In the studio, 1974. Photo by Peter Cunningham.The Grammy Awards category of Best Spoken Word Album may not have been televised, but the lineup of nominations was packed with heavy hitters: Michele Obama, Bill Clinton, Rachel Maddow and Ellen DeGeneres. Oh, right, and the winner—Janis Ian, 61, a snowy-haired musical legend who won over judges with “Society’s Child: My Autobiography.” So who is this fierce woman behind the spoken-word upset? You need to know, and we’re here to tell you.

1. She’s no stranger to the Grammys. Ian won best female pop vocalist in 1975, for her seminal hit “At Seventeen,” about being a teenage outcast. And over the course of her career, Ian has received 10 Grammy nominations, in categories including Best Folk Performance, Best Engineered Recording and Album of the Year.
2. She was a teen wunderkind. Ian wrote her first hit song, “Society’s Child,” about an interracial couple, at 14, and headlined her first show at the Gaslight Café in Greenwich Village at 15. She says of her early career, “I wrote my

Courtesy of ZaggoraLexi Novak, Allure magazine

First, there were stomach belts that promised to tighten your abs. Then came the bulky toning sneakers. And now come workout tights that claim to boost weight loss: Zaggora HotPants.

See more: The 10 Commandments of Mascara

According to their website, HotPants are made with Celu-Lite (cute, eh?), a "fabric technology that harnesses the body's natural heat during exercise to help you burn more calories." In one study, participants wearing the HotPants burned an average of 11 percent more calories than those wearing standard exercise clothing.

Geralyn Coopersmith, national director at Equinox Fitness Training Institute, says the pants may increase your energy expenditure by making you sweat, since "your body is working harder to keep you cooler." But that's not necessarily a good thing. "The body is working to dissipate heat, and if it's unable to do that, it compromises the cardiovascular system and people begin to feel ill," she says.

See more: Top

Courtesy of Getty ImagesBy Leslie Goldman

A very fortunate 10 percent of women experience orgasms while working out. Meet one of them.

Related: The Get It On Guide

From Big Ow to Big O
If you think about it, exercise has a lot in common with sex: You get nice and sweaty, a killer playlist makes you want to work harder, a towel always comes in handy, and a tall glass of cold water afterwards feels mighty refreshing. But lately, my workout routine has been mirroring my hanky panky in one very special way: I can't seem to crank out a set of abdominal moves without having an orgasm.

(Pause for applause.)

Yes, while most women leave a hardcore workout feeling the Big Ow, lately, my Plank Swipes and Single Leg Stretches have been delivering the Big O. It all started when a friend loaned me her Tracy Anderson Post-Pregnancy Workout DVD; once my OB/GYN cleared me to resume abdominal work following my C-section, I popped that sucker in, laid a towel down on our living room floor, and got to work. The video

By Alyssa Goldman, Cheapism.com

Warning: Flu season is in full swing and the common cold is making the rounds. If you or a loved one happens to catch either or some other everyday bug, treatment can get pretty costly pretty quickly. There are numerous brand-name over-the-counter medications targeted at such ailments, but what about their cheaper generic counterparts?

Save money by buying generic medicine.

Related: Best budget humidifiers

We scoured review boards to learn whether the outcomes differ when using generic medications or their brand-name counterparts to counter flu and non-flu symptoms. The FDA requires that generic over-the-counter medications include the exact same active ingredients as those of the popular brands, which makes them acceptable substitutes. The same rule does not apply to prescription medications, however, so speak to your physician before switching to generics.

Generic over-the-counter medications cost less than the brand-name equivalent largely because the latter are backed by

zoe moon astrologyNew Moon energy takes us into the week ahead but not without one issue on the table that you really need to get serious about. There is a tense square between Venus and Saturn kicking us into the week and emitting pressure to get real and either set some limits, commit to something or end things in that Scorpio part of our lives. This means that you have a real chance to get some momentum if you are willing to put your nose to the grindstone over the loan, debt, inheritance, insurance, taxes, settlement, investment, commissions, royalties, alimony, child support, bankruptcy, partner's money, divorce, or something involving your sex life or reproductive needs. With Venus in the sign of the NEW MOON there is an urge and a surge from the universe to move you to the next level of your aspirations and it has something to do with a woman, your love life or your personal income (maybe all of the above).

The week ahead for Aries: Make it your goal this week to figure out what you can

FacebookAshley Anne Riggitano, a pretty 22-year-old fashion intern jumped to her death from the George Washington bridge into the Hudson River on Wednesday afternoon, her 22nd birthday, after participating in a rage-fueled online blowout between five of her friends, one of whom dared her to overdose on her medication, writing on Facebook, "Go try to kill yourself on Xanax again, you untable [sic] loser. Go f*** yourself and never speak to me again."

On the bridge, Riggitano had left her Louis Vuitton bag containing medication such as Adderall and Klonopin with handwritten notes pointing toward the five people who had allegedly tormented her and whom she didn't want at her funeral.

"To any funeral, these people should not be allowed based upon words and actions," Riggitano had written.

In the days leading up to her suicide, Riggitano reportedly engaged with one woman over Facebook, accusing her of bullying. But according to the woman, Riggitano was the instigator.

Are these five women to

Wash HandsThe biggest topic of conversation around my boys' elementary school is who is sick and how sick. Norovirus, a gnarly stomach flu that causes vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach cramps, has hit much of the country. This year, a new strain first identified in Austrialia, could be to blame. The symptoms aren't subtle. You feel fine one minute and the next it's like a scene from The Exorcist. I talked with UCLA Pediatrician and Infectious Disease Specialist, Dr. Lynn Ramirez, about what you can do to avoid the illness (or not spread it once you have it) that generally strikes between December and April. Here are 5 things I found out:

1. Wash hands often
This seems obvious, but poor hand washing can result in the virus being spread when you shake hands, touch a counter, or prepare food. Ideally, you want to use soap and water and rub your hands together with soap for at least 20 seconds.

Related: 21 immunity-boosting recipes for flu season

2. Wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly

Why do we keep drinking diet soda? (Photo: Getty Images)

Yet another study confirms what people have been saying for ages: Stop drinking diet soda. Like, right now. Drinking just one 12-ounce can of an artificially sweetened fizzy drink per week can increase your risk of Type 2 diabetes by 33 percent, French researchers found. And given that most people don't stop at a single weekly serving, your real risk for diabetes could actually be much higher.

Diet Soda May Increase Risk of Depression

The study, which was announced Thursday and will be published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, was conducted by France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research and covered 66,118 middle-aged women whose dietary habits and health were tracked from 1993 to 2007.

Diet Soda May Be Making You Fat

The results were unexpected. Though it's well-known that people who consume a lot of sugar are more likely to develop diabetes, the researchers found that participants who drank "light" or "diet" soft drinks had a higher risk of