Happy Halloween, take II

Lemme try this again:
Here I am as the Utz Girl at Saturday's party, or perhaps, given my resemblance to Little Orphan Annie, the trendy brown child that all the hip celebrities are adopting these days.

Maybe the outfit was a little on the naughty side, because of the ankle socks and Mary Janes, but it's nothing like the Little Bo Peep Show costumes you've read too much about already.

Happy Halloween

If this works correctly, you'll be able to check out my costume this year ... either the Utz Girl (of east-coast snack food fame) or, given my resemblance to Little Orphan Annie, perhaps I was a "Trendy Brown Child for Celebrities to Adopt". Perhaps it was slightly tempting, with the ankle socks and Mary Janes, but it was nothing like the revealing costumes you've read too much about.

 

 

a quandry

So, I made this low fat broccoli soup tonight, but as usual it seemed like it was missing something ... I realize, now, that the one problem with low fat soup (both the broccoli one and the mizuna soup I made the other night ,substituting the spicy Japanese mustard green for arugula) is that it tastes a lot better when you add some fat to it.

scientists: ghosts, vampires, zombies aren't real

 

thanks for clearing this up, guys!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061026/ap_on_sc/vampire_science

 

Funny, I think this does speak to the inconsistant abilities of superheros in our society. I remember thinking how strange it was that sometimes Superman could withstand the force of an enormous projectile, for example, without flinching but other times would react like he wasn't more powerful than a speeding train.
 

Halloween redux

Some very, very creative costumes out there this year, including:

 

highlights @ the MICA party

--- Crocodile Hunter Steve Kirwin, complete with death-inducing sting ray;

--- Lynndie England (looked great against the backdrop of one student's piece about the Iraq war)

--- a pair of blood thirsty, frightening Republicans;

--- a DickTater (with a potato on his belt);

--- the monster from Lost;

--- Frieda Kahlo;

--- roller girl Natalie Boh and his dog the skunk;

--- Mary Kate Olson and her sister Ashley, represented by a plastic femur bone. or is the other way around?

 

highlights from the work party

--- the most realistic man in drag I've ever seen;

--- green T (Mike W. was not proud of this, but I can't figure out why not)

--- some black-eyed Ps;

--- one woman representing herself from the 80s ... kinda turned out to be a Madonna aesthetic;

--- the Incredible Hulk;

--- a bear and hunter, armed with laser-sight suction dart and shotgun;

--- Jimmie Walker (dyn-o-mite!)

 

but I have to say, when we went encountered lots of college students at Towson Diner afterward, the overall theme there was very slutty for the women ... 

 

I'll post pictures of me and the redhead as soon as I can get someone to download them ... I was very proud of how my costume turned out, and Kelly's was pretty funny too. 

some lists

things I need to purchase ... bears no resemblance to what I actually have purchased in the last month:

 

--- boots: slouchy? platform? pointy toed? the options on nordstrom.com are pretty extensive.

--- straight-legged jeans: only if the boot mission is successful)

--- gloves: I lose one at the end of every winter season, it seems.

--- hat: something I could wear to work and still look vaguely mature, yet not too squishy of the hair.

--- cell phone: so people will stop telling me my phone is ancient.

--- pda: what's the point of a planner that refuses to hot sync with your computer?

--- laptop: to replace the wood burning model I'm using right now, which loads Web pages at the speed of dial-up, despite what I'm paying for a cable modem.

 

stuff I need to do, in no particular order

--- send an invite for the redhead's 30th shindig

--- put away winter clothes I've taken out of storage

--- wash/store summer clothes I've pulled out of the main rotation

--- take piles of clothes to goodwill that were culled from wardrobe months ago

--- clean the house (of course)

--- go to the farmers' market (thank goodness for daylight savings time!)

 

 

 

this is really hard

 

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/102106dnrelcelebrityquiz.55399a99.html  

Take our 'Faith of the Famous' quiz

09:44 AM CDT on Saturday, October 21, 2006

By SARAH PRICE BROWN / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

From Hollywood stars to politicians to pro athletes, the rich and famous live their lives in plain view.

But the public usually knows more about what an actress wore to the Emmys, what speaking gaffe an elected official made, or how many points a superstar scored in a game than it knows about what the prominent and powerful really think.

The famous are cultural icons, after all. They're symbols that stand for something larger than themselves. But they're also human, with their own thoughts and beliefs about religion, spirituality and the meaning of life.

How much do you know about the faith of the famous? Take this quiz and find out.

mmm, grass-fed beef

Seems like it's the source of our burgers that are the real problem when it comes to E.Coli on our spinach, not just the farms themselves ...

 

From "The Vegetable-Industrial Complex," by Michael Pollen, NYT magazine, October 15, 2006.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/magazine/15wwln_lede.html?em&ex=1161662400&en=cd1657b8d8c3e52d&ei=5070

 

"The lethal strain of E. coli known as 0157:H7, responsible for this latest outbreak of food poisoning, was unknown before 1982; it is believed to have evolved in the gut of feedlot cattle. These are animals that stand around in their manure all day long, eating a diet of grain that happens to turn a cow's rumen into an ideal habitat for E. coli 0157:H7. (The bug can't survive long in cattle living on grass.) "

puking pumpkins!

Finally, some creative carvers have found a way to represent the putrid smell of pumpkin guts in jack o'lantern style. The site also has some great ideas for scaring the bejesus out of small children, and at least attempting to thwart the teenagers who show up each year sans costume. That seems like a fruitful Halloween endeavor.

Other great tips, courtesy of links compiled on Al's Morning Meeting: cover the exposed parts -- even the inside -- of a carved pumpkin with petroleum jelly to prevent mold and premature deterioration of your creation.

try this at your next novena

 

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/100523,CST-NWS-ros18.article
 

picking up after your SO

Check out the response Dan Savage received for the first letter in this issue of his column. I'm all for equal distribution of labor based on each individual's talents, but how do you reconcile different thresholds for untidy, messy and dirty?

 

"And incidentally, for what it's worth, statistics show that women still do more than their share of unpaid work in heterosexual couples, even when both are employed. The ratio becomes more equal with higher educational status. So this may not be fundamentally a gender issue, but the culture certainly presents us with an apparent uphill battle for women."  -- one response.

Want to feel rich?

Here's a great link, courtesy of the redhead:

 

http://www.globalrichlist.com/

mystery solved

I remember walking up to a recruiter at a college fair and asking "So which came first, Fordham Road or Fordham University?" He didn't know.

 

But now I do, thanks to www.theamazingbronx.com. Read on, and be sure to check out the Web site to learn more about all the exciting people buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.

"The name Fordham dates back to the 17th Century. In 1671, then Governor
Francis Lovelace granted a stretch of land extending 3,900 acres between
the Harlem and Bronx Rivers to Dutch settler John Archer.   Mr. Archer
named his land Fordham, which meant "houses by the ford" or wading place.
This was the only way to cross directly from The Bronx to Manhattan.
After the death of Mr. Archer, his manor was divided into smaller farms and
the area soon evolved into a thriving community."
 

there's a bureacracy for everything

http://www.consecratedvirgins.org/cv/prep/prepappl.html

coffee quotient

I really love Rochester, N.Y.-based epodunk for many reasons. The website is a compendium of information about towns and cities across the United States, often with information about the history behind their names -- starting with the tiny crossroads near Ithaca that is literally Podunk (the term means "swampy"). They often do thought-provoking mash-ups of data, such as the " coffee ratio": the number of Starbucks per 10,000 residents. Who knew Bel Air, Md., was such a haven for the chain? It's got three Starbucks for its 10,080 residents.

Think there's nothing to do where you live? Check out Boring, Md.

coffee shop puns

I've encountered a few in my time -- but they're somehow more acceptable than the "Shear Energy"-style attempts at humor on some hair salons.

-- Common Ground (in Rochester and Baltimore)
-- High Ground (in Baltimore)
-- Patterson Perk (Baltimore)
-- College Perk (College Park)
-- Daily Grind (Fells Point)
-- Moonbeans (Rochester)