Yahoo! Picks - bringing you the best of the Web since 1995

add to my yahoo! View RSS Feed 

 

by Molly McCall
Mon, December 10, 2007, 8:00 am PST

There are many reasons why we love French Laundry at Home. The blog is bold in its endeavor (to make every recipe in "The French Laundry Cookbook"). It's enamored of its subject (cuisine, cooking, and chowing down). And it vividly translates the joie de vivre of the kitchen to the webpage.

Carol, the tour de force behind the site, also has the humor and the moxie to respond to stove-side emergencies with flair. Check out this line from a January entry where things threaten to go awry: "I felt the presence of MacGyver enter my soul, and I flung (flang? flinged?) open the door of the corner cabinet in my dining room to see what I might be able to use." Naturally, the culinary secret-agent saves the day. We leave it to you to find out how.

Why did this passionate home cook (and full-time business woman) start the site—and has she heard yet from Thomas Keller, the legendary chef/owner of The French Laundry? We wrote her to find out...

Hey Carol! You have several great posts explaining why you embarked on this project. Was the blog always a part of your idea of the endeavor? Have you blogged before?

I'd helped clients and others set up blogs but hadn't really done one of my own. I knew if I did a blog, it would have to be interesting not only for readers, but for me. I didn't want to start something I couldn't keep doing, or would lose interest in.

I think blogging is a great way to tell the "story" of what I'm doing with "The French Laundry Cookbook." I love the interactivity and the feedback. It's so much fun to hear from readers who've tried some of these dishes, and it's heart-warming to hear from people who are now buying the book and making the food because they've seen that someone out there is doing it and they want to be more adventurous in the kitchen, too. That's freakin' awesome. Read the full profile...

by Molly McCall
Fri, December 07, 2007, 3:00 am PST

Ever since The New York Times opened its archives to one and all, journalist Jeremy Olshan has jubilantly mined its riches "to prove that everything news is old." Derek Jeter strays into a tax mess? Big whoop! The ball players and umps from 1919 found themselves in a just such a brouhaha. Alarmed over reports of a tsunami smacking the East Coast? Readers were similarly rattled, back in 1878. School officials and teachers tussle over tenure? Yeah, we've heard it before—the year we entered World War I. And, just to prove the steadiness of the New York character, a recent post covering "umbrella umbrage" on Manhattan's sidewalks reminds us that "New Yorkers have been whining in the rain for more than 75 years." Thank heavens for a little consistency.

Filed under: Blogs, News, Media, Newspapers

by Molly McCall
Mon, December 03, 2007, 8:00 am PST

Type "olsen twins" into the Search box on Yahoo! and more than 6 million pages respond to the call. Among the legion of fan sites, fugly comments, and photo extravaganzas devoted to the wisp-thin style icons, one blog is written, edited, monitored, and nourished by a 23-year-old graduate student named Erin Balser.

Erin started MKAshley.com in April on the "global new media network" b5media. Since then, this Toronto-based cultural studies major has launched a Nicole Richie fan site (RichieFan.com), a webpage devoted to David and Victoria Beckham (BeckhamGroupie.com), and a blog that champions green fashion (ChicbyNature.com).

How does a young academic end up the driving force behind a host of positive celebri-blogs? We contacted Erin to find out:

Hey Erin! You have, by our count, four blogs. Is that the right number? How do you do that?!

I do have four. There was one point I had seven (four with b5, one other contract blog, and two personal) but had to scale back when I started school again. How do I do it? Well, I' m an Internet addict and I'm very organized!!

It's gotten easier as I've been doing it longer—I've learned where to find information faster and how to blog faster and that kind of thing. Read the full profile...

by Molly McCall
Mon, December 03, 2007, 3:00 am PST

Some songwriters know the secret to creating a catchy American standard. Irving Berlin was in on the gig. So was Cole Porter. And Rodgers & Hammerstein. Wander through this magical site, and you might slip an entertainment empire onto the list, too: the Walt Disney Company. In one visit to this blog devoted to covers of Disney songs, we listened to Usher's rendition of a "Tarzan" tune, Jimmy Cliff's take on "The Lion King," The Supremes revisiting "Pinocchio," and Bobby McFerrin's version of that magical "Cinderella" melody, "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo." Put it together and what have you got? Bibbidi-bobbidi-wonderful. The mouse's oeuvre has inspired artists of every musical stripe, from Louis Armstrong to Tom Waits. The site's only been around since July, but it's already drawn guest contributions from fantastic audio bloggers. As another source of classic American tunes would say, "'S marvelous."

by Molly McCall
Fri, November 30, 2007, 8:59 am PST

Daryl Hannah drives the coolest, blackest biodiesel El Camino. Madonna sparked a rumpus with animal advocates when her sheep sashayed across the grass in fashionable hues of bright pink and blue. And Batman has some Hong Kong residents up in arms with a request to keep their lights on full-force for a week. Pow!

These—and many other juicy tidbits—can be found on Ecorazzi, "the latest in green gossip." This vivacious, eco-friendly blog sprang onto the scene in August and has since attracted a crack team of contributors devoted to tracking Hollywood's green, or not so green, beat.

Rebecca Carter, of greenerMIAMI, and Groovy Green's Michael d'Estries co-founded the celebri-blog. We chatted with Rebecca over instant messenger to see how things are going...

Hey there, Rebecca! You and Michael both had thriving blogs when you started Ecorazzi. What made you join forces for a new site?

It was an instant message, in fact. Apparently, Michael had been seeing what crazy traffic gossip sites like Perez Hilton receive, and I had recently written a piece about Green Celebrities. He IM'ed me and asked what I thought of doing a whole blog on the topic. Kind of harnessing the popularity of celebrities for good...

In the blogging world, if you have an idea that no one has come up with yet, and you think it's a good one, you might as well give it a shot. It only takes a day to start a blog. We didn't expect this kind of popularity at all. We've been running to catch up ever since. Read the full profile...


Copyright © 2007 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - Copyright/IP Policy