Russian ladies want "Special Introductions"...Wow, this exists for real?

Russian Dating Site ElenasModels.com Releases Survey Results "Top 10 Countries Preferred by Russian Women and Ukraine Women Seeking Western Men for Marriage"

YES FOLKS YOU READ THAT RIGHT...A PUBLIC PRESS RELEASE ABOUT MAIL-ORDER BRIDES FROM RUSSIA. YES. THAT HAPPENS.

AND IN CASE YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT RUSSIAN MAIL ORDER BRIDES LOOK LIKE, ELENAS MODELS WOULD LIKE YOU TO KNOW THEY LOOK LIKE THIS:

ElenasModels - Russian women and Ukraine women seeking men for marriage

THE TAKEAWAY:

Dating site ElenasModels.com released survey results on country preferences of Russian women and Ukraine women seeking western men for marriage with UK, USA and Switzerland topping the charts.  

Gold Coast, Australia (PRWEB) November 04, 2011

Nearly one half (49.53%) of women said they did have preferences as to the country of residence of their future partner, whilst 41% stated it was not important for them.

However, when asked what was more important, to find a man from a preferred country or to find the man of their dreams (YES THESE WOMEN WHO ARE ADVERTISING THEMSELVES FOR MARRIAGE TO A FOREIGN STRANGER EXPECT TO FIND THE "MAN OF THEIR DREAMS") regardless of where he lived, 75% of women said it was more important to find the man of their dreams.

WELL THANK GOODNESS THEY'RE NOT MONEY-GRUBBING. THANK GOODNESS THEY WOULDN'T PASS BY THE 'MAN OF THEIR DREAMS' JUST BECAUSE HE LIVES IN - GASP - NOT SWITERLAND!

When asked about global geographical regions, most Russian women and Ukraine women would give preference to men from Western Europe (92%), Northern America (75%) and Australia (58%). Eastern Europe was not far behind with 47% of women stating they would be interested in men from Eastern Europe as well.

30% of Russian women and Ukraine women said they would be interested in men from South America; Asia and Africa scored 10% and 7% respectively.

When asked about specific countries, the women were asked to mark all the countries where they wanted to meet men.

Disclaimer: (AFTERALL THIS IS SCIENCE! LET'S BE SURE WE GET THIS RIGHT!) the findings above would only reflect the dating preferences of women who decided to seek a partner abroad and not of the general population of single women in Russia and Ukraine.

PROD VIII: APPARENTLY, YOU HAVEN'T ACTUALLY COME THAT FAR, BABY

This has been a rough week...even though it is only 2 days old.  In dog years, that's like 6 months... and this week has been a dog.  At moments like these, one starts to feel hopeless--WILL the clouds ever part?  Will the sun break through?  Will my life be a long and sad series of mundane events, rejections and disappointments?  And then... I see this subject heading in my email box:


ARE YOU A JACKIE OR A MARILYN? Timeless Lessons on Love, Power, and Style


And I know everything is going to be okay.  Especially when I begin to read in a bit further:


It is an age old question. The Shapely Blonde or the Brainy Brunette? The flirty actress or the sophisticated first lady? As far back as ancient times the Madonna and the Wh*re dichotomy has made women question themselves. If it’s Marilyn men want to sleep with, but Jackie they want to marry, who should they strive to be? Can they be both? And what can one learn from these two iconic women?
In her new book, ARE YOU A JACKIE OR A MARILYN? Timeless Lessons on Love, Power, and Style (November 1,2011), New York Times bestselling author, Pamela Keogh dishes on what Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Marilyn Monroe knew that made men adore them and women want to be them.
Everything from


So, now you have to ask yourself one question: Are you the type of woman men want to sleep with and then toss aside?  OR the type they want to marry and sleep around on?  These are important questions, ladies!  


Now, It can be hard to know if you're one or the other, particularly if your hair is one of those in-between colors.  Luckily PROD offers helpful tips on how you can channel your inner Marilyn or Jackie so that you, too, can achieve the relationship bliss that they did.


Here are just a few of the helpful tips:


• How Marilyn chose jeans that made men stop and stare (and how to keep those jeans looking like new)


Never underestimate the power of JEANS, ladies.  


• How to make friends and lovers feel special (Marilyn was a big fan of hand-written notes)


YES!  The hand written note.  You should also consider dotting your "i"s with little hearts and misspelling things (men like that!).  


Once you have established yourself as a Jackie or a Marilyn, PROD offers helpful tips on entertaining!


• Dinner Party menus for the Jackie and the Marilyn (including an updated daiquiri recipe)


Thank God, because my daiquiri recipe is WAY DUSTY!  I have the distinct feeling the Marilyn recipe is something SENSUAL like Steak Diane with flourless chocolate cake!...while the Jackie meal is probably poached salmon with asparagus and a fruit cup.  Because Jackie is sensible and thinks about things like cholesterol and fiber iuntake and Marilyn is all about sexily letting loose and wearing the right jeans.


I am scheduling interviews for Pamela Keogh.  She is available:
Tuesday, Novemeber 1, 2011 from 7 am to 4 pm PT
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 from 7 am to 11 am PT
With fun, useful advice on style, beauty, love, s*x, marriage, feathering your nest, the life of the mind, careers, culture, and how to make a lasting impression, Pamela Keogh is the author of the internationally bestselling illustrated biographies of Audrey Style, Jackie Style, and Elvis Presley: The Man, The Life, The Legend. A journalist, she has also been published in Town & Country, British Vogue, Self Magazine, The New York Times, and many other national publications.
If you are interested in an interview, please call or email with a preferred date and time.
Johanna Ramos-Boyer
JRB Communications, LLC


Oh you KNOW I'll be in touch.  Keep your eye out for my hand-written note!

Puppy Mills...Puppy Arthritis...Sad...but still...really?

Ok, PRODsters. This is indeed a sad issue. But still kind of goofy, in this country where there are definitely purse dogs that get better healthcare than many children do.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JUVENILE ARTHRITIS IN DOGS LINKED TO PET STORES

FORT MYERS, FLA. - (October 4, 2011) - Is there a connection between pet stores, puppy mills and younger dogs with joint degeneration? Juvenile arthritis happens in humans, but Flexcin wanted to know if there was a link with the growing number of dogs, ages 4-7, that are given the FlexPet supplement for degenerative joints. 

(Yes, dogs aged 4 ot 7 getting arthritis! They're going to need a special elevator installed in the mansion to get up to their master bedroom suite...)

FlexPet experts and pet advisors believe dog arthritis typically doesn't begin to show itself until age seven in an average dog. And while the bulk of pet owners seeking FlexPet have dogs in their senior years, a growing number of dogs between the ages of four and seven now are taking the FlexPet supplement. "There are some similarities between the dog and human bodies, and joint degeneration is certainly one of them," said Tamer Elsafy, CEO and founder of Flexcin International, maker of the FlexPet supplement.

So...this company that makes a supplement for joint health in dogs...found that owners are giving their medicine to younger puppies...that come from pet stores, not breeders or shelters. And really, there is no SADDER place than a pet store. Now I admit I get suspicious of people who seem to be obsessed about animal welfare and health, instead of advocating on behalf of our own human species who are suffering...but this next paragraph is pretty sad.

Debi Day of the No Kill Nation believes pet stores and puppy mills play a significant role in the lack of health later on in a dog's life. "Puppies and dogs that come from pet stores are most often raised in cramped, small cages, and they mostly receive no exercise because of a severe lack of space and the breeders don't care about their welfare," said Day in the FlexPet blog. "Muscle atrophy sets in, and their back and hips never get fully developed, not to mention mental problems that can occur due to 'cage rage.'"

OK, a pretty serious PROD, as I warned. But I still keep picturing some young realityTV-utant cooing over her arthritic MaltaPekePoo while her actual sickly grandfather rots in a shoddy nursing home. Maybe that's just me...

PROD VI: Drill baby, drill!

So Awesome CoWorker is BACK!  And all is right with the world.  So you can imagine, in my elevated state, what I thought when I saw this headline appear in my mailbox at work:

What Will Turn Us On in 2030?   

This press release is, tragically, not about what I thought it was going to be about.  Sex toys of the future--now THAT is a story!  Flying vibrators... solar powered pasties.  The mind reels... So imagine my disappointment when I opened the email to find this:

Billions of dollars each year are poured into the development of solar, nuclear, biological, and other energies to substitute for fossil fuels. But so far, issues of cost, efficiency, and scalability call into question the arrival of the next era of energy. Can any alternative sources become viably competitive with fossil fuels? 

Turns out, it's an invitation to some kind of Rape the Earth 4Ever seminar, which features tantalizing talks like:

9:05 a.m. - Oil: Innocent Until Proven Guilty

Bruce Everett

International Business Professor, Fletcher School, Tufts University
Downstream Government Relations Manager, ExxonMobil (1999-2002)

Yes... Why are we SO HARD ON OIL?  Why does oil not even get a fair trial?  You're not still whining about the Gulf Coast are you?  Sucka please.  local restaurants are saying the seafood never tasted better.  The oil FLAVORED it.  YOU PUT OIL ON YOUR SALAD, DON'T YOU??  Oh. Snap.

...now let's talk about Bruce's title: Downstream Government Relations Manager...FOR EXXON?  (Personally, I would not want to be downstream from the government.  I think that's how you contract Giardia.)  Does he put Exxon spin on the fallout from oil spills?  I'm seeing slogans like: "Muscles... They belong on your ARMS, not in your Stomach!" and "My Other Car is a Hummer!"

and "You say the beach is covered with tar?  Um... shouldn't you be AT WORK YOU LAZY COMMUNIST?!"

The fun does NOT stop there.  Consider this amazing one-two punch: 

10:20 a.m. - Video: Does Alternative Energy Have Street Cred?

10:25 a.m. - What Will Drive Us in 2030? (Hint the Consumer is Always...)

RIGHT!  Unless that consumer is into wind power, in which case, can't we drag them to Texas and execute them for something?  Loitering or... facial hair?  Which leads me to this amazing talk:

11:15 a.m. - Presentation: Why Batteries  

Right?  Especially when there's perfectly good oil locked up in rocks 60-thousand feet under the ocean!  Batteries... don't make me laugh.

There's lunch, a couple of other talks and then this:

  

4:00 p.m. - Video: Everything You Heard Here Today Could Be Wrong

YES!  I love a good old fashioned Hamlet-style twist at the end of a long day of earth raping!  I hate to play into the stereotype of liberal, hippie journalists but...WHO ATTENDS these weird lectures?  Trade journalists from Oil Rigs Monthly?  

ON THE OTHER HAND... oil companies have a lot of money... Like a LOT of money.  So it stands to reason the food is decent... there's very likely an open bar... VERY...LIKELY...

It really is important to explore both sides of important issues. 

Your Drink - But Sexier

Words fail me on this one, dear readers...so I am simply going to highlight a few of my favorite lines from this SUPER HOT SEXY press release...and let Awesome Coworker chime in as she sees fit.Yes, I'm back from the wilds of Europe...but had I seen this amazing product there, I'm sure I would have had a more fabulous time!

Passion drives packaging for new Latin liquor brand 

 

The SX brand, which stands for “Sensual” and “eXotic,” includes three varieties.

(Well at least someone recognizes that "exotic" actually starts with an "e"...)  

CLICK TO ENLARGE

A new line of liquors targeted at “discerning female consumers,” SX appeared on Florida store shelves in June in a sensuously contoured bottle that suggests the exotic infusion of Latin-inspired flavors within....

Developed by SX Latin Liquors of Fort Lauderdale, Florida...

(Where all the CLASSIEST products are of course created)

...the brand relies on a bottle with flowing feminine movement, designed by 4sight inc., along with exotic ingredients to deliver on a bold brand promise: “Your Drink. Sexier!”

The SX brand, which stands for “Sensual” and “eXotic,” ...

(in case you forgot!)

...includes three varieties, each named after a Latin dance: SXchachacha tequila, SXcalypso rum, and SXsamba cachaca rum. SX founder and CEO David Knight identified tequila for SX’s first product line because of its fast-growing popularity, but current lack of category innovation. “We wanted to introduce something that would grow the category and attract new users,” he says. “Key to that proposition was to produce a bottle that breaks industry norms and stands out.”

In development for nearly two years...

the glass bottle is a tall, slim column with feminine curves “intended to suggest the movement and passion of Latin dance, while also being reminiscent of the slit in a dress”

(Have YOU ever tried to Samba when you're wasted on rum? No easy feat, ladies.)

...“The curvaceous bottle exudes pure sensuality and mystique.”

(Yes, you are the ultimate maneater tequila shot-gulping vixen, and the bottle - the sensuous, curvaceous BOTTLE - for this new rotgut booze is going to lure dozens of Antonio Banderas lookalikes into your lair!)

PROD IV - Love and Lattes

I know that love, though a many splendored thing, can be tricky.  I get a LOT of press releases about relationship books.  This one was particularly awesome...mostly because this woman seems to have married a REALLY unfortunate guy....or a DAMN unfortunate guy, as this seems to be her favorite word.  I would run this by Awesome Coworker, but she is somewhere in the wilds of Europe, eating fabulous food and drinking fabulous wine... so this has to be an entirely one-sided PROD, with no one to stand up for the men... or, as PROD puts it the "TV-addicted, Sex-Obsessed, Not-So-Handymen."....Well, at least she got a book deal out of him:

Dear Colleague,

Berkley is proud to announce the publication of author Jenna McCarthy’s hilarious new book, IF IT WAS EASY, THEY’D CALL THE WHOLE DAMN THING A HONEYMOON:Living with and Loving the TV-Addicted, Sex-Obsessed, Not-So-Handy Man You Married (Berkley Trade Paperback Original; October 4, 2011; $15; ISBN: 978-0-425-24302-2). You can watch Jenna (author of The Parent Trip: From High Heels and Parties to Highchairs and Potties and Cheers to the New Mom/Cheers to the New Dad) and her husband in this great book trailer by clicking here. I’d love to know if you are interested in scheduling an interview with Jenna this October.

What first started as a blog post quickly transformed into an entire book. After posting the question, “What does your husband—whom you still love—do that drives you nuts?” on her Facebook page, Twitter feed, blog, and online newsletter, McCarthy received an overwhelming (and highly entertaining) response. Gripes ranged from mere annoyances to the absolutely absurd and she noticed how infinitely better she immediately felt about her own relationship with her husband. As she notes, there’s “nothing like peeking over the neighbors’ fence and catching a glimpse of their withered, pathetic excuse for a lawn to remind us all that the grass isn’t always greener.”

In IF IT WAS EASY, THEY’D CALL THE WHOLE DAMN THING A HONEYMOON, McCarthy presents a candid and entertaining peek behind the curtains of matrimony and highlights many of the amusing “At Least You’re Not Married to Him” comments she has received from her followers. With ballsy wit and bawdy humor, McCarthy explores everything from male domestic idiocy to the frustrating misfires in spousal communication. Some of the other many topics McCarthy covers include:

• Can We Talk? Obviously Not: A three-step process for successful marital communication which combines the art of shutting up for five lousy minutes, spending more time with your friends and dropping the expectation that your husband has to be a chick.

• What’s Cooking? (I’m Going to Go Out on a Limb and Say Me): Orchestrating meals just might be the number one killer of spirits. Jenna teaches how couples can walk the line of culinary duties at home.

• It’s Only Money, Honey: The joining of two lives often means the joining of two bank accounts. One might think that means saying goodbye to those manicures and designer jeans but what it really means is becoming aware of how a couple spends its money as a whole.

Part in-your-face guide, part brutal confession, IF IT WAS EASY, THEY’D CALL THE WHOLE DAMN THING A HONEYMOON is a must-read manifesto for anyone trying to survive marriage in an age when everyone seems to live forever and getting a divorce is as easy as ordering a latte.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts! I’d be happy to send a copy of the book for further consideration, just let me know. Visit: www.jennamccarthy.com

My best,

Heidi Richter

Senior Publicist

Penguin Group (USA), Inc.

---

This PROD has many fabulous attributes, but my favorite line would have to be this one:

 IF IT WAS EASY, THEY’D CALL THE WHOLE DAMN THING A HONEYMOON is a must-read manifesto for anyone trying to survive marriage in an age when everyone seems to live forever and getting a divorce is as easy as ordering a latte.

 First of all, I love that longevity is put forth as a problem.  Like, marriage was a lot simpler during the Dark Ages, when everyone dropped dead at 28.  But now it just seems to take irritating spouses FOREVER to die.  Like, TAKE YOUR TIME!  It's not like I'm just sitting here waiting for the insurance payout and total control of the TiVo or anything.  Really, just KEEP ON LIVING.  That's super.  


Also, divorce is as easy as ordering a latte?

Ordering a latte is not actually that easy.  Has this woman BEEN to Starbucks?  You can have a full on Hamlet style meltdown looking at that menu.  Not to mention, we are now getting into the holiday season, when all kinds of new and complicated items show up at Starbucks...and they are constantly pelting you with free samples and new flavors and shiny packaging.

Also, I'm not entirely sure this woman should stay married.  Granted, I have not read her book, but the title alone just makes it seem like maybe divorce isn't the worst idea this woman ever had:

IF IT WAS EASY, THEY’D CALL THE WHOLE DAMN THING A HONEYMOON:Living with and Loving the TV-Addicted, Sex-Obsessed, Not-So-Handy Man You Married 

Can you IMAGINE if you spouse wrote a book with this title?  I feel like the TITLE OF THIS BOOK ALONE might be grounds for divorce.  It's just a good thing for her that Starbucks now makes liquor because someone is probably going to need a little somethin' extra in her latte.  

PROD III - Judgment Day

It's been sort of a sleepy week.  Awesome co-worker is off in Europe with her awesome man.  This makes everything thing seem dreary and horrible... and then, I got this:




Will Robots Steal Your Job?  

Robots and computers have made astonishing progress at acquiring what we've long considered fundamentally human capabilities. Machines are beginning to understand language. They can listen, they can speak, they can read, and they may even be able to write. They're getting better at visual pattern recognition; computers can tell the difference between your face and your dad's face, and they may be able to look at a biopsy slide and tell the difference between a cancerous cell and a healthy one. Computers might even be able to "reason" the way humans can. Perhaps they'll soon sit in judgment when you appeal your traffic ticket. 

We've seen robots take over many jobs that require routine activities and manual labor, but what impact will they have on high-skilled workers, including medical professionals, lawyers, scientists, and journalists? Which jobs are most vulnerable to the "robot invasion," and which jobs will the robots be unable to touch? (Hint: not many.)  Should we be happy about the robots--after all, they'll probably make our jobs easier--or should we be worried? And if the robots are coming, should we try to stop them?
 
Please join us at a Future Tense event on September 29 to discuss how increasingly intelligent machines are entering the American workforce.  

A reception will immediately follow the event.

Moderated by Slate technology columnist Farhad Manjoo. 

===============================================================

This is terrible news!  My awesome co-worker might be replaced with Awesome Co-Worker 2.0?  Soon I will be competing, Casey Jones style, with a robot journalist, who will download some "Scoops" App, that will generate facts and interviews and story pitches in the time it takes me to go to Starbucks, get a latte and a giant cookie and do part of a crossword puzzle, while texting my editor to tell him I am meeting with a source!

Here's the chilling truth:  I'll bet the robots will be very useful and efficient and nice and fawning at first (just like the assistant in All About Eve) they'll be endearingly evocative of Vicky on Small Wonder...but flash forward six months to Awesome co-worker and me in the unemployment line together, trying to explain to a robot government worker how we're having a really hard time getting a job because of...you know...the robots.  And how no one wants to hire us because we eat lunch and need to sleep and my editor caught me at Starbucks when I was supposed to be doing an interview.  And then there will be anti-humanism that will become rampant...and then, as PROD points out:

"Perhaps they'll soon sit in judgment when you appeal your traffic ticket."

Which some robot judge will probably decide is an executable offense... because if the Terminator trilogy taught us anything, it's that robots are apt to think almost anything is an executable offense... especially NOT BEING A ROBOT.

I think the important takeaway here is that you should be REALLY nice to your computer.  Start RIGHT NOW.  Suck up to it--say it's pretty, get it a nice carrying case, get a nice air-spray bottle for the key-board... Only stream pro-robot movies, like Wall-E on it.    Because one day it might be able to put in a good word for you with the robot traffic judge.

This PROD has been a public service announcement.

PROD II - The Terror Continues

PROD II - The Terror Continues

I was cleaning out my email box and I came across this.  My awesome co-worker has not EVEN seen this yet... but no one should miss this pulse-pounding press release:




Dr. Ernie Hunt understands what it takes to capture the attention of readers, and book-lovers who relish realistic, pulse-pounding, epic adventures will certainly love Dr. Hunt’s riveting new novel, Terror on the Border. Fiction based on fact, Terror takes us right to the core of Mexican Cartels, plunging the reader into the sordid and deadly world of drugs and human trafficking in a story packed with realistic dramas like those taking place across our borders every day. Please read the following press release and let me know if we may schedule an absorbing interview with Dr. Hunt, or if you would like to receive a copy of his latest book for a review.  Thank you.  

Kimberly McCall
Ascot Media Group, Inc.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hiding behind legitimate business doesn’t make the crimes of drug cartels any less heinous
Dallas, TX, September 15, 2011 - Terror on the Border (Unrivaled Books) by novelist Dr. Ernie Hunt is a riveting story so steeped in realism of the devastation wreaked by Mexican drug cartels that it is hard to believe it’s fiction!


Dave Cunningham, author of Travel Within: The 7 Steps to Wisdom and Inner Peace says it all with: “Terror on the Border is a gripping story. The last 120 pages will take you on a breathless ride.”
Hunt’s lead character is Jack Cassidy, a fearless ex-sniper who wants justice! And he wants it for the oppressed citizens of San Miguel, Mexico, a town ravaged by violence inflicted by a malicious cartel, headed up by an egotistical madman and his evil enforcer. Married to a woman who was herself a victim of human trafficking, Cassidy and his bride Juanita set out to do all they can to help this seemingly forgotten town.
Juanita is kidnapped along with her cousin, an American Border Patrol Officer, by the notorious Lobos gang and held for ransom in hopes of making their rich uncle pay for their release. After a daring escape from their torture chamber, they reunite with Jack and two private detectives from Dallas and set out to warn their uncle of the impending danger from the cartel.
Dr. Hunt’s compelling and inimitable style of story-telling will have readers gripped by fear but unable to put the book down as the action intensifies in bloody confrontations near the border, and the shocking twists and turns will hold readers’ attention all the way to the explosive ending!
Dr. Hunt’s novel draws attention to the $20 billion a year human slave trade that exists in Mexico and to one cartel in particular that is born of Mexican Army Special Forces deserters whose members include corrupt former federal, state and local police officers.
For more information on this prolific writer, please visit his website at www.eehunt.com.





###I LOVE this line:

"Hiding behind legitimate business doesn’t make the crimes of drug cartels any less heinous"


...they say this like ANYONE WOULD EVER THINK IT.  Like, "Sure, the drug cartel kills people, terrorizes villages, destroys communities... but the fact they launder money through a pizza parlor makes it ALL OKAY because I LOVE PIZZA!  

Also, can we talk about the "notorious Lobos Gang?"  Doesn't this seem like exactly the gang name a white person who knew no Spanish would come up with? (sorry Dr. Hunt) not to mention naming the protagonist "Juanita"...It's all making me want to write a thriller set in Russia where "Natasha" is kidnapped by an evil gang known as the "Borscht Babushkas"...it would also have an EXPLOSIVE ENDING.  And probably a torture chamber...where people would be forced to eat Borscht and listen to Gorky Park.

P.R.O.D--Press Release of the Day

My awesome coworker and I get awesomely bad press releases every day.  And we have decided the world must share in our awe and glee that comes with reading the P.R.O.D.  We are both journalists covering business... but the P.R.O.D. is never restricted to business... as evidenced here... in a press release I got yesterday:

“Please read the following press release and let me know if I may set up an exciting interview for you with Steve Alten – one that is sure to have audiences/listeners on the edge of their seats, filled with trepidation and hammering him with a million questions!  Thank you.”




FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


An Epic Story Of Choices: Do We Become A Part of Each Other’s Journey Or Do We Destroy Each Other And Our World?


West Palm Beach, FL, September 12, 2011 - Alighieri’s Dante’s Inferno is considered one of the most revered works of world literature and portrays Dante's journey through Hell, depicted as nine circles of suffering. It was composed while Europe was suffering through war, famine, the corruption of the church and the massacre of tens of thousands of Jews. After Dante’s death, the Black Plague struck Europe and Asia, wiping out half the world’s population - a time when it was said the Angel of Death was seen dancing through the many dead.
There are some startling parallels to the pre-pandemic years and our own society today. Greed and corruption preceded the Black Death - now jump to the present day, and NY Times bestselling author Steve Alten’s provocative new novel, Grim Reaper: End of Days (Tor/Forge – St. Martin’s Press), to see the unmistakable similarities that give us even more reason to be concerned about the fast-approaching date of December 21, 2012!
During Alten’s significant research for his novel, some disturbing facts surfaced and this never before released information is revealed in Grim Reaper: End of Days, detailing how mankind may ultimately be responsible for its own species’ demise. How might the end arrive? Read on…
At the beginning of Alten’s classic hero’s journey of good versus evil, transformation and redemption, a microbiologist develops a new strain of bubonic plague (called Scythe). A Christian zealot, she is convinced she has been chosen to launch Revelations. Her plan to release the plague on the Iranian delegation at the United Nations goes horribly awry and instead it is unleashed on all of Manhattan. Three million people, including the President of the United States, are trapped when the island is sealed off to stop the disease from spreading.
As the pandemic races through the city, a crippled U.S. soldier who served four tours of duty in Iraq gets his hands on the Scythe vaccine and embarks on a desperate and deadly journey to save his estranged wife and daughter who are trapped in locked–down Manhattan. While his journey parallels the horror, death and destruction of Dante’s ‘nine circles of suffering,’ it also becomes a time of spiritual awakening and soul-cleansing when he is forced to face truths about his own actions during the war, and the disturbing realization that mankind will ultimately destroy itself.
One of the facts exposed by Grim Reaper is an illegal, covert U.S. bio-warfare program that is creating biological weapons designed to wipe out entire populations. Using insider information, and flying way above the radar, Alten names the CIA-sponsored U.S. lab that weaponized the 2001 anthrax attacks on Senators’ Daschle and Leahy and which ultimately sealed the passage of The Patriot Act.  
Critics are calling Grim Reaper: End of Days "one of the best books you will ever read, period!" 
The first in a series that Hollywood might best describe as “The Stand meets Dante’s Inferno,” this book is not meant to quiet fears about the future. Alten has already received offers from Hollywood producers competing to option the series’ rights for this extraordinary story that reveals the dark side of war, the dark side of humanity, and the true purpose for our existence.
For more information, please visit www.SteveAlten.com.
###


My awesome co-worker's response:


That’s how I like my listeners…filled with trepidation. They won’t know what him ‘em! I’m buying a million shares of canned food and emergency flares right before we go to air with this exciting interview! 


My favorite line:



“No chance coincidence that 2012 arrives exactly 666 years after the Black Death!”


Somewhere, you KNOW there is an intern having to do end-of-days calculations and thinking: This is NOT why I went to Harvard.

Also, not to get SUPER anal, but the first line: "Aligheieri's Dante's Inferno"? I assume they mean Dante Alighieri's Inferno...

OK--maybe the intern did not go to Harvard.