Ellen Gordon Reeves, career expert and author of Can I Wear My Nose Ring to the Interview?, is always networking–even with her co-panelists during a sitdown with Katie Couric! Below she guest posts about her latest connection and how she’s helping him find employment.

Norm Elrod (joblessandless.com) is my latest Extreme Professional Makeover subject. We met virtually on a segment called Jobless in America on @katiecouric.com, and if you need an on-line marketing expert, Norm’s your man.

Recently we were face-to-face (or really, face-to-screen): Katie, Conor Dougherty from the Wall Street Journal, Norm and Scott Pierce, another blogger, via Skype.  After the show I asked if I could get Norm’s contact info and the next day we laid out a basic professional makeover plan for him: a blog post about the show, a fantasy job description, a quick and easy new look, and a revamped resume and elevator pitch.

Stay tuned for the Before and After shots.  But in the meantime, check out this video of our talk with Katie Couric…I never thought Katie would be asking me the Nose Ring question! Click here to watch the video on the CBS News website.

I don’t remember being into car games as a kid, mostly because I was too busy thinking up subtle ways to tick off my sister, and not get caught by my parents. But now that I’m older, I find them endlessly amusing. And unlike some of my more clever peers, I like the silly, mindless games. Somehow being stuck in traffic on the Jersey turnpike doesn’t make me want to get all high-brow and problem solve, I want to be entertained.

Leigh Anderson’s The Games Bible, which is true to its title, offers more games than you can imagine – outdoor games, party games, Victorian parlor games, right-brain games, kid-approved games – with choices for everyone at any skill level.  So if you’re stuck in a car over the long weekend, here’s an easy way to break up the time:

Band Name, Album Name, or Boat Name?

A quintessential road trip activity, it keeps you alert to your surroundings, your creativity pumping, and the conversation flowing. Created by Thi Nguyen, the game’s participants keep an eye out for any unusual words or phrases seen from the road that could be a band name, album name or boat name.  The words can come from anywhere: signs, advertisements, bumper stickers, etc. As you see a word or phrase that catches your fancy, you point it out to your companions, and decide which of the three categories it would best suited.

As an example, on Thi’s road trip, it was decided that “Dave’s Laundry” would be an album name, “Your Money or Your Life” would be a band name, and “Loading Zone” would be a boat name. Your companions may disagree, but mild disagreement can only improve the discussion.

Get a sneak peek at the table of contents and introduction of Debbie Stoller’s latest addition to the Stitch ‘N Bitch library, Stitch ‘N Bitch Superstar Knitting! This is the book that takes everything to the next level–it’s packed with the most advanced techniques and 41 gorgeous patterns to showcase your new skills!

It’s easy to forget that ovens are energy-hogs. Ever pre-heat for longer than necessary? Or can’t resist opening the door to peek in on your baked goods (completely guilty). And since there are no Energy Star qualified residential ovens available today, you’ll have to take matters into your own hands in order to minimize energy expenditure. Myra Goodman’s new The Earthbound Cook offers up these tips (in addition to delicious recipes) to help use your oven efficiently:

• Buy an oven thermometer. The one built into your oven may not be accurate, the actual temperature may be higher than the oven control indicates.

• If you have a double oven, use the smaller oven if the dish fits. Save the larger oven for the multiple pans or large items.

• For small items that need baking or reheating, use a countertop oven, such as a toaster oven. These appliances preheat faster and have a lower output of watts.

• The longer an oven is turned on but not used, the more energy it wastes. Start preheating the oven just 10 to 15 minutes before you need to use it.

• Look for ways to maximize the use of your oven. Instead of cooking one dish at a time, if you’re baking an entrée, choose a vegetable or potato you can cook at the same time.

• Resist peeking: Opening the oven door drops the temperature by at least 25˚F, and the oven has to switch back on again to replace it.

• If you have a convection feature on your oven, it uses 20 percent less energy than a standard electric oven and has a shorter warm-up time.

• Self-cleaning ovens are more energy efficient than standard ovens because of their thicker insulation. This means they lose less heat to the surrounding air. If you have a self-cleaning model, don’t clean it too often: this is the most energy draining of the oven’s functions.

Just in time for the high holidays season, Molly Katz, author of Jewish as a Second Language, shares a CliffsNotes-style rundown of Rosh Hashanah customs and the symbolism (and humor) behind them.

Click here to read an excerpt from Jewish as a Second Language.

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, which begins this year at sundown on September 8. For Jews it is the symbolic anniversary of the creation of the world–and the actual anniversary of having our celebration critiqued annually by an expert panel of relatives.

The celebration includes:

1. The sounding of the Shofar. This is the ceremonial ram’s horn that looks like the curled tentacle of a hungry octopus. It dates from ancient times, when making loud noises on the New Year was thought to scare off demons. Hence our Jewish habit of making loud noises in all situations.

Four specific blasts must be made, and in some homes 100 blasts of the horn are traditional. This insures a good year, and also excellent business for all the pulmonologists in our family.

The notes of the horn represent the sound of a King’s coronation, and the wailing of a Jewish heart. (Actually, many sounds may be compared to the wailing of a Jewish heart, such as a hedge trimmer.)

2. The sacred elements of the festive meal. A round challah bread is served, which symbolizes completion, as well as the waistlines of many of the guests. We eat the bread not with butter but with honey and apples; this represents a sweet New Year and serves the dual purpose of honoring our equally traditional lactose intolerance.

On the second night of Rosh Hashanah, we eat a “new fruit”–a fruit that has recently come into season but that we have not yet had the opportunity to eat. When we eat this new fruit, we say a special blessing thanking God for keeping us alive until this season (and warning Him not to let the fruit keep us up all night with the runs).

3. Many families follow the custom called Tashlich (casting off), in which they walk to flowing water, say a prayer, and symbolically throw their sins into the stream. Part of this custom is to warn one another not to accidentally cast our tennis bracelets into the flowing water, lest there follow an earsplitting live demonstration of the wailing of a Jewish heart.

If you’d like to participate in our celebration of the New Year, hint around to the Jews you know for an invitation. Remember that Jewish hints have all the delicacy of a cinderblock. So instead of saying, “I’m intrigued by your New Year customs,” try, “My doctor just put me on Prozac because I wasn’t invited to any Jewish New Year events.”

Enjoy, and Shana Tova (which means “good year,” and is also the name of the Hebrew Goddess of Overcooked Chicken).

My sad, undone button

I’m on my way to work, steps away from the subway, when the unthinkable happens–a button pops off my jacket. I’m able to chase down the button–half the battle on a subway grate-filled block–and think “Do I walk all the way home and get a different top?” even though I’d really rather not…

Be Thrifty to the rescue! One 2 dollar sewing kit from the bodega across from the office and a few minutes later, my button is securely back on my blazer, ready to be secured for warmth on this unusually blustery August day!

I know, sewing a button isn’t brain surgery, but I’m always afraid my poor handiwork will cause the button to fall off again and I won’t be lucky enough to recover it a second time. Using the instructions below, I am fully confident in my button’s stability–maybe I’ll even re-attach the other one for peace of mind!

Button-Sewing 101 from Be Thrifty

Button-sewing is phenomenally easy, so don’t be discouraged by the number of steps below–this technique is particularly good for staying power. To sew on a coat button, use extra-strong thread, or try unwaxed white dental floss. (Color the floss with a marker to match the button)

Re-attachement in progress

Tools: Button; needle; thread; scissors

1. Thread a needle, double the thread over, and knot the end twice.

2. Starting from the underside of the fabric, make two stitches, one on top of the other, where you want to affix the button. This anchors your knot.

3. Hold the button over the “anchor” stitches and pull the threaded needle through from the underside and up through one of the button’s holes. Go back down an adjacent hole. Don’t pull the stitches too tightly–you want wiggle room so you can button the garment when you’re done.

All done--good as new!

5. Pull the button slightly away from the fabric and wind the remaining thread several times around the stitched thread, under the button and above the fabric.

6. Push the needle back through the fabric and knot on the underside, then make a few small stitches over the knot to secure the button.

7. To make your work last, put a drop of clear nail polish over the thread on top of the button.

“No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.”

-   Taoist proverb

The 365 Cats and 365 Dogs Page-A-Day contests are accepting photo entries early via the web!

Visit PageADay.com to enter your pet photo!

The shocking date behavior in My Blind Date Went Blind! is unbelievable enough when described in the book, but seeing the most cringe-worthy moments “re-enacted” takes it to a whole new level of horror and hilarity! Watch, laugh, and experience the absurdity of a truly bad blind date (without actually experiencing one) in the video below.

We’re celebrating wine and cheese this week within the Workman family with the publication of two new books–The Guide to West Coast Cheese and Essential Wines and Wineries of the Pacific Northwest. Learn even more about the delicious marriage between dairy and grapes at the Timber Press blog and Story Publishing blog.

Cheeses, as Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home points out, are infinitely nuanced, with a complex range of flavors and textures. Cheese can be explored the same way you might explore new wines, so go to a local purveyor and sample until you find your favorites. But you may want a little background about what you’re trying:

• Cheese can be made from cow, sheep or goat’s milk.

• A cheese rind can be described as bloomed, washed or flavored.

• For a bloomed rind, mold spores are sprayed on cheeses, where they develop a soft white exterior (think Camembert).

• A washed rind indicates a cheese that has been bathed, often in wine or beer, facilitating the growth of beneficial bacteria. Washed-rind cheeses are typically very pungent, such as Taleggio.

• Cheeses may also be coated in ash or herbs to introduce different flavors.

Now that you know a little about what you’re eating, here are a few of Thomas Keller’s suggestions on how to pair your cheeses:

• Try a pungent cheese with something savory, such as prosciutto or salami.

• Sweet, creamy cheeses go well with some form of fruit – fresh, dried or cooked.  You can try pears, apples, grapes, apricots, peaches, tangerines, dates and raisins.

• Think about including a crunchy component with your cheeses. Toast, flatbread, or nuts (candied, herbed, toasted) all work.

Susan Edmiston, co-author of The Cow in the Parking Lot, gives her take on the infamous JetBlue flight attendant whose angry escape from his “workplace,” an airplane mid-runway, has been all over the news.

Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who responded to a passenger’s offensive behavior by chewing her out over the public address system and fleeing down the plane’s chute, has become something of a folk hero for dramatizing the tensions that arise out of today’s often-frustrating air travel.

This appears to be one of those situations where it’s not clear what will turn out for the best. The NY Times this a.m. dredged up the story about the bus driver many years ago in NY who got so fed up that he went awol and drove the bus to Florida.

To be sure, Slater took some serious risks in his response.  He had to spend a night in jail, faces serious charges, and may well be fined for the expenses involved in deploying the chute.  Nevertheless, his response to the passenger’s reported hostility was sort of creative.

It appears to be coming out from what I’ve read that it was the passenger who was abusive and intentionally slammed the overhead bin door on the flight attendant’s head.  Passengers on the plane wrote into the NY Times that he had a gash on his head from this event, and lost it when the same woman got out of her seat before the plane had come to a stop and was abusive again when he told her to sit down.  The flight attendant actually thanked the other passengers before he took the slide.

Many readers’ responses to the Times’s blog post were along the lines of, “Why doesn’t someone charge the passenger with assault?”

The flight attendant’s response bears some similarity to the response to anger directed at us by others that we recommend in The Cow in the Parking Lot — Leave the scene!  He did it with style.  Whether the reward he will reap from his fifteen minutes of fame will outweigh the cost of his outburst (and bust out) remains to be seen.  At least, in this day of enraged workplace murders,he did not physically retaliate.