Julie and Julie, the movie

Note: I am looking forward to this movie because I have always loved Julia Chil (I have a set of 4 VHS videos of her cooking, teaching. I copied this review, and the site is given.

Nora Ephron's Julie & Julia: 10 Things I Liked About the Movie and 3 Things I Didn't
by James Oliver Cury
on 07/30/09 at 06:11 AM
http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2009/07/nora-ephrons-julie-julia-10-things-i-liked-about-the-movie-and-3-things-i-didnt-.html#?mbid=synd_shine1_juliejuliapremiere

Unless you've been sleeping under a colander, you've seen the previews, read the pre- and post-screening blog posts (Michael Park nailed it back in late 2007), and perhaps even looked forward to this year's mega food movie, Julie and Julia (in theaters August 7). It's a big deal in culinary cinema: Meryl Streep plays (channels, really) Julia Child, Stanley Tucci is her husband Paul, and Amy Adams holds her own as blogger Julie Powell (the one who attempted to make all 524 recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 2002).

Writer-director Nora Ephron seamlessly and wittily juxtaposes the two women's lives (based on the narratives in Powell's Julie & Julia and My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme).
What did I think? Below, a list of 10 things I liked about the movie and 3 things I didn't.

10 Things I Liked About the Movie Julie & Julia:
1) Eye-melting food porn. Close-ups of boeuf bourguignon, chocolate cake, lobster, and bruschetta will have you salivating even if you scarfed down a jumbo popcorn before the movie began. And yes, the dishes on screen are all real, prepared by chef Colin Flynn and stylist Susan Spungen. Cast and crew had to eat the same dish time after time for multiple takes. Hard life.

2) Humor, great lines. When blogger Julie Powell (played by Amy Adams) is having trouble putting the lobster to sleep, she is serenaded by her husband to the tune of Psycho Killer  by Talking Heads. With one lyric change: "Lobster Killer, qu'est-ce que c'est?" Very funny scene. Runner-up: Julie Powell uttering, "I could write a blog! I have thoughts!"

3) Good pacing. The movie starts with Julia Child eating a life-changing dish. Eventually it cuts to blogger Julie Powell. For the next 124 minutes, the film flits back and forth between the two. Not an easy transition to sustain time and again. And yet, neither of these stories could sustain a 90-minute movie. Kudos to Nora and the editors.

4) Gorgeous shots of Paris in the '50s and modern-day New York. The restaurants, the street scenes, the food markets, the apartments, the old cars, the retro kitchens. Just enough filth and squalor to ring true.

5) Sensitive men. They're not perfect, but the husbands (played by Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina) are generally supportive and kind, not the usual self-serving sleazeballs we see on the big screen. Healthy relationships? What a concept.

6) Core message of persistence, vision, inner strength. Stick-to-it-ness. Julia spends ten years writing and selling her book. Julie Powell spends a year futzing in her lame kitchen. But they endure the hardships. And who doesn't like uplifting endings?


7) The music. Mostly oldies. But smart sophisticated choices like Mes Emmerdes by Charles Aznavour, Time After Time by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, A Bushel And A Peck by Doris Day. And Psycho Killer by Talking Heads.

8) The honest representation of book publishing. Not a lovefest. Not a simple "hey, I have an idea" and voila it's a bestselling cookbook. The movie shows how hard Julia (and co-authors) worked. And how they had to pitch, revise, re-pitch, and wait, patiently, for very little money, to see their book become a reality.

9) Julia's cluelessness. As if it wasn't hard enough for Meryl Streep to play Julia Child without resorting to caricature, Ms. Streep also manages to portray Julia's naïveté (she did not know how to cook until she studied at Le Cordon Bleu) and clumsiness (her initial attempt to slice an onion is endearingly pathetic) without hamming it up too much.

10) Epicurious is mentioned! When Julie Powell is listening to voice mail on her answering machine, one of the messages comes from an editor at Epi. We are honored.

3 Things I Didn't Like About the Movie Julie & Julia:
[SPOILER ALERT, SORT OF...DON'T READ IF YOU'RE AFRAID OF HEARING HOW THE MOVIE ENDS]
1) Sex scenes. Yes, there are a few. Look, I appreciate that Julia was a real person with real intimacy. But I still have trouble believing the frisson between the dapper, calm, and collected Stanley Tucci and the hulking and honking ball of energy that was Julia. Maybe it's her voice.

2) Omitted truths. I don't think I'm ruining the movie by telling you that Julie Powell does not live happily ever after with her husband. I'm not 100% sure what happened, but it is common knowledge that Julie had some sort of marital strife, separation or divorce, albeit not during a time represented in the movie. (This info was updated after receiving reader comments.)

3) Abrupt ending. The movie ends with the publication of Julia's early biography. It does not follow her career as she appears on television and becomes a cultural icon. This is not a flaw; it was intentional. The script sticks to the action in My Life in France, compiled by her and Alex Prud'homme, her husband's grandnephew. But there's a sense of: OK, what happens next?
Note: They are NOT divorced...see next article...

Julie Powell, author

Julie Powell and her husband didn’t eat everything she made from Julia Child’s cookbook. “We always took a bite of everything but didn’t always clean our plates. We gave away a lot of food to friends, and what I didn’t like I took to work,” Powell said.

How Julia Child helped Julie Powell master the art of life
By KATE LAWSON
The Detroit News

http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/story/1349418.html
’’“’’”

If the expression “you are what you eat” still applies, then Julie Powell would be devouring boxes of Cracker Jack.
Nutty, salty, sweet and highly addictive, the secretary-turned-blogger-turned-book-author — and now the subject of the film “Julie & Julia,” opening Aug. 7 — is all that and more.

Dressed in a pretty royal blue silk blouse and dark denim skirt, she looks like a schoolgirl and talks like a sailor as she reflects on the last seven years and the project that helped change her life — cooking all 524 recipes from Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in 365 days.
Q. You were 29 when the project began. Obviously in undertaking such a daunting thing, you had to have already been an accomplished cook.

A. I wouldn’t say “accomplished”; I knew how to cook — not step-by-step from the “Joy of Cooking” or anything. Actually, my favorite cookbook was from Paul Prudhomme (the famed New Orleans chef). I had moved to New York from Texas, and I was really missing my mother’s cooking. She made a gorgeous seafood gumbo, and I really wanted to re-create it. It was the roux that was my undoing. I borrowed a spoon from a friend and kept stirring and stirring the flour and butter over high heat to thicken and darken it. I didn’t realize the spoon was plastic, and when I pulled it out of the pot, the end had melted off. I had no clue. Still, I loved to entertain and was wildly ambitious; I was always fixing dinner for my friends.
What was the motivation behind the project then?

I was lost. I was a temp secretary in an awful job in New York after the 9/11 attacks, and it was sucking the life out of me. But it was beyond the cooking. I had a revelation that I needed to do something. I needed structure, I needed progress, and I needed to do something besides coming home every night watching TV and getting drunk.

It was your husband Eric’s idea about blogging, which was a relatively new concept then. Were you a writer before you started blogging?
I always had half-finished novels lying about, poems I’d written, but it’s hard when you get started for you to believe in yourself as a writer. The blog helped me stay focused.

Did Amy Adams, who plays your character in the movie, contact you before her role?
No, actually it was in the contract that I had to stay away from the set, which was really difficult actually because Nora (Ephron, the director) filmed most of the exteriors in my neighborhood. Amy was everywhere, at my subway stop, where I shop, outside the building where I used to work. One day I could even look out my window and see them filming. It was surreal. I felt like I was being stalked.
Any advice you can offer to anyone attempting this same project?

A complete novice should start at the beginning, and you can see that Julia has written the book for the home cook. Every ingredient is available in a supermarket. Of course, it would help if you had a good butcher, though, especially when you need to extract bone marrow, you should have them do that for you. The first recipe is a delightful Potage Parmentier, which is a simple potato soup. And while it would never make the cover of Gourmet, it is a wonderful soup and the perfect place to start.

I understand that when Julia Child read your blog she thought you were “glib and unserious.” How did that make you feel?

I’m sorry I never got to meet her. I really think Julia affected so many people so profoundly. We all have our own ways of remembering her, and everyone has their own Julia. I think my Julia would be just fine with me.

How is your husband doing with all the publicity? I know that in your next book, “Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession,” you not only write about learning to become a butcher but an extramarital affair you had with a friend.
Eric was remarkable. He’s never not been there, and I don’t know another man who would do that. Except maybe Paul Child; he was with Julia all the way. And yes, we are together and happy.

Is there anything you miss from your old life? Are you different now?
Well, I’ve calmed down but not entirely. And I sure don’t miss my job.

Plastic in our Ocean

I read about this before...those teeny tiny bits of plastic...Here is an article from Aug. 4, 2009 yahho news....and accompanying picture.

Scientists study huge plastic patch in Pacific
By Steve Gorman Steve Gorman Tue Aug 4, 8:42 am ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Marine scientists from California are venturing this week to the middle of the North Pacific for a study of plastic debris accumulating across hundreds of miles (km) of open sea dubbed the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch."
A research vessel carrying a team of about 30 researchers, technicians and crew members embarked on Sunday on a three-week voyage from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, based at the University of California at San Diego.
The expedition will study how much debris -- mostly tiny plastic fragments -- is collecting in an expanse of sea known as the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, how that material is distributed and how it affects marine life.
The debris ends up concentrated by circular, clockwise ocean currents within an oblong-shaped "convergence zone" hundreds of miles (km) across from end to end near the Hawaiian Islands, about midway between Japan and the West Coast of the United States.
The focus of the study will be on plankton, other microorganisms, small fish and birds.
"The concern is what kind of impact those plastic bits are having on the small critters on the low end of the ocean food chain," Bob Knox, deputy director of research at Scripps, said on Monday after the ship had spent its first full day at sea.
The 170-foot vessel New Horizon is equipped with a laboratory for on-board research, but scientists also will bring back samples for further study.
Little is known about the exact size and scope of the vast debris field discovered some years ago by fishermen and others in the North Pacific that is widely referred to as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch."
Large items readily visible from the deck of a boat are few and far between. Most of the debris consists of small plastic particles suspended at or just below the water surface, making it impossible to detect by aircraft or satellite images.
The debris zone shifts by as much as a thousand miles north and south on a seasonal basis, and drifts even farther south during periods of warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures known as El Nino, according to information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Besides the potential harm to sea life caused by ingesting bits of plastic, the expedition team will look at whether the particles could carry other pollutants, such as pesticides, far out to sea, and whether tiny organisms attached to the debris could be transported to distant regions and thus become invasive species.
(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Will Dunham
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090804/us_nm/us_ocean_plastics/print

How Glow in the Dark Stuff Works

How does glow-in-the-dark stuff work?
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question388.htm

Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks article:

"How does glow-in-the-dark stuff work?." 25 May 2000. HowStuffWorks.com. 22 July 2009.

You see glow-in-the-dark stuff in all kinds of places, but it is most common in toys. My son, for example, has a glow-in-the-dark yo-yo, a glow-in-the-dark ball, a glow-in-the-dark mobile and even (if you can believe it) a pair of glow-in-the-dark pajamas! They make him easy to find at night!

If you have ever seen any of these products, you know that they all have to be "charged". You hold them up to a light, and then take them to a dark place. In the dark they will glow for 10 minutes. Some of the newer glow-in-the-dark stuff will glow for several hours. Usually it is a soft green light, and it is not very bright. You need to be in nearly complete darkness to notice it.

All glow-in-the-dark products contain phosphors. A phosphor is a substance that radiates visible light after being energized. The two places where we most commonly see phosphors are in a TV screen or computer monitor and in fluorescent lights. In a TV screen, an electron beam strikes the phosphor to energize it (see How Television Works for details). In a fluorescent light, ultraviolet light energizes the phosphor. In both cases, what we see is visible light. A color TV screen actually contains thousands of tiny phosphor picture elements that emit three different colors (red, green and blue). In the case of a fluorescent light, there is normally a mixture of phosphors that together create light that looks white to us.

Chemists have created thousands of chemical substances that behave like a phosphor. Phosphors have three characteristics:
The type of energy they require to be energized
The color of the visible light that they produce
The length of time that they glow after being energized (known as the persistence of the phosphor)

To make a glow-in-the-dark toy, what you want is a phosphor that is energized by normal light and that has a very long persistence. Two phosphors that have these properties are Zinc Sulfide and Strontium Aluminate.

Strontium Aluminate is newer -- it's what you see in the "super" glow-in-the-dark toys. It has a much longer persistence than Zinc Sulfide does. The phosphor is mixed into a plastic and molded to make most glow-in-the-dark stuff.

Occasionally you will see something glowing but it does not need charging. The most common place is on the hands of expensive watches. In these products, the phosphor is mixed with a radioactive element, and the radioactive emissions (see How Nuclear Radiation Works) energize the phosphor continuously. In the past, the radioactive element was radium, which has a half-life of 1600 years. Today, most glowing watches use a radioactive isotope of hydrogen called tritium (which has a half-life of 12 years) or promethium, a man-made radioactive element with a half-life of around three years.

Here are several interesting links:
Luminescence spectroscopy
Health Physics Society: Glow-in-the-dark items
Radium Dials
BBC: Taiwan breeds green-glowing pigs

Humans Glow

Today I am uploading some photos and cutting andd pasting the text of 2 articles on light:
One about humans glowing, the other about "glow in the dark" stuff...how they work...

This is the article about humans emitting light.
(These are from yahoo site...and I know I will not be able to find this article tomorrow, so that is why I am saving it online.)
````````````````
Strange! Humans Glow in Visible Light
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090722/sc_livescience/strangehumansglowinvisiblelight
Charles Q. Choi

Special to LiveScience
LiveScience.com charles Q. Choi
special To Livescience

livescience.com – 1 hr 54 mins ago

The human body literally glows, emitting a visible light in extremely small quantities at levels that rise and fall with the day, scientists now reveal.
Past research has shown that the body emits visible light, 1,000 times less intense than the levels to which our naked eyes are sensitive. In fact, virtually all living creatures emit very weak light, which is thought to be a byproduct of biochemical reactions involving free radicals.

(This visible light differs from the infrared radiation - an invisible form of light - that comes from body heat.)

To learn more about this faint visible light, scientists in Japan employed extraordinarily sensitive cameras capable of detecting single photons. Five healthy male volunteers in their 20s were placed bare-chested in front of the cameras in complete darkness in light-tight rooms for 20 minutes every three hours from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. for three days.

The researchers found the body glow rose and fell over the day, with its lowest point at 10 a.m. and its peak at 4 p.m., dropping gradually after that. These findings suggest there is light emission linked to our body clocks, most likely due to how our metabolic rhythms fluctuate over the course of the day.

Faces glowed more than the rest of the body. This might be because faces are more tanned than the rest of the body, since they get more exposure to sunlight - the pigment behind skin color, melanin, has fluorescent components that could enhance the body's miniscule light production.

Since this faint light is linked with the body's metabolism, this finding suggests cameras that can spot the weak emissions could help spot medical conditions, said researcher Hitoshi Okamura, a circadian biologist at Kyoto University in Japan.
"If you can see the glimmer from the body's surface, you could see the whole body condition," said researcher Masaki Kobayashi, a biomedical photonics specialist at the Tohoku Institute of Technology in Sendai, Japan.

The scientists detailed their findings online July 16 in the journal PLoS ONE.
5 Myths About the Male Body
5 Myths About Women's Bodies
The Enduring Mysteries of Light

Original Story: Strange! Humans Glow in Visible Light
LiveScience.com chronicles the daily advances and innovations made in science and technology. We take on the misconceptions that often pop up around scientific discoveries and deliver short, provocative explanations with a certain wit and style. Check out our science videos, Trivia & Quizzes and Top 10s. Join our community to debate hot-button issues like stem cells, climate change and evolution. You can also sign up for free newsletters, register for RSS feed.

a new planet ?

AP – An artist's impression of 'Planet e' , forground left, released by the European Organisation for Astronomical …

Scientists discover a nearly Earth-sized planet
By JENNIFER QUINN, Associated Press Writer Jennifer Quinn, Associated Press Writer
18 mins ago April 20, 2009

HATFIELD, England – In the search for Earth-like planets, astronomers zeroed in Tuesday on two places that look awfully familiar to home. One is close to the right size. The other is in the right place. European researchers said they not only found the smallest exoplanet ever, called Gliese 581 e, but realized that a neighboring planet discovered earlier, Gliese 581 d, was in the prime habitable zone for potential life.

"The Holy Grail of current exoplanet research is the detection of a rocky, Earth-like planet in the 'habitable zone,'" said Michel Mayor, an astrophysicist at Geneva University in Switzerland.

An American expert called the discovery of the tiny planet "extraordinary."
Gliese 581 e is only 1.9 times the size of Earth — while previous planets found outside our solar system are closer to the size of massive Jupiter, which NASA says could swallow more than 1,000 Earths.

Gliese 581 e sits close to the nearest star, making it too hot to support life. Still, Mayor said its discovery in a solar system 20 1/2 light years away from Earth is a "good example that we are progressing in the detection of Earth-like planets."
Scientists also discovered that the orbit of planet Gliese 581 d, which was found in 2007, was located within the "habitable zone" — a region around a sun-like star that would allow water to be liquid on the planet's surface, Mayor said.

He spoke at a news conference Tuesday at the University of Hertfordshire during the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science.
Gliese 581 d is probably too large to be made only of rocky material, fellow astronomer and team member Stephane Udry said, adding it was possible the planet had a "large and deep" ocean.

"It is the first serious 'water-world' candidate," Udry said.
Mayor's main planet-hunting competitor, Geoff Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, praised the find of Gliese 581 e as "the most exciting discovery" so far of exoplanets — planets outside our solar system.

"This discovery is absolutely extraordinary," Marcy told The Associated Press by e-mail, calling the discoveries a significant step in the search for Earth-like planets.

While Gliese 581 e is too hot for life "it shows that nature makes such small planets, probably in large numbers," Marcy commented. "Surely the galaxy contains tens of billions of planets like the small, Earth-mass one announced here."
Nearly 350 planets have been found outside our solar system, but so far nearly every one of them was found to be extremely unlikely to harbor life.

Most were too close or too far from their sun, making them too hot or too cold for life. Others were too big and likely to be uninhabitable gas giants like Jupiter. Those that are too small are highly difficult to detect in the first place.
Both Gliese 581 d and Gliese 581 e are located in constellation Libra and orbit around Gliese 581.

Like other planets circling that star — scientists have discovered four so far — Gliese 581 e was found using the European Southern Observatory's telescope in La Silla, Chile.
The telescope has a special instrument which splits light to find wobbles in different wavelengths. Those wobbles can reveal the existence of other worlds.
"It is great work and shows the potential of this detection method," said Lisa Kaltenegger, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
___
Associated Press Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report from Washington

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090421/ap_on_sc/eu_britain_new_planet/print

KFC

I am simply fascinated by the success of Kentucky Fried Chicken and that the secret recipe is so secret and is kept in a vault and was recently relocated to another location;the guard carrying it had it in a metal box chained to his wrist. Lately, because of all the press about eating healthy...KFC is having a promotion for its grilled chicken and will give a free piece of grilled chicken away on April 27. Here is an article about KFC trying to add healthy items to its menu but still keeping the old unhealthy items...
By BRUCE SCHREINER, Associated Press Writer Bruce Schreiner, Associated Press Writer – Tue Apr 14, 6:09 pm EThttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090414/ap_on_bi_ge/kentucky_grilled_chicken

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Would KGC ever have the same ring?
In a culinary gambit backed by buckets of big money, KFC is hoping to replicate its founder's recipe for success with the national introduction of Kentucky Grilled Chicken.

This week's rollout is KFC's most ambitious attempt to win over health-conscious customers as the chain known worldwide for fried chicken tries to reinvigorate lackluster U.S. sales.
"It's going to get people who haven't eaten KFC for a long time to come back into our restaurants," said KFC President Roger Eaton. "It's going to get people who have never eaten KFC to come into our restaurants."
Eaton says he spent years as part of the team tinkering with a grilled alternative, and the rollout follows KFC's longest market test ever. It will be backed by a marketing blitz.

Grilled chicken items are staples at some KFC competitors. McDonald's Corp. offers grilled chicken in sandwiches and wraps, and says chicken sales "continue to be extremely good." McDonald's has also recently been emphasizing its new Southern Style Crispy Chicken sandwich, which is fried. Chick-fil-A says its Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich "continues to grow rapidly" as part of a menu offering "balanced choices" for customers.

KFC's slow-grilled chicken drew strong reviews from the lunchtime crowd Monday at a KFC restaurant in Louisville, the chain's hometown. Eddie Collard proclaimed grilled better than fried.
"I think the colonel would be happy," Collard said of KFC founder Colonel Harland Sanders.

Like its predecessor, Kentucky Grilled Chicken has its own secret recipe. The original copy of the recipe — a blend of six herbs and spices — will be kept in an electronic safe at company headquarters. It will sit alongside Sanders' handwritten recipe of 11 herbs and spices coating the chain's Original Recipe fried chicken.
The difference is in the nutritional numbers.

KFC says each piece of its grilled chicken has 70 to 180 calories and four to nine grams of fat. By contrast, the Original Recipe items have between 110 and 370 calories and 7 to 21 grams of fat, depending on the piece. The grilled chicken contains from 160 to 440 milligrams of sodium per piece, as opposed to 290 to 1,050 milligrams of sodium per piece of Original Recipe chicken.

Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based advocate for nutrition and health, called the grilled introduction a "major step in the right direction."

While applauding the reduction in sodium, Jacobson said the 440 milligrams listed by KFC in a grilled chicken breast still amounts to more than one-fourth the amount that someone middle aged or older should consume daily.

KFC has launched non-fried chicken before, but each prior initiative flopped. In the early 1990s, it introduced a rotisserie-style chicken that fell by the wayside due to equipment problems and long cooking times. A tender roast product followed but lasted only a couple of years.

Eaton said the difference this time is partly in the cooking process. Chicken is cooked on grill racks in custom-designed ovens in a patented process that takes about 20 minutes per batch.

The grilled chicken rollout is offered only at KFC stores in the United States, though Eaton said the product may eventually expand to international markets.
KFC had 5,166 U.S. stores at the end of 2008. All but about 100 franchise stores are selling grilled chicken, the company said. Some stores couldn't fit the oven into their kitchens, and in other cases franchisees opted not to sell the product, the company said.

KFC won't say how much the ovens cost, but Eaton said the company helped franchisees with the expense and would have made such an investment only if it was "incredibly confident about the outcome."

Larry Miller, a restaurant analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said expanding beyond its fried staple offers a huge opportunity for KFC. But perceptions won't be easy to change.

"They still have the credibility barrier to overcome," Miller said. While achievable, "it's tough when your name has 'fried' in the middle."

In late 2008, Yum Brands Inc. Chairman and CEO David C. Novak said KFC had been a drag on the company's U.S. performance while sister brands Pizza Hut and Taco Bell had a good year.

Miller said this week that Yum would hit "the trifecta" if it turns around KFC's U.S. sales.

Mike Ash, who ate a grilled chicken lunch at the Louisville KFC, remembered the rotisserie chicken as "mushy and bland." He liked the new grilled offering, having picked it to the bone.

He said he might be more apt to pick up a bucket of chicken on his way home, though he predicted he might still "fall off the wagon every now and then" and choose the fried option.

The grilled chicken will cost the same as Original Recipe chicken. KFC will offer customers a free piece of grilled chicken on April 27.

But the push for grilled chicken doesn't mean KFC is abandoning its roots, Eaton said. The chain is testing new fried chicken products, and remains committed to its core product.

"It would be incredibly arrogant to think we could create a product that could supersede Original Recipe chicken," Eaton said. "But this product is easily good enough to sit alongside it."
___
AP Business Writer Lauren Shepherd in New York contributed to this report.