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Picture of the Year 2009

Want to Look Older? Start Smoking!

Lisa picked up smoking in her sophomore year to fit in with her smoking friends. Like most youngsters it started as an ‘occasional’ drag but soon became a habit. And before she realized it, she was smoking a pack a day. And she always thought, “I can quit whenever I want.”

It wasn’t too long before Lisa started looking 10 years older than her age. She was only 28 but her face was marked with wrinkles, especially around her eyes and mouth... It was very evident from her face and hair that she was a smoker: smokers not only develop premature wrinkles and sagging facial skin, they also experience premature thinning and graying of hair. Not only was Lisa’s skin wrinkled, it was also discolored - her complexion sallow instead of a healthy pink...

A paradox of desire, the cigarette that Lisa picked up to look cool became the single most important factor responsible for her far-from-youthful appearance.

Accelerated Aging
Ok, let’s hit you with more of the bad stuff: cigarettes have a direct impact on the skin’s aging. Experts say smoking accelerates the normal aging process of the skin, contributing to wrinkles. Smoking causes narrowing of blood vessels in the outermost layers of the skin. This impairs blood flow to the skin, depleting it of oxygen and important nutrients, such as vitamin A. Also, carbon monoxide in cigarettes bonds with oxygen and keeps it from getting to the skin cells, causing both wrinkles and discoloration of skin. Just 10 minutes of cigarette smoking decreases the body and the skin’s oxygen supply for almost an hour. Smoking also damages collagen and elastin - fibers that give your skin its strength and elasticity. As a result, skin begins to sag and wrinkle prematurely. These effects become evident only after few years of smoking; and guess what, they’re irreversible.

A study has also revealed that smoking inflicts damage even on skin areas which are not normally exposed to sunlight, like the inside of the upper arm. It also affects the healing process of your skin. Wounds and scars tend to take longer time to heal. Your risk of getting skin cancer also increases manifold if you are smoker.

Smoking = Staying Thin
It’s an unforgettable image: Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not, lighting up and hitting good old Bogart with that husky voice and the ‘look’. Tough-as-nails Bogart was suddenly putty, wasn’t he?  Sexy as it might be, smoking does a lot more harm than good for your figure. Often, young women smoke in a misguided effort to stay thin - thanks to the myth that smoking helps you maintain a healthy weight. The truth, however, is that cigarettes kill your appetite and rob the lungs of oxygen, making it harder to exercise normally. If you do happen to keep your weight down because of the appetite-suppressing effects of cigarettes, you will have poor muscle tone. You may be thin, but you won't be in good shape. Healthy weight and smoking just don’t go together.

What Happened to Anti-Aging?
If there’s one thing humankind has been searching for with a persistent, insatiable hunger, it’s for the fountain of youth. Anti-aging elixirs and treatments abound, and every year, millions go under the knife, get Botox™, and more. While there may be nothing wrong with wanting to improve our appearance, correcting defects and boosting self-esteem, it seems strange to think that with a few lifestyle changes, we can actually delay the appearance of those dreaded seams and wrinkles. And the ‘stop smoking’ mantra is a powerful one – it’s sure to help.

Addicted Before You Know It
The warning labels are always printed in large unfriendly letters, but most of us just keep going. We become addicts before we even realize it. And it doesn’t help that people we look up to and admire often do or say things that just make smoking so… so cool somehow (it is said that someone asked Frank Zappa “Why do you smoke?”, to which snapped Zappa “You think you’re going to live for ever?”).

Well, the only thing left to say is that we all know it hurts us eventually. So what we’ve got to do is work out what’s more important: lighting up to feel good, to get through stress, to be cool or whatever; or looking and feeling younger for longer. Once we’ve got that sorted, really sorted, it’s clear what we’ve got to do: stop smoking! It’s hard, but that’s just it.

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Why Ban Smoking in Restaurants & Other Workplaces?

- There is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.

- Even brief secondhand smoke exposure has immediate adverse health effects.

- Nonsmokers exposed to second to secondhand smoke at home or work increased their risk of developing heart disease by 25-30 percent and lung cancer by 20-30 percent.

- Even the most sophisticated ventilation systems cannot completely eliminate secondhand smoke exposure and that only smoke-free environments afford full protection.

- About 3,000 non-smokers die annually from lung cancer caused by secondhand smoke.

- 35,000 non-smokers die annually from heart disease caused by secondhand smoke.

- Secondhand smoke is a Group A carcinogen because it is a known cause of lung cancer in humans and contains 4,000 chemicals including known poisons such as formaldehyde, benzene, and hydrogen cyanide.

- Workers have been awarded unemployment, disability and worker’s compensation benefits for illness due to exposure to secondhand smoke.

- A smoking employee costs the employer at least $1,000 per year in total excess and indirect health care costs.

- Bars and restaurants workers are 11/2 times more likely to die of lung cancer than they would be if bars and restaurants were 100 percent smoke-free.

- Bars and restaurants workers have the highest prevalence of smoking-related lung cancer.

- Eight hours of working in a smoky bar is equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.

- Smoke-filled casinos have up to 50 times more cancer-causing particles in the air than highways and city streets clogged with diesel trucks in rush hour traffic.

- Workers in gambling venues are often exposed to higher levels of secondhand smoke.

- In 2008, 85% of casino patrons surveyed said they preferred a non-smoking environment.

- Nonsmokers regularly exposed to 30 minutes of secondhand smoke suffer death rates 30 percent higher than that of unexposed nonsmokers.

- A half hour of exposure to secondhand smoke dramatically increases a person’s short-term risk of heart attack.

- No properly conducted study shows a negative economic impact. Some even show that a smoke-free measure improves business.

- As evidence mounts about the dangers of secondhand smoke, so does the legal liability of employers—including restaurants.

- In addition, here’s what restaurant owners pay out of pocket by allowing smoking in their establishments:
- Higher maintenance expenses (carpets, drapes, cloths, paintwork)
- Higher insurance premiums (fire, medical, workers comp, liability)
- Higher labor costs (absenteeism, productivity).

- Ventilation systems that cost tens of thousands of dollars may reduce odor, but fail to guard against secondhand smoke's real health dangers.

- The tobacco industry and the HVAC industry have been advised by their attorneys that making any health claims about ventilation exposes them to litigation.

- There is no safe level of secondhand smoke; no feasible ventilation system can control the health risk from secondhand smoke.

- The toxic particles that remain after visible smoke is gone, otherwise known as third-hand smoke, embed themselves in furniture, carpeting, and objects around them and pose an especially great risk to children and infants for cancer and may
affect brain development.

- A smoke-free air law in michigan could lower hospital admissions for heart attacks by up to 3,340 admissions annually.

- There was a 41% drop in those hospitalized in Pueblo, Colorado three years after smoke-free laws were enacted.

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To Regift or Not To Regift...

The Fine Lines of Regifting

A study determined that giving an unwanted gift you received to someone else (regifting) is not considered as unacceptable as in the past.

The market research company, Harris Interactive, surveyed 1,505 American adults and found over half the participants admitted to regifting and 78 percent felt regifting was okay most of the time.

Nancy Wong, a spokeswoman for Harris Interactive, told Reuters, she was surprised that so many surveyed would admit to regifting.

"It's not something I've thought about and when I saw that nearly half had done it -- 52 percent have regifted and or would regift -- it's quite a significant number," Wong said.

Why Do People Regift?

According to the study, 77 percent of those surveyed admitted to re-gifting because the item was better suited for the person who received it. Nine percent admitted to doing it out of laziness and four percent said they regifted because they did not like the person who was getting the gift.

Regifting is not without its guidelines. Much has been written on the proper way to regift and what should and should not be wrapped back up and given away a second time. Here are the Do's and Do Not's for regifting that are most often listed.

What To Avoid When Regifting

a- Don't Regift the Gift Card 

A gift card hidden in tissue in a gift box can easily get passed along in error. Take the item out of the old wrappings and start new.

b- Don't Regift the Gift Wrappings 

Everyone can tell when something has hung around in a gift box for a year. Cardboard gets soft and seems to absorb the odors of wherever it was stored and old gift wrap can be spotted just by the feel of it. When regifting, do not use recycled gift bags, paper or tissue. Throw it all out and buy new and take a little extra time to make the wrapping look fresh and attractive.

c- Don't Tell 

People like to believe gifts they receive were chosen with thought and consideration. If you tell someone you are giving then the silk scarf your Aunt Jane gave you last year, what you are really saying is that you are giving them something you think it ugly or unuseful. The only time you would want to mention giving your gift to someone else is if it isn't presented as a 'gift' but rather as a give-away.

d- Don't Regift the Used or Slightly Used 

There is a big difference between regifting an unused night light or one that you plugged in for two months and decided you no longer want. Remember - a regift is a new item you give to someone else. A hand-me-down is an item you've used and offer to someone else when you decide you no longer have use for it.

e- Don't Forget Where the Gift Came From 

Avoid giving a re-gift to family or friends of the person who originally gave the gift to you. If the regift is displayed, you risk getting caught for giving it away by the person who gave it to you. Keeping a list going of regifts with the name of who gave you the gift can help avoid people pointing fingers at your later.

f- Do Regift Nice Things

Often the items getting regifted are undesirable, such as the bird statue you saw at the drugstore for 75 percent off. Why pass it along? However, if you received a nice gift, such as a wonderful cookbook you already own, do regift it to someone who you know will enjoy it. The nicer the item, the more it makes sense to regift it rather than to let it crumble up in a cabinet along side the Men in Briefs calendar someone thought you'd get a chuckle over.

g- Do Regift Heirlooms 

Perhaps 10 years ago Aunt Jane sent you 12 of her prized crystal water glasses but you already have plenty and the design conflicts with what you are already using. In fact, you have never used the glasses. Regifting the crystal to someone in the family who is just starting off makes sense. Yes, they are used and yes they could be considered hand-me-downs, but none the less the gift has both monetary and sentimental value.

The Number One Rule to Regifting

Regifting is a wonderful way to save money and when done tactfully and with thought, we can accomplish the goal of why we are giving a gift to someone in the first place - because we want them to have something they will enjoy.

Most Dominant NBA Players By Decade

2000s | Shaquille O'Neal
O'Neal, an immediate force when he arrived in the mid-1990s, finally saw his individual dominance rewarded with three consecutive titles, from 2000-02 with the Lakers (when he was named Finals MVP each time). While another Finals appearance with the Lakers went unrewarded in `04, O'Neal won title No. 4 with the Heat in '06. True, O'Neal had plenty of help from Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade in winning those championships, but his size, skills and nimble passing have made him a matchup nightmare for opponents throughout his career.

Fairuz

Nouhad Haddad, born November 21, 1935, famously known as Fairuz, is a Lebanese diva. "A cultural icon of Lebanon", her songs are constantly heard throughout the region, and still spark Lebanese national pride.

She was born in Jabal al Arz (Cedar Mountain) to a Christian family, and converted to Greek Orthodoxy when she married Assi Rahbani, one of the two brothers who helped shaping her singing career. She is also the mother of the Lebanese singer and composer Ziad Rahbani and the Lebanese director and photographer Rima Rahbani.

Fairuz is sometimes referred to as Our (Lebanese) Ambassador to the Stars, Neighbor to the Moon, and the Poet of the Voice.

Biography

1935-1950s - The Early Years

Nouhad Haddad, later known as Fairuz, was born on 21 November 1935 in 'Jabal al Arz', Lebanon into a Maronite Christian family. The family later moved into a home in cobblestone alley called 'Zuqaq el Blatt' in Beirut. Living in a single room of a typical Lebanese stone house facing Beirut's Patriarchate school, they shared a kitchen with the neighbors. Her father, Wadi', worked as a typesetter in a nearby print shop and Lisa, her mother, stayed home and took care of her four children, Nouhad, Youssef, Hoda and Amal.

Nouhad was a shy child and did not have many friends at school. However, she was greatly attached to her grandmother who lived in Debbieh (Shuf area), where Nouhad used to spend the summer. Nouhad adored the simple village life. During the day, she helped her grandmother with house chores and fetched fresh water from a nearby water spring. She used to sing all the way to the spring and back. In the evening, Nouhad used to sit by the candle light with her grandmother who used to tell her stories from her voyage to the United States.

By the age of ten, Nouhad was already well known at her school for her beautiful voice. Legend goes that Fairuz's parents were said to be too poor to afford a radio, so young Nouhad spent her evenings listening to her neighbors' radio through the thin walls, thereby developing her amazing musical ear. She would regularly sing during school festivals and holidays. This is how she came to the attention of Mohammed Fleyfel, a well known Lebanese musician and teacher at the Lebanese Conservatory, who happened to attend one of the school's celebrations in February 1950. He was greatly impressed by her voice and performance and advised her to enroll in the conservatory, which she did. At first, Nouhad's conservative father was reluctant to send his daughter to the conservatory; however, he allowed Nouhad to attend classes at the conservatory on one condition, that her brother accompany her. Nouhad's family encouraged her even though they could not afford much, and one day her father surprised her with a radio.

Fleyfel cared for Nouhad's voice in a fatherly way. Additionally, he taught her verses recitation from the Quran (Recitative style known as Tajweed). One day, prominent Lebanese musician and head of the music department at the Lebanese Radio Station, Halim El Roumi (the father of famous Lebanese singer Majida El Roumi) happened to hear Nouhad sing. He was deeply impressed by her voice and noticed that it had a rare flexibility that allowed her to sing both oriental and western modes admirably. At Nouhad's request, El Roumi appointed her as a chorus singer at the radio station in Beirut and composed several songs for her. He chose for her the name Fairuz, which is the Arabic word for turquoise.

A couple of months later, Fairuz was introduced to the Rahbani Brothers, Assi and Mansour, who also worked at the radio station as musicians. The chemistry was instant, and soon after, Assi started to compose songs for Fairuz, one of which was 'Itab (the third song he composed for her), which was an immediate smash hit in all of the Arab world, establishing Fairuz as one of the most prominent Arab singers on the Arabic music scene. Assi and Fairuz were married on January the 23rd 1955, and Fairuz then converted to Greek Orthodoxy (Assi's sect).

Fairuz had four children: Ziad, a musician and a composer, Layal (died in 1987 of a brain stroke), Hali (paralyzed since early childhood after meningitis) and Rima, a photographer and film director.

Fairuz's first large-scale concert took place in 1957 as part of the Baalbeck International Festival (where she was paid 1 Lebanese Pound only, and performed alongside the British prima ballerina Beryl Goldwyn), sponsored by Lebanese president Camille Chamoun. Musical operettas and sold-out concerts followed for years, establishing Fairuz as Lebanon's most beloved singer, and as one of the Arab world's most popular singers.

1960s - The Establishment of a New Star

Fairuz became the "First Lady of Lebanese singing" (Halim el Roumi) during the 1960s. At that period the Rahbani Brothers had written and composed for her hundreds of famous songs, most of their operettas, and 3 motion pictures. In 1969, as popular as it was, Fairuz’s music was banned from radio stations in Lebanon for six months by order of the Lebanese government because she refused to sing at a private concert in the honor of the Algerian president Houari Boumédienne during his visit to Lebanon. Despite that, Fairuz's popularity soared even higher. Fairuz made it clear that she would not sing to any one individual, neither king nor president, but she would always sing to the people.

1970s - International Fame and The Lebanese Civil War

In 1971, Fairuz's fame became international after her major North American tour, which was received with much excitement by the Arab-American and American community and yielded very positive reviews of the concerts.

On September 22, 1972, Assi suffered a brain hemorrhage and was rushed to the hospital. Fans crowded outside the hospital praying for him and lighting candles. After three surgeries, Assi's brain hemorrhage was halted. Ziad Rahbani, the eldest son of Fairuz and Assi, at age 16, gave his mother the music of one of his unreleased songs "Akhadou el Helween" (that he had composed to be sung by Marwan Mahfouz in "Sahriyyi" Ziad's first play) and his uncle Mansour Rahbani re-wrote new lyrics for it to be called "Saalouni n'Nass" (The People Asked Me) which talked about Fayrouz being on stage for the first time without Assi. Three months after suffering the hemorrhage, Assi attended the premiere performance of that musical "Al Mahatta" in Piccadilly Theatre in Hamra Street. Elias Rahbani, Assi's younger brother, took over the orchestration and musical arrangement for the performance.

Within a year, Assi had returned to composing and writing with his brother. They continued to produce musicals, which became increasingly political in nature. After the Lebanese Civil War erupted, the brothers continued to use political satire and sharp criticism in their plays. In 1977, their musical "Petra" was shown in both the Muslim western and Christian eastern portions of Beirut.

In 1978, the trio toured Europe and the Persian Gulf nations, including a concert at the Paris Olympia. As a result of this busy schedule, Assi’s medical and mental health began to deteriorate. Fairuz and the brothers agreed to end their professional and personal relationship in 1979. Fairuz began to work with a production team lead by her son, Ziad Rahbani, and Assi and Mansour composed for other artists such as Ronza.

During the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), Fairuz never left Lebanon to live abroad and did not hold any concerts there with the exception of the stage performance of the operetta "Petra", which was performed in both the Western and Eastern parts of the then-divided Beirut in 1978. However, during that time period, Fairuz held many very successful and record-breaking concerts and tours in numerous countries around the world.

She made her first European TV appearance on French TV on May 24, 1979, in a "Carpentier special show" called "Numero 1" dedicated to French star Mireille Mathieu. She sang one of her big hits "Habaytak Bil Saif" and was thanked and embraced after performing it by Mireille Mathieu.

1980s - A New Production Team

After the artistic divorce between Fairuz and the Rahbani Brothers in 1979, Fairuz carried on with her son, composer Ziad Rahbani, his friend the lyricist Joseph Harb, and composer Philemon Wehbe. Together, Fairuz and Ziad forged new albums that yielded tremendous success reinforcing Fairuz's and the Rahbani's art as evolving art. Fairuz's works with Philimone Wehbe and Zaki Nassif in the 1980s and 1990s were a very repetitive retro style of singing which yielded no musical richness and which were more or less a failure. Philimone Wehbe, a very traditional composer, had composed songs for Fairuz but under the direction and supervision of Assi Rahbani, and so the music of Philimone working alone with fairuz were not up to par. it proved that all: Fairuz, Philimone Wehbe, and Mansour Rahbani were quite mediocre without Assi Rahbani. Only when working with Ziad Rahbani, Fairuz is able to keep the standard of the work she and her husband achieved. Fairuz also attempted to fill the void of Assi Rahbani by singing for Riyad Al Sunbatti, an Egyptian composer who composed Um Kulthum's main songs. These are unlikely to be released.

This success was yet again prominent all over the world and Fairuz made yet again her second and final European Television appearance on French TV on the 13th of October 1988 in a popular show called "Du côté de chez Fred". Fairuz who had scheduled a concert at the POPB of Paris Bercy concert hall three days later on the 16th of October was the main guest of French TV presenter Frédéric Mitterrand, today France's Minister of Culture (2009). This show is to this day considered to be a very rare and exciting archive showing the Lebanese Diva's rehearsals for her concert at Bercy in addition to the ceremony featuring the then French Minister of Culture Jack Lang awarding Fairuz the medal of "Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres" and a video montage of her previous movies and concerts. In that show, Fairuz also sang the three songs "Ya hourrié", "Yara" and "Zaali tawwal".

1990s - Present
In the 1990s, Fairuz produced six albums (two Philemon Wehbe tributes with unreleased tracks included, a Zaki Nassif album, three Ziad Rahbani albums, and a tribute album to Assi Rahbani orchestrated by Ziad) and held a number of large-scale concerts, most notably the historic concert held at Beirut's Martyr's Square in September, 1994 to launch the rebirth of the downtown district that was ravaged by the civil war. She appeared at the Baalbeck International Festival in 1998 after 25 years of self imposed absence where she performed the highlights of three very successful plays that were presented in the 1960s and 1970s.

She also performed a concert at the Las Vegas MGM Grand Arena in 1999 which was attended by over 16,000 Lebanese spectators. Ever since, Fairuz has held sold out concerts at the Beiteddine International Festival (Lebanon) from 2000 to 2003, Paris (2002), the United States (2003), Amman (2004), Montreal (2005), Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Baalbeck, BIEL (2006), Athens, Amman (2007) Damascus, and Bahrain (2008).

Fairuz now works exclusively with her composer son Ziad.

Her latest album, Wala Keef, was released in 2002.

Her 2008 performance in Damascus caused considerable controversy in Lebanon, given the tense relationship between Lebanon and Syria. Several members of parliament publicly asked her to cancel the concert. She went to Syria where she was received by a crowd of 7000 fans, screaming her name at the borders, as her car passed into Syrian grounds. Mosques and prayers on radio were all held back as Fairuz's songs played day and night through almost every media outlet in the Syrian nation. Radio channels, TV channels, the Syrian satellite broadcasters, restaurants and cafes, and newspapers were all focused on Fairuz's legendary return after 20 years absence. However big this controversy was, it seems it has not affected her popularity in Lebanon as she held the Orthodox Good Friday Prayer Mass in West Beirut as hundreds and hundreds crowded the church premises.

Live Concerts

Fairuz has performed once or more in each of many countries around the globe including Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, France, The United Kingdom, Switzerland, Greece, Canada, The United States of America, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and of course, her very own Lebanon.

Fairuz has performed in many venues such as the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1962, the New York Carnegie Hall in 1971, the London Palladium in 1978, L'Olympia de Paris in 1979, London's Royal Festival Hall in 1986, the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles (1971, 1981, and 2003), the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. (1981 and 1987) among many others.

Fairuz has yielded record-breaking performances in almost every concert she has held around the world. Fairuz, Assi, and Mansour have become the most famous and dominant music production phenomenon in the Arab world, and their music has spread beyond the Arab world to Europe, the Americas, and Australia.

Of Fairuz's numerous concerts, few are officially released. They are the Damascus 1960, Olympia 1979 concert (audio and video released in the 80's), USA tour 1981, Jarash 1983, Royal Festival Hall London 1986, USA tour 1987, Baalbeck 1998 (Video), Las Vegas 1999 concert (on DVD with make over and rehearsals), Beiteddine 2000 and Dubai 2001 (on DVD, it includes parts from concerts in 1997 and 2002 as well as rehearsals from 2001 and 2002 concerts, released May 2008). Pirated versions of other concerts exist: Kuwait 1966, Syria and Egypt 1976, Olympia 1979, Australia 1984, Syria 1985, Bahrain 1987, France 1988, Kuwait1989, Cairo 1989, London 1994, Beirut 1994, and parts of the four Beiteddine concerts (2000-2003), Parts of Dubai concerts (1990-2006), Paris 2002, Amman 2004, Canada 2005, parts of the play Sah Ennawm which was performed in Beirut (2006), Athens 2007 and Bahrain 2008.

Theatrical Works 

Musical plays or operettas were the cornerstone works of the Rahbani Trio, Fairuz, Assi and Mansour. The Rahbani Brothers produced 25 popular musical plays (20 with Fairuz) over a period of more than 30 years. They were possibly the first to produce world-class Arabic musical theater.

The musicals combined storyline, lyrics and dialogue, musical composition varying widely from Lebanese folkloric and rhythmic modes to classical, westernized, and oriental songs, orchestration, and the voice and acting of Fairuz. She played the lead roles alongside singers/actors Nasri Shamseddine, Wadih El Safi, Antoine Kerbaje, Elie Shouayri (Chouayri), Hoda (Fairuz's younger sister), William Haswani, Raja Badr, Siham Chammas (Shammas), Georgette Sayegh and many others.

The Rahbani plays expressed patriotism, unrequited love and nostalgia for village life, comedy, drama, philosophy, and contemporary politics. The songs performed by Fairuz as part of the plays have become immensely popular among the Lebanese and Arabs around the world.

The Fairuz-Rahbani collaboration produced the following musicals (in chronological order):

- Ayyam al Hassad (Days of Harvest - 1957)

- Al 'Urs fi l’Qarya (The Wedding in the Village - 1959)

- Al Ba'albakiya (The Girl from Baalbek) - 1961)

- Jisr el Amar (Bridge of the Moon - 1962)

- Awdet el 'Askar (The Return of the Soldiers - 1962)

- Al Layl wal Qandil (The Night and the Lantern - 1963)

- Biyya'el Khawatem (Rings for Sale - 1964)

- Ayyam Fakhreddine (The Days of Fakhreddine - 1966)

- Hala wal Malik (Hala and the King - 1967)

- Ach Chakhs (The Person - 1968-1969)

- Jibal Al Sawwan (Sawwan Mountains - 1969)

- Ya'ich Ya'ich (Long Live, Long Live - 1970)

- Sah Ennawm (Did you sleep well? - 1970-1971 - 2007-2008)

- Nass min Wara' (People Made out of Paper - 1971-1972)

- Natourit al Mafatih (The Guardian of the Keys - 1972)

- Al Mahatta (The Station - 1973)

- Loulou - 1974

- Mais el Reem (The Deer's Meadow - 1975)

- Petra - 1977-1978

- Elissa - 1979 (Never performed due to the separation of Fairuz and Assi)

- Habayeb Zaman - 1979 (Never performed due to the separation of Fairuz and Assi)

Most of the musical plays were recorded and video-taped. Eighteen of them have been officially released on audio CD, two on DVD (Mais el Reem and Loulou). A pirated version of Petra and one pirated live version of Mais el Reem in black and white exist. Ayyam al Hassad (Days of Harvest) was never recorded and Al 'Urs fi l’Qarya (The Marriage in the Village) has not yet been released (yet a pirated audio record is available).

Discography

Fairuz possesses a large repertoire of around 1500 songs out of which nearly just 800 have been released. She has also been offered prestigious awards and titles over the years (see Fairuz Awards and Recognitions).

Around 85 Fairuz CDs, vinyls and cassettes have been officially released so far. Most of the songs that are featured on these albums were composed by the Rahbani Brothers. Also featured are songs by Philemon Wehbe, Ziad Rahbani, Zaki Nassif, Mohamed Abd El Wahab, Najib Hankash and Mohamed Mohsen.

Many of Fairuz's numerous unreleased works date back to the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s and were composed by the Rahbani Brothers (certain unreleased songs, the oldest of all, are by Halim el Roumi). A Fairuz album composed by Egyptian musician Riad Al Sunbati (who has worked with Umm Kulthum) was produced in the 1980s which are unlikely to be released because they deviate so much from Fairuz's lifetime work with Assi Rahbani. There are also fifteen unreleased songs composed by Philemon Wehbe, which will also not see light as Fairuz was never wholly convinced with Philimon's works in the 1980's when he worked alone without direct supervision from the Rahbanis, and 24 unreleased songs composed by Ziad Rahbani in the 80's.

Fairuz has also released an album on Folkways Records, entitled Lebanon: The Baalbek Folk Festival.

Filmography

Films

Fairuz and the Rahbanis have also had their share of movie production. They produced three films, Biyaa El Khawatem (The Ring Salesman) in 1965 (based on the musical), Safar Barlek (The Exile) in 1967, Bint El Haress (The Guardian’s Daughter) in 1968.

The three films drew large audiences across the Arab world, world theaters, and further introduced Fairuz to the Arab and world audience. These films are released for sale.

Television 

Lebanese Television has featured appearances by Fairuz in the following television programs:

- Al Iswari (The Bracelet)
- Day'it El Aghani (Village of Songs)
- Layali As'Saad (Nights of Happiness)
- Al Quds fil Bal (Jerusalem in my Heart)
- Dafater El Layl (Night Memoirs)
- Maa Al Hikayat (With Stories)
- Sahret Hobb (Oriental Evening)
- Qasidat Hobb (A Love Poem), also presented as a musical show in Baalbeck in 1973

Other television programmes have been recorded for Syrian TV, though neither these nor the ones mentioned above are released for sale.

Documentaries 

- Fairuz in America - 1971
- Fairuz - 1998
- Alone They Remain - 1998
- Arrab El Maw’ed (Time is Upon Us - 1999)
- We Loved Each Other So Much (We Hielden Zoveel Van Mekaar) - 2003
- Kanit 7kayi - It was a story an interview with Fairuz with clippings of Interviews with Assi for his 23 years memorial - 2009

Behind Bars®: Guinness

The Guinness brewery business was founded by Arthur Guinness, a renowned brewing master, entrepreneur, visionary and philanthropist. In 1759, Arthur Guinness laid the foundation for the creation of one of the most iconic worldwide brands of the twenty-first century when he signed the 9,000 year lease at St. Jame's Gate brewery in Dublin. Famous for its dark color, creamy head and unique surge and settle, this distinctive beer has been brewed at the St. James Gate brewery in Dublin, Ireland, since 1759. Over 10 million glasses of Guinness beer are enjoyed every single day around the world, and 1.8 billion pints are sold every year. There will be a yearlong, global celebration to mark this monumental milestone and to look towards the next 250 years.

Cartoon of the Week

Why We Look at Some Web Ads and Not Others

The Internet has cracked open a brave new world for folks whose job it is to spend ad dollars. The ability to track where a Web user clicks provides a sort of precision intelligence advertisers could have only dreamed of in decades past. But before a click comes a look, and according to new research, advertisers are often wrong about what attracts our attention.

The findings are presented in a chapter of a new book, Eyetracking Web Usability, by Jakob Nielsen and Kara Pernice of the consultancy Nielsen Norman Group. Don't let the bland title fool you: what Nielsen and Pernice have done is track the eye movements of hundreds of people as they navigate websites, looking up advice on how to deal with heartburn, shopping for baby presents, picking cell-phone features, learning about Mikhail Baryshnikov. By bouncing infrared beams off a person's retinas and recording head movements with a camera, the researchers were able to deduce what sort of ads garner attention in real time — a methodology that runs laps around later asking people to recall what they saw.

The headline result: simpler is better (not to mention probably cheaper to produce). Participants in the study looked at 52% of ads that contained only text, 52% of ads that had images and text separately and 51% of sponsored links on search-engine pages. Ads that got a lot less attention included those that imposed text on top of images (people looked at just 35% of those) and ones that included animation (it might seem movement is attention-grabbing, but only 29% of these ads garnered a look).

Now, looking at an ad and being vaguely aware of it are two different things. Plenty passes through our peripheral vision, but because of the way the eye works, we only thoroughly see things that we stop at and observe deliberately. By that measure, people in the study saw 36% of the ads on the pages they visited — not a bad hit rate. The average time a person spent looking at an ad, though, was brief — one-third of a second.

Interestingly, people who were just browsing the Web looked at only 5% more ads than those trying to accomplish a specific task. Even when we're on a mission, we're still fairly willing to stop and look at an ad. However, there was one sort of website where ads rarely registered: pages built around search boxes. Think Mapquest or Expedia. Google's tribute to white space on its home page might be sleek design — or it might have something to do with knowing that no one would look at an ad there anyway.

Then there was the result that most surprised the researchers: text-only ads received the most looks. Part of that might be our accidentally thinking text-only ads are part of the information we're looking for. But as Nielsen explains it, the nature of the Web itself might be coming into play as well. Unlike television, which is a passive medium, the Web is all about taking action — searching, clicking, registering, buying, downloading. It might be the case that as we're out there on the Internet, what we're attracted to is content that gets us to where we want to go.

That's one possible reason the man presented with the dating-service ad quickly moved past the woman's body and fixated on the text surrounding it. "Even in a case like that, the real information is still the strongest point," says Nielsen. Odd as it may sound, the way to grab people's attention online might be to simply level with them.

Most Dominant NBA Players By Decade

1990s | Michael Jordan
If Magic Johnson and Larry Bird resuscitated the NBA, Jordan led it to new heights as the biggest drawing card in sports. Beyond the four MVP awards, six league titles and six scoring titles in the `90s, Jordan, for many, was athletic competition boiled to its essence. Off the floor, Jordan was equally iconic -- stylish, articulate, cool. He remains a symbol by which all great players are measured and the NBA's popularity is gauged.

Picture of the Week

Create a Stellar Home Recycling System

1. Do your homework
Check with your local collection center, and find out what it accepts and rejects.

2. Study your trash
What you use most will determine the type and size of the containers you'll require. If your family drinks a lot of juices and soda, you'll want a larger bin for cans and bottles.

3. Create convenience
Ideally, your home recycling center will be a two-part system, one part for everyday disposal and the other for storing. The everyday part should be where you generate the most waste -- for many, the kitchen. The spot should be as accessible as the trash can, perhaps right next to it. If you are short on space, consider hanging sturdy shopping bags on the inside of a pantry door. Sorting is a tiresome truth of recycling, so why do it twice? Get a divided container that lets you separate as you dispose.

4. Pick a storage space
When your kitchen bins fill up, move their contents to a storage spot (separate from the household stamping grounds) until it's time to drop off at the curb or a center. Consider the garage, laundry room, mudroom, or utility closet. Containers should be easy to transport, so look for ones with wheels. If your community has return deposits on cans and bottles, separate them, too, for returns.

5. Post recycling guidelines
Learn how you should recycle phone books, metals, makeup, mirrors, and more. It's a good reminder for your family, and the quick reference makes recycling easier. Use a Magic Marker to write what goes where.

Welcome to Hell

You have come to a place mute of all light, where the wind bellows as the sea does in a tempest. This is the realm where the lustful spend eternity.

Here, sinners are blown around endlessly by the unforgiving winds of unquenchable desire as punishment for their transgressions. The infernal hurricane that never rests hurtles the spirits onward in its rapine, whirling them round, and smiting, it molests them.

You have betrayed reason at the behest of your appetite for pleasure, and so here you are doomed to remain. Cleopatra and Helen of Troy are two that share in your fate. Last night, I had dinner with them.

Cartoon of the Week

Why A Marketing Plan Is Important In Any Business?

In any business success, marketing always plays a key part. You have to make a good relationship with your customers. You need to work out how you will reach and win new customers and make sure that they will be happy and remain satisfied of the services you are providing them. You need to always review and keep on improving everything you do to stay ahead of the competition.

Although marketing plays an important role, it will not guarantee sales unless by doing it with a laid out plan. A well-researched and logical plan is important to have a better chance of building a long-term profitable relationships. A marketing plan will serve as a reference or your basis to execute a marketing strategy. By laying out plans, it will set out a clear objectives and explains how you will achieve them. You can define your business well if you have a written document that details the necessary actions to achieve your marketing goals. A marketing plan is considered a part of an over all business plan.

A marketing plan is backed up by a solid marketing strategy. It would be useless without a working strategy. So you need to be clear about your objectives and how you're going to achieve them. You have to be realistic with your plans by setting measurable objectives, deadlines, defining responsibilities and considering your budget. A good marketing plan should assist you to integrate your total marketing effort and ensures a systematic approach to developing products and services to meet and satisfy your customer's needs.

Having a solid marketing plan will let you identify your customer's needs and wants. You can determine the demand for product and aid in the design of product that will satisfy and fulfill consumer needs and wants. It also helps you identify your competitors and make you analyze what are their advantages over you or your advantages over them and focus on those things. You will know if your marketing strategies are working or not and maybe you can switch to another one. You will be able to identify new product areas and new or potential customers.

When you do have a marketing plan, you will know what are the specific thing you need to do and focus on things that play an important role in running your business. Every plan laid out has a specific target so that progress can be monitored. A marketing plan usually covers transactions for years and most probably you still have a standing business in the years to come.

Most Dominant NBA Players By Decade

1980s | Larry Bird & Magic Johnson
In reviving the NBA and renewing the Lakers-Celtics rivalry, Bird and Magic couldn't have fit more perfectly with their respective teams. The plain-spoken, yet cocky, Bird rejuvenated a franchise from one of the Northeast's industrial dynamos whose fans clung fast to their glorious history, while Johnson's flashy play and ubiquitous smile were ideal for a Lakers club tasked with entertaining Hollywood. The two sublime talents led their teams to a combined eight NBA titles in the '80s -- five for Magic, three for Bird.

Picture of the Day

The Launch of Francophone Games in Beirut

The 6th Francophone Games, the 'Jeux de la Francophonie', were formally launched this evening in Beirut.

The games running until October 6 are being attended by 42 countries. They reflect Lebanon's diversity, as Beirut is a venue in which all cultures and religions meet.

The players and the states participating in this tournament are welcomed to the country of the cedars, grouping on its soil all races and languages.

The event is held every 4 years with the participation of more than 3,000 athletes.

Cartoon of the Week

Postcard of the Week

Anjar - Lebanon

The World's Best Brands

Coke has held the top spot in the Interbrand rankings for each of the past nine years. IBM, Microsoft, GE, Nokia, McDonald's, Google, Toyota, Intel and Disney, in that order, round out the top 10 (in all, the study ranks the top 100 brands). To qualify for the list, a brand must offer publicly available financial data and must book at least one-third of its revenues from outside its country of origin. So Walmart, for example, can't qualify because it does not generate enough international cash under the Walmart name.

What's perhaps even more telling than the actual rankings are the year-over-year changes. According to Interbrand, the recession has produced a few stars. Take Google, for example. Its value jumped 25%, to $32 billion, in 2009. "Google has romped through our league tables over the last three or four years," says Frampton. The report credits the diversification of the company's businesses, including new advertising models and the Android phone software, with propping up the company's numbers. Another tech outfit, Amazon, is also surging: the Circuit City bankruptcy and struggles at the Borders bookstore chain are driving traffic to the site. Plus, the Kindle shows that you can still innovate in a downturn. The online retailer jumped 15 spots in the rankings, to 43.

No brand fell farther than UBS, the Swiss bank that lost more than $17 billion in 2008 and became known as an alleged haven for American tax cheats. According to Interbrand, the company's value dropped 50%, to $4.4 billion, sinking UBS 31 spots, to 72nd, in the rankings. Citi also struggled. The troubled financial giant saw a 49% drop in brand value, to $10.3 billion, compared with last year. "These firms have lost the trust of their customers, investors and employees as well," says Frampton. "Sticking money in your mattress now seems like a viable alternative."

Outside the financial-services sector, Harley has taken a hit. The iconic motorcycle brand saw its value fall 43%, to $4.3 billion. "I don't think there is any less love for Harley-Davidson," says Frampton. "The company is just highly susceptible to shifts in discretionary spending." Harley-Davidson's profits are down 66% for the first two quarters of 2009.

Harley still makes the top 100 (at No. 73), but more than 30 brands that started out the decade on Interbrand's list are now nowhere to be found. They include AT&T, Boeing, Heineken and (we're sorry to say) TIME. But the saddest fall of all may be Barbie. She started out the decade riding high, and now she can't crack the list. Blame those sassy Bratz dolls for Barbie's demise. "But there's an enduring nature to Barbie," Frampton says. "I believe she's one of those brands well positioned for a comeback." Too bad you can't say the same for Ken.

Behind Bars®: Johnnie Walker

When a fifteen-year-old farm boy took over a small Kilmarnock grocery store in 1820, he was taking the first step in the journey that led to the creation of an iconic global whisky brand. The boy’s name was John Walker, and his dedication to excellence made him an icon of personal progress—a sophisticated and dynamic brand that is sold in more than 200 countries.

Today, Johnnie Walker is the world’s leading Scotch whisky brand with a portfolio of five award-winning whiskies—Red Label, Black Label, Green Label, Gold Label, and Blue Label. Around the world, more than four bottles of Johnnie Walker are consumed every second.

Leadership: Time for risk-taking to return?

Is risk-taking back in vogue? "Summer Davos" in Dalian, China, saw business leaders arguing risk must make a return for growth.

A year after the bailouts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the implosion of Lehman Brothers, more than 1300 business and government leaders met in Dalian for the "Summer Davos" of the World Economic Forum.

Discussions on the dais and on the sidelines of the event swirled around when economic recovery will occur, what shape it will take and what leadership is required.

"We have to look in the mirror ... and see that what is in front of us is very different from what we see in the mirror behind us," said Ben J. Verwaayen, chief executive officer of Alcatel-Lucent.

"This crisis isn't about when will we restore order; this is about going from one reality to the next reality," he said. "We'll have different values, different criteria of success, and different environmental issues to deal with. That will require different leadership."

Based on interviews and comments of top business leaders at the event, the winners of the new economic order will be leaders who move fast, are transparent in process and take advantage of the economic upheaval to sprint ahead of the competition.

"Many households (brand) names were started in a times of crisis -- GE was started during the long depression in 1876; HP at the tail end of the Depression, FedEx during the oil crisis," said Vivek Ranadive, chairman and chief executive officer of U.S. software maker TIBCO.

His advice: "Fail fast -- try something, and if doesn't work, move quickly to something else."

But most leaders fail to look at strategy, and instead focus on survival. "Remarkably in a time of recession ... when you would expect decision-making to increase in speed it actually slows down," said Pramod Bhasin, chief executive officer of Genpact, an India-based technology outsourcing company. "Companies get paralyzed ... it demonstrates a lack of leadership."

Adds Sir Martin Sorrell, group chief executive officer of WPP Group, the advertising and marketing giant: "The instinctive reaction in a recessionary environment is to cut costs. You can't cut your costs to growth and recovery."

Regaining and building an economic foothold means regaining the confidence of the consumer, which is no small task. "Millions of people have lost homes, lost jobs, lost a large share of their wealth ... they have lost their belief in capitalism," said Maurice Levy, Chief Executive Officer of the Publicis. "There will be reset of the values ... we should not waste the crisis, we should not waste the opportunity to transform the company and the world."

Business leaders should use the financial crisis as a time to shake up long-standing problems within a company. "It's hard to convince people to change when things are going well," said Ranadive of TIBCO. "In some ways it's easier to manage (in a recession) ... Expectations are low, so it's easier to exceed expectations."

The most difficult challenge for industry leaders will be to regain a spirit of ambition even as the economic recovery remains uncertain. James Schiro, group chief executive officer of Zurich Financial Services, said there is a feeling boardrooms that you can "combine being risk-free with innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit. That's impossible."

"Risk, as long as you understand the risk, is a necessary integral part of doing business," added Verwaayen of Alcatel. "If you eliminate risks, you eliminate growth."

Picture of the Week

Courtesy of my sweet cousin Janice, Boston - Mass.

Bachir Gemayel

Image of mine are you just a myth?
Aiming for the stars and a need to exist
Singing your life to its final bar,
Staging all the scenes to avoid who you are.

Idol of mine will you lead me on?
Build for me the dreams that I'm longing to own
Make me secure - be my fallacy
You are all my world if for only today.

And live for ever more...

Heroes I call for you
Legend to feed my heart and soul
Heroes I cry for you
Legend will bleed your heart of soul.

 
Bachir Gemayel (November 10, 1947 – September 14, 1982) was a Lebanese politician, militia commander, and President-elect. He was a senior member of the Phalange party and the commander of the Lebanese Forces militia amid the first several years of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-90). He was elected President on August 23, 1982 while the country was torn by civil war and occupied by both Israel and Syria. He was assassinated on September 14, 1982, along with 26 others, when a bomb exploded in the Beirut headquarters of the Phalange.

Walmart's Latest Move to Crush the Competition

Walmart loves to shock and awe. City-size stores, absurdly low prices ($8 jeans!) and everything from milk to Matchbox toys on its shelves. And with the recession forcing legions of stores into bankruptcy, the world's largest retailer now apparently wants to take out the remaining survivors.

Thus, the company is in the beginning stages of a massive store and strategy remodeling effort, which it has dubbed Project Impact. One goal of Project Impact is cleaner, less cluttered stores that will improve the shopping experience. Another is friendlier customer service. A third: home in on categories where the competition can be killed. "They've got Kmart ready to take a standing eight-count next year," says retail consultant Burt Flickinger III, managing director for Strategic Resources Group and a veteran Walmart watcher. "Same with Rite Aid. They've knocked out four of the top five toy retailers, and are now going after the last one standing, Toys "R" Us. Project Impact will be the catalyst to wipe out a second round of national and regional retailers."

Though that's bad news for many smaller businesses that can't compete, Walmart investors have clamored for this push. Despite the company's consistently strong financial performance, Wall Street hasn't cheered Walmart's growth rates. During the 1990s, the company's stock price jumped 1,173%. In this decade, it's down around 24% (Walmart's stock closed at $51.74 per share on Sept. 3). "Walmart is under excruciating pressure from employees and frustrated institutional investors to get the stock up," says Flickinger.

Many analysts believe that the store-operations background of new CEO Mike Duke will keep investors quite happy. Though the recession finally caught up to Walmart last quarter, when the company reported a 1.2% drop in U.S. same-store sales, Walmart was a consistent winner during the worst days of the financial crisis, as frugal consumers traded down. While most retailers are shutting down stores, Walmart has opened 52 Supercenters since Feb. 1. Joseph Feldman, retail analyst at Telsey Advisory Group, estimates that each store costs Walmart between $25 and $30 million. In order to continue the momentum that it has picked up during the retail recession, over the next five years the company plans to remodel 70% of its approximately 3,600 U.S. stores.

So what does a Project Impact store look like? One recent weekday afternoon I toured a brand new, 210,000-sq.-ft. Walmart in West Deptford, N.J., with Lance De La Rosa, the company's Northeast general manager. "We've listened to our customers, and they want an easier shopping experience," says De La Rosa. "We've brightened up the stores and opened things up to make it more navigable." One of the most noticeable changes is that Project Impact stores reshape Action Alley, the aisles where promotional items were pulled off the shelves and prominently displayed for shoppers. Those stacks both crowded the aisles and cut off sight lines. Now, the aisles are all clear, and you can see most sections of the store from any vantage point. For example, standing on the corner intersection of the auto-care and crafts areas, you can look straight ahead and see where shoes, pet care, groceries, the pharmacy and other areas are located. And the discount price tags are still at eye level, so the value message doesn't get lost.

"They are like roads," De La Rosa says proudly. "And look around, the customers are using them. We've already gotten feedback about the wider, more breathable aisles. Our shoppers love them."

The layout is also smarter. "You can kind of guess where everything is going to be," says Sharon Tilotta, 73, a shopper in the West Deptford store. The pharmacy, pet foods, cosmetics and health and beauty sections are now adjacent to the groceries. In the past, groceries and these other sections were often at opposite ends of the store, which made it more difficult for someone looking to pick up some quick consumables to get in and out of Walmart. "Under Project Impact, Walmart is providing more of a full supermarket experience within its walls," says Feldman. "The biggest complaint against them has always been that it takes a long time to get through everything. This definitely improves efficiency." De La Rosa also points out the party-supply section. Favors, wedding decorations, cards and scrapbooks are all in one area. "In the past, these products would be in three different places," he says.

And although Walmart won't admit to targeting specific competitors — "We're just listening to what our customers want," De La Rosa says — it's clear that, under Project Impact, Walmart will make major plays in winnable categories. The pharmacy, for example, has been pulled into the middle of the store, and its $4-prescriptions program has generated healthy buzz. With Circuit City out of business, the electronics section has been beefed up. Walmart is also expanding its presence in crafts. Sales at Michael's Stores, the country's largest specialty arts-and-crafts retailers, have sagged, and Walmart sees an opportunity. Stores are chock-full of scrapbooking material, baskets and yarns. "Look, they're selling the stuff that accounts for 80% of Michael's business, at 20% of the space," says Flickinger. "It's very hard for any company to compete with that."

Apparel, one of Target's traditional strengths, gets a prominent position at the center. The color palettes of the shirts and dresses are brighter and more appealing than they've been in the past. "Walmart has figured out fashion for the first time in 47 years," Flickinger says. "They've gone from a D to an A-minus." Briefs and underwear have been shuttled to the back. "That's a smart move," Flickinger says. "People know to come to Walmart for the commodity clothing. Now, they have to walk past the higher margin, more fashionable merchandise to get what they need."

Of course, Project Impact isn't perfect. You'd think that if Walmart was going to open a massive new store with a cutting-edge layout, the company would at least put a sign up. In West Deptford, it's easy to miss the entrance to the Walmart — which is buried in the back of a parking lot — while driving along a main thoroughfare. And of course, customers will always nitpick. One elderly shopper complained about a shortage of benches in the store (she needed a rest). Another had a more esoteric, yet legitimate, gripe. "Their meat is leaky," says Jeff Winter, 30, a West Deptford shopper. "And instead of giving you a wet wipe to clean it off, they give you a dry towel. How's that going to prevent E. coli or whatever?"

What analysts really want to see from Project Impact, however, is a faster pace of implementation. "The biggest hurdle facing Walmart is the speed with which they can roll this out," says Feldman. As more Project Impact stores pop up, the existing stores appear worse by comparison. For example, while the merchandise at the Project Impact store outside of Philadelphia really speaks to that particular market — there's tons of Eagles and Phillies gear — at one regular discount store outside New York City, Minnesota Twins and Seattle Mariners pajama pants wasted away on the racks. There were plenty of associates staffing the electronics section at the Project Impact store; at the discount store, five frustrated shoppers waited in line for help from a customer-service rep. Soon, it was closer to 10.

What about the friendly service? In West Deptford, the associates were sunny and bright. At the New York–area discount store, not so much. "You'll notice we've been in the store for two hours, and no one has even said hello to us," Flickinger says after he and I toured that store. He's right, we weren't feeling any love. But if Project Impact keeps picking up momentum, many more Walmart salespeople, and shareholders, should be smiling.

Postcard of the Week

Down Town - Beirut

Jay Leno

James Douglas Muir "Jay" Leno (born April 28, 1950) is an American stand-up comedian and television host. From 1992 to 2009, Leno was the host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. During his tenure, the show held the top ratings position in its time slot on nearly every weekday. Beginning in September 2009, Leno is scheduled to have a primetime talk show, tentatively titled The Jay Leno Show, which will air weeknights at 10:00 p.m. (Eastern Time, UTC-5), also on NBC.

Early Life
Jay Leno was born in New Rochelle, New York, on April 28, 1950. His mother, Catherine (née Muir), a homemaker, was born in Greenock, Scotland, and came to the United States at age 11. Her schooling was limited and as a result she prized her children's successes. Leno's father, Angelo, who worked as an insurance salesman, was born in New York to immigrants from Flumeri, Italy. Leno grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, and although his high school guidance counselor recommended that he drop out of high school because of his grades, Jay not only graduated but also went on to receive a bachelor's degree in speech therapy from Emerson College, in 1973. He also attended Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts, but did not like it. Leno's siblings include his late brother, Patrick, who was a Vietnam veteran. He was raised as a Catholic.

As Leno was growing up, he used to say that he would take over Johnny Carson's job, which he eventually did. In the late 1970s, he was the warm-up act for Johnny Mathis, Tom Jones, and John Denver.

The Tonight Show
He replaced Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Show in 1992, after having been a regular substitute host for Carson since 1987. Leno continued to perform as a stand-up comedian throughout his tenure on The Tonight Show.

In 2004, Leno signed a contract extension with NBC which would keep him as host of The Tonight Show until 2009. Later in 2004, Conan O'Brien signed a contract with NBC under which O'Brien would become the host of The Tonight Show in 2009, replacing Leno at that time.

During the 2007-2008 WGA Writers strike, Leno was accused of violating WGA guidelines by writing his own monologue for The Tonight Show. While NBC and Leno claim there were private meetings with the WGA where there was a secret agreement allowing this, the WGA denied such a meeting. Leno answered questions in front of the Writers Guild of America, West trial committee in February 2009 and June 2009, and when the WGAW published its list of strike-breakers a year and a half later on 11 August 2009, Leno was not on the list.

Leno said in 2008 that he was saving all of his income from The Tonight Show and living solely off his income from stand-up comedy.

On April 23, 2009, Leno checked himself into a hospital with an undisclosed illness.He was released the following day and returned to work on Monday, April 27. The two subsequently canceled Tonight Show episodes for April 23 and April 24 were Leno's first in 17 years as host. Initially, the illness that caused the absence was not disclosed, but later Leno told People magazine that the ailment was exhaustion.

Michael Jackson Trial
In the 2005 trial of Michael Jackson over allegations of child molestation, Leno appeared as a defense witness (many celebrity defense witnesses had been expected, but Leno was one of the few whose testimony was actually needed). In his testimony regarding a call by the accuser, Leno testified he never called the police, no money was asked for, and there was no coaching - but that the calls seemed unusual and scripted.

As a result, Leno was initially not allowed to continue telling jokes about Jackson or the case, which had been a fixture of The Tonight Show's opening monologue in particular. But he and his show's writers used a legal loophole by having Leno briefly step aside while stand-in comedians took the stage and told jokes about the trial. Stand-ins included Roseanne Barr, Drew Carey, Brad Garrett, and Dennis Miller among others.

After NBC challenged the gag order, the judge permitted Leno to make jokes, as long as they were not related to his testimony. After the gag order was lifted, the next show featured a monologue entirely of Michael Jackson jokes.

Succession by Conan O'Brien
Because Leno's show continued to lead all late-night programming in the Nielsen ratings, the pending expiration of Leno's contract led to speculation about whether he would become a late-night host for another network after his commitment to NBC expired. Leno's last Tonight Show was on Friday May 29, 2009.

The Jay Leno Show
On December 8, 2008, it was reported that Leno would remain on NBC and move to a new hour-long show at 10 p.m. (9 p.m. central time) five nights a week. This show will be in a similar format to The Tonight Show, taped in the same studio, and retaining many of Leno's most popular bits. Late Night host Conan O'Brien was his successor on The Tonight Show itself.

Jay Leno's new show, titled The Jay Leno Show, will debut on September 14, 2009. It was announced at the Television Critics Association summer press tour that it will feature one or two celebrities, the occasional musical guest, and keep the popular "Headlines" and "Jaywalking" segments, which will now air near the end of the show. It will also include a new segment called the "Green Car Challenge" in which celebrities will race around a track for the title of the fastest green celebrity.

Personal Life
Leno is known for his prominent jaw, which has been described as mandibular prognathism. He has stated that he is aware of surgery that could reset his mandible, but does not wish to endure a prolonged healing period with his jaws wired shut.

During an August 1, 2007, interview with CNN journalist Anderson Cooper on The Tonight Show, Leno confirmed that he is dyslexic. He has been married since 1980 to Mavis Leno; the couple is childless by choice.

Charity
Along with his wife, Mavis, he donated $100,000 in 2001 to the Feminist Majority's campaign to stop gender apartheid in Afghanistan, to educate the public regarding the plight of women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Mavis Leno is on the board of the Feminist Majority.

In 2001, he auctioned off a Harley-Davidson motorcycle signed by his celebrity guests in an effort to help victims of the September 11 attacks. The bike sold for about $360,000. In 2005, he repeated the gesture twice: first, to aid victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, with a bike sold for $810,000, and then again to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina; that bike sold for $1,550,100.

Vehicle Collection
Leno is widely known as a car and motorcycle aficionado. He has a large antique car and motorcycle collection of various international marques spanning from the early 1900s to modern vehicles.

Leno's column in the American magazine Popular Mechanics showcases his car collection and gives advice about various automotive topics, including restoration and unique models, such as his jet-powered motorcycle and solar-powered hybrid. Leno also writes occasional "Motormouth" articles for The Sunday Times (London), reviewing high end sports cars and giving his humorous take on automotive matters. He also writes a monthly column for Octane Magazine.

The collection also includes several Duesenbergs, eight steam-powered cars including an original 1912 Stanley Steamer (which, with Leno behind the wheel, became the oldest car to ever receive a speeding ticket) and a rare 1913 Mercer Raceabout, a 1918 Stutz Bearcat and a 1964 Studebaker Avanti.

Along with his collection of classic cars, he has several high-performance cars. These include a 1994 McLaren F1, Porsche Carrera GT, Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, Lamborghini Miura, Ariel Atom, Dodge Viper GTS, Ford GT, Audi R8 and a custom Corvette C6RS (a modified Z06 built by Pratt & Miller). This Corvette can run on either E-85 Ethanol or gasoline. His EcoJet car runs on bio-diesel fuel. Its engine is a 650 horsepower (480 kW) Honeywell LT-101 turbine. The shell is carbon-fiber over Kevlar.

Leno's Blastolene Special is a 21-foot (6.4 m)-long aluminum-bodied roadster powered by a V12 engine from an M47 Patton tank Leno bought from Blastolene Brothers. It was featured in the 2005 racing game Gran Turismo 4, and Monster Garage.

Leno's passion for classic cars led him to an affiliation with the Automobile Restoration Department at McPherson College, in McPherson, Kansas. Today he serves on the National Advisory Board for the college's automotive restoration program and helps fund the Fred Duesenberg Memorial Scholarship.

Leno also has an Internet site, called "Jay Leno's Garage," which contains video clips and photos of his automobiles in detail. It also allows viewers to post photos and descriptions of their cars.

Since 2006 Leno has had his garage work on a biodiesel, turbine powered car in collaboration with GM, the EcoJet concept car.

On August 2, 2009, he made an appearance on BBC motor show Top Gear, in the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car segment.