Posted July 11th 2010

Call­ing all girls, call­ing all girls! The Lit­tle Miss African Amer­i­can Schol­ar­ship Pageant is now except­ing nation­wide sub­mis­sions as it read­ies for its 17^th year as one of the longest run­ning com­pe­ti­tions for intel­li­gent young women aged 6–12. The orig­i­nal cre­ation of actress/ chore­o­g­ra­pher Lisa Ruf­fin, The Lit­tle Miss African Amer­i­can Schol­ar­ship pageant has con­sis­tently empha­sized brains over beauty, pos­i­tively impact­ing the lives of hun­dreds of impres­sion­able young girls over the years.

This year’s event will be held Sat­ur­day, August 21, 2010at the Uni­ver­sal Sher­a­ton Hotel at 4:00 p.m. with Red Car­pet to take place at 3:00 p.m.  The Uni­ver­sal Sher­a­ton Hotel is located at 333 Uni­ver­sal Hol­ly­wood Drive in Uni­ver­sal City, CA. The dead­line for appli­ca­tions is July 16.  For fur­ther infor­ma­tion email LittleMissAA@gmail.com. Please include a pic­ture of the con­tes­tant with her name, brief infor­ma­tion and any available links.

Past celebrity par­tic­i­pants have included Emmy nom­i­nated actress, Chan­dra Wil­son (ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy), World Box­ing Cham­pion Laila Ali and James Pick­ens Jr. (ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy). Rap­per LL Cool J made a sur­prise appear­ance at the 2008 celebration.  For more infor­ma­tion go to: http://www.littlemissafricanamerican.com

By Marina Zogbi

Posted May 16th 2010

If there were a hierarchy of modern renaissance women, Queen Latifah would be right at the top. Actor, rapper, singer, film and music producer, Cover Girl spokeswoman and plus-size role model, the former Dana Elaine Owens — and Newark, New Jersey, native — can seemingly do anything, and do it well.

JUST WRIGHT MOVIE TRAILER

In the movie world alone, Latifah (who took the Arabic name meaning “gentle” and “kind” at the age of eight) has amassed a varied body of work, playing, among other things, a bank robber in ‘Set It Off,’ a nurse in ‘The Bone Collector,’ a show-stopping prison matron in the musical ‘Chicago’ (for which she was Oscar-nominated) and a former crack addict turned AIDs activist in TV movie ‘Life Support’ (for which she won a Golden Globe).

Flavor Unit, the management/production company run by Latifah and partner Shakim Compere, has put out several films, most recently 2007’s ‘The Perfect Holiday.’ Opening this weekend is their latest, ‘Just Wright,’ directed by Sanaa Hamri (‘Something New,’ ‘The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2′). The rom-com stars Latifah as physical therapist Leslie Wright, a rabid New Jersey Nets fan who meets and treats the team’s injured star, Scott McKnight (Common); though he’s initially involved with Leslie’s gorgeous roommate Morgan (Paula Patton), complications arise. The movie’s romantic scenes alternate with rousing on-court sequences featuring several NBA players and real-life sports personalities.

Moviefone spoke to Latifah about the movie, her role models and dream projects.

‘Just Wright’ is the ultimate fantasy movie for women who are sports fans and die-hard romantics. Not only does your character date an NBA star, but several teams want to hire her.
She’s a fortunate woman.

What did you like best about Leslie Wright?
I love that she’s a real girl with real curves, hard-working and successful in her own right who’s just an avid basketball fan. I love the energy that she has at the games and the fun that she got to have with Morgan (Patton); they’re so opposite in so many ways. Leslie’s more like her father and Morgan is like Leslie’s mom. Kind of funny to see the dynamic in Morgan’s world … she’s still a nice girl, just a little misguided.

An interesting aspect of the movie was the pro athletes’ “wives club” and a character who makes it her life’s goal.
There are a lot of women out there who are like that, who want to achieve that fantasy. I think the interesting thing about it was that Leslie has her own fantasy, but hers is more about love and falling in love with someone who is absolutely in love with her in the same way. Whereas Morgan’s fantasy is about being a sort of princess, someone who gets to live the lifestyle of the wife of an NBA player, to sit in that section at games, to have the latest fashions, to be swept off her feet in more of a financial way … the whole lifestyle that comes with with being involved with someone who’s affluent and famous.

Paula Patton played it nicely.
She played it amazingly. At the premiere, there were not only industry people but a lot of regular people who we just gave tickets to, and it played so well. People really laughed at her character a lot, were angry with her sometimes, they cheered for some things. It was great to see it with that energy.

You’ve known Paula for a while?
Yeah, we’re friends and we also manage Paula, and we’ve known her and her husband Robin [Thicke] for years. It was kind of easy to achieve the sort of chemistry we needed. She’s going to be a great actor to watch in the future.

Speaking of casting, Common was great in his role because he’s believable on a romantic level, but he’s also clearly an athlete. Did you even consider anyone else?
We considered a couple of NBA players who could act, which would have sort of been the ultimate, but I think the acting was equally important as the athleticism; and once Common came into play for the character, I know him as a friend, and he kind of embodies a lot of the same qualities as Scott McKnight. And he really had a desire to play this role. He called me and talked about it, then he called me again.

He really wanted it.
He really did. He felt that this was something he could sink his teeth into. Because as a kid he always wanted to be an NBA player. He was a ballboy for the Bulls when Michael Jordan was on the team. He’s been around professional sports since he was a kid, and his father played professionally for the ABA, so I think it’s something that’s in his blood. And he’s also a very sensitive and caring individual, a beautiful person, so I felt that he was perfect for the romantic side of Scott.

Not to be shallow, but he also looks really good.
Oh no, he’s fine as hell.

Yeah, that’s a small part of it.
Just a smidge.

And I’m sure others have said this, but maybe the Nets need a Scott McKnight now, right?
Yeah, I’m sure. We need somebody. We definitely need an injection of quality players, top-notch players on our team.

You’re saying “we,” so you really are a fan.
Well, yeah, I’m from Jersey; it’s almost like I was automatically born a Nets fan.

Sanaa Hamri has directed romantic comedy, but she’d never shot a sports movie before. You obviously had faith in her.
I did, because we interviewed several directors, but we just felt that she had a grasp on what this story was and how important it was that both elements came across and that it looked really polished, that it looked luxurious, that Scott really looked like he was an NBA playe. And she knew that the sports scenes had to look very realistic because we have the support of the NBA, we have NBA players appearing in these scenes, and it is playoff season; and for people who are at fever pitch about basketball, we know how exciting it needed to look. Furthermore, I’m a basketball fan, my partner Shakim is a basketball fanatic and so is our leading man, so we all knew what it needed to come across well and Sanaa executed it wonderfully.

And you had a lot of cooperation from the Nets themselves. Practically the whole front office is in the movie.
Oh yeah, they were. One of the Nets assistant coaches worked with Common every day and trained him, really put him through the paces of what an NBA player would go through so that he’d really be on point. And it was good because he didn’t have to fake too much. Common was able to nail the shots and do all the things that enabled him to look like an NBA player. It was funny because at one point I’m on the sidelines and they’re getting a shot of myself and the coach talking and Common’s shooting around, shooting three-pointers, and whenever he would miss [laughs] the coach would say, “No, no, man, you gotta knock that down.” He did not know how to act, all he knew was basketball — and even though we’re shooting a scene in the movie, he’s talking to Common like he’s really in the NBA, demanding that he do better. It was really hilarious.

Leslie’s and Scott’s mothers are played by Pam Grier and Phylicia Rashad, respectively. How did you get them on board?
We just gave them a call and had them read the script and they were in. With James Pickens, who played my father, I called him myself as well to see if he would be interested. I knew he had a limited schedule with ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and he had another play that he was doing in the summer, so we were very fortunate to be able to work that out and have them all be a part of it. Phylicia is amazing and there were those pinch-me moments, where you gotta pinch yourself and ask if this is really what you do for a living, working with Clair Huxtable and Foxy Brown? So I’m thankful.

Sounds like it might have been fun to make this movie.
It was a lot of fun; it was a lot of work because we shot over a short period of time in New York City and New Jersey on location, and it was raining so much last summer that it was just wet so much of the time, but we all pulled together. You can’t make a movie by yourself. So it’s hats off to our cast and crew, they made it happen.

Leslie Wright can be a role model for a lot of girls and women, and you yourself have obviously been one for years. When you were growing up, was there anyone in entertainment that you looked to as a role model?
Well, I guess it comes back to Clair Huxtable [laughs]. That whole family of people ['The Cosby Show']. My mom was my main influence growing up and Phylicia Rashad reminded me a lot of my mother, just the way she handled certain things, she was … not soft-spoken but smooth-spoken. Just very calm, cool, collected about things. There were musicians that influenced me, but they weren’t all women. Teena Marie was a big influence because she wrote and produced her own music, which let me know that women could write and produce their own music, which was an empowering moment for me.

Your production company has deals with BET and VH1. There’s a film for the latter called ‘Single Ladies’ in the works?
Yeah, we’re actually shooting today. Kind of like an urban ‘Sex and the City,’ set in Atlanta, starring LisaRaye McCoy, Stacey Dash, Lauren London. We have a sitcom for BET called ‘Let’s Stay Together,’ which is about young couples making it in the world. So it’s all coming together. A lot of other irons in the fire.

Anything musical coming up for you?
I’m about to finish my third standards album. This one will be a live album, not yet titled, we’ll be doing that hopefully in the next month, getting that out in time for summer. We’re going to record it either here in New York or L.A.

Is there any dream project you’ve had in mind but haven’t yet done?
I would like — either as an actor, or producer or even director — to do something sci-fi or action-related. I like sci-fi, always have, ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Star Wars’ and all that stuff. And Bessie Smith is a character that I’ve always wanted to play; I’d love to see that come to fruition.

Any other upcoming projects or appearances you’d like to mention?
I have a book coming out called ‘Put on Your Crown: Life-Changing Moments on the Path to Queendom.’ It’s sort of an inspirational book for young women. Just kind of talks about the things I’ve gone through in my life, how I did it and how I continue to live life. It’s not so much a self-help book, it’s really more of a conversation with the reader, sort of giving you check points that I’ve hit along the way, whether they were good ones or bad ones, and how I handled those moments and dealt with those things. There’s even a chapter written by my mom, so you can see the root of where all of this comes from.

By Sandy Gluck

Posted April 4th 2010

Got a few too many leftover Easter eggs on hand? The good news is that, if left in their shells, hard-boiled eggs will keep in the fridge for up to a week. But with the 12 hard-boiled egg recipe ideas here, they’ll likely disappear a lot faster than that. In fact, you might find yourself boiling another dozen. (A note on safety: Be sure to use food-grade dye for your eggs and don’t eat eggs that have been out of the fridge for more than two hours total.)

Southwestern Egg Salad Sandwich: Mash chopped eggs with a potato masher or a fork along with some mayo, a little chipotle in adobo or chipotle chile powder, lime juice, salt and sliced scallions. Place on a sandwich roll along with sliced avocado.

Egg Quesadilla: Brush one side of a burrito-size flour tortilla with olive oil. Place oiled side down on a baking sheet. Scatter shredded pepper Jack cheese over the tortilla, top with sliced hard-boiled eggs, green salsa and cilantro sprigs. Top with more cheese and another tortilla. Brush top of tortilla with oil and bake until the cheese has melted and the tortilla is crisp.

Eggs in Purgatory: Make a spicy tomato sauce with onions, garlic, a little bacon (if you like), tomatoes and some cayenne. Slice hard-boiled eggs about 1/2-inch thick, place in a shallow pasta bowl and spoon sauce over.

Potato and Egg Salad: Boil Yukon gold potatoes in their jackets until tender. Drain; peel while still warm, cut into thick slices and toss with a little vinegar (I like sherry or rice vinegar, but it’s really your choice). Let sit 30 minutes then toss with hard-boiled egg slices, finely chopped red onion, a little mayo, and a little mustard. If you like, jazz it up with some ham, shrimp or cooked chicken.

Eggs with Asparagus and Parmesan Cheese: Do a riff on an Italian classic that usually has poached or fried eggs atop roasted asparagus. Trim ends of asparagus, then cut them in half crosswise. Place in a bowl, toss with olive oil to coat and roast at 400 degrees until lightly browned and crisp-tender. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan and panko breadcrumbs and roast a few more minutes until cheese has melted. Top with chopped hard-boiled eggs and chives, and if you like, a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar.
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Quick Egg and Vegetable Hash: Cook some chopped onions, diced red pepper, and thinly sliced peeled carrots in a combo of butter and vegetable or olive oil until the onion is golden brown and caramelized. Add diced cooked potatoes and cook until the potatoes are nicely browned. Add chopped hard-boiled eggs and just a little cream or half-and-half; cook until eggs are heated through.

Not Your Usual Egg Sandwich: Use a baguette or a couple of slices of thick whole-grain country bread. Spread hot pepper jelly on both sides of the bread and top with arugula, sliced prosciutto and sliced eggs.

Warm Bacon, Spinach and Egg Salad: Cook a few slices of bacon until crisp, save the bacon fat and whisk it together with red wine vinegar, red currant jelly (or a little brown sugar) and toss while still warm with fresh spinach and sliced sautéed or grilled portobello mushroom caps, hard-boiled eggs cut in wedges and crumbled bacon. If you don’t want to use bacon, omit it and make the dressing with olive oil.

Rich and Creamy Salad Dressing: Halve hard-boiled eggs and separate yolks and whites. Push yolks through a fine-meshed strainer. Whisk in olive oil, mustard, a touch of lemon juice, salt and pepper. Toss with a hearty lettuce, such as romaine, and garnish with chopped egg whites. Variation: Combine sour cream, mustard, yolks, and mayonnaise for a creamy thick dressing.

Norwegian Butter Cookies: This treat is a perfect use for egg yolks. In a mixing bowl, combine 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, 2 mashed hard-boiled egg yolks, and 1/4 cup granulated sugar. Beat until well combined. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon grated orange zest, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and, if you like, 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom. Fold in 1 cup all-purpose flour. Using a teaspoon measure, drop cookie dough mixture 1-inch apart onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, until golden around edges and set. Cool 2 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely

Meatloaf with Eggs: Put together your favorite meatloaf mixture. Pat half of it into a loaf pan, then make a trench lengthwise down the center and place a row of hard-boiled eggs in the trench. Top with remaining meatloaf mixture, patting it down to enclose the eggs and bake.

Gratinéed Eggs: Make a white sauce by melting 3 tablespoons butter and whisking in 3 tablespoons of flour, cooking over medium-low heat until just beginning to turn golden. Whisk in 2 cups milk, a little nutmeg, salt, pepper and a pinch of cayenne. Cook until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Whisk in about a cup of shredded sharp cheddar (or more if you like). Spoon some of the mixture into an 8 x 8 baking dish that’s been brushed with a little butter. Place 6 to 8 thickly sliced eggs in the dish and top with more sauce. Sprinkle with a little grated Parmesan and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown and bubbling.

For more ideas, see our deviled egg recipes and egg salad recipes.

By Jordan Lite

Posted March 15th

She’s fed up. An Illinois teacher is eating school lunches for a year in solidarity with students she believes aren’t offered healthy options in the cafeteria.

Blogging anonymously at fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com, the instructor has already suffered a few bellyaches in the name of her endeavor. She began eating — and documenting with her cell phone camera — the less-than-appetizing school lunches this January and quickly started gaining thousands of readers per day.

The teacher, who refers to herself as Mrs. Q, told AOL Health that even airplane meals taste better than the ones in the school cafeteria and that she is eating them to prove a point. The children at her school come from low socioeconomic brackets, and she estimates that 98 percent of them eat hot lunches, mostly for free or at low cost. The meals, she said in an e-mail, “are overly processed and contain very little ‘real’ food,” such as fresh fruit.

“I am not a nutritionist. That being said, I became concerned about what the kids were eating because on the surface, the food doesn’t appear to be very healthy.

“These are the kids who need the good nutrition,” she added. “My students don’t have good food models at home. These kids depend on the school for so much, including good nutrition. And if they don’t get it, they will develop bad habits and increase our health-care costs in the future.”

Nearly one fifth of U.S. children are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and research has cautioned that those kids could have shorter life spans because they are too heavy. Moreover, the obesity epidemic is blamed for the increasing numbers of children diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, a disease historically seen mostly in adults.

First Lady Michelle Obama recently took on the issue of school meals as part of her new Let’s Move campaign to curb childhood obesity. Some 31 million kids get federally funded lunches at school, and 11 million eat breakfast there, according to the Obama administration. With many kids getting about half their daily calories at school, a goal of the campaign is to reduce the amount of sugar, salt and fat in school meals, and to increase whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Under the proposed Child Nutrition Act, the federal government would allot an additional $1 billion a year for 10 years to help schools improve the nutrition of meals. The program currently costs about $15 billion annually, according to the PTA.
Mrs. Q said she is not affiliated with the Let’s Move campaign and was keeping her identity a secret out of concern for her job. “I’m worried about any possible backlash exposing the school lunches might have for me personally and professionally,” she told AOL Health, after agreeing to answer questions anonymously. “I want to continue working and I also don’t want to get anyone in trouble.” Mrs. Q has laments the short window kids at her school have to eat. She estimates they have 13 minutes at best, five at worst (after taking into account waiting in line, finding a seat and using the bathroom). She also worried about the safety of the food — especially after one inedible peanut butter and jelly graham cracker sandwich kept her in the bathroom all night. “I’m having more stomachaches these days,” she said. “It’s not every day, but at least once a week I just don’t feel very good.” She added that she has a history of irritable bowel syndrome and couldn’t be sure the bellyaches were from the school meals. “I can’t place it,” she said. “Keep in mind that I eat organic and healthy outside of work so it’s not like I’m suffering. What is hard for me to think about are the kids who rely on the school for the best (or only) meal of the day and they get

On her wish list: A salad bar, soups, casseroles, and stir fries, which she told AOL Health could be cost efficient if they’re made in bulk. She said yogurt and cottage cheese could make for healthy side dishes, and she would nix tater tots in favor of roasted potatoes. She would also eliminate hot dogs, packaged foods and Styrofoam. On the plus side, she said most bread products at the school already appear to be whole wheat.

Mrs. Q appears to teach at an elementary school. While she described the students there as “pretty young” to AOL Health, she told the blog Small Bites that students eating the meals range from 4 to 11 years old. And though she is eating — and blogging — in their interest, the project is causing her some anxiety.

“I feel a lot of guilt and turmoil about what I’m doing here,” she wrote on February 18. “I’m waiting for the moment I’m called to the principal’s office and let go. I do believe it’s a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’ they find out and it’s curtains for me and then of course the project.

“I want them to know that the project is not about individuals in one school but about a country full of children who need better food models.”

Gregor Hunter, Sky News Online

Posted March 7th 2010

Two nine year olds known as the Wonder Twins for their record-beating exam results are set to become the youngest pupils admitted to a British secondary school.

Paula and Peter Imafidon, from Waltham Forest, London, amazed parents and teachers when they passed an A-level maths exam at the age of seven.

The twins have been waiting to find out which secondary school they will attend, along with thousands of other youngsters – who are two years older – across the country.

Peter and Paula, who attend a state primary in London, were helped by their three older brothers and sisters, all of whom were also child prodigies.

Their father Chris said he was thrilled by his childen’s achievements at school.

He denied any particular genius in the family, crediting their success to the Excellence in Education programme for inner city children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“Every child is a genius,” he said. “Once you identify the talent of a child and put them in the environment that will nurture that talent then the sky is the limit.

“Look at Tiger Woods, or the Williams sisters – they were nurtured.

“You can never rule anything out with them, the competition between the two of them makes them excel in anything they do.

“They are forever competing and fighting, even if it’s just for the remote control or the computer.”

Paula hopes to become a maths teacher, while Peter hopes to become Prime Minister one day.

By Casey Gane-McCalla

Posted March 7th 2010

Recently, President Barack Obama pledged his efforts as well as $900 million to stop the national high school drop out crisis. The efforts of one leader and money are not enough to stop the problem, but it is a start.

The current education system offers no skills or career opportunities to the many minority students who occupy our inner city schools. While some may blame it on the “culture” of African Americans and our inner city, it is a problem created by the American educational students, not African American children.

We’ve seen the example of the British twins who set records on the National exam that led them to be the first children of their age admitted to high school. Their father gave the credit to a program that helps inner city children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and not to some sort of genius gene that allowed them to exceed academically. Surely if the U.S. had more programs like the ones in England, more African American students would have the chance to meet their academic accolades.

The urban education crisis is hardly a new one for years the American government has neglected the educational needs of the poor African Americans and Latinos who occupy many of our city centers.

It is no coincidence that the cities with the highest drop out rates also have the highest crime rates and highest murder rates. Students who are unable to obtain quality educations find opportunities in the world of drugs and crime. The cycle continues from one generation to another, in poor neighborhoods with poor schools plagued by by crime and no opportunity gives birth to another generation with the same problem.

Bailing out the urban educational system is not just a money problem. For too many years Americans have fought against things, communism, drugs poverty isn’t it time to fight for something? If Americans are to solve this problem first we must realize what a major problem it is and realize that the future of our country is at stake. As in most problems the solution must come from hard work, innovation as well as funding.

By baling out the urban education system we would not only reduce the crime rate, relieve our overcrowded jails and provide jobs for inner cities, we will also be breaking the cycle that keeps poor people of color in the same neighborhoods, repeating the same cycles of violence, drugs and poverty.

We have seen the heights a person of color can reach when given the proper education and opportunities in Barack Obama. How many future leaders, innovators, artists and businessman turn to crime or despair because of a lack of educational opportunities.

As someone who has worked in the some of the worst schools in Roxbury, Dorchester and the South Bronx, I’ve seen the overcrowded classrooms, the over-stressed, unprepared teachers, the metal detectors at the door, the gangs and lack of art and athletic programs to keep students interested in school. However I’ve also seen the desire to learn, the thirst for knowledge and the belief in the USA as a beacon of opportunity.

In Baltimore, students went on a hunger strike to protest the cuts in after school programs. John McCain said one thing that I agreed with during the campaign and that was that education is the civil rights issue of the 21st century. While de jure segregation has been gone for more then 50 years from our public school system, the system is still inherently separate and unequal.

The few blacks and latinos lucky enough to live in neighborhoods with decent school systems have a fair chance at the American dream, the masses who are trapped in inner cities with few routes out. Because property taxes fund school systems, rich neighborhoods get lots of money to fund their schools while poor neighborhoods are forced to suffer, creating a class and race based form of de facto segregation.

Bailing out the urban education system will take more than money. It will take people willing to sacrifice and believe in the future of this country. If Obama can inspire people to work for him to get elected hopefully he will be able to inspire people to follow his lead and work as community organizers in urban neighborhoods.

Here’s some of the national High school Drop out Rates According to The Wall St. Journal

Baltimore: 65% of all students drop out

Chicago: 45% of all students drop out

Columbus: 60% of all students drop out

Detroit: 75% of all students drop out

Los Angeles: 43% of all students drop out

New York: 53% of all students drop out

By Boyce Watkins, PhD

Posted January 20th 2010
At thirteen years of age, Stephen Stafford is causing quite a stir at Morehouse College. Stafford has a triple major in pre-med, math and computer science. Though he loves playing video games and playing his drum set, he is no typical teenager.

“I’ve never taught a student as young as Stephen, and it’s been amazing,” said computer science professor Sonya Dennis. “He’s motivating other students to do better and makes them want to step up their game.”

Stafford began his college career at the age of 11, after being home-schooled by his mother. Stafford’s mother said that when Stafford began to teach her instead of being taught by her, she knew he needed to be in a college environment.

Now THAT’S what I’m talking about. Stephen Stafford, in my opinion, represents exactly what black men are about: Intelligence, ambition and high academic achievement. This is not to disrespect men in other walks of life, but the truth is that you will never see Stephen Stafford’s accomplishments promoted like a rap music video.

We must, as a community, applaud and uphold this young man. We must cheer for him as if he averages 40 points a game. We should converse about his achievements as if he had released a platinum hip-hop album. He should get the same respect as every linebacker, point guard or hip-hop artist in America.

Corporate America will not blow Stephen’s trumpet, but I will. I also want all the other Stephen Staffords to make themselves seen. There are hundreds of thousands of Stephen Staffords out there who’ve been convinced by a culture of thuggery that they should do their best to hide their greatness. Rather than acing math class, they’ve been taught to measure grams and kilos or to memorize football playbooks that are 100 pages thick. Our young men can analyze the triangle offense in basketball and break down a nickel defense, but then become mentally deficient when it comes to doing algebra, science and social studies. The time for mediocrity is over, since education is the key to making your dreams come true. Sports only creates more nightmares.

Stephen will make more money than all of his athletic friends, because education produces economic empowerment. He will also have more personal freedom and professional fulfillment. He will live the black American dream, and I encourage all of you to make your own sons into the next Stephen Stafford.

The recipe for our kids is simple:

1) Spend as much time studying as you spend playing sports or working at fast food restaurant jobs.
2) Don’t let anyone convince you that you can’t achieve whatever you put your mind to.

Just by studying 4 to 5 hours per day (less than the number of hours they would put in to working a minimum wage job), almost any child in America can get a college degree and become a doctor, lawyer or whatever they want. It’s actually just a matter of doing it. I’ve taught college for 16 years, and I can tell you that the term “college material” needs to be abolished. Every child is college material if they want to be. That’s the truth.

December 22, 2009, 8:15AM

Somehow, I managed to get through my entire high school career before I found out that the term “oral sex” described a specific sex act, not a type of discussion.

Sad (and perhaps a bit funny) but true.

But oral sex, the act, is far from funny when you consider the devastation it can cause. And it points directly to how important it is for parents to talk to their children about sex, as embarrassing and as uncomfortable as it might be.

One tool to consider using is “Talking to Your Kids About Sex,” the latest book by nationally known sex educator and therapist Laura Berman. It’s not too late to ask Santa for this as a last-minute stocking stuffer.

The book advocates talking to kids about sex (not just telling them about it) and everything that surrounds it — puberty, healthy and unhealthy relationships, teachable moments present in movies and music, even text message codes.

And yes, Berman covers the topic of oral sex.

In October, around the time that Berman’s book came out, the results of a study at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center were published in the journal Head & Neck.

Researchers there have established a link between the human papillomavirus and the increase in cases of a rare type of head and neck cancer called nasopharyngeal cancer. It’s cancer of the nasopharynx, the upper part of the throat — right above the tonsils — where the pharynx is situated behind the nose.

A couple of tidbits from the American Cancer Society:

December 15, 2009, 6:51PM

Warrensville Heights, Ohio — Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge wants to officially designate each September as “National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.”

She planned to kick off a congressional effort to accomplish that goal today at a Washington, D.C., charity event hosted by Washington Redskins linebacker London Fletcher, a Cleveland native who played football at John Carroll University and Villa Angela – St. Joseph High School before entering the National Football League.

When votes in the House of Representatives kept Fudge from attending, Fletcher stepped in to announce his endorsement of her proposal.

“It’s important for kids to play at least sixty minutes a day to promote a longer life,” said Fletcher, citing estimates that obese children have lifespans that are nine years shorter than their parents.

Fletcher runs a charity called London’s Bridge whose Cleveland activities include providing college scholarships, Thanksgiving meals for needy families and a kids’ bicycle giveaway. In Washington, DC, the group runs a mentoring program for local middle school students.

Fudge’s bill is endorsed by more than 40 groups including the NFL, the NFL Players Association, the American Heart Association, the National League of Cities and the YMCA.

An aide to Fudge read a statement that said her effort would reduce obesity through efforts like promoting exercise and healthier school cafeteria food

“My friends in Congress and I encourage a culture of fitness in your schools and increased community opportunities for family fun and activity,” said the statement from Fudge.