Annie Mame

The former darling of NBC’s long running Today Show is back and I for one am thrilled.  Jane Pauley is  is a tad bit senior to me, though not by much, the difference in age allowed me to watch her as I came up right behind her into what would be my career in TV News. I watched her as she blazed trails for me and all women in television.

Pauley had, has, “it.” That fresh-faced, girl next-door image that anybody getting up in the morning and turning on their TV sets could, and can, relate to. I would argue that, that would still work today, though you don’t see a lot of that, the TV industry has certainly gone in a different direction. Pauley was that steady eddy gal hosting thru all things the world gave us and she was just herself.

When Pauley graduated from Indiana University and went to work for WISH-TV in Indianapolis, that was the beginning of her rise into people’s hearts. Jane was Jane and that’s why it worked. The famed news WISH-TV News Director, the late Lee Giles, hired her, he knew what he was doing.

Here is why I have felt a kind of sisterhood with Pauley. She is from Indiana and so am I. She went to I.U., I went to a school a piece up the road, and rival, Purdue University.

Jane’s first TV job was at WISH-TV, which is owned by the company for which I currently work, LIN TV out of Providence, Rhode Island. The woman who replaced Pauley in 1980, was Debby Knox whom I started my career with in Elkhart, Indiana. Debby remains in that seat today. Another woman for whom I have immense respect. Yes, Giles picked her too, and I remember when she got the call from Indianapolis, we were thrilled for her.

Jane has three children including a set of twins, so do I. Pauley has a home in Connecticut, so do I. Her daughter went to Yale, my husband is a Professor of Medicine there. I saw her on the Today show the other day, unbeknownst to me we have a similar haircut.

I have never met Pauley, but was out with some friends the other evening and a gentleman who was with them told me Jane Pauley is his son’s Godmother. Pauley’s Godson is serving our country in Iraq.

Is there a 6 degrees of separation thing going on here? I asked this gentleman if he would mind getting in touch with Pauley to see if she would be interested in doing an interview with me. He did, and she told him she was in the throws of working on something new, well it was just launched and we know what it is.

So when can you see the woman for which I have such high regard? Pauley will be a contributor for a new monthly series in her old stopping grounds, The Today Show. She is an Ambassador for AARP and her segment is called “Your Life Calling.” She will be profiling people over the age of 50 who are reinventing themselves, in mid life pursuing their life’s calling, their passions.

One of the people Jane highlights (as seen in the video above) is a woman who gave up a 6 figure salary to teach knitting. Knitting is a zen. I know, because that’s what I do in my spare time. Jane , I’d be glad to teach you. Maybe it’s time for me to contact my contact again to see if she is interested in a chat.

I have admired Pauley from afar as someone who set high standards. Again another parallel here, her new job with telling stories about people reinventing themselves in mid life , is what I am attempting to do with a Think Tank called Navigating Change. It is comprised of more than 40 people with very diverse career backgrounds who have committed to help each other and others at large. Navigating Change is nearly a year old. We hope to be a force to reckon with on a state level and beyond. We would love to be a beacon of light for people  looking to find a way out of this economic crisis, and be able to capitalize on their passions as they search for a new career.

Navigating Change’s motto: “Bright Minds Connecting Passion to Opportunity.”

The 59 year old Pauley has been brutally honest  about her life, which has been greatly appreciated. Think of the people she has helped with her book in 2004, “Skywriting: A Life Out of the Blue.” which told the world that she is bipolar.

So when can you see the woman for which I have such high regard? Pauley will be a contributor for a new monthly series. It’s called “Your Life Calling.” She will be profiling people over the age of 50 who have reinvented the way they work and/or live to pursue their life’s calling. one of the people Jane highlights is Betsy Lee McCarthy woman who gave up a 6 figure job to teaching knitting. Knitting is a zen, I know, because that’s what i do in my spare time. Jane I’d be glad to teach you.

Go get em Jane, you continue to be a brilliant trail blazer and I’m right behind you.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Ann Nyberg

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I promise you, you will never forget meeting kHyal and Karl Heine. This dynamic married duo is a creative force the likes of which shouldn’t be taken lightly. You name it, they can design, brand and write about it in ways that will make a logo jump off the screen, and I do mean jump.


For instance, kHyal has just launched her Weather sKwirl (yep trademarked) She loves everything pink and the weather, and I’m thinking this is going to get animated into a hit show (just my opinion).

kHyal (yes, this is the correct spelling of her name and by the way it’s trademarked) is 6 feet tall, a former model and trained fine artist, but that doesn’t even begin to define her. kHyal heads up her fiZz Agency (results-driven effervescent communication)

Karl, kHyal’s soul mate and confident, heads up Creative Placement in South Norwalk, Connecticut which is where I met to talk with them. Karl, as does kHyal, surrounds himself with the most creative people on the planet and puts them into companies that explode onto the scene. Does SoBe ring a bell?

Karl and kHyal are also the founders of PUSH Workshops, bringing brilliant creative minds together. I talked to the pair about their entree into the creative world and asked them what their young mile markers were. I want to help future creatives reading this to get some insight in their worlds.

Lately, kHyal told me she is excited about getting people in mid life to begin thinking about how they may be able to get their creative juices flowing to start anew into a wonderful new exciting world. kHyal works around-the-clock and so does Karl, learning, taking information in and sharing it. These two know everyone and anyone and are master connectors. I left them thinking I want to go with them to the next party they’re invited to.

Karl, because his business is in SoNo, (South Norwalk) decided everybody needed to know every “creative” in the neighborhood so he founded the “Taste of SoNo.” He coined it, “A Celebration of Eclectic Cuisine From The Best In SoNo.” Can you imagine more than one hundred people, all of like mind in the same room? Imagine the party scene from the movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”…oh, to be Holly Golightly and be in that room.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Ann Nyberg

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I was in the neighborhood and I swear my car drove itself to the Red Rooster Baking Co. in Guilford, Connecticut. The gourmet premium cookies produced here by the loving hands of Kimberly Anatra Welch are out of this world. They are among the prettiest I’ve ever seen, and each one is like a small cake. There is some kind of secret ingredient in the dough that makes the cookies rise high. Kimberly of course is keeping that to herself.

On the day I stopped in, Kimberly was in the middle of making a couple of batches. Among her 16 flavors, she especially loves the Lemon Poppy Sugar cookies, okay understandable. Kimberly, a Mom of two, works very hard in her beautiful space to turn out these goodies, but says it’s so rewarding to make people happy with cookies.

Behind the counter, you can see the work that’s going on, all fresh ingredients and huge amounts of dough is baked into each cookie. You can even call ahead and have her make the dough and you can pick it up and bake them at home. Of course you can tell everyone you made them yourself. Did I mention you can order these goodies on line, well you can, just in time for any holiday. I have such respect for those folks in Connecticut opening and running their own businesses. A tip of the hat to Kimberly Anatra Welch.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Ann Nyberg

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All you have to do is talk to Corina Alvarezdelugo once, and you’ll know she has a heart of gold. I was drawn to her because I read she wanted to give one of her sculptures to an organization which is helping to further a cure for cancer.

In particular, she wants to give it to a group so they can auction it off and raise money to really delve into better screening for women with dense breast tissue. If you represent such a group and want to get a hold of Corina concerning the sculpture, here is her email: corinadotdash@gmail.com

The piece is beautiful with, it’s a sphere, a breast wrapped in a pink ribbon crossed in the front. Cancer has touched Corina’s family and she wants the piece of art to go to a deserving organization. She has made breast cancer awareness buttons and mirrors which she sells on her ETSY site. Corina is from Valencia,Venezuela. She was schooled for a time in Connecticut, returned to her native country and then came back to the Nutmeg state with her husband to raise their children in Branford, Connecticut. Corina’s first formal training in art came from Venezuelan painter and sculptor, Luis Alverezdelugo, who later became her father-in-law. His beautiful works include a painting he did of Guilford, Connecticut. Corina, an award winning artist, loves to makes round sculptures and then turn it into something great. One of her spheres ended up with four different noses and wire for hair signifying people of the world. Corina does beautiful paintings, but told me she prefers mixed media, and I do mean mixed. She collects anything that she feels might be right someday for a painting. That includes scrap material from the art studio and gallery she is building which will adjoin her home. There is a treasure trove of ideas in her bag.

Corina is quoted as saying “through my art I let out experiences in life, what I feel inside, my interaction with this world.” Corina currently has an exhibit up at Gallery One at The Clayhouse in Old Saybrook, Connecticut thru April 25th, 2010.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Ann Nyberg

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Fox, Peter Fox. Bon vivant, man about town, screen writer direct from Los Angeles right here in Connecticut. The Fox man is in Hamden to be precise and is Vice President of Production at Tripeg Studios. More on Tripeg coming up, but first I want you to know more about 21st Century Fox and his Hollywood background. Fanfare please!

Okay great, that’s out of the way. It turns out that Peter Fox’s Grandmother was a star of the silent film era in the mid 1920’s in Hollywood and her name was Rosa Rudami. Peter has some photos of her in his office at Tripeg.

Peter, who I think looks like a Hollywood mogul, is so passionate about teaching screen writing. He spent enough time in L.A. to know that most couldn’t care less whether young writers have the right kinds of tools to get a film made. That fired him up that people didn’t care. Peter has taken that lack of caring in Lala Land, and is striving to help those who want to get their stories onto the silver screen ready for what it takes. Peter conducts The Inside Track Workshops and there’s a big one coming up on April 17, 2010 at The Bushnell in Hartford.

Now to the place where peter parks his briefcase, Tripeg Studios. First things first. What’s with the name?
“Tri” means three and there are three studios here and “Peg” is for the first names of the guys who own the place. There is 20,000 square feet of rental space including make-up and dressings rooms with showers. Post production suites, on-site lighting and grip rentals and even a cafeteria. Whatever you would need to whip up that commercial or independent film your shooting is here.

You need a set built?…that can happen at Tripeg, look at this workshop, it’s huge.

Need a green screen for that independent film you’re shooting or commercial, they have one of the largest in New England.

How bought a white screen..sure. These studios have double doors so you can drive a car or truck into them and do an action “Indiana Jones” thing if you want.

Need to learn acting skills? They accommodate that too, courses are instructed by Reno Venturi in the Actor’s Gym.

Oh, and one more thing, one of the owners of Tripeg, Phil Gauvin loves to blow things up and light up the sky, in a good way mind you. He’s an expert in pyrotechnics. Below is a shot of Phil atop Times Square, he’s one of the guys in charge of the fireworks in NYC to ring in the new year.

After visiting here I almost feel like gathering up some folks and making a movie. It’s a little piece of the left coast in our own backyard.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Ann Nyberg

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Okay, repeat after me, Peonies, Peonies, Peonies. Good. Now remember that is the name of a fabulous women’s consignment shop in Centerbrook, Connecticut which of course you need to go to and support. Not immediately, you have to read this first, but you can warm up the car as you’re getting the low down.

This darling shop is called Peonies because the owners, Pamela Williams and Laurel Peters both love gardening and their favorite flower is a peonie so there you have it, now you know the history. Well, there’s a lot more, but when you’re there, they’ll fill you in. Suffice it to say these two will become your new best friends, that’s how comfortable it feels when you’re there. They’re warm and friendly and just plain fun.

I’m a sucker for anything vintage, and this place has that but new and modern is the focus. The icing, it has glitz, glamour, but most of all the atmosphere is just adorable. Pam and Laurel grew up in Avon, Connecticut and have been friends for more than 30 years.

Their shopping bags are pink and I walked out with three of them. What goodies did I get? A pocketbook, a stunning dress for my daughter Sarah, to wear to a college shin dig, and an out-of-this-world jacket which I can’t wait to wear on the air. Also some glitzy crystal earrings and a beautiful One Pearl necklace the proceeds of which goes to charity. One pearl will be the topic of a future blog post, the story behind the woman who designed it, is just terrific.
I left Peonies feeling like a kid who had just been in a penny candy store.

I am having a ball getting out there and writing about the wonderful state of Connecticut and all the really cool people that are working so hard to make things happen for them and for others. It’s a privilege and a pleasure to get acquainted with so many trying to push forward in a very tough economy. I am so humbled hearing their stories.

Pam and Laurel are just terrific gals and and I quickly learned how really close they are. In this darling video of them they say the same thing at the same time, perhaps twins separated at both? I know what I’m taking about here on that topic because I’m the mother of 20 year old twins. Anyway, here’s the proof positive.

Do yourself a favor now that you’ve read this, get in your now warmed up car, get a cup of coffee on the road and go see Pam and Laurel. You’ll be helping to support all of these wonderful small businesses which enrich our lives and this state. If we don’t all do this together all of these wonderful shops will go away and quintessential Connecticut will no longer be what attracts so many here in the first place. Think about that.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Ann Nyberg

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It’s a new beginning for Milford’s Pam Landry. The reinvention of a woman who had spent the better part of her life in Connecticut radio. One day  last year (2009) she was told it was over. No fault of her own..times changed, business models got devoured in a crashing economy…boom! Gone.

Stunned, she had to begin anew. Money runs out, so do benefits. Pam had a camera and she liked taking pictures and had an inkling that just maybe it might be a way for her to once again prosper.

It turns out Landry has a special eye for sunrises and sunsets and nature. By chance this began to be realized on Facebook (social media success story).

Pam started to load her pictures onto her FB wall and people started to take notice. Her friends told their friends who then told their friends and connections started and people wanted to help. Funny how these things happen.

Next thing you know a friend of a friend has a relative who owns this really cool bar/restaurant in New Haven, Connecticut and she is contacted by the owner and the pictures got framed and hung and all those who love Pam showed up in support.

This great place who has hung Pam’s pictures is 116 Crown Street. Incidentally, help this place out…go in for a drink and enjoy its great atmosphere and look at Pam’s creations. If  you like one they’re $25.00 and you will be buying the beginning of a new life. I think that’s pretty darn inspiring and so are the photos.

This is a story of how one starts to rebuild a life. This is my passion to record what’s going out there in Connecticut, and help get the word out about all of these wonderous things going on driven by sheer determination to just figure it out and go on, and that in a nutshell is Annie Mame. I too am armed with my little camera to record all of this.

This is turning out to be the Great Era of Entrepreneurship (for the record this phrase was just coined by my dear friend, Noah Finz and he’s right) Note to Noah (red light flashing here)….get that phrase copyrighted, STAT.

All of us as individuals have to work really hard on our own to obtain goals…it’s not going to come knocking. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you did, or how much money you did or didn’t make, if it hasn’t happened yet to you, it will, and you’re going to need a herd of folks to help lead you in the right direction.

Truly who do you know who is not trying to now turn their passion into a job? While everything seems broken…guess what this really now is the land of opportunities. Surround yourselves with people who really do care about you and I’m guessing after some time you too will see a rainbow like the one Pam captured below on her little camera as she was looking for light again.

I wish all of you reading this your own “double” rainbow and a pot of gold at the end. When you find it make sure to use some of your new found treasure to help others along the way.

Oh and by the way, Pam along with her brand new life has a brand new web site that I think is just fabulous. Here is is PamLandry.com On this site you will find out all about this strong talented woman and you will also hear her voice.

It was designed by Gary Choronzy of Connecticut Websites, by a guy who is in a group of special people who eventually will be coming out into the world to help a whole lot of folks. I have this on very good authority.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Ann Nyberg

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Katharine Hepburn, there was nobody like her, probably never will be. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Katharine Hepburn is still the record holder for the number of Academy Awards won. She brought home four. Only actress Meryl Streep has been nominated more times than Hepburn and for the record is closing in on Hepburn.

Hepburn was iconic in every way. Her brash get-out-of-my style, served her well. That strong-willed determination still has the world talking about her everyday. I know this because I have a Google alert search going for her name and several times a day up pops Katharine Hepburn.

I write about Ms. Hepburn constantly because I am on the Board of Trustees for the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center and Theater in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. The theater opened in September of 2009 and we’re going gang busters. I have written the blog on The Kate’s web site for more than two years. You will find a treasure trove there about the legendary actress.

The venue has a museum to Hepburn and there you will find some of her Hollywood film wardrobe, her Lifetime Achievement Award, her Emmy and other wonderful goodies. So that means get in the car and take a tour. Make sure to take in a show…we run the gamut from music to film to comedy to live opera. it is my home away from home.

Incidentally on May 12th, on what would have been Hepburn’s 103rd birthday, the U.S. Postal service will unveil the Katharine Hepburn stamp. It’s the hope that will take place at The Kate. I have seen the photo they chose for the stamp and it’s a beauty. A giant replica of it will be on permanent display at cultural arts center. The place is a jewel box. I have referred to it as “a gem of a place with a movie star name” and trust me that’s just what it is.

Hepburn lived in the Fenwick section of Old Saybrook on Long Island Sound…it was her summer retreat from the glaring lights of Hollywood and it was a place she called her paradise. She spent her last days on the planet there. You can see her mansion on the water from the Saybrook Point Inn and Spa and for the month of May they have put together a Hepburn package that is to die for. Complete with Hepburn’s famous chocolate brownies.

Here’s one rendition of those dense gooey delectables.

Katharine Hepburn’s Brownies as made at Fenwick

2 squares unsweetened chocolate
¼ lb. sweet butter (i.e., one stick)
1 C. sugar
2 eggs
½ tsp. vanilla
¼ C flour
¼ tsp. salt
1 C. chopped walnuts

First, melt chocolate and butter in heavy saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Add eggs along with vanilla and beat like mad. Stir in flour, salt, and the chopped walnuts—not smashed up, you know, just chopped up into fairly good-sized pieces.

Now mix all that up. Then you butter a square tin (8 x 8 in.) and dump the whole thing quickly into the pan. Stuff this pan into a preheated 325°F oven for 40 minutes. After that, take out the pan and let it cool for a while. Then cut into 1½ x 1 squares and dive right in.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Ann Nyberg

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This is not what many of you in Connecticut remember as the Bee and Thistle Inn, it’s got a whole new look and a spa too and it is a WOW.

Linnea and David Rufo have poured their heart and soul into this beautiful Inn in Old Lyme, Connecticut and it is amazing. It’s the kind of place you don’t want to leave after your weekend is over.

The food and ambiance, you name it, you just want to sit back with a cocktail in your hand and relax. Speaking of which there is a spa here too. Many of the recipes served a dinner and breakfast are from Linnea’s family.

Linnea has spent 30 years in the hospitality business all over New England and in New York City and she knows how to treat everyone in a first class way. Every details is just beautiful.

This is a great place to come for a country respite if you’re spending your whole week plugging away at it in New York City.

The grounds around this inn are charming…beautiful when the garden is in full bloom and there is a river right there for you to hop into a canoe and navigate nature.

If you’ve been to an event or wedding here you are charmed by the whole existence of the place from its front door to its back yard.

You all should give it a whirl, and while you’re there in this charming corner of the world, go over the the Florence Griswold Museum (pictured below) which is right next door. Right next door to that is the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts.

Warning, history lesson here. Florence Griswold back in the day, opened her stately manor to artists looking for peace and quiet in the country. Those who came formed the Lyme Art Colony and the Flo Gris home became the center of Impressionism in America. So how cool is that?

So check The Bee and Thistle web site early and often for all things “bee and thistle”  and Old Lyme there’s a lot going on in this little art mecca.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Ann Nyberg

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Don’t even think about not checking out this beautiful enclave in Killingworth, Connecticut. It is a private nature preserve, a little piece of heaven, who knew?

Artist Joan Levy had the picture along time ago and has spent the last 25 years here, at Hemlock Forest on Murray Pond sculpting and honing and making it a place where she would eventually have artists, musicians, writers, scientists, ornithologists, you name it. It is a perfect place for a day retreat. This is a beautiful venue for nature.

Murray Pond has many species of turtles some thought to have been extinct. There are a variety of birds and other animals running about the place. Oh, and just so you know, it was Joan who took this shot of her pond from a fixed wing aircraft, how do you like that for a strong determined woman.

I saw a squirrel from Joan’s kitchen window grab some food and hustle it into a hole in a tree where it was living. pretty cool.

You can contact Joan about classes or retreats here:
Joan Levy
860-663-1169
colordoctor@comcast.net

On the day I visited there was snow on the ground and it was juxtaposed against a brilliant bright blue February sky. Just stunning.

I stopped by to chat and have lunch with Joan. As an artist the place is filled with her works which really makes it fun. The stone and wood inside make it so cozy and she had a fire going in the fireplace and we sat in front of it in two rockers just talking about Joan’s plans to share her home with as many as she can.

Joan teaches art here too to children and adults. What a great place to come to be surrounded by so much to learn to draw and paint. You can even learn to blow glass here. She sells beautiful glass ornaments here as well. I selected a white one to be put on my Christmas Tree next year.

At at early age Joan’s influences included Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Van Gogh. Her head was turned in another way when she met William De Kooning. He became her friend and mentor.

Joan’s art studio is big and spacious and slopped with paint which as some would say is “just delicious.”

She showed me her work on September 11th which is amazing. Joan was at ground zero shortly after that horrific event and was able to capture in her mind what that was all about as an artist.

Joan is passionate about her art and she’s a pretty darn good acoustic guitar player, I’ll let you ask her who taught her to play…that in itself is a fabulous story. You can see her in concert at the Folk City Revival at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook, Connecticut on April 9th.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Ann Nyberg

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