Blog Posts by The_Stir

At this point, a poor guy has to work his bum off to propose marriage in a creative way. Jumbotron, skywriting, romantic restaurant, blah, blah. They have all been done. So what is a poor guy who wants to create a memorable proposal to do?

David Jones -- a Cleveland-based video producer -- decided to propose to his girlfriend (now fiance) via commercial. She turned on the television at her hair salon and there was her boyfriend dressed as a superhero. Then he was there in real life, on one knee, asking her to marry him. Romantic, right?

More from The Stir: 50 Reasons Why Marriage Rocks

Between proposing on Facebook and on CafeMom(!), people are using technology to propose all the time. The television is practically old-fashioned! But proposing in these ways is always a danger.

No one ever talks about the bad ones, like this one. A man proposed to a woman on a basketball court in front of hundreds of people and she said no!

Look, it happens. Luckily for Jones, his

Looking for a new gig? We've got 100 family-friendly jobs for you to consider when you head back to the grind. While it's rare that a job would meet all of our mom-positive requirements, the goal was to hit as many as possible.

More from The Stir: Gwyneth Paltrow is a Working Mom's Roll Model

We're highlighting jobs that don't have you scrambling for a babysitter on a regular basis, and jobs that aren't more stressful than four months of 4 a.m. feedings. Big points for jobs that don't take you out on the road and jobs that don't have blatant pay discrimination (even though all jobs still don't pay equally for men and women). Finally, jobs that are meaningful could trump all of the above, because some people need a really, really, good reason to do something that takes time away from the kids.

You'll see that some of these "fun" jobs mainly meet the "low stress" criteria, which we think is massively important to your work/life balance.

Find your new career today,

If you're in the market for an unforgettable prom dress this spring, then you really can't go wrong with one encrusted with real diamonds. That is, unless you're averse to spending $14,000 on a one time only dress.

Don't get me wrong, the dress is lovely, but $14,000 lovely? Really? The dress, which is exclusively available only at DressGoddess, is designed by La Femme Fashion, a prom fashion designer. It's customized by DressGoddess with an assortment of genuine diamonds valued at more than $13,000 and hand-sewn throughout the bodice of the dress. Yowza!

More from The Stir: Joan Collins' Oscar Party Dress Tries to Kill Her

Meanwhile, when I was back in high school, I thought going into Manhattan for my prom dress was fancy!

My best friend and I were rebels and we took the train from Boston to Manhattan just to shop for dresses. This is what I ended up with:

You can't tell here, but it was completely sheer, really short, and cut more like a polo shirt than a

There are seven wonders of the world, but let the media tell it these days, there's a new one-the mystifying singledom of so many black women. The topic has been analyzed, researched, and reported on. It's been hashed, rehashed, and raked over the coals. It's the featured story on TV specials, the headline-maker on gobs of publications, blogs, and radio shows, and the main source of conversation at probably more than a billion girls' nights out.

More from The Stir: The Relationship Mistake We Should Not Repeat

Authors and writers are making a killing from sales of books and magazines (except yours truly, the quintessential just-above-the-poverty-line scribe). And Lord knows Steve Harvey would still be just a regular ol' comedian if he hadn't hopped onto this overhyped bandwagon. Now in his newfound notoriety as a relationship expert, he's whipped up not one, but two bestsellers on why so many sistas don't have rocks on their left ring fingers and what we should be doing to

I'm sorry to all of my green friends out there, but it has to be said: Composting has just jumped the shark. In one of the most disgusting articles I've ever read on CNN, the "Living" site teaches us how to compost our dog's poop. With just a few easy, yet crucial, caveats, the article explains how composting feces can be done without killing your entire family with germs.

More from The Stir: Want to Legally Shoot Cats and Dogs? Move to Utah!

So let's talk about the rules here in composting poop. In addition to making sure you aren't burying the poop in a water table and contaminating your community's water source, you also cannot use the dog poop to fertilize plants you may eat. Or really anywhere you would come in contact with the poop because dog poop carries the possibility of disease like E. coli and Giardia. In addition to these very serious dangers, composting dog poop will also make your backyard constantly smell like s---.

Seriously. Who would do this?

Even

Too much alcohol will kill you. Too much coffee, too. Stress, smoking, high cholesterol, yup, yup, yeah. Being obese is another risk factor for heart disease that is drilled into our heads every time we turn on the news. But, researchers have yet to really come out and say that sitting in traffic is going to give you a heart attack. (Though just ask anyone who lives in Greater NYC what they think about that, and they'll nod, scowl, and respond, "No ***BLEEP***!")

More from The Stir: Watching 'Grey's Anatomy' Could Save Your Life

But now, we have proof that bumper-to-bumper traffic is a killer! A new review study found that no individual risk factors (like alcohol consumption or weight) account for as many heart attacks as the quality of the air we breathe. And exposure to traffic, which can increase blood pressure as well as absorption of heart-harming exhaust, posed the greatest relative risk to the heart, reports Time magazine.

I dunno about you, but this conclusion is

cricketsRecently, there's been buzz about eating bugs; a steady flutter of noise about their nutritional value, affordability, and tastiness. One woman in particular, Daniella Martin, is on a mission to re-brand little critters from something that makes us shriek when we see them crawling across the bathroom floor to something that makes us squeal with delight when we see them served on a platter.

More from The Stir: Bugs: A New Delicacy?

Eating insects has been part of Asian and Latin American cultures for centuries, so while the concept isn't a new one, its State-side acceptance might be. You know what else was popular in other countries for millennia before becoming an unstoppable trend in the U.S.? Eating raw fish. Are bugs the new sushi?

If Martin has anything to say about it, then yes. She told AOL News that she makes cupcakes using flour made up of ground crickets and wax worms in stir fry. I can only imagine what ground cricket dust tastes like and I'm thinking it's like

Nordstrom"Look at that woman's shoes," I said to my husband last night as we waited in the valet line at The Palm.

She was standing on the sidewalk with a group of musicians, dressed to the groupie nines in a pair of sky-high platform stilettos, much like the Mary Jane Platform Louboutins (Nordstrom, $995) pictured here.

"WOW," Hubs said. "Those are ridiculous!"

"I know," I said admiringly, gazing at her with a mixture of envy and awe.

She looked so long and lean in her six-inch heels. So stylish. So edgy.

And then her car arrived and she turned and began to walk toward it ...

And, well.

Let's just say it was not good.

More from The Stir: Jennifer Hudson Oscars 2011: Is Jenn Too Thin?

I mean, you couldn't really call what she was doing 'walking.'

A closer term would be 'stumbling.'

Her heels were so crazy high that when she moved, she looked like a first-timer on stilts.

My husband started laughing as we watched her lurch out into the street,