By Elizabeth Olson, New York Times

When Tom Cataldi had to leave his hurricane-damaged house in Philadelphia in September, he was definitely not up for camping out, even temporarily. He wanted all the comforts of home in his new lodgings — and more, with no distractions.

“I had to oversee the repairs, but I also had to do my job,” said Cataldi, 44, human resources manager for a global investment company, whose house walls were buckling from rain dumped by Hurricane Irene.

So he headed nearby, to the sort of quiet, luxurious digs preferred by celebrities, actors and other affluent people seeking privacy, comfort and a generous dollop of pampering, whether they are working away from home, divorcing, renovating or relocating. He checked into a condominium-like residence on Rittenhouse Square, run by Korman Communities to cater to those who can afford well more than $200 a night for long periods and do not want to stay in a hotel.

Cataldi has breakfast at the first-floor cafe and leaves the cleaning — and the luxurious sheets — to the maid service. He can work out in the building’s fitness center, stop in at its social gatherings or, for an extra charge, avail himself of wine tutorials or other lifestyle courses arranged by the staff. And since Cataldi has no lease, he can leave whenever he wants.

Longer-term or extended-stay residences, which were developed decades ago, used to mean only corporate housing near office parks. Often drab affairs with kitchens but little else, they did not offer the amenities or residential ambiance that higher-income people wanted in lodgings for longer stays. “People want a more homey feel,” said Jan Freitag, vice president of Smith Travel Research, which tracks lodging data nationwide.

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By Kathryn Reed

STATELINE – Generating room nights. That’s the overall goal of the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority.

If the South Shore tourism agency can get people to spend the night, it means hotel taxes for Douglas County and South Lake Tahoe, probably sales tax for both entities, and those same people spending dollars in restaurants, on recreational activities, spa treatments, you name it.

With a budget of $4.3 million – 43 percent of which comes from the Tahoe Douglas Visitors Authority and 41percent from the South Lake Tahoe Tourism Improvement District – the LTVA is spending more on luring people to the area.

The celebrity golf tournament each July in Stateline remains one of LTVA's main events. Photo/LTN file

Carol Chaplin, executive director of the LTVA as well as the TDVA, gave a presentation last week to Soroptimist International South Lake Tahoe about the rebranding of the area as Tahoe South as well as an update on the agency.

She is slated to be one of the first presenters to the South Lake Tahoe City Council on March 6. The agenda for the 9am meeting at Lake Tahoe Airport says she will talk about destination marketing, the past year and current initiatives.

Tahoe South is something Lake Tahoe News first wrote about in December, but is something that has been in the works for a while.

In the first month of LTVA’s relaunched website, the number of unique visitors has increased by 13 percent. The site gets about 300,000 page views a month.

While putting heads in beds is the ultimate goal, the other goals of the LTVA are to spur economic growth, attract visitors, and build awareness and appreciation for Lake Tahoe’s natural environment.

The South Shore and North Shore work together on many levels, but when it comes to attracting the drive-up market they are competitors.

“Cross-over to the wild side” is LTVA’s ad slogan to show that the South Shore is little bit more fun, is how Chaplin put it.

While the talk is about getting away from gaming as the focus and instead having the outdoors being the emphasis, the fact is gaming is still well represented in the promotional material LTVA publicizes.

LTVA is still in the event business, though they have to be of a bigger variety that generates those room nights.

It’s being involved with American Century Championship which attracted nearly 40,000 people in 2011 and Iron Girl triathlon that had 600 competitors in 2011 – three times what it had the first year in 2010 – that LTVA focuses on.

Chaplin said she is talking with Amgen officials about bringing the Tour de California back to Tahoe – ideally with cyclists actually riding – in 2013.

The area is one of five being considered for the Peace and Sport event.

More emphasis is also being placed on the wedding co-op to tout the area a destination for brides and grooms.

A facilities analysis was recently completed that will soon be put into a report that will give LTVA a definitive list of regional amenities to know what events it should or should not go after.

By Michael Sion, Reno Gazette-Journal

Five years ago, a 10-year-old Grant Davis was looking for something new to try. He didn’t like sports, didn’t fit in with peers and was struggling to discover his passion. What’s more, one of his siblings was battling drug addiction and Grant, the youngest of five, felt lost in the upheaval.

Then he auditioned for a musical at his hometown Brewery Arts Center in Carson City. Though he didn’t get the role, “It was kind of one of those moments when I went, ‘This is right,’” Davis says.

An even bigger moment loomed the next year when he made the cut for BAC’s Backstage Kids, singing at a jazz festival. Davis — who’d grown up listening to his parents’ records — crooned Sinatra’s “That’s Life.”

And earned a standing ovation.

“There was something about it,” Davis remembers. “I had the audience in the palm of my hand.”

His mother, Angie, recognized it, too. “I felt this overwhelming responsibility,” she says.

She began taking him to singing, acting and dance lessons, auditions and competitions.

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By Mandy Kendall

It seems that our unusually mild winter may have had at least one benefit, in the guise of a late flu season. Officials for the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced last Friday that the number of flu cases reported had just reached the tipping point used to declare the start of the flu season. This is only the second time the season, which often starts around Christmas in California, has waited until February.

I had begun to think that I might have survived another winter without succumbing to the flu, but have decided that I’m going to make sure I keep up the “flu survival tactics” for just a bit longer. I also decided to do some more research to make sure I wasn’t missing out on any other immune boosting tactics.

Mandy Kendall

Here are my top five favorite flu fighting Qwik-e (quick and easy) tips:

Rest — If you don’t feel well and you just want to crawl into bed, then try and do just that. It might not seem convenient (or even possible) with a busy schedule but, if you can, chances are a day of absolute rest will markedly shorten the time you are unwell. The body does most of its repair when you are sleeping, so try and get as much sleep as possible. It will also help prevent spreading it around to all those you come into contact with.

Hydration — Two of the main functions of water is to carry nutrients to the cells of your body and carry toxins out of the body. Sounds like a disease fighting strategy to me.

Contact — A hug is better than a handshake. We all naturally touch our faces many times during the day, so if you’ve shaken hands with someone who may have flu germs on their hands, chances are you are going to put those germs on your face. If you hug someone, there is much less chance of germ transference. However, if hugging isn’t your thing, or it’s not appropriate, just be conscientious about hand washing throughout the day. Also try and be kind to others and sneeze or cough into a tissue (or the crook of your elbow if a tissue is not to hand) rather than expelling germs into mid air or into your hands.

Don’t forget to remind kids too on the importance of hand washing and coughing and sneezing best practice.

Boost your natural defenses –– Eat plenty of colorful fresh food as it’s loaded with lots of immune boosting antioxidants and vitamins. Your body needs a wide range of nutrients, especially when fighting off disease.

Sugar — Sugar significantly lowers the functioning of your immune system so limit, or avoid, sugar intake as much as possible. Also, fruit juices have high levels of sugar, so try eating the whole fruit instead for a good source of vitamin C.

As for the often-controversial topic of flu shots I shall leave that up to you. However, as I believe in information from all sides when making any decision, I found to be a useful review of the pros and cons of flu shots.

Until next time.

Mandy Kendall operates Health Connective in South Lake Tahoe. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an email at healthconnective@gmail.com, visit us on Facebook, or keep an eye out on Lake Tahoe News for regular Qwik-e tips on how to make healthy changes one Quick and Easy step at a time.

Theatre’s most devilish hypocrite comes to the Duke Theatre stage in the hit modern adaptation of Moliere’s 17th century classic comedy “Tartuffe: Born Again”.

Tartuffe is now a shamed televangelist who uses his telegenic charms to scam the wealthy Orgon into financing his new television show. Written in modern verse, this fast-paced play shines a light on religious hypocrisy and those who manipulate the media to enhance their own image and exploit the unsuspecting for personal advantage. Moliere’s legendary comedic characters are delightfully at home in this modern day version that played at New York’s Circle in the Square.

Performances: March 9, 10, 15, 16, 17 at 8pm; March 11 and 18 at 2pm on the campus of Lake Tahoe Community College in South Lake Tahoe.

Cost is $10 general admission, $7 for seniors, $5 for children under 13 and students with a current student body card.

For more information, click on the poster.

National Women’s History Month’s roots go back to March 8, 1857, when women from New York City factories staged a protest over working conditions. International Women’s Day was first observed in 1909, but it wasn’t until 1981 that Congress established National Women’s History Week to be commemorated the second week of March.

In 1987, Congress expanded the week to a month. Every year since, Congress has passed a resolution for Women’s History Month, and the president has issued a proclamation.

The number of females in the United States according to the 2010 Census is 157 million. The number of males was 151.8 million. At 85 and older, there were more than twice as many women as men.

The estimated number of mothers in the United States in 2009 was 85.4 million.

The median annual earnings of women 15 or older who worked year-round, full time, in 2010, was $36,931 – the same as it was in 2009.

The umber of women 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2010 was 30.7 million. This compares to 29.2 million men.

Women had a larger share of high school diplomas (including equivalents), as well as associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees. More men than women had a professional or doctoral degree.

Revenue for women-owned businesses in 2007 was $1.2 trillion. In that year, there were 7.8 million women-owned businesses.

By Geralda Miller, Reno Gazette-Journal

Many of the Basque sheepherders who spent the summer months in the early 20th century in the Sierra Nevada used the aspen trees as their canvases.

With a pocket knife or nail as their tool, the men who came to the West from the Pyrenees region between France and Spain would carve figures into the soft skin of the tree.

They depicted the animals that lived around them in the forest, religious symbols, old-country homesteads, women in various stages of dress and undress — some erotic, some elegant in attire of the period.

Some reflect ancient stone art while others evoke the styles of Pablo Picasso or Henri Matisse.

Because of the nudes and images of people engaged in erotic activities, for years, many people, including the Basques, did not appreciate the artistic expressions. Today, they are recognized as a cultural phenomenon.

“People used to think of it just as graffiti,” said Sheryln Hayes-Zorn, acting director of the Nevada Historical Society. “But I think people now realize it’s an art form of culture, of a group of young men that lived out in Nevada while working with the sheep. It is very simplistic, but there’s a lot of detail. I think it’s a study of humanity of people as well as of a culture, showing what these young men were longing for or missing or seeing in nature.”

While the aspen groves are the original art galleries, reproductions of 38 of the carvings are on exhibit through April 14 in the main hall of the Nevada Historical Society.

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Bona Fide Books is offering a two-day session “So You Want to Write and/or Illustrate a Children’s Book. Now What?” at Bona Fide HQ in Meyers on March 22 from 7-9pm and March 24 from 10am-2:30pm.

Writer and illustrator Kristen Schwartz will lead this two-part session aimed toward helping writers and illustrators of children’s, middle grade and young adult books find their footing in the publishing industry. The Thursday session is a Q&A and a breakdown of top tips and tricks for creating and submitting marketable work for younger audiences.

This session is free and open to the public, to be followed by a $75 intensive, personalized class on Saturday. Part two will include familiarizing writers and illustrators with industry tools and the query process, and working directly with attendees on how to publish their personal projects.

Space is limited. Call (530) 573.1513 to reserve a spot.

By Carlos Alcalá, Sacramento Bee

The tale of the Wakamatsu Colony is well-known in Japan, but obscure in California – though it took place right here.

Placerville poet Brigit Truex is making a small effort to change that.

Truex’s book, “Strong as Silk,” was published this month, telling the Wakamatsu story in an unusual combination of fiction and haiku.

In the late 1860s, a group of samurai-class men and women – losers in a Japanese civil war – established the colony in rural El Dorado County and tried to produce silk and tea. It was the first Japanese settlement in North America.

A few years ago, Truex came across a news article about the colony.

“I never heard this story,” she said. “It just sort of caught my eye.”

She began to write some poems and do some research to learn more about it.

Whether through bad planning, bad weather or sabotage, the colony had failed after a few years and its inhabitants scattered with hardly a trace.

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Publisher’s note: This is reprinted from the September-October 1988 Lake Tahoe Historical Society newsletter.

Translucent green water, sheer cliffs, a spectacular waterfall, pines that march down to the water’s edge, Emerald Bay has always drawn visitors to revel in its beauty. Called “the most beautiful inland harbor in the world”, this western arm of Lake Tahoe with its abundance of natural attributes also contains the only true island on the lake.

We do not know what the Washoe called it but it was Eagle Bay by the 1860s, so named for the American Eagles that nested on its southern shore. A pretentious villa and wharf were built at the head of the bay in 1863 by millionaire transportation magnate Ben Holladay. The care-taker of this first summer residence was the first person to live there year round.

Painters, tourists, camera enthusiasts and reporters began to spread the fame of this jewel in the Sierra about the time its name was listed on an 1874 map as Emerald Bay. It became a favorite summer resort and excursion destination by 1880. With the completion of the Rim of the Lake road, Emerald Bay could be seen from above, an even more spectacular and moving experience than entering its protected waters. By 1920, there was a permanent resort on its shores with cottages, steamer landing, post office and dance pavilion. Vikingsholm, another villa built near Eagle creek in 1928, is now open to tours and maintained by the NPS.

In 1910, a scheme was proposed that would provide water for Nevada farmers by lowering the level of the lake by almost five feet. It was feared that this plan, abandoned for many reasons, would have cut Emerald Bay off from the rest of the lake Over the years, its slopes have been denuded by logging and slashed by massive slides. It has frozen over and has been the site of more than one wrecked boat. It now draws more tourists each day than the roads or parking lots can handle. In spite of it all, Emerald Bay will always remain the most dramatic and scenic spot in an area of spectacular beauty.