The still curiously named SyFy channel has imported a Canadian series titled Lost Girl and it is showing Mondays at 10 pm EST. Similar to the import of the first season of Sanctuary, the channel has snagged an existing quirky show that is a modest hit for its ever changing lineup.

Lost Girl is the very sexy tale of a mysterious woman named Bo. For the last decade, Bo has roamed the country feeding her hunger for human energy but not understanding it. It’s a hunger that is fatal to the human involved.

Bo is discovered by the two factions of the Fae, the show’s amalgam of mythic creatures from a number of different cultures. She learns that she is a succubus, a supernatural being that feeds of the life force of humans. The Light and Dark factions of the Fae put her to a test, which she survives with the assistance of a new found human friend, a teen named Kenzi. In an act of defiance, Bo chooses neither side and thus begins the series.

The Light and the Dark war with each other. They also intend to keep their secret hold over humanity, no matter what. Dyson, a Fae working in the police force, acts as a guide and mentor for Bo, and his true motivation remains to be seen.

The show carries a TV M rating, and it was well deserved in the first episode. Bo feeds in manner that feels sexual and gratifying to the human, whether clothing is on or off. There is a lot of very attractive skin shown, and Bo appears willing to feed of men and women, to add a bi-sexual kink to the process.

Bo is played by Canadian actress Anna Silk. She did a fine job in the first episode, displaying the confusion and conflict that Bo feels. Her good looks and athleticism are also note worthy. At age 37, she has a decade plus of work on her resume.

Street urchin sidekick Kenzi is played by Latvian Ksenia Solo. At age 24, she has been working for over a decade. She portrays Kenzi, a somewhat street smart and tech savvy teen, with gusto.

Providing the eye candy for female viewers is Kris Holden-Ried, who plays Dyson. A year older than Silk, he has had been a model and had a nearly twenty year career in show business. He was also a world-class athlete, competing for Canada on the Canadian National Pentathlon Team (riding and fencing).

This is going to be a must watch for fans of supernatural tales. The beasties will be drawn from a variety of cultures so there will be some the viewer will recognize and other will be new. The drama will take Bo into the world of Fae and into her own background as she learns to control her power and discover herself.

One addition to the CBS lineup for Fall of 2011 is the police drama Unforgettable. Starring Without a Trace veteran Poppy Montgomery, it adds a little quirk to the usual ensemble cast detective story.

Montgomery plays a former Syracuse, NY, police detective who is discovered to be living in New York City by her former boss and ex-lover. She is haunted by the childhood death of her sister. Her character, Carrie Wells, has a problem, hyperthymestic syndrome, which means that she is unable to forget anything, ever. Except, disturbingly, she cannot recall the details of her sister’s childhood death.

Wells is recruited to the NYC police department by Al Burns, played by Dylan Walsh. Wells’s ability plays a key role in solving the crimes that the unit investigates. The rest of the unit is played by Michael Gaston as the grumpy older detective Mike Costello, Kevin Rankin as the quirky Roe Saunders, and Daya Vaidya as Nina Anara.

Poppy Montgomery is gorgeous with red hair and a casual wardrobe. Some of the best qualities from her character on Without a Trace are featured in her current role. She is sexy, humorous, confident and appears very comfortable in the role.

This is must-see TV. The writers and directors of Unforgettable are working hard to provide the viewer with challenges each week. Some of the details Wells discovers are also seen by the viewer, allowing for some detecting at home. As Carrie Wells slowly recalls details of her sister’s death, the viewer is drawn into that mystery. The contrast between the successful police work and the unsolved mystery in the past is well executed and compelling.

The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions

Guy Kawasaki is among the foremost experts on using social media such as Twitter and Facebook to monetize your business. I was offered the chance to read and review his latest book, Enchantment, and was sent a hardcopy by his people so that I could.

The notion of enchantment as a sales and marketing tool is, well, enchanting. It calls to mind bespelling the other person. That is not what Kawasaki means by his use of the word.

He believes that there is an emotion created by a positive and imaginative interaction between two people. That is enchantment. It is that moment when both share the joy and enthusiasm of a common goal. It calls to the curious. It inspires the dreamer. It creates a bond.

I am, by nature, the perfect accountant. I find books like this, ideas like this, uncomfortable and impractical. Guy shares story after story that define enchantment and demonstrate it in action just for the curmudgeon like me.

The book lays out a series of steps that anyone, even me, can take to bring the magic of enchantment into their relationships. Not just business relationships, but friendships and love can benefit from these tips. There is an excitement in shared enchantment, a bond built by sharing the same ideas and emotions.

Some of the book is built as you would a page on the Web. That is the only area that isn’t completely successful. URLs and tweets in print form are not as practical as they are when used in a properly designed website. The average person would not want to hand type the URLs into a web browser to follow Kawasaki’s references because of their length and complexity.

This is a must read for the small businessman or the corporate giant. The steps are all there if you believe that you need to bring enchantment to your life and those of the people around you. If things aren’t going well or things could be better, give Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki a careful read. Your bottom line, business, personal or social, will be the better for it.

In Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare never wrote “A pox on both your houses”. He used the word “plague” instead of “pox”. The word just sounds older than plague, and in the author’s time either term would have been used for the pox and the plague were universal.

Episode 7 of Season 7 of the hit television show, House, M.D., featured the pox as its difficult to diagnose illness. It turns out that there are a number of illnesses that are now called pox, all of which feature sores and rashes of some type.

Perhaps the original pox, syphilis was also known as the “Great Pox”. It is a sexually transmitted illness that seems to have been far more severe centuries ago than it is today. The appearance of sores on the genitals and other parts of the body, the “pox”, were the hallmark of the illness. In its earliest stages, syphilis is quite treatable but can prove fatal if allowed to progress for years. In 2010, the CDC reports over 10,600 cases in the United States through early November.

In the House episode, it was pointed out that smallpox had not been seen since the 1970′s. Samples of the virus are known to exist in storage with the Centers for Disease Control and in a similar facility in Moscow, Russia. There is no treatment for this viral illness although antiviral medicines would be tried if a case was diagnosed. It can be fatal in as much as one third of the cases. As the television show told us, one of the key symptoms is the appearance of the pustules on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet.

Greg House originally thought the illness might be related to the smallpox vaccine the patients had been given. The immunization uses the vaccinia virus, and that may produce similar though less severe symptoms to smallpox.

Cowpox is the virus that was originally used as an immunization from smallpox. In 1796, an English doctor named Edward Jenner first experimented with cowpox as a preventative to smallpox. He had noticed, with others, that milkmaids seemed to have far fewer cases of smallpox and theorized it was due to their exposure to cowpox. Whatever his interest in milkmaids might have been, when done properly the method seemed to be effective.

Chickenpox was undoubtedly rejected by House and his staff for two reasons. Immunization for chickenpox has been common since 1995 and, though unsaid, the non-adult patients may have received it. More importantly, the rash from chickenpox appears on the trunk and face before it travels to the arms and legs, the opposite of smallpox.

Monkeypox is another illness that produces a rash and pustules, though these eventually scab and fall off. Several dozen cases in the Midwest in 2003 created some concerns that a smallpox outbreak was happening. It turned out that the infected patients had all had contact with rodents, prairie dogs and an imported African rodent, that carried the illness. It can be a serious illness, and fatal in less than 10% of cases in Africa. The smallpox vaccine can be used as either a treatment or a preventative.

Amber Tamblyn‘s character, Martha Masters, eventually diagnosed the real culprit, rickettsialpox. This illness is spread through the bite of a mite that lives on mice. It is easily treatable with antibiotics. As the show presented, a key finding is an “eschar “, a black scab at the site of the bite. Due to this sign, the illness is sometimes confused with cutaneous anthrax.

There are many illnesses that can be called a pox. Physicians have to be alert to the appearance of any rash, and its location, in order to diagnose their patient. Greg House and his staff did just that.

I have been wanting to do a fashion review of one of the big entertainment shows for some time. The main problem is that photos are always copyrighted so using them is out. So, what I will attempt is to link to the photo, and snark away.

CELEB	FASHION	FAUX PAS
Lady Gaga	Dress is hot	Hand ornament is not
Beyonce	Very classy and chic
Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi		Too chunky for this monkey
Katy Perry		Dear God! Someone buy this woman a sun lamp. And a new dress.
Jennifer Lopez		It looks like some TP got stuck in her neckline instead of on her shoe. Is there a dress under there?
Mary J. Blige	Classic and classy.
Jennifer Hudson		Her dress looks like a leftover from her last office job.
Miley Cyrus	Fabulous look. Just perfect for a teen girl at the Grammys.
Heidi Klum		Must have lost the pants that went under this shirt.
Rihanna		Looks like a poodle died on her chest. Could have been a classic gown without all the frills and ruffles.
Taylor Swift	Beautiful from the floor to the bust line.	Who told her that bandaids over her less than ample bosom was a good look?
Kristen Bell		I hope Kristin didn’t pay good money for this gown. Bed sheet chic.
Fergie		Jersey Shore gal Snooki in a decade
Madeline Colbert	Lovely. Perfect for her.
Nicole Kidman		Pants, really? And her belt is way too high. Ruffles on the chest, too.
Pink		In the photo, she’s turning. She should be hiding her face. Shades of gray – no way!