Latest news with #Oster
New York Times
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
For Two Octogenarians, First Came Romance, Then a Dream Home
When Kathryn Leigh Scott met Patrick Ralph Oster for the first time for lunch in February 2019, she was immediately drawn in by his eyes. 'They're just alive and sparkly,' she said. 'I thought, oh, this will be fun.' Ms. Scott, 82, hadn't been romantically interested in anyone since her husband had died from degenerative nerve disease in 2011, but she agreed to meet Mr. Oster at her friend Linda Yellin's suggestion. On the surface, the purpose of the lunch at Mozzarella & Vino in Midtown Manhattan was for Mr. Oster and Ms. Scott to exchange notes on each other's manuscripts. At the time, Ms. Scott was writing her novel, 'September Girl,' and Mr. Oster was working on 'The Obituary Writer: A Murder Novel.' But Ms. Scott knew Ms. Yellin had ulterior motives. 'Linda is quite the matchmaker,' Ms. Scott said. Mr. Oster, 80, had also been reluctant to date after the death of his wife in 2017 from cancer; however, after some background research, he became intrigued by Ms. Scott, who has worked as an actress for more than 60 years, beginning with a role as Maggie Evans and Josette DuPres on the cult TV series, 'Dark Shadows,' which aired from 1966 to 1971. 'I wasn't crawling around the bars looking for love,' Mr. Oster said. 'But I saw what Kathryn's life story was and I thought, wait a minute, this could be more interesting than, 'What do you think of Chapter 1?'' Ms. Scott was born in Robbinsdale, Minn., and spent a few years after World War II living in Vikebukt, Norway, where her family was from. She graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York in 1964 and worked as a bunny at the Playboy Club in New York City starting in 1963 at age 19, an experience she wrote about in her 1998 book, 'The Bunny Years,' for which she interviewed more than 200 other former Bunnies. She has acted in 'Star Trek,' 'Magnum P.I.,' 'Police Squad!' and 'Dynasty' and many other TV shows and films, and written several books. She currently stars on a fiction podcast called 'What Friends Do,' about members of the entertainment industry living in a retirement home. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Boston Globe
17-06-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
By brewing with 100 percent quinoa, Meli is ‘giving beer a wellness makeover'
'That beer in Peru didn't have the typical characteristics that I associated with beer,' says Oster. 'The flavor was crisp and light, with none of the malty or bitter aftertaste that I had come to expect of beer. I also loved the health halo of a beer made from quinoa — it caught my attention and drew me in, when I normally wouldn't have been interested in drinking a beer. Get Winter Soup Club A six-week series featuring soup recipes and cozy vibes, plus side dishes and toppings, to get us all through the winter. Enter Email Sign Up 'The only issue was that the beer in Peru contained barley, and I was reducing gluten from my diet.' Advertisement Oster set out to brew a 100 percent quinoa beer. 'The first challenge we encountered at homebrew-scale was what type of quinoa to use. Quinoa exists in red, black, and white varieties, and quinoa grown in one part of the world has completely different nutritional features than quinoa from other parts of the world. So, identifying a quinoa that both tasted good and efficiently produced an alcoholic beverage was a challenge,' says Oster. Advertisement It took more than 20 test batches to brew a beer that satisfied those requirements. And then another challenge arose: because quinoa is such a small grain, adapting a recipe to fit commercial brewing equipment wasn't straightforward. It took nearly 100 formulations, according to Oster, to get it right. Brew Theory Brewery in Lowell currently brews Meli. The beer is gluten-free, has zero sugar, and contains the proteins and essential vitamins and minerals such as iron and B6 typically found in quinoa. A can of Meli even contains about 7 percent of your daily potassium. One noticeable aspect of the beer is that it tastes a little spicy, the result of using an herbaceous grain rather than the typical barley. Meli is light and crisp, like Oster says, and should make an interesting pairing with all kinds of food. Oster is 'committed to winning in our own backyard,' meaning Massachusetts. Meli beer is available at select restaurants including Uni, Catalyst, Alma Nove, and Shy Bird, as well as at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. Gary Dzen can be reached at
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sharpie, Rubbermaid marketer partners with Adobe around generative AI
This story was originally published on Marketing Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Marketing Dive newsletter. Newell Brands and Adobe are partnering to activate generative artificial intelligence (AI) with Adobe Firefly and Adobe Express, Marketing Dive can exclusively share. The consumer goods marketer is also expanding its use of Adobe's content supply chain solutions to optimize planning, content creation, activation and measurement. The partnership comes as Newell looks to continue a business transformation strategy under new CMO Nick Hammitt. Previous CMO Melanie Huet was recently promoted to co-CEO of the company's home and commercial segment. Newell Brands, a consumer good company that notched $1.6 billion in net sales in Q1 2025, is investing in marketing across channels, including social media and e-commerce, with the goal of creating five times more content while improving efficiency and effectiveness. As part of this strategy, the company has a new partnership with Adobe around its generative AI services. The partnership with Adobe is multifold. Newell's content supply chain is now powered by Adobe's generative AI solutions, including its suite of Adobe Firefly Services, that enable content creation at scale through streamlining tasks like resizing and swapping backgrounds. Newell will also use Adobe Firefly Custom Models that are trained on the marketer's proprietary assets and ensure that content creation is on-brand. Using the models for its Paper Mate brand accelerated content production by 75% and shortened time-to-market — efficiencies the marketer hopes to replicate across its portfolio. Newell has also seen early success with Adobe Express, which allows it to define templates and brand guidelines for marketing teams. Its team in Latin America used Express on the production process for Oster social content to cut the time it takes to create 52 assets by 33%, from 12 hours down to eight hours. News of the partnership comes days after Newell shuffled its executive ranks, promoting its CMO to a co-CEO role and its vice president of marketing to CMO. New CMO Hammitt will be responsible for developing and executing marketing strategies to drive brand growth, increase market share and enhance consumer engagement and conversion. The executive previously held senior roles at The Campbell's Company, PepsiCo and Unilever. 'As CMO, I look forward to working with our brand teams to deliver bold, insight-driven marketing and commercial innovation that deepens consumer engagement, drives conversion, and fuels long-term brand equity,' Hammitt said in a press release. Newell joins a list of other marketers betting on generative AI to boost content marketing, including others who are leveraging Adobe's AI services this year. Brands under the Newell umbrella include Coleman, Oster, Yankee Candle, Rubbermaid and more. In Q1 2025, Newell Brands saw net sales decline 5.3% year-over-year to $1.6 billion, with core sales declining only 2.1%. However, President and CEO Chris Peterson noted that the results were in-line or better than the company's expectations, later saying that the executive moves were part of its strategy to connect with consumers and accelerate performance of its portfolio. Recommended Reading Estée Lauder continues generative AI push with Adobe integration Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Axios
07-05-2025
- Health
- Axios
Utah moms are having babies later than ever
Utah women are waiting longer than they did two decades ago to have children. Why it matters: Increased access to fertility treatments and reliable birth control are helping more women delay parenthood, although obstacles remain to getting pregnant later in life. By the numbers: On average, moms in Utah are 29 when they give birth — up from 26.7 in 2003 and slightly younger than the national average of 29.7, according to provisional CDC data. Between the lines: Utahns are also getting hitched later. The median age of Utahns getting married for the first time was 26 in 2023, up from 24.5 in 2010, per census data. Zoom in: In 2012, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began allowing 19-year-old women to serve 18-month missions, potentially delaying marriage and childbirth, according to research from the Utah Women & Leadership Project at Utah State University. Research also suggests that parents may delay having children by three to four years in a pricey real estate market. Utah is the seventh most expensive state to buy a house. The big picture: Nationally, the birth rate for teenagers and women in their early 20s dropped to record lows in 2024, as the birth rate for women over 30 rose, per the CDC data. And women ages 30 to 34 had a higher birth rate (95.4 per 1,000 women) than those in their late 20s (91.4). What they're saying: "Fertility declines with age, but 35 is not a cliff by any stretch," Emily Oster, an economist and bestselling author of pregnancy and parenting books, tells Axios. "Plenty of people have kids in their late 30s, but it might take a little more work and you might want to be thoughtful about your timing," says Oster, who recently launched a "trying to conceive" (TTC) section on her ParentData website. Between the lines: Knowing about fertility barriers before trying to get pregnant could encourage hopeful older parents to address potential medical issues and perhaps freeze eggs for IVF — giving them a better shot at pregnancy.
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
Mom explains why she says 'no' to some kids' birthday parties
One mom is defending her recent take on RSVPing "no" to other children's birthday parties. In a late April appearance on the "We Met At Acme" podcast, "The Family Firm" author Emily Oster, an economics professor and mom of two, explained that she and her husband actively prioritize family time, adding that they sometimes say "no" to non-family activities, such as a kid's birthday party, if they're held at previously agreed upon times. "You have to decide for your family, what are the things that are important? And one way to do that is to think big picture, like, 'What are our values?' and so on, and another is just to be like, 'What do we want our days and weekends to look like?'" Oster explained in a podcast clip shared on TikTok, which has since picked up over 223,000 views. "If there were a Sunday afternoon birthday party, which is a time in which we don't generally do things as a family, I would be happy to let my kid go if they wanted. But if the birthday party is Sunday morning, which is a time that we like to go hiking or do other stuff together, it's just 'no,' and I think for me, that kind of simplicity is so important," Oster continued. Hundreds have weighed in on the TikTok post, which now has over 700 comments, with some parents agreeing with Oster's viewpoint and others strongly disagreeing. "I wasn't a no all the time but agree here, majority no's on bday parties. All of mine played very serious travel sports, time felt sacred, had to sacrifice somewhere & happy we did," one person commented. Other parents pointed out that the general rule of making collective time to spend as a family doesn't have to come at the expense of other values. "I have the opposite philosophy. If my kid gets invited, they will go. It's such an easy thing and you never know how your kid showing up will be important to the birthday kid," one TikTok user commented. "You can't hike on a Sunday afternoon instead of Sunday morning? Like yes family time but it doesn't have to be static," another person wrote. Oster, who is also the CEO of the online platform ParentData, told "Good Morning America" she hopes people listen to the podcast in full to better understand her position. "If you just said, 'My family likes to spend time together on Sunday morning,' I don't think that's a very controversial statement," Oster said, adding, "My kids go to birthday parties. My kids spend time with other students [and] kids. We have play dates, etc. It is just about, in this particular example, a way in which a family might prioritize or think about their time." She said she and her husband have kept their family time commitment with their two kids, who are now 10 and 14, "for a long time," and over the years, they've enjoyed doing a variety of activities together, from hiking and spending time outdoors to bowling. "The idea that we would like to spend some time together as a family, that is part of the core values that my husband and I share, and I think it's very similar to many other families," said Oster. Oster said she doesn't expect every parent or family to agree with her perspective but that she hopes fellow parents can take a closer look at the choices they're making for their families, and prioritize what's best for them. "It's really valuable to think about the choices that you make and that the choices that are right for you might not be the same choices that are right for everybody," she said. "What I urge people is to think about what you want your weekends to look like … so then you can make the life that you love."
