Mediaboss Marketing

A place to relax ... an Iranian woman emerges from the water after riding a jetski at Kish Island. Photo: Getty Images

As the scorching rays of the Middle Eastern sun bore down, I plunged into the sea, desperately happy to feel cool water against my skin. I had been wrapped in a hijab all day in 45-degree heat. A dip at the beach offered the only respite.

But in the Islamic Republic of Iran, women must not show their hair or skin, let alone wear bikinis in public. A woman caught wearing a miniskirt could be sentenced to 50 lashes. Could wearing a bikini land me in jail?

With its white-sand beaches, tax-free shopping and luxury hotels, Kish Island is the Iranian equivalent of Hawaii or Bali. It's well known for being more relaxed than the mainland and is popular with holidaying Persians. Iranian women can be a bit more carefree, mingling with the opposite sex, riding jet skis and walking on the beach with their headscarves loosened and trousers rolled up. But this island is no Ibiza. The strict laws of the Islamic regime apply.

Advertisement: Story continues below

Dancing is forbidden, as I discovered while watching a live Farsi band at a restaurant. Iranians make do with clapping their hands to the music.

Though beachside touts offered me bootleg booze in whispered hisses ("Absolut vodka? Johnnie Walker?"), alcohol is otherwise illegal, meaning no pina coladas by the pool. And while the island is surrounded by calm beaches fringed by swaying palm trees, men and women are forbidden to swim together. A bikini in public? It seemed unlikely.

There is one place on the island where bikinis and skimpy thongs are permitted, however: behind the three-metre walls of a women-only beach.

Eager to escape the sweaty confines of my hijab, I paid the entrance fee and passed a security desk, staffed by uniformed female security guards, to ensure no cameras or mobile phones made it past the gate.

Beyond the doors was a beach that could have been anywhere in the world. The sand was lined with umbrellas and towels. A kiosk served cold drinks and food. There was even a scuba diving centre.

See the original post here:
From hijab to skimpy bikini: behind the walled beach

When Freddy and Lori Rongier opened Paris 66 in 2009, they had large aspirations but limited means. They couldn't afford much professional equipment in the small Penn Circle space, said Mr. Rongier, so chef Cesar Dubs devised a menu of crepes, salads and a few specials.

The popular restaurant grew profitable, and the Rongiers put that money right back into the business, buying a range and hood, and building a pastry kitchen into the basement, so that Paris 66, still a creperie during the day, could become a full-scale French bistro at night.

Paris 66

Food:

Service:

Atmosphere:

Overall:

Recommended dishes: Beef carpaccio, endive and beet salad, chicken basquaise, carre d'agneau aux truffes, champ de mars galette, passion fruit mousse, la trocadero crepe.

As the restaurant changed, so the did the staff. After Mr. Dubs' visa expired, he returned to France, and Larry Laffont took over the kitchen in early 2011. Mr. Laffont, originally from the Bordeaux region in France, had previously worked in a number of Pittsburgh restaurants, heading up the kitchen at Le Perroquet in Shadyside (now closed), as well as Dish Osteria, Mallorca and Ibiza on the South Side, before leaving the city for several years.

The much-expanded menu hits all the highlights of classic bistro cooking: Escargot in parsley butter, beef carpaccio, duck confit, etc. In spirit, if not precisely in cuisine, it conjures up a casual dinner in Paris, the long narrow space filled with laughter and conversation, the food a delicious reminder of our long love affair with simple French cooking.

Originally posted here:
Paris 66, once a creperie, is now a full-scale French bistro

By Max Abelson - Wed Feb 29 19:42:53 GMT 2012

Raul Belinchon/Gallerystock.com

Photographer: Raul Belinchon/Gallerystock.com

On the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

On the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg

Euro Pacific Capital Inc. via Bloomberg

Andrew Schiff, director of communications and marketing at Euro Pacific Capital Inc.

Andrew Schiff, director of communications and marketing at Euro Pacific Capital Inc. Source: Euro Pacific Capital Inc. via Bloomberg

Andrew Schiff was sitting in a traffic jam in California this month after giving a speech at an investment conference about gold. He turned off the satellite radio, got out of the car and screamed a profanity.

Im not Zen at all, and when Im freaking out about the situation, where Im stuck like a rat in a trap on a highway with no way to get out, its very hard, Schiff, director of marketing for broker-dealer Euro Pacific Capital Inc., said in an interview.

Go here to see the original:
Wall Street Bonus Withdrawal Means Cheap Chex

Andrew Schiff was sitting in a traffic jam in California this month after giving a speech at an investment conference about gold. He turned off the satellite radio, got out of the car and screamed a profanity.

"I'm not Zen at all, and when I'm freaking out about the situation, where I'm stuck like a rat in a trap on a highway with no way to get out, it's very hard," Schiff, director of marketing for broker-dealer Euro Pacific Capital Inc., said in an interview.

Schiff, 46, is facing another kind of jam this year: Paid a lower bonus, he said the $350,000 he earns, enough to put him in the country's top 1 percent by income, doesn't cover his family's private-school tuition, a Kent, Connecticut, summer rental and the upgrade they would like from their 1,200-square- foot Brooklyn duplex.

"I feel stuck," Schiff said. "The New York that I wanted to have is still just beyond my reach."

The smaller bonus checks that hit accounts across the financial-services industry this month are making it difficult to maintain the lifestyles that Wall Street workers expect, according to interviews with bankers and their accountants, therapists, advisers and headhunters.

"People who don't have money don't understand the stress," said Alan Dlugash, a partner at accounting firm Marks Paneth & Shron LLP in New York who specializes in financial planning for the wealthy. "Could you imagine what it's like to say I got three kids in private school, I have to think about pulling them out? How do you do that?"

Bonus Caps

Facing a slump in revenue from investment banking and trading, Wall Street firms have trimmed 2011 discretionary pay. At Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Barclays Capital, the cuts were at least 25 percent. Morgan Stanley (MS) capped cash bonuses at $125,000, and Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) increased the percentage of deferred pay.

"It's a disaster," said Ilana Weinstein, chief executive officer of New York-based search firm IDW Group LLC. "The entire construct of compensation has changed."

Most people can only dream of Wall Street's shrinking paychecks. Median household income in 2010 was $49,445, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, lower than the previous year and less than 1 percent of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein's $7 million restricted-stock bonus for 2011. The percentage of Americans living in poverty climbed to 15.1 percent, the highest in almost two decades.

Continued here:
Bonus Withdrawal Puts Bankers in "Malaise"

MILTON KEYNES, England, March 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

The executive class 2012 SEAT Exeo is now available in the Spanish brand's UK showrooms nationwide with even more style, economy and refinement available to savvy saloon and estate buyers.

SEAT's much-admired Exeo saloon and Exeo ST Estate range boasts a new look and some important engineering upgrades.

The 2012 cars' revised 'face' - with new bi-xenon headlights and stunning LED daytime running lights (standard on Sport models and optional on SE spec cars) - ensures it once again cuts a real dash in the executive car park.

The styling enhancements, boosted by smart new alloy wheel designs, further underline the high value SEAT Exeo Estate range's premium look while upgrades to interior materials - including improved leather on the steering wheel and revised upholstery - create a matching premium feel.

Meanwhile, improvements to the high quality SEAT saloon and estate's 2.0 TDI common rail power plant see emissions cut to as little as 129 g/km. Economy is similarly improved, too, with the Exeo saloon now being capable of as much as 58.9 mpg on the EU's combined cycle.

The Exeo's elegant styling upgrades, allied to SEAT's on-going commitment to improving quality and fuel economy, as well as reducing emissions, are already generating even more interest in the range. The luxurious saloon and estate car line-up is the Spanish brand's third best-seller in the UK behind the perennially popular Ibiza super-mini and Leon five-door family hatch.

As 2012 unfolds the Exeo family is set for even more upgrades, too, with the likely arrival of an Ecomotive version. SEAT's cleanest, greenest and most fuel efficient cars all bear the Ecomotive moniker and are synonymous with environmental efficiency. The Ibiza Ecomotive, for instance, emits just 92 g/km of CO2 while the Leon Ecomotive is hot on its heels with a road tax and London congestion charge-busting CO2 figure of just 99 g/km.

The forthcoming Exeo Ecomotive will boast many of the same technologies that make its Ecomotive siblings such frugal propositions. SEAT's effortless Start/Stop technology, for instance, will help deliver even more fuel efficiency.

SEAT is targeting an ambitious CO2 figure of less than 120 g/km for the Start/Stop-equipped Exeo which will, of course, enhance its appeal to both environmentally-conscious private buyers and UK fleet managers who demand such low car emissions levels from even their executive models.

Link:
2012 SEAT Exeo Glides Into Showrooms