Savvy Saving Bytes

Here are some good fortune quotes for our coming New Year:

“Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing.” ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Labor is the fabled magician’s wand, the philosophers stone, and the cap of good fortune.” ~ James Weldon Johnson

“The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it.” ~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united.” ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“If you marry for money, you will surely earn it.” ~ Ezra Bowen

“Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another’s money. Idiots!” ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

“I’m not into the money thing. You can only sleep in one bed at a time. You can only eat one meal at a time, or be in one car at a time. So I don’t have to have millions of dollars to be happy. All I need are clothes on my back, a decent meal, and a little loving when I feel like it. That’s the bottom line.” ~ Ray Charles

“Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune.” ~ Walt Whitman

“A man’s delight in looking forward to and hoping for some particular satisfaction is a part of the pleasure flowing out of it, enjoyed in advance. But this is afterward deducted, for the more we look forward to anything the less we enjoy it when it comes.” ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

“All good fortune is a gift of the gods, and you don’t win the favor of the ancient gods by being good, but by being bold.” ~ Anita Brookner

More Goodies from our Quote Collection:

• Thanksgiving Quotes Beyond Top Turkey Day
• Christmas Quotations with Zing!
• Spring Quotes and Fifth Avenue Flowers

In contrast to all the familiar Christmas songs and salutations surrounding us this season, here again from early blog days are some quotes with a bit more zip and zing:

“Our children await Christmas presents like politicians getting in election returns: there’s the Uncle Fred precinct and the Aunt Ruth district still to come in.”~ Marcelene Cox

“I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white man would be coming into my neighborhood after dark.” ~ Dick Gregory

“There is a remarkable breakdown of taste and intelligence at Christmastime. Mature, responsible grown men wear neckties made of holly leaves and drink alcoholic beverages with raw egg yolks and cottage cheese in them.”~ P.J. O’Rourke

“Have you any old grudges you would like to pay, Any wrongs laid up from a bygone day? Gather them now and lay them away when Christmas comes. Hard thoughts are heavy to carry, my friend,  And life is short from beginning to end; Be kind to yourself, leave nothing to mend When Christmas comes.”~ William Lytle

“Of course, this is the season to be jolly, but it is also a good time to be thinking about those who aren’t.”~ Helen Valentine

“If you want me to sing this Christmas song with the feeling and the meaning, you better see if you can locate that check.”~ Mahalia Jackson

“Next to a circus there ain’t nothing that packs up and tears out faster than the Christmas spirit.” ~ Ken Hubbard

“At last the anchor was up, the sails were set, and off we glided. It was a sharp, cold Christmas; and as the short northern day merged into night, we found ourselves almost broad upon the wintry ocean, whose freezing spray cased us in ice, as in polished armor.”~ Herman Melville

More Holiday Favorites:

• Razzle Dazzle Christmas Windows in New York
• Christmas Lights New York City
• Mark, Albert and Irving Say Thanks (for Thanksgiving)
• Thanksgiving Quotes Beyond Top Turkey Day
• Happy Valentine’s Day New York
• Labor Day Quotes and the Virtues of Hooting

Nobody does fantasy Christmas windows like Bergdorfs. The oohing and aahing among street admirers hit overdrive this year with two particular knockout displays. From the North, the snow queen, splendid in white fur, surrounded by white animal courtiers including a bejeweled polar bear. And from the depths of Neptune, a diaphanous creature floating through an undersea world of glittering fish and ocean fauna in sparkling shades of aquamarine.

To complement their feathery finery in a window facing Central Park and the Plaza, gowned partiers sport alabaster bird heads, the more feathers the merrier.

Other Holiday Photos:

• Christmas Lights New York City
• Celebrating Autumn Golds and Thanksgiving
• Happy Valentine’s Day New York

These red cochineal beetles really get around. First they show up as neon red coloring in foods I recently wrote about in “Hair, Beetles and Beaver Anal Glands in Our Food.” And now the little red buggers have turned up in, of all things, the pink moisture cream I have been daily smoothing into my face for years. A check of the ingredients in my cream, Olay’s Active Hydrating Beauty Fluid, finds Red 4 listed as the last ingredient. Thanks to my recent research, we now know Red #4, Carmine and Crimson Lake are all made of crushed cochineal beetles.

So big deal you say. Aren’t natural dyes made from beetles preferable to petroleum-based chemical dyes? Well, first of all, the processing of cochineal beetles into dye isn’t such a pure deal. The pulverized insects are boiled in ammonia or sodium carbonate. Then alum is added to bring out the red color. Other chemicals may be added along the way, such as stannous chloride, citric acid, borax, gelatin, cream of tartar, potassium hydrogen oxalate, egg white or fish glue. And lime is thrown in to make shades of red-purple.

Second, there seems to be some confusion about applying cosmetic products containing Red #4 to the eye area. Wikipedia says, “Carmine is considered safe enough for use in eye cosmetics”. Olay itself warns, “Avoid direct contact with the eyes”.  But the FDA says of carmine on their “List 5″: “None of these color additives may be used in products that are for use in the area of the eye, unless otherwise indicated.”

To me, putting moisture cream on one’s face also means applying it all around that driest of areas — the eyes – including eyelids. Obviously, heeding Olay’s warning, I don’t dab it on my eyeball. But even applying it to shut eyelids won’t guarantee that some cream won’t slip into the lid edge, opening up the possibility of eyeball contact.

Never have I had the slightest problem with Olay cream irritating my eyes. But pink creams from other manufacturers have definitely stung my eyes in the past. (And now I know why.) Also, in Olay’s case, there is only faint pink coloring in its’ cream.

But why, I wonder, is any coloring added at all? To this product or ANY product? Coloring agents, both chemical and so called “natural,” bring nothing helpful or good or positive to ANY product. They’re added purely for so called “eye appeal.” Well sorry, but if it’s a choice between non-colored food, cosmetics and drugs or those dyed rainbow colors, I’ll take the non-colored gang any day.

There may actually be a glimmer of hope here. In preparation for an article about the FDA considering warnings for artificial food coloring, a New York Times writer received an email from Kraft Foods Inc. Their spokeswoman informed him the company was expanding its “portfolio to include products without added colors,” like Kool-Aid Invisible, Capri Sun juices and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Organic White Cheddar.

True, that’s only three little products, but it’s a start. Enough to get a long overdue, no coloring ball rolling.

Other Additives in Consumer Products:

• Hair, Beetles and Beaver Anal Glands in Our Food
• So how much Wood Pulp did you eat today?
• Meat that Glows in the Dark Perfectly Safe to Eat

My luck in finding great hair cutters who work for a song may have run out.

The trouble started last year when my long-time hairstylist abruptly disappeared. After a few cryptic phone conversations, the awful truth came out. She had left the country and returned to her native Afghanistan to work for the US government. She was skimpy on details, but in speaking to others I surmised the work she was doing was both dangerous and lucrative. A heck of a lot more lucrative than the pittance she had been charging me for a great short haircut: a big $50.00.

For my next cut she recommended the owner of the hair salon where she had been working. Which turned out to be DISASTERVILLE! The woman whipped out a razor and proceeded to scrape and thin out my hair while bad-mouthing my previous short hairstyle and pushing her expensive salon products on speechless me. Numb and stunned, I finally made my escape and shambled up Third Avenue, spooking passer-byes left and right with my new witch wig.

So profound was the shock of that wicked haircut, I haven’t set foot in another salon for 16 months. Since then I’ve let my hair grow out and worn it pulled back in an elastic cord. When it gets too long I chop off a few inches, the unevenness camouflaged by the bunched hairstyle.

But finally I’m sick of that and have been looking around for a new stylist who knows her way around a good short haircut and who charges considerably less than $100.00. I have found both those things — just not rolled up in one person. The personal recommendations of women I know here in the city are in the more expensive category. Ditto the recommendations of women whose cuts I’ve admired on the street. It turns out haircuts with talented stylists can zoom anywhere from $100 to the stratosphere. Highlights now cost from $200 to $500. A smidge out of my range since I was previously paying for a cut AND a full head of highlights the awesome total of $110.00.

During my search I found a New York Timeout list of the city’s best cheap salons featuring beauty schools and top salons that charge low prices for hair cutting and coloring done by assistants and stylists in training.

I’ve also been reading customer reviews of hairstylists on Yelp and City Search. Conveniently the reviews are arranged by salon neighborhood, category and, in yelp’s case, by expense. I’ve also come across a few people who questioned the validity of excessive laudatory reviews for a few hairstylists at certain salons.

Whichever way the ball bounces here, no scissors are approaching this head until I’ve gotten a good gander at previous tresses they’ve snipped.

Has anyone else ever been the recipient of a botched haircut?

You might also be interested in:

• Shampoo Your Hands – Spare your Cash
• Hoof it for Purse and Health
• The Footwear Follies
• Why do New Yorkers Live Longer?

Autumn colors weren’t supposed to be so hot in the Northeast this year.  Too much rain, people said. Ha! So much for predicting the ways of Mother Nature who came through with a blaze of autumn colors that kept cameras clicking like mad all over Central Park for weeks. (Is there anybody in NYC that DOESN’T have a camera? I think not.)

Here are a few glimpses of that golden, glorious landscape created by Masters Olmstead and Vaux.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Also in the Autumn-Thanksgiving Spectrum:

• Sweet Potatoes – Numero Uno over Potatoes!
• Caramelized Onions – Feasts for Pennies
• Thanksgiving Quotes Beyond Top Turkey Day
• Mark, Albert and Irving Say Thanks
• Are You a High Roller Holiday Spender?