Trends for April 23, 2001

Lisa Ferguson

Monday, April 23, 2001 | 8:47 a.m.

Give it up

So are you addicted to the new game show "The Weakest Link"? Find you can't function without your weekly fix of "The Sopranos?"

Then the next couple of months may be rough ones if you follow the advice of TV Turn Off Network. Its "Cold Turkey Turnoff" campaign, which begins today, urges folks to go without watching television through July 15.

Why do such a thing? The organization has plenty of reasons and the numbers to back them up.

The average American watches four hours of TV per day. Thirty-five percent of U.S. households have two television sets; 41 percent have three sets. Forty percent of Americans watch TV while eating dinner, while one in four falls asleep with the TV set on at least three nights a week.

Here's where it gets really frightening: By age 18, the average American child has seen 200,000 acts of violence and 16,000 murders on television. Ten percent of youth violence is directly attributed to television viewing. So is it any wonder that 91 percent of children polled said they felt "scared" or "upset" by violence on television?

Maybe hiding the remote for a while isn't such a bad idea after all.

Hair they go

Of course, if you hadn't been watching the Academy Awards telecast last month, you would have missed all of the celebrity hairdos.

Never fear Citre Shine is here. The maker of hair-care products judged the coifs as they made their way down the red carpet. Here are the company's stylist's thoughts:

"Almost Famous" co-star Kate Hudson's cascade of curls was "young, hip and sweet" and "totally age-appropriate." Considering Hudson is in her early 20s, they didn't really expect her to sport a beehive 'do or something, did they?

Julia Roberts' "backswept architectural look" was "elegant and sophisticated," complementing her vintage designer dress. Apparently Roberts can do no wrong these days.

Meanwhile Russell Crowe's "oily pompadour" got a thumb's down from Citre Shine stylists. "Did the Gladiator get too close to an Aussie sheep shearer?"

Canine cleanliness

Spring is here. The weather is warm. So are you waiting for an invitation to clean your house, or what? While partaking in the annual spring cleaning rite-of-passage, the people at the Iams Company, makers of pet food and other products, remind that it's important to tidy up Fido and Fluffy's abodes, too.

We, however, hope you'll do these tasks more than once a year: Give the cat's litter box a thorough cleaning by dumping out the litter and rinsing out the box to cut down on odors and allergens.

Also, machine wash your pet's bedding to remove even more odors and pet dander. Then give your four-legged friend a bath with pet shampoo or diluted baby shampoo.