A friend sent me an article recently about this new Must-Have Mommy gadget, the Scanalog.

Picture this scenario. You tear a page out of the new Chadwicks catalog of a dress you're totally going to buy once the recession is over, then you snip a recipe from an issue of Martha Stewart Living that you'd like to try for Thanksgiving '09. You follow up by ripping out an exercise regime from a fitness magazine that you want to incorporate into your workout the next time you hit the gym. The ripped out pages go into a pile and mysteriously disappear when you go looking for them. Similar to the way socks curiously get lost in the dryer, your torn out pages get lost in the Bermuda Triangle of your home.

Sound familiar?

Say goodbye to clipping articles and tearing out pages from catalogs and magazines that you'll never find again. The Scanalog is a CD-ROM software system you can use to store, catalog and retrieve your favorite articles from all of your favorite magazines and catalogs. With 11 master categories that cover a range of women’s interests, from Home Decoration to Gardening, you'll find the perfect place to store your article so it'll be easy to find later.

My question is, why stop at just magazines and catalogs?! Considering all of the various items I've accumulated over the years, I would LOVE this. I have recipes that I’ve been saving for 20 years, and with 3 kids and every single school project, report card, award, honor, etc, it would be an absolute joy to have them all scanned and saved in a neat folder taking up RAM, instead of square footage in my garage. Currently I have 6 enormous 3 x 2 foot Tupperware garage storage containers filled with all of my kid's memorabilia, and the pile is only growing. Come to think of it, the Scanalog would also be great for storing financial statements, home receipts and other important documents that need to be organized.

There is only one caveat to this breakthrough device. Who, in all honesty, has all that time to scan??? If I were a stay at home mom with nothing to occupy my time… then maybe I'd turn it into a fun hobby, scrapbooking and scanning my day away, but I know how long scanners take and there is no way that I would have the patience to stand and scan through those 6 enormous boxes of memories. Now I have a grand idea… let’s hire a high school student to do all of the scanning grunt work, then I can cut, paste, move and organize everything exactly the way I want it.

Would that count as community service for college?

Posted by at 1:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm stressed.

I run a successful business.
I have three kids.
Stress is my middle name.

Because of my family history of heart problems, my doctors suggested I have a stress test. When I announced this to my kids, my oldest daughter yelped out:

"Oh no Mom, you're gonna fail!"

Thanks for the vote of confidence sweetie. At first I laughed, but it made me think...are stress tests more stress than they're worth?

After doing my research on WebMD on Heart Disease and Stress Tests I felt a little more prepared for my Super Stress Examination. Apparently I'll be walking/running on a treadmill and pedaling away on a stationary bike so doctors can monitor me and how my body responds to exertion. That doesn't sound so bad. No more stressful than a day at the gym.

Hold the phones. I just read the section on how to prepare for my Stress Test -

1. I can't eat or drink anything except water for four hours before the test.
2. I can't drink caffeine for 12 hours before the test since caffeine will interfere with the results.

So let me get this straight. You're taking away my coffee and making me exercise on an empty stomach?!

I've got news for you Doc. You might want to hook yourself up to those monitors as well, because dealing with me early in the morning for a strenuous workout while withholding food and my beloved Starbucks is totally going to stress you out.

I promise.

Posted by Leslie Linevsky at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I took a trip down south last week to the Actors' Playhouse in Coral Gables to see a play that has still left me in stitches.

Bombshells the Musical is based on the true story of The Miami Bombshells, a circle of six perfectly imperfect women who grew from stressed out strangers to lifelong friends. By airing their dirty laundry once a month for two years through laughter, tears and unbreakable spirits, they found support in one another through all of life's trials and tribulations from love and family to sex and secrets. They even wrote a book about it called Dish and Tell that highlights the true power behind their female bonding.

It all started with Pat. Patricia San Pedro was the original Bombshell who brought together 5 female Miamians and virtual strangers who had never previously met - 4 Jews and 2 Latinas began to gather once a month religiously despite their religious differences for tasty helpings of wine, chocolates and therapeutic dumping sessions where they could get together, enjoy each other's company, and dish it like it's never been dished before.

What a novel idea! Imagine, forming your own support group and saving thousands of dollars in psychotherapy co-payments while you rack up sincere, unbiased feedback from women who don't know you from Adam or Eve, so their opinions are completely sincere and unbiased. Good times and bad times were both played out on the stage with more women's issues a-blazing than in any issue of Ladies Home Journal or Cosmopolitan. From ragging on in-laws and kids to health scares, parental deaths to lesbian experiences, it all came out.

It wasn't all tears and hardship though. My favorite comedic moment focused on a single mom of 2 who invented an innovative sex toy while simultaneously zipping through 27 nannies. She discovered how easy it was to forget her troubles simply by putting her childrens' Vick's menthol patches directly on her hooha. Cleverly named the "Pie Patch", all 6 actresses excused themselves to try on their pie patches in private and when they returned, the pie patches hit the fan. All 6 ladies enjoyed their patches with orgasmic results that were ten times more hilarious than any old pie in the face bit.

Pat, the Bombshell founder and originator dealt with her biggest bombshell when she was diagnosed with cancer, eventually undergoing a double masectomy. Pat along with 2 other real-life bombshells were actually in the audience on the night I was there. Seeing her there in the flesh with her hair just beginning to grow back was the highpoint of the evening.

It made me want to reiterate as I have in the past, the true power of girlfriends and sisterhoods. Men come and go, kids grow up and head off to college, but your girlfriends (both old and new) will always be there to help you clean up and pick up the pieces, no matter what bombs come crashing through your shelter.

Posted by Leslie Linevsky at 8:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I read this brilliant article recently by John R. MacArthur regarding The Catalog Factor, a theory detailing why investors should buy newspaper stocks and disregard all of the menacing rumors predicting the imminent death of newspapers.

Newspapers have two functions. To report the news and like any other business, to turn a profit. It's no secret that newspapers and magazines acquire a large majority of their profits through advertising. Circulation helps, but it's the ads that bring home the bank.

In a sea of World Wide Web advertising trends, it is Mr. MacArthur's prediction that printed publications will indeed survive and thrive, not only because people would prefer reading their news on tactile paper rather than a computer screen, but due to 'the “unavoidability factor” — that no one, no matter how tech- and screen-oriented, can avoid the advertising printed on paper, at least not without unusual effort.'

It made me reflect on our business here at Catalogs.com and the catalog industry as a whole. Some retailers may feel that catalogs are becoming obsolete because of the spikes in online shopping, but it is proven that once consumers have picked up their mail, even the most internet obsessed folks will still flip through and scan their catalogs and junk mail, searching for anything that will stand out and grab their attention. Once they find that special something, those catalogs will no doubt be placed in a keep pile with favorite items circled and eventually purchased.

MacArthur goes on to state that trying to replace catalogs with the World Wide Web just doesn't work. Customers may order online, but most of them are responding to a mailing or an ad found - that's right- in catalogs and newspapers.

Good news for us, and for catalog shoppers everywhere. So never fear, catalogs are here to stay.

Posted by Leslie Linevsky at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)