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Posted on May 15th, 2007 by Kate.
Categories: Travel & Leisure, Business & Finance.
As I sit here enjoying a midnight snack of buffalo wings and Sam Adams from the 7th floor of Le Parker Meridian overlooking 57th St., I’m trying to count up how many different hotels I’ve stayed in during my business trips to New York. As that number moves past double digits, I thought I’d share some highlights from that journey in the hopes that it might spare some of you from the less-than-luxurious New York luxury hotels. When you travel for pleasure, everything is an adventure. When you travel on business, you really wish you were home and want your hotel experience to leave nothing lacking.
My general impression of hotels in New York is that they have great service and are mostly in desperate need of a makeover. I’m a big fan of bathrobes, large rooms, and grand bathrooms. Pet peeves include polyester duvets, charging to use the gym, and placing charge holds on the credit card at checkin in addition to the room charge, thereby tying up one’s credit line. And just a tip: if you want room service breakfast, order it the night before. The wait can be quite long in the morning.
A few hotel-specific thoughts:
My picks
The Loews Regency
Pros
Rooms are larger than most New York apartments
Conveniently located one block from Barney’s
Cons
Room service costs more than your college tuition
Charge hold at checkin
The Palace – I had an enormous room with an amazing view.
Pros
Enormous rooms
Very grand
One of the few hotels I’ve stayed in that was not visibly in need of maintenance
Cons
Mediocre restaurants
Le Parker Meridien – I think it’s supposed to be French-influenced. Having never been to France, it strikes me as the kind of place that was once very cool and is desperately still trying to be.
Pros
uber-friendly staff
all night room service
gym is 5x size of your typical new york hotel gym
fluffy towels
Cons
Gym is in the basement, you have to walk through the lobby to get there. Nothing like having the CEO you’re meeting with at 8am stare at you as you try to sneak through the lobby in your sweaty gym clothes. They also charge you for the gym and don’t provide bottled water.
No heat in May – let’s not be too optimistic here, it’s 40 degrees at night. If you ask, they will bring you a portable heater
No bathrobes (but they will bring you one if you request it)
Twin beds…need I saw more?
The Royalton – I’ve had 2 great and 1 not-so-great stays here. My sister once made the comment that the multiple doors in the lobby make it look like a peep show…. I once had a heater in my room that sounded like a jackhammer. The concierge ran out and bought me ear plugs.
Pros
Very service-oriented staff
Cool lobby, great for meeting friends for a drink
Probably won’t see anyone else from the conference there
Very cool granite and glass bathrooms with fresh orchids
Cons
Dark rooms
Not ideal for business: small or nonexistent desks, crappy internet, and the restaurant is very slow
Charge hold at checkin
Tiny gym (but clean and free!)
Don’t bother
The Doubletree – Small rooms, polyester duvets. Don’t let the tourists knock you over.
The Westin Times Square
Pros
Great views when you get high up
Cons
They charge you to use the tiny gym and then charge you more if you want a bottle of water
Three mornings I ordered an omelet with no peppers…three mornings it came with peppers
The first thing I did when I got to the room was call maintenance to fix the phones, the lights, and the door.
The Roosevelt
Pros
Friendly staff
Cons
Tiny rooms
Polyester duvets
Bathrooms on par with Holiday Inn
Tiny gym in need of a makeover (but at least it’s free)
Posted on March 2nd, 2007 by Kate.
Categories: Media & Entertainment, Business & Finance, Arts & Literature, Humor & Pop Culture.
My cousin teaches second grade. She says “my kids never remember what I teach them in class, but they remember all the lyrics to the songs they hear on the radio! My one little girl who doesn’t even speak English knows all the lyrics to ‘I’m in love with a stripper.’”
Kids remember song lyrics, whether you want them to or not. So why not set academic material to the music they identify with so they remember it?
Rhythm, Rhyme, Results is doing just that. Started by a group of musicians and educators (okay, my parents and my brother), RRR produces original material written and performed by young musicians with backgrounds in education. The material directly addresses the curriculum needs and testing standards required in most states. Given the acceptance of hip hop in mainstream culture, it makes sense to use it as a vehicle to teach mainstream academic subject material. By creating fact-filled songs that teach such basic information as the Bill of Rights or the Parts of Speech, or illustrating how to convert between decimals and fractions using rhyming lyrics over lively contemporary beats, we combine students’ needs and their preferences in one appealing package.
Check out our website: www.educationalrap.com. Listen to the music samples, surf around, let me know what you think. We are constantly updating the website with new recordings, so bookmark it and check back often. Warning: some of the beats will get stuck in your head.
We are finishing up our first CD, comprised of 11 tracks on Math subjects. You can listen to a sample of my personal favorite (How Do I Work With Fractions?) on the website. We have three pilot school districts lined up and plan to incorporate their feedback in future CDs that will focus on Science, Social Studies, English, and other academic material for students ages 10-14.
My appeal to all the MBAs out there: we welcome your advice! Our management team is musicians and educators, not business people. It’s easy for us to find the musicians and composers, write the lyrics, record the tracks, and mix the albums. Now we have to figure out how to market and distribute it. Use us for a marketing class project! Help us edit our business plan! The company currently runs on a very lean budget, but we may need to raise capital in the future, so keep us in mind as a potential investment! Or just send me your random thoughts and ideas - I know you all love to share your opinions, so share away!
Posted on February 12th, 2007 by Kate.
Categories: Business & Finance.
As citizens of the most powerful country in the world, how can we help those born in poor countries become economically self-sufficient? We can donate to the Red Cross or Unicef, but once that money is spent, more money needs to be raised to sustain the programs. We hear of “social entrepreneurship,” but how can we participate on an individual level?
Kiva lets you lend to entrepreneurs in the developing world. As an individual with capital, you can invest directly in the development of growing businesses in the developing world, empowering individuals to lift themselves and their communities out of poverty. They currently have a 100% payback rate over a 6-12 month time horizon and you can lend in increments as small as $25. As an investor, you receive neither interest on the loan nor a tax deduction, but you get the satisfaction of knowing that you are putting your capital to work in ways that help poor communities become self-sufficient over time. Once your loan is repaid, you can withdraw the money or apply it to a new loan to another entrepreneur.
Posted on February 11th, 2007 by Kate.
Categories: History & Politics.
The word “pimp” has many connotations.
I’m sure we’ve all been to a Pimps ‘n Hos party. We talk about a car or a house being “pimped out.” Pimps are glorified in movies such as Hussle n’ Flow and within rap music and pop culture. Pretty Woman glorifies the lives of prostitutes.
Yet we rarely acknowledge the darker, seemier side to the world of pimps and prostitution.
Pimps sell women and children from poverty-stricken countries into slavery to serve the wealthy, privileged few who take advantage of the weak. Pimps engage in human trafficking. Pimps abuse and degrade women, keeping them in a state of prostitution and use violence to keep them from leaving.
Almost a million women and children are trafficked across international borders each year, the majority to Southeast Asia, Japan, Europe, and the US. Up to 80% are women and girls and up to 50% are minors. War torn countries are considered to be at risk, particularly in Africa and Eastern Europe. The CIA estimates that 50k people are brought to the US every year as sexual slaves. Can you imagine…centuries after Lincoln freed the slaves, we still have tens of thousands of people being brought the US in slavery?!?
The trafficking that goes on across international borders pales in comparison to what goes on within many poverty stricken countries. A recent article in Glamour highlighted the plight of Cambodian girls being sold into sex slavery by their impoverished families. I urge you to read the story and I hope you find it as shocking and horrifying as I did (incidentally, it was written by Marianne Pearl, wife of the journalist Daniel Pearl who was kidnapped and beheaded in Pakistan). As you read the article, consider that similar stories play out in Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and other poor countries every day.
On the music front, Kill the Pimps was written by The Blood and released for International Human Rights Day in 2006. It was written in response to governments turning a blind eye to human trafficking occurring within their own countries.
As we think about how to lift the world out of poverty and give disadvantaged people a chance, we need to think about the women and children sold into sexual slavery and how their lives are being wasted at the whims of those who control them.
These injustices are perpetuated by men and women, pimps and madams. They poison the social fiber of the world by keeping women and children enslaved.
Somehow, we started glorifying this word within our culture, but I think we need to stop.
I would never call myself a madam. It’s time to stop calling ourselves pimps.
Posted on February 9th, 2007 by Kate.
Categories: Media & Entertainment, Humor & Pop Culture.
Maybe it’s my unglamorous life crunching numbers…
Maybe it’s because I live as far as is humanly possible to live from Hollywood while remaining within the continental US…
But when I need a laugh, this website brightens my day. Hey, someone’s gotta say it. And these ladies say it well.
Posted on February 6th, 2007 by Kate.
Categories: Media & Entertainment, History & Politics, Humor & Pop Culture.
Did anyone else notice excessive violence in this year’s Superbowl ads?
TKOs during rock paper scissors for Bud Light…
Astronauts wiped out by a meteor for FedEx…
The promotion pit for CareerBuilder.com…
The GPS superhero annihilating foes for Garmin…
A bankrobbery for E-Trade…
Axe/chainsaw-toting hitchhikers carrying Bud Light…
Men ripping out their own chest hair for Snickers…
It was cartoonish violence, but did anyone notice that it seemed to be a significant increase from prior years? The New York Times had an article on it.
Americans have been desensitized to violence for awhile, moreso than our international peers. In Europe, you see nudity on regular television but much less violence. We’ve had violent movies, tv, and videogames for years. But why the uptick in violent ads this year in particular?
I wonder if it’s the frustration most Americans are feeling with the war in Iraq. With public opinion on the war at an all-time low and every day bringing new tales of soldier and civilian deaths in Iraq, I wonder if this is a public expression of frustration at our country’s inability to affect positive change and make a graceful exit. On some level, it’s on all of our consciences. Our tax dollars are funding a war that is ruining a country and starting a civil war – that’s gotta make you wanna tear out your chest hair.
And again, I marvel at a society that demands public apologies for an exposed breast amidst multiple advertisements for erectile dysfunction drugs.
I’ll take Janet’s boob anyday.
