The "Daisy" Touch....

Everything he touches turns to… alive? A unique twist on the Midas Touch fable, one of ABC’S latest hits, Pushing Daisies, leaves viewers oddly enraptured with a once-taboo subject; death.

Piemaker Ned (Lee Pace) learns of his “gift” as a young child. When he touches the dead, they come back to life. One more touch and they are deceased again. However, in a cruel twist he has exactly 60 seconds to return them to the dead before they are permanently brought back to life.

To make things even more complicated, anything he keeps alive will result in the death of something or someone in its place.

His gift turns out to be quite lucrative when Ned crosses paths with special investigator Emerson Cod (Chi McBride), who convinces him to join forces. Ned helps Emerson solve murder mysteries and rake in the dough by interrogating the morgue’s latest guests and solving cases.

Ned seems to have his secret contained until he is called to the latest victim of a mysterious murder, Charlotte “Chuck” Charles (Anna Friel). After discovering it is his childhood sweetheart sleeping in the mahogany box before him, he makes the decision to keep her alive…at the sacrifice of others. To combat the minor problem of not being able to touch her, Ned creatively finds ways to allow for contact. Saran wrap kisses and a beekeeper-uniform waltz leave viewers giggling at the silliness of their circumstances.

After her impromptu resurrection, Chuck becomes the third party in Ned and Emerson’s triumvirate of the dead. While hiding out from her mourning aunts Vivian and Lily (Ellen Greene and Swoosie Kurtz), she plays the perky sidekick to grumpy Emerson and constantly-stressed Ned.

This is much to the chagrin of Ned’s secret admirer, vivacious Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth), who plays the only employee in Ned’s pie shop. Her constant scheming to snag her love combined with her penchant for performing musicals (alone) in her low-cut uniforms perfectly complement the already-fanatical story lines.

Producer Bryan Fuller effectively turns a grim subject into a laugh-out-loud comedy. With off the wall plotlines and ironic elements, such as dandelion-powered cars and morbidly obese grave-robbers, Pushing Daisies is sure to keep viewers glued to their sofas every Wednesday in anticipation of the trio’s next adventure.

Generation Techno- Savvy

"The Paradox of our time in history is that...we have more degrees but less sense"
-George Carlin

Today’s typical college student can barely remember a time when the internet was non-existent. As the years continue, the number of students that rely on technology to aid their learning will continue to grow rapidly. It is officially the Golden Age of the computer, internet, and technological advancement.

The only problem? Schools haven’t exactly caught up…and are losing the attention of students with outdated course requirements and lesson plans.

A typical college syllabus contains multiple lecture sessions, a few multiple-choice exams and midterms, along with various reading assignments and busy work.

For classes that require attendance, most students drudgingly attend lecture sessions with their prized laptops in tow so as not to lose points for absences. What the professors can’t see, however, is that while many appear to be earnestly taking notes as they’re clicking away, most are actually shooting out emails or checking their MySpace accounts for new picture comments.

Instructors will assign endless chapter summary assignments to supplement lectures and ensure that students have actually completed the reading. Though they might be surprised to learn that a good chunk never even crack open the text and many don’t even purchase it in the first place! Wouldn’t it seem that it’s time for change when students can still pass a course with flying colors without even glancing at a “required” textbook?

Sprinkled throughout most courses are also multiple choice exams, filled out on Scantrons, which do more to kill trees than teach students. While once considered a tool to evaluate a student’s comprehension of the material taught , it is becoming a reality that rote memorization of useless information might not be the way to go. Just because a college student spends 4 hours the night before a midterm committing a study guide to his/her memory does not mean it’s actually been absorbed.

Instead of evaluating a professor’s success by how many A’s are earned in his course, it might be more accurate to track how many students go on to actually use the information they are “taught” in their everyday lives or how many college graduates obtain jobs where the material they’ve been taught is relevant. Isn’t the point of a college education to prepare students for the “real world” or the workforce?

Sadly, college students have stopped paying attention. In order to cope, many lug an arsenal of technology to school with them to keep themselves entertained: laptops, cell phones, iPods, etc.. Warm bodies fill classrooms but their minds are playing hooky.

So what’s the answer then? How can educators reel students back in and make their mounting debt worth the while?

While basic reading and writing skills are absolutely imperative to functioning as a competent adult, technology intervention is the answer. Slideshow presentations, email forums, web-enhanced courses, chat room discussions, and hands-on experiments are just some of the tools that many instructors are using to grab the attention of their many visual learners.

Assigning an essay on YouTube or keeping in contact with students via Facebook might seem foreign and even intimidating to many educators, but we live in a world where novel ideas are the most attractive and with so much stimuli attacking the brains of students on a daily basis (radio, TV, internet, magazines, music downloading, email, text messaging, etc.), it has become critical for professors to fight off the outside distractions and grab the focus of seemingly sidetracked pupils.

As technology continues to advance and multimedia becomes more accessible everyday, classrooms have a multitude of options at their fingertips.

College students are enrolled because they want to be… now is the time to take control of the educational institution before it falls through the cracks.

Crush 29....

Immediately upon entering Crush 29’s massive double doors, you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to leave your troubles at the door. You might also be surprised to find how fun it is to watch the movers and shakers of Placer County at the trendy, upscale eatery.

Special touches like the complimentary valet service, the outdoor lounging couches, and even the fancy breadsticks served in glasses attempt at differentiating Crush from every other restaurant in town. However, one can’t help but wonder who really wants to sip their wine in a lounge area that overlooks not only a Chevron station but a busy intersection.

Once inside, it’s a different story. You’ll most likely find yourself gravitating towards the enormous circular bar, where you can enjoy their specialty martini, the “Crushtini”, which will leave your nose tickling from the dry ice cleverly placed in the bottom. Or, for the winos in the crowd, Crush features an impressive wine list of over 50 glasses.

If you absolutely love your selection, you can purchase from a selection of over 150 bottles at their in-house wine shop, where they also offer wine-tasting. In addition, each week a chef from a different winery visits to offer a special menu made to pair with a specialty wine.

The designers of the restaurant successfully created a lounge-like atmosphere that invites diners to stay as long as their glasses are filled. The overhead lighting bathes the venue in warm lighting and is set to dim when nighttime falls. The eclectic choice of jazz and house music adds to the hip ambiance, but makes it difficult to actually hear any sort of conversation you might be attempting to have.

Conversation seems irrelevant as soon as the waiter brings your orders to the table. Your taste buds will be rejoicing from the large selection Crush offers. Treat yourself to appetizers like Lamb Lollipops or Beef Butter Cups (thinly sliced beef tossed with cucumber and carrots in a to-die-for spicy sauce) and you will eagerly be anticipating the entrée. Portions are just enough to share and stave your hunger but still leave room for the next course.

The Jade Mountain Chicken is an unlikely pairing but will please an array of diners. Roasted chicken, covered in mozzarella, rests on a pile of rice laying in sun-dried tomato sauce. Or, if you’re up for something a little more traditional, the Margherita pizza never disappoints. The kitchen features a brick pizza oven, cooking the pies to perfection. All of the entrees come out of the kitchen looking more like art than food, which makes sense once you taste a bite of your masterpiece.

It’s smart to arrive at this particular eatery with an open wallet. The typical plate costs about a reasonable $12-$25, but the bar tabs can quickly add up. While it may not be reasonable to dine out on a weekly basis, the restaurant is perfect for special occasions.

The Alizadeh family is already planning an big brother to Crush, which will also be built in the Roseville area, just a street away. The restaurant will costs $10 million and will feature even more of an upscale experience, which will be hard to do but they promise to please.

Cheers!