Think, for instance, of the moment when your odo-meter rolls over to 50,000 or 100,000; do you pull over to admire it?

Those fleeting,discount tiffany, precise figures command a singular fascination. Not a bit under, not a bit over — exact. And then, before you know it, they’re usually gone.

There is the perfect 10, the 100th anniversary, the 5,000th friend and the 1,000,000th served. Editors even assign 1,000-word stories.

And then there is sports.

In a culture that is numbers obsessed, fans throw around terms like 1,000-yard rusher or 100-RBI man all the time, but rarely do they mean that someone actually hit those statistical markers right on the nose. Usually athletes reach that milestone and then add on.

But a glance across the four major sports shows there are those rare times when players, for better or worse, didn’t make it any farther.

Perhaps the most well-known is also the most somber — Roberto Clemente’s 3,000 hits.

Following the 1972 season, Clemente boarded an airplane bound for Nicaragua. He was part of the relief effort to aid victims of an earthquake. But moments after the plane took off, it crashed, killing Clemente and the other crew and passengers aboard.

Clemente’s impact on baseball went beyond his statistical prowess, but he never got a chance to advance past 3,000 hits when he died at the age of 38.

Of the major sports, baseball tends to draw the nerd — er, most cerebral fans, and baseball has an abundance of statistics to satisfy their geekiness, in a variety of categories. Rickey Henderson had 100 stolen bases in 1980. Darryl Strawberry finished his career with 1,000 RBI. Ellis Burks played in exactly 2,000 games. Bruce Sutter is 21st all time with 300 saves. Jim Bunning allowed 1,000 walks in his career.

Jeffrey Leonard and former Cub Shawon Dunston struck out 1,000 times. Leonard, who finished his career in Seattle, struck out in the fifth inning of his final game, which marked his last at-bat. He was replaced in the field before his next turn in the lineup and he never played again.

Nobody has exactly 500 home runs. Chuck Klein, however, finished with 300.

New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez is within one home run of joining the 600 club. But as with a car’s odometer, this will likely be just a transitory figure. That doesn’t mean it will be easy for him to hit No. 601. After Rodriguez hit No. 500, it took him nine games to hit the next one, and over those nine games, he hit .107.

For pitchers, 300 wins usually means automatic Hall of Fame entry. Both Lefty Grove and Early Wynn have 300 exactly.

A former White Sox player and broadcaster, Wynn struggled for his milestone, failing to achieve it in seven starts over nine months, the longest period ever between a pitcher’s 299th and 300th win. Finally, in 1963, pitching for the Indians at age 43, he pitched only five innings but got the win over the Kansas City A’s. "I was exhausted," he reportedly said.

In basketball, Wilt Chamberlain has the sport’s most notable round number, with the 100 points he scored in 1962. He hit 36 of 63 field goals and 28 of 32 free throws to do it. It took a minor miracle for Chamberlain to hit that many free throws, considering his lifetime percentage is just a shade over 51 percent.

But after that, basketball fails to produce many scintillating round numbers.

Walt Bellamy once had 1,500 rebounds in the 1961-62 season for the Chicago Packers. Danny Manning finished with 1,000 steals, while Shaquille O’Neal, if he retired today, would finish his career with 3,000 assists.

As for the NHL, the late Bob Probert, a former Blackhawk, sat for 3,300 minutes in the penalty box, fifth most all-time in the NHL. Lanny McDonald had 500 goals, but after that, no hockey stats of significance ended in a couple zeroes.

The NFL, meanwhile, yields more interesting cases. Franco Harris and Curtis Martin both finished their careers with exactly 100 touchdowns. Two quarterbacks, the Bears’ Jim McMahon and Washington’s Doug Williams, each threw for 100, but that pales in comparison to Denver’s John Elway, who had 300 when he retired. In 1986, Minnesota quarterback Tommy Kramer earned a Pro Bowl spot and the comeback player of the year award for his 3,000-yard performance, the only time an NFL quarterback threw for that in a single season. No receiver has had exactly 1,000 yards, but Marcus Robinson did have 1,400 for the Bears in 1999. Hall of Famer Barry Sanders did have the NFL’s lone 1,500-yard rushing season. Willie Ellison in 1971, Mercury Morris in 1972 — in Miami’s perfect season — Greg Pruitt in 1976 and Ricky Williams in 2000 rushed for exactly 1,000.

So why can’t you say someone who rushed for 998 yards is also a 1,000-yard rusher? Well, try telling that to anyone who missed out on an incentive bonus in his contract for falling just short of that mark. And try telling that to former Falcons running back Dave Hampton.

In the final game of the 1972 season, Hampton reached 1,000 yards in the fourth quarter. But on his next carry, he slipped and lost yardage, putting him back at 995. Even though there was plenty of time left in the game,tiffany money clips, a long scoring drive by Kansas City put the Chiefs ahead late, forcing Atlanta to throw to catch up. Hampton didn’t carry again that game.

Then in 1973, fate tormented Hampton again — he finished with 997 yards. After an injury-riddled 1974 campaign,tiffany cuff Links, Hampton entered the fourth quarter of the final contest in the 1975 season needing 28 yards to reach 1,000. Even with the Falcons trailing, Atlanta coach Marion Campbell gave Hampton the ball. He got 30 yards on three carries and was immediately removed with 1,002 yards. It was the only season Hampton could call himself a 1,tiffany key rings,000-yard rusher — but not if we’re exact.

Keep Durham Beautiful and the City/County Appearance Commission make the awards in seven categories:

* Single-family residential — new construction, renovation or restoration

* Multi-family residential — new construction, restoration conversion or improvement

* Commercial property — new construction,tiffany money clips, renovation or adaptive re-use

* Landscape — projects at least one year old with maintained appearance

* Sustainable properties — green building

* People’s Choice — one project selected by public vote

* Keep Durham Beautiful — for a person or group for projects, programs or events.

The award presentation is Sept. 30. For information, see www.durhamgoldenleaf.org or contact Anne Kramer at anne.kramer@durhamnc.gov or 560-4137 ext. 28271.

ON EVERY NAIL With stars like Katy Perry, left, wearing holographic nail lacquers, no wonder companies are introducing new varieties. Milani, for example, has six new colors this summer: Cyberspace blue,tiffany bracelets, 3-D gold, Hi-Res purple, Digital pink, HD silver and Hi-Tech green ($4.49 each). The sparkly effect comes from mica and pearl particles in the formulation, the company says.

TIE-DYE LOCKS Tired of paying for highlights every six weeks? Ombre, a hair effect that gradually shows a dark-to-light color shift from scalp to ends or vice versa,tiffany earrings, might be for you. According to stylists at the Mizu New York salon on Park Avenue and 59th Street,tiffany rings, the look, seen recently on Sarah Jessica Parker and Rachel Bilson, above, lasts four to six months and costs the same as traditional highlights.

HAIR NOSTALGIA Finesse, the beloved shampoo brand among 16-year-old girls circa 1987, is marketing to its original customers with Finesse ReVitality, a new line for aging hair. The line includes shampoos, conditioners and a leave-in treatment, priced at $4.49 to $4.99. And speaking of leave-in treatments, 1980s girls who can splurge might enjoy Alterna’s new Caviar Anti-Aging Overnight Hair Rescue, available in salons and online for $35.

Easy, offers Dan McElhattan III. "Just add life and stress."

All joking aside, instant fathers — men who marry a woman who already has kids — are a unique subset of the parental universe.

Instant dads experience the marital equivalent of going from zero to 60 in six seconds flat. And while fatherhood never comes with an instruction manual, they, unlike standard-issue fathers, never had a chance to enjoy that transitional married-but-childless honeymoon period most dads do.

But instant dads are, by necessity, adaptable guys. And, when push comes to shove, an instant dad is as authentic a dad as any other guy who’ll be unwrapping a new tie or enjoying breakfast in bed this morning.

McElhattan, 40, hadn’t planned on becoming an instant dad, although he had dated a few single moms. But when he met Mary, now his wife of six years, the portrait of her kids that she had behind her desk signaled that he might be facing the prospect sooner rather than later.

Not long afterward, when Mary’s boss invited Mary and McElhattan to a barbecue, they started dating.

McElhattan married into a family with four children , now ages 13 to 23, and he and Mary since have added to their family a 3 1/2-year-old daughter.

That’s "the way it goes when you find the love of your life. Kids are a factor, but not the factor. The fact is, you love your wife," he says.

"I never expected to jump into the prepackaged deal," he adds. "But when you’ve found the right woman … ."

Before meeting his future wife, Gerald Chin, 30, says his dating partners tended to be "single women, no strings attached."

When Chin, a chef, met Maureen — they dated for three years before marrying in 2008 — "we just got along real well," he recalls. But he didn’t know until a few days after they started dating that she had a son, now 11, and a daughter, now 15.

"I’ve always liked kids — I’ve always been like a kid myself — and she was really nervous about introducing her kids to me, because she didn’t want to confuse the kids or want me to be afraid of the kids," Chin says.

The meeting took place at a salon where both Chin and Maureen used to get haircuts. Chin recalls that Maureen didn’t introduce him as a boyfriend but as "my friend."

"The girl, she kind of knew what was going on at the time,tiffany key rings," he adds. "Girls are always more mature than boys. Her radar picked it up."

But the meeting went well. "I thought they were cute kids," Chin says, and the kids seemed to get along well with him, too.

A few weeks later, Chin even soloed with the kids for the first time, taking them on an outing to Madame Tussaud’s wax museum. "We all got along," he says. "It’s crazy."

Dating Maureen, and getting to know her children, had a surprising effect on Chin. Not only was he thinking that dating a woman with kids might work out, but, he says, "it kind of made me think about what I was doing in my dating life, like maybe it is time for me to grow up."

Nick Cusumano met his future wife, Tanya, about six years ago while vacationing in Las Vegas. Cusumano, a New Yorker, and Tanya stayed in touch after his return home, having an occasionally up-and-down long-distance relationship.

When things turned serious and "it came to the point where one of us needed to make a move," that decision fell to Cusumano, because Tanya had a then-9-year-old son.

Cusumano had to adjust not only to instant fatherhood but life in a place very different from the Bronx.

He had met Anthony before moving here. "During the couple of trips I had made here previously to making the big move, we met and we’d done movies and all that good stuff," he says.

They got along great. Anthony’s dad "was in Las Vegas at that point, but he wasn’t really in the picture," Cusumano explains, "so I think he really adapted to me fast."

Cusumano and Tanya married three years ago and, in addition to Anthony, their family includes a year-and-a-half-old daughter named Emma.

While the three dads all are convinced that they’ve made the right decision, they concede that the road to instant fatherhood wasn’t always smooth.

McElhattan, for example, discovered that some of Mary’s children were more accepting of mom dating, and perhaps marrying, a new guy — a guy who wasn’t their biological dad — than others. There were occasional anger issues, he says, and some "challenging" times.

Objections to jumping into a premade family came from other directions, too. McElhattan says his own parents’ initial reaction to the news that he was dating a woman with four kids was "are you nuts? Are you serious? What are you getting into?"

But, when they met Mary, "she connected with them so fast," he says.

Some of Chin’s friends gave him a hard time. "My friends are all single and young, and they’re like, ‘Are you stupid? What are you doing? She’s got kids.’ Basically: Watch out."

For guys who are used to living alone, simply moving into a home filled with other people — a home in which they are, in effect, the outsider — can be difficult.

That was "a little bit strange," Chin says, adding that the adjustment was even more weird because he, Maureen and the kids were living with her parents at the time.

"But the good thing was I got to see the kids every morning when I woke up," he continues. "I think it built up a real strong relationship."

Cusumano and Anthony had an easier time adapting to their new living arrangements,tiffany rings, probably, Cusumano suspects, because "he was really looking for someone to have that (father-son relationship) with."

Still, Cusumano says, it was odd, "without a doubt,tiffany money clips, to wake up one morning and there’s a little 9-year-old boy looking to hang out with you."

It did take Cusumano a bit of time to figure out the parameters of his newly assumed parental role. If Anthony needed discipline, for example, "I didn’t really know what my position was on that, and I didn’t really plan for that," he says.

Yet, Cusumano adds, Anthony never once aimed the sharpest arrow in the stepkid’s quiver — "You’re not my father" — his way.

"I have always been waiting for that, up until this day, and it has never been said," Cusumano says. "And I really love him for that, because I always feared that would come, and that would really hurt."

Chin also learned early on that fatherhood can be about decidedly nonabstract concerns. Once, while he was still living with his roommate, the kids came by for a sleepover and one "got sick and just threw up everywhere," he says.

The lesson he learned: Fatherhood is "not all playing video games and skateboarding."

Chin says there were moments before he and Maureen married when he wondered whether he was doing the right thing.

"Maybe right in the beginning," he says, "just because anyone would be like this. Is this the right thing for me? But, after a few months, it was all good."

In fact, looking back at how completely his life has changed during the past several years, Chin is convinced that marriage and fatherhood have been good for him.

"It’s not just me thinking about myself now,tiffany pendants," he explains. "When I make decisions … I make them for the family. And I see kids come into the restaurant now and I understand if they don’t want to eat something. It completely gives me a different perspective when it comes to kids and life in general."

And if further proof that instant dads are just like regular dads is needed, there’s this: Chin already is freaking out over the prospect of daughter Bella driving.

"It’s like, oh man, I’m getting old," he says, laughing.

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.

But she is. The 19-year-old photography student at the Savannah School of Art and Design got an e-mail earlier this month telling her one of her photos had been turned into a design on a woman’s T-shirt sold by Reserved, a store label that is part of the Polish clothing combine LPP.

The photograph was part of Nolan’s collection on DeviantART, a social networking website for artists.

The color self-portrait, titled "Orchid," had been converted to a sepia-toned image, and a message — "I WANT TO FINISH YOUR SENTENCES" — printed in a large open space within the photograph. The word YOUR was set off with a sequin applique.

"I didn’t think it matched up with the photograph at all. (The message) sounded like something some little girl would say to her best friend,tiffany bracelets," said Nolan,discount tiffany, a Lubbock High School graduate.

She posted a note on her DeviantART page and on "You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice…", a website dedicated to pointing out possible intellectual property rip-offs explaining what happened.

And she contacted LPP and Reserved.

The company responded with an apology that blamed the situation on "one of our contractor must have taken the shortcut and used your work as its own."

In a comment electronically translated from Polish on the company’s Facebook page, Reserved noted it is a company that has worked with respect "for all property and personal property."

The company said "a black sheep, who sold us a stolen print," found its way through "the maze of collaborators. We take responsibility for this and we are sorry."

Reserved offered Nolan $150 as a licensing fee for the image, and offered to buy licensing rights for several more images from her site for $150 each.

Her blog comment: "So basically, instead of taking care of the theft they’d rather rectify the situation by using more of my pictures in the future? While that is flattering, that in no way covers the fact that they stole my image."

She declined that offer. A second one arrived by e-mail from Gdansk along with details of the shirt.

Reserved made 2,000 of them and had sold about 1,tiffany pendants,900, Nolen said, adding the sales information the company send her showed "they made a hefty profit."

According to the company website, Reserve has branded stores and sales deals with other stores not only in Poland, but in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and the Ukraine.

"They told me to pick a number, but they seemed to be hinting at $200," she said. "They didn’t want to take care of the theft."

Nolan said she’s been talking with several attorneys to see what her legal options might be, including whether the case would be tried under Polish or U.S. laws, should it come down to a court fight.

"I think they’re keeping their fingers crossed that I’m a 19-year-old girl who’s amazed at any amount of cash," she said. "I’m an artist, and I expect to be treated like one, and to have the respect provided to artists through copyright law."

The company’s catalog online includes characters from Warner Bros. and Looney Toons cartoons and DC Comics.

Women’s T-shirts with Warner Bros. cartoon characters, including Daffy Duck, Sylvester the cat, Speedy Gonzalez, Roadrunner and Tazmanian Devil, were priced at 29.90 euros and 49.90 euros, At Thursday’s exchange rates, 29.90 euros was $37, while 49.90 euros was $61.78.

"Something tells me they paid more for the Warner Bros. images,tiffany money clips," Nolan said. "It’s kind of a slap in the face."

And it’s grown into something more in Poland, taking off virally though stories in two Polish newspapers and a piece Wednesday night on the Polish version of CNBC.

The story’s gained blog traffic, including people who’ve said they’re from Poland and embarrassed a business from their country would do that. A few, Nolan said, have suggested that she’s just looking for fame from the controversy.

"This is not the kind of fame I am looking for," Nolan said. "All I really wanted to do with this was show other artist what could happen."

She added that since she went public with the situation June 8, two other artists said they’ve found their work being used without permission on other companies’ clothing.

LPP officials did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment for this story.

The company has also come under a lot of criticism for the situation on its own Facebook page, with some people suggesting the initial offer of $150 to Nolan was laughable, and that the offer was well below legal pay scales for photographers in Poland.

In a statement translated electronically from Reserved’s Facebook site, said it understands the value of intellectual property rights and "does not intend to prejudice the rights of third parties."

After discovering what happened, the statement said, the company is also introducing control measures to keep the situation from happening again.

The data, collected from nearly 2,000 respondents during a month-long hygiene campaign in salons, also showed that 68 per cent of the respondents carry their own salon bag with personal grooming kits to the salons–a healthy practice that was encouraged among salon visitors during the campaign to avoid risk of infections by sharing grooming tools and equipment at salons.

"(A) majority of the respondents (86 per cent) were satisfied with the cleanliness of the salons and more than 85 per cent expressed their satisfaction with the cleanliness of the staff whereas 82 per cent were satisfied with the cleanliness of the equipment used in the salons," the municipality said in a Press release on Wednesday.

The majority of the respondents of the survey were males (56 per cent), and among them, 54.5 per cent visit the salons once a month. A total of 47 per cent of these people have been visiting the same salon for more than two years,tiffany key rings, mainly for hair cutting services (70 per cent), said the release. A total of 15 people go for skin care and manicure/pedicure services. Among women,tiffany bracelets, 80 per cent go for haircuts but some also go for skin and manicure/pedicure services.

"The DARE TO SHARE campaign, conducted between May 16 and June 16 2010, arose from a need to make the general consumer and salon staff knowledgeable of the dangers of passing on diseases through re-use of un-sterilized equipment and unclean conditions in saloons," said Maryam Hassan Al Balooshi, Acting Head of Media Section in the Corporate Marketing and Relation Department of Dubai Municipality.

Supported by Philips and Al Ghandi Electronics, the campaign was taken to the public through an extensive integrated media campaign using press and radio inserts in English, Arabic and Hindi and through live demonstrations and interactions at Union Cooperative Society and selected shopping malls.

During the launch of the campaign,discount tiffany, officials said 2,600 violations were recorded in a total of 3500 gents’ salons, ladies’ beauty parlours and spas in Dubai in 2009. — sajila@khaleejtimes.com

Credit: Khaleej Times, Dubai,tiffany money clips, United Arab Emirates

A tip from a person who had learned of Sherry Halligan’s case from recent news media accounts led the FBI and La Grange police to an apartment in the southwest suburb,tiffany cuff Links, where Halligan gave up without a struggle, authorities said. Police did not disclose the address of the apartment.

Halligan, 51,tiffany necklaces, is charged with the murder of Dennis Campbell, who was found fatally shot in her home in the 1000 block of South 6th Street in La Grange. Cook County prosecutors alleged that during a domestic quarrel on Jan. 30, 2003, Halligan hit Campbell in the chest and then pulled a gun out of a drawer and shot him five times.

After being arrested and released on $50,000 cash bond, Halligan failed to show up for a court appearance in April 2004. A warrant was issued for her arrest.

Her car was found at Midway Airport, and she was sought nationwide, with accounts of the crime featured on the television show "America’s Most Wanted."

In the end, she was captured a few miles from where the 2003 killing took place. Authorities said Halligan had confessed to killing Campbell after turning herself in to La Grange police in 2003. She allegedly had placed her bloody clothes and gun into a plastic bag and dumped them along Interstate 55.

Halligan was being held at the La Grange police station and was to appear in Bond Court in Bridgeview on Saturday. She was charged with murder and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Chicago and Cook County police assisted in the investigation.

Arthur Bilek,tiffany money clips, executive vice president of the Chicago Crime Commission,tiffany key rings, said that Halligan was the only suburban person to make the commission’s top 10 list.

Credit: Chicago Tribune

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"I’m a mother, too," the boy’s mother told the mother of the victim.

The two families’ lives changed when a dispute between two groups of teens turned violent at 163 Huntington St. about an hour after the Sailfest fireworks display.

The mother of the victim and the parents of the defendant met in Superior Court Thursday for what appears to be the boy’s first of many appearances in court. The teen, accused of stabbing the victim in the left arm and back, has been held at a juvenile detention center in New Haven since the incident. A juvenile judge transferred his case to the adult court based on the seriousness of the charges and, on Thursday, he appeared before Judge Susan B. Handy, who closed the courtroom to the public but allowed family members inside.

The victim was released from Yale-New Haven Hospital Wednesday and is recovering at home, according to his mother. She said he would need follow-up medical care for his left arm injury. The boy’s grandmother said he is a talented artist and is left-handed.

The boy accused in the stabbing faces a felony assault charge, and his parents said they have been unable to sleep since the incident. The case is expected to be heard in the adult court,tiffany bangles, but the state’s attorney’s office has 10 days to notify the court if it wants to keep the case or refer it back to the juvenile court. Handy set the teen’s bond at $150,tiffany bracelets,000 and continued the case to July 23.

The teenage boys knew each other, according to the victim’s mother. She said it was not clear what the dispute was about and added she wants the case to serve as an example to "all kids in New London."

"When is this going to end?" she said. "My heart goes out to that family (of the accused),tiffany money clips, but like the judge said, he (her son, the victim) could have died."

Police reports of the incident remain under seal.

Credit: The Day,tiffany rings, New London, Conn.

"We appreciate and value our clients’ and employees’ opinions as they help achieve our mission of providing outstanding service," Founder and President Bill Nasgovitz said. "These awards demonstrate Heartland’s continuous focus on maintaining a distinguished customer experience."

Each Engagement Award is scored using a top-down analysis survey designed by loyalty experts to measure attitudes and intentions of customers or employees. Top scores were broken up into two different categories: overall score for 2009, and an honorable mention for improvement in engagement score from first half of 2009 to the second half of 2009.

Allegiance, Inc., a leading provider of Voice-of-the-Customer (VOC) solutions, helps organizations drive growth and increase profitability through improved loyalty and engagement.

"Companies that understand the importance of engaging employees and customers are more successful and enjoy faster growth," said Adam Edmunds,tiffany bracelets, CEO of Allegiance. "We commend Heartland Advisors, Inc. for going beyond the ordinary in opening feedback channels with their employees and customers and being responsive to their needs."

About Heartland

Heartland Advisors, Inc. is an independently owned Milwaukee-based firm established in 1983 and renowned as America’s Value Investor(R). As of March 31, 2010, the firm managed $3.5 billion for institutional and high net worth clients and the Heartland family of value-driven mutual funds, which include the Heartland Value Fund (Investor: HRTVX),tiffany pendants, Heartland Value Plus Fund (Investor: HRVIX) and Heartland Select Value Fund (Investor: HRSVX). Learn more at http://heartlandfunds.com.

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Brand built his career in the UK as a controversial stand-up and presenter who talked fast and creatively about his drug and sex addiction. In the film his character does this too – lounging on sofas riffing about booze and adultery, his long legs ending in the most delicate of winklepickers, his chest bursting from nipped-in shirts and a hairdo like a Musketeer, curled tenderly around a pulchritudinously astonishing face. And this is Brand’s bag: a man intoxicated with himself,tiffany bangles, who’ll never shut up or stop messing around with east London slang and 19th-century swear words until the world drops its knickers.

Which is precisely what America has done. They’ve embraced Brand there utterly and even recently gave him the Hollywood equivalent of a Pulitzer – the lead in a remake of Arthur (currently filming), to which your reviewer has a two-word response: Dudley Moore. While it’s clear Brand is intriguing and here to stay, he has little of the devastating charm and acting chops of Moore.

In fact Brand does not seem, in this movie anyway, to be responding to the world at all. He doesn’t appear to listen or hear, and whole scenes and important emotional moments involving his character’s supposed rebirth go weirdly by while Brand’s face simply moves through several configurations of blankness. In contrast, the lardy Hill – a trusty in the writer/director Apatow’s stable – has a lovely way of absorbing things. In one scene he falls into a London nightclub with Brand, and slowly, incredulously, takes in the view, his shy eyes suggesting the spirit of a fanfare within him. Unlike Brand, Hill is touching and his presence has meaning.

But what does one do with Russell Brand? How does art deal with such a person? His closest living analogue is Jim Carrey – another elastically talented comic with much physical beauty,tiffany earrings, but, crucially, acting depth and a bona fide oddness that would make him ripe for a David Lynch (I’m still waiting).

Not only could you be forgiven – looking at the poster – for thinking that Woody Allen’s new film Whatever Works had absolutely nothing to do with him,tiffany cuff Links, it seems the film’s distributors actively want us to mistake it for the new Curb Your Enthusiasm DVD boxset, since it features its star Larry David, alone, with absolutely no hint of his character’s context.

In the film David stars as a grouchy NYC chess teacher whose life is disrupted the day he helps a pretty dumb blonde (Evan Rachel Wood) and her naive Southern family. This being an Allen film, the initially misanthropic David must end up softened as a character, and the movie is really just a progression to that sappy point – although David puts up a spirited fight, limping, possessed, down the streets in his ragged trousers bitching about the Nobel prize ("It’s just politics, like any other phoney honour") or imitating Kurtz in Heart of Darkness ("The horror!") or listing all that life has to offer to a late-middle-aged American male, ie Omega 3 addiction, and the day they "put you in a box". There is something a little demeaning in hearing David actually say these kinds of things. In Curb he doesn’t need to: his face alone articulates it all (and worse).

One random thought: Allen may have recently had a devastating encounter with the bedpan. The film is littered with references to pelvic sonograms, colonoscopies, ("They probe me like coal miners . . . !") and at one point features David disappearing into the loo, the belt of his mouldy dressing gown trailing, to the strains of Beethoven’s Fifth as his young girlfriend trips out in sequins to watch a rock band called Anal Sphincter. All of which is amusing enough, and David gives it some welly, but the film’s rallying cry – that love, of any kind (whatever works for you) is the answer – feels knee-jerk. The script may have been first written in the 1970s but has all the weaknesses of the late-period Allen.

But oh the hope . The words "return to form" have been attached to Allen’s films more than to any other director’s in the history of the universe. Bearing in mind he hasn’t made a truly great film since Hannah and her Sister (1992 – that’s 20 films ago) or had a cast-iron hit since Bullets over Broadway (1994), it only goes to show the ravenousness of our hunger. Because it’s not actually Allen’s kvetching and bitching that we worship him for – it was his ability to recreate happiness in the early films, Annie Hall, and Play it Again Sam . Think of Diane Keaton with her jaunty tennis racket, or her delighted gasp when Woody gives her a plastic skunk. Allen showed us better than anyone what the good times really look like. We can’t quite give up on that. We never will.

Two minor films featuring major names – Tetro , by no less than Francis Ford Coppola, and Villa Amalia , starring the hearteningly ageless Isabelle Huppert – are released this week to tellingly little fanfare. Coppola’s – a black-and-white film – follows an American writer and one-time depressive (played by Vincent Gallo) living what looks like a rather delightful creative life in Argentina. In Villa , Huppert plays a pianist retreating from the world and settling in a remote villa on an Italian island. Both films have a rambling, marginal quality and a romantic, perhaps monomaniacal perception of Living One’s Dream. Neither is a joy to get through.

And now to the small matter of the coolest film ever made. Jewel of the French New Wave, made with spit and sawdust and not even proper audio equipment (all the sound was dubbed in later), Breathless gets a 50th anniversary re-release this week and is doing the international rounds in an exquisitely restored new print.

The confidence of the film! The way the camera wheels around its small-time hoodlum star Jean Paul Belmondo, with his sweet spivvy bracelet and ability to lie prone on a bed smoking a whole fag without removing it from his mouth once. "I’m on my way. Hey, hey,tiffany money clips, lalalalalaaalaaa!" he sings to himself and then eyeballs the camera (the shock of that at the time . . . ). In another scene he spots the hairs on the back of Jean Seberg’s neck, momentarily caught by the sun, and lowers his eyes until his own lashes catch the rays: it’s a film that fixes each action in the memory, that thinks everything is touchable.

Even though its characters let each other down, and its director Jean-Luc Godard turned out to have a sour word for everyone (Belmondo included, and he was horribly cutting about his mucker Truffaut too), the movie is so idealistic it breaks the heart. "The worst flaw is cowardice!" it screams, and goes on to demonstrate in frame after frame what it is to be young, and fierce, and convinced that a single lie will curse you forever. Nigel Andrews is away

PRO Beauty Tools’ Ceramic Straightening Iron promises to create smooth and shiny hair in seconds, with a 100-percent satisfaction guarantee. Unlike other irons that can take 10 minutes or more to heat up, PRO’s model was painfully hot within minutes. A few quick swipes down my hair removed all bumps and frizz, leaving my tresses silky and straight.

However, creating a flip or a curl at the bottom took some trickery. The first several times I tried to turn the ends of my long hair under, I pinched my wrist in the (cool) end of the iron. I also singed my fingertips while holding the iron tight against my hair. Additionally, the iron has no heat settings,tiffany key rings, simply on and off,tiffany bracelets, which doesn’t allow you to gauge what heat level is appropriate for your hair — and trust me, it gets rather hot.

While I was satisfied with the product, I was a bit perturbed by its promise of 100 percent satisfaction. You see, you have to decide if you’re 100 percent satisfied within 30 days of purchase. I never knew my satisfaction had an expiration date.

– Daveen Kurutz

We had two willing testers in our house, and results were split on the Pro Beauty Tool.

I have a full head of hair. We’re talking as full as the triangle-shaped style sported by the Rosanne Rosanna Danna character from "Saturday Night Live." I hoped this would tame my thick hair into a sleek look. It’s not that my hair is curly, just the opposite: It’s straight with a few curves that have a mind of their own.

Apparently, I need more lessons from my 14-year-old daughter who loved this straightener. My hair still looked thick and not flat, but I really think since I’m not accustomed to straightening I just couldn’t get the hang of it. Looks like I’ll just have to embrace my large hot rollers that I use a couple times a week for my straight, but full of body and curves style.

My daughter,tiffany pendants, who inherited her dad’s color and my straight locks, was sold on the Pro Beauty Tool from the first try. She walked into my bedroom proclaiming she was keeping it. For the days we had the tool for testing, she used it every morning and was pleased with the relative ease with which she could tame her hair into sleek submission. Now I know what’s on her birthday wish list.

– Rebecca Killian

Most hair straighteners will heat up fairly quickly and leave you with smooth, just-out-of-the-salon sleek hair. Other straighteners leave you with the same look, but for far less effort — the new ceramic iron from PRO Beauty Tools does just that.

The iron heats up and is ready to go in just a few minutes,tiffany money clips, making short work of a sometimes daunting task. At 1-inch wide, I did have my doubts about how long it would take for me to make it through my extremely thick hair, but I was happily surprised by the iron.

I also appreciated how long the electric cord is — 9 feet — more than enough room to stand away from the outlet and not risk a severe burn — something I’ve done many times.

I really liked using the PRO Beauty Tools ceramic iron and would recommend it to anyone in search of a new iron.