Childhood sports help girls win at work, survey says

Many women executives say the sports they played while growing up helped prepare them for corporate life, according to a survey sponsored by MassMutual Financial Group and OppenheimerFunds.

Of the 401 businesswomen polled, 82 percent said they played organized sports after grammar school, whether on school teams, intramurals or recreational leagues. Basketball was the most popular sport, cited by 23 percent, followed by volleyball, softball, tennis, track and field and soccer.

Eighty-one percent agreed that sports helped them function better on a team, 69 percent said sports helped them develop leadership skills that helped their professional success, and 68 percent said it helped them cope with failure.

“There are lessons to be learned on a softball diamond or basketball court that are unavailable in a business school lecture hall,” said Janet Wyse, a manager at OppenheimerFunds. “It’s no coincidence that top businesswomen tend to have played sports.”

Internet: Feds open portal for youths

Parents who worry that their children might come across inappropriate Web sites and links on the Internet might want to consider a new educational portal.

The site, called www.kids.gov, was developed by the Federal Consumer Information Center to help kids safely surf the Web. Kids.gov organizes more than 400 links by topic in one place. Subjects include government, space, transportation, history and money.

Clicking on a subject leads children to a wide variety of government agencies as well as schools and private and commercial organizations.

Expenses: London executives celebrate deal with $60,000 dinner

One summer evening, six bankers celebrated a business deal with dinner at a London restaurant. Several hours and three bottles of Chateau Petrus later, they had run up a bill of more than $60,000 according to Guinness World Records, the most expensive meal per capita ever.

It’s unlikely they’re still celebrating. Five of the diners have lost their jobs, and the sixth is keeping a low profile.

The Petrus restaurant a self-styled destination for “movers and shakers” in London’s St. James’s district said the party spent 44,007 pounds ($62,679) on the meal, most of it for wine: a 1945 Chateau Petrus Bordeaux for $16,500, a $13,400 bottle of the 1946 vintage; and a 1947 Petrus at $17,500. The dessert wine cost $13,100.

The restaurant did not charge the party for the several hundred dollars worth of food it consumed. The bill was limited to drinks, cigarettes and tax.

British newspapers identified the diners as employees of Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays, Britain’s largest bank. Newspapers reported that all but one of the diners had been fired by the bank.

Motley Fool: Name that company

I’m the product of a merger in 1986 of two well-known soft-drink companies. In 1995, I was acquired by Cadbury Schweppes. One of my main brands is America’s oldest major soft drink, first made in Waco, Tex., in 1885. (Contrary to rumors, it’s not flavored with prunes.) My other key brand was first called Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda, and no one remembers how it got its current alphanumeric name. It sold well during World War II because it required less (rationed) sugar than other sodas. I’m North America’s largest non-cola soft drink company, with 16 percent of the market. Who am I?