J.Crew caving under the pressure?

After hearing the bad news about J.Crew this week, my friend Jenny took it upon herself to do a little additional research. Never one to give up easily, she made an interesting discovery :

"Okay, so the J.Crew news was festering in my mind and this morning I decided to quickly Google for some extra info. Like I need to add another project to my list of to-dos.

So first, I found news articles discussing J.Crew's use of fur for the first time this year. Any article mentioning that the fur was sourced from China was written by PETA. All other sources only said J.Crew was using fur and was under fire from anti-fur groups. No mention of China.

Then I started wondering how PETA would know that it's coming from China, but I couldn't find anything about that without going to the PETA website which I didn't really want to do from work.

Thennnn I thought I'd go to the J.Crew website, thinking maybe they'd address these issues somewhere on the site, which leads me to the interesting part of this whole story: I don't see ANY fur on the site at all!!!! China or no China, I wonder if the anti-fur pressure made them scrap the whole line?"

She's right! J.Crew has taken all of their items with fur down from their main online catalog. You can only access the web pages for those products through the search function, where you can search by item number or key word. I searched for "fur" and they all popped up.

It's exciting that they reacted to the anti-fur pressure in some way, but I'm not sure if it's enough for us to go back to buying J.Crew stuff, yet. Thoughts?

For all you Lionel fans

It was mentioned that a few of us had "All Night Long" stuck in our heads (obviously due to my late-night, three-hour accounting exam tonight), and the next thing I know Tony emails out this little graphic creation:



Not sure why it's so funny, but it sure is. Maybe you have to have lived abroad in a tea-swilling country to fully appreciate it. Nice work, Tony.

Special recipe for the holiday

I'm headed to hip little SF Thanksgiving party this year and was assigned to bring the cranberry sauce. Bringing a couple of cans of Ocean Spray seems decidedly unhip (there is nothing sophisticated about can-shaped gelatinous blobs -- they're just too reminiscent of dog food). Thankfully, this recipe came highly recommended by a friend from work. I'm going to make it this afternoon, so it's ready in advance. I think it sounds delish!

SPICED CRANBERRY AND ZINFANDEL SAUCE
(You can prepare this sauce up to two days ahead, then refrigerate)

Ingredients:
2 cups of zinfandel or other fruity dry red wine
3/4 cup sugar
5 (2-inch) orange rind strips
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
6 whole cloves
4 slices peeled fresh ginger (thin slices because a little ginger goes a long way)
2 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks
1 package (12-ounce) fresh cranberries

1. Combine the first seven ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium, then cook 15 minutes or until mixture begins to thicken and sugar dissolves (it doesn't get very thick like gravy, just a little thicker than watery), stirring occasionally. Strain the mixture through a sieve (I use a fine mesh colander) and discard the solids. Return mixture to pan.

2. Add cranberries to pan; cook over high heat 10 minutes or until the berries pop. Reduce heat to low, then simmer 30 minutes or until mixture is slightly thick. Pour into a bowl to let cool.

Yield: 10 servings (serving size is 1/4 cup)

Gasp!

The first photos of Spederline have been released! And he looks sort of cute and happy, though it kind of seems like she's trying to strangle him.

Stop shopping at J.Crew

This week's theme is "saying goodbye to things that I love."

It doesn't matter how cute the sweaters are, or that the chinos fit just right. We must stop shopping at J.Crew, because they've started sourcing fur from China for their fall line. Fur from dogs and cats. Now, I'm no vegetarian, but they don't have any laws regulating the fur industry in China, and I think that what this means is that they are pretty much skinning a puppies alive, sewing them to a hank of cashmere, and selling it to wear with your "winter suiting" for a mere $395.

Just say no! We can't let J.Crew turn us into Cruella Devil. We don't need to wear puppy fur -- we can all be perfectly okay with a nice knit scarf.




A puppy was bludgeoned to death so this woman could have "coyote fur" boob accents on her puffer jacket. She doesn't look so cute when you think about a bloody puppy with broken legs, does she? She looks evil and cruel. Frankly, the jacket isn't that cute anyway.

You can email J.Crew at contactus@jcrew.com to tell them just how disgusted you are with the company's new Chinese fur policy. You can also watch an extremely disturbing movie about the whole affair here.

“I offered him a free cell phone and he pulled out an AK-47”

Check out this freaky story about an armed gunman opening fire and taking hostages in the Tacoma Mall. He shot six people for apparently no reason. He was just generally "angry."

Going to the Tacoma Mall used to be a big treat in college, but really any kind of escape from campus life was a treat. I must admit that as far as malls are concerned, the Tacoma Mall was pretty dumpy. It's cruel take out your hostilities on a dumpy little mall where the biggest attraction is a JC Penney.

Thanks to Clare for the heads up about the story.

Do you work out? Take this survey!

I need people to fill out a survey for my marketing class. It gathers data about that new "CardioPod" product we're working on. If you exercise regularly (especially if you're a runner) and own an iPod we'd love to have your feedback. We'd love to have you take the survey even if you aren't these things. Any data helps.

The survey takes about ten minutes to get through. If you know others who fit the description and you think they might be willing to help out, please pass this link on. You can enter http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=131001491291 into your browser if you have a hard time with the link below.

Click here to take the survey.

Holiday gifts that give back

At a recent panel presentation at Haas, I heard an alumni speak about a non-profit that several Haas graduates started after completing their MBAs. Their organization, World of Good, markets and distributes fair trade gifts and accessories, while promoting consumer awareness of the ethics behind purchases.

On December 3, from noon to 8pm, World of Good is opening their Berkeley warehouse for holiday shopping, hors d'ouvres, and cocktails. Half of all proceeds earned will go to support social and economic projects in artisan communities around the world -- and I must say that they carry a lot of really beautiful gifts. They've got excellent potential presents for girlfriends, sisters, and moms.

Some of the pretty things that caught my eye include:



The Faux-Sure Handbag, made at a co-op in South India that supports and HIV clinic, day-care services, health education, and primary education for the local community.




The Beads of Change necklace, made by fair trade artisans working on the outskirts of Delhi, India.




These purses enable women from traditionally marginalized classes in Gujarat, India to learn and use embroidery skills to improve their quality of living.




The workshop that creates these Amazon Harvest necklaces provides jobs and services to at-risk Colombian youth.

The open house will be held at 1380 10th Street, Berkeley, CA 94710. If you can't make it to the warehouse, you can order these items, and a ton of others, at WorldofGood.com.

Now you know what everyone on my list is getting for the holidays this year.

Sex and the City trivia

There's a running debate in my apartment over why Carrie calls him "Big" instead of just using his name (yeah, yeah -- we found out his name is John in the last episode -- okay). Has anyone out there watched enough Sex and the City to know where the nickname comes from? Is it because he's well endowed?

Confusion surrounding "networking"

Tonight, on one of my few class-free evenings, I'm off to a "networking event." Not sure what to expect. It's been dubbed a "firm night" and there are going to be a bunch of companies represented, so I was picturing booths and suits, until I found out that there will be wine, beer, and appetizers and we're supposed to dress business casual. Now I'm thinking... cocktails and mingling?

Networking, in general, is a source of extreme confusion for me. Everyone is constantly talking about networking, but I don't really understand what networking is. People talk about it like it's a pursuit... like studying or playing the stock market. I've got to make sure I'm networking. Am I missing something? You're just supposed to talk to people, right? Introduce yourself and make chit chat? And the difference between networking and socializing is that when you're networking, you're ultimately out to get something and you don't really want to make friends with the person you're hanging out with? That doesn't seem very cool. But, of course, it is possible to network with people you really like, so I'm kind of at a loss as to the difference between networking and just hanging out.

What stresses me out the most is the feeling that there is some larger objective I'm supposed to be achieving while I'm making this networking small talk. I can never figure out what the objective is, or if I'm networking correctly. Sometimes, I get wrapped up in that to the point that I can't come up with small-talky things to say. And then I have another glass of wine and we all know what that leads to.

Deep thoughts, by Franklin Covey

My day planner lists a little quotation at the top of each day. They're supposed to be motivational, but sometimes I question the judgement of the person at the day-planner factory in charge of quotation selection.

I give you today's offering:

"Choose your rut carefully;
You'll be in it for the next ten miles."
--Road sign in upstate New York

Taken either literally or metaphorically, it's just depressing.

And here is Thursday's:

"The future is much like the present, only longer."
--Don Quisenberry

Greeeeat. Thanks for that, Don.

Funniest thing to happen in business school, yet

Tonight, during lecture, our marketing professor asked for examples of an "experience good." "Experience good" is an incredibly technical term for any product that you can't judge the quality of until you've experienced it first-hand.

Here are the examples that were offered by the people he called on:

1) restaurant dining

2) feminine hygeine products

He stopped asking us for examples after that.

Our postal worker is taking liberties

I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure that our postal delivery person is "borrowing" certain editions of our Us Weekly subscription and reading them before delivery. I'm building my case with the following evidence:

1) As the title would imply, we get a new issue every week, but they never come on the same day. We've received the magazine as early as Thursday of the previous week, and as late as Thursday of the issue week. There's no rhyme or reason to it.

2) Our copies always fall apart really easily, as if they're worn from someone flipping through them several times.

3) The weeks when the magazine shows up late are always the weeks with a juicy cover story. For instance, the initial report of the Simpson/Lachey split was late, but the following two issues covering the tedious details of whether or not she really hates Europe and his ESPN job were early.

To further my point, this week's issue:



is completely MIA.

Come on... Brit walking out on K-Fed?! Jessica's not wearing her ring, again? Coats at any price??!! It's riveting subject matter. I want to read it so much that I'm extremely annoyed it hasn't made it's way through our mail slot, yet. If you were the postal worker making your rounds and found this issue in your mailbag, wouldn't you consider holding onto it for a day or two? I know I would.

Welcoming my new arrival

Yes, it is pink -- and yes, those are diamonds (okay, rhinestones). It also takes pictures and short video clips. I should have Internet access, too, but I haven't sorted any of that out yet. Eventually, the camera function will come in handy for blogging. Maybe I'll actually start posting again.

Long story short, Sprint had a pink phone with sparkles so I saw no reason to switch providers.

Where have I been?

Jeff is forcing me to watch the movie Young Guns right now. I've never seen it before. Well, he's not really forcing me... the actors are fairly attractive, it's not like it's torture.

Anyhoo, we were sitting here watching the movie when one of the guys starts spouting the starting lyrics to Regulators, by Warren G:

"We regulate any stealing of his property
and we damn good, too.
But you can't be any geek off the street.
Gotta be handy with the steel
if you know what I mean -- earn your keep.
Regulators! Mount up!"

I can't believe I didn't know the words to one of my favorite songs were from a movie. I've been living in a closet.

Confirmed

From the Haas MBA Student Handbook:

"Minimum Grade-Point Average (GPA)
All MBA students are expected to maintain a minimum grade-point average of 3.0 for continued participation in the program and graduation. Students whose grade-point average falls below the minimum will be placed on academic probation by the Graduate Division. Students who do not bring their grade average up to the minimum are subject to dismissal."

Ugh. It only makes sense, but I have never struggled so hard for Bs.

I am not on academic probation! Yay!

I received my first report card of grad school yesterday. I'm very happy to announce that I have not flunked out, yet. In fact, I'm not even on academic probation.

Before you roll your eyes, you should know that the word on the street is that academic probation at Haas is anything under a 3.0. The only thing I've been able to confirm is that you can't graduate with a GPA under 3.0, even if you've taken all the required courses.