Shop Rite wants you to know they're suffering in this recession. (from CollegeHumor)
There it is, folks. Right on Avenue C between 26th and 25th.
Great post, eh?
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Funny
Imagine my surprise when, during my usual post-work trawl of Collegehumor.com, I found a picture of the Bayonne Shop Rite!
Shop Rite wants you to know they're suffering in this recession. (from CollegeHumor)
There it is, folks. Right on Avenue C between 26th and 25th.
Great post, eh?
Shop Rite wants you to know they're suffering in this recession. (from CollegeHumor)
There it is, folks. Right on Avenue C between 26th and 25th.
Great post, eh?
Monday, February 23, 2009
I love that dirty water
So, a treasured reader informed me that in writing a post about how Boston is taking steps to burnish its "real city" credentials, I was remiss in not mentioning that Boston cabs are getting backseat credit card readers. Which, for people who patronize cabs, is a pretty nice convenience. Great, huh?
Oh, what heights we'll hit...
Yep, it's that time of year again, treasured readers: the Annual-If-I-Actually-Decide-To-Do-One-Next-Year Academy Awards Running Diary. (I was obliged to embed that video up top for three reasons: my first Oscar post incorporated those lyrics, and I'm nothing if not a slave to tradition; it's one of my fave Seinfeld moments; and everything I know about anything, including Hollywood, before the 1960s comes from Looney Tunes.)
As the year progresses, I always forget how much I love the Academy Awards. Most of the time, I never even manage to see the movies that garner the most nominations, but it's still a fun show. (Disclosure: I actually saw Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, and, obviously, The Dark Night. I also saw Step Brothers, Role Models, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Zack and Miri Make a Porno. So, that should tell you a little something about my cinematic sensibilities.) Anyway, if you care to read my instantaneously conceived gut reactions to this year's show, venture forth!
8:31 Ah, Hugh Jackman is the host. I’m a huge Hugh Jackman guy.
8:39 See? 7 minutes in, and Hugh Jackman has knocked the whole house down. He’s the best! I saw him a few years ago in The Boy from Oz on Broadway. My mom is a huge Peter Allen gal, and she actually got Jackman's autograph on her program after the show. Anyway, long story short, he was a delight in that show. Just like tonight!
8:41 Fifteen Oscar nominations for Meryl Streep. Wow. Did you know she’s from Jersey? Like all good things. So is Anne Hathaway.
8:43 My roommate just noticed that Tilda Swinton is wearing a Snuggie. I can’t argue with that observation.
8:45 Whoopi Goldberg is riffing on Sister Act and Sister Act 2. I love it!
8:55 I can’t decide if this way they present best screenplay (with the presenters reading stage directions out loud) is dopey or brilliant. I mean, for one thing, it’s interesting to see exactly how much of a given film actually comes from the mind of a writer. For another thing, some of the stuff that screen writers write isn’t very interesting to read when you’re already watching the action on the screen.
9:09 Best animated short. Good time to hit the bathroom.
9:10 Good thing I was only being snarky up there and not actually going to the bathroom! The guy that accepted the award said “Domo arrigato, Mr. Roboto.” Bravo, sir.
9:20 Ok, I’m gonna say it once: I haven’t seen it, but I resent that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button even got made. On the list of Scott Fitzgerald stories that need to be made into epic, Oscar-caliber movies, Benjamin Button is waaaaaay down there. This Side of Paradise, anyone? How many nonsense bildungsromans get made every year that are written by schmos and aren’t half the quality of This Side of Paradise? And if we’re going to talk about short stories, what about The Diamond as Big as the Ritz? It’s got suspense! It’s got thrills! It’s got sweeping landscapes! It’s got drama! Get your act together, Hollywood, and toss us English majors a bone.
9:32 Is it in good taste for Ben Stiller to be making fun of Joaquin Phoenix? Like, what if he’s actually ill? Or addicted to drugs?
9:58 Hey, Baz Lurman designed that last musical number. Good to see he’s getting work. His Romeo + Juliet was stinktown, but Moulin Rouge remains one of my all-time favorites.
10:04 Are Josh Brolin and Diane Lane together? I gotta tell you, I like that couple.
10:07 Supporting actor is a good category this year. These other guys have to be kicking themselves that they’re competing against Heath Ledger.
10:08 There we go. Perhaps the foregoniest of foregone conclusions.
10:16 Whoa! Who is this French dude? He’s doing magic tricks! He’s balancing Oscars on his chin! Somebody hook him up with the Mr. Roboto guy and see what happens.
10:27 Benjamin Button won for digital effects? Give me a break. This category was invented so that popular movies that people like can win Oscars. Then again, maybe I should see the movie before I complain any more. I mean, it might actually be good.
10:46 Jerry Lewis doesn’t look too bad. Good for him.
10:55 I think I would like Alicia Keys to read aloud to me. That voice!
11:02 Ok, my battery is running out. If anything preposterous happens, I’ll do my best to retroactively record my bitingly sarcastic observations.
um, approximately 58 minutes hence: Looks like everything played out the way it should have. Although I was definitely rooting for Frank Langella (the pride of Bayonne) or Richard Jenkins (starred in a movie directed by Boston College graduate Tom McCarthy) to win best actor, I can't complain about Sean Penn. Especially considering I actually saw the movie he was in.
Dangerous, Dirty, and Updated: So I just read in Salon's Oscar recap that the French guy I referred to before was actually high-wire walker Phillipe Petit, the subject of the winning documentary, Man on Wire, which explains why he was able to so deftly balance the Oscar statue on his chin. (Sorry, I wasn't really paying attention to the documentary categories. What a bad documenter of the Oscars I am.) Apparently, Petit wasn't actually supposed to be on stage; not because he's a crazed lunatic, which was my original instinct, but because of the Academy's strict rules for who can be on stage to accept an award. I'm glad he decided to buck the system!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Great idea in action
Boston is finally getting the wheels in motion to start up a public food market, a la Pike Place in Seattle. I say, tremendous!
I'm a frequent patron of the Haymarket fruit and vegetable stands, which are fine for cheap produce. There's definitely something to be said, though, for an indoor, year-round, daily venue for purveyors of local and regional food. (It's tough to sift through a pile of apples when it's 10 degrees outside!)
I actually wasn't aware of how much of a staple the public food market was to the big American city. Apparently, dear reader, it is. I had an argument with a friend from college one time. She's going to law school in New York now, and tried to convince me that Boston wasn't a real city. (Her main reason for thinking this: real cities don't have subways that stop at red lights. I hope she learns how to argue a little better in law school.) Irregardless of the weakness of her case, the whole discussion rattled me. The subways do stop at red lights! The bars do close at 2! All of this is to say, it warms the cockles of my heart to see Boston take another stop to bolster its "real city" credentials.
I'm a frequent patron of the Haymarket fruit and vegetable stands, which are fine for cheap produce. There's definitely something to be said, though, for an indoor, year-round, daily venue for purveyors of local and regional food. (It's tough to sift through a pile of apples when it's 10 degrees outside!)
I actually wasn't aware of how much of a staple the public food market was to the big American city. Apparently, dear reader, it is. I had an argument with a friend from college one time. She's going to law school in New York now, and tried to convince me that Boston wasn't a real city. (Her main reason for thinking this: real cities don't have subways that stop at red lights. I hope she learns how to argue a little better in law school.) Irregardless of the weakness of her case, the whole discussion rattled me. The subways do stop at red lights! The bars do close at 2! All of this is to say, it warms the cockles of my heart to see Boston take another stop to bolster its "real city" credentials.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Music is my imaginary friend
If this doesn't put a smile on your face on a dreary and wet February evening, you should probably see a doctor. Listen to a little Faith Hill.
New feature: Classic DD&U
So since my old .mac site doesn't exist any more, and I feel that it's cruel to deprive you, my treasured readers, of a significant part of my oeuvre (and in a blatant attempt to increase my posts-per-month stats), I've decided to occasionally re-post some of those old Dangerous, Dirty, and Unfun entries. After tonight, I'll do them in chronological order, but by special request, here's a food-related post from last year.
Chipotle = teh suck
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Yeah, I haven’t posted in a while. Big whoop. Wanna fight about it?
A Chipotle opened in Cleveland Circle, down the street from where I work. Judging from the lines that I’ve seen in the past few days since the grand opening, it seems that people are thrilled about this development. Indeed, burrito proliferation is on the march in the Hub of the Universe, to the point that Boston Magazine ran a trend piece this past December.
Burritos might be the new national sensation, but in Boston, we’ve had our own transcendently awesome burrito mongers here for years: Anna’s Taqueria. I’m an Anna’s partisan, and I have no shame saying it. I have a friend from Minnesota who, for the longest time, has insisted that not only is Chipotle awesome, but it’s better than Anna’s. I had never eaten a burrito from Chipotle, but like a true zealot, I had faith without experience: no burrito could be better than an Anna’s burrito. Once Chipotle opened a week and a half ago, I knew I would have my chance to validate my unshakable belief in Anna’s.
As you can tell from the title of this post, Chipotle doesn’t even come close, and I’ll enumerate those reasons below. Two pieces of disclosure: firstly, there’s a written record of my Anna’s devotion, including some rather . . . blasphemous language. Secondly, as I was eating my Chipotle burrito, I kinda ate some of the foil it was wrapped in. While that may have affected the eating experience slightly, you can rest assured that my palate is sophisticated enough to tell the difference between a good burrito and a not so good burrito. On to the critique.
1. The line
I understand that in the first week that a much-anticipated new eatery has been open, novelty alone will make for long lines. However, comma, the way that Chipotle is set up doesn’t bode well for hasty queue movement. Essentially, there’s a person manning a station for every possible element of the burrito. The assembly line is a good idea in some instances; you wouldn’t want just one guy building your Model T, for instance. But for a burrito, there’s a lot of time wasted by passing it from one set of hands to the next. At Anna’s, you’ve got one guy running the tortilla steamer, one guy making the burrito, and one guy at the register. Bing, bang, boom.
2. The cheese
Umm, you have to choose either sour cream OR cheese? What is this, Soviet Russia? How about sour cream AND cheese? And then if you choose cheese, it’s added at the end of the burrito making process, as opposed to the very beginning. At Anna’s your cheese is on your tortilla when it goes into the steamer, making it melty and delicious.
3. The meat
I got a carnitas burrito. Honestly, I found it to be dry and not as tender as it could be. There’s something to be said for having whole pieces of pork that are cut up, made to order.
4. The rice
In a word, uninspired. It had a good moisture and texture, but it added nothing to the picture. Anna’s rice is cooked with chicken broth, and it makes all the difference. In a regular burrito, the rice is there as a space filler. In an Anna’s burrito, it’s a valued addition. Tasty, too!
5. The beans
Pinto beans: check. Black beans: check. Refried beans: no check! How are you gonna offer burritos to the consumer, and not have refried beans available? It’s almost unspeakable. Add to that the fact that the pinto beans were a little gritty, and you’ve got a burrito dealer that doesn’t know beans about beans.
6. The salsa
More cilantro, please.
7. The fixings
Of all the crimes perpetrated on the burrito by Chipotle, this one may be the most heinous: where are the jalepenos? ’Penos might not be for everybody, but at least give the people a choice! I’m actually getting worked up over here.
8. The guacamole
I don’t even like guacamole, but as a burrito evangelist, I feel the need to defend my brothers and sister who do. Here’s the problem: it costs $1.75! What are those avocados made of, gold? What a racket!
9. The wrap
An Anna’s burrito is deftly wrapped up, and so tight that every second you hold it is spent in mortal fear that it will burst and explode all over you. My Chipotle burrito was loose and floppy. Loose and floppy = messy!
In closing, I’ll paraphrase Rick James: I wish I had four hands, so I could give Chipotle four thumbs down. If one lived in a desolate wasteland, where there were no burritos for 100 miles, I can understand why Chipotle has an appeal. But here in Boston, we’ve got Anna’s, a taqueria that makes what can only be described as the Platonic ideal of a burrito. I won’t be switching.
Chipotle = teh suck
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Yeah, I haven’t posted in a while. Big whoop. Wanna fight about it?
A Chipotle opened in Cleveland Circle, down the street from where I work. Judging from the lines that I’ve seen in the past few days since the grand opening, it seems that people are thrilled about this development. Indeed, burrito proliferation is on the march in the Hub of the Universe, to the point that Boston Magazine ran a trend piece this past December.
Burritos might be the new national sensation, but in Boston, we’ve had our own transcendently awesome burrito mongers here for years: Anna’s Taqueria. I’m an Anna’s partisan, and I have no shame saying it. I have a friend from Minnesota who, for the longest time, has insisted that not only is Chipotle awesome, but it’s better than Anna’s. I had never eaten a burrito from Chipotle, but like a true zealot, I had faith without experience: no burrito could be better than an Anna’s burrito. Once Chipotle opened a week and a half ago, I knew I would have my chance to validate my unshakable belief in Anna’s.
As you can tell from the title of this post, Chipotle doesn’t even come close, and I’ll enumerate those reasons below. Two pieces of disclosure: firstly, there’s a written record of my Anna’s devotion, including some rather . . . blasphemous language. Secondly, as I was eating my Chipotle burrito, I kinda ate some of the foil it was wrapped in. While that may have affected the eating experience slightly, you can rest assured that my palate is sophisticated enough to tell the difference between a good burrito and a not so good burrito. On to the critique.
1. The line
I understand that in the first week that a much-anticipated new eatery has been open, novelty alone will make for long lines. However, comma, the way that Chipotle is set up doesn’t bode well for hasty queue movement. Essentially, there’s a person manning a station for every possible element of the burrito. The assembly line is a good idea in some instances; you wouldn’t want just one guy building your Model T, for instance. But for a burrito, there’s a lot of time wasted by passing it from one set of hands to the next. At Anna’s, you’ve got one guy running the tortilla steamer, one guy making the burrito, and one guy at the register. Bing, bang, boom.
2. The cheese
Umm, you have to choose either sour cream OR cheese? What is this, Soviet Russia? How about sour cream AND cheese? And then if you choose cheese, it’s added at the end of the burrito making process, as opposed to the very beginning. At Anna’s your cheese is on your tortilla when it goes into the steamer, making it melty and delicious.
3. The meat
I got a carnitas burrito. Honestly, I found it to be dry and not as tender as it could be. There’s something to be said for having whole pieces of pork that are cut up, made to order.
4. The rice
In a word, uninspired. It had a good moisture and texture, but it added nothing to the picture. Anna’s rice is cooked with chicken broth, and it makes all the difference. In a regular burrito, the rice is there as a space filler. In an Anna’s burrito, it’s a valued addition. Tasty, too!
5. The beans
Pinto beans: check. Black beans: check. Refried beans: no check! How are you gonna offer burritos to the consumer, and not have refried beans available? It’s almost unspeakable. Add to that the fact that the pinto beans were a little gritty, and you’ve got a burrito dealer that doesn’t know beans about beans.
6. The salsa
More cilantro, please.
7. The fixings
Of all the crimes perpetrated on the burrito by Chipotle, this one may be the most heinous: where are the jalepenos? ’Penos might not be for everybody, but at least give the people a choice! I’m actually getting worked up over here.
8. The guacamole
I don’t even like guacamole, but as a burrito evangelist, I feel the need to defend my brothers and sister who do. Here’s the problem: it costs $1.75! What are those avocados made of, gold? What a racket!
9. The wrap
An Anna’s burrito is deftly wrapped up, and so tight that every second you hold it is spent in mortal fear that it will burst and explode all over you. My Chipotle burrito was loose and floppy. Loose and floppy = messy!
In closing, I’ll paraphrase Rick James: I wish I had four hands, so I could give Chipotle four thumbs down. If one lived in a desolate wasteland, where there were no burritos for 100 miles, I can understand why Chipotle has an appeal. But here in Boston, we’ve got Anna’s, a taqueria that makes what can only be described as the Platonic ideal of a burrito. I won’t be switching.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Sweet fancy Moses!
I promise I'm not doing all these posts to artificially drive up my stats or anything. Any other day and I'd compile the past few into a hodge-podge of links and videos.
Irregardless, watch this amazingly incredible video about shrimp. For real. Watch it, and then get on your knees and pray that the pistol shrimp never chooses to use its devastating powers for evil.
Pistol Shrimp - video powered by Metacafe
h/t to Atom
Irregardless, watch this amazingly incredible video about shrimp. For real. Watch it, and then get on your knees and pray that the pistol shrimp never chooses to use its devastating powers for evil.
Pistol Shrimp - video powered by Metacafe
h/t to Atom
Monday, February 16, 2009
tf, GG?
What's a guy gotta do to get a new Gossip Girl around here? I'm wicked frustrated.
If you're in as foul a mood as I am, hopefully my new favorite commercial will cheer you up.
If you're in as foul a mood as I am, hopefully my new favorite commercial will cheer you up.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
I love that dirty water
Well, I don't necessarily know if this is a Boston-specific phenomenon, but the Sam Adams White Ale, the spring seasonal, is out. (I mean, it stands to reason that we would get it first, but who knows. Some jobber in California could have been drinking it for weeks now.) Since the Winter Lager and the Summer Ale are so popular, it seems to me like the White Ale gets the short shrift. They release it, and then in the blink of an eye, you'll see the Summer Ale on the shelves. Even though the White Ale is secretly like, the best seasonal. Anyway, drink up.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Blatant political advocacy
Take a minute and sign this petition, initiated by Senator Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He's drumming up support for a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate the various lawless activities of the Bush administration, including, but not limited to, torture, suspension of habeas corpus, warrantless wiretapping, and abuse of executive authority. It's a little milquetoast for my ravingly liberal sensibilities, but I fear a commission like this is the best we can hope for. Do the right thing, folks.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Amazing
So on my way home from work today, I looked into a Faneuil Hall restaurant and saw, no joke, a twenty-something wearing a sky blue Lacoste shirt with the collar firmly up, drinking a 40 of Bud Light. And from every indication that I could sense, this was all done unironically. Amazing
Monday, February 9, 2009
Arthropods donning chapeaus
In a meeting today, my boss recommended an article in the latest New York Review of Books about ants. (Specifically, Tim Flannery's piece on Bert Hölldobler and E.O. Wilson's book The Superorganism.) I'm not going to distill a distillation of a 500-page book, so you'll have to take my word that this thing has to be read to be believed. Apparently, there are a lot of parallels that can be drawn between human society and the way ant colonies become superorganisms. There are a number of money quotes to choose from. Here's one, about leaf cutter ants, who amazing-but-true have actually developed agriculture:
I'll go ahead and utilize this serendipitous bit of topicality to ask you, my dearest readers, for some help. As anyone that has actually spoken with me is undoubtedly aware, I have a term that I use a lot. Whenever someone posits a scenario or question that is irrelevant, inconsequential, or generally a nonstarter, my response invariably begins "What if ants wore hats?" It's most synonymous with "What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?"
The provenance of my term came up this weekend when a buddy of mine considered using it in correspondence, but then thought better of it when he realized it's a term that only I use, and he'd look like quite the fool if he used it in mixed company. Which leads me to ask you, my precious readers: did I actually invent this term? I'm almost positively certain that I got it from a dumb TV show or cartoon or movie, but I can't pin it down. Teh Google is no help. So if anyone has any idea where this phrase came from, whether it was my own genius or some dumb show, let me know! And let's pretend this is a real blog, and instead of just talking to me personally, put your responses in comments. Thanks!
When growing fungus on such a large scale, waste management becomes a crucial issue, and the attines have developed a finely tuned solution. Their sanitation teams comprise one group of workers that gathers the refuse from inside the colony and dumps it at depots outside. From there dump managers that work exclusively outside the nest carry the waste to great disposal sites far from the colony. The dump managers that work outside are mostly older ants that have only a short time to live in any case, which is a good thing, for the great refuse dumps they toil at teem with pathogens and toxins. This system effectively quarantines the colony from a dangerous threat and at the same time minimizes worker loss of life. Curiously, humans have found a use for the ant refuse. So strong is the ants' aversion to it that South American farmers gather it and sprinkle it around young plants they wish to protect from attacks by leafcutters.Incredible.
I'll go ahead and utilize this serendipitous bit of topicality to ask you, my dearest readers, for some help. As anyone that has actually spoken with me is undoubtedly aware, I have a term that I use a lot. Whenever someone posits a scenario or question that is irrelevant, inconsequential, or generally a nonstarter, my response invariably begins "What if ants wore hats?" It's most synonymous with "What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?"
The provenance of my term came up this weekend when a buddy of mine considered using it in correspondence, but then thought better of it when he realized it's a term that only I use, and he'd look like quite the fool if he used it in mixed company. Which leads me to ask you, my precious readers: did I actually invent this term? I'm almost positively certain that I got it from a dumb TV show or cartoon or movie, but I can't pin it down. Teh Google is no help. So if anyone has any idea where this phrase came from, whether it was my own genius or some dumb show, let me know! And let's pretend this is a real blog, and instead of just talking to me personally, put your responses in comments. Thanks!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Winter is teh suck
And I'll tell you why. Here in the Hub, it snows every week. That's a problem in itself, but there's no sense in railing against it. Everybody in the universe just indiscriminately throws salt on the ground, which is wonderful for preventing a buildup of deadly ice. But then it gets all over your shoes, and you wind up dragging the stuff into your house. This is a picture I just took of my bedroom. Awful!
Friday, February 6, 2009
Peggy Noonan is a villain
Here's the proof:
Meanwhile, Steven Benen over at the Washington Monthly blog takes a different tack.
The question for the Obama administration: Do they think Mr. Cheney is essentially correct, that bad men are coming with evil and deadly intent, but that America can afford to, must for moral reasons, change its stance regarding interrogation and detention of terrorists? Or, deep down, do the president and those around him think Mr. Cheney is wrong, that people who make such warnings are hyping the threat for political purposes? And, therefore, that interrogation techniques, etc., can of course be relaxed? I don't know the precise answer to this question. Do they know exactly what they think? Or are they reading raw threat files each day trying to figure out what they think?I love how this quote assumes that torture is the baseline, on one side of which is a body of useful and vital intelligence, and on the other are American cities in ruin, crops burned, stores looted, people stampeded, and cattle raped. (My apologies to Ms. Noonan. I was taught to use words that are true and precise, like "torture" instead of "interrogation and detention." Those euphemisms just smack of Orwell.) Aside from a muttered nod to "moral reasons," it never occurs to Ms. Noonan that we would change our stance on "interrogation and detention of terrorists" because our stance on "interrogation and detention of terrorists" is ineffective, dangerous, illegal, unethical, hypocritical, and generally repugnant. A kinder, gentler nation, my ass.
Meanwhile, Steven Benen over at the Washington Monthly blog takes a different tack.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Music is my imaginary friend
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
tf?
So I was watching the first round of the Beanpot and then last night's 24, so I had to watch Gossip Girl on DVR tonight. Soorry, guys.
I was totally ready to complain about this episode. It had all of the elements that, when jammed down one's throat week after week, can make GG a frustrating show. Hey, did you know Chuck is an over-sexed slimeball? ("It makes the kama sutra feel new again"?) Did you know that Blair is a vindictive schemer, and would throw anyone under the bus to get her way, and gets away with everything with nary a consequence? Did you know Dan is a moron, but not as big a moron as Serena? (Dan, you had to know that seeing Rachel outside of class was a bad idea. And Serena, you sold out your boyfriend without even asking what was going on? You act like you haven't been a character on Gossip Girl for a season and a half!)
Then Dan and Serena broke up for what seems like the jillionth time, and I know that things had changed. Every time this happens, I get visibly upset. (Like at the end of last season, when they played Death Cab's "The Ice Is Getting Thinner" over Dan and Serena's last dance. I won't bore you with the gruesome details, suffice it to say it got a little dusty in my living room at that point.) But after tonight's breakup, I could only think "Finally! Now maybe these idiots will stop wasting our time." How could I think that! Dan and Serena's love is supposed to transcend reality! I felt betrayed. By the show, and by myself.
And then I watched the last five minutes. Chuck is involved in a murder mystery! Blair got Yale back, but her father doesn't love her! And Dan? Holy smokes! Every paradigm has shifted! GG is back! I can't stop using exclamation points!
I was totally ready to complain about this episode. It had all of the elements that, when jammed down one's throat week after week, can make GG a frustrating show. Hey, did you know Chuck is an over-sexed slimeball? ("It makes the kama sutra feel new again"?) Did you know that Blair is a vindictive schemer, and would throw anyone under the bus to get her way, and gets away with everything with nary a consequence? Did you know Dan is a moron, but not as big a moron as Serena? (Dan, you had to know that seeing Rachel outside of class was a bad idea. And Serena, you sold out your boyfriend without even asking what was going on? You act like you haven't been a character on Gossip Girl for a season and a half!)
Then Dan and Serena broke up for what seems like the jillionth time, and I know that things had changed. Every time this happens, I get visibly upset. (Like at the end of last season, when they played Death Cab's "The Ice Is Getting Thinner" over Dan and Serena's last dance. I won't bore you with the gruesome details, suffice it to say it got a little dusty in my living room at that point.) But after tonight's breakup, I could only think "Finally! Now maybe these idiots will stop wasting our time." How could I think that! Dan and Serena's love is supposed to transcend reality! I felt betrayed. By the show, and by myself.
And then I watched the last five minutes. Chuck is involved in a murder mystery! Blair got Yale back, but her father doesn't love her! And Dan? Holy smokes! Every paradigm has shifted! GG is back! I can't stop using exclamation points!
Monday, February 2, 2009
Zelda warriors
Here's a few links that have been kicking around.
# I love that I came across this. It's a Flickr album of barber shops and hair salons with supposedly clever puns in their names. I don't think the creator expected me to laugh nearly as much as I did at some of these, but then again, I love puns. Here are a few of the best ones: The Sharpest Image, Barber Q, E-Nail, Mane Attraction, Shylocks, Hairsay, Hair Today Gone Tomorrow, Noonan's Hair 'Em, Yankee Clipper, and my personal favorite: The Best Little Hair House.
# Here's a great blog: Photo Cliches. I would explain, but a picture is worth a thousand words. Just click and things will become self-evident.
# From Strange Maps, a bunch of real-life objects that happen to be shaped like countries. How neat!
# I love that I came across this. It's a Flickr album of barber shops and hair salons with supposedly clever puns in their names. I don't think the creator expected me to laugh nearly as much as I did at some of these, but then again, I love puns. Here are a few of the best ones: The Sharpest Image, Barber Q, E-Nail, Mane Attraction, Shylocks, Hairsay, Hair Today Gone Tomorrow, Noonan's Hair 'Em, Yankee Clipper, and my personal favorite: The Best Little Hair House.
# Here's a great blog: Photo Cliches. I would explain, but a picture is worth a thousand words. Just click and things will become self-evident.
# From Strange Maps, a bunch of real-life objects that happen to be shaped like countries. How neat!
My literary pedigree
Some of you may be aware of the contentious battle over the legacy of Edgar Allan Poe, the great writer, poet, critic, and general weirdo. More specifically, who gets to claim Poe. Much like Oxford, Mississippi can claim Faulkner, Monterrey can claim Steinbeck, and Albany can claim William Kennedy (or vice versa), several cities are engaged in a tug-of-war over Poe, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Richmond, and the Hub of the Universe. The battle has become all the more pitched because this January marks Poe's 200th birthday. Here's some background on the latest volleys.
You can judge for yourself. The reason I'm bring this to your attention is because Poe was born right here in Boston, but the plaque in the theater district commemorating the legend isn't even near the place of his birth. Fortunately, two years ago Joshua Glenn at the Globe's Ideas blog did the legwork and figured out that Poe was born in a building on the same city block as my old apartment on Warrenton Street! Look at the map! Isn't that cool?
You can judge for yourself. The reason I'm bring this to your attention is because Poe was born right here in Boston, but the plaque in the theater district commemorating the legend isn't even near the place of his birth. Fortunately, two years ago Joshua Glenn at the Globe's Ideas blog did the legwork and figured out that Poe was born in a building on the same city block as my old apartment on Warrenton Street! Look at the map! Isn't that cool?
'chos and 'trails
So I just got back from a trip to Stratton Mountain up in Vermont for a little skiing, a few brew dogs, and the company of good friends, and I have to say, precious readers, that I feel juvenated, combobulated, and fully in of sorts. There's nothing like the cold air blasting you in the face, looking at your shadow stretch out in front of you on that bright white slope, and seeing that fan of powder fly out behind you . . . there's nothing like it! Expect some good blog posts this week. The ideas are percolating!
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