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State Senate Makes History

By Dan Gorenstein on Wednesday, December 3, 2008.

For the first time in United States history, women will make up the majority of members in a legislative chamber.

That legislative chamber is the New Hampshire Senate

State Senators acknowledged the historic achievement with pride and a bit of a shrug.

New Hampshire Public Radio’s Dan Gorenstein reports.

Liquor Chief Mulls Booze In Grocery Stores

By Josh Rogers on Wednesday, December 3, 2008.

Liquor commission says selling hard alcohol where people shop everyday would boost state revenues, and make life easier for consumers. The suggestion comes amid repeated calls from Governor Lynch for liquor officials to find new ways to make money.

December 3, 2008

Today on Word of Mouth, where’s my jetpack?

listen:

Hormones on Wall Street

By Avishay Artsy on Wednesday, December 3, 2008.

Forget behavioral economics - the Naked Scientists science podcast interviews John Coates from the Judge Business School at Cambridge University, who is investigating the hormonal basis for bubbles and crashes. He's calling it "endocrinal economics":

Cooking Remotely

By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, December 3, 2008.

In case you haven’t noticed, the age of the foodie rolls on. In and out of the kitchen, our embrace of our inner gourmand is on television, where chefs and would-be chefs compete for culinary honors; online, where blogs upon blogs document personal tales in the kitchen; and even a kid’s movie about a cartoon rat with a penchant for fine food made millions.

And now, video game developers are tapping into our culinary aspirations with a new menu of products. You can now use your Wii controller to slice, dice, sauté and stir-fry several dishes at once – no splatters and no messy kitchen to clean up afterwards. In the game "Hell’s Kitchen," based on the hit Fox TV show,"wannabe restaurateurs slice and dice their way through each episode, vying for chef Gordan Ramsay's attention." In "Iron Chef" the Wii remote becomes your hand as you hold a knife, spoon, or sauté pan handle and chop, stir, tilt or flick. Of course, there won’t be any real food to eat when your done either.

Washington Post food editor Joe Yonan reviews some of these games in today’s paper, and he joins us live on the line. Click here to read his article. And watch the video below:

The Raw Food Divide

By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, December 3, 2008.

Here’s a way to cut down on energy: food you don’t need to cook. Imagine how much fuel we’d save by eating only salads of raw fruits and vegetables served at room temperature.

It might not sound all that appetizing, but the movement to eat only raw, vegan food has been around for a while, and now it’s spreading beyond California and New York. Raw food restaurants have sprouted up everywhere from Saint Augustine, Florida, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and raw packaged foods are even hitting the shelves at upscale grocers like Whole Foods, much to the dismay of purists. Gourmet raw food, like lasagna made from ground nuts, sprouted buckwheat and cashew cheese, has traditional raw foodies crying foul.

Lessley Anderson has followed the growth of the raw food movement. She’s senior editor at the food website CHOW.com, and she joins us now from San Francisco. Click here to read her article.

(Photo of raw pizza by francistoms)

High Fashion At Bargain Rates

By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, December 3, 2008.

I want to tell you about a fabulous 3/4 length swingcoat i got for a steal. It’s by Proenza Schouler, the super high-end design team that drape starlets on the red carpet. But I got this little number for $79, because I got it at Target.

There was a time when buying high fashion brands from a giant retail store would be unthinkable, but over the past few years, Stella McCartney, Karl Lagerfeld and others have sold limited edition clothing to the masses at stores like Target and H&M.

Rob Walker is author of Buying In, and writes the weekly "Consumed" column for The New York Times Magazine, and he says the current economic downturn may mean more merging of fashion’s high and lowbrow.