Blog Posts by Mira Jacob, Shine staff

Image courtesy of the New York PostOne more reason to love Scandinavians: Tiger's ex--the very same one who in the weeks after finding out her husband had been shtupping everything in sight, quietly removed her wedding ring and went about her day--is apparently considering a brave new venture. According to the Sunday London Times, the newly divorced mother of two is considering opening a "clinic to help poorer children suffering from mental illnesses such as depression, eating disorders and hypertension, which can result from living in a broken family."

Well, that's one good way to use the settlement from the divorce, which is estimated to reside somewhere in the $100-$500 million dollar range. It certainly beats shaving your head or developing a drug habit or lashing out at everyone in sight, as other famously scrutinized and wealthy women have done when their marriages have gone south.

Why a clinic for kids? It appears that Nordegren, who has almost completed a degree in mental-health counseling at Rollins College

The best part of summer? Falling in love for two hours in the dark. No, we're not talking about actors here--though God knows we've had plenty of IMDB-assisted obsessions with the Hollywood set--we're talking about fictional characters that live in a way we'd like to think was possible in real life, or answer a question we didn't know we were asking, or just come across so vividly that we can't stop thinking about them when we're back home. Here's our shortlist of characters we fell in love with (or at any rate, would have if we could have). Did we miss your movie BF?

Oh no she didn't! TC contestant Amanda does the unthinkableHow do you know who's getting the knife on weekly episodes of Top Chef? Because you inexplicably begin to like them about 45 minutes before their demise. Take this week, which opens with the bizarre sight of Ed walking around in Tiffany's dress, presumably coming to terms with the fact that it's the only way he'll be getting inside it. Cut to Angelo talking about how when he was little, he used to cut out pictures of four-star chefs, light candles and pray before them. Excuse the hell who? What the how? Is there a single reasonable person in the D.C. house?

"Angelo is a little weird sometimes. He actually reads Anthony Robbins books. And he talks to himself. And says mantras like [snort, snort] "you're going to win" and stuff like that!"

Oh, God bless your occasionally brilliant powers of observation, Amanda. Now, is this the first time I've genuinely liked you on the show? No, I liked you early on, before you got too erratic and freaked out for me to deal with. But in this

Back in the 80s, when I was in carpool, there was one mom who knew all the songs on the radio and would sing along. She had once been a singer in a band, she told us. She was young and pretty and had the best voice ever, we told everyone at recess. Like, she could be famous. Like, bigger than Belinda Carlisle.

Her kids, of course hated every minute of it.

"Mom!" They would yell, their hands over their ears. "Enough! You're embarrassing me!"

Honestly, I had no pity for them. If they wanted really embarrassing, they could have spent an afternoon with my mother, whose tendency to warble old Hindi film songs in falsetto scared even the dogs.

Still, even back then, there was a part of me that understood that even in a best-case scenario, seeing your mother do something vulnerable in front of a group of your peers wasn't fun. What if she crumbled under their scrutiny? What if she was laughed at? What if she crashed the car while getting really into the bridge of "Papa

After a woman breastfeeding her 6-month old at a local McDonald's was asked to leave by the manager, dozens of moms in Glendale Arizona responded by having a "nurse-in." Showing up at the branch, the moms sat down and started nursing en masse last Saturday, with the formerly evicted mom stating, "This is not about me today, this is about showing support and the fact that McDonald's needs to change its policies."

But it seems that McDonald's doesn't actually need to change its policies as, according to a statement from the owners of the Glendale branch, "It has never been our policy to ask nursing mothers to leave our restaurant. This was a mistake. All employees are required to comply with local, state and federal laws."

Arizona law, for those who don't know, "provides that indecent exposure does not include an act of breastfeeding by a mother and entitles a mother to breastfeed in any public place where the mother is otherwise lawfully present."

Seeing as this is the

The results of Haier's celebrity mom pollSo every once in a while (okay, every day), some tidbit of news snakes into my inbox with its cheerful pronouncement or statistic, and today, Haier, an appliance and electronics company, sent word that a recently conducted online poll showed that "more American mothers would trust Michelle Obama's advice on back-to-school shopping than Sarah Palin['s]." Not interesting enough for you? How about the fact that "Kate Gosselin and Angelina Jolie, who have 8 and 6 children respectively, wound up at the bottom of Haier America's poll of more than 1,000 moms who were asked which famous mom they trust most to make good back-to-school purchasing decisions"? Nope? Nothing?

Listen, I can't fault Haier for trying to use the celebrity angle to appeal to moms any more than I can get mad at every other that company uses celebrities to hawk their products. But today's poll did make me wonder: Is there actually any celebrity that moms would trust when it comes to raising a family? Anyone you'd

Image courtesy of the New York PostReady for your head-clapping, brain-breaking, what-is-this-world-coming-to moment of the week? I know I'm late in the game seeing as it's almost Friday and all, but I have to admit, the recent story of a 19-year-old Florida woman who posted pictures of her 11-month-old baby with his mouth wrapped around a bong is making my head melt. Oh yes, I'm well aware that there are much worse things to contend with in the world right now, like the BP oil spill, or the flood in Pakistan, or the distribution of toxic eggs, but honestly, this one just made me sad on multiple levels.

According to the NY Post, Rachel Stieringer of Keystone Heights was busted by the cops when a user for Texas spotted the picture and called the authorities. Stierlinger was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, and while the baby in question did not test positively to any drug tests, it hasn't put mom in good standing with the Florida Department of Children and Families.

Stieringer's response? To

Okay, given, the sixth season of Top Chef was going to be hard to top. Two brothers going head-to-head, one a practical master, one a tempestuous artist? I pretty much needed weekly therapy as the Voltaggio brothers played out their sibling rivalry across a hundred cutting boards, and even then, I couldn't stop from sobbing as their mom showed up at the finale. So yes, bringing viewers back to that level of emotional commitment to the show was always going to be a challenge for the producers, I'll give them that. What I don't understand is how this season became such a hot mess.

Is it the seeming lack of genuine talent in the kitchen? The lack of real chemistry between Angelo and the food he insists is "sexy?" The lack of critical thinking skills from "Alex is my funny Jewish Uncle" Amanda, or ego tear-downs from Tom Colicchio, or post-preggers wardrobe choices for Padma Lakshmi? I can't say for sure, but I do know that this season has been especially weird for at least a few