If you were a boy growing up in the late ’80s or early ’90s, you may have a crush on Winnie Cooper as me. I had been bearing her, the object of Fred Savage’s obsession on “The Wonder Years”, in mind constantly for a long long time. The nostalgia-fueled sitcom has been off the air since ‘93, but Ms. McKellar still has legions of fans.
Today, most of us are heartbroken. Our fair Winnie is officially off the market. Yep, this past weekend, she got married. The nuptials caused a huge surge in Search. Men pushed queries on “Danica McKellar married” and “Winnie cooper married” through the roof. McKellar, who is now an author and mathematician, also saw queries rise on her famed photo spread for Stuff Magazine. Searches on the groom, composer Mike Verta, also hit a high note. Not surprisingly, the majority of Danica’s lookups came from male Gen-Xers.
Born in La Jolla, California, McKellar moved with her family to Los Angeles when she was eight. Her family is “a big mix of Western Europe.” Her mother’s ancestry is Portuguese via the Azores and Madeira islands and her father’s ancestry is Scottish, French, German and Dutch. McKellar and sister Crystal McKellar both maintained professional acting careers as children, but with a strong emphasis on education as a priority. As a result, Crystal became a lawyer, and Danica majored in mathematics in college.
McKellar is famous for the leading role in The Wonder Years, an Emmy Award–winning American television comedy-drama that ran for six seasons on ABC, from 1988 to 1993. The pilot aired on January 31, 1988 after ABC’s coverage of Super Bowl XXII. In an episode entitled “The Accident” and in the final episode, it is stated that every important event in Kevin’s life somehow involved Winnie. She lives on the same block as Kevin. Their first kiss plays an important part of the pilot episode, as does her older brother’s death while serving as a soldier in the Vietnam War. In one episode, her parents decide to get separated because of their grief over the death of their son. According to the epilogue in the final episode, Winnie studies art history in Paris. Kevin and Winnie write one letter to each other every week for eight years until her return. Despite their life-long romance, they never marry.
She had a little “bumpy” transition from child actor to adult actor. Since leaving The Wonder Years, McKellar has had several guest roles in television series, and has written and directed two short films. She briefly returned to regular television with a recurring role in the 2002–03 season of The West Wing, portraying Elsie Snuffin, the sister and assistant of Deputy White House Communications Director Will Bailey.
Far more than that as an actress, McKellar has achieved greatly in other fields such as mathematics, her major, and writing.
She studied mathematics at UCLA. At that time, she became a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority. She graduated summa cum laude in 1998. As an undergraduate, she coauthored a scientific paper with Professor Lincoln Chayes and fellow student Brandy Winn. Their results are termed the ‘Chayes-McKellar-Winn theorem’ Referring to the mathematical abilities of his coauthor students, Chayes was quoted in the New York Times as saying, “I thought that the two were really, really first-rate.”
Another role is the author of the book Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail, which encourages girls in middle school to enjoy and succeed at mathematics. The book has been favorably reviewed by Tara C. Smith, the founder of Iowa Citizens for Science and a professor of epidemiology at the University of Iowa. In an interview with Smith, McKellar said that she wrote the book “to show girls that math is accessible and relevant, and even a little glamorous” and to counteract “damaging social messages telling young girls that math and science aren’t for them”. McKellar’s second book, Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who’s Boss , was released on August 5, 2008. The book’s target audience is girls in the 7th through 9th grades. As of September 23, 2008, both of McKellar’s books have held steady on the New York Times bestseller list - in the top 10.
McKellar was named Person of the Week on World News with Charles Gibson for the week ending August 10, 2007. The news segment highlighted her book Math Doesn’t Suck and her efforts to help girls develop an interest in mathematics, especially during the middle school years.
However, all those have passed already, and she has got married now. The just one figure in our mind is Winnie Cooper in “The Wonder Years”.
April, 2009
After the marriage of Danica McKellar…
Tags: Danica McKellar, fans, marriage
Dress Up your Little Girl for Easter
As we known Easter celebrates the return of the savior. However, as this is held generally after winter, the emergence of new life after spring is also aptly remembered. Whatever the reason, Easter is also fun with all the activities and dress up. Easter mass, egg hunts and luncheon parties add to the celebratory mood.
During holiday, communities dress up in their Sunday best, including the children. Girls and boys are dressed in formal wear. Boys are dressed in oxfords, even pastel ones. Girls on the other hand enjoy frilly dresses or sailor style dresses.
What activity is the family engaging in on Easter? If attending a luncheon or more formal event, do dress up in more formal clothing. This is also more suitable when the family is attending mass before the luncheon.
Navy blue is a classic Easter color, but recently pastels are also a popular choice to match the new blooms of nature during spring. Nice fabrics for Easter dresses included velvet or satin. If the weather is generally warmer, consider cotton or linen in happy pastel colors.
Trims of lace and ribbon on the dresses touch up the prettiness of the dress, and the little ladies that wear them. Wraps can warm up your little girl, and is easily removed if the temperature goes up while she is having fun with the Easter activities, such as the Easter egg hunt.
Let your little Easter princess wear pretty but comfortable shoes. She will have to do a lot of walking while searching for the holiday eggs. Play time during Easter festivities also mean comfy shoes are important. Tired feet make even the sweetest little angels cranky.
Fix your little princess’ hair. Let her hair loose with pretty, bouncy curls and adorn with pretty pins or pearl clips. Hats are traditionally worn during Easter, but ask your little girl if she’d prefer wearing a hat or having her fixed up. Hats can scrunch up the best hair dos. If she would like to wear a hat, have her wear her hair in a sensible style that will not be mussed if ever she decides to remove her hat during the Easter activities.
After all, it is Easter time and everything and everyone should bloom.
Do prepare a spare set of comfortable clothes so she change after the festivities, just in case your little girl had too much fun in her pretty Easter dress.
A care routine for body skin
You can take care of the facial skin nicely through a routine:facial soap, toner, moisturizer, facial scrub, then sunscreen, just similar to other measures. Subsequently you could notice that your facial skin is cleaner, fairer and in better conditions.
Perfect! Beautiful spring is coming, and wind and rain plus constant and extreme changes in temperature can cause skin to become dry, itchy and generally unhappy. But for the body, as air conditioning is abandoned for central heating – and hats, gloves and scarves take the place of frocks and smocks – this is the time of year when skin needs a helping hand to take it from freshly bathed to body beautiful. So bring your beauty regime up to speed with a moisture-boosting body oil. But is there a skin care routine for the body just as there is for the face?
First, you should take routines to check the kind of your skin, dry or oily, acid or not? Depend on different kind of skin, it would be given different ways.
Then you can choose tips suitable for your own skin:
Dry Skin. Blend together one ounce safflower oil, one ounce avocado oil and two ounces of sesame oil. Apply this to your dry skin areas.Skin Care Tip on Facial Mask. An excellent facial mask can be made with stewed and mashed apricots. Apply to your freshly cleaned face and leave for 20 minutes or longer. Rinse away with warm water, and blot dry. One application will help sallow, dead skin tones, but applying this 3 or 4 times a week will do wonders.
Oily Skin. Here is a cleansing stimulating facial treatment that is very helpful for those with oily skin. Mash together the pulp of one garden ripe tomato and enough fuller’s earth (should find it at most pharmacies) to make a smooth paste. Rub it into your skin and leave it on until it dries completely (note: do not apply to eye area). Rinse with warm water, then splash your face with cold water. Blot dry.
Itchy Skin. Try the following. A compress made with skim milk or powdered milk or soak the affected area in a colloidal bath made with oatmeal, corn starch or baking soda.
Treating Large Pores. If you have large pores that resemble little holes on your skin, the following steps may be helpful. Stop using commercial products on your skin. Instead, use homemade skin cleansers. Splash warm water onto your face and pour half a handful of stone-ground cornmeal into your wet palm. Massage the moistened meal into your entire face area, adding water as needed. Another homemade cleanser can be made by adding a few drops of lemon or lime juice or apple cider vinegar to milk (use powdered skin milk if your skin is oily).
But to make or keep your skin beautiful, it’s best to work from the inside. Tips above don’t work basically and may cause side effects at times. Eating the right kind of food can do you more good than any medicine, and go a long way in helping your body’s own healing forces. Eat a balanced diet that includes raw foods, plenty of yellow and orange vegetables (they contain beta carotene - a precursor to vitamin A). Foods high in sulfur such as garlic, onions, asparagus and eggs. Include fruits, seeds, grains and nuts.
Not enough zinc, caused by a diet high in refined carbohydrates may be the chief cause of acne. Zinc is necessary for processing carbohydrates, but it is removed when cane is refined into white sugar, and wheat is refined into white flour. Eat more foods rich in zinc, including soybeans, whole grains, sunflower seeds, and a small amount of raw nuts daily. Zinc also has antibacterial activity, and is a necessary element in the oil-producing glands of the skin
Refering to the outside, to add humidity the dry air in your house, put a little extra water in the kettle when you’re boiling water. Leave the kettle on the burner as it cools. It will continue to steam for 10 to 15 minutes, making your life a whole lot more comfortable.