*linnea's pita
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you decide.
me: heh.
feeling:
running mileage
this month: 101
11/01: 65.5
10/01: 77.2
10/13/01: the hartford marathon: mission: accomplished
9/01: 169.5
8/01: 181
7/01: 155
6/01: 126
listening to a lot lately:
blonde on blonde from bob dylan
reading:
sleeping with one eye open, ed. marylin kallet
the corrections by jonathan franzen
harry potter and the goblet of fire by j.k. rowling
recently read:
the handmaid's tale by margaret atwood
book reviews: where i arbitrarily rate, rave, and rant about books i've recently read, including the one above
stuff i kinda want:
at amazon
at cdnow
coffee corner
my feelings about coffees from around the city
current fave: none. can you believe i'm sick of coffee these days? off it completely!
first commercial fave: pick a bagel
runner up: europa (specifically their cinnanut)
decent:
the coffee pot (at 49 & 9)
oren’s
so-so:
new world
tahl bagels (86 between 1&2)
au bon pain
dean & deluca
crap:
starbucks (regular – I go there only for “specialty” drinks)
timothy’s
pax (and they’re mean)
stuff i've written
for lifetime
9/11: how you can help
basic elements of ice skating quiz
betty lennox
celeb hair
chris bohjalian interview
cosmetic surgery
newish: destination weddings
diet do's & don'ts
emmylou harris
fall makeup
fit & fabulous guinea pigs
gay parents
holiday gifts
jeffrey nordling
missing kids
mother's day book selector
no ordinary baby synopsis
oscar beauty & fashion
pat benatar
rescue worker jasmin aviles
rescue worker lauren schwartz
sheryl crow
spa chefs
taj mcwilliams
virginia madsen
women in the military
and elsewhere
bar reviews
foreign service?
letter to christina kelly
myths about africa
sleeping kids
war room workplace
polls
entertainment trivia (5.16.01)
running title poll (7.3.01)
the archive
index
summer '00
sept & oct '00
nov & dec '00
jan & feb '01
march '01
april '01
may '01
june '01
july '01
august '01
september '01
october '01
november '01
current
Friday, December 21, 2001
4:47 p.m. this is so not the funniest joke in the world so i don't know who the heck is voting that it is. crazies.
10:34am the countdown to the weekend began when i stepped off the subway this morning. tomorrow, it's christmas! well, kind of. i'm very excited to see my family. i really get very warm and fuzzy when i think about going there. of course, it's never that easy -- someone is always being cranky or moody or i just get bored -- but i still love going there. for me it's yummy food in my mom's kitchen, warm and cozy movie watching on the couch, running outside on calm streets or in the back woods for miles, just hanging out and talking. ah, home.
one thing that i forgot to add to my list of things to do next week is that i want to go see the moldy peaches at sidewalk on 12/26. granted, i know little to nothing about them, but it could be fun. and what the hell, it's free. also: buy new book "don't let's not go to the dogs tonight" as well as something about having a more zen approach to life....
while i find it interesting that a recent study has shown that oscar-winning screenwriters have a life expectancy 3.6 years shorter than screenwriters who are "thrilled to be nominated" but do not actually take the statue home, i also have to ask this: is there really nothing more important out there for these researchers to be studying? i'm getting the feeling that their time might be better spent studying why, say, normal people are dying of terrorist attacks at a seemingly abnormal rate this year. not to, uh, bring the mood down or anything, but you know. and it's all a bunch of marketing bullshit anyway to have this be released leading up to the oscars so all the news folks pick it up. jokers.
Thursday, December 20, 2001
9:41 a.m. to be in montreal for christmas... that would really make my week. but it's not looking like it's going to happen. i'll just have to feed off of my memories of the place from october, which are just amazing anyway. but this article is right on: "People here ask how New York is doing with the affectionate attitude of a nephew wondering about a favorite aunt, and they clearly know how fortunate they are to be celebrating with the carefree exhilaration French-Canadians have indulged in for centuries." i love canada.
another bit: this woman, sylvia branzei, has got be the coolest science teacher ever. she came up with the discipline of grossology, the study of all things gross and disgusting in human physiology and science in general, and teaches it to grade school kids. i think i may just have to buy one of her 4 books, like "grossology: the science of really gross things." god knows i've been missing out on fun science instruction for far too many years now. i love how she explains farts in this interview: "The cool thing is our farts aren't ours. We have a bunch of anaerobic bacteria inside us which we cannot live without. They make vitamin K for us and they help us digest our food. These bacteria live inside our intestines and they munch on the food that we eat. They like some foods, such as beans, more than others because of the sugar they contain. It makes them gaseous, and they release the gas. They are the ones that fart. I always tell the kids when we talk about this that they can just blame it on the bacteria. 'That wasn't me, that was the bacteria inside my gut.'"
on a less fun topic, a mother from illinois was convicted yesterday of murdering her three children in 1999 by drugging and smothering them. the jury rejected an insanity plea, as well as the guilty but mentally ill verdict. "Prosecutors said Mrs. Lemak, a former nurse, knew what she was doing when she killed the children, contending that she wanted to punish her husband, Dr. David Lemak, for their pending divorce. He was seeing another woman." she also tried to kill herself, but when her efforts weren't successful, she called 911. how can this woman not be mentally ill, is my question. i would like to believe that anyone capable of doing such things is mentally unstable to say the least. could she not have benefitted from psychiatric counseling? i guess it's hard for me to think that anyone could kill their three children in cold blood. it's just too awful.
as we approach christmas, practically no one is in my office today, and even fewer will be here tomorrow and monday. i, though, will be. what will i be doing with my time, you ask? it's unlikely to be much work, but hopefully it'll still be productive. i was getting all excited for christmas, but now i'm feeling it's coming too early as i head to nj to see the fam this weekend. but i am looking forward to having days to spend doing whatever i want in nyc, courtesy of lifetime. on my list of things to do:
>> finally check out "here is new york" and maybe even head down to ground zero for the first time
>> see the nutcracker with mom
>> check out the display "a broken landscape: HIV and AIDS in Africa" at the 92nd st. Y
>> go to the new york school of interior design for the "modern architecture on the upper east side: landmarks of the future" exhibit
>> head to the met and see the "extreme beauty: the body transformed" exhibit and other stuff
>> check out some movies, possibly including "the royal tenenbaums" (again), "a beautiful mind," "the shipping news," "little otik," "the lord of the rings," "kandahar" and "vanilla sky."
Tuesday, December 18, 2001
11:52 a.m. So I had this very scary conscious consumer moment yesterday. I am actually embarrassed to tell it, it’s so bad. But I have to share because we all need to learn from it. Anyway, I was walking home from the stanhope hotel where I was supposed to interview the afghan women (but I didn’t get to – I just sat in on their interviews – annoying but out of my control, unfortunately) when I decided to stop in some stores and try to finish up my christmas shopping. I headed into The Gap where I began browsing, not in the men’s section as I should have been, but in the women’s, you know, just looking to see if there’s anything anyone (i.e. I) need.
the problem with The Gap is that their clothes are easy, straightforward, convenient, and cheap. So when I’m in some kind of fashion bind, like I somehow no longer have a long-sleeved black shirt, I go there, pay $14, and I’m on my way. There’s one in my neighborhood and two close to work, so I can almost always sneak in a trip if I want to. Of course, it’s difficult to buy just one thing there, because inevitably, whenever you go there to solve a wardrobe issue, you realize that you, in fact, have several wardrobe issues that you suddenly thought of that can be dealt with in this one trip. For instance, the day I got the long-sleeved black shirt, I also got a gray winter jacket and fun green pants (they were $12!).
back to the story. So I’m browsing through the women’s section before heading downstairs to the men’s, and I see the gray winter coat I bought there and think, oh, hey, funny, I have it on. The sales associates must be like, “there’s one of ours.” So I chuckle to myself, but quickly scoot away so no actual shoppers will notice. Then I think of the conversation I had with someone the other day about how it’s annoying to buy clothes from these ubiquitous chains because then everyone’s wearing your scarf or whatever. Then I start thinking about how, yes, that uniformity is very annoying. So I kind of frown. I look down and all of the sudden realize that I have my red cords on – that I got at The Gap. Gross, I think, I’m practically outfitted in Gap! But I kind of laugh it off. I walk to the back where the sales tables are piled high with t-shirts. Hey, there’s my long-sleeved black shirt – no! I actually have it on under my Gap jacket! I drop the shirt I’m looking at and rush downstairs to avoid injecting any more Gap items into my wardrobe. Close call, I think. As I survey the men’s fleeces, I start getting really weirded out by my almost head-to-toe Gap outfit. How could that have happened without me noticing? I wonder. What was I thinking when I got dressed this morning? I mean, I don't even come here that much! I don't even really like this store! It's just convenient! Did anyone else notice this? How stupid! I’m practically a walking Gap ad! Obviously someone bought into the “everyone in Gap” campaign! Sheesh! I try to stop thinking about it as I check out the piles of men’s sweaters. I set my bag on the floor to hold up an item. I look at my bag. No….yes! My bag is from The Gap! I drop the sweater, grab my bag and run out of the store.
Upon arriving home, I immediately change my clothes in an effort to get that dirty, slimey hyper-consumer feeling off of me. Not my body in Gap, no sirree!
Anyway, I don’t think I can go back there for a very long time.
Monday, December 17, 2001
4:22 p.m. as i prepare to leave work to interview 6 afghan women, here's some food for though about the code of life for afghan women before the toppling of the taliban. still, with the northern alliance not having that great of a record with women's rights, or even human rights for that matter, i wonder how much better their lives will actually be. i suppose i'll try to ask them that, though maybe not so harshly.
Wednesday, December 12, 2001
04:57 p.m. ah, glamour shots. remember them? shabby little faux-sophisticated photo shops that offer supremely retouched pics of middle american girls and women. while i cringe at the thought of them, i also have a fond memory, of when nancy went and got them, of course, for her 16th birthday and came back bearing cowgirl, leather girl, and prom girl photos -- all totally gorgeous and misty, hair blowing in the hair-dryer-made breeze. anyway, this piece about a reporter who did an undercover stint as a glamour shots photographer from the independent online hits all those nails on the head. and you gotta love the glamour photos that accompany it....
Tuesday, December 11, 2001
10:28 a.m. Just some random music news on this Tuesday morning….
eminem gets sued yet again, this time by a former classmate. The classmate, DeAngelo Bailey, is mentioned in eminem’s song “brain damage,” and the memories are not fond: "I was harassed daily by this fat kid named DeAngelo Bailey/An eighth-grader who acted obnoxious, cause his father boxes/ So every day he'd shove me into the lockers/And he had me in the position to beat me into submission/He banged my head against the urinal until he broke my nose/Soaked my clothes in blood, grabbed me, and choked my throat." Bailey is alleging that his rep has been hurt by the lyrics, which aren’t even true. The piece from cdnow finishes off nicely with this bit: “Coincidentally, Bailey is now a sanitation worker and is trying to launch a career as a rapper.”
Not that I care particularly about faith hill or tim mcgraw or anything, but apparently they had a baby this weekend (still, congrats to them, right?). Anyway, I’m only commenting because I continue to find it weird that there’s a celebrity union named mcgraw-hill. You know, like the book publisher?
Russell crowe “somehow” sells documentary about his band, 30 odd foot of grunts, to miramax. I wonder how good it – and the band – could possibly be. Anyway, the cooler part of this article is that crowe then goes on to talk about austin, tx, a place I want to visit soon. "You go from bar to bar on Sixth Street and you can hear everything from reggae to disco to any number of divisions of blues and country and western," Crowe says. "It just felt like a real music town and felt like people were appreciative of music without all the bells and whistles." And that rocks.
Monday, December 10, 2001
5:03 p.m. Who knew that I was ranked 833rd in the world beer mile rankings? Not me until I found this link. Bizarre. Here’s the story: a beer mile is when you chug a beer, run a lap, chug a beer, run a lap, etc…until you’ve run a complete mile (4 400 meter track laps). The goal is to really run the thing and avoid vomiting as best you can while you’re doing it. so, I did it, in some 16 minutes, back at amherst college with my entire track team and some other visitors, but I have to say that it was a pretty lame effort on most participants’ parts (including mine – I cannot even say I chugged all the beers, at least as I remember…but, who knows now). The big winner of the ACT&F beer mile championship was hardy hawaiian thane hancock, followed by mainer steve contreras. I’m happy to say I only attempted this race once in my lifetime, unlike some other teammates. (I see steve wound up with the #2 ranking at some point.) i think the excessive movement while drunk, not to mention the puking, was enough to last me a lifetime.
Salon has a good article about how sucky women’s magazines are today and how their downfall (read: shittiness, not lack of readers) basically correlated with their departure from publishing fiction. Best take-away: “The idealized male, as depicted in the ads and editorial content of men's magazines, is interested in wine, cars, style, the perfect shave and naked women, as well as fine writing. Meanwhile, the ideal woman of the glossies is apparently devoid of literary interests, perhaps even unable or unwilling to read more than a couple of paragraphs at a sitting.” Unfortunately, this applies even more so to my job, as holly and I were rabidly reminded today.
Van gundy cuts out of the knicks, and all but sprewell seem thrilled. Poor guy.
Tuesday, December 4, 2001
6:14 p.m. Heh heh: scheming australian musician patents any and all melodic touch-tone phone dialing permutations and expects the public to pay up. (last item.)
Also on the music tip, 10 things you didn’t know about george harrison (but I bet some you already did).
And, is it just me or is this web site, the city morgue gift shop, particularly bizarre? You can actually look at pictures of famous people’s graves! (ok, I looked at a few, but it was just weird so I stopped.)
hatemail of the month
in reaction to post on nov. 26:
"dont act like you know about the Eric McKeehan story alright... cuz you dont.. i do.. YOU DONT so dont put your fukin two sence in"
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