As some of you might know, my wife started culinary school a few weeks ago. I am currently the primary beneficiary, indulging in the many excellent dishes, complete with delicious sauces. While I can’t share the actual food, you can share in the love of food, courtesy of the skinny chef, at SkinnyChef.com

In the SkinnyChef Diary - updated weekly - Jen shares her thoughts on food, health, wine, and the joys of living. It’s the editorial side to SkinnyChef and a chance for her to share great stories about friends, culinary professionals, and everyday people who have a real passion for food and life.

After much wait, DKNY has finally released their 18-min movie about life in New York. Interesting twists and turns, garnished with some fabulous fashion. Check out the movie…

Worth watching. It’s an 18 minute short film featuring two megamodels (Sophie Dahl and Michelle Hicks) and one supermodel (Angela Lindvall) wearing a nice sampling of DKNY’s line. The movie is 3″ X 5″, larger than the usual 1″ X 2″ format, and does break down into pixels whenever someone moves fast, but it’s quite watchable.

Is it Roquefort if it is not from Roquefort, France? Is it Chianti if it is not from Chianti, Italy?

The European Union says no, and has had laws for years reserving the use of many such geographic indications exclusively to farmers and producers in the associated places. But many countries outside the union have treated the terms as generic descriptions and allowed their own producers to use them freely, and, in some cases, even register them as trademarks.

I can’t believe it - Canadian online pharmacies started to take out full page ads in mainstream American magazines, trying to make inroads with American customers looking to spend less. The ads’ tag line reads “You should be able to afford your medication every day. Start saving money and living better.”

This comes just on the heels of the legislative battle about drug reimportation. I admit that much: (a) this debate is ultimately about money, although I won’t deny that drug reimportation will make it much harder to safeguard the quality of prescription medicines; (b) merely fingerpointing at Canada and Germany, where cheaper prescription drugs are available, disregards the economic reality that their lower drug prices come at the cost of higher taxes. In effect, the entire population subsidizes cheap drugs for a few.

How about that? Let’s raise taxes for all Americans by 10% to finance social security, pension funds and medical expenses for seniors….

The Social Security Administration published in 1998 a brief study on the distribution of given names of Social Security number holders. It makes for some interesting read, particularly because it includes various top ten lists: Most popular names by year, by sex, by decade. Check out the listings…

With more and more digital cameras coming onto the market, and prices coming down, I get asked one question in particular: So, which camera should I choose? Well, the authoritative voice in this matter can be found at Digital Camera Reviews, certainly the #1 source for your question. Check out the listings…

More from my travels on the internet: Friendster is an online community that connects people through networks of friends for dating or making new friends. Putting another spin on things. Take the tour…

The web is ripe with talented artists. Check out Ken’s FOXX & DUCKY section, harmless and sweet animations that will make your day. Check it out…

Fishing around on halfproject.com, I came across this true gem: how to do real sightseeing in NYC, on a budget of just $10! Upon reading this article by Cia B., I have to admit - she really knows what she is recommending. At any rate, I’ll have my next visitors follow her advice…

Imagine your outrage if the government made it illegal to protect your wallet from pickpockets. Yet this is life on the economic streets for pharmaceutical companies that apply for “ancillary” patents to protect and extend their exclusive rights to profit from drugs they discovered. Bristol-Myers Squibb, for example, recently was fined $680 million for using such devices to protect the patents on its anti-anxiety drug BuSpar and on its cancer drug Taxol. Pfizer was criticized for receiving a patent extension on its epilepsy drug Neurontin. And the Federal Trade Commission has barred the Canadian drug company Biovail from using ancillary patent filings to protect its heart drug Tiazac.

The whole patent piracy topic has been dear to my heart - so I was delighted to find some commentary in Barron’s in their June 2 edition. Since I am pretty sure that you won’t have any access to the article’s online version, read it here on iserloh.com…