My pitas page

new dinosaur fossils found

taking control of my finances!

restaurant week 2001
get your dialing finger ready, the restaurants have been announced.

man sits on eternal flame in paris
not really the safest way to extinguish a fire, i would think, but to each their own.

sequestered no more
as someone reporting for jury duty next week, i'm glad my chances of being sequestered have just decreased significantly. i like sleeping in my own bed.

a plethora of lobsters

bush party girls
the writer of this story seems to think that dubya's wild past and concealment thereof has led his daughters to act out irresponsibly with alcohol (let me know if you get a different read on this). um, riiiight. because it's not normal for college girls to get wasted while on spring break, or drink illegally in bars in college towns. give 'em a break, people. they're just being kids and they'll most likely turn out fine.

aids vaccine "call to action"
gotta love iavi, a group that pushes hard for aids vaccine research. please sign this petition calling for even more work to be done, which i assume they will present during the un's special session on aids at the end of june.

legally blonde
i'm sure this movie is all sorts of bad for feminism, but it looks funny and i really want to see it.

i love cheese
and this restaurant seems to know it.

fast food indeed
mcd's introduces the use of "speedpass" to get burgers and more without the hassle of that old-fashioned money stuff. if only dunkin donuts or starbucks would follow suit.

big radio
great piece on salon about clear channel, the company that owns a gazillion radio stations here in the u.s., and their unsavory ways of doing business.

dirty little secret
well, not once i write this, i guess. i love reading the "vows" column in the sunday times style section. and here's a story in which ms. brady revisits some couples whose nuptials have appeared in "vows" over the year, to see how they have fared since walking down the aisle.

my college friend jeremy
loved joe moakley more than life itself, or at least it sometimes seemed that way. haven't spoken to him in forever, so will do a google search today and perhaps drop him a line if i can find him. wish me luck. years later i am still snickering at his comment that he didn't want to ever see "rent" because "a bunch of homeless people singing is just depressing." UPDATE: i found jeremy's e-mail through google and he and i have exchanged messages, so we are officially back in touch. whatever did we do before the internet existed?

20 years of aids
the anniversary date that everyone's using (july 4--on that day in 1981 the first story about a strange cancer afflicting homosexuals appeared in the new york times) isn't quite here yet, but here's the first of what appears to be three stories by kick-ass aids beat reporter laurie garrett for newsday.

oh *rhett*
last night at fez, saw a solo show by the boy with the dreamy blue eyes and guitar-playing arms. opened for by some little boy from brooklyn whose songs were too long but had an ok voice and perhaps someday could grow up to be rhett. or, as rhett-like as anyone non-rhett could be. at any rate, mr. miller played "question", which is just so pretty, and "designs on you," which is boppy and clever, and those are perhaps my two most favorite songs off the new album so i was as pleased as the proverbial punch. while i do not think boy fell madly in love with rhett, i believe him when he said he enjoyed the show. that's ok--love takes time, and perhaps will bloom for him after the 6/15 full band show at irving plaza.

colin powell is a wuss
he goes to south africa, meets with the country's leader, and does not discuss aids, which 25 percent of the country's population is infected with. and this president being so lauded by our secretary of state is not convinced that hiv causes aids. hello!?

rapist gets what he deserves
hey, at least the victim turned her attacker's testicles over to police...(heh)

2008, baby!
what china's doing to win the right to host the olympic games.

georgia satellites: official white house band
i hated the georgia satellites when that song came out. hated. them. and then it grew on me. and now i can sing along to it on the radio and even add a little twang to my voice to be appropriately trashy.

audience participation
there's voting involved...but i'll let dan savage himself explain what for in this column. (if you are reading this and you are my parents, you probably won't find the link to your liking. just some fair warning.)

fame and fortune!
ever thought to yourself: "my subway car needs a name"? well, here's your chance. the straphangers are organizing a contest to name a subway car that will then proudly ride the city's rails, anonymous no more. submit your suggestions; you could win a highly-coveted "7-day metro card". i am still snickering over my proposed name. if i win, i'll let you know...

steve madden admits to fraud
he wasn't making enough money from his way-overpriced shoes!?

i love lobster rolls
nothing says summer to me more than one of these puppies. i personally cannot see paying $17 or $18 for one, but the chelsea market alternative at $8.95 would be acceptable. the first summery day we get around this rainy city and i am there.

rufus wainwright at the bowery ballroom
last night i developed a huge crush. rufus wainwright is basically the gay version of rhett miller: not only a stellar musician and wordsmith, but charming and witty and he dresses so very nattily. his music is such a mix of genres, but i'd say he's a folky type with a touch of piano bar performer as well as of rock star extraordinaire. interestingly, the same two lesbian folk singers who opened for the old 97s at the b.b. opened for rufus last night--coincidence? at any rate, when he came on, it was just amazing. he played tracks from both his first album and some from his forthcoming effort, poses, on sale 6/5. his sister was his backup singer! how great is that? then, at the end of the encore, the whole wainwright family: dad (the fairly famous loudon wainwright), mom, sis, and bro, performed together. lovely. i am actually going to purchase the new album, so you know it's good.

poorly written headline
and the fact that they mention gwyneth as an audience member for the taping of r.e.m. unplugged makes me ill.

journalist tad szulc dies
i always thought he had a terrific name. not to mention a great job.

"miraculous" new cancer drug
it's still very new, and it's still unknown whether the cancers will grow resistant, but it's heartening news nonetheless.

successor named for nytimes exec ed position
they practically look like twins!

and, i made pie
my first ever pie. let's just say it tasted much better than it looked. strawberry rhubarb. very summer.

made this for dinner last night
it was ok, but i was not overwhelmingly happy with it. it was a little too spicy for my taste. perhaps half the amount of crushed red pepper would have been enough, and maybe more/various vegetables would have made it more interesting. live and learn.

two weeks
where i start work in about that amount of time.

finally!
i've been waiting my whole life for the flying cars the jetsons promised us in childhood. and it looks like they may not be too far away.

visionary mini-martha
i knew that sooner or later other sweet young thangs would come around to my love of all things domestic. have i mentioned i'm making dinner tonight? like, REAL dinner? and that the urge to paint more apartment walls is almost overwhelming?

editor of "out" dates a ballplayer
and talks about how hard it is to do so when the major league man's deep in the closet. i can't even imagine how difficult that must be. (don't worry, he doesn't out the guy or anything mean like that. editor-man just eloquently hopes that he'll come out so their lives could be easier.)

i'm running this next month
for once, no donations required. wanna come along? (girls only, sorry.)

today, my boyfriend is famous
his quote is about halfway down. how cute!

tom hanks, immortal?
it's official: oscar winners live longer than oscar losers.

now we're cookin'
epicurious.com, probably my most favorite website, has a brand spanking new look today. i approve.

no recess for you
i used to love my two recesses, plus lunch, every day in elementary school. so nice to get outside, even for a little while, despite the fact i was not what you would call athletic (though i did play a mean game of 4-square). so sad that kids today are being chained to their desks for longer--why make them grow up and join the "real world" before they have to?

gee
didn't see THIS coming

"ed" filming booted from town
and why would anyone else ever want to come to nyack? is there that big of a demand for parking spaces?

people are reading way less
perhaps returning to book publishing would be dumb at this time. but maybe i could make them change!

so long and thanks for all the fish
douglas adams, who penned the very, very funny book the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, is dead. it's a sad day for sci fi nerds like me.

bush does the right thing twice in one day
what is happening to me? how can i suddenly be thinking maybe he's not such a bad guy after all? could it be that he's NOT evil?

bush does a good and noble thing
(never thought i'd be writing THAT sentence.)

bronx rape/murder
i know this guy is innocent until proven guilty, but just reading this story makes me want him to suffer. it's so sad.

what cover up?
the fbi is not doing much these days to enhance its reputation among the people. this new development in the oklahoma city bombing case, the "finding" of all these files that should have been given to the defense YEARS ago, just does not look good. they need pr help if any agency ever did. or maybe just some common sense.

naturally occurring aids vaccine
prostitues in nairobi are offering hope that an aids vaccine can be found within the human body. despite thousands of episodes of unprotected sex with men who are infected with hiv, a select group of prostitutes remain uninfected with the virus. it's thought that by being exposed to hiv constantly over time, their bodies have been able to build up a resistance to it. it's completely fascinating.

The Rumor
while i think that the sex lives of public officials are their own business and none of mine, i have to confess i love a good guessing game. it looks like i'd better not cancel my vanity fair subscription til after the july issue, which i guess is running a story about this rumor of two "high-ranking public officials" having affairs. juicy and tacky and totally none of my beeswax, but whatever. i just want to see if my completely uneducated guesses are right.

funky p.j.'s
is starting to be too hot for pajamas (meow!) but file this little site away for when the snow next flies.

take your 2-year-old son to work
a dad madly in love with his baby boy dresses him up like a small grown up and takes him along to work. it's funny, really.

sexpert gets promoted
dan savage, who dishes out snappy answers to some of the best/dumbest sex questions around, has been named editor of seattle's alterna weekly, the stranger.

old 97s hit the big time
in the l.a. times. love the photo of rhett gettin' all rock-n-roll.

the pill, but as a patch
very clever. i look forward to hearing more about it.

the perfect example
of why everyone in the u.n. hates us and we lost those two seats in the first place. how can they NOT understand the connection?

i love cheese
so the fact that it's taking over the city is not at all a bad thing.

the kind of writer i want to be
this book is basically it. i'm not really sure how best to describe it. maybe: a first-person narrative exposing societal injustice? personal experience as social commentary? that sounds more high-falutin' perhaps than i mean it to. but how does one "get into" this field of writing? if only gloria steinem hadn't thought of the playboy bunny expose first--that would be the perfect place to start.

r.e.m. getting dissed
everything i've read so far does not bode well for the forthcoming r.e.m. album, which saddens me greatly. i want it to be good! of course, one cannot trust critics and their desire to bring down whoever's successful, but i still have to acknowledge that i have listened to the last r.e.m. album, "up," once. maybe their music really doesn't speak to me anymore, or maybe i'm not listening correctly. time will tell, and soon: "reveal" is on sale next tuesday.