Les Sisters: A Little Jewel in the Valley.

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Les Sisters in Chatsworth is one of my favorite New Orleans style restaurants to go to. The food is incredible, authentic and consistent and I'm always greeted by the friendly staff-Sue the long time waitress with a big smile and Kevin the owner-always greet me with a cheery "Hello Vickie!"

I go there at least once a week for the delicious Southern fried chicken and hush puppies. Oh! The fried oysters are great too. They offer a complete menu. There are Louisiana Hot Links, glazed pork chops, catfish, yams, collared greens and macaroni and cheese, among tons of other great food. You feel like you are actually in a "down home" Southern eatery.

It's also small and cozy and can get packed very fast, especially on weekend nights!
Attire is casual.
Location: 21818 Devonshire Street
Chatsworth, California 91322
(818) 998-0755
Catering and take-out available.

Amazing Piano Playing Cat!

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

A stray cat rescued by an artist has become an international piano-playing star. Betsy Alexander found Nora near a dumpster and she and her husband Burnell discovered Nora's talent when they caught her ticking the ivories one night in the music room of their Philadelphia home.

"We stood there astonished!" recalls Alexander. "She looked up at us as if to say, 'What?'
"Then she went right back to playing."

Alexander teaches piano at home and Nora the cat quickly became a hit with the students. Some days she even plays along with them. Nora is now a sensation on You Tube the popular web site.

Producers from The Today Show and even Japanese T.V. have come to Philly to film the musical cat.
"It's like the piano has become Nora's giant personal cat toy," Alexander says.

Chicks Rule United Nations Plaza.

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

According to the New York Post, building super John Hyranyaz, 62, has been mail-ordering batches of baby chickens- and secretly stashing them in what has become a wild-kingdom way station inside the ritzy 100 United Nations Plaza across from Trump Tower in New York.

The cute animals stay put in their makeshift pen of plywood and duct tape-unbeknownst to many tenants who can shell out millions for their pads.

"I'm raising chickens because I plan to retire," he said in an interview. "The post office sends the chicks here. These are mail-order chicks. I also have bunnies and geese. I live here. I get them all the time. I used to have a cat, but somebody stole it in the building," he said.

A Health Department spokesperson said it is not illegal to keep chickens in the city, only roosters. The trendy United Nations Plaza is a favorite among diplomats given its prime location near the United Nations. Two bedroom condos there are going for up to $1.8 million.

Famous Sheik Plans World's Tallest Building!

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

A super wealthy oil sheik plans to construct a mile-high tower in the desert. Prince al-Walid bin Talal, 51, is bankrolling the $10 billion project, which will be the tallest structure in the world at an incredible 5,250 feet, according to The Sun.

Upon completion, the top floor will offer a spectacular view of the Middle East, North Africa and the Indian Ocean. The architectural marvel is the planned centerpiece of Jeddah Saudi Arabia, a new mini-city being built near the Red Sea.

Its height will dwarf the Dubai Tower, which is presently under construction and was once expected to be the world's tallest building at 2,300 feet with 160 stories.

Woody's new film: Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Why is the legendary director's film set in Barcelona?

"To come to the set every morning with two of the sexiest women in the world...." notes Woody Allan in Entertainment Weekly, "That was certainly as big a treat as you could have!"
Allan is discussing his upcoming new film Vicky Cristina Barcelona to be released August 29, starring Penelope Cruz and his favorite pet actress Scarlett Johansson.

"I really liked filming in Barcelona," says Woody. "It's highly cosmopolitan and it's also a very bustling modern kind of place that's like a perpetual Mardi Gras. You come home at 4:00 in the morning and every place is still going."

In the film, Javier Barden (No Country for Old Men), plays a well-known Spanish painter who romantically juggles two American college students. But when his emotionally unstable ex-wife (Penelope Cruz) enters the picture, a frisky love-triangle grows complicated.

"I don't know what my appeal in Europe has ever been. It's always surprised me. I grew up loving European cinema of the 50s and 60s so much. I guess I'm reproducing some quality that resonates with the European audience. But I still love New York and I'm filming an untitled comedy-romance here, starring Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood and Patricia Clarkson. Hopefully it will be funny. Only I can ruin it."

Saudi Prince's Palace For Sale.

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Aspen Colorado- The getaway of Saudi Prince Bandar is up for sale for an asking price of $135 million, which could set a U.S. sales record, according to the Associated Press.

Bandar's 15-bedroom, 16-bathroom 56,000-square-foot mansion, complete with racquetball court, indoor pool-is up for sale because the prince is too busy to enjoy his mountain palace. The offering includes several small homes on the 95-acre property.

Sources say Bandar has been busy chairing his country's security council and spending too much time in Washington. Donald Trump's mansion in Palm Beach, Fla up for sale for $125 million, was expected to set the record, according to Forbe's magazine.

Bandar was one of the longest working Saudi Ambassadors to Washington and one of the most popular diplomats.

"I miss his parties," lamented one source. "He and his wife were very generous and threw great shindigs in Washington and Colorado. At Christmas time he'd have the whole Colorado home decorated to the hilt with decorations. It was beautiful."

HACK: How I Stopped Worrying About What To Do WIth My Life and Started Driving a Yellow Cab

Book Review: HACK
By: Vickie J. Rubinson

In her late 20s and after a series of unsatisfying office jobs, Melissa Plaut decided she was going to stop worrying about what to do with the rest of her life and focus on what she was going to do next. Her first adventure: becoming a taxi driver. Undeterred by the fact that 99% of cabbies in the city were men, she went to taxi school, got her license and hit the streets of Manhattan and the outlying boroughs.

She shares the highs and lows, the short-cuts and professional trade secrets. Between figuring out where and when to take a bathroom break and trying to avoid run-ins with the NYPD, Plaut became an honorary member of a diverse brotherhood that included Harvey, the cross-dressing cabbie, and Lenny, the garage owner rumored to be the real-life prototype for TV's Louie De Palma of Taxi.

"There was one cabbie, a strange guy who always used to say to me,'you're gonna be here for 30 years.' I don't know why he believed that, but I hoped he was wrong. His next phase was to repeatedly tell me I reminded him of his cat. When I asked him the cat's name he said "Rhoda." The next day, he compared me again to his cat. I said "her name is Rhoda right?'"But he said "No. Her name is Francie."

With wicked wit and arresting insight, Plaut reveals the crazy parade of humanity that passed through her cab-including struggling actors, federal judges, bartenders, strippers and drug dealers-while showing how this grueling work provided her with empowerment and a greater sense of self.

Shiloh Jolie Pitt- Hollywood's Most Influential Tot.

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Forbe's magazine recently dubbed Shiloh Jolie Pitt Hollywood's most influential infant. She has globetrotted from Namibia to New Orleans, with stops in Paris and the South of France, and even has a cameo in dad's drama "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

"Shiloh is growing up fast," says Brad's co-star Taraji Henson. "She's talking and walking and looks just like Brad. She's also very close to her siblings and is the family's independent introvert," who will adjust to being a big sister just fine.

Shiloh also has a big appetite, according to US Magazine. "She loves eating. Pasta, cookies, anything." Top of her list? "Miss Vickie's chips, Cheetos and takeout from Sonic, Subway and Wagon Wheel."

The pouty lipped tot also resides in some pretty glamourous homes around the world.
1. New Orleans. Ensconced in her folks' $3.5 million mansion in the popular French Quarter.
2. New York City. The family spent last October in a $100,000 a month, five bedroom suite at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
3. French Riveria. She learned to walk in a $15,000 a night villa in the Hotel du Cap in Antibes.
4. Springfield, Missouri. The gang's January trip to Chuck E. Cheese in Pitt's hometown was a kid's dream!

American arrested as nuclear spy for Israel

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

According to Reuters, the United States arrested an 84-year-old American suspected of giving Israel secrets on nuclear weapons, fighter jets and missiles in the 1980s, in a case linked to the Jonathan Pollard spy scandal that rocked U.S.-Israeli relations.

The arrest of Ben-Ami Kadish indicates that Israeli spying revealed by the Pollard case, still an irritant to the U.S. alliance with Israel, may have spread wider than previously acknowledged.

"It was bigger than we thought, and they hid it well," said former U.S. Attorney di Genova, who prosecuted Pollard. Kadish acknowledged his spying in FBI interviews and said he acted to help Israel, according to court documents.

He was accused of reporting to an Israeli government handler who was also a main contact for Pollard, an American citizen serving a life term on a 1985 charge of spying for Israel.

Authorities said Kadish was arrested in New Jersey on four counts of conspiracy and espionage after an investigation that began in 2005.

Laurel Canyon- The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Legendary Neighborhood.

By: Vickie J. Rubinson
A Musical History of Laurel Canyon

In the late 60s and early 70s an impromptu collection of musicians colonized a eucalyptus scented canyon deep in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles and melded folk, rock and savvy American pop into a sound that conquered the world as thoroughly as the songs of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

Forty years later the music made in Laurel Canyon continues to pour from radios, iPods and concert stages around the world. Journalist Mike Walker tells the inside story of this unprecedented gathering of some of the baby boomer's leading cultural lights--including Joni Mitchell, Jim Morrison, Crosby, Stills and Nash, the Mamas and the Papas, Jackson Browne the Eagles and Frank Zappa to name a few--who turned LA into the music capital of the world and forever changed the way popular music is recorded, marketed and consumed.

During Laurel Canyon's golden era, the musicians who lived and worked there scored dozens of landmark hits from "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," to "California Dreamin," while selling tens of millions of records and resetting the thermostat of pop culture worldwide.

As a group they were nominally countercultural, favoring long hair and thrift shop apparel, but possessed of ambition as blinding as any junior investment banker in a Brooks Brothers suit. Thanks to this incredible influx of talent, Laurel Canyon and with it, Los Angeles wrested from New York and London the bragging rights of musical capital of the world and held them through the 1970s.

This book is a great, quick read and interesting especially for those in the music biz.

Pope Benedict XVI, Friend to Cats.

By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Pope Digs Cats.

According to an article in today's New York Times, the Pope is a long time cat lover and his kindness toward the strays of Rome is already the stuff of Vatican legend. His house in Germany, its garden guarded by a cat statue, was filled with cats when Benedict lived there full time before he was posted to the Vatican in 1982.

"I think it shows a sensitive side and I believe it shows that God lives in a person," said Jan Fredericks. "I think all leaders should have a compassion for animals."

Pope Benedict falls squarely within a long Vatican tradition. According to "The Papacy: An Encyclopedia," Pope Paul II, in the 15th century, had his cats treated by his personal physician. Leo XII, in the 1820s, raised his grayish red cat, Micetto, in the pleat of a cassock. And according to the Times of London, Paul VI, pope from 1963 to 1978, is said to have once dressed his cat in cardinal's robes!

When Cardinal Ratzinger was the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the German newspaper Bild wrote, he tended to the cats that frequented the garden of the congregation's building in the Vatican and even bandaged their wounds.

Cardinal Bertone told an Italian newspaper in 2005 that the cats sometimes walked him to his office.

"One time the Swiss Guards had to intervene," Cardinal Bertone joked. "Look your eminence, the cats are laying siege to the Holy See!"

Italian media reported that when the pope moved to his papal quarters, he could not bring two beloved cats--notwithstanding the protests of Rome's animal rights commissioner who urged the Vatican to "give the two papal cats access to the Apostolic Palace."

First Annual Saudi Film Festival.

By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Movie Mecca

Movie theaters are illegal in Saudi Arabia, but that won't stop the country's first annual film festival. The five-day, government approved event will feature selections from Saudi auteurs and their counterparts in other Arab states.

At the festival starting May 20, men and women will be seated in different halls during the screenings. Under Saudi law, men and women are not permitted to be seen in public unless they are relatives.

Despite reservations of pro-conservatives, Saudis have started producing movies in recent years. Entertainment Company Rotana, owned by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, produced in 2006 the first full length Saudi film. There is no cinema industry in Saudi Arabia and cinemas and theaters are non-existent. Prizes will be awarded for best short narrative, documentary and screenplay.

Beirut Nights at the Mirage!

By: Vickie Rubinson
Fancy new Middle Eastern restaurant.

There's a hot new Middle Eastern restaurant in the Valley and it's called the Mirage, an amazing club with lots of serious fun going on. It has a charming exterior with huge glass doors that open onto the sidealk where patrons can sit and like one guest noted, it's "reminiscent of Solidaire," the beautiful open square of Beirut Lebanon that reminds you why it was once called the Paris of the Middle East.

I was with a group of Arabic language speakers and these people really knew how to have a good time. The staff was ultra friendly and there is a cocktail lounge with live music and belly dancing. One of the Middle Eastern singers looked like a young Arabic Tony Bennett and there was an amazingly handsome Saudi drummer who had all the women swooning and getting photos taken with him.

The food was great too- baba ganous, hummous and falafels were all tasty, but the best part is when everyone got up on the dance floor and started a cute conga line while doing some fancy Arabic dance steps.

This restaurant is a must see! Friday and Saturday nights have live entertainment. Also open for lunch during the week.

ASK MOSES!

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

AskMoses.com is a fun, vibrant online resource offering instance advice from the qualified men, women and Rabbis on their team of expert scholars. These scholars are available 24 hours a day, 6 days a week and stand ready to address topics ranging from simple questions about Jewish holidays to complex inquiries on personal issues.
One sample question reads: I don't like Matzah, but I love the wine. Is there anything you can do to help me?
A- Wine, represents fullness, taste, and joy. This was the state of the Jews after the 49 days of preparation leading up to the giving of the Torah. By then, their relationship with G-d had developed to a point that their faith was consistent with what was going on in their hearts and minds.
For the Matzah explanation visit: AskMoses.com website.

Tracy Morgan Rocks on 30 Rock!

By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Tracy Morgan Interview.

Alec Baldwin got the Golden Globe and Tina Fey gets most of the credit, but former SNL cast member Tracy Morgan consistently gets the biggest laughs on NBC's hit show 30 Rock.

"We have a team of great writers," says Morgan in an interview. "They allow us alot of room to improvise. My role was created by Tina Fey and the writers. I just put crazy energy into the character."

Morgan was a cast member on Saturday Night Live for 7 seasons before leaving to star in his own short-lived family sitcome The Tracy Morgan Show.

"I guess I'm entertaining and interesting," he says."I guess they say I sell papers. All I know is, if I was a plumber nobody would care. I guess that's the price of fame. That's what comes with it. I try to stay off the radar now. Besides, I've got a wife and kids."

Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love and Betrayal

Book Review: By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Author: Ben Macintyre
Title: Agent Zigzag.

Eddie Chapman was a charming criminal, a con man, and a philanderer. He was also one of the most remarkable double agents Britain has ever produced. Inside the traitor was a man of loyalty; inside the villain was a hero. The problem for Chapman, his spymasters and his lovers, was to know where one persona ended and the other began.

In 1941, after training as a German spy in occupied France, Chapman was parachuted into Britain with a revolver, a wireless and a cynadie pill with orders from the Abwehr to blow up an airplane factory. Instead, he contacted M15, the British Secret Service. For the next four years, Chapman worked as a double agent, a lone British spy at the heart of the German Secret Service who at one time volunteered to assassinate Hitler for his countrymen.

Crisscrossing Europe under different names, all the while weaving plans, spreading disinformation and miraculously keeping his stories straight under intense interrogation, he even managed to gain some profit and seduce beautiful women along the way.

The Nazis feted Chapman as a hero and awarded him the Iron Cross. In Britain, he was pardoned for his crimes, becoming the only wartime agent to be thus rewarded.
A riveting story, superb and meticulously researched.

Sex with Kings.

Book Review: Sex With Kings
By: Vickie j. Rubinson

Throughout the centuries, royal mistresses have been worshipped, feared, envied and reviled. They set the fashions, encouraged the arts and in some cases, ruled nations. Eleanor Herman's Sex with Kings, takes us into the throne rooms and bedrooms of Europe's most powerful monarchs. This is the story of scintillating women and the kings who loved them.

Curiously, the main function of a royal mistress was not to provide the king with sex, but with companionship. Forced to marry repulsive foreign princesses, kings sought solace with women of their own choice. And what women they were!! From Madame de Pompadour, the famous mistress of Louise XV, to modern day Camilla Parker Bowles, who usurped none other than the glamourous Diana Princess of Wales.

The successful royal mistress made herself irreplaceable. She was ready to converse gaily with him when she was tired, make love until all hours when she was ill and cater to his every whim. Some royal mistresses became very rich. Some earned up to $200 million in titles, pensions, jewels and palaces. Some kings even allowed their mistresses to exercise unlimited political power.

From the dawn of time, power has been a mighty aphrodisiac. Wickedly witty and endlessly entertaining, Sex with Kings is a chapter of women's history that has remained unwritten-until now.

SHROOM- A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom

Book Review: SHROOM
By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Did mushroom tea kick-start ancient Greek philosophy? Was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland a thinly veiled psychedelic mushroom odyssey? Is Santa Claus really a magic mushroom in disguise?

The world of the magic mushroom is a place where shamans and hippies rub shoulders with pyschiatrists, poets and international bankers. Since its rediscovery only 50 years ago, this hallucinogenic fungus, once shunned in the West, as the most pernicious of poisons, has inspired a plethora of folktales and urban legends.

In this timely study, author Andy Lechter chronicles the history of the magic mushroom-from its use by the Aztecs of Central America and the tribes of Siberia through to the present day-stripping away the myths and taking a critical and humorous look at the drug's more recent manifestations.

In the early days of the cultural movement that would eventually bequeath us the magic mushroom, academics and intellectuals happily and legitmately took drugs such as LSD and mescaline and then marvelled that they had discovered an ancient and secret path to the kingdom of heaven.

One of the first to do so was Aldous Huxley who famously took mescaline in the spring of 1953 and wrote up his experiences in The Doors of Perception. He felt the reason people took drugs was simple: for the longing to transcend the drudgeries of life."

An informative and lively trip!

Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere.

By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Book Review: Living Carelessly in Tokyo
Author: John Nathan

John Nathan arrived in Tokyo in 1961 fresh out of Harvard College, bringing with him no practical experience, no more than two connections, no prospects and little else to recommend him but stoic, unflappable pluck.

Japan at the time was still in the shadow of the Occupation, and only a handful of foreigners were studying the country seriously. Two years later, Nathan became the first American to pass the entrance exams to the best school in Japan, the University of Tokyo. He went on to translate two of Japan's greatest writers and direct several series of films in and about Japan in collaboration with world famous directors and businesses, earn an advanced degree at Harvard and a professorship at Princeton; and become a Hollywood screenwriter.

During his decades of passionate engagement with Japan, Nathan became close pals with many of the most gifted people in Japan--politicians and business leaders as well as painters, novelists, directors, rock stars and movie stars.

He brings the most exciting era in recent Japanese history vividly into focus with wry humor, penetrating insight and pathos.

Nathan will be signing copies of his book, Wednesday April 16th, at the Holiday Inn Torrance, 19800 S. Vermont Avenue. 90502, from 12- 1:30 p.m.

This event is sponsored by the Japan America Society.

Alec Baldwin Shines on 30 Rock.

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

The Emmy-winning comedy "30 Rock" returns for its first new episode since the writer's strike. Network executive Jack Donaghy (played by Baldwin), is riding high and happy on the success of his new reality hit, MILF Island, until a disparaging item in the New York Post threatens his ambitions, prompting a determined search for the anonymous wicked source.

"I love my role on the show," enthuses Baldwin in an interview. "We all get along so well and there are times when filming, when I can barely keep from laughing. The writing is superb!"

Baldwin and Tina Fey star. Tracy Morgan is a riot too! Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 8:30p.m. NBC.

Beat Heart Attacks with Kitty Therapy.

According to Professor Adnan Quereshi of the University of Minnesota, a new study proves that living with a feline lowers blood pressure and reduces the heart rate.

"The logical explanation may be that cat ownership relieves stress and anxiety and subsequently reduces the risk of heart diease," Qureshi says.

The research also revealed how stroking a kitten's fur actually lowers the level of stress-related hormones in the blood. Qureshi added that the typical person who owns a cat tends to be more laid back and less likely to develop a heart ailment.

Cat owners also suffered fewer heart attacks or strokes even if they had other risk factors like high cholesterol, cigarette smoking and diabetes.

Chow gato!!!

Woody Allen Sues Over "Rabbi" Billboard.

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Famous controversial clothing firm American Apparel's short-lived "Woody Allen is Our Spiritual Leader" campaign finally attracted a lawsuit this week from the famous kvetching actor. The billboard features a pix of Woody dressed as a Rabbi from one of his films, and he's none too happy about it.

According to the Associated Press, Allen wants $10 million for "blatant misappropriation and commercial use" of his image on billboards in New York and Los Angeles.

The actor-director said he does not endorse commercial products or services in the United States which makes the May 2007 American Apparel billboards "especially egregious and damaging."

Allen's lawsuit describes him as among the most influential figures in the history of American film and a man who has maintained strict control over the projects with which he is associated.

Queen Rania- "Send Me Your Stereotypes!"

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Queen Rania the beautiful svelte monarch of Jordan is tired of people stereotyping the Arabs and she wants YOU to do something about it.

"I want people to know the real Arab world and to send me all your questions about stereotyping in the arab world. It's important for all of us to join forces and stop this nonsense. I get questions like, 'Do all Arabs hate Americans?' and "Any Youtubers in Jordan?' They really vary but they all involve the same thing...what are Arabs really like?"

The friendly Queen with the great smile would like all her fans out there to send her "your stereotypes" and she will be sure to get back to you....via youtube of course! But how will she find the time to answer all those questions??

Check out her Youtube video and see.