802 Online

Please join me in welcoming False 45th to the Vermont blogosphere. The site's a personal blog written by Flatlander (age: 37, gender: male). He's got the best account I've read yet of Sandra Bullock's appearance at her sister Gesine's bakery earlier this week. Says Flatty:

I have to give Sandra credit...Not only did she know how to run the cash register and credit card transmitter, she was training others how to use it too. Trust me, if I was getting $10M a film, I wouldn't be caught within 100 ft. of the wrong side of a cash register. Plus, she had to listen to snarky comments from twits like me saying, "Can I have your hot sticky buns?"

There's more...

As a reporter who frequently writes about technology issues, I'm always looking for local "tech gurus" — sources who can explain some of the more confusing technical jargon in a way I and my readers can understand. What's interesting is that often the people I think of as "techies" don't think of themselves that way. This is a conversation we've had a couple times recently at Friday Coffeeblogging. Bill Simmon, who won the 2005 "Best Vermont Blog" Daysie, says he's not a real techie.

So does Michael LaRocque at techNtalk, owner of iampresentations. Writes Michael: "I never consider myself a tech guru, not in the slightest. I do write on this technology blog, and I do own a website design and development firm in Burlington, Vermont, but I still don’t consider myself a tech guru."

So who are Vermont's tech gurus?

Check out Jeff's new look.

Thanks to the miracle of referral logs, I discovered that 802 Online is, oddly, the first search result on Yahoo for the phrase, who died in the half blood prince. Can't even find it on Google, though.

Well this is good news. Marsha Hudnall at A Weight Lifted notes the death knell that's sounding for all things Atkins. Thank heavens. Ann-Elise mistakenly bought me some Atkins pasta in a box once, and it tasted like wet cardboard. So gross. I've never understood the low-carb craze.

Hudnall is one of several contributors to the blog, which has been around since April. She and her collegues are all affiliated in various ways with Green Mountain at Fox Run in Ludlow, which calls itself, "a women's retreat for healthy living without dieting." They fill their colorful, Typepad site with recipes and tips on healthy eating, as well as the occasional rant about the maddening American obsession with thinness.

After a recent shopping trip to a well-known department store in NYC, Gina Vescio complained about the lack of clothes for "real women":

Funny, my money is green, I get my hair cut at Gil Ferrer’s on the Upper East Side, facials at Mario Badescu, but apparently I’m not female enough when it comes to clothing, since I wear over a size 14. Uhm.

Nowevery woman that shops for clothing sizes that are more than 14 or 16knows that their sizes are often hidden in strange locations in stores.Better stores usually place larger sizes in the women’s department andgather all the sizes together. Or you might have a Coldwater Creekstore near you and were surprised and delighted to find sizes 2-24 onthe same rack and in the same style, with the same choices.

If we all know this, let’s demand size parity!...Let’s rally the troops, and get some goodlooking, fairly priced clothes in the women’s department. We can startby taking this survey about plus sized clothing - let your voice be heard by those that we spend our money on.

You tell 'em, Gina.

Sarah from The 8th Nerve went to see "comedy hypnotist" Frank Santos, Jr. at Higher Ground on Saturday, with her husband Steve.

I have seen hypnotist performances before and they are alwayshilarious, but this time it was different, because Steve got himselfhypnotized...It's one thing to see this performance of people you don't know, it'squite another to see it happen to your husband and to know without adoubt that he is not making any of it up.

Read on if you dare. Poor guy ends up doing an exotic dance to Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy."