Society Confidential: Charles Pugh gets a jump on council gig

The day after Election Day, mere hours after the results were official, effervescent City Council President-elect Charles Pugh popped into City Hall to check out his new work environment. While we're impressed with such enthusiasm Charlie, your term doesn't begin for another couple months, dude. Pugh shook hands with everyone in the lobby, and somehow wiggled his way upstairs to the executive offices, where we hear a few council folks were taken aback by his early arrival. - 11/06/2009

ArtServe Michigan puts on a party

ArtServe Michigan, which fights for the arts and culture statewide, is throwing a party, called Ignite 09: Uniting Voices for Arts and Culture, at The Max M. Fisher Music Center on Tuesday evening. Ignite aims to shine a beacon on the vital role of the arts in society, and boost the nonprofit advocacy group's budget. - 11/06/2009

Study: Kids' spelling not affected by 'chatspeak'

Parents, u r gonna be surprised by this, but a study from the University of Alberta says that the abbreviated and unpunctuated language commonly used in instant messaging and texting probably has no effect on your child's spelling abilities. - 11/06/2009

Seminar offers beauty tips for business environment

Get beauty business tips during the Beauty Industry Empowerment seminar from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday at the Westin Hotel, 1500 Town Center in Southfield. Learn about salon retail, customer service, hair care products, online business and more. Speakers include Henry Johnson (Adrian Distributors), Haith Johnson (Le'Host The Hair Group), Jane Carter (Jane Carter Solutions) and Sam Ennon (Black Owned Beauty Supply Association). Cost is $25-$30. - 11/06/2009

Jeanne Phillips: Dear Abby

Don't give boss your cell phone number

Dear Abby: My boss wants my cell phone number for "work purposes." He has trouble with limits, and I am reluctant to give it to him. I don't want to receive text messages, unsolicited calls or contact outside of work. My private life is just that -- private. - 11/06/2009

Paul Donohue: Your Health

The cold fact on colds is they're contagious

Dear Dr. Donohue: When can I expect to catch my annual cold? Midwinter? How long is a person with a cold infectious to others? I want to be responsible about not spreading colds, but I'm not sure my boss is happy with me taking time off for having one. It sounds like a wimpy excuse. How do I tell cold symptoms from more serious things, like the flu? - 11/06/2009

Chuck Bennett

Women in health fields honored

For the fifth straight year, the Rhonda Walker Foundation presented its "Moving With Success Empowerment Brunch" at Seldom Blues, this time saluting women in the health and medical care industries. - 11/05/2009

Neal Rubin

I-75 work means limbo for Mexicantown's Mercado project

Fern Espino looks out at the orange plastic construction fence in front of the Mexicantown Mercado and pictures happy shoppers strolling past a burbling fountain. That's the optimistic view. - 11/05/2009

Fashion brands switch alliances

New York -- Some of fashion's best-known names are playing musical chairs. - 11/05/2009

Channeling TV fashion

So, you admire the fashions of popular TV characters. Do you want to dress just like them? - 11/05/2009

Renewed interest sprouts in planting terrariums

It wasn't long after Kat Geiger moved into a loft apartment that her green thumb started nagging. With the green space around her limited to easements and storefront plantings, Geiger, who comes from a long line of gardeners, yearned to get her fingers in the dirt. - 11/05/2009

Seeing Asperger's from the inside

"It's sort of like being the absent-minded professor times five," says Tim Page. After a lifetime of struggling to relate to fellow human beings, he received a diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome at age 45. Seven years later Page, then the music critic for the Washington Post, revealed his condition in an essay in the New Yorker, which he has expanded into a new memoir, "Parallel Play: Growing Up With Undiagnosed Asperger's" (Doubleday, $26). - 11/05/2009

Parents identify signs of teens' drug abuse

West Bloomfield-- Parents may not always feel welcome in their teenagers' bedrooms, but it was the teens who were kept away recently during a presentation at the West Bloomfield Public Library. Parents had the opportunity to roam through a replica of a teenager's room recently in the library's auditorium to learn how to tell if their children are using drugs or alcohol. - 11/05/2009

Jeanne Phillips: Dear Abby

Borrowers often disappoint friends

Dear Abby: Please print this for me on behalf of myself and all the other well-intentioned folks out there who have lent money to others. - 11/05/2009