Vacuum the red carpet, slip into the Armanis, strap on the Jimmy Choos, and flash the Fred Leightons, 'cause award season 2009 has arrived.  Whether it's the Oscars, the Grammys, the Golden Globes or the Screen Actors Guild Awards, BlogHer has got it covered.  I'll be doing special posts right up until the Oscars on all the happy winners, sore losers, tears, jeers and badly written thank yous.  As we speak the stars are primping, preening and preparing for what they hope will be that once in a lifetime moment in front of millions of mercilessly critical viewers just like us.  

Do you know that on midnight Feb 18th television as we know it will cease to exist?  Now don't panic. For most of you that won't be a problem because you have cable TV, satellite TV or a TV set that receives digital TV signals.  However for the rest of you---several million households---you're going to have to take action to make sure your weekly fix of "Lost," "Grey's Anatomy," or "CSI" isn't interrupted. That's because the government has mandated that as of midnight February 18th all television stations must stop broadcasting analog signals and broadcast digital signals only.  

Some Hidden Choices in Breast Reduction by Natasha Singer, which is most insultingly a part of The New York Times' "The Price of Beauty" series, explored the different options women are offered - and not offered - after a mastectomy. I'm sure that readers will be shocked - shocked! - to hear that women are not always informed of the different types of breast reconstructions available because some procedures are less profitable for doctors and hospitals than others. Profit above women's health? Who wouldda thunk it? Sigh.

Caroline Kennedy (Schlossberg) has been in the media spotlight for most of her 51 years,but for most of those years, the press has maintained a deferential distance. Now that she's declared her interest in becoming the junior Senator from New York when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is confirmed as Secretary of State, political reporters are struggling to adjust their lenses. And Kennedy, who has spent most of her life trying to stay in the shadows, seems to be stuggling to adjust as well.

Journalist A.C. Thompson, writing for The Nation magazine, documented that white vigilantes shot black men at will during Hurricane Katrina in Algiers Point, part of the City of New Orleans, and no one has been investigated, much less prosecuted. Furthermore, associated video of white men boasting about their deeds indicates the men acted with police approval.

With so many people in need, so many problems in the world, how do you pick the things you give to, the people you help? I tend to pick organizatons that I think will do something I approve of with my money: Global Giving, Heifer International and the like. One woman decided to get very specific on her blog and she managed to help raise enough money to allow some friends of hers to avoid foreclosure and stay in their home.

Gaza is aflame on the second day of rocket attacks by Israeli Defense Forces that, at this writing, have left 286 dead, according to Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper.The missiles struck more than 210 targets in Gaza, destroying security compounds run by Hamas, the governing party in the Palestinian territories, according to the BBC.

You know how you can only remember seven of the eight reindeers' names? Or 11 of the 12 Jewish tribes?Well, I find that "year in review" posts work in the reverse: I never have trouble coming up with what to review. The trouble is in keeping the review to a manageable size.

How does one provide 'context' for a cultural chaos called India? The "a country where marriages are still arranged" has worked well thus far. 'Poverty' and 'slums' also provide excellent context. 'Colorful' is not bad either. And the 'call center' was reigning supreme for a while.

In my last post I wanted to demonstrate that personal narratives can have an educational and even a healing effect; not just for the storyteller but the recipient of the story as well. That led to the next question. How does a country express the narratives of its people? Who gets to share that story and how is it held in trust for the future? 

Unless you follow blogs and Twitter, you probably didn't catch the news that an environmental disaster is unfolding in Tennessee that, according to experts, dwarfs the damage done by the Exxon Valdez oil spill. 

The New York Times covers the entrance of Nick Friedman into the parenting magazine frays:Though 85 percent of Scholastic Parent & Child readers are women, they will now be getting advice on parenting from a man: Scholastic named Nick Friedman the first male editor of the magazine last month.In the magazine world, gender roles still hold strong: men tend to edit magazines read by men, and women those for women.