THE LEFT LANE
One wish for world

Advertiser staff and news services

Actress Courteney Cox Arquette models the "One World, One Wish" T-shirt.

About $9 from the $14.95 shirt will go to help those in need now as well as to help Save the Children and Marie Claire to kick of a larger drive to get the U.S. government to protect women and children caught in the crossfire, according to a statement from the two partners. To order a One World, One Wish shirt, call (800) 727-1274. www.savethechildren.org

Heal with a peel

The next time you get a splinter that you just can't get to with a tweezers, try a banana peel, suggests master herbalist Andrea Candee, a firm believer in using summer's bounty as a natural pharmacy.

Here's the banana trick: For gentle removal of something that's embedded in the skin, cover the area with a piece of peel (pulp side to skin) from a ripened banana, affix with surgical tape and leave on overnight. By morning, the object should have been drawn to the surface of the skin by the banana's enzymes.

Deeply embedded materials may need up to three nights' treatment, she says. For more tips from Candee on how to use onions, parsley, ginger and other items as remedies, visit www.andreacandee.com.

Zagat now rates films, too

Zagat, the indispensable purveyor on where to eat, shop and stay, now offers help on what movies to see.

The Zagat Movie Guide, a partnership with E! entertainment, assembles 1,000 titles worth watching. The lists are particularly helpful if you're scouting for a DVD or video to rent or buy, or if you're pushing your remote and are clueless about what's on the tube.

The films are indexed ingeniously by genre (war, romance, date movies, comedies, musicals, action), by decades, by award-winning actors, directors, and best pictures.