Blog Posts by The_Stir

Bristol Palin HomeAnyone buying or selling a home right now can tell you that it's tough out there. Sellers aren't wanting to lower prices down to what buyers can actually afford. But at 20 years old, Bristol Palin recently purchased her very first home, and I gotta give the girl credit, she made some extremely smart and mature decisions.

Instead of going the route that so many young, ahem, celebrities, go -- blowing all of their recently earned cash on an expansive mansion -- she bought a 3,900-square-foot property in a quaint Arizona subdivision.

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Admittedly, the house is a far cry from your average 20-year-old's home, but given her yearly earnings are not that of the typical college student working at the campus cafeteria, she can afford it. She receives approximately $15,000 to $30,000 per each abstinence lecture she makes appearances for, not to mention her recent Dancing With the Stars stint earned her a pretty penny,

carrots with spruce butterAfter the holidays I was planning on leaving our Christmas tree out on the curb for the city to collect and turn into mulch. It's a nice way of making our lovely trees last a little longer and much less depressing than just watching them get sent to the dump. But it never occurred to me to eat my tree.

Last week in The New York Times, Rene Redzepi suggested just that. Apparently "evergreens are delicious," similar to rosemary. So I decided to give it a try!

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No, Redzepi is not suggesting we plop a branch into a pot of boiling water, but you can use evergreen needles for seasoning, much like you would use rosemary. In fact, consider that tree a giant sprig of herbs.

Our tree is a balsam and spruce hybrid, and I'm glad we went for an organic one at that. I still washed the needles before using them (grubby hands grabbing the branches all week). I decided on the spruce butter, a pretty easy way to start, and cooked

Kim Kardashian in cornrowsAs annoying as Kim Kardashian may be, it's impossible to deny that she's anything but drop dead gorgeous. With beautiful skin, perfect hair, and a body to die for, I've yet to see a picture of her looking bad -- even without the assistance of makeup and PhotoShop.

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But she recently channeled Bo Derek (her tweeting words, not mine) in cornrows while filming her music video (yes, apparently she's a singer now), and I can't help but heave a huge sigh of relief. She, like every other girl, does have the capability of rocking a bad hairstyle. Perhaps she's not an unbelievably gorgeous freak of nature after all.

Of course, every other part of her image still looks great, and even in her worst state, it's still not comparable to the majority of ours (I'd take looking like that over the whackjob of a bang cut my mother did when I was in second grade any day -- those yearbook pictures still haunt my dreams), but I

A really outstanding bottle of champagne, like Dom Perignon, will run you about $150 a bottle. But what about those bubblies a couple (or five) teirs down the social strata, say the under $25 range you can get at most liquor stores? Are they even worth buying or would your guests barely know the difference if you popped open a 6-pack?

With New Year's Eve right around the corner, The Stir was determined to find out. We performed our own cheap champagne taste test for the connesuir on a budget.

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We selected 7 champagnes based on popularity and price. We tried to keep it somewhat classy -- with nothing under $9.99. And of course -- we wanted you to be able to find these bottles in a crunch. Fear not, you'll have no problem locating these brands at your local liquor store or outlet.

Our serious sippers were briefed on the basics. The task at hand, to sip and analyze the champagnes without having any knowledge of what

Can we really be happy for a couple who left their spouses and broke up two families in order to be together?

That is the question last week's "Vows" feature in The New York Times asked us to answer. Carol Anne Riddell and John Partilla met while both were still married to others. They fell in love. And last week, that love was the feature of the weekly column the Style Section runs every Sunday. People across the country were outraged.

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The comments section erupted:

I'm never borrowing another cell phone again. Never. And if you're the jerk who is always forgetting her BlackBerry and borrowing one to call your kids on girls' night out, you might want to glue that thing to your hip. Because now that the first ever sex toy for the cell phone is out on shelves, you won't want to think about where your girlfriend's mobile has been as you nestle it against your cheek.

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A company has finally cashed in on the "all sexting, all the time" news feeds (thanks Brett Favre!) in order to bring us mobile orgasms for the big trek over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house. They're even offering free holiday shipping.

Yup, it looks like a sex toy. In fact, the Mobile Ryder ($69), along with its wink, wink, nudge, nudge name and ad copy lifted directly from a Sacha Baron Cohen movie (you make sexy time!) is officially the most obtrusive phone case ever (currently available for

abortion illegalImagine getting pregnant, only to be diagnosed with cancer. Now imagine it getting worse. Much worse.

In a story that should give women everywhere pause, Michelle Harte was forced to travel out of the country to have an abortion because she was living in Ireland, where the law only allows abortion in cases where a hospital has determined a mother's life is at risk if she continues with the pregnancy. Ironically, her own doctors had advised her to terminate to proceed with cancer treatments, but the ethics committee that had final say on her abortion said no.

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By the time all was said and done, the delay in cancer treatment allowed the disease to spread in her body. She's now been declared "terminally ill." If she dies, she'll leave behind her daughter, motherless.

Harte's story came out this week after the story of yet another woman in a similar situation blew wide open the problems with governments

The holidays can be an incredibly stressful time of year. Between the baking, the family members you can't stand, the never-ending to-do list, and the wrapping, a lot of people despise this time of year. But there are ways the whole family can de-stress and one way is playing games online.

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For moms, online games provide a place where children can play and be entertained as well as fun entertainment for themselves once the kids are in bed. They are mindless and distracting, a perfect way to get your mind off Aunt Sally's nagging or Uncle Bert's refusal to adhere to the "no-smoking" rule in the house.

Here are some online gaming ideas for all ages:

TODDLERS:

Disney princess game: My nearly 4-year-old daughter loves this game fanatically. Even though she only gets to play it in 15-minute increments, she enjoys it and gets a lot out of it. It's easy for little fingers to navigate and is a great game to occupy the