Sugar Plums Dancing in My Head, Ed. #5

New Camera

Unfortunately, I still don't have pics for the blog due to my camera’s untimely death but, on a happier note, I’m awaiting its replacement from Broadway Photo.

This camera, a Fujifilm s8100fd, promises to be a winner -- I can’t wait to get my hands on it. Buying it from Broadway saved us at least $100 to boot .

UPDATE: ARRRGH. I just got a phonecall from Broadway Photo. They tried to sell me at least $100 worth of extra stuff -- batteries & recharger, memory card, camera case, extended warranty --that I "need" for the camera. WTF?!? I told them to hold my order & I'd call them back. So, who the hell knows when I'm getting a camera. I HATE the hard sell. Grr.

The Happening

Are Shane & I the only ones excited about The Happening? (Probably. I think we're the only people who liked Lady In The Water.) I read a spoiler for The Happening on IMDB, went to bed and promptly had a nightmare. Awesome.

Meme

Renee at Cafe Nay Nay tagged me for a meme!

The rules: Each participant answers questions about him/herself. At the end of the post, the participant tags five people. Their names are posted letting them know they’ve been tagged. They then have to read the participant’s blog. The tagged lets the tagger know when the answers have been posted. Here we go!

What was I doing ten years ago?
10 years ago, I was in living in NYC. I'd just finished my Junior year at Marymount Manhattan College and a Spring internship at Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee. I was dealing with my mounting anxiety as to what I was going to do after graduation. (After working at Live!, I knew I wasn’t going to be happy working in TV.) Since it was June, I was probably working the service elevator at the 5th Avenue apartment co-op my dad manages.

Five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today
1. Clean the kitchen.
2. Research ice cream recipes.
3. Stress out about upcoming deadlines.
4. Enjoy the rare hot weather we’re having.
5. Watch The Daily Show & Colbert Report I ti-faux’ed last night

Five Snacks I enjoy
Good god, I could snack all day long
1. Bachman’s Jax cheese puffs
2. Of late, bagels
3. Also of late, ice cream
4. Sweetened cereal (e.g., Cap’n Crunch, Honeycomb, etc.)
5. Coffee with delicious-yet-horrible-for-you flavored creamer

Things I would do if I were a billionaire
Travel around the world
Pay off all my student loans
Work hard to create socio-economic equality the world over
Become the FCC’s worst nightmare

Places I have lived
Long Island
Manhattan
Finger Lakes Region (New York State)
Wayne, ME (summer job)

Jobs I have had
Service elevator operator
Art counselor at an all boys’ summer camp (Camp "Hellonearth")
Ghost writer for Gridlock Sam
Associate Editor at Videography magazine
Adjunct professor at MMC, IC, FLCC & MCC
Freelance Writer

I tag
Doodles
Moon
Maltese Parakeet, all of Peanut Butter Etouffee
Susan of Food Blogga
Tracy of Ra Cha Chow

Sugar Plums Dancing in My Head, Ed. #4

The one and only Nick Tahou Garbage plate. (Source)

Garbage Plates

A few days ago, Edward Schneider, a contributor to Mark Bittman's blog, Bitten, posted on garbage plates. Living in a suburb of Rochester, NY, where the garbage plate was invented, I was excited to see what Schneider had to say. He writes:

The scholar in me knows that “garbage plate” has a particular meaning in the lexicon of regional American gastronomy, specifically that of western New York State. But in my house it has broader connotations, relating to the amalgamation of disparate leftovers into a single mass, for human consumption.

In other words, if there’s a half cup of this and a third cup of that, plus a quarter cup of ratatouille, it all gets microwaved or sautéed and mixed up into a one-person meal.

Oh, a topical bait-and-switch. Bummer.

The comments section is filled with other's "surprising combinations they have perpetrated in the name of clearing out the fridge" but the best comment is from Nathan, who seems just as disappointed in this Bitten post as me:

"It’s actually just Rochester, not ‘Western NY’," writes Nathan, "and it would be blasphemous to mention Ratatouille in the same conversation as a Garbage Plate there."

Hee! So true.

If you haven't heard about garbage plates, take a look at Please Pass the Salt Potatoes' Nick Tahou Garbage Plate video, produced by by the Telecom students at Cayuga Community College. Their professor, Steve Keeler, co-leads the Media/Broadcasting: The British Experience course I participated last January (Steve's a big foodie, to boot).

I Smell Sex and Candy...

I'm not a Gwyneth Paltrow fan, so my excitement for this fall's Spain ... On The Road Again, the HD food and travel show in which she's featured, is a bit dampened. Paltrow, along with Mario Batali, Mark Bittman, and actress Claudia Bassols, ate and drank their way through Spain driving from place to place in -- I kid you not -- a fleet of Mercedes.

It certainly makes sense to have a show featuring chefs on a foodie road trip, but why include Paltrow and Bassols? The only reason I can think of -- unless Paltrow and Bassols have some culinary training that we're not aware of -- is eye candy. And I hate when food and/or travel shows feel the need to "spice" things up with gratuitous T & A. The gorgeous locales and the sumptuous food aren't enough; the narrow definition of female beauty has to be introduced and exploited once again?

Additionally, Batali was recently quoted on Paltrow's exercise regimen:
"[She] loves to eat ... and, you know, she never puts on a pound! I think she works out three hours a day - which is one of the keys to success. If we all did that, we’d all look like Gwyneth Paltrow. Or at least closer."

Arrgh. It's enough to put one off one's sangria and paella. But that's probably a good thing because if we want to look like Paltrow, we either have to spend one-fifth of our waking hours exercising or starve ourselves instead. Whee!

Camera-less
My camera, a Sony cyber shot, has been down for months due to what I thought was a faulty adaptor. I bought a battery charger, thinking that would solve things but, unfortunately, the battery isn't the problem; it's something with the camera itself.

So, I've been borrowing Shane's camera for the blog but he left the adaptor in Florida last week and the camera ran out of juice yesterday. Today, I went to Radio Shack for a universal adaptor and, although brought in the camera and had the manager select the adaptor, it appears the adaptor fried the battery.

So, again, no frigging digital camera.

Shane is so irked by all this that he doesn't want to discuss getting a new camera. I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm a nudge and all I WANT to do is bring it up until the situation is solved. (This is a habitual dynamic, played out in everything from pet care to child rearing.)

In any event, if you have suggestions for digital cameras or repair ideas, please let me know.

On a more positive (and drunk) note

From the NYT article New Hints Seen that Red Wine May Slow Aging :

Red wine may be much more potent than was thought in extending human lifespan, researchers say in a new report that is likely to give impetus to the rapidly growing search for longevity drugs.

The study is based on dosing mice with resveratrol, an ingredient of some red wines. Some scientists are already taking resveratrol in capsule form, but others believe it is far too early to take the drug, especially using wine as its source, until there is better data on its safety and effectiveness. [...]

One of the more spectacular results was obtained last year by Dr. John Auwerx of the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology in Illkirch, France. He showed that resveratrol could turn plain vanilla, couch-potato mice into champion athletes, making them run twice as far on a treadmill before collapsing.

You know what this means? You can go that much further on a bar crawl if you stick to red wine.

Sugar Plums Dancing in My Head, Ed. #3 (updated)

A short post this go-round:

Check out Ganda's thoughts on the Rachel Ray fracas entitled "Yum-O" is Arabic for "There is no God but Allah". Her post is funny, smart, and worth your time to read.

Hey, more ridiculous photoshopping! This time, Lancome Men airbrushes all of the sexy crags out of Clive Owen's face, rendering him unrecognizable. If nothing else, what's the point of having a celeb hawk your wears if the consumer can't recognize your A-list star? (Oh yes that, and the problem of continual media propaganda creating unrealistic body images for all!)

Way to ruin one of the great pleasures of summer, Newsweek. Why is it such a sin to eat silky, delicious, premium ice cream? To quote the humorous and intelligent ladies on Shapely Prose, OMG!!1! TEH FATZ! This article isn't about ice cream, it's about making people fear body fat, reviling it on themselves and others.
It wouldn't surprise me, however, if the article has the opposite effect on readers, because last night it inspired me to crave, then buy, eat and thoroughly enjoy its number one ranked "most fattening ice cream flavor," Häagen-Dazs' Chocolate Peanut Butter. To say it was fan-freaking-tastic would be a vast understatement. Viva la crème glacée!
On another note, how is this Newsweek piece even news?

Coming up on the blog very soon: recipes for Orange Scones with Rhubarb and Cherries, Rhubarb Chutney, and Broccoli Rabe and Portobello pasta.

UPDATE: I can't believe I forgot to post InfoMania's (via Shapely Prose) snarky take on advertising's presentation of yogurt and women. Enjoy!

Sugar Plums Dancing in My Head, Ed. #2

A recurring (maybe) compendium of serious and frivolous thoughts bouncing through my brain at any given moment.

The Serious: SweetMachine at Shapely Prose points to this link featuring a portfolio of celebrity pictures before and after retouching. She points out how ridiculous, unhealthy, and unrealistic Mass Media’s beauty standards are, both for women and men. She writes:

That portfolio is a glorious example of the impossible beauty standard: Kelly Clarkson has been shrunk, while Julia Stiles has been filled in; Beyonce’s hips have been redrawn to erase a muffintop, while Eva Longoria’s hips have been curved up and out. Looking through all these photos, I get the eerie feeling that they’ve stolen flesh from one woman only to add it to another.

This is the quintessential operation of the beauty “ideal”: it is just that, an idea, sold to us as something to strive for not despite but because it is impossible.
Even the women who look like that don’t look like that! The outrage of this is not only that people who are not models or actors are held to a standard that constantly moves to something less real, but also that models themselves are forced to maintain unfeasible weights (often via verbal abuse and threats of unemployment) and then are demonized for it, making the fashion industry even more exploitative than it already was. You must be skinny and curvy at once, tiny and voluptuous, recognizably yourself but without the the lines and planes and wrinkles of your own body.

Take a look at the portfolio, and then think about how this sort of artifice affects you and everyone around you. (On a lighter note, if they’re doing this for regular magazine pics, imagine how they’re manipulating pornographic images…)

The Frivolous: Last week, I pulled out all my spring & summer clothes and organized them into “keep” and “toss” piles. This is not always easy as I have an emotional attachment to some things (like the navy blue J. Crew polo dress I bought probably 10 years ago that’s faded, and baggy, and even has a couple of bleach spots and still got another 11th hour call from the governor and went back into my drawer) but by and large the effort was successful.

The toss pile is going to a local consignment shop on Thursday and hopefully, I’ll get a few bucks . Everything is in great or excellent condition, but they’re items that are too big on me, or don’t really work with my body type, or fall into the “what was I thinking when I bought that?” category.

(I did put an item on eBay – a dress of Sadie’s she outgrew – but as virtually no one has viewed the damn thing, much less bid on it, I think I’ll be more successful at the consignment shop.)

As for the items that I’m keeping, I’m trying to figure out where the gaps in my wardrobe are and fill those holes with good stuff. In the past I’ve just bought things that I liked, which resulted in a lot of nice pieces that don’t work together; it’s a habit I’m trying to break.

I was able to pick up a versatile pair of white Banana Republic pants last week at the outlet mall (only $36!) and they’re now at the tailor’s being hemmed to fit my dauchshound-short legs (an additional $9, but completely worth it).

I also picked up a layering piece to put under a low cut green dress. (It's this top but redesigned as a dress with a knee length hem. I got it for $39 when it retailed for $188 - whoo!) I hate using tanks or camis as a layer so I ordered a bandeau (fine, tube top) in white from American Apparel with the hopes that it will give me the coverage I’m looking for without extra layers. We’ll see how it fits…

Sugar Plums Dancing in My Head, Ed. #1

So pretty! Read on to find out who made it and how to make one, too.

I have no idea how this is going to turn out in the long run, or how frequently this will appear, but I thought it might be fun to do a round up of things I’ve spotted online; things that have got me thinking, making, wanting, and occasionally, lusting after. True to (my) form, these ideas range from very serious to extremely frivolous. Here we go:

Barbara at Tigers & Strawberries discusses the many ways corporate restaurants waste food:

Most corporate chain restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries and the like have a very strict policy of dumping this perfectly good food out into the dumpster, which is often locked and behind enclosures in order to keep enterprising individuals from “harvesting” or saving this food. (If these enclosed or locked bins tampered with, even by a hungry person, they can then be arrested and charged not with just vandalism for breaking the locks, but for breaking and entering and theft. Imagine being charged with stealing garbage–the whole point of garbage is that the former owner of it no longer wants it, so why is it illegal for someone else to take it before it is heaped into a landfill?) Employees who are caught taking food of this kind home or eating it, or donating it are treated as thieves and are often fired.

Barbara's analysis is thoughtful, lucidly-written, and illuminating.

A few weeks ago, Shane and I had a little debate on whether money could buy happiness; my thought was "no" and Shane's was, "I've never been rich; how could I possibly know?" The theory of money not buying happiness was supported in a mid-1970's study by Richard Easterlin, then an economist at the University of Pennsylvania, although to be fully truthful, Easterlin argued the more subtle point that economic growth doesn’t necessarily lead to more satisfaction.

A new paper rebuts Easterlin's argument. In it, Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers (economists who are also from the University of Pennsylvania) argue that money does tend to bring happiness, if not guarantee it. To quote the New York Times' article:

If anything, Ms. Stevenson and Mr. Wolfers say, absolute income seems to matter more than relative income. In the United States, about 90 percent of people in households making at least $250,000 a year called themselves “very happy” in a recent Gallup Poll. In households with income below $30,000, only 42 percent of people gave that answer. But the international polling data suggests that the under-$30,000 crowd might not be happier if they lived in a poorer country.

I think it's pretty obvious that humans have needs that must be met and, in our current economic and governmental system, you need money to be able to meet those needs. But we also live in a society that values consumerism -- so it doesn't surprise me that people who make $250,000+ annually say they are happy; they've got lots of money, so they can buy lots of stuff (in fact, they have to buy lots of stuff to follow the norms of their socio-economic group) and consumerism teaching us that buying and having is what makes us happy (and maybe even worthy). If we weren't so obsessed with buying, buying, buying, and what that represented, would we view money as so important?

As for the statement that "the international polling data suggests that the under-$30,000 crowd might not be happier if they lived in a poorer country" I wish there was more clarification. Which poorer country are we talking about? What sort of social benefits to citizens get? What are the social norms of this country? Etc., etc.

These ideas, and many, many others, are being debated in the NYT's comment section; please take a look. (If you're not a registered member, head over to Bug Me Not for a username and password.)

I'm not a Chris Matthews fan (I saw him in person once while covering a local news story) but reading this piece (another NYTimes piece, this time in its Sunday magazine) just made me feel bad for him. He was on The Colbert Report Monday night and it's clear that this is a man with a desperate need to be thought well of. Consequently, he marinates in flop sweat constantly.

On a lighter note, maybe it’s spring – I don’t know -- but I suddenly have a massive urge to be crafty (in the let’s-paint-a-picture way, not the Machiavellian sense.) Unfortunately, many of the craft projects I’m initially attracted to don’t even get started because I think, “what am I going to do with this thing when it’s done?” Do I need a cross-stitched pillow, even an alternative one? Where would I wear jewelry made from poultry products?

Still, I am in search of the great creative project that will be ultimately functional. I don’t really need another USB drive but taking one apart to put it into a Lego brick casing, or turn on into a tromp l'oeil eraser is very appealing. (I spent way too much time on Instructables yesterday, and I think it’s going t happen again today. They even have a food section!)

I love Angie’s project on The {New New} York Etsy Street Team to turn aluminum cans into jewelry (pictured at the top of this post.) If you didn’t know the origin, you’d never have guessed what it was made from; it just looks lovely, minimalist, and modern. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get my hands on an eyelette setter and disc/stamping... In case I can't, though, I can just pick one up at Angie's Brooklynsoul Etsy store.