Investigate HERS Feb 2011 edition

HERS Royal vs Republic | Key’s Popularity | Baby-killing | 02/2011

current affairs and lifestyle for the discerning woman

Royal or Republic?

HERS poll finds people want Queen Kate of NZ

ONE IN 6 BILLION

HIS McCaw’s Mission | Pike Disaster | Email-snooping | 02/2011

A five year old’s journey to beat the rarest medical condition in the world

RIDING FOR A FALL?

John Key may be popular, but he’s not safe.

We have the details

MUM’S JAIL TERM Baby in the box case February 2011 $8.60

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HERS

Contents February 11 | Issue 121 | www.hersmagazine.tv

ON THE COVER The Mum Who Killed

10

Mr Popularity’s Hard Year

18

She didn’t want a baby to upset her career, so she murdered the child.

But does the community share some blame?

John Key is riding high in the polls, but the new HERS magazine poll shows National can’t take its support for granted, especially with Winston Peters planning a comeback

One In 6 Billion

20

He’s the first person in history to be diagnosed with the world's rarest disease. His mum prays, while doctors try to work a miracle

FEATURES

Sonar & The Whale

26

Arabian Valentines

28

Need Better Sleep?

40

Domestic Bliss

56

Is US Naval sonar harming whales?

Some researchers think it could be Brought in by American GIs, Valentines Day is sweeping the Middle East and powerful men are not pleased Forget about valium. New research suggests jasmine may be better at helping you sleep When the cleaning never ends

18

Royal or Republic?

justintimberlake.com

THE NEW FRAGRANCE FOR HER

HERS

Contents 45

50

32 38

48

FORMALITIES 6 Editor's letter 8 Inbox (send some letters) 63 Adieu 64 Subscriptions

Your chance to WIN!

A 600w Onkyo AV 380 Receiver and home theatre system Details on page 64

VIEWPOINTS 10 Miranda Devine on the murder of a baby 12 Chloe Milne on binge drinking

BOUTIQUE 31 A Valentine’s indulgence

BEAUTY & HEALTH 37 Mineral Makeup – does it deliver?

40 Jasmine, great for insomniacs 42 Anti-ageing clues found in unlikely place

ECOR & CUISINE D 45 Outdoor luxury, indoor style 48 Chilled tomato soup for summer

TRAVEL & LEISURE 50 Old Phuket’s mystery 52 Read it: Michael Morrissey’s reviews 54 See it: No Strings Attached

HEART & SOUL 56 LIFE: Domestic Bliss 58 FAMILY: Tips for parents 60 FAITH: life is short, pray hard

HERSEDITOR

The blending of feminine and masculine into one magazine, while retaining the individuality of each, mirrors the secret of a successful relationship...

Welcome to a new kind of magazine HERS Royal vs Republic | Key’s Popularity | Baby-killing | 02/2011

Ian & Heidi Wishart current affairs and lifestyle for the discerning woman

Royal or Republic?

HERS poll finds people want Queen Kate of NZ

ONE IN 6 BILLION

HIS McCaw’s Mission | Pike Disaster | Email-snooping | 02/2011

A five year old’s journey to beat the rarest medical condition in the world

RIDING FOR A FALL?

John Key may be popular, but he’s not safe.

We have the details

MUM’S JAIL TERM Baby in the box case February 2011 $8.60

I

f you’re reading this, you’ve probably realised by now that you are holding something unusual – a women’s magazine and a men’s magazine wrapped in the one package. Like the masthead says, it retains its investigaMAGAZINES tive journalism, something in one FLIP OVER FOR MORE we’ve done for the past 11 years in one magazine and which has been effectively morphed into this new one.

We think, and have done for a long time, that magazine readers want the best of both worlds – content that is cutting edge, informative and that briefs them on things they need to know about, and content that is more lifestyle oriented.

HERS magazine strikes a balance by providing more than merely another batch of celebrity stories. We are drawing on resources, contributors and news agencies from New Zealand and quite literally across the globe, to bring you what we think is relevant and interesting content.

The beauty of HERS, of course, is that you also get HIS. In truth the mainline features you’ll read throughout could run in either title. HERS is not dumbed-down for girls.

It’s just as punchy and up with the play as HIS. Investigative articles will run under both mastheads. Where the real difference lies is in the reader experience. You

2

PLUS BEAUTY, DECOR, CUISINE, TRAVEL, FAMILY, HEALTH & MORE

6 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

can absorb HERS and then dip into HIS, or vice-versa. The money and business columns in HIS are equally relevant to women, just as health articles are to men. Yet we can now present content in its own environment.

People who know what they’re after can easily skip the bits they don’t need and focus on the stories in either title that catch their interest.

We have no doubt that the results of the first HERS reader poll will be of tremendous interest to New Zealanders of all political shades. Likewise the ongoing HIS investigation into the Pike River disaster. This is what you will continue to get each month. Stories that matter, stories that inform and stories that inspire, along with some of New Zealand’s best opinion columns to spark debate.

We don’t expect our readers to always agree with the opinions they’ll read, but if you enjoy sharp, pithy discussion over a cuppa and a crossword, and topics to talk about at work or over dinner, you’ve come to the right place.

For just $8.60 a month (less, if you subscribe ) you get HERS and HIS – a men’s magazine that women will like and a women’s magazine that men will read, and that’s got to be good value in these times.

We hope you enjoy this first issue of HERS, because we’ve enjoyed developing the concept and seeing it come to life.

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www.tehanasparkling.co.nz HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011 7

8 HERSMAGAZINE.TV

HERSDEVINE

Killing a child – the backstory Miranda Devine

T

he Keli Lane case at least showed that babies are not the personal property of their parents. Society and the law cares about baby Tegan Lane and what happened to her shortly after her birth on September 12, 1996, and that is as it should be.

In the absence of a body, a jury determined just before Christmas that Tegan’s mother Keli, then 21, murdered her and then blithely attended a wedding.

But NSW Supreme Court Justice Anthony Whealy isn’t the only one to feel uneasy about the case and “great sympathy” towards Lane, who denies killing Tegan and told multiple lies about what happened to her baby.

You can’t help wondering why things had to be so difficult for the young mother.

She had already aborted two babies, the first in her final year of high school. Whether she was traumatised by those abortions or just didn’t realise she was pregnant until it was too late, she gave birth to three more unwanted children by the time she was 24. She adopted out the first baby, a girl born 15 years ago, when she was 20 years old.

The experience was more traumatic than it needed to be. According to adoption agency records tendered in court, Keli was questioned at length and said she wanted to “finish her education and pursue her sporting career. She believes she would not parent well if she did not attempt to achieve her full potential; to try to do both would be unfair to [the baby]”.

Having to justify her decision can’t have been easy. Nor can being pushed to visit her baby in foster care before the adoption could be finalised, as some sort of last-ditch effort to get her to change her mind. She must have come to realise that, far from being thanked for giving a childless couple the precious gift of a baby, she was a pariah.

“People dropped off me when they realised that I was going to relinquish the babies,” Keli said four years later when she was adopting out her third unwanted child, a boy.

10 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

“Society says that this is wrong; society says that people who do this must be mad, slutty or cruel. I just don’t agree.”

And that is the crux of the Keli Lane tragedy.

The prosecution made much of the fact she didn’t want to keep her babies. She adopted them out because they would cramp her sporting career, but that was the truth of how she felt. Not every woman feels maternal simply because she has given birth.

Forcing a reluctant mother into motherhood is a recipe for disaster, not to mention unnecessary, considering how many childless couples are desperate to adopt a healthy newborn.

But in a society which tolerates all manner of unorthodox life choices, it seems Keli Lane’s pragmatic assessment that she would not make a good mother at that stage of her life was beyond the pale.

The anti-adoption industry has done its job well, stigmatising adoption as some sort of social crime, far worse than abortion – of which Australia has 90,000 a year – and worse, in Keli Lane’s eyes, even than killing her baby, if that is what she really did.

All she wanted was to give her babies a good home and maintain her privacy. Instead she had to ensure endless interrogations, fill out intrusive mandatory forms, and be treated as if she were deranged.

Whatever she did with Tegan, Keli turned back to official adoption channels when she tried to relinquish her third child, a baby boy, in 1999, and the intrusion was enormous.

Social worker Virginia Fung, from Anglicare Adoption Services, cross-examined her relentlessly, demanding to know who was the father, making her undergo psychiatric assessment, refusing to accept her decision at face value, and sending the baby into foster care in case Keli changed her mind.

The barriers raised to young women who want to adopt out their unwanted babies explain why adoption in Australia has fallen to record lows. Last financial year there were

just 412 adoptions and only a paltry 15 per cent were of children born in Australia.

The insistence on open adoptions, even against the wishes of the mother, only compounds the suffering.

How dare social workers try to bully young women at such a vulnerable time into foregoing their right to anonymity. How dare they force a mother to bond with her child before she gives it away. That is terrible cruelty.

There was good reason why in earlier times relinquishing mothers were not given their babies to hold after birth. Those mothers put their child’s long-term interests ahead of their own short-term desires. But today their adoptions are being recast as “stolen white generations”.

The adoption barrier also may be behind the increasing numbers of babies abandoned on doorsteps around Australia. Even then, there is no relenting.

Take the public campaign to find the mother who abandoned her newborn baby on the steps of Dandenong hospital in 2007.

“How could she?” read the headlines after hospital administrators called in police and the media in an attempt to force the mother to come forward. This was exactly what the poor woman had been trying to avoid when she carefully wrapped her baby in towels, put it in a cardboard box and took it to what she hoped would be a safe place.

That may not be the kind of mother love that modern society champions, but it is love all the same.

In police phone intercepts of Keli Lane’s conversations with friends, her tears and fears are greatest when she talks about her parents, who she clearly loves.

“When my parents find out ... they’re going to be embarrassed and ashamed. They can call me a slut or a moron or a dickhead ... and that’s all right.”

The cold exasperation of Keli’s mother Sandra in one conversation gives a glimpse of what might have driven her to that place where she felt she had no choice but to kill her baby.

“My trust has been violated,” says Sandra Lane, who seems more concerned about the effect any publicity might have on her son’s high-flying finance career than she is about the effect on her obviously fragile daughter.

Instead of showing anger or hurt at her mother’s callousness, Keli’s voice becomes calmer, accepting something she must have lived with all her life.

How, anyway, could a mother not notice that the daughter who lives under her roof is pregnant, not once, but five times.

Perhaps that is unfair, but it does suggest a certain aloofness.

Nor did Keli’s mother or father support her publicly dur-

A handcuffed Keli Lane is led to a prison van after being found guilty of murdering her baby 14 years ago. / NATHAN EDWARDS

Forcing a reluctant mother into motherhood is a recipe for disaster, not to mention unnecessary, considering how many childless couples are desperate to adopt a healthy newborn ing the trial, coming to court only to hear her lawyer’s final submission.

The Shakespearean twist to the tragedy is that Keli Lane did finally get married and have a much-wanted baby, her fourth child, a daughter she kept. Under the strain of the police charges, her marriage broke down.

“I used to worry so much about wanting to be a sports star and achieving these wonderful things,” she told a friend in 2004. “But the only thing I’m really good at is being a mum.

“I spent so much time worrying about all those other things and it doesn’t matter.”

The terrible irony is that she is in jail now, separated from the baby daughter she finally managed to cherish.

HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011 11

HERSGEN-Y

You know you’re soaking in it...

Chloe Milne

U

niversity students get blamed for a lot of things... Like burning couches, causing riots, stealing road signs, wasting police and medical resources and of course binge drinking.

The reality is however, that uni students are not actually that bad. Canterbury students recently showed how much they cared about their community by volunteering following the earthquake. The time has now come (with the exception of Otago students –let’s be honest there is no hope there) for the name of University students to be cleared.

Binge drinking is a serious problem for a lot of young people. Never mind the hangover and loss of brain cells, alcohol causes nice people to do stupid things. Drinking can, and more than likely will, make you lose your selfrespect, judgment and dignity.

Just ask my flatmate who got arrested for fighting in public on the same evening that she got bounced from Shooters for flushing her underwear down the toilet. We do not need to think further than the tragedy of James Webster to understand the more serious implications of too much alcohol.

However, it is not how we are drinking, it’s how our role models are drinking. How can we expect teenagers to drink responsibly when their parents and role models don’t?

Mum and Dad having a few too many wines at Christmas may seem harmless but really it is an indication of what is acceptable. Doug Howlett getting arrested for being drunk and disorderly yet again may seem funny but the message he is really sending to young people is that it is ok to drink too much.

No one likes to see their role models lose control, that’s usually when those annoying friends of theirs, as the ad says, turn up.

“Shouty” Doug, “tomfoolery” Doug, “jumping on cars” Doug, “getting arrested by British

police” Doug and then some time later “public apology” Doug turned up.

Drinking has become a rite of passage in New Zealand. Alcohol is not just a dangerous drug; it is an acceptable and even encouraged social tool. It seems that New Zealanders believe the more you drink, the bigger the fun.

Now, young people believe that without alcohol they cannot have a good time. Unless they are kissing everyone at the bar, male and female, crying and vomiting in the gutter or arguing with the bouncer, they think they are probably not drunk enough. Warning, whilst under the influence the opposite sex (or even the same sex), may appear surprisingly more attractive than they actually are.

There is nothing fun about sleeping with someone whose sex is debatable, who is quite

Warning, whilst under the influence the opposite sex (or even the same sex), may appear surprisingly more attractive than they actually are

12 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

possibly related to you, or even getting involved in an unmentionable incident of a more gruesome kind.

Parents are role models whether they like it or not. As a teenager there is only one thing worse than being so incapacitated at a party that your parents need to be called to pick you up, and that’s them being too drunk to pick you up. I think that’s when ‘sorry it will never happen again’ Mum turns up.

If you cannot drink responsibly then don’t drink. You will save yourself the embarrassment of hitting on your boss, sharing confidential information about your company or saying “break dancing! Somebody spin my feet, ah ah my back”.

So Mum and Dad do you ever worry about your drinking? Coz I do.

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Poll READERS’

2011

The first HERS readers poll of 2011 has shown strong support for Prince William to become New Zealand’s next monarch, bypassing his father Charles. IAN WISHART has the results of this, and some stunning political poll surprises as well

A ROYAL DILEMMA: Charles in charge or Kate and Wills?

1

The royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton could prove to be a crucial bellwether in determining New Zealand’s future constitutional direction. The Prime Minister has ordered a review of New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements, although he’s indicated the country won’t be becoming a republic any time soon.

The latest results from the first HERS readers poll of 2011 seem to back that up. Fewer than 18% of respondents would like New Zealand to become a republic, while 12.5% said they didn’t know or had no preference. More than two thirds of those polled felt New Zealand should remain part of the monarchy.

14 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

Of the “Don’t Knows”, however, nearly a quarter fell off the fence and became republicans when we asked them whether Prince Charles and his consort Camilla should become New Zealand’s next King and Queen, whereas the Don’t knows were happy with the idea of William and Kate taking over as our monarchs, with two thirds supporting the young royals over the idea of a republic.

We asked our total poll sample who they’d like to see as New Zealand’s next king and queen. Just over nine percent of you stated a preference for Charles and Camilla to take the throne, while a further 28% expressed no preference either way.

However, by far the biggest support was for Charles to give up his throne ambitions in favour of Prince William. Nearly 60%

PHOTOGRAPHY BY NEWSCOM/NZPA

HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011 15

of those surveyed would like to see King William and Queen Catherine succeed to the throne after Elizabeth’s reign ends.

It’s likely these sentiments are not confined to just HERS readers or to New Zealand. There’s already emerging debate in Britain about whether Charles should step aside in favour of his son, and the royal wedding will only stir up the debate more, there as well as here/ So where does that leave the republican debate in New Zealand?

The core issue appears not to be who is head of state, which is essentially window-dressing, but instead where real power actually resides. New Zealand constitutional experts have admitted in the past that New Zealand’s constitutional legitimacy is shrouded in murky uncertainty. That’s because when New Zealand finally became independent of Britain, the New Zealand government of the day failed to recognise it had lost its authority to operate a parliamentary system, and therefore failed to seek recognition of the system’s legitimacy from the people.

That grey area, with governments increasingly testing the limits of what they can get away with, is where the real battle may be fought over New Zealand’s constitutional future.

Nearly 60% of those surveyed would like to see King William and Queen Catherine succeed to the throne after Elizabeth’s reign ends

16 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

WINSTON’S WIN Massive support

2

Winston Peters’ political fortunes have been dealt a flush hand in the first HERS magazine poll for 2011, with nearly 37% of those surveyed favouring a return by Peters to Parliament. Peters was tossed out at the last election after his party just failed to make the five percent threshold to secure proportional seats.

The NZ First leader blamed his political enemies and the news media for his downfall, which came on the back of a donations controversy involving Labour party financer Owen Glenn, and a very public refusal by John Key to work with Peters if elected.

So after three years in the wilderness, Peters will be grateful to get results like these. Of the total sample, 19.4% said they’d like to see the New Zealand First leader return to the Opposition benches, after a three year stint in political purgatory. A total of 17.5% of respondents felt Peters should form part of the next government.

Worryingly for Prime Minister John Key and his refusal to deal with the mercurial elder statesman, 11.2% of those identifying as National voters supported Peters return as a governing coalition partner, while a further 16.3% of National voters want to see Peters at least in parliament on the opposition benches. That’s a grand total of 27.5% of National voters who want to see the New Zealand First leader back in politics.

Intriguingly, nearly ten percent of New Zealand First voters said they would prefer to see their leader return to the opposition benches, rather than holding the reins of power.

NATS UNHAPPY 82% disapproval

3

But the Peters revelation is not the only sting in the HERS reader poll results.

A staggering 81.6% of National voters are expressing dissatisfaction with the John Key government. From a selection of multichoice questions, the vast majority of National voters most identified with the statement, “I disagree with National on some major things, but I distrust Labour more”.

HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011 17

Another statement, “I love everything that National has done”, was chosen by 9.2% of National voters, but the weakness of National’s core support is starting to show: a further six percent stated “to be honest, if a credible alternative arose they’d get my vote”, and two percent stated they were becoming “increasingly disenchanted with both main parties”.

Pressed further, more than 16% of National voters said they would consider voting Labour at this year’s election if the Labour Party promises to abolish the antismacking law. The source of dissatisfaction really hits home in the answer to the climate change question, however.

Asked if they would consider voting Labour if Labour promised to abolish the Emissions Trading Scheme, 28.6% of National voters told HERS magazine they would seriously consider voting Labour in such circumstances.

A staggering 81.6% of National voters are expressing dissatisfaction with the John Key government SHANE JONES Is dog tucker

4

If Labour MPs are pinning their hopes on a future leadership change, however, that’s not what voters appear to be looking for. While the big issues of the ETS and the anti-smacking law clearly contain some political meat for the Labour leadership to chew over, their prospects under a change of leader appear to be nil.

HERS magazine asked respondents how they would vote if an election were held today, and they were then asked how they would vote if Shane Jones was leading the Labour Party instead of Phil

18 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

Only 15.6% of you voted “Yes, arise Sir Richie!”

Goff. Fewer than three percent of respondents indicated a leadership change would affect their vote in this year’s election, and in some cases Labour voters said they would vote Green if Jones took over as Labour leader.

If an election were held today, the more than 1400 respondents to the HERS reader poll would ensure a National Government landslide. National has always performed very well historically in previous Investigate magazine polls, polling in the high 50s, and this poll was no exception. More than 61% of HERS readers would vote National, and 8.5% would vote Act. Despite the strong support for Winston Peters’ return to Parliament, the NZ First leader appears yet to convince people to translate their warm fuzzies into votes: 5.6% of readers would vote for NZ First.

The Labour Party barely rates, with only 14.3% support, with Larry Baldock’s Kiwi Party capturing more than six percent of the vote in our poll, making it the largest of the remaining minor parties to feature.

CREWE INQUIRY “Re-open it”

5

Asked whether Prime Minister John Key should accept Rochelle Crewe’s repeated pleas for an independent inquiry into the murders of her parents in 1970, a whopping 59.1% of National voters said Key should bite the bullet and set up an inquiry. That figure closely matched the overall poll response: 58.2% of all poll respondents across the board felt the Government should hold an inquiry into the Crewe murders.

WORLD CUP WINNERS Public think ABs can do it

6

IIn rugby world cup year, we decided to ask readers whether they believed the All Blacks would win the world cup on their home turf.

Sixty-three percent of you answered yes, although you are more finely split on whether it’ll be a romp or a squeak. Fewer than 14% of the total sample expect the All Blacks to win the cup “convincingly”. Fifty nine percent suspect Richie McCaw’s men will pull off the victory “by a nose”.

Seventeen percent of you feel the team will “lose by a nose”, while a more cynical 11% think the All Blacks will be done and dusted by the quarter finals.

Asked whether Richie McCaw deserves a knighthood if he brings the cup home for the first time in 24 years, a massive

58% of you said ‘No’, while a further 19% said while the feat would deserve a knighthood, McCaw should not receive one so young.

Only 15.6% of you voted “Yes, arise Sir Richie!” in your multichoice answer.

Methodology: A questionnaire was emailed to six thousand people on the Investigate magazine email list, and a special web link provided to fill in the poll online. As a “control” mechanism we posted a link on our TBR.cc blogsite to a second copy of the poll stored elsewhere. After screening for mad Green Party activists and bored university students we found a level of confidence in the integrity of the results of our main poll.

More than 1,400 responses across both poll sites had been received by press time, and these initial results for this story were taken from a random sampling of 360 of those respondents. The full data is now being processed and will form part of a trend analysis in a series of polls we plan to carry out this year. n

HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011 19

HERSINFORM

THE WORLD’S

YOUNGEST

5

BATMAN IN

THE FIGHT OF HIS LIFE

WORDS BY MARK JOHNSON & KATHLEEN GALLAGHER

F

or the first time in the three years of Nicholas Volker’s illness, his mother dreams of the word she cannot say. In the dream, her 5-year-old, the little boy who calls himself “Batman,” lies on the ground. There is a smile on his face. His blue eyes are closed. The heat is stifling and a boy and girl stand over Nicholas pointing down and holding their noses. Amylynne Santiago Volker keeps trying to wake her son, gripping his shoulders, crying his name over and over. “I can still hear myself screaming,” she writes in her journal.

“I hope and pray this is just my mind playing tricks on me.”

The mother, a practicing Christian, believes in what she calls “signs and wonders.” She pays attention to dreams, the sermons at church, the animals and scenery that catch her eye as she jogs. During her son’s long stays at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, she has prayed and fasted and slept beside him.

She has not used “the ‘D’ word” and has bristled at the doctors who have.

So when the dream visits her in June of this year, on the eve of an important, but risky, treatment for Nicholas, it unsettles her to the core.

Nicholas has spent much of his life in the hospital, at times near death from a mysterious illness that attacks his gut. But a powerful new technology has allowed scientists to sequence his DNA, pinpoint the mutation causing his disease and arrive at an answer to the mystery.

A partial answer.

Sequencing revealed a more complex picture than the doctors at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Children’s Hospital had suspected. The slightest mutation in a single gene has left Nicholas with not one, but two extremely rare, life-threatening illnesses.

One of them, called XLP, is an inherited immune system disorder that affects fewer than one in a million children. Found on the X chromosome, the disease strikes only boys and is usually fatal, rendering them unable to survive one of the most common human viruses, Epstein-Barr. Although Nicholas’ specific mutation has never been seen before, it affects the same protein impaired in the other boys with XLP.

His second disease, the gut illness marked by holes that pierce the intestine and skin, has never been identified until now.

Nicholas is the first known case in medical history.

A bone marrow transplant should treat XLP; doctors do not know whether it will remedy the gut disease.

The transplant will be a dangerous time for Nicholas. His old immune system must be wiped out using powerful chemotherapy drugs. His body could reject the cells that will build the new immune system. Even if his body accepts the cells, it will take time to create the new system and, in the interim, he will be vulnerable to any infection or virus.

The diseases could end his life; so could the treatment.

Nicholas Volker’s name is unknown beyond his family, friends and medical staff, but his case in the US city of Milwaukee has reached around the globe to some of the world’s elite geneticists. His sequencing, one of the first to result in a diagnosis, is hailed by some as a demonstration of what the Human Genome Project made possible a decade ago.

The scientists who decoded Nicholas’ DNA are writing up the case for a medical journal. In late March 2010, David Dimmock, a Children’s Hospital genetics specialist, described the work at a meeting of the American College of Medical Genetics.

Dimmock explained the extensive search that took scientists from a list of more than 16,000 variations – departures from the normal genetic sequence – to the single one responsible for the boy’s illness.

“It’s thrilling to see that this has come around as a real consequence so soon because it took us the better part of 13 years to sequence the first human genome,” says Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, who learned of Dimmock’s presentation later.

“To now find, just a few years later, that it’s possible to apply this in a medical situation and come up with an answer to a puzzling disorder of a child, is really remarkable and very gratifying.”

Studies in late 2009 and early 2010 at Yale University, the

His old immune system must be wiped out using powerful chemotherapy drugs

20 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

University of Washington and other schools have shown success using the technique employed with Nicholas: sequencing not the whole genome, but a little more than 1 percent of it called the exons. Exons, part of every gene, contain the instructions for making proteins. Failure to make proteins correctly leads to many diseases.

These successes have come as scientists take stock of the genome project a decade after it gave us the first draft of our genetic blueprint. The accomplishment has spawned research into the genetic roots of diseases and commercial tests that reveal whether our individual mutations increase the risk of various ailments.

But the project has yet to bring about profound changes in medicine, such as cures for common illnesses or the sequencingat-birth of babies.

Scientists are learning that heart disease and other common illnesses appear to involve the interaction of several or even many genetic mutations, as well as diet, exercise and environmental factors. Sequencing offers simpler medical answers when it comes to rare inherited diseases such as those confronting Nicholas.

In his request to sequence the boy’s DNA back in 2009, paediatrician Alan Mayer wrote, “a diagnosis soon could save his life and truly showcase personalized genomic medicine.”

Doctors have reached a diagnosis and showcased genomic medicine.

Now, they must hope what they’ve learned can save Nicholas’ life.

Allowing their son’s DNA to be sequenced was an easy decision for Sean and Amylynne Volker.

The aftermath has been proving more difficult. Amylynne aches with the knowledge that she passed the ruinous mutation to Nicholas. Her extended family struggles, too. The mutation is a genetic shadow hanging over them all and over their children.

It is like a sealed envelope no one wants to open.

To date, no other members of Amylynne’s family have been tested for the mutation.

Even using the genetic information to treat Nicholas has not been as straightforward as the Volkers once imagined. They have not rushed to proceed with the bone marrow transplant.

After being hospitalized Christmas a year ago, Nicholas recovered and came home. Late in March last year, the Make-A-Wish Foundation flew the family to Las Vegas, where Nicholas watched the monster truck world finals and met Batman. At school, he ran and climbed with the other children in gym class. At home, he roughhoused with Dad and bossed around his three big sisters.

To the Volkers, the days outside the hospital were a joy.

HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011 21

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till, all of Nicholas’ food came through a tube. He longed for a bite of steak or pizza, but real food seemed to spur on the disease in his digestive system. The disease was the reason a short piece of intestine jutted from his stomach, diverting waste into a bag. Nicholas prayed for this nub of intestine to go back inside him, for his stomach to close up and for everything to be as it was before he got sick.

Conflicted as they were, the Volkers had signed the consent forms for the transplant.

By mid-June, the day was almost upon them.

“This is the best he’s been,” Sean says, admitting to second thoughts. “It’s just so hard when he’s so healthy and you’re going to make him sick again.”

On the morning after Amylynne’s dream, the Volkers drive to Damascus Road Church, which sits in a small strip mall in Madison, Wisconsin. It is Father’s Day and Sean Volker carries his only son, slumped over his shoulder, into the church. The boy has spent each of the last three Father’s Days in the hospital. The Volkers would like to spend this one anywhere else.

But Nicholas’ face is ashen. His eyes keep closing. Dressed as usual in his Batman cape, the child appears bound for Children’s Hospital once more – a day too soon. The next morning, Nicholas is due at the hospital to begin preparations for the transplant.

As the service opens, Amylynne stands, hands outstretched, eyes closed. Sean sits, Nicholas’ head buried in his chest.

Family friend Dan Peck asks the congregation of 100 to pray for the Volkers. The family comes forward and Amylynne describes what Nicholas is facing.

“Pray against complications,” she asks. “Pray that the new immune system will take, because Nic ... “ Her voice falters. Friends surround the family, stretching their hands over Nicholas’ head as he rests in his father’s arms. A red spotlight bathes the child and the arms reaching toward him.

“We have your favour and we know that, God,” prays Joseph

Steinke, co-founder of this church in the Protestant evangelical tradition. “But we live in this broken and disrupted, unhealthy world. ... Jesus, we’re asking you to come and to place your hand on little Nic, and would you just guide him through this next week.”

When the prayer finishes, the Volkers depart. Within an hour, Nicholas’ fever passes. For once, the family avoids spending Father’s Day at the hospital. They enjoy an afternoon of mini-golf.

That night Nicholas cannot sleep.

Put your arm around me, he tells his mom.

The day he is scheduled for surgery to install a central line for chemotherapy drugs, Amylynne takes Nicholas straight to the emergency room. All the colour has drained from his face. The fever is back.

“Water, Mommy,” he pleads. “Get some. Get some. Get some.”

But if the surgery is to proceed, he cannot drink. What happens next is up to David Margolis, the transplant doctor.

Margolis is a great believer in the fundamental principle: do no harm. He is also a stickler for proof, a trait instilled in him by his father, a lawyer. Before Margolis would agree to perform the transplant, a procedure that carries the risk of harm, he insisted his colleagues prove they had found the cause of Nicholas’ disease.

He examines Nicholas and decides to postpone the surgery.

The boy’s symptoms suggest sepsis, the blood infection that almost killed him in the fall of 2007.

By nightfall, Nicholas is resting in intensive care, his mother hovering at his bedside.

Many times she has seen him gravely ill. Always, he has rallied. In the morning, Nicholas sits up and kisses her.

“Mommy, I had a bad dream last night,” he says. “A scary ghost came into my room to get me, but then there was a younger man and he was in my room too and he said he would protect me in place of you.”

In a few days, the sepsis clears.

Margolis sets a new schedule. On July 14, Nicholas is to receive a transplant of umbilical cord blood from an anonymous donor.

Cord blood functions in a very similar way to bone marrow and is often given as an alternative in transplants.

In Nicholas’ case, Margolis prefers the cord blood because it carries less risk of graft-versus-host disease, a condition in which the transplanted cells turn against the recipient’s body.

Even so, Margolis says, “There’s a whole laundry list of things that can go wrong.”

On the day before the transplant, mother and son discuss what’s coming. Some who receive bone marrow transplants think of the event as a second birthday, the day their blood is reborn.

Amylynne explains the idea to Nicholas, who offers his own view. Until now he has been Batman. He has worn the bat cape and mask on many trips to the operating room.

“Mommy, I had a bad dream last night,” he says.

“A scary ghost came into my room to get me, but then there was a younger man and he was in my room too and he said he would protect me in place of you.”

22 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

Recently, though, he saw a sneak preview of the movie “The Last Airbender” and liked the character Aang, a boy with a shaved head who battles powerful forces.

Nicholas says he will go into the transplant as Batman. He will emerge as Aang.

After a week of heavy chemotherapy, he is ready. Though the chemo made him vomit, he seldom let it bother him. “Mom, I just got sick and I took care of it myself,” he told Amylynne once when she returned to the room. “I got a bucket myself.”

O

n the afternoon of July 14, a storm is simmering in Nicholas’ room when the cord blood arrives in its plastic bag. One of the nurses has made a special Batman poster for the transplant, but the gesture fails to soothe Nicholas.

“Go away!” he screams even before the procedure begins. “I don’t like the Batman sign. Take it apart.”

Amylynne reminds him of his transformation from Batman to Aang. But he howls and will not be consoled. Though his father is working and cannot come until later, two of his sisters are in the room.

At 2:17, the nurse begins introducing the cord blood, a rosered liquid that seeps from a 50-milliliter syringe through a line and into a vein in Nicholas’ chest.

“We’re starting, Bud.” Amylynne lies in the hospital bed beside her tense son as she has so many times. She is aware of an odd smell from the cord blood; it reminds her of creamed corn.

Nicholas’ screams subside, fade to a whimper. He pulls her arm across his chest.

His face calms; his breath becomes slow and rhythmic.

She stays beside him, watching him drift off to sleep.

Violins play. The soundtrack Amylynne has chosen begins with Vivaldi’s “Spring” from “The Four Seasons.”

At 28 minutes, Amylynne begins to weep. “I pray,” she says, “that sickness and infirmity will have no place in his life.” She reads from Psalm 107, beginning at verse 20: “He sent forth his word and healed them.”

At 35 minutes, Vivaldi is replaced by “Aang’s Theme,” from the “Airbender” movie.

At 48 minutes, the last of the cord blood enters Nicholas. It is 3:05 p.m.

Minutes later, he sits up.

How do you feel? Amylynne asks. Any different?

Nope, he says.

Eight days after the transplant, Nicholas’ old white blood cells have vanished. The new donor cells are still travelling into the hollows of his bones, where they will begin making new red and white blood cells and platelets. His immune system is virtually defenceless. Sores form on his mouth, throat, tongue, gut. He has mucositis, a common reaction to chemotherapy.

Nicholas, his hair now shaved, barks at his mum. Stop talking. Don’t ask any more questions.

Torrential rains whip through the region that night and Nicholas’ fever rises. His heart rate and blood pressure climb.

“Something is brewing in his body,” Amylynne writes after meet-

ing with Margolis.

There is talk of sepsis and fungal infections. Two weeks after the transplant, Nicholas’ enemy has a name: adenovirus. The virus strikes the respiratory tract. In a healthy person the symptoms might seem like a cold. In someone with a weakened immune system, the virus can be dangerous.

Nicholas insists he is not sick and demands toys, which Amylynne is in no mood to deny him. “What do you say to a kid who has lived over 600 days in the hospital,” she writes, “has lived without food more of his life than with it, who has had over 150 trips to the (operating room), who has just had a transplant and can’t go out of his room – now not even at night when everyone else is sleeping, even with a mask on?”

She copes by searching the Internet for information about each new complication. When she needs relief, she goes for a run.

By Day 20 after the transplant, the adenovirus is advancing.

But there is good news, too: Nicholas’ count of white blood cells has risen. The cells from the transplant appear to be engrafting.

By Day 24, the adenovirus is declining. The white blood cell count grows. A pudgy smile lights up Nicholas’ shaved head.

Then, on Day 29, after a week of encouraging news, Amylynne posts another urgent prayer request. Nicholas has a fever.

He is struggling to remember things, even his mother’s name. He tests positive for HHV-6, a common virus that is a member of the herpes family. The virus can cause encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain, which is what worries Amylynne. His memory worsens. No sooner does he hang up the phone than he forgets which of his sisters was on the line.

By Day 31, a test confirms that Nicholas has encephalitis. He

lies in bed, his face blank. HHV-6 , encephalitis, memory loss – none is a normal complication from a cord blood transplant. “There is no fight anymore with his cares, he just lays there, all docile and good,” Amylynne writes. “I absolutely hate it and it breaks my heart.”

Nicholas gets a rash. He gets graft-versus-host disease. He gets a staph infection. The medical team anticipates problems and responds quickly – with antivirals for the adenovirus, HHV-6 and encephalitis; antibiotics for the staph infection; and an increase in immune-suppressing drugs for graft-versus-host.

HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011 23

In the cascade of bad news, it is the possibility of brain damage from encephalitis that worries Amylynne most. She longs to see the Nicholas who growled when he felt annoyed with a doctor or nurse. Unable to sleep much, Amylynne feels tired and worried all the time.

“Losing his personality,” she says, “if I knew this was coming, I probably wouldn’t have done (the transplant). That’s how I feel today.” A few days later, the personality begins to come back.

Nicholas snaps at the anesthesiologist for touching his stuffed bull.

On Day 47, Aug. 30, Nicholas’ memory is improving. He is healthy enough to eat real food for the first time in months, chicken noodle soup. He says it is the happiest day of his life.

Two weeks later he is pouring sauce on top of a steak.

“The heavens are opening up,” Amylynne writes on his Facebook page, “the angels are singing and Almighty God is dropping down bottles of A.1.”

As Nicholas’ body adapts to his new immune system, the Medical College installs a much faster, next-generation sequencing machine and awaits delivery of another. The machine used to unravel Nicholas’ DNA just a year ago is destined for a research lab.

S

teve Turner, who founded Pacific Biosciences, a California company that makes one of the new machines, says the steps taken with Nicholas went against the prevailing view in medicine on the value of sequencing. “The thing I find stunning was the courage on the part of the physicians and the family to do this.” Nicholas’ case, in his view, represents the beginning of an era in which our genes will be mined increasingly to find medical answers.

The change is likely to come with its own pitfalls and limitations. In many cases, genes may be only part of the picture along with factors such as diet, exercise and environment. Even when a disease is entirely genetic and when sequencing pinpoints the gene or genes responsible, doctors may have no treatment.

“One of the problems is: Without a therapy, do you want a diagnosis?” asks Walter Gilbert, an emeritus professor at Harvard who shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing a method of sequencing DNA. “It’s a cost issue.

Will somebody pay for it? For insurance to pay, it’s not enough that the patient wants it or the doctor wants it, but the insurance company has to agree that it’s useful in some way.”

Some worry the flood of data from genome sequencing will overwhelm the storage capacity of our computers. Others are more troubled by privacy questions. Who will have access to the trove of genetic secrets, and how will access be restricted?

Still, Gilbert marvels that in half a century scientists have moved from a point at which genes “were still mysterious things ... to the plethora of knowledge we have in modern biology.”

More than a year has passed since Howard Jacob, head of the Medical College’s Human and Molecular Genetics Center, received the e-mail asking to sequence Nicholas. He knows the next time doctors search a patient’s DNA they may not connect a disease so definitively to one error or even several in the genetic code.

“We are a long way from saying this is something that is going to work every time,” he says.

24 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

Yet he is confident this is where medicine is headed.

People ask how doctors will decide which patients to sequence. Jacob believes this will be a concern for only a year or two. A few years from now, he says, when the total cost hits $1,000 or less, the steps taken to diagnose Nicholas Volker’s disease won’t seem extraordinary at all.

The Medical College’s new machines should have enough capacity, in theory at least, to sequence 90 entire genomes in a single year. Strange as it sounds, Jacob has told the dean that’s not going to be enough.

“That’s how fast this is changing,” he says.

A sense of urgency about this new era of medicine crystallized for Jacob in the fall of 2009 during one of the meetings about Nicholas Volker. He thought of the young boy, and the second chance he might have because of what they were finding in his DNA. Then he sprang from his chair and scribbled three words on the whiteboard in his office. He has left them there ever since.

“How many Nics?”

The Medical College has expanded its sequencing efforts. Six more patients are in various stages of the process. “We learned a tremendous amount ... that continues to ripple through our institution,” the doctors wrote in a commentary accompanying their recent paper in the journal Genetics in Medicine.

Nicholas Volker was discharged from Children’s Hospital on Oct. 21. Amylynne packed her van with plastic tubs stuffed with toys, games and Batman gear accumulated over the course of a four-month hospital stay.

Minutes before they drove away, a stranger in a shirt and tie rushed up accompanied by Margolis, the transplant doctor.

Howard Jacob wanted to meet the boy whose genes he had come to know. Nicholas, less than a week from his sixth birthday, greeted the genetics expert, then poked him in the stomach with his plastic “Airbender” staff.

No one can be sure that sequencing Nicholas’ DNA has saved his life. The cord blood transplant he received as a result should treat XLP, the rare immune system disorder.

But it is not clear what the transplant will mean for the mysterious illness that ravaged his intestine and it may be two years before doctors know, says pediatrician Alan Mayer. After all, the gut disease did not show itself until two years after the boy was born.

Today, Nicholas is a new patient. Inside his body are two distinct DNAs, one with the mutation and one without it. His immune system has the donor’s DNA – no mutation. The rest of his body has the DNA he was born with, including the slight genetic error that caused so much damage.

Mayer wonders how all of this will play out – Nicholas’ new immune system co-existing with his old gut. The doctor likes to imagine a time when the boy is healthy enough to watch a baseball game. When the years in the hospital, the surgeries, the feeding tubes are all a vague memory.

He sees a summer day, and Nicholas Volker at the ballpark eating a hot dog.

ONLINE For more on Nicholas Volker’s case, visit: http://www.jsonline.com/features/health/112249759.html Special coverage by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

w w w. n i k o n . c o. n z HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011 25

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threat

COULD RUFFLES AND GRANNY BE IN TROUBLE? At 59, Ruffles is the oldest known male orca in the world, one of an estimated 150 orcas known to inhabit the Puget Sound and the coast of Washington state. Granny is his 99-year-old mother.

Environmentalists fear for the safety of the whales as the U.S. Navy prepares to expand its operations in its Northwest Training Range Complex, which stretches from the coastline of Washington state to northern California.

“They’re all very susceptible,” remarks Howard Garrett, the president of Orca Network, an environmental group based in Washington state. “The Navy is single-minded and they’re focused, and the whales are very much a secondary concern to them.”

The group is among the many opponents in Washington state and California lining up against the Navy’s plan.

The proposal, which already has been approved by the Obama administration, calls for increased sailor training and weapons testing on the site. It also includes the development of an underwater training minefield for submarines.

The site, which has been in use since before World War II, consists of 122,400 nautical square miles of space, just a smidgen larger than the size of New Zealand.

Navy officials are trying to allay concerns over their activities, telling the public that the marine life will be safe.

“We are not even permitted to kill even one marine mammal. … What people don’t seem to understand is we share the environment with everybody,” says Sheila Murray, a Navy spokeswoman. “It’s our environment, too. Of course we want to take care of it. The Navy goes to great lengths to protect the marine environment.”

Of the Navy’s expanded operations at the site, she says: “This training is important. It allows naval forces to be prepared.”

Opponents fear that missile and sonar testing and the dump-

ing of depleted uranium could hurt the whales.

In a letter to the Navy, the Natural Resources Defense Council claims the plan “would pose significant risk to whales, fish and other wildlife.” And the council says the plan would release a variety of hazardous materials into coastal waters, including “thousands of rounds of spent ammunition and unexploded ordnance containing chromium, chromium compounds, depleted uranium” and more.

The NRDC also said the mid-frequency sonar the Navy uses to detect submarines and underwater objects interferes with whales’ ability to navigate and communicate, and that the chronic noise can interfere with whales’ brain development and depress reproductive rates.

“I’m not convinced by the assurances that the Navy gives that there will be no effect,” Garrett argues. “I can’t imagine that there won’t be mortalities.”

Murray calls that concern a myth.

“There’s a lot of myths out there,” she says. “The Navy’s been training on that range since before World War II: 70 years.

Nobody was even aware that the Navy was there. And if what they were saying was true, they would see dead marine mammals floating up on shore. It’s not true.”

Even though the Navy has approved the plan, Murray points out the expanded training hasn’t yet begun. But she says the Navy now has the permission and flexibility to increase training activities whenever it needs to do so.

“As of right now, nothing has changed.”

The US Supreme Court ruled two years ago that the Navy could use sonar in training exercises off the Southern California coast without heeding restrictions imposed by a lower court to protect whales and dolphins. The Navy voluntarily adopted some protective measures.

LOCATION US PACIFIC COAST WORDS BY ROB HOTAKAINEN PHOTOGRAPHY BY STUART WESTMORLAND

26 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

“I’m not convinced by the assurances that the Navy gives”

HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011 27

HERSCULTURE

TALES OF AN ARABIAN

VALENTINE’S NIGHT

I

T YP O G , E UID O IR O G A C IK N YN TIO B CA PHY LO RA G TO

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In ancient Persia, Queen Scheherazade avoided the headman’s axe by weaving tales of the Arabian Nights to keep her husband intrigued.

A thousand years on, the merest hint of a red rose on Valentine’s Day has some Arab rulers outraged 28 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

n the conservative Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the religious police of the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice have ordered all flower stores not to sell red roses, scented candles, stuffed bears or red wrapping on Valentine’s Day, considering the celebration “non-Islamic and religiously forbidden.” The strict rules resulted in a black market in red flowers in the Kingdom.

“A single rose normally costs around one to three US dollars, but today the same rose costs 2.5 US dollars and the price will go up to eight US dollars on Valentine’s Day,” a florist was quoted as saying in the online Saudi Gazette.

Lovers and families must order the roses one week ahead of Valentine’s Day February 14, before the ban was imposed. “Sometimes we deliver the bouquets in the middle of the night or early morning, to avoid suspicion,” the florist said. To escape the Saudi authorities restrictions, many Saudis planned to travel to the more liberal neighbouring Gulf countries like Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to celebrate the day. “We are planning on going to Dubai to celebrate Valentine’s Day as a couple,” Hannan Radi, a Saudi wife, said. Saudi Arabia imposes extreme Islamic rules that prohibit men and women from mixing in public.

“My right to buy red roses for my wife on Valentine’s Day is not the business of MPs. Let them stick to building roads and making sure we have electricity next summer,” said the Kuwaiti Abdullah Youssef. Festive Western occasions such as Valentine’s Day – Halloween is also popular – were introduced into most of the Arab world in the 1990s through US films and the internet. In countries such as Egypt and Iraq (which learned of the love celebration after the 2003 US invasion), restaurants, coffee shops and stores get all decorated in red, prepared for lovers to express their affection and celebrate love.

“Valentine’s Day is a wonderful celebration, full of joy and happiness that takes us away from the daily violence and terror we have been living in,” Heba, a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, explained. In Baghdad, veiled Muslim girls gathered around flower markets and gift stores to buy a special Valentine’s gift for their husbands and fiancees. “Wearing a headscarf does not prohibit me from celebrating this day. I will buy some red gifts for my friends on the Valentine’s Day,” said Faten, a 21-year-old veiled university student.

Mollies Invites You to a Distinctive Dining Experience Nestled in St Mary’s Bay, the “Dining Room” at Mollies is the only place you should be this Valentines Day. Allow yourselves to indulge in a luxurious and decadent experience with your loved one amongst elegant surroundings.

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MESSAGE TO HIS READERS: FEEL FREE TO BROWSE (HINT) 32 Don’t forget Valentine’s Day, 14 February

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Sterling silver valentines heart pendant with pink zirconias $125. Pandora Sterling Silver and 14 carat gold love heart ring with Pink Zirconia and Rhodolite $239 and Sterling silver band of love hearts $65 3. Swarovski crystal teddy bears and rose from their Valentine’s collection, swarovski.com 4. The La Mini D de Dior watch for 2011, see it at dior.com 5. Givenchy’s Play for Her and Him, available at quality fragrance outlets 6. Anthea’s also offer superb quality diamonds set in NZ-crafted platinum and gold. Stunning pieces with names - in this case the ‘Fancy’ Brilliant, they have to be tried on just so you can see what we mean.

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MINERAL MAKEUP 38

It promises much, but does it deliver

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Beauty & HEALTH

NEED BETTER SLEEP? 40 Jasmine could be the answer

REVERSE AGEING 42

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HERSBEAUTY

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MINERAL MIRACLE antioxidants a key ingredient The Egyptians knew the advantages of finely ground stones and quartz and applied them specifically for beauty. The cosmetic industry has rediscovered this ancient wisdom and is now promoting make-up, powder and eye-shadow based on minerals as the latest “miracle powder.”

“Minerals ingredients in cosmetics are clearly in vogue,” says Martin Ruppmann of the German cosmetic association based in Berlin. Among the array of products designed to protect the skin from harmful sun rays, mineral-based creams for years have been replacing their chemicalbased counterparts.

“Mineral cosmetics promise to be free of additives such as oils and perfumes. That makes them very tolerable,” explains perfumeries association spokeswoman Britta John.

“These days almost every woman has a problem with her skin,” says make-up artist Janette Schwericke. Make-ups that are without preservatives and fragrances are especially desirable. For example, in Germany, L’Oreal, one of the best known brands in the market, has introduced a preservative – and fragrance-free make-up series that includes powder, eye-shadow and rouge.

It’s old hat in the US. More than 10 years ago, Jane Iredale released a make-up series based on titanium oxide and zinc oxide. She advertises her line with the arguments that it is especially healthy for the skin and well-tolerated. Iredale began her career as a casting agent in Hollywood and she knows well the concerns and needs of people who tax their skin daily with cosmetics. Titan dioxide and zinc

38 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

LOCATION: BERLIN, GERMANY PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIA SAVCHENKO

oxide are derived from black ilmenite or titan irons and provide the best coverage of white pigments. Studies conducted thus far show it to be completely nontoxic and is also used as an additive in products such as toothpaste and cough drops. As titan dioxide particles reflect light, they serve well as an immediate sun screen with UVA and UVB protection.

Zinc oxide is derived from red zinc ore and has been used for a long time as a white dye. Due to its antiseptic properties, it is found in many skin products and salves for treating wounds. It also reflects light and, like titan dioxide, is used as a sun block.

Mineral-based cosmetics are not only good because they are easily tolerated, experts say. They also work to inhibit inflammation, soothe the skin and at the same time

guarantee a natural protection from UV sunlight because their small particles reflect the rays. Aside from that make-up made from minerals doesn’t clog the pores as is often the case with ordinary makeup because it doesn’t soak into the skin so it can breathe.

In addition, mineral-based make-up is fortified with vitamins and antioxidants. “This mixture protects the skin from environmental effects and also precludes aging of the skin,” says star makeup artist Horst Kirchberger of Munich.

Makers of mineral-based creams and powders say it fuses optimally with the skin, covering it evenly and concealing redness and impurities. The result is an even complexion. Even wrinkles are reduced, says Ruppmann.

“The micro-fine particles reflect the light like soft focus filter on a camera.”

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HERSALT.HEALTH

JASMINE BETTER THAN SLEEPING PILLS

Instead of a sleeping pill or a valium, a nose full of jasmine is just as effective in calming your nerves and helping you to get restful sleep, according to a team of German researchers

LOCATION YOUR BEDROOM WORDS BY DPA

S

40 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

howing that nature is more powerful than drugs, the essence from Gardenia jasminoides has been proven to contain the same molecular mechanism of action and is as strong as the commonly prescribed barbiturates or propofol.

They soothe, relieve anxiety and promote sleep. The researchers have now been granted a patent for their discovery. They report in the August issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry (online).

In pioneering research done in collaboration with Dr Olga Sergeeva and Professor Helmut Hass from the Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, researchers from Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB) led by Professor Hanns Hatt have discovered that the two fragrances vertacetal-coeur (VC) and the chemical variation (PI24513) have the same molecular mechanism of action and are as strong as the commonly prescribed barbiturates or propofol.

Sedatives, sleeping pills and relaxants are the most frequently prescribed psychotropic drugs. Some 20 per cent of all people in Western countries take sedatives on an occasional basis, if not regularly.

The difference between calming and hypnotic effect depends solely on the dosage. The classes of substances that exert a calming effect include alcohol, barbiturates, opiates, and since the 1950s, the benzodiazepines, which are now among the world’s most widely prescribed drugs.

However, benzodiazepines are not only potentially addictive, but can also cause serious side-effects such as depression, dizziness, hypotension, muscle weakness and impaired coordination.

The researchers performed a large screening study in which they tested hundreds of fragrances to determine their effect on receptors in humans and mice.

The two fragrances vertacetal-coeur (VC) and the chemical variation (PI24513) were the strongest: they were able to increase the effect by more than five times and thus act as strongly as the known drugs.

The “cross check” with genetically modified GABA receptors in transgenic mice which no longer responded to propofol confirmed that the mechanism of action is the same: the altered receptor also no longer responded to the fragrances.

Behavioural tests with mice in Professor Herrmann Luebbert’s laboratory in the Department of Animal Physiology at the RUB then eliminated the last doubts concerning the qualities of fragrance as a sedative.

Injected or inhaled, the fragrances generated a calming effect: in a Plexiglas cage, the air of which contained a high concentration of the fragrance, the mice ceased all activity and sat quietly in the corner.

Via the air breathed in, the scent molecules go from the lungs into the blood and then are transmitted from there to the brain. Electrophysiological measurements of neurons in the brain areas responsible for the sleep-wake cycle showed that the effect on those nerve cells active in sleep was enhanced by the fragrances. “We have discovered a new class of receptor modulator which can be administered parentally and through the respiratory air,” says Professor Hatt.

“Applications in sedation, anxiety, excitement and aggression relieving treatment and sleep induction therapy are all imaginable. The results can also be seen as evidence of a scientific basis for aromatherapy.”

By changing the chemical structure of the scent molecules, the researchers hope to achieve even stronger effects.

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Reversing the agening process – science shows how it’s done

S

cientists claim to be a step closer to reversing humans ageing process after rejuvenating worn out organs in elderly mice. Experimental treatment developed by researchers at Harvard Medical School turned weak and feeble old mice into healthy animals by regenerating their aged bodies.

The surprise recovery of animals has raised hopes among scientists that it may be possible to achieve a similar feat in humans – or at least to slow down the ageing process. An antiageing therapy could have a dramatic impact on public health by reducing burden of age-related health problems, such as dementia, stroke, heart disease, and prolonging quality of life for an increasingly aged population.

“What we saw in these animals was not a slowing down or stabilization of ageing process. We saw a dramatic reversal – and that was unexpected,” says Ronald DePinho, who led the study, published in Nature journal. “This could lead to strategies that enhance regenerative potential of organs as individuals age and so increase their quality of life. Whether it serves to increase longevity is a question we are not yet in a position to answer.”

The ageing process is poorly understood, but scientists know it is caused by many factors. Highly reactive particles called free radicals are made naturally in body and cause damage to cells, while smoking, ultraviolet light, other environmental

42 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

factors contribute to ageing. Harvard University focused on a process called telomere shortening. Most cells in body contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, which carry our DNA. At the ends of each chromosome is a protective cap called a telomere.

Each time a cell divides, telomeres are snipped shorter, until eventually they stop working and the cell dies or goes into a suspended state called “senescence”. This process is behind much of wear and tear associated with ageing.

The Harvard team discovered they could give mice an enzyme called telomerase which effectively reversed the ageing process. It could be trickier in humans, however, as the enzyme can feed cancers. Scientists are looking for a work-around.

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HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011 43

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SUMMER DINING 48 Chillin’ Red, cold soup

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HERSDECOR BELOW, A twist by the pool, the Blue Bay: take one part blue Curacao, two parts bitter lemon soda, add ice and stir. Garnish with a slice of lemon.

Outdoor luxury

ABOVE, The top seller Inlet Outdoor Setting will elevate your outdoor entertaining to a new level. A contemporary design with clean lines, made in New Zealand by Danske Mobler, danskemobler.co.nz

ABOVE, the Marrakesh series from Dedon evokes Saharan influences and exotic summer evenings illuminated by garden torches and great company. RIGHT, Dedon’s Daydream range includes pieces designed to fit little people as well as their parents. The Daydream Four-Poster Kidz is just one part of the ensemble.

Browse the collections at domo.co.nz

LEFT, A timeless classic returns at Danske Mobler. The Ken Chair debuted in the mid 1950s in Auckland at a shop owned by Danske Mobler founder Ken Winter. Now it’s back, customised in your choice of fabric or leather, and flying out the door. What goes around comes around.

Indoor style TOP RIGHT, at a metre by a metre, Freedom’s Wall Art “Drive” evokes headlight imagery while BELOW, Freedom Furniture's Cancun 4-drawer coffee table adds functionality and beachside charm

46 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

ABOVE, Time to play? Then consider doing it on this groovy sofa by Danske Mobler. It’s big enough for all the family, plus the cat and dog. Enjoy creating your own version with contrasting fabrics. Comes with a lifetime frame guarantee. www.danskemobler.co.nz or call 09 625 3900 for a free catalogue RIGHT, Accessorise at Freedom with this gorgeous Belle Hurricane vase or the Teelah ceramic bowl. www.freedomfurniture.co.nz

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HERSCUISINE

Chillin’ Red James Morrow separates the ripe tomatoes from the hoary chestnuts

H

ear the word ‘tomatoes’, and what do you think of? Spaghetti piled high and swimming in marinara sauce? Garden vines hanging heavy with ripe, red fruit?

Or perhaps something less pleasant – childhood memories of supermarket tomatoes as tasteless as their plastic packaging, sliced into a salad of sweaty iceberg lettuce and gloppy bottled dressing the colour of jaundice, introduced by mum in an attempt to get the kids to ‘eat healthy’?

To me, tomatoes always mean one thing: summer. Regular readers of this column are familiar with my fierce dislike of the colder months, and so the arrival of abundant and cheap tomatoes in the markets is always a cause for celebration. For the foreseeable future, there will always be a truss of tomatoes, still on the vine, on the kitchen bench ready to go on sandwiches, be tossed into some dish or other, or simply sliced on a plate and sprinkled with sea salt and a little extra-virgin olive oil – the ultimate simple summer salad – perhaps with some basil leaves and a torn-up ball of buffalo mozzarella.

But what’s the story with tomatoes? Are they fruits or vegetables? Were they really once thought to be poisonous, until someone ate a bucket of them on the steps of a

48 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

small-town U.S. courthouse? There are a lot of strange stories that have grown up around tomatoes, and I’m a bit ashamed to admit that I’ve fallen for some of them (the courthouse steps one, especially) myself over the years.

Tomatoes, according to the invaluable Wikipedia, are fruit, at least scientifically speaking: they are the ovary, together with the seeds, of a flowering plant. However, because tomatoes are generally served as a main dish and not as desert, they are legally classified – at least in the United States – as a vegetable. The issue even went so far as the US Supreme Court, which in the 1893 case of Nix v. Hedden declared tomatoes as vegetables because of their popular use (along with cucumbers, squashes, beans, and peas), a decision which had huge tariff implications at the time. For a good time, invite a botanist and a lawyer along to your local’s next trivia night, and make sure the emcee asks the fruit-or-vegetable question.

And then there is the tale of the brave Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson, who is said to have eaten of a basket of tomatoes on the steps of the Salem, New Jersey, courthouse in 1820 to turn the tide of public opinion and show that the fruit was not the least bit dangerous to anyone who didn’t suffer severe hearburn. Alas, the much-loved Johnson tale is not true: the American television network CBS popularized the story in a 1949 episode of You Are There, in which an actor playing the colonel declared to an assembled throng of two thousand souls, “What are you afraid of? Being poisoned? Well I’m not, and I’ll show you fools that these things are good to eat!” (Hmm, Dan Rather would have been 18 at the time; could an early, unreported experience as a production assistant for the show have inspired him to brazen out Memogate as CBS’s lead anchor some 55 years later?)

As it turns out, tomatoes were grown and eaten in North America since at least 1710; not only were they not thought of as poisonous, but Puritans of the time even eschewed the things, fearing their alleged aphrodisiac properties! That great gourmand and man of the world Thomas Jefferson himself purchased the fruit (not yet classified a veggie by the courts) to serve at state dinners in 1806, and from 1809 onwards planted them at his estate, Monticello.

Jefferson’s cousin Mary Randolph, author of the extremely influential 19th century cookbook, The Virginia Housewife, contained some seventeen tomato recipes for such exotic dishes including gazpacho and gumbo.

Today, tomatoes are not only not considered dangerous, but downright healthful, especially as they are rich in the cancer-preventing antioxidant lycopene. Bloody Mary, anyone?

Chilled Tomato Soup This is one of my favourite mid-summer soups, adapted from Charlie Palmer’s excellent cookbook, Great American Food. This is a great dinner party starter course for the height of summer INGREDIENTS About 8 large, ripe vine-ripened or truss tomatoes; Some good extra-virgin olive oil; 1 finely chopped onion ½ cup chopped celery 1 tablespoon minced garlic Fresh basil leaves 500 ml sparkling mineral water 1 sachet 2 teaspoons Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce Good sea salt, like Maldon Fresh-ground pepper 1. Peel, seed and chop the tomatoes; set aside. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large, heavy pan and sauté the onion, celery, garlic, and about 8 basil leaves – which should be torn in half as you toss them in. Lower the heat and continue to cook gently for about four minutes (you want the vegetables to soften but not pick up any colour), and add the tomatoes, sparkling water and sachet. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Take off heat and let rest for 30 minutes, then remove and discard the sachet.

2. Puree the mixture in a blender, working in batches if necessary, until the soup is quite smooth. Pour through a fine sieve and strain into a non-reactive bowl – giving the solids a push if need be to extract liquid. Add a couple of teaspoons of Lea & Perrins (just enough to bring out the tomato flavour; not enough to make it obvious) and your salt and pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate until icy cold – at least four hours.

3. Serve in chilled, flat soup bowls, with a spring of basil for garnish.

HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011 49

HERSTRAVEL “The dream for rich Chinese migrants back then was to have a Europeanstyle house, eat Chinese food and marry a Japanese wife”

Before tourism, Phuket Island was renowned for its tinmining which lured Chinese migrants to its shores in search of fortunes the way western tourists now come in search of sunshine.

Phuket was one of the last stops on the Malacca Straits route to riches for the shiploads of Chinese who flocked to South-East Asia over the past 400 years, most of them Hokkien from southern Fukian.

"If you made it rich in Malacca or Penang, no problem, but if not you would spin the coin and heads, go to Phuket, tails go to Aceh, Indonesia," says Pranee Sakulpipatana, Phuket historian and lecturer at Phuket Rajabhat University.

A handful of the Chinese migrants who ended up in

50 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

Phuket became very rich indeed, primarily off tin-mining, an industry that turned the island into one of Thailand's most prosperous provinces.

"The dream for rich Chinese migrants back then was to have a European-style house, eat Chinese food and marry a Japanese wife," Pranee jokes.

Phuket's tin barons, most of them hailing from the Tan clan, did not marry Japanese but they did build beautiful "Sino-Colonial" mansions in Phuket town, not on some beach-front property as the island's millionaires do today.

One of the most magnificent of those mansions, the house of Phra Pitak Chinpracha (whose Chinese name was Tan Ma-siang), was recently rented out to the Blue Elephant restaurant chain on a 30-year-

lease basis.

The century-old 20-room mansion, built in Phuket's old Chinatown, has been vacant for decades and was in considerable disrepair.

Blue Elephant, a posh Thai restaurant chain established in London in 1986 which now has outlets in Paris, Copenhagen, Lyon, Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain, Malta, Beirut, Moscow, Jakarta and Bangkok, has spent 70 million baht (2 million dollars) renovating the mansion and adding a cooking school area in the back.

The massive renovation project came as a godsend for various groups trying to turn Phuket's slowly gentrifying Chinatown in to a bigger tourist attraction.

Gentrification has come piecemeal to Phuket town,

without as much government support as seen in similar efforts to preserve the Chinatowns of Singapore and Penang. One of the first areas to be gentrified in Phuket was Romanee lane, now the site of several posh coffee shops, offices and bars. Ironically, the lane was the red light district when Chinatown was still Phuket's entertainment hub decades ago.

"We would like to see authorities close the streets to traffic and maybe bring back the rickshaws," tour guide Ken Brookes says.

Besides fine samples of Sino-Colonial architecture, and several Chinese temples, the old Chinatown already boasts several nice restaurants such as the China Inn, which offers food but not rooms, despite the name.

King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf celebrated the 30th anniversary of his marriage to Queen Silvia in this cosy little establishment several years ago.

Other eateries worth checking out include the Raya and Vilai's (the latter specializes in Hokkien dishes.)

A few local tour companies are already specializing in Chinatown tours for tourists bored of the beach.

"I handle about three or four tours to Chinatown a week," says Mark Breit, manager of Laguna Tours. "European tourists tend to be the ones most interested in history," he added.

For places to stay in Phuket's Chinatown, the three-storey Thalong Guesthouse is worth checking out but for real Chinatown ambience one should stay at the On On Hotel.

HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011 51

Great HERSREADIT

WORDS BY MICHAEL MORRISSEY PHOTOGRAPHY BY DENIS RAEV

Expectations

THEIR FACES WERE SHINING

By Tim Wilson Victoria University Press, $30

TV watchers will be aware that Tim Wilson is our highly competent anchor man in the United States. Now it turns out he is a highly competent novelist. (Come in Mike Hosking, your novel is due). Wilson’s novel explores a partially secularised view of Rapture, that time immediately before the Second Coming. As I understand it, Rapture is when the bodies of believers will be resurrected but the Second Coming refers specifically to the defeat of the Anti-Christ. If at the time of Rapture, Christ takes away believers and Christians, as described in this novel, some will disappear but some will remain – until the time of the Second Coming.

The book begins with thriller-like immediacy – “What were you doing when it happened?” Bewildered mortals reveal by this question that while some have been en-Raptured eg taken away to a new Heaven, others have been left in the mortal sphere. When the Rapture occurs, people simply float upwards and are observed with rapt shining face – hence the title of the book. Presumably, when Rapture manifests, those that remain may discuss why they were not taken.

Here is central character Hope Paterson’s acute observation about it: May I say how I felt? Alive. I felt energised. Aware of the smallest details: how Kelli spoke, how the hospital windows scattered the sunlight, how comfortable Kelli looked, cradled in Mom’s arms.

Bliss. Nothing and everything mattered.

In other words, even to be an observer, one of the non-Raptured left behind, was equivalent to a mystical experience. In the confused aftermath, groups such as the flagellants and Ash-heads appear in society. When the moment of crisis arrives, Hope is in the middle of a good deed – rescuing a small child who has fallen down a hole.

In the normal secular world that remains, Hope’s over active mind continues to make shrewd analyses: Acting dumb is like wearing clothes that are too small,; it leaves marks. Yet even much later, after pregnancy and sleep deprivation had played the usual tricks on my memory, I still identified as smart. While filling tiny mouths and tossing sticky diapers, I’d console myself: “ One day I’ll read large books and think vivid thoughts again.”

In the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that Hope finds herself praying – “Oh Lord,” I said, my internal voice small, “give me the strength to honour this new feeling You’ve put me in today.

Let me build bridges and bring glory to You. Keep me in your everlasting arms. Amen” The remainder of the earth-bound ask,” If this was the Rapture why hadn’t I gone up?” Meanwhile, the non-chosen still go about their daily

52 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

tasks. The Reverend Wendell wryly comments, “God’s definition of love may be different to ours.” When a head count is done, it is apparent the ranks have been chosen from all religions – from the many rather than the few – and include the Dalai Lama and Muslims. The actual Rapture is then renamed a Rapture-event, a glib PR way of re-representing the incident.

Dramatic tension looms late in the novel with the arrival of a villain – who is called Dr Wright. Despite protestations of prayers and sanctity, Dr Wright turns out to be very much Dr Wrong. The violence that ensues in the form of a twin stabbing is as shocking as the awful shock suicide of Wade, Hope’s father – though it is described subtly in its way. Hope is confused – she doesn’t even know if she had been saved – though presumably the eventual outcome wouldn’t be in doubt!

Their Faces Were Shining is a teasing, tantalising oblique sort of novel whose ironic secularity may offend some, and that, in true contemporary literary fashion, doesn’t quite resolve the cosmic and theological conflict it so skilfully evokes.

FREEDOM

By Joseph Franzen Fourth Estate, $39

It’s official – almost. Freedom is a great novel. The New York Times has so proclaimed it, throwing in the term “masterpiece” for good measure. As has Esquire.

The ever likable and energetic Oprah Winfrey has endorsed it with the kind of enthusiasm that suggests a conversion experience.

Locally, the highly discerning readers at The Time Out bookshop also like it. And I too liked it and was, at times, moved by it, though with considerable reservations.

Calling a novel great in these Facebook/Twitter times is a brave gesture for if there is one thing that all these new media networking octopi do is eat away at the notion of greatness, replacing it with gossip, and the detailed ordinariness of millions of lives. I shouldn’t be too snobby

relax and enjoy!

about this because Freedom has its share of gossipy undertow – after all, novels thrive on wagging tongues. So I guess, it’s a question of emotional depth. Novels are deeper than Facebook. There, now I’ve got that off my chest.

Freedom is a family novel that concentrates on the marriage of Walter and Patty Berglund, plus their children, the dissolute Joey and his sweeter sister, Jessica. We get additional cameos of various siblings and parents. Also portrayed in depth is Richard Katz, Walter’s best friend, a womanising would-be Indie rock star whose loose ways make him morally repellent.

He doesn’t even acquit himself honourably with his fans, sneering at them defensively.

He exerts a baleful influence over the Berglunds, though it is Patty who throws herself at him when Walter is absent, wanting him to make love to her while she’s still “asleep” or at least able to pretend to herself that she hasn’t quite assented to her own voluntary adultery. Patty – showing a literary sophistication that seems at odds with her conscious characterisation – writes a novellalength account of her feelings, experiences and exploits somewhat pompously entitled MISTAKES WERE MADE – Autobiography of Patty Berglund by Patty Berglund (Composed at Her Therapist’s Suggestion).

The somewhat slow and indirect opening of the novel is jazzed up by Patty detailing a rough date rape in chapter two of her autobiographical text. Unpleasant as the rape may be, what is more damning is her infidelity to Walter. Depending how you look at it, the novel moves gradually or slowly, to the point where Richard deliberately leaves the incriminating text for Walter to read. We will consider the ramifications of this in a moment.

Walter is a man of our times – an executive with Nature Conservancy who leaves for what he convinces himself is a higher, nobler stake – the Cerulean Mountain Trust. This organisation offers a Faustian deal – the top of a mountain will be coalquarried but the pay off is a huge reserve

for warblers. He is spurred on into accepting this corrupt offer by Lalitha, his beautiful idealistic assistant with whom he eventually falls in love. Significantly, the two young women possessed of overpowering beauty – Genna (Joey’s would be girlfriend) and Lalitha both turn out to have flaws – Genna is a money-hungry tease with whom intimacy – as Joey discovers – is a disabling disappointment; Lalitha is suspiciously perfect, both morally and physically.

She seems too easy a solution for Walter, (on the rebound , as it were, from Patty), so he pays the price of losing her in a fatal car accident. Also too easy is his rant at the Cerulean Mountain Trust where he seemingly regains his moral centre. Yet isn’t this moral rave a little Hollywoodish? – the compulsory scene where the partially corrupted or at least morally challenged hero realises that he has been fooling himself and reasserts his true temporarily abandoned values.

The combination of Katz’s betrayal, Patty’s infidelity-revealing document, and Lalitha’s death leaves Walter a sullen, wounded man whom his daughter Jessica comes to realise, “would not be getting better, didn’t feel like betting better,” which makes her futilely angry.

What is striking about Freedom is how all the characters are morally weak or corrupted – unfaithful Patty (though she is the character explored in greatest depth); licentious, crooked Joey; shallow Genna; ideologically compromised Walter; and treacherous, sneering Katz. We wincingly register their moral failure yet fail to feel sympathetic to them. Franzen examines his characters coolly as though they were helpless fish in an aquarium. The sense of moral depth present in traditionally great novels is absent. Some would associate this with postmodernism but this is hardly a postmodern novel. Franzen’s text is peppered with knowledgeable worldly detail in the manner of an Updike but he lacks Updike’s or Roth’s smooth elegant style. His writing is uneven (though often highly acute), fussy, shallowly up to date, replete with numerous sentences awkwardly ending in prepositions.

Suddenly, in the very last pages, Franzen offers redemption. Though Jessica cannot budge her father from his morose withdrawal from life, the well nigh miraculous appearance of Patty leads to reconciliation.

While I regret this plot spoiler, I felt obliged to comment on it. I was moved and felt relieved by this last minute reprieve, yet, as with Walter’s rant, was struck by its crude parallel to a hundred Hollywood movies where the emotionally isolated doomed hero or heroine is saved when all seems lost. Naturally, our hearts lift, but after the moral turpitude of the previous nearly six hundred pages, it seems too much of a final curtain salvation to be entirely convincing.

HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011 53

HERSSEEIT

NATALIE PORTMAN: NO STRINGS ATTACHED Ivan Reitman – whose directing career (Ghostbusters) is so long in the tooth that he actually has a son, Jason, directing Oscar-worthy comedies – has his best outing in decades with No Strings Attached, an amusing flip of the “friends with benefits” sex-leads-to-love romantic comedy formula.

It’s a movie benefiting from another sparkling, sexy and emotionally available performance by Natalie Portman, some clever turns in situations and witty banter that isn’t shy about crossing over into Hangover level raunchy.

Elizabeth Meriwether’s script has that (500) Days of Summer gimmick, telling the story of this couple in clumps over a 15-year period. Super-smart Emma met hunky-needy Adam at summer camp, way back when, and they had a momentary fling. Ten years later, they meet again and the pretty, flirty Emma (Portman) invites Adam to “this thing” she has to go to. It’s her dad’s funeral. But dopey-handsome Adam (Ashton Kutcher, NOT cast against type) doesn’t hear the “She’s cut off from her emotions” warning bells, even when she confesses, “If you’re lucky, you’re never going to see me again.”

54 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

Another chance encounter years later leads to an exchange of phone numbers.

And then, that magical night when the boy drunk-dials the girl and something begins. But don’t call it a thoroughly modern romance. Emma, now an MIT trained doctor, won’t have that. She’s busy. She’s guarded. And she’s interested in sex – somebody “in my bed at 2 a.m.” – and nothing more.

They have their romps, but snuggling and the like – real intimacy – scares her off. So for Adam, the chase is on.

Portman, almost certainly an Oscar nominee for Black Swan, carries this movie with her warmth and her wicked way with an incredibly crude come-on.

Kutcher is better at bringing the funny than in carrying the emotional weight. Reitman didn’t suddenly evolve into a warmer, deeper filmmaker, either.

But the director surrounds his leads with funny people saying witty things. Adam’s best friend (Jake M. Johnson) mocks him for giving his lady love a gift of balloons – “Who do you think you are, the old guy from ‘Up’?” Kevin Kline plays Adam’s has-been TV star dad, a lecher who thinks nothing of taking up with one of Adam’s

ex-girlfriends. Lake Bell is the leggy but awkward and lovestruck co-worker at Adam’s job. (He’s a production assistant on a Glee -like high school musical show.)

And the wonderful Greta Gerwig (Greenberg) spices up the role of Emma’s college pal, the one who barely outgrows that sorority girl’s mating call – “I’m so druuuuuunk.”

Whatever corners the writer Meriwither paints herself into – and this movie seems stitched from several recent romances including Rachel Getting Married (Olivia Thirlby is Emma’s younger, matrimonyminded sibling) – cute situations and cheeky dialogue bail her out. You know it’s love when the guy makes you a menstruation mix tape – “Red Red Wine,” “I’ve got the World on a String,” and an even more obvious Leona Lewis hit.

And the sentiment – her love of convenience, his love of love – hasn’t grown old, through (500) Days of Summer, Up in the Air (by Reitman’s son) and Love & Other Drugs, though it might by the time a rival movie actually titled Friends with Benefits hits theatres this coming winter.

NO STRINGS ATTACHED

sss

Real people, real homes.

John and Joanne had seen a G.J. house they really liked in Australia.

The team at G.J. Gardner Homes flew back to Australia with them to look at the house and modify it to meet NZ conditions.

“The trip was amazing – we had a lot of fun. We have a house we just don’t want to leave. From when we first open the front door, through the spacious living areas, to the gorgeous bedroom-bathroom, we can look out of the windows at the beautiful view, it has the feeling you are on cruise ship. G.J.’s literally went the extra mile and built a truly magnificent home.”

HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011 55

HERSLIFE

Domestic

Bliss!

WORDS BY FELICITY LOUGHREY

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KRISTIAN SEKULIC

few days after Christmas, my mother slipped me a copy of Speed Cleaning: A spotless house in just 15 minutes a day (ABC Books). It’s true: my house is a mess. I have two small children, a mish-mash of childcare arrangements and a desk piled with writing assignments. There’s Weetbix, dried like cement, on the underside of the kitchen table.

There are never-ending piles of laundry. There are toys crammed in the most curious places. In my apartment, it seems, the cleaning never stops.

Mum was worried I’d be offended by the gift. On the contrary, I devoured Speed Cleaning. I thrilled at chores I had never thought of doing – washing the bristles of a broom; cleaning the inside of my computer’s mouse. I wrote lists of cleaning systems and put a schedule written on the back of an envelope on the fridge door.

The truth is, I never managed to do any of it in 15 minutes a day. The regimen of wiping door jams with a concoction of lavender oil, vinegar and water fell away after less than a week. But the book got me thinking about cleaning. How did I know so little about these rituals? How did all this really useful knowledge fall out of circulation? And isn’t it about time right-on, new, new wave feminists reclaimed this lore?

So I began a small library of house manuals and essays – Cheryl Mendelson’s 800-page bible Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House (Scribner), Caitlin Flanagan’s To Hell With All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife (Virago) and Speed Cleaning’s prequel Spotless (ABC books), that has sold 350,000 copies.

It seems the modern housecleaning canon can be split into two camps. There are the quick-fix articles and books. Throw everything in a drawer! And then there are the more labour intensive treatises of household routines and chores. Hand sprinkle warm water over table linens then roll fabric tightly to prepare for a hot iron! “The way people are really housekeeping is the 15-minute model,” says writer Caitlin Flanagan, on the phone from California. “People read the other stuff like housecleaning porn.” I have to agree, I’ve done a lot more reading, than serious tub scrubbing.

“I hate housecleaning,” continues Flanagan, extremely chipper.

“I bloody hate it. I hate, that I hate it. I’m attracted to it. I have emotional feelings about it. When I was young I was really suspicious of any kind of housekeeping – that’s not going to be my job! Time passes. We have children and then we find it is in our purview and we find that we don’t know how to do it.”

Largely unpaid and under-appreciated, the task of house cleaning is frequently dismissed as something anyone can pick up. No longer schooled in the rules of keeping house, girls like

myself were raised to have a public life. Of course, there’s no way I would trade a university education for knowledge of how to fold a fitted sheet. Although sometimes I think some extra laundry skills would be handy. Then again, I’m sure if my mum had tried to teach me I would have behaved like the temper-prone teenager I was and headed for the door.

“In our family we all learned to do those things since we were tiny,” says Spotless author and Australian ABC radio regular, Shannon Lush. “By the time you’re four you should be able to do a load of washing. My three-year-old grandson was here last weekend and he did five loads of washing and kept asking for more. He likes sorting the colours and putting them in the washing machine and pressing the buttons. Most people don’t think about teaching their kids these things anymore.”

Lush credits her father, a chemical engineer, with her solvent know-how. “Like getting ink out of fabric with sour milk,” she says, “Why does sour milk do it? It is because as milk rots in the sun it produces enzymes that breaks down the bond of the ink and releases it from the fabric. It’s all about chemistry and I find that fascinating.”

As to why Spotless and its follow-up Speed Cleaning have been so successful, Lush says, “It’s about putting people back in control.” Lush’s publisher at ABC Books, Stuart Neal emails, “I can do everything in Spotless because it all works. I could do none of it before.”

According to the house manuals, all you really need to clean your home is bicarbonate soda and a fizz of vinegar. And yet, as our knowledge of cleaning has diminished we are sold more products. “We’re not just being sold more, we’re being sold more crap. Serious crap,” says Lush. “If you understood what was actually in the bottles you would be gob-smacked. I just get so annoyed with them.”

A

56 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

K

erreen Reiger, associate professor of Sociology at LaTrobe University points to the advertising images that go with cleaning aids. “It reshapes our thinking about standards and expectations,” she says. “So all those ads that emphasise the microbes sweeping about the kitchen counter and selling us products to deal with all of these things when kerosene, vinegar and water [will do the job]. It makes us have higher expectations about what it should look like.”

“Having said that,” adds Reiger, “my mother’s expectation of clean windows is much, much higher than mine. Especially as professional women we have to live with a greater tolerance level of dirt and mess. It’s just not possible to do what we do [have a career] and keep the kind of house that our mothers or grandmothers might have expected.”

Reiger has just returned from overseas. She calls out to her

{

“I’ve done it several times this morning,” she jokes

teenage daughter about the load of washing she has just put on. “This afternoon the house will actually get done,” she says.

“And I will get great pleasure when looking at clean, shiny surfaces with no dust on them and things lined up properly and tidy. I know many of my feminist colleagues would think that’s absolutely ridiculous because other things are much more important. Things are more important to me too but I have to have a reasonably orderly space.”

“People get in a frightful stew about this,” says UK Vogue contributor Rita Konig, “about being feminist this or feminist that.

It’s not. It’s a question simply of where you live and you want to be comfortable. When I wrote my book,” Domestic Bliss: Simple Ways to Add Style to Your Life (Fireside), “it was amazing how many people wrote and said, this is my favourite secret subject.

They wouldn’t tell anyone. Quite cool people too.”

Konig reveals Miller Harris perfumer Lyn Harris as a Swiffer fanatic. And when Konig wants to procrastinate she sorts piles of paper on her desk. “I’ve done it several times this morning,” she jokes. “The other one I really love to do is rearranging the shelves in my bathroom and trying to throw stuff away. All those bottles of things I think I’m going to use one day.”

In her entertaining volume, I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence (Warner Books), comedienne Amy Sedaris calls her pre-party clean, TCB time – Taking Care of Business. Sedaris is an occasional guest on The Late Show with David Letterman, sister to writer David Sedaris and creator of the cult television series Strangers with Candy. In photos she mugs for the camera, but in person she’s pretty and lissome. When we meet at her kitschycool West Village apartment, she is dressed in bunny slippers and wears an apron. A snowstorm swirls outside. “I’m not really leaving the house today, so I figure this is it,” she says touching the rick rack edge on her apron.

As for her own cleaning routine, she says, “I’m just trying to stay on top of things right now. Because I have a rabbit,” Dusty who is asleep on her bed, “I try and stay up on the vacuuming because I don’t want her to eat something. I try to clean the bathroom, maybe every eight days. I try to keep the kitchen clean because of cockroaches in the city. But as far as which room I start with, I usually start with the bathroom first and get that clean and then I do the kitchen, then I do the bedroom and then this room last,” she says looking around the lounge with its faux theatre set piece fireplace and log cabin mantle. “And I do laundry late at night.”

A covergirl for feminist magazine Bust, Sedaris knits, bakes cupcakes and wears aprons with a knowing wink. And yet, she’s uncomfortable with the feminist tag. “I don’t describe myself as anything. You just do what you do and other people can try and put you in a box.”

I

tell her I’m more interested in reading about cleaning than actually doing it. “Or when you watch a movie and watch someone clean up. I love it,” she says. “I’d like to do a tv show where there was no words and it’s just 30 minutes of watching someone clean a room. It would be fascinating to watch.”

On the phone with Australia’s own Queen of Clean, Shannon Lush, I squeeze in a question about deodorant stains on a pale blue shirt in my wardrobe. Her answer: mix Napisan into a paste, leave on the shirt for 20 minutes and then put it in the wash. It works! Apart from the handy hint, I want to know what’s the overarching secret to keeping house? “Regular, small amounts,” says Lush. “If it gets out of hand, that’s when it gets dreadful and it can’t be done. If you only get up and do five minutes, the next time you get up you only have to do five minutes less.” What she’s really saying is, the cleaning never ends.

HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011 57

The Best 2011 HERSFAMILY

OF INTENTIONS

s t n e r a p r o f s Five helpful tip

1

SELF ESTEEM Remember to have more faith in your child than s/he has. Remember to teach your children that it’s not what you have and what you do, but who you are and how you love that ultimately matters. Remember that children are more likely to grow and change for the better if they know that they’ll be loved and accepted even if they stay the same.

– Brad Sachs, founder and director of The Father Centre and author of Emptying the Nest: Launching Your Young Adult Toward Success and Self-Reliance

2 3

PLAYTIME Make the resolution to make time every day to play with your child.

– Erika Carpenter Rich, clinical psychologist.

A LITTLE TV IS OK There is exactly one thing about which all parents lie: the amount of TV their kids watch. Why? Shame, mostly. When administered properly and in appropriate doses – when you want to bathe, chill, stare at the wall – television can be an ideal youth-distraction tool. And “educational” or not, if you’re even marginally careful about your selection, it’s certainly not going to do any harm. Also, it’s impossible to be in control of something – or teach your kids to be in control of something – with which you have a fraught connection founded on guilt and fabrication. So start the new year right: Make some media consumption rules, stick to them and stop feeling bad about it.

– Brett Berk, early childhood expert

4

NO MORE MELTDOWNS Resolve to teach your child to manage frustration more effectively – whether it’s teaching them to sleep through the night without you needing to run in every hour or to be able to deal with a “no” without kicking and screaming, share a toy without having a meltdown, or accept your limits on TV, computer and video games. It may be difficult to enforce limits and boundaries now, but you will be thankful you did when you have a well-behaved, grateful and hardworking teenager and young adult!

– Susan S. Bartell, child psychologist and author of The Top 50 Questions Kids Ask COMPILED BY HEIDI STEVENS PHOTOGRAPHY BY RENÉE KEITH 58 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

5

CONNECTING WITH BOOKS Resolve to use literacy as one of the ways that you connect with your children during the coming year. That would include parents reading to their children and listening to their kids read, talking to their kids over meals about books, getting the kids to open up about what they are reading. It would include books as gifts for birthdays and holidays. ... It would mean occasional special events built around literacy, like trips to the library or a bookstore or setting up a treasure hunt that requires a child to follow the directions to get to the treasure; or maybe a movie or video night to see a film of a book that has been read together. If more parents connected with their kids through literacy, teachers would find it much easier to motivate these kids to read.

– Tim Shanahan, literacy expert and former president of the International Reading Association

Creamy Bacon and Mushroom Pasta Serves 4 Preparation time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 20 minutes 1 tablespoon oil 4 rashers short cut bacon, sliced 200g button mushrooms, sliced 250ml PHILADELPHIA Original Cream for Cooking 4 spring onions, sliced 2 tablespoons Grated Parmesan cheese Freshly ground black pepper 400g penne, cooked, drained and kept warm 1 HEAT the oil in a saucepan and sauté the bacon and mushrooms for 4-5 minutes or until softened.

2 ADD the PHILADELPHIA Cream for Cooking, spring onions, cheese and pepper. Stir until smooth and simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Toss through the pasta and heat a further 2 minutes or until well heated. Serve immediately.

Chargrilled Salmon with Mustard Cream Sauce

Tip

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Serves 4 Preparation time: 5 minutes Cooking time: 10 minutes ½ cup white wine ¼ cup chopped spring onions 250ml PHILADELPHIA Light Cream For Cooking 1½ tablespoons wholegrain mustard Salt and pepper, to taste 4 x 150-200g salmon steaks 2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard, extra Olive oil spray Steamed Vegetables, for serving 1 COMBINE wine and spring onions in a small saucepan and simmer for 2 minutes or until mixture is reduced to ½ cup. Whisk in PHILADELPHIA Cream for Cooking and mustard and simmer for 2 minutes or until thickened to sauce consistency. Season and keep warm.

2 BRUSH salmon on both sides with extra mustard. Spray a hot chargrill pan with olive oil and cook the salmon for 3-4 minutes or until just cooked. Transfer to serving plates alongside vegetables and spoon over sauce. Serve immediately.

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HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011 59 60% less fat than regular cream www.philadelphiacreamcheese.co.nz

HERSFAITH

IS

PrayHARD LIFE

SHORT

VOICES OF FAITH:

Connecting with God

The Rev. Duke Tufty: Effective prayer is not begging a higher deity to give us something good, take away something bad or make something happen. Prayer is acknowledging the power you have to establish well-being in your life.

Jesus said, “When you pray, believe you already have what it is you desire and it will be yours.”

I don’t believe he meant this in a material sense wherein we could pray for a new car, believe we have received it and see it show up in our driveway. Prayer is of a spiritual nature and provides in a spiritual way.

If you are going through difficult times, in your prayers affirm you have the strength to make it through, and that strength will be yours. If you are experiencing great conflict in a relationship, affirm that you have the compassion to forgive, and forgiveness will be yours. If you are facing great fears, anxiety and stress about the future, in your prayers affirm that you have the peace, confidence and faith to move beyond the fears, and peace, confidence and faith will be yours.

You have everything you need to live a comfortable and fulfilling life. When situations disrupt your well-being, prayer is simply sitting quietly, connecting with God’s mind, affirming you have what you need and then giving gratitude for what you have affirmed.

Jesus said, “When you pray, believe you already have what it is you desire and it will be yours.” – Mark 11:24

60 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

HOW DO I LEARN TO PRAY?

Awareness from the heart

The Rev. Justin Hoye: In the 1936 movie, San Francisco, a grateful survivor of the recent earthquake (Clark Gable) tells a young priest (Spencer Tracy), “I want to thank God. What do I say?” The response: “Just say what’s in your heart.” A good line, yet how many of us are out of touch with what is truly going on in our hearts?

Everyone is learning how to pray. We cannot describe it as we would automobile competency: “I know how to drive” versus “I am learning to drive.” Every prayer is learning and never completely in the know. This is because prayer involves an openness to God’s will in my life and a humble awareness that I can resist these movements of grace. Prayer offers a malleable heart to God. This means having an awareness that I am not alone and that my creator – God – is concerned for me.

The revelation of Jesus Christ uniquely manifests God’s love for us. When asked by his disciples how to pray, Jesus’ response – the Lord’s Prayer – reveals the qualities of prayer: acknowledgement that God is holy and his will should be sought, requests for life’s necessities, forgiveness and salvation from evil. This is the cry of every human heart, and when we are open to conversion in how we live, trusting that God provides for this transformation, we are offering prayer.

WORDS BY DUKE TUFTY & JUSTIN HOYE PHOTOGRAPHY BY COURTNEY WEITTENHILLER

HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011 61

T H E FA I R E S T T R A D E O F A L L

Dilmah English Breakfast is so full of strong, full bodied flavour, it’s little wonder the British insist on calling it their own.

The secret is Dilmah English Breakfast hails from the central highland region of Dimbula in Sri Lanka right where it originated. But it’s no secret that Dilmah is the finest tea on earth.

The Dilmah family bring you real English Breakfast fresh from our tea gardens to your cup Merrill Fernando with sons Malik and Dilhan.

www.dilmahtea.com

62 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011

HERSADIEU

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Because you’re now bigger you think you stand tall?

You disgust me, sir.

Once I’d have had the measure of you all.

How heroic is it to abuse and to thieve?

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what wit is needed to refuse to believe that honour exists, that a worthwhile deed makes a worthwhile man?

You and your friends may do what you can but you face the dead ends of those without shame, while I claim with pride an old soldier’s name… and though you may strike me again and again you can’t kill my contempt for your sort of game.

Is it poetry?

Then send submissions to 14. Intensely passionate or emotional (6) Poetry Editor Amy Brooke: © Pam Hutton 2011 15. Small exclusive clique of people (7) amy@investigatemagazine.tv 16. Scenes of pastoral charm (6) 17. Write carelessly and untidily (6) 19. Fraudulent or fake (5) 21. Male duck (5)

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HERSMAGAZINE.TV Feb 2011 63

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