Spartan Stores shoppers can help Habitat for Humanity at the checkout by choosing to make a charitable purchase.

UNITED NATIONS |
Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:06pm EST

But as general manager Lou Lamoriello waits to see whether the Minnesota Wild will trade Zidlicky to the Devils, Foster will try not to allow it to be a distraction.

I think if anybody told you they didnt think about (the trade deadline), theyd be lying, Foster said. When it becomes game time it isnt a distraction. Guys are smart enough to know there are things you cant control.

The acquisition of Zidlicky, if it happens, could impact players like Foster and Matt Taormina.

Its one of those things, where it to happen, hes one of those players I think can help our team, Foster said. Hes a good guy. I played with him.

Zidlicky is apparently being shopped around before the Wild decide if he will be dealt to the Devils.

I cant really look at it like that, Taormina said of the possible impact on his job. The team is looking to go really far in the playoffs. Whoever they can bring in will help.

We have seven good defensemen here. Unfortunately, two (Adam Larsson and Henrik Tallinder) are out right now.

The NHL trade deadline is Feb. 27.

The Shoppes at Sands, a high-end outlet mall, is the first in a Pennsylvania casino. A half-dozen stores opened Nov. 1, followed by staggered openings over the last 3 1/2 months. Four more shops were added Thursday: Coach Factory, Chicos, Peeps amp; Co., and Corningware Corelle amp; More. Twenty-four of 31 stores are now open.

I had heard legends of IKEA. The quality products at low prices. The diversity of the available items. The ease of finding and purchasing what you need. But nothing really prepared me for the store itself.

Im not sure massive is even the right word to describe the building. It resembles a small city. I had a sneaking suspicion the population of Eagle County could be comfortably contained within its walls.

I am an experienced shopper, so I knew well enough that I needed to beat the crowds. I was among the first through the doors when they opened. I had a short list of things I wanted to find, lest I let the excitement get the best of me. Focused and ready, I entered.

The whole thing is genius. Once you are inside, they manage your experience. All your basic needs are addressed before you even see merchandise. Do you need to use the restroom? Veer right to the facilities.

Would you like them to watch your children so that you are free to shop unencumbered by whining, meltdowns and Stop touching that! moments? The child-care center is to the left. Feeling a little peckish? Head up the escalator to the cafeteria and fortify with some Swedish meatballs before heading into the showroom.

The sheer volume and breadth of products available is absolutely staggering. Their aim is to completely outfit your home in one stop with clean-lined, Scandinavian furnishings. From furniture to lighting to linens to decorative items to kitchen utensils, you can find quite literally everything, including the kitchen sink.

The store is set up in little vignettes. And I dont mean just suites of furniture clustered together. These are full-on rooms decorated to the nth degree, in different combinations so you can see the possibilities. Some even show you how to live in small spaces the IKEA way. They are complete homes. If only they had running water, I would have moved in.

I bored myself so much I almost had to take a nap in nearest simply designed and well-made platform bed.

There is signage throughout the store telling you that by clearing your own table, hauling your own boxes, putting the furniture together yourself, you are helping keep the prices down. I almost expected them to ask me to come to Sweden and work in the factory to further my commitment.

Still, I couldnt help thinking while looking at an alarm clock, Just how many hundreds of thousands of these are there in the world? While everything appears to be well made, the mass quantities of the same item around me diminished some of my joy. It somehow just didnt feel special.

Dont get me wrong. I will be buying furniture and other things for the boys rooms at IKEA. The place is pretty awesome. However, my advice to the new IKEA shopper is this: You have to set aside any reservations you might have relating to being treated like a cow while shopping at IKEA. From the moment you pull into the gargantuan yellow parking garage, you are corralled, told where to go, how to get there and how to shop. You are part of the herd. I wouldnt be surprised if there was a branding department where we all stop to get IKEA stamped on our hindquarters.

Embrace the bovine. Move along calmly with the herd and take it all in. Dont get overwhelmed and panic. Dont stampede. Follow the haunches in front of you and youll be fine. Moo.

Linda Stamper Boyne of Edwards can be contacted through editor@vaildaily.com

And the prices! It boggles the mind. Its hard to wrap your head around how the items can be priced so low. I heard the voice of my college economic professor is my head saying things about supply and demand, mass production, economies of scale.

The mainstream media will always point out her outrageous or shocking haute couture. They will mention the shoes, the hair, and might cite â??Bad Romanceâ? as her greatest accomplishment. Some who have come to love her music are still skeptical of what they see as celebrity antics. Our parents might see a confusing performance on TV while sipping their morning coffees; and while some who donâ??t know her may assume that sheâ??s the product of a typical rags-to-riches lucky break whoâ??s now spritzing prepackaged values around at each show and interview, those who have watched each and every one of her moves will know that thatâ??s all wrong, and that we can all learn a thing or two from the true artist who is Lady Gaga.

I downloaded â??Just Dance,â? her first single, in November of 2008. It had dropped that spring. I was a junior in high school that fall, but I donâ??t remember becoming a fan until the next summer when I was at Brownâ??s summer school. The entire album, The Fame, had been released by then. The same summer as Michael Jacksonâ??s death, her music soaked the air at parties, clubs, and in the cars of anyone listening to the radio. I loved Gagaâ??s work just as Iâ??d always loved dance music. But this time it was mainstream, and it was big. I watched an interview she had recently done and I remember telling my roommate that she was absolutely crazy. She was a petite and shy girl, just 23 at the time, who said really strange things. Her parents were proud of her, but I didnâ??t see how they could be. I thought what most people thought about her, but I was intrigued enough to keep paying attention.

Had I not let my love of her music turn into an all-encompassing infatuation, I may have never learned the truth about her. The truth that she grew up wealthy, went to private school, the best in New York, with Paris Hilton, and had a loving and stable family that supported her musical talent. Her talent is real; she played piano from a young age and attended NYUâ??s Tisch School of the Arts before dropping out in her first year. She worked hard, performing in clubs and bars to make a name for herself. At first her father was horrified when he saw her singing and dancing in clubs bikini-clad, but later he used his connections to promote her passion. She was signed and then dropped. She says â??Just Danceâ? saved her life â?? it was her first song to make it after she signed with Interscope. The right people took her seriously and she skyrocketed to the very top. â??Just Danceâ? reached 6-time platinum status in the United States and Canada and charted high around the world, too. You donâ??t need to understand her to admire her music, but just like the record executives who listened to what she had to say, the fans that took the time were pleasantly surprised. After all, as a pop singer the bar was low. But she was the only one who wore 12-inch heels.

An artist from birth, she first started to express herself, as all artists must, through fashion. She cites her hometown of New York as the inspiration for her choice to dress in an outrà way. Since the way you look is the first thing people see and use to judge you, it can define you from the outside.

Lyrically, she wrote what she knew. And at the time, that included boys, sex, drugs, alcohol, and clubs â?? the rungs of the ladder to the top. Lucky for her, thatâ??s what sells and that helped â??Just Danceâ? make it big. Produced by Red One, it had fresh dance undertones that caught more attention than the usual pop productions. â??Poker Face,â? â??Love Game,â? and â??Paparazziâ? saw huge success as singles later on.

But underneath the glitz and glam that would soon be shed, Gaga was serious. There was never any lip-syncing, and in her interviews she was introspective and too grown-up for any interviewer that was sent her way. Like those who still write her off because of her style, it was hard for many to see how incredible this woman would be because the words she was singing had been sung before. But what was different was her attitude. She didnâ??t want the fame, the money (she later went broke), or the attention. She had been put on Earth to write and perform music, and thatâ??s what she was doing.

In todayâ??s popular music, such lack of an agenda is unheard of â?? just compare her to the other big names in pop and it clear. She was the only one to do it for the art, but you had to dig a little deeper to find that out. From the surface you wouldnâ??t know her artistry if you simply judged her without inspecting her and taking her in. But Gaga wasnâ??t trying to let critics see her easily â?? life is too short to please everyone.

Artists care about their fans, not only because they provide them with the financial support to carry on, but also because fans are emotionally invested in the art and care about it just as much as the artists do. That is a crucial symbiosis for artists. The artist, at heart, only wants fans that are worthy of them. For Gaga, those who were worthy saw through the clothing and looked a little deeper than the music. Thus, the first â??Little Monstersâ? were born. For the ones that stuck with her, the reward would come soon. While her mass appeal brought in enough dough, her real sustenance was her fans, those who loved her for who she was. But while those who were loyal kept the art alive, millions of others forged the fame that began to eat her. Months after The Fame had made her a star, the bruised and mangled Gaga picked up the pen again, and 19 months after â??Just Danceâ? dropped, The Fame Monster was born.

Travis Hallett â??14 (travishallett@college) is excited to have timed his Gaga series so well; look for further installations in the next weeks as the Indy counts down to Gagaâ??s arrival at Sanders Theatre on February 29.

According to a report from Hollywood Life, it seems that no matter where Selena goes shopping, store clerks and other shoppers always remark about how friendly and normal the former Wizards of Waverly Place star is. She always takes time to chat, poses for pictures and signs autographs. What astounds people even more, however, is how little Selena manages to spend.

While there was no doubt a body-guard lurking nearby to ensure Selena Gomezs safety, she rarely shops with an entourage, unless she is out with a couple of her close girlfriends. But while shes on tour, she tends to consider retail therapy a bit relaxing and typically ventures out alone.

Selenas next stop is Peru, and the question of the moment seems to be whether or not Justin Bieber will show up to surprise her for her big show in Lima. Who knows? She may have even been shopping for Justin during her Chilean shopping spree. She is always finding him some trendy bargains, too.

Wouldnt it be fun to just bump into Selena Gomez while out bargain shopping for clothes? It would be interesting to see if shes really as normal as everyone says she is. Plus it would be even more fun to see what the Love You Like A Love Song singer is buying!

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