the blog is still here...?

Amazing what a poor memory will do.  Books can be enjoyed multiple times, afresh each time.  And you can totally forget about a blog or where to find it, and then stumble upon it again.

It's tempting to consider resurrecting this after a more than 3.5 year break.  The only thing holding me back is the distinct possibility that it will feed obsessive tendencies, which do fine without any additional nourishment.

The other thing I remember about blogging the first time was that one is constantly on the prowl for potential content & images that might be blogworthy.  It's like taking pictures of everything to prove one was there.  It puts a filter between you and the experience you're trying to have.  Not sure I want to do that just yet.

But it's nice to find this again and remember... :)

Eric Idle is inordinately fond of grilled cheese.

Thanks to Tigh & Aubrey for clueing me in to National Grilled Cheese Day.

How much does Eric Idle like grilled cheese sandwiches?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVDlrbZLnyQ

Fake Music Names: Stanford Marshmallow Experiment, "Wait for the Treat," from the album Delayed Gratification.

For years, some of the people in our house have found it amusing to listen for random phrases that would make good names for fictitious songs, bands, and/or albums.

Starter cultures are everywhere, for example, this fairly useful article on how to cultivate discipline (and get smarter) by staring at marshmallows.  http://www.dailygood.org/view.php?qid=4668

Admittedly, the Hardy Family did not invent this practice.  I first appreciated the fun of it while reading the late, great Spy magazine, who took what would now be called memes, I suppose, from It's a Wonderful Life and parsed them into some hilarious bands and songs,
including:

Sentimental Hogwash, "Don't Hurt My Sore Ear Again," by Sentimental Hogwash
Flaming Rum Punch, "I Feel Like A Bootlegger's Wife,"
and so on.

Video: Kid President meets the real President - Finally!

Kid President, aka Robby Novak, 9-year-old awesome kid and Internet rockstar, lived the dream today when he got a tour of the Oval Office from President Obama.  It's a real day-maker, even moreso if you know Kid President's backstory.

SoulPancake, brainchild of "The Office's" Rainn Wilson, has had a lot to do with this good stuff zooming around the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TssZ9Uma1-w

The best shoes in London.

Sorry this is on an ipad.  But we went down carnaby street this afternoon, and went by a crazy shoe store, and then by doc martens, and from way out in the middle of the crowded street these shoes rang our with their funky angelic voices from the farthest back corner of the shop.  But they didn't have my size.  But then zappos had them, in my size, for less with free shipping!!  It will also save me lugging these ten-pounders home.

 

Top 10 Songs For When You're Packing for London

OK, so there's an insanely long list of songs about London Town, but these make really good selections to get ready for a trip starting tomorrow am.  Photos when we get back.  

Towers of London - XTC

Waterloo Sunset - the Kinks

London Calling - The Clash

LDN - Lily Allen
A Foggy Day in London Town - Frank Sinatra
West End Girls - Pet Shop Boys
London Girl - The Pogues
London's Brilliant Parade - Elvis Costello
There's No Place Like London - Sweeney Todd, Johnny Depp style
Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon

How to use a dial telephone: apparently, you do not have to shout.

Retronaut is an amazing photo archive site worth checking out.  It's like a million people went down to their basements and uploaded every cool old photo or pamphlet they could dig up.  

Sign up and get useful tidbits like how to use a dial telephone.  Remember, the receiver is the end without the cord.

Cook This: Meatballs...check 'em out. They're good.

If you go to Tony's Deli on Northwest Highway in Chicago like I do every December 23, you buy Italian foodstuffs for Christmas Day dinner.  Tony's is the real deal.  They make their own noodles for their housemade lasagna for chrissake.  A tiny, ancient woman named Helen mans the cash register in front of a wall of "Mob Hits" CDs.  And don't you dare joke about that because she won't smile.  Trust me.

Maybe this sauce might follow you home.  It's not cheap but it's very excellent. If you're lazy you could buy Tony's amazing housemade meatballs.  But if you're up for it, try the recipe on the back of this jar.  No they're not vegan but they bake in the oven so...extremely easy.

Gia Russa Homemade Baked Meatballs


1 lb. ground beef, 80/20 (chuck)
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp. olive oil
salt, pepper, & crushed red pepper flakes to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and mix thoroughly.  Do not overmix, as this will make the meatballs tough.  Form into 2-oz. golf-ball-sized balls, place on baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and top with your favorite sauce.

Goats Yelling Like Humans: I laughed until I cried.

OK, so it has 8 million views already, but Goats Yelling Like Humans is definitely worth 2 minutes if you haven't seen (and heard) it yet.  Be sure to stick around for the little guy at the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpccpglnNf0

Video: The 500 sweaters of Loes Veenstra.

Thanks to Mumu for sending along this wonderful video from the Netherlands, as a street full of people wearing 500 sweaters dances and serenades their creator, Loes Veenstra, who apparently knitted them all since the '50s and squirreled them away in her home until they were discovered last year.

Love the color, the creativity, and the obsessiveness.  Can totally relate to this as a knitter.

The republic of Maurice.

Fun fact to know and tell:  In French, Mauritius is known as La Republique de Maurice.

Wonder if Mr. Sendak or Mr. Chevalier knew about this.   Some people called them Maurice...

 

RIP Ava, gentle friend.

We don't know how old Ava was when we took her home from the Anti-Cruelty Society in June 2007.  She was our first family dog, the dog who made me into a dog lover.  A gentler animal did not exist.

After an 18-month slide into senescence, Ava awoke today dramatically and permanently compromised.  I took her to the vet with a broken heart after the kids said goodbye, and held her till she moved no more.  As much as my chest literally hurts today, I am full of gratitude upon being reminded again how it is always worth the risk to open your heart to loving other creatures, animal and human.  It truly is better to have loved and lost (and to love and lose again and again) than to never have loved at all.

Goodbye, my dear girl.  It will be weird not to have you here.  It's weird already.  Your family will always remember you, and you'll live on as we speak in your voice around the dinner table.
Thank you for being such a sweet dog.  xoxoxoxoxoxo

AT&T U-verse Video Bill: what fresh hell is this?

Good thing Dorothy Parker isn't around to witness this, the latest skin-crawly thing offered under the guise of helpfulness: AT&T Video Bills.

AT&T now sends its wireless customers a friendly video with bouncy music, giving you several shout-outs by name, leafing through your bill and calmly explaining it to you in comforting female tones.  NBC News reports that the video bills are intended to calm irate customers.

Kind of like those safety demonstrations on airplanes.

I'm suspicious of this motive on the part of AT&T.  Why?  One less person who needs their bill explained to him/her (and really, they're not that difficult to understand) ALSO means one less AT&T employee, even if it's a call center person working for tiny wages.  The same thing happened 25 years ago when live operators in this country were replaced by automated voice systems.

Plus, there's something intensely big-brotherish in a way that bodes ill.  If the technology exists to make personalized short videos, in effect, movies, then it's not hard to envision an eventual scenario where the megapiles of data being aggregated on your personal shopping/browsing/renting/viewing/Netflix habits are amassed and turned into feature-length movies/TV/content that you will pay for (or will click during strategic moments to buy crap featured during the show).

Then, because it's literally tailor-made just for you, you'll get even more addicted to that than to anything else so far.  And worst case, you'll watch so much that that you'll never get up or pee or poo or eat and you'll watch that stuff until you die, like the fictional film "Infinite Jest," also referred to as The Entertainment in David Foster Wallace's novel of the same name.

Slight overstatement, perhaps.  Or is it?

absurdly inappropriate cake inscriptions.

Giving Cake Wrecks a run for its money:

http://www.happyplace.com/12083/absurdly-inappropriate-cake-inscriptions

 

Cobble, cobble! The Chicago School of Shoemaking calls...

Can it be true?  A real school to teach people how to make actual, legit shoes?  The Chicago School of Shoemaking, open in the Ravenswood neighborhood since September 2011, offers classes in making boots, sandals, bags & other items.  The owner, Sara McIntosh, also runs a custom handmade shoe shop, Sara's Shoes, out of the same space.

The London boot

I have made my own shoes a few times, the only way I knew how, via the 1978 book Make Your Own Shoes by Mary Wales Loomis.  Eerily, I discovered Wales' book and other similar esoteric "how to make" books among my grandmother's belongings when she grew too feeble for them to be of use - including the exact same edition of Make Your Own Japanese Clothes that I own.  Sometimes the genetic thing gets quite spooky. 

The Rome patent captoe

The eight Yelpers who cared enough to write think it's the bees knees.  Hmm....

Texas Sheet Cake: lovely chocolate treat in 1 hour flat. Honest.

Two years ago I posted this recipe on FB.  Since then it has appeared on family birthday tables at least a dozen times, and soon I'll be making it for an 18-year-old I know.  It's as easy, fast, and yummy now as it was then.  You can literally bang this out in an hour start to finish.  Consider making one for Valentine's Day - they will taste the love.

fastest, easiest, yummiest chocolate cake ever: Texas Sheet Cake

I stumbled across a truly wonderful recipe and wanted to share it with you special people. OK, here's the scene: it's your turn to bring the cake for a party. You have to leave in an hour. You want something yummy and chocolaty, with a minimum of bowls to wash.

You may look at the recipe below and think (as I did), "This looks weird; not enough cocoa. It won't work." Give it a try anyway sometime, gobble it greedily as we did, and then pass it on to YOUR favorite bakers.

* * * * *
Texas Sheet Cake (chocolate-buttermilk sheet cake)
slightly adapted from the Better Homes & Gardens 2003 Cookbook

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1/3 cup cocoa powder - it doesn't look like enough, but it is.
1 cup water
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk or sour milk (1/2 c. milk + 1-1/2 tsp. lemon juice or vinegar, left to stand for 5 min.)
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 recipe Quick Chocolate Frosting (below)

1. Grease a 13x9x2 baking pan & set aside. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt; set aside. (Using a 15x10x1 jelly roll pan is fine too; more like brownies).

2. In a medium saucepan combine butter, cocoa powder, and water. Bring mixture just to boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add cocoa mixture to flour mixture and beat with an electric mixture on medium to high speed until thoroughly combined. Add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Beat for 1 minute (batter will be quite thin). Pour batter into the prepared pan.

3. Bake 35 min (or only 25 min for the 15x10x1 pan) until a toothpick comes out clean.

4. Pour warm frosting (below) over the warm cake - no need to wait or poke holes in the cake - and spread evenly. Leave cake to cool in the pan on a wire rack; cool thoroughly.

Quick Chocolate Frosting

As soon as the cake comes out, make the frosting: In a medium saucepan combine 1/4 cup butter, 3 Tbsp. cocoa powder, and 3 Tbsp. buttermilk or sour milk. Bring to boiling; remove from heat. Add 2-1/4 cups powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Beat with a spoon or spatula until smooth. If desired, stir in 3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans.  We always skip the nuts and it tastes just as good.

Best post-holiday news ever: Slightly schlubby people have lower risk of early death.

Seth Rogen at the low & high end of his schlub range.

Listen, don't stress too much about your weight as long as:

1.  you're healthy otherwise,
2.  your pants fit (pants cost money), and
3.  your BMI (body mass index) is under 30 (calculate it here).


So relieved to find my gut feeling validated:  being slightly schlubby (BMI between 25 and 30) has a protective effect in lowering risk of early death, according to some recent studies.

Reasons for the finding are unknown.  One theory jibes with personal experience:  that little extra fat is your friend when you're super-sick.  To wit:  We have a slender family member who doesn't get ill often but when it happens, it goes to 11.  And the one time I was seriously underweight for about five minutes, I frequently got scary-sick, like think-you're-gonna-die time.

So as long as you're healthy and your clothes fit, don't get too skinny.  You'll live longer.

Hey, mister electrician: what's that giant bottle of lube for?

So they're doing a lot of electrical work in our building, and today I noticed a liter bottle with a sport cap of something called Ideal Clear Glide.  What's that for?  "Wire Pulling."  Is that what they're calling it now?   Come to find out during the Google Image Search that it can also be purchased in 5-gallon buckets.  

 

OK, apparently wire pulling is an actual thing.  Go figure.

 

But then before I could get all inappropriate about it - good thing I didn't, eh? - I found another place where gun owners find it handy for squirting into their silencers to enhance the, um, silence.  Eww.

 

 

Some pretty good resolutions.

One of the many perks of my job is posting to social media.  Much of the postage is fairly workish, but this one kind of grabbed me, so you get to read it too:  10 Resolutions the Most Successful People Make, and then Keep.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemaddock/2012/12/30/ten-resolutions-the-most-successful-people-make-and-then-keep/

My favorite one is #9:   Resolve to be the creator.
What is the outcome you want? What stands in your way? How do you overcome these obstacles? These three simple questions will keep you from being victimized by any situation. 
Creators change the world. Victims just bitch about stuff.

We all have our own bucket of crap to carry around 24/7.  Yours may feel lighter on some days and quite unmanageably heavy on others.  Sometimes it's OK to just acknowledge that a situation sucks and nothing can be done about it.  That's different from plain old bitching.  Bitching is having a pity party for yourself.  If you want to have one, fine, but don't have it around me unless you're at least willing to start thinking your way past it.  You'll get farther trying to find a way forward than focusing on how heavy your crap bucket is.

OK, soapbox put away.  Now here's a big hug, and I love you, and go get 'em, Hot Shot! 
Happy New Year!  May your bucket of crap seem as light as a feather to you in 2013.

Halloween 1983: annie lennox.

Age 19 / junior @ University of Chicago / big into make-up / new waver / liked men's clothes / brand-new super-smart boyfriend (now husband & father of our 4 kids).  

The last three things are still true.  

Bringing light to dark times, from Amma.

"Don't be discouraged by your incapacity to dispel darkness from the world. Light your little candle and step forward."

Words of wisdom from Amma:  they ring true independent of creed or dogma.  Hat-tip to Suzan Stern for passing them to me.

Consider this a hug from me to you - and consider paying it forward today.

http://amma.org/

music: Is "Wonderful Christmas Time" really worth $400K/yr?

This post is trivial by any measure relative to recent events, and I may write about recent events in the future. 

At the moment, however, this fact enrages me:  Sir Paul McCartney has been raking in four hundred thousand dollars per year from "Wonderful Christmas Time."  He has earned, according to Wikipedia, approximately $15 million from this one craptastic-yet-catchy song.

If you like it, I'm sorry.  No, you know what?  I'm not sorry.  It's a shitty, soulless song.  It's the Michael Caine of Christmas songs*, a where's-the-check performance that relies on one annoying beeoom-beeoom-beeoom-beeoom synthesizer riff, candidate for one of the worst earworms in music history, plus a dreadfully repetitive chorus, all relying on our love of his voice to carry the day.

What's a good Christmas song?  How about David Bowie and Bing Crosby singing The Little Drummer Boy?  Worlds collide in an unexpected, grace-filled way. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADbJLo4x-tk

 *Caine's recent performances have redeemed him; I speak of him in the long middle section of his career.

music: Isn't it time for a little Hardrock, Coco and Joe?

Yes it is!  At once nostalgic and freaky, a staple of Chicagoland holiday TV since dinosaur times, this 1951 stop-motion animated short takes me back to pre-verbal days.  Great chorus.  Enjoy.

Hardrock, Coco and Joe:  The Three Little Dwarfs

Music: RIP Ravi Shankar.

We all know about the sitar influence George brought to the Beatles, but I didn't know about Ravi Shankar at full tilt until about two weeks ago, when I caught him and his companions in this trippy, 20-minute long, ecstatic turbocharged jam at the end of Monterey Pop.

Mind Blown.  High-speed joy.  He and his drummer stay perfectly in sync while the rhythms keep changing.  It is a trip and a half.

Thanks, Ravi - and thanks to George Harrison too, for bringing Ravi to the Dick Cavett Show and the world's attention.

music: how to get your groove on.

Kid1 plays cello and has to videotape herself playing it to a metronome for school.  It's a trial all around.

Metronomes are Satan. Here's why:

• The relentless ticking sends me straight back to fifth grade, with Mrs. Schnierow standing behind me hammering a divot into my right shoulder with her bony claw, saying "ONE-and-two-and-three-and-four" while I struggled through my sonatina (God! those red, red lips and her turtlenecks that smelled like cigarette butts); and...
• No metronome has ever been helpful to me in any way.  Or even polite.

How happy I am, then, to discover this great post by musician Adam Rafferty, a strong anti-metronome advocate.  He writes that dancing is a superior tool for developing body rhythm. 

Plus, his effortlessly funky fingerstyle acoustic version of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" is just the thing to listen to right about now.
 

http://adamrafferty.wordpress.com/2008/02/27/dont-use-a-metronome/

Memoir: Kala's Tree, part 6

Kala's tree

Memoir:  Kala's Tree, a ongoing memoir of our niece Kala Hardy, can be found in its entirety by following the Kala Hardy cloudtag at right.

Every year it hits me afresh.

Sean says, "It's December 7," over his tea at the kitchen table.

"She'd be twenty today,"  I say. "Oh, that makes me sad!"

I cry and hug him for a minute or two. We both blow our noses. Then we move apart and get ready for the day. I hug and kiss Sean and the kids, and head out the door to work.

Happy birthday to your spirit, dear Kala.  You live in our hearts and we go on.

In Memory of Kala Marie Hardy Facebook page

4/6/08 MySpace tribute

4/12/08 blog post by one of Kala's schoolmates 

5/30/08: Rest In Peace Kala Hardy (1,173 views) 

12/15/2008:  YouTube Kala Hardy RIP (9,000+ views)
Sysoon (online death information site)

Music: RIP Dave Brubeck.

I loved "Blue Rondo A La Turk" so much that last year I determined to teach it to myself on the piano.  Got it all down except the blues part in the middle.

Thanks, Dave.  You will be missed, but what a fantastic legacy you leave.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faJE92phKzI

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-dave-brubeck-appreciation-20121205,0,848294.story

Live from Toronto, part 2: 6 more reasons I love Canada.

1.  Best sentence overheard all week:  "Miguel, may I borrow you for a male wanding please?"  (TSA at Vancouver Airport).  Nobody else even smiled but I wanted to laugh out loud.

2.  The Angry Birds theme in a string quartet arrangement, overheard in the Royal York Gold Lounge.

Shouldn't Miss Piggy be made of lard?

3.  A clutch of tallow sculptures depicting holiday scenes festooning the Royal York's lobby, created by its head chef.  Because nothing warms the heart at Christmas like scenes from holiday movies carved from beef fat.

4.  Speaking of beef fat, spiky chef Guy Fieri, who headed toToronto after the horrible/funny  New York Times review of his new restaurant in Times Square, being interviewed in the lobby for TV about some charity where he plans to donate cheeseburgers to needy kids.  Not really.  But he was here.

5.  Justin Bieber's concert across the street last night, which filled this hotel with thousands of girls radiating Bieber Fever girl energy.  They are traipsing in to breakfast as we speak, still in their pink sequin shirts, clutching their plush bunnies, escorted by relieved moms waiting to go home.

6.  An absolutely enchanting party last night to celebrate friend Jenny's 50th birthday, which thankfully did not go until 4 in the morning.  What a gift to get to be here with her, her husband, and son.  She's 50 years old on the outside and 17 on the inside.

Live from Toronto: seduced by life on the Gold Level.

I've had sort of an Inception trip to Canada this week - a business trip nested within a pleasure trip. 

Tuesday I flew to Toronto to meet dear friend Jenny and her family and was treated to an exquisite, serene birthday dinner at The Globe Bistro.  Then a pre-dawn flight Wednesday to Vancouver for an amazing executive education conference (UNICON).  What a city!  Got to know the team better, met lots of great new exec ed colleagues from all over the world, and was served the freshest sushi ever by the cutest Japanese waiter ever (sorry but it's true).  Then back across the continent yesterday to Toronto for aforementioned friend's 50th birthday party, which happens tonight, and back home tomorrow.

Hotelwise, it's been an all-Fairmont week.  The convention was at the Fairmont Vancouver, my own hotel was the Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver, and at the moment I have been hogging a wing chair all morning in the Gold Level Lounge at the Fairmont Royal York here in Toronto (Chicago's closest correlate would be the Drake).  Candice has just brought over an unsolicited pot of tea and a macaroon.  Oh, and now she's handed me a recipe for the macaroons which have evidently been made here since 1929.  Proper old-school macaroons with about a 5:1 ratio of coconut to sugar.  Classical music is playing, it's nearly empty in here, and the only thing that would make it perfect is my husband sitting in the other wing chair nearby.

Rough life:  To do list = ice the champagne.

My most pressing task today following through on the foolish promise I made to procure a bathtub's worth of ice in order to chill the 30 bottles of Veuve Cliquot Rose champagne that have been purchased for the party tonight in the Governor General Suite.

In my former life as a consultant, I frequently had the opportunity to travel this way (minus the champagne, unless John Stanek was along).  It has been many, many years since I have been treated in this manner for several days in a row.  Not surprisingly, it is extremely comfortable, relaxing, and pleasant.  So seductive, in fact, that you begin to question why you shouldn't have attractive, friendly people bringing you tea and macaroons and bacon all the time.  You can see how, over time, this might skew your Weltanschaaung. (1)

Although I haven't been away from home this long on my own for a very long time, I do like to take advantage of forced solitude to do things I wouldn't normally take the time to do.  Or sometimes, NOT doing anything, which is nicest of all.  It's been a great week and will be capped by a wonderful birthday celebration tonight, in a beautiful place, with people very dear to me.  And tomorrow, I will be aiming all my energy straight out the front of the plane as we aim toward Chicago where my heart seeks its answering call in Sean and the kids.   Here's to taking opportunities when they arise, being grateful for them, and then being able to come back home with a similar sense of gratitude.

(1) I am trying to shoehorn "Weltanschaaung" into common parlance since it makes you sound obnoxious and is really just fancypants for "worldview."  Also "zeitgeist," "germane," "converse" (not the shoes), and "corollary."  I would LOVE to start using one of my friend Tracy's pet words primarily because of its rhythm in German - "Kraftwagenanlage" - as soon as I can determine what it means.  But it might be fun to just start peppering conversations with "Kraftwagenanlage" just to see what happens.  Conversely, I would like to encourage people to ramp down usage of "plethora."  There are, in fact, a plethora of people of saying "plethora," and it's really gotten old.  Time to pick some other obnoxious words.

PS - A guy who looks pretty much exactly like Salman Rushdie just came into the Gold Floor lounge and made himself comfortable.  Wonder if he likes champagne?  Maybe he could crash the party.

Live from Vancouver: Thanks for the birthday wishes!

I'm lying on a genuine Murphy bed at the Vancouver Fairmont as we speak, attempting and failing to digest a dinner of lobster, crab, beef, wine, and chocolate.  Today I am 49 years old and 2,189 miles away from my family.

Many of you, upon discovering that my Facebook wall cannot be posted upon, have taken a moment to send emails, Facebook messages, and texts with lovely birthday wishes.  I want to thank you for making the extra effort to do that. It was nice of you.

Irony is like Liquid Smoke: a little goes a long way.

Thanks to friend Jeremy T. for sharing this excellent New York Times blog about irony and how we seem to have been afraid to live without it for a generation.

Here's the thing:  the late, great Spy Magazine called it 24 years ago in 1989 (see p. 92 below for a walk down memory lane).  That's half my life ago, and I was tired of it then.

A little irony is a good thing (thrift-store spaceman Santa statue, anyone?) but it's like putting Liquid Smoke in a pot of vegetarian chili.  A capful is just right, but more than that and it spoils the whole thing.*

It has to be at least partly a function of the fact that our technology bombards us with so much, so often, and erases the notion of things taking time to acquire genuine historical authenticity, that perhaps people are just surrounded with too much stuff to be able to quiet their own minds and think about who they are and what they want to say/do/express.  Or as Blaise Pascal said much more succinctly:

All human evil comes from a single cause, man's inability to sit still in a room. 
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/blaise_pascal.html#BG8HsK4rRoLJMR1V.99 

Problem:  when hipsters or whomever passes for this generation of the anointed cool co-opt faux awkwardness and geekiness, where can truth live?  For many, it's too dangerous to risk exposing one's authentic self, especially those parts that are permanently unhip.

Which is why I have for many years tried to live and promote the tenet that what's really cool is to not care whether you're cool, but to figure out who you are and be that person.  And there's plenty of room in that worldview for odd obsessions, viewpoints, etc., under the rubric of silliness and genuine appreciation.

In short, we are all weird, and that should be a good thing.  In that vein, I'm plugging a book I haven't yet read by the same title that sounds intriguing.  We Are All Weird by Seth Godin.

Happy Black Friday, all!

UPDATE:  And in case this seems like a new thing, Susan Sontag noted the conversion of the serious to the frivolous way back in 1964 in her outstanding Notes on "Camp."

Update #2:  Sontag, in turn, cites Christopher Isherwood's description of "high camp" in his 1954 novel, The World in the Evening - "you're not making fun of it, you're making fun out of it."  So as my grandpa Southard used to say, "SOSDD.  Same old shit, different day."

*Someone recently pointed out all my analogies are food-related.  No surprise - gluttony is my worst vice :)

You've Been Gobbled: 30 things I'm thankful for.

1.  The Girl Scouts, some of whom were sporting enough to go along with my idea of making "You've Been Gobbled" posters at last night's meeting.  You're the best, people.

 2.  Peace signs on the sidewalk.

 3.  This sweet, sweet Karmann Ghia in Pilsen.  Apparently the owner's a jerk, but the car is divine.

 4.  Bun Length Wieners.  It's wrong on many levels, AND missing a hyphen, but also great.  Thanks again, Aldi.

5. The LepreCan porta-potty facility under the viaduct near our house.  We call that whole area the Poop Factory for no good reason.

 6.  Sexy Irish weather ladies broadcasting the weather in Irish.  Somehow made both weather and Gaelic seem sexy at once, quite a feat.

7.  Hardy Boys lunchbox.  I didn't even know they were Frank and Joe Hardy until our Joe came along.

 8.  People with the cleverness and manual dexterity to paint British flags on their toenails - and the cheek to do it a few days before we leave for Ireland.

 9.  Hammer toe diagrams at the podiatrist's office. 

 10.  This grandpa (big Devo fan) and his 8-year-old granddaughter, who he brought to the Devo/Blondie concert because her dad was sick.  I had bought five Devo buttons and offered them each one.  Grandpa was pleased.

 11.  My Irish condiment collection, featuring several varieties of brown sauce - and Marmite.

 12.  This gang of four.  And their Dad.

 13.  Coco, who was riding up Michigan Avenue with her owner loving the smells.

 14.  Disco ball at the Village Discount Outlet.  Too bad some of the disco fell off.

 15.  Fall color.

 16.  People having birthdays.

 17.  Another fantastic car I followed along Chicago Avenue on a Sunday morning.

 

 18.  America:  where kids can get handcuffs, army guys, marbles, ping pong balls, AND Play-Doh at the Jewel.

 19.  The giant rocking chair at Jonamac Orchard in Malta, IL, plus the amazing apple cider, pie, donuts, etc.  Oh, and the pumpkin cannon.  And the hay bale maze.  and the donkey, etc.....

 20.  The Girl Scout sleepover @ St. Ed's.

 21.  Breakfast where I work:  I usually take two hard-boiled eggs and either bacon or turkey sausage.  But there was one tiny pancake which I had to have as well.

 22.  The Patio Theater on Irving Park near Austin.  A genuine old-school movie palace.

 23.  Boy Scout Pasta Dinner with friends and family.

 24.  This Astronaut Santa from the Village Discount Outlet again.  I was too scared to buy him but he is recorded here for posterity.

 25.  Medieval Times.  Words fail me but I shall return.

 26.  Willis the Shark.  Yes, he is wearing a tux.  Courtesy of Madison.

27.  Margie, Jessica - nicely done. 

 28.  Psychedelic hands.

29.  YOU.
30.  The Universe.