Monday, May 19, 2008
Shoe Tea
"Slovenes will make tea out of your shoes if you stand still long enough and then they’ll give it to you for the hangover you got from drinking their schnapps made from flowers."
What Rebecca West was to the pre-WWII Yugoslavia, Mr. Sgazzetti over @ Isoglossia is to the post-Yugoslavia split Slovenia. With quaint observational lines like the one above, how would you not be tempted to read on about the happenings in that beautiful country that is so often mixed up with Slovakia?
Hint! Slovenia has A seacoast (o.k. a very teeny slice of one).
Slovakia has NO seacost.
What Rebecca West was to the pre-WWII Yugoslavia, Mr. Sgazzetti over @ Isoglossia is to the post-Yugoslavia split Slovenia. With quaint observational lines like the one above, how would you not be tempted to read on about the happenings in that beautiful country that is so often mixed up with Slovakia?
Hint! Slovenia has A seacoast (o.k. a very teeny slice of one).
Slovakia has NO seacost.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Sunday Tune-age
My shift is coming up this coming Sunday, a week after Mother's Day, at WVUD, University of Delaware's student and community radio station. "Morning After" comes to from 9:00 am until Noon, EST at 91.3 on your highly limited FM dial and also on the internet.On tap are selections from old reliables Mr. Bill Frisell, Mr. Greg Brown, Mr. Stanton Moore, and Ms. Kathleen Edwards. Also on plan are Nicholas Payton, Jonah Jones, Marcin Wasilewski Trio, Will Bernard, and a touch of Los Campesinos. Other folks from the jazz, blues, and r&r oeuvres will be tucked in as I plan out the show on Saturday.
Saturday night plans to be another great evening with my daughter as we scoot up to Philly (sans police involvement) to catch Devotchka at the Fillmore-TLA on South Street in Philly.
Labels: WVUD 91.3
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
The New Seven. An Alt Take
P.J O'Rourke has a point and he closes it with this fine gem, as a suggested addendum to the Seven Original Sins.
"#6 Opinion. It's the reverse of fact. Listen to NPR or AM Talk Radio if you don't believe me, or, better yet, read the opinion page of the New York Times. (I'm talking about you, Paul Krugman.) Some people have facts, these can be proven. Some people have theories, these can be disproven. But people with opinions are mindless and have their minds made up about it. The 11th Commandment is, "Thou shalt not blog.""
"#6 Opinion. It's the reverse of fact. Listen to NPR or AM Talk Radio if you don't believe me, or, better yet, read the opinion page of the New York Times. (I'm talking about you, Paul Krugman.) Some people have facts, these can be proven. Some people have theories, these can be disproven. But people with opinions are mindless and have their minds made up about it. The 11th Commandment is, "Thou shalt not blog.""
Labels: Effluvia
Friday, May 02, 2008
Wish I had a Tongue to Get Tied
From the Globe & Mail, a most excellent of articles dealing with funerals and their attendance. A favorite passage,
"Anyway, enough said on the topic of "You should have gone."
Since you didn't, I would say your best bet now is to send your sister a note of both condolence and apology - a note expressing your sincerest "condologies" (memo to Hallmark, you should have this type of card, it'd be a big seller: "I'm very, very sorry for your loss - and also my behaviour during your time of grief.") Be humble, don't try to justify. Say you're an idiot and really, really sorry.
".
Don't know about you, but I am an utter idiot when it comes to funerals/wakes/viewings, if I have the moral strength to come to them. Aside from saying the wrong thing, not saying anything, forgetting people's names (including my own at one occasion), not knowing when to move on in the line, shaking the hands of the grieving family too enthusiastically, and, last and certainly not the least, blubbering at every one of these events as if a closest family member of mine has gone on. You would think that with age would come an acceptance of the inevitable note, You're Gonna Die. It is a less disturbing site for friends and acquaintances to not have me at funerals they are tangentally involved with.
I'll try my best to at lease send a card or bouquet of black roses.
Labels: Family Matters, Humans
Thursday, May 01, 2008
The Vase
""When things are good people seem to want to give you flowers. When things go bad - heads up! The vase is coming at you."-Martin Biron, Phlyers netminder and florist
Philly up 3-1 over the Habs of Montreal. Unbelievable. Each game basically the same. Phlyers go up 1-0. Then 2-0. Then Montreal ties it up. Two goals between a sip and a subsequent swallow of beer.
Uh-Oh. This is the game that they fold. Well, it was a good run. Next year, with this year's experience, they'll do much better. And Kovalev; this period he'll stop dancing with the puck and start making a serious commitment with the Phylers' net.
But,
it doesn't happen. The Phlyers take a moment or two to mull over things and they close the deal. 4-2, last night and another demoralizing loss for Montreal, despite the best efforts of the NHL referees in the first period to assist their scoring efforts. The Phlyers have come to terms with the fact that they will be penalized needlessly and seem to have planned for playing a man short as part of their game plan.
You've got to empathize with the Habs. They play a beautiful game and yet...they're one game from elimination. The Clydesdales are galloomping past the Thoroughbreds.
Labels: Philly
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Unappetizing
In today's NYT front page Travel section article on nudists vacations, some things stuck out (Bad Pun Alert! apologies, in advance). Attention all Naturalists, be ready to shed your attire and your (already de-valued) dollars as opportunities are cropping up for birthday suit holidays. One of the interesting things about the article is the picture. There are, count 'em, 13 people sans maillot, in the large picture and yet, miraculously, not one naughty bit. Well, a tail, yes, but not a bit. How'd the photographer do that? Photoshop and an electronic eraser? "Lots of photos. Lots.", quipped the ever-loving wife, who tartly added that the movement au natural was for "people who want to love their bodies in spite of themselves."In my more youthful days (or is that daze), I'd frequented nude beaches in Croatia and in Greece, so it's not from a non-participatory angle that I've approached this subject. While nude sunbathing is o.k., nude swimming is not something I'd recommend. Nor nude diving, as in "diving from cliffs". Trust me on this. How I've been able to have kids is a true miracle of Nature. An especially painful body-surfing episode on Crete's Red Beach (Yes, that Red Beach) sans Speedo let me know that a little bitty piece of cloth would have been most protective when a wave rises up to smash you face first into friction-laden rocks. The thing about youth and nudity was that gravity was a much kinder mistress back then. Also, the young engine required and processed instantly any caloric intake. No stations along the way situated on different parts of the body, waiting for the locomotive to pull in and take away the sedentary loads. Au natural, like youth, was wasted on the young. So, while my mind is still open to many new possibilities, the door has been closed on leaving my clothes behind. It is you, gentle readers, that I am concerned about. there is so much our eyes and our hearts can take at this point.
A well-placed ad,
Castaways Travel is selling a sail down the Danube in the nude, from Budapest to Vienna to Nuremberg, July 20 to 27, on a 75-cabin river boat. Rates from $2,199 to $2,799 a person (800-470-2020, danubeadultcruise). , at the end of the article was actually the item that set me off about the whole naturalist thing. There you are, strolling along the banks of the Danube, perhaps just after having taking in a slice of the world’s most famous chocolate cake, the Original Sacher-Torte at Café Sacher. What could make the schlagge in your stomach curdle more than an entire cruise ship of over-35 nudeniks stretching and kvetching? Could this be more off-putting than the plunge of the US dollar against the Euro? Cake and nudity, not a good mix.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Food-What you want. What you need.
In my days of youth and meals without guilt, when being a trencherman was not viewed as an odious hobby, parking myself in a greasy spoon with cutlery at the ready and an early morning appetite at full-tilt boogie seemed the enjoyable and harmless thing to do. Nowadays, with health claims/warnings/edicts running rampant and the distant future careening quickly to the pay-me-now present, I am forced to sooth the inner eater in me by tightening the belt and perusing offerings at sites like The London Review of Breakfasts. Such a cholesterol delivery, second-hand, is a life-protracting measure. I guess?!But, a tasty treat is always offered here. An example would be this review, which starts with,
"In Britain we have a problem with breakfasts. In fact, we have a problem with food in general and like a lot of problems in this country it boils down to class. I speak of the great divide between the caff and the café. In the caff you will be served enormous quantities of not very good quality food quickly and with no pretension or fuss. In the café, there may be a mission statement, there may be a picture of Nicaraguan peasants' children dancing happily because their parents have got a good price for their coffee, there may well be a family tree showing the lineage of the pork products. This will all be a mask to hide the fact that they don’t really know what they are doing. The service will be terrible, the sausages will be over-cooked and the eggs will be under-cooked. In places like this, I look at the quality of the ingredients and weep at the waste and weep at the bill too which normally tops £7 for a full English. Complaining is pointless because all the staff are part-time and most of them are as hungover as the clientele.
"
Don't know about you, but my college days memories, as plucked from the haze of encroaching senility, consisted of cheap restaurant meals, great overly loud concerts, one or two profs of distinction, standing room only at the Montreal Forum watching the Habs demolish another team, and eating at Schwartz's (yes, that's two categories of memories regarding food). I mention Schwartz's as it was more of a religious experience than simply a feeding-frenzy one. I seriously considered converting to Judaism after repeated visits there but swayed away from that temptation when a fellow student, a pre-med major who also partook of the smoked meat served there, brought me to my senses when he produced graphs and pie charts illustrating the short life span of a regular Schwartz's diner and a normal human being.
So, now I gnosh on little foods on little plates, while visions of large foods on gargantuan plates dance in my head. Being (somewhat) thin and miserable is not what I'd envisioned my life would be when I was parked at one of the common tables at Schwartz's, wholly enjoying the pleasures of real food.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Hockey (Pronounced, "Haaaaacky!")
It's deep into the first round. Phlyers are up 2-1 over the Ovechkinites of DC and Ms. E. over @ The Theory of Ice has her style up to a playoff buzz.
Please notice,
"They (and no, I’m not going to tell you who ‘they’ are, my sources are confidential) tell me that this is the way playoff hockey is supposed to be, by which I assume they mean that playoff hockey is fucking weird. Fast but claustrophobic, conservative but chaotic, tidy at the core and sloppy around the edges. Imagine a ballroom dance competition being attacked by a legion of zombies; everyone frantically trying to fend of the ravenous undead with folding chairs and feather boas while simultaneously struggling not to miss a step in their foxtrot routine. This game was a lot like that, only weirder.".
Go. Read. Please. Who is this mono-lettered woman? And can she hip-check one into the boards without spilling any ink?
For her scriptures on the following, just click.
On Speed.
On Watching.
On Loyalty.
On Violence.
On Losing.
Please notice,
"They (and no, I’m not going to tell you who ‘they’ are, my sources are confidential) tell me that this is the way playoff hockey is supposed to be, by which I assume they mean that playoff hockey is fucking weird. Fast but claustrophobic, conservative but chaotic, tidy at the core and sloppy around the edges. Imagine a ballroom dance competition being attacked by a legion of zombies; everyone frantically trying to fend of the ravenous undead with folding chairs and feather boas while simultaneously struggling not to miss a step in their foxtrot routine. This game was a lot like that, only weirder.".
Go. Read. Please. Who is this mono-lettered woman? And can she hip-check one into the boards without spilling any ink?
For her scriptures on the following, just click.
On Speed.
On Watching.
On Loyalty.
On Violence.
On Losing.
Labels: Hockey
Monday, April 14, 2008
Why He'll Win in November
Continuing in my totally un-analytical prediction of the 2008 Election results, here's another reason McCain will be our oldest elected president. How do you teflonize yourself against the not-so-distant onslaught of economic woe? Well, just declare us in the Recession zone. If he wins, blame can't be put on him as he already pronounced "Bad Times Ahead". Heck, he may even make it another 2 terms for the 'pubs, since the self-evisceratin' Dems may still be at it in 2012. And, if things don't go well for China in this summer's Olympics, I think it'll be McCain who will benefit the most, irregardless as to the amount of China-bashing Mr. Obama or Ms. Clinton have done recently.
I'll be thinking of a Richardson candidacy in 2012, unless, Mr. Obama cleverly picks him for his VP in this coming election. Then, Mr. McCain may have a struggle on his hands unless Colin Powell comes out of his "former" state of being and validates a broader platform for the Arizona senator.
Now, all of that happening would make November 2008 truly interesting.
I'll be thinking of a Richardson candidacy in 2012, unless, Mr. Obama cleverly picks him for his VP in this coming election. Then, Mr. McCain may have a struggle on his hands unless Colin Powell comes out of his "former" state of being and validates a broader platform for the Arizona senator.
Now, all of that happening would make November 2008 truly interesting.
Labels: Life Decisions, Manly Advice
Sunday, April 13, 2008
April's Rain Brings With It It's Pain
Well, it's almost the 15th of April, which means, despite the gorgeous weather, I'm belted to my seat and Turbo-Taxing away. Three fingers of this (having already gotten the heartbeat racing with espressos aplenty), throwing almost substantiateable figures around and I'll be ready to be writing a final accounting of things by tomorrow night. With a full day to spare! I'll save the 15th to make sure I work out the correct spelling of I R S as I send away the money they "loaned" me last year.A TOTH to Gwynne for pointing out this productivity test. Something to drop on the troops on Monday, oh, around two-ish, when what was lunch has settled in and kicked in the drowsies.
Frankly, I'm stunned at her score. It's mid-April, she's barely a buzz, and she calls herself a CPA!??!? She should be off the scale...unless...unless..oh, yeah the big cruise is coming.
The Very Big Cruise. You're stylin, Gwynne, just plain stylin'
Labels: Blogs
