pistachio recall

pistachio recall due to contamination worries. Here we go again with another food recall. Earlier on March 27 the California Department of Public Health had announced that it had been investigating the pistachio recall from a CA supplier. According to naomistarkman FDA held conf call at 7pm ET to announce expansion of pistachio recall, said consumers shouldn't eat any pistachios until more info is known.

According to CBS report "Food safety officials are looking through Setton Farms' plant in rural Tulare County to see if it could lead them to the source of the contamination. The recalls began last Friday when the Georgia Nut Company recalled its Kraft Back to Nature Nantucket Blend trail mix after some samples tested positive for salmonella. Setton Farms has started a separate recall of roasted pistachios, and grocery operator Kroger also has recalled some pistachio products."

Emaxhealth reports that this latest pistachio recall is involving one million pound, thus adding to the Salmonella worries, that periodically make news in the recent years. "What's up with nuts? First peanut butter, now a pistachio recall? Government conspiracy to quash a nut uprising? You decide," Twits graywes.

Helen Levitt

Helen Levitt, who died Sunday, was my muse. She was the slightly underappreciated member of the great '40s generation of photographers; profiles always mention that she was "friends" with James Agee and Walker Evans, as if she couldn't stand alone. She always said, girlishly, that she was too shy and tech-phobic to be a photojournalist, although that's essentially what she was.

She roamed the poorer neighborhoods of New York and captured what I always think of as the theater of hanging out. She loved to photograph people on the stoop wearing exaggerated expressions—crying or laughing so hard they look like they're faking it. Often "props" appear in her photos—a cardboard cutout of the president or a strange figure drawn on the street in chalk. Her many photos of children had none of the poster cuteness of Henri Cartier-Bresson's—something I imagine she tried hard to avoid because she was a woman.

One thing she did better than any of the male masters is transition to color photography. Her contemporaries seemed scared off by bursts of street color they couldn't control but she just got better and better. In every photo in her book, Slide Show, it's hard to believe she didn't place that red balloon or those aqua shorts just so, but of course she never did. Unlike the men, she was happy to submit to the randomness.

Tim Allen

Comic actor Tim Allen is a father for the second time. Publicist Marleah Leslie says Allen's wife, Jane, gave birth to a 5-pound, 13-ounce girl, Elizabeth, on Saturday in Los Angeles. Leslie says the couple is thrilled with the new arrival, and both mother and child are healthy. The 55-year-old Allen has starred in many movies, including "The Santa Clause" and "Toy Story," and the TV series "Home Improvement."

Tim Allen had better be ready for some new home improvement. The actor and wife Jane Hajduk welcomed daughter Elizabeth on Saturday in Los Angeles. The little bundle of joy checked in at 5 pounds, 13 ounces. Publicist Marleah Leslie says the couple, who married in 2006, is "thrilled" with the new arrival of Elizabeth, and both mother and child are healthy.

This is the couple's first child. The 55-year-old Tim Allen also has a 19-year-old daughter, Katherine, from his first marriage to Laura Deibel. The Allens have joined Jenna Jameson and Tito Ortiz, Carson Daly and Siri Pinter, Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller, Andrew Firestone and Ivana Bozilovic, Anne Heche and James Tupper, M.I.A. and some guy as new celeb parents this month.