My pitas page

maureen dowd
she's funny, that maureen dowd. this column also made me ponder: what are my thoughts about who pays on a date? what i've come up with: whoever asked who out should pay for that first date. then if it involves into seeing each other regularly, it depends on the finances of those involved. if the girl makes more and wants to pay, good. if the boy makes more and wants to pay, good. if they decide to split it, so be it. i mean, if you want to be with someone, money's not the key thing, right? fun should be had whether you're at mcd's or the rainbow room. that's how you know you really like them.

faking it
i always suspected the only reason anne heche was "gay" was to hook up with more-famous-than-her ellen. and now, since anne is marrying a boy, i may have been right. how mean and heartless to do that to someone, in terms of the faking being a lesbian and in love thing. it's like not only are you lying about your feelings, you're lying about the ability to have those feelings in the first place. just mean.

island burgers
i'd never been here before, but now i know why some say it has the best burgers in the city. i think i now agree with them (sorry, mchale's). the five of us went here after "novocaine" and indulged in the burger of our choice. mine: burger with cheddar, guacamole, and bacon. welcome to my clogged arteries. and to round out the evening some of us could not pass up the shakes. aside from the awful-awful's i had on the cape as a kid, this was the best vanilla shake ever. ever!

"novocaine"
went to a free screening of this movie last night. the best part of the evening: rex reed was there, and in the elevator ride down from the theater after he was in our elevator. and the doors took too long to open when we got to the first floor and i started to snicker because (1) i REALLY wanted to ask him what he thought of the movie, and (2) i kept thinking about him shoplifting cd's from virgin. anyway, n. is right about "novocaine": save your pennies. (but thank you for getting us in to see it!)

how happy are you? no, really.
this week's issue of u.s. news & world report has the hard-hitting cover story of "how happy are you"? (ah, august, the slowest news month.) the shocking finding, though, came after i took this quiz. i scored a 28, which apparently means i am "extremely happy" and way "above average". this is, of course, freaking me out. what will happen to my street cred as a moping, moody grrl? i am going to listen to the cure tonight and wear all black tomorrow to knock this happiness thing down a notch.

kevin smith comic
this was in sunday's nytimes magazine, but i was too tired to read it this week and so i missed it. scroll down about half-way on the contents page that the link above takes you to, and you'll find a comic by kevin smith about his first kiss with his now-wife. it's charming and full of fun clothes, but it does take a while to get through as a slide show.

bush mocks bald reporter
and all to cover up the fact that he can't answer questions about his own policies. how perfectly frat boy of him.

shakespeare in the berkshires
lenox, mass., hits the big-time with a nice write-up in the new york times. this is the play my parents went to see as my anniversary present to them. they quite liked it.

"waiting" by ha jin
my new reading selection. it's won a bunch of awards, and i know i read an excerpt from it when it was first out in harcover. i'm finding it hard, if this makes sense, to get in the right reading pace for this book. it's much slower and sparser than nick hornby and sarah vowell, for example, and i have to stop reading it in a breezy fashion to get the most out of it. the sarah vowell, by the way ("take the cannoli") was fun, but not so great. there was one piece, though, that was cracking me up: she is taught how to drive by ira glass.

linguini, clams, portobello mushrooms
finally got around to making this for dinner last night. it was so good, if i may say so myself. and it was so easy it makes you wonder why you don't do this cooking thing more often. [update: i didn't win powerball. just so you know. so surprising and disappointing.]

irish soda bread
another gift was two mixes for irish soda bread: white and brown. the brown kind can also be made as scones, but apparently the white cannot. i wonder why. anyways: here's a history of the stuff if you're interested.

n.h. v. va.
as someone who lived in new hampshire for a little too long, i can only applaud "the west wing"'s decision to make virginia substitute for the granite state in the season premier. and when is that show coming back on the air? i miss it...

sunday brunch
hung in the slope yesterday with a., had good brunch here (zuccini fritters...mmm...). visited various brooklyn thrift shops that contained so many cute purses i am still in shock that i spent not a dime. is it just me or has this summer been really busy? i feel that it actually has and it's not just my paranoid imagination playing tricks on me. perhaps fall will be slower...or, at least, i hope it will be for everyone's sanity and social options.

the naked chef
one of my ireland presents from a certain cool someone is the brit version of the new naked chef cookbook. i'm so darn excited to give those recipes a whirl... (and thank goodness the measurements are given in both euro and american form.)

powerball power!
gods willing, by this time on sunday i will be rich and all of my friends and i will be having one heck of a nice dinner and drinks. because i plan on buying a single powerball ticket tonight when i get home (though not obviously in greenwich, ct, if you read this story) and of course that will be the ticket that wins it all. without a doubt. oh yeah baby.

stem cell boo boo
whoops! turns out those stem cells may not be useable for research after all. who knew? [an aside: watching the today show this morning i was struck once again by how BAD ann curry is at interviewing people. does anyone else have similar issues with her? she was so aggressive that i thought she was going to jump off her chair and start gnawing on the statue-of-liberty-paraglider's arm. and it was just so unnecessary--it's not like the man is gary condit or anything! she has to relax and not worry about proving herself, i think.]

amazing
there's no other word to describe the fact that a member of a state legislative body would forward to all his colleagues an e-mail that said the two things that made america great were "white men & christianity". and his quotes defending his behavior are even more amazing. you've got to read this yourself...

condit and connie
i don't know if i'll be watching this interview tonight because: i'm kind of sick of the whole topic, i may very well be sound asleep by ten p.m., and i have a feeling that it would make me very, very mad. i especially like the question salon poses (that connie will not) about how condit would feel if his daughter was missing and someone witheld evidence for as long as he did. while i doubt condit had anything to do with chandra's disappearance, he's a coward of the highest degree nonetheless.

from the "toldja so" department
the budget surplus that bush spent all his time talking about during the campaign, and then giving away once he was in office, is now gone due to a bad economy. as nelson from "the simpsons" would say: ha-ha!

need proof that society is in decline?

cusak for president
can you IMAGINE what would happen if john cusak actually did run for president and by some weird twist of the universe, won? i mean, i'm still hopelessly in love with lloyd dobbler, but do i want the man who played him in the (ahem) MOVIES running the country? then again, if reagan could do it...

sen. helms to announce retirement plans
it's supposed to happen tomorrow night, so stayed tuned. the story goes on to say a 2003 retirement by good old evil jesse would mean a senate run by elizabeth dole. this could be quite entertaining and interesting, though not necessarily the best thing for all that is good and true in the universe.

"about a boy"
i am this close to finishing this nick hornby book, and i only started it sunday night. despite the easy-read-ness of it, i am quite enjoying it. nick hornby makes me laugh. and i don't think i did a recap of "written on the body" by jeannette winterson, which was the book i read before this one. it was amazing. the story in itself is a small one, about the end of a love affair, but her style is so spare it's surprising that she can breathe such life into it. and the emotions she was able to describe--if you've ever had your heart broken or been in love to the point where you think you might burst, you should read this book just to get the proper phrases to describe such feelings. added bonus: you never find out if the protagonist is a man or a woman.

my brother
we had dinner last night, exchanged reading recommendations (i now have his copy of "take the cannoli" and he's got my "white teeth" and "high fidelity"), and generally had a very good time. i was kind of surprised, though i guess not really, because he and i have been getting along much better now that he's out of college and on his own, striving to become one of the jazz greats. i don't know how smart it is to link to something containing his name, 'cause then you'll know my name, but i think the only people visiting this page already know who the heck i am. here goes nothing...

stolen art used to bring peace
if i could be any sort of criminal i would want to be an art thief. this story adds another strange twist to the case of the stolen chagall: it will only be returned when there is peace in the middle east. good luck to you, i say to museum officials.

where c. is this week
in case you were curious.

new movie weekend
went to see "captain corelli's mandolin" last night with c's mom. while it deserves the bad reviews--talk about no chemistry between the romantic leads, and one crappy accent from mr. cage--it was not at all the worst movie i have ever seen, so i didn't mind it. the worst movie i have ever seen, in case you're interested, gentle reader, is actually a tie between two movies: "boxing helena" and "michael". (yes, the one in which john travolta was an angel. feel my pain.)

new restaurant weekend
(yes, a theme is going) went here friday night for a somewhat overdue hang-out with the girls. good food, and so cheap i almost thought we weren't in new york anymore. and i learned that red wine still knocks me on my butt faster than any other alcohol, so that's nice.

new cd weekend
listening to the latest offering from the band ivy, which is great music for when you're not depressed but could use some lightly melancholy music. they're a pop band fronted by a french girl who sings so sweetly and softly en anglais, and it's the sort of cd you can see yourself playing while driving through the berkshires in the fall. if that makes any sense. at any rate: two thumbs up. let me know if you hear of them touring or anything, ok?

ted kennedy near death?
sure, this report comes via matt drudge AND the national enquirer, but i feel like there is at least a small portion of truth to these sorts of things. you heard it here first.

new reading material
last night i finished "the picture of dorian gray" by oscar wilde and i quite enjoyed it. (meaning reading the book, not finishing it.) that dorian got what he deserved in the end, and the wittiness of the writing just did not quit. now i have moved onto a book that i think is going to be a lot more emotionally draining, since i'm only on about page 8 and i already wanted to cry while reading it on the train this morning. it's "written on the body" by jeannette winterson, who i'd never heard of before meeting the boy, to be quite honest, but who he adores. and i can see why. more updates as the book progresses, i think. it seems like that kind of reading experience.

the erotic thatcher
as in margaret thatcher, yes. those wacky brit artists.

ah, the double standard
female executives are being enrolled in "weakness" classes because their hard-charging attitudes scare their co-workers and bosses. so many comments to make about this, and so little time. suffice to say: this is SO unfair! none of my male bosses have EVER given a thought as to whether people feared them. in fact, i've always been of the opinion that it is far better to be feared than loved in the world of work. but women are not allowed to indulge in such leadership traits. instead, they are taught that it's ok to cry during meetings. if i ever cry during a meeting, please put me out of my misery, ok? and i don't care if that's masculine of me.

just say yes
i think the last time i saw an episode of "sex and the city" this season was the first one of the whole gosh darn season. but since we have about 6 hbo's at home, i was able to belatedly see the season finale last night, and i have to say it was satisfying. i like that carrie is a normal-acting girl (basically), even if she isn't a normal-looking one. out of all four of the characters i think i identify with her the most. or maybe i just want her shoes. sometimes it's hard to tell these things.

lazy weekend
c. and i temporarily moved the tv into our bedroom this weekend, since we don't have a couch to lay about on, and the apartment quickly turned into a den of slack. well, at least on saturday afternoon/night it did: that was when we watched about 6 straight hours of the "bands on the run" marathon on vh-1. it was great. i do dig the band that won the whole thing, whose site is linked to above. hey, flickerstick, come to new york and play a show or two...

beards
a fun piece on slate, inspired by al gore's new facial hair, about the rise and fall of the beard in politics. i kind of feel like this is a symptom of gore's mid-life crisis: going to europe, growing a beard. like he's trying to be all hemingway. but maybe he just initially forgot to pack a razor and then decided, what the hell, to just keep growing it.

portugal decriminalizes drugs
going the way of amsterdam. i'm going there in a few months, but won't be partaking.

a wilde time
having finished "1984" (i can see why it's on the top 100, but i personally won't be reading it for pleasure again anytime soon) i am out to remedy another gap in my literary upbringing. i've begun "the picture of dorian gray" by oscar wilde, having never read anything by wilde, who i think i would have absolutely loved hanging out with, judging from his witty writing. but probably only for short periods of time because i can only take being with people wittier than me for a little while. i always thought this book was called "the PORTRAIT of dorian gray," but i guess it never was called that so i have no idea where i got that from. thus far, i am enjoying it immensely...will keep you posted.

italian in tribeca
of all the places we stuffed our faces this weekend, this was a new one for me so here it is on the pita. the food was really very good, but the lack of air conditioning was getting to us by the end of the night. i bet in winter, though, it's toasty warm and the food is still realy good, so file this away for future use.

ellis island
my parents were in town this weekend, and as much as i hate to admit it, the touristy visit to ellis island was actually very cool. it took us four hours to go through the whole museum and i actually read all the stuff that one is supposed to read when looking at the exhibits. i'd recommend it for a one-shot tourist thing to do in the city. use this link to look up your family history online--but it only works if someone in your fam went through ellis island's immigration center.

archived!