stem their childhood fears of abandonment," Thomas writes in her book, citing her own childhood as a latchkey kid who watched TV in an empty house with her brother every afternoon. "To reverse that legacy, Gen Xers overstimulate, overschedule, overshop for, and over-obsess about their own children."

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MILLIONS of Brits dream of buying a place in the sun. We watch the TV shows, we read the magazines, sometimes we even get the house details... but most of us just carrying on dreaming.

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Buying a house and moving home are stressful enough in this country. The thought of all that hassle in another country with different rules, often using a foreign language, is just too much to contemplate. Yet thousands of Brits DO find a place in the sun every year. The number of households with second homes abroad rocketed by 30 per cent from 194,000 in 1999-2000 to 254,000 in 2003-2004. If you're still stuck at the dreaming stage, KAREN ROCKETT has devised a beginner's guide to take you a few steps closer...

WHICH COUNTRY?

YOU may have had wonderful holidays in a favourite spot for a succession of fortnights in August - but would you enjoy being there in all seasons for years to come? Make sure you know what to expect.

Flight times and cost from the UK are a big considerations too, as are distance from the airport, local amenities, cost of living, the culture, the food, and the language.

"You need to seriously consider the language barrier," says Sarah Tucker, 41, writer and presenter of ITV1's I Want That House Revisited, who has her own holiday home in France. "In some countries this is less important, but don't consider buying in France if you're not prepared to learn the language."

This applies to anywhere remote or where English is rarely spoken. If you can't or won't learn the local lingo stick to Florida, big European cities or ex-pat communities on the Spanish Costas.

WHICH TYPE OF PROPERTY?

THE choices are off-plan, re-sale or renovation. An off-plan property is part of a new development that hasn't been completed and may not have been started. It can be the easiest way to buy abroad, but make sure Breitling Replica Watches the developer has a banker's guarantee and that there are clauses in the contract to cover any delays in the building work. You will be expected to pay a 10 per cent deposit and make regular contributions as work progresses.

A re-sale is an existing property which you buy in much the same way as you would at home. In some countries Chloe Fake you need to make absolutely sure of the ownership of the land and property. In Greece and Spain land disputes are common.

A renovation may sound like a romantic option and appear cheaper but it can be extremely time- consuming and costly. You need to budget carefully and be prepared to spend lots of time supervising major works if you want things to get done. Not for the faint- hearted.

RENT, RELAX OR RETIRE?

IF you plan to rent out the property you need to work out how much it will make you each year. Even the best property in the best location won't be let all year round. The most you can hope for is 80 per cent - will this be enough to cover your mortgage plus service charge?

An area close to an airport with good facilities is easier to rent out. If your property is in a managed block the agency may help find tenants for a fee.

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Otherwise you need a good website or lots of friends and family.

If the property's your own holiday home you can afford to go more off the beaten track, but if you don't pick somewhere accessible with a good climate you won't spend much time there. Anything more than six or seven hours away door-to-door will never be a good weekend retreat.

If you plan to retire to your holiday home in the end you need to consider if you could live there as you grow older. Look at the economic and political stability, the climate, the culture, health care and the language, and talk to ex-pats who've already made the move.

PROPERTY FAIRS

THESE are good places to start - the price of different types of properties should give you a good idea of what you might like and what you can afford.

You can also meet agents, developers and financial experts, attend seminars and pick up useful information and contacts without having to travel to the country in question at this stage.

Property fairs and shows are held throughout the year up and down the country. Keep an eye on your local Press for details or try searching on the internet to find a show in your area.

There are also fairs run by single companies. These can be useful if you have already narrowed down your search but it will be a strictly Fake Breitling limited selection and usually off-plan only.

There's a World of Property Show at Sandown Racecourse in Surrey from March 17-19 (call 01323 726 040) and an Opportunities Abroad show on

March 25-26 at the SECC in Glasgow. Contact the venue for tickets and more information.

TOUR OF INSPECTION

IF you're serious about buying, some developers offer you the chance to visit the countr y and view several properties in an organised, time- and cost-efficient way. They will arrange your flights and hotel, pick you up from the airport and drive you round while you're there. Trips can last from two to four days and are sometimes free of charge. Otherwise you may be reimbursed for your flights when you sign up or pay a reduced charge of around pounds 100 for the trip.

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Serge Weinberg started his career as a civil servant in the French administration from 1976-1981. Following that, Jr. (Managing Director of the Board) and Michael Wunderman (Creative Director of the Board). Antonio Calce, Switzerland since 1955. Recognized as an exclusive Zenith Baume & Mercier, Chief Executive Officer, Gucci Group.

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Some conclude from the closing of Gourmet magazine that foodies have disappeared. I'm think there are more foodies than ever. As it closed, Gourmet still had almost a million subscribers. Millions more watch the Food Channel, visit farmers' markets, or buy into local farms to get just-picked veggies. They patronize ethnic restaurants and shop at Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Wegmans, Kroger, Publix, Nob Hill, and 1,000 other stores that offer wonderful sauces, cheeses, Gucci Bracelet meats, soups, pesto, fresh produce, and increasingly local crops. Their grocery stores offer ethnic specialties and international flavors that stretch palates, while responding to the needs of changing demographics. Showing interest in basmati rice and rice noodles, a new generation of foodies is exploring the cuisines of distant lands and exotic vegetables from local farm plots. They are reading Michael Pollan as well as cookbooks, following the careers of celebrity chefs and the rise and fall of restaurants, and eating Indian, Cuban, Creole, Vietnamese, Middle Eastern, and even French. Yes, in spite of the economy, new French restaurants are sprouting up around the U.S. and in Europe and generating buzz and lines. People in Philadelphia are singing the praises of Bibou (their mushroom appetizers really are heavenly), and revisiting the one and only Le Bec Fin thanks to a relaxed dress code and creative price promotional offers including a gamble on patrons' ability to appreciate quality: "Pay what you think it's worth." I did some focus groups for Le Bec Fin this summer and heard many locals say that it was the stiff dress code and high beverage prices more than the high food prices that kept them away. Celebrating occasions with authentic and wonderful food still has wide appeal, but wines at $100 a bottle are out of step with today's anxious marketplace. In New York, a French steakhouse called Le Relais de Venise, also called L'Entrecote, is joining two branches in London and one each in Barcelona and Bahrain.

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It's ironic that Gourmet magazine should be shut down when French food is reflowering and Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking remains on the best seller list. One of our panelists wrote that "everything is out of whack." I haven't heard "out of whack" in a long time, but it seems like an apt description of the anxious and wacky world we live in.

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Dartmoor News as interesting as ever, always full of lively comments and pictures. Editor Paul Rendell certainly gets around the moor, often sending me wildlife snippets. I like to browse back through a few occasionally to see from the latest, what's been "catching up" across the year. Get the News from The Coach House, Tramlines Lane, Okehampton, or phone 01837 54727.

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There is also an Exmoor magazine full of interest and colour from Halsgrove Publishing, Tiverton, or call 01884 243242. Good stuff.

As I write it is raining hard, the view across the tidal Taw to Ashford village pretty well obscured. As the crow flies the river is about 300 yards away, with broad-leaved woods and fields between us and it. Across the water there's Pottington Estate, green hills, and I can see the woods where I Replica Girard Watches grew up as a whipper-snapper. So, even in really rough weather it makes for good wildlife watching with never a dull moment. Binocular or telescope and you zoom in close to nature. 'Ansome.

In the rain a pair of dunnocks feed on the bird table, and a song thrush hops through the fernery seeking snails. I saw a blackbird eating small banded snails this week, a bit unusual I thought.

I was chatting with Tony Beard, the Wag of Widecombe, recently about changes we've seen, collared doves now common, Canada geese numbers increasing and little egrets breeding in the Westcountry. Will spoonbills be next, I wonder. We chatted, too, about mink and their often adverse effect on other wild creatures including the water vole. And now wild boars are getting about.

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If it's true the average person has to hear something about seven times before it sinks in, then we're getting used to the idea that, as a nation, we're physically heavy. You can't open a newspaper, read a magazine or watch TV for more than an hour without tripping over the message somewhere.

But for whatever reason, there's apparently a disconnect somewhere in the communication chain, according to a just released survey by the Michigan-based health-care research firm Thomson Medstat.

If the 11,000 respondents truly are representative of the general public, it seems we're a little unclear on the vocabulary of healthy living.

The survey found that about 40 percent of those who qualify as obese (about one-third of Americans overall, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) say they exercise vigorously at least three Gucci Earrings times a week. And more than 75 percent of them said they have healthful eating habits.

A representative of Thomson Medstat told the Associated Press he thought there might be "some denial" going on, or perhaps they simply don't understand what it means to have healthful eating and exercise habits.

I can't blame people for being confused. We've been bombarded with mixed messaged on all sorts of health-related topics. You open your nutrition manual one morning and find you're four fruits short of adequate because the guidelines have changed. Take X, it's good for you. Woops. Maybe not. This pill will cure you -- if it doesn't hurt you with an unexpected side effect. Try this exercise. Unless. . . .

I share the frustration and sense of confusion. I hate the fact that it seems anything that tastes good to me is bad for me. And too many of the things I've been told I should eat I would simply rather not.

Do a search of an online bookstore and you'll find literally hundreds of different books on dieting and healthful eating, many of which concretely contradict each other in their approaches to weight loss.

I receive a steady flow of health guides on many different topics that take often-opposite views. Aaagh!

Some basics do seem pretty clear. Critics of the survey say that it didn't address issues of quantity, which would certainly seem relevant. I dare say that portion size is one of the biggest factors in who falls into which weight category. Most people have no idea what a portion's supposed to be. That deck of card-size piece of meat that's recommended looks pretty small to most of us.

Then again, maybe there are contradictions, because the answer really is not one-size-fits-all.

Perhaps, eventually, science will show that two different, but not contradictory approaches to health care as a whole hold some of the answers to our weightier questions. Evidence-based medicine calls for use of proven best practices (as opposed to fads or, in the case of weight loss, fad diets). Another growing trend (still more on the horizon than on the pharmacy shelves) says individually targeted treatments will make the difference, perhaps based on genetics or ethnicity or some as yet unknown factor.

As for exercise, you clearly have to find something active that you enjoy enough to stick with it, then make time to do it.

Time's my biggest barrier to blooming health -- and my favorite excuse for my lapses. I use it to Jaeger LeCoultre Replica explain how I eat and my activity level.

I'm starting to wish that someone would simply make up a perfect- nutrition pill (please, for the 50 companies that will respond, claiming to have done just that, don't). And a way to, as Jim Croce sang, put time in a bottle.

Deseret Morning News staff writer Lois M. Collins may be reached by e-mail at

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