Womenality

I always dream of visiting Japan. Since I was 6, I knew Japan, based on my dad’s stories (because he used to work in NNN – Nippon News Network based in Japan as an assistant camera man) from his bosses as a beautiful, cold and well developed country. He is no longer connected to the company (not sure if the company still exists today) but he has a lot of Japanese guests visiting the Philippines each time. He is now running a small rent-a-car business and never got the chance to go to Japan, even once for his more than 10 years of service in NNN. Yeah, it was sad!

As I grow older and until now, he always share his stories about Japan and its people. From then on, I became so interested in Japan that I would read info about it.So when I started this blog, we planned in going but for visa reasons and high airfare, we are holding back this dream for sometime. I love to talk about Japan in my blog!

Yesterday, I read from twitter that Japan will be offering 10,00 free airfare by next year and I so love to go! This is not yet my entry but I definitely want to see the Cherry Blossoms, My Fuji, Tokyo Disneyland and eat authentic Takoyaki! My dad and I love Japanese food and it’s really nice to know such opportunity will be given to tourists like us, despite of the tragedy that happened in March 11. I can’t really wait to send my application and have my first step on the land of the rising sun!

The story is also posted here http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/10/japan-free-airfare-fukushima-nuclear-power-tsunami.html.

“Designing Women” star Dixie Carter, whose Southern charm and natural beauty won her a host of television roles, has died at age 70.

Carter died Saturday morning, according to publicist Steve Rohr, who represents Carter and her husband, actor Hal Holbrook. He declined to disclose the cause of death or where she died. Carter lived with Holbrook in the Los Angeles area.

“This has been a terrible blow to our family,” Holbrook said in a written statement. “We would appreciate everyone understanding that this is a private family tragedy.”

A native of Tennessee, Carter was most famous for playing wisecracking Southerner Julia Sugarbaker for seven years on “Designing Women,” the CBS sitcom that ran from 1986 to 1993. The series was the peak of a career in which she often played wealthy and self-important but independent Southern women.

She was nominated for an Emmy in 2007 for her seven-episode guest stint on the ABC hit “Desperate Housewives.”

Carter’s other credits include roles on the series “Family Law” and “Diff’rent Strokes.”

She married Holbrook in 1984. The two had met four years earlier while making the TV movie “The Killing of Randy Webster,” and although attracted to one another, each had suffered two failed marriages and were wary at first.

They finally wed two years before Carter landed her role on “Designing Women.” Holbrook appeared on the show regularly in the late 1980s as her boyfriend, Reese Watson.

The two appeared together in her final project, the 2009 independent film “That Evening Sun,” shot in Tennessee and based on a short story by Southern novelist William Gay.

The middle of three children, Carter was born in 1939 in McLemoresville, Tenn.

Carter was the daughter of a grocery and department store owner who died just three years ago at 96. She said at the time of his death that he taught her to believe in people’s essential goodness.

“When I asked him how he handled shoplifting in his new store, which had a lot of goods on display, making it impossible to keep an eye on everything, he said, ‘Most people are honest, and if they weren’t, you couldn’t stay in business because a thief will find a way to steal,’” Carter said. “‘You can’t really protect yourself, but papa and I built our business believing most people are honest and want to do right by you.’”

Carter grew up in Carroll County and made her stage debut in a 1960 production of “Carousel” in Memphis. It was the beginning of a decades-long stage career in which she relied on her singing voice as much as her acting.

She appeared in TV soap operas in the 1970s, but did not become a national star until her recurring roles on “Diff’rent Strokes” and another series, “Filthy Rich,” in the 1980s.

Those two parts led to her role on “Designing Women,” a comedy about the lives of four women at an interior design firm in Atlanta.

Carter and Delta Burke played the sparring sisters who ran the firm. The series also starred Annie Potts and Jean Smart.

The show, whose reruns have rarely left the airwaves, was not a typical sitcom. It tackled such topics as sexism, ageism, body image and AIDS.

“It was something so unique, because there had never been anything quite like it,” Potts told The Associated Press at a 2006 cast reunion. “We had Lucy and Ethel, but we never had that exponentially expanded, smart, attractive women who read newspapers and had passions about things and loved each other and stood by each other.”

Carter appeared on the drama “Family Law” from 1999 to 2002, and in her last major TV appearance she played Gloria Hodge, the surly mother-in-law to Marcia Cross’s Bree on “Desperate Housewives.”

Carter said the role was far from the kindly woman she played on “Designing Women.”

“It’s a vast difference,” Carter said while filming the series. “Gloria Hodge doesn’t have any redeeming qualities except her intelligence.”

In addition to Holbrook, Carter is survived by daughters Mary Dixie and Ginna.

Source: By ANDREW DALTON, Associated Press Writer  Sun Apr 11, 6:31 AM PDT

34-year-old West Australian Chanelle Carter was killed, along with two others, in a cycling accident yesterday in Spain.

The Spanish news website El Mundo is reporting that a group of 60 cyclists was polughed into by a van near Tarragona, south of Barcelona.

Ms Carter was in the group and El Mundo reports she was taken to hospital where she died from her injuries.

Alcoa confirmed that the 34-year-old was employed by the company.

The crash comes five years after 29-year-old South Australian Amy Gillett was killed and two of her Australian teammates critically injured when a driver ploughed into the elite cycling team during a training run in Germany.

The CEO of the Amy Gillett Foundation, Tony Fox, says his heart goes out to the woman’s family, friends and riding companions.

Mr Fox says the deaths are a tragic reminder of the need for awareness from motorists.

“Whilst the details are sketchy at the moment, the tragic deaths of these three people, one being an Australian, just highlight the need for motorists to be more aware and respectful of cyclists on our roads and obviously that’s not just in Australia but all around the world.”

Chanelle Carter’s former coach Ray Boyd says she was a determined and dedicated athlete.

“Everything she did with athletics she worked really hard to achieve,” he said.

“She didn’t have a natural flowing style, but just through sheer determination she achieved the results she did and went on to represent the state at national events.”

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says consular staff from the Australian embassy in Madrid are assisting the woman’s travelling companions.

Australian officials will offer assistance to her family in WA.

Source:www.abc.net.au