Obviously one of the main staples of celebrity magazines is to get shots of famous actresses out and about in public places with or without their latest main squeeze.  And it doesn’t matter if these attractive stars are at a movie premiere or just casually dressed grabbing their morning cup of coffee. So it is not a surprised for a celeb to be caught on camera with another type of lovey-dovey squeeze – their pet dog.

These may be the happiest of shots celebs enjoy. In fact if they were editors and had to choose what goes into these consumer magazines I would suspect overwhelming approval of these light-hearted moments with their animals. And we love them for it. We the reader can relate to a movie star cuddling their pet because we Americans have pets of our own and love them too. So who cares if an actress bombs in a movie. We still love them because they are still a dog lover.

Let’s face it celebrity dogs led a charm and glamorous life. They eat well. They have all the play toys money can buy. And they often share a bed with a star. Not a bad life for a furry critter. Celebs also choose names for their pets that are fun like – Buttermilk, Tinkerbell, Flossie, Nipper, Manly, and the occasional celeb names like Hemingway andFrank Sinatra.

Finally Red Sox Nation and baseball fans in general can rejoice in the entry of Jim Rice in baseball’s Hall of Fame. During his tenure as a left fielder for the Sox, Jim was known as one of the most feared hitters in any line-up American League or National League. Jim made his major league debut in 1954 and had a career that saw him voted to the All-Stars for 8 years. He retired from the game with a batting average of just shy of 300 with a 298, 382 home runs with over 1400 runs batted in.

The year was 1978 and Jim Rice had a monster year at the plate. He was rewarded the MVP after leading the league in seven offensive categories. He batted 315 average hit 46 home runs, drove in a total 139 rbis.  Back then before the steroid era those numbers are staggering, but even more so was the fact in that same MVP year Jim had 15 triples.

Jim’s career was shortened by injuries to his knees and elbow. If it were not for the injuries Jim’s career stats would have been even more impressive. Maybe that’s what took him so long to get into the Hall, but now that he’s in the game of baseball is better for it.

Sometimes one never gets a chance to see beauty until its too late. Sometimes that beauty comes in the form of a photograph by someone not at all familiar to many of us. But upon discovery of such photographs by a photographer whose works once graced the covers of fashion magazines is not unusual.

Many photographers’ careers mark a specific time past that no longer gets media attention. Yet these accomplished photographers from their day are now seeing the fruits of their labor come full circle. They are being rewarded with a publication of their work in beautiful designed art books or are having their work prominently exhibited on gallery walls.

One such fashion photographer is Lillian Bassman who was an important figure in the world of fashion since the 40’s. Ms. Bassman who is now 92 was frequently published in Harper’s Bazaar. Her unique editorial style in the early 1960’s showed beautiful women indifferent to mens attention when often shot in the same frame. Women came off as powerful, dominant creatures willingly taking over the visual to a viewer’s concerning eye.

She also worked extensively in the advertising field photographing lingerie where she depicted elegant models looking comfortable in an undergarment as they would have if they were wearing the latest couture designer dress.

Pop artist Andy Warhol who coined the phrased “fifteen minutes of fame” was a larger than life public figure. He began his journey into the arts as a commercial illustrator before he became one of the leading artist to introduce to the world an art movement called “pop art”. Andy was not only an accomplished painter, but he also was a distinguished filmmaker making avant-garde underground films shot mostly in his studio called The Factory.

Pop Art challenged traditional art by taking popular cultural icons and mass producing them in mix media formats – two-dimensional on canvas and paper as well as third dimensional sculptures. Through silkscreen, artists appropriated American culture from everyday products to comic books. In his earliest of shows Andy displayed his famous Campbell’s Soup Cans. Pop artists  like Claes Oldenburg took familiar icons and made over-the-top public sculptures. Roy Lichenstein transformed snippets from comic books and popular advertising slogans and made that his art. Jasper Johns Americana icons were flags, maps and targets that led the art community away from Abstract Expressionism toward Pop Art and Minimalism.

Today Pop Art can be seen in reproductions from children’s pajamas to t-shirts in low-cost department stores worldwide. So the movement lives but it’s not quite the same as when these American giants ruled the art world.

When was the last time you stopped in on one of your favorite big box retail bookstores? Try finding your way over to the cookbook section of the store and you’ll discover the wide, over-flowing assortment of cookbook titles. The shelves are jam-packed with hundreds of beautiful, big, coffee table worthy cookbooks. Some names and titles will sound familiar while others not so much. Why the American love-fest with celebrity chefs and their cookbooks? Do buyers actually read them or do they buy the books so that their modern kitchens look more like magazine spreads?

Americans look up to chefs as stars who can do things we can’t. The appeal comes not so much in what they’re making, but how they make it. It’s easy, graceful and even sexy. Who doesn’t want an attractive, gregarious, caring, passionate person in their kitchen? Someone who is equally handy with a knife or a hot pan? It’s fantasy. Whatever the reason for purchase, there doesn’t seem to be a let up of titles. As long as chefs have book agents who find new spins on their strengths (and the fabulous photographers), there is a profit to be made.

Regional fare reigns queen of the cookbooks. Italian, southern, Indian and Asian all have plenty of representation on the shelves right next to slow cooker cooking and even cooking on your hot car engine. What could possibly be covered next? No doubt, chefs will have us dipping our bread in EVOO and whipping up a tamale pie without even breaking a sweat.