Looking Good

Posted in Culture, Family, Love, Mom, Parenting on 01/18/2012 04:23 am by J

My mom was a big believer in reading. She was addicted to it. She read more than anyone else I have ever known. She loved to read everything, almost any genre, almost any book. LOVED it. When she was trying to figure things out, she would read to find a solution. Recipes, career advice, whatever. Parenting style. She loved her parents dearly, and she firmly believed that they did their best. But she also thought that they could have done better. So when she found she was going to have kids, she wanted to find out how to do things better than her parents had done. For the most part, I think she did an amazing job. She taught us so many things. To love your family and put them first. That people are not for hitting. That knowledge is more important than grades. That honesty is a value to be respected and honored, even if that means letting go of some much cherished lies. That a good book can be more important to you than a bad friend. That a good friend can be more important to you than a bad family member. That a good family member is worth doing anything for. I don’t know how much of this she got from books, how much she got from her family, and how much was just her. But I have felt really lucky in my own parenting, that I don’t often have to think ‘my mom goofed this up, how can I do it better?”

Of course, no one is perfect, and no parent is perfect. My mom made mistakes. She sometimes said one thing and did the opposite. She trusted her books too much sometimes. Anyway, I heard an author on the radio a while ago talking about a parenting book, about not putting excess stress on your kids by over praising them. Much of what he said resonated with me and I agreed with, but one thing he said reminded me of how we do not grow up in a vacuum, and that how our friends’ parents raise them also affects us. He said that you should not tell your kids, especially your girls, that they are beautiful or pretty, because it puts too much pressure on them to be pretty, and if they don’t FEEL pretty, it puts them in a strange situation of wondering if you’re lying. It gives them the idea that the most important thing that a girl can be is pretty. That if she isn’t pretty, she’s not worthwhile. That a better way is to tell them things you like about them. My mom raised me this way. She would say, “I love the way the sunlight reflects on your hair”. “I like your wrists…they’re so delicate and elegant”. “Your smile lights up your face”. All fine and good, but because my friends all were told they were pretty, in front of me, and I wasn’t told that, I grew up wondering if perhaps my mom thought I wasn’t pretty, and these compliments were just consolation prizes. Like, ‘too bad you’re plain, but at least you have elegant wrists.” See how good intentions sometimes don’t work so well? Sigh. So I grew up not knowing if my mom thought I was pretty or not. A girl should really think that at least her parents think she’s pretty. Yes, the pressure is out there, the pressure to look good. It’s not as important as how you treat people, as your sense of humor, as your brain or your heart or your soul. But it’s all over the place and very much there. I confessed to her how this method made me feel, once, when she was telling me the theory behind it. I think her heart broke a little, and she felt like a failure to a certain degree. But even then, I wondered, had she thought I was a pretty girl, a pretty child, or was she just trying to make me feel good? Maybe there’s no way to really make a girl feel confident in a culture so obsessed with looks, I don’t know. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered if she had told me I was pretty every day. Perhaps I wouldn’t have believed her.

But back in November, I went through her boxes of books. All 55 of them. Looking for some books that Richard had said he wanted, some books that I could send him for his birthday in early December. Her books are still at Kate’s house, as she’s planning on selling them on ebay, and we don’t have room for them here, and they’re covered with cat hair, which would probably kill Ted. So I went to Kate’s house, and she and I and dug through box after box after box. One thing I found was my baby book, which was pretty awesome to find. I haven’t seen that since I lived with my mom, back when I was 20 or so. Maybe before that even. Another thing I found was a set of binders, where she was trying to work out issues she had with her parents, my Aunt Colleen, that kind of thing. I skimmed them, and decided I didn’t want to try to bring that much frustration and pain into the house, and that she had gotten a lot of that stuff out of her system on her blog, which I can read any time I want to. So I didn’t keep them. But as I was flipping pages, I found one page, written when I was maybe 15 or so…and all it said was…

“Julie is the most beautiful girl in the world.”

I carry those words in my heart now. They fit just right, and they feel good.

 

A Day in the City

Posted in Holidays, Musings, Restaurant Reviews on 01/05/2012 04:23 am by J

Ted and I are both fortunate enough to be able to take the week off between Christmas and New Years, and it may be my favorite week of the year. Don’t ask me about that when I take time off in the summer, because I may change my mind, but for now, let’s say this is the best. The lead up to Christmas is one of hustle and bustle, with hurrying here and there, buying gifts, going to parties, wrapping gifts, sending cards, decorating the house, making latkes (for Hanukkah, which we also celebrate, because we’re atheists and can do whatever we want), enjoying Stollen Bread on St. Nicholas Day (which we also celebrate, because we’re atheists and can do whatever we want), baking Christmas cookies, etc. etc. It’s a lot of fun, but in reality, it’s also a lot of work. The week after Christmas, however, tends to be a week when very little work gets done, people are still mostly in a good mood, you can probably get a reservation at a decent restaurant, and if you avoid the after-Christmas mayhem at the department and big-box stores, it’s pretty low key. It’s a chance to regroup and relax. I love it.

One thing we did during that week off was to go into San Francisco (aka, the City). We started off with brunch at a place we saw on Check Please, Bay Area. It’s not a fancy place by any stretch of the imagination. It’s a greasy spoon diner, the likes of which we don’t really get out here in the burbs. But the reviewers all loved it, and were doing some big talking about the Rib Eye used in the steak and eggs, so we wanted to give it a try. Ted and I actually tried to go there a month or so ago, but they’re closed on Sundays, so we ended up at another greasy spoon down the street.

Ted ordered the Steak and Eggs, which he said was better quality than the joint down the block, but somehow, he liked the meal better at the other place. How can that be? No idea. It was a good steak, though.
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Maya had the French Toast, which she really enjoyed.
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I had the French Dip, which was delicious. You could tell that it was really good quality meat. I was so excited by the stupid potato thing, though, that I forgot to take a picture. (as if anyone needs to see a picture of my French Dip sandwich. Blogging is weird.)
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The Silly Spud, if you didn’t click the video, is a potato skewered and twisted, deep fried and served hot, sort of like a cross between a french fry and a potato chip. It comes with all different kinds of flavors.
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We went for plain, wanting to try the basic potato first before trying any flavors. My review? Meh. I’d rather have either a potato chip (more crispy) or a french fry (that tender inside), but this didn’t seem to combine the best of both worlds. It was more the worst of both worlds. I wouldn’t try it again. Overall, though, I liked Manor Coffee Shop. I don’t know that I’d drive 40 minutes a 3rd time to try it, but if I were in the neighborhood and in the mood for a burger, a French Dip, or steak and eggs, I might give it another shot. Oh, and if Santa didn’t make it to your house on Christmas Eve, it’s because he fell through their roof, and was still stuck there the following Tuesday.
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After brunch, we went downtown to see the current exhibit at the Asian Art Museum, Maharaja, The Splendor of India’s Royal Courts. They didn’t allow pictures in that exhibit, though they did in other parts of the museum. It was interesting to see how colonialism seemed to bring a new level of hedonism to the royals of India. They always lived in splendor, but after the British took over, their roles became more symbolic than useful, and they seemed to deteriorate into a worthless group, mostly bent on fine living and partying. Much like the British royals of today, I expect. The Asian Art Museum moved to its current location maybe 10 years ago. It was located closer to our neighborhood, in Golden Gate Park, when we lived in SF. Now it’s in the old City Library, which is a gorgeous building. Kind of strange to walk the gallerias and remember studying there in college.
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There was another exhibit, The Maharaja and Me, by a talented artist named Sanjay Patel, that was a lot of fun. Patel is a cartoonist working at Pixar, and his paintings looked like graphic novels in their modern flair, though the writing style wasn’t graphic novel-y.

Here are a few examples.
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I really enjoyed the show. Maya really wanted this last picture in poster form for her wall. Ganesh is just so cute, right? Sadly, they only had the poster in a book of posters, and she didn’t want to spend $25 on the whole thing. Too bad he doesn’t sell just the Ganesh poster, because I’d buy it for her online if I could.

After the museum, we decided to walk across Civic Center Park to City Hall. San Francisco City Hall is beautiful, and if you’re going to get married in a City Hall somewhere, I highly recommend it. We walked around, remembering when we were there getting our license and blood tests back in ’93, and saw a lot of brides hanging around, waiting for their turn. I didn’t want to be too invasive, but I did take a couple of pictures.
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Ted says that last one is going on his book jacket, if he ever writes a book.

It was a great day. I like traveling a lot, though I’m not as fond of flying as I once was. But when you live so close to such a beautiful city, why go elsewhere? There’s so much to see here, from little neighborhood restaurants, to wonderful museums, world class restaurants, and amazing views. I pink puffy heart San Francisco.

 

Wordless Wednesday

Posted in Wordless Wednesday on 01/04/2012 04:23 am by J

Sunrise

 

Young Adult

Posted in Movies on 12/29/2011 04:23 am by J

Young Adult
When I first saw the previews for ‘Young Adult’, I thought it looked like crap. Like another ‘Hangover’ or ‘Bridesmaids’ type film, but without much actual humor, and with a mean spirited protagonist. Then I heard that the people who made it also made two other films that I really liked, ‘Up In the Air’, and ‘Juno’, and I decided that I’d wait and see if the reviews were good. And they were, very good.

Charlize Theron is Mavis Gary, a semi-successful writer of young adult books who lives in Minneapolis. We are shown a glimpse of her life, which seems to consist mainly of writer’s-block, drinking, trolling for men, drinking, waking up face down on her bed with her clothes on, drinking, and oh yeah, drinking. One day she receives a birth announcement from her high school ex, who is now a proud papa, and determines that the time is right to claim her rightful place by his side, wife and new baby be damned.

I know, it doesn’t sound like much of a story, does it? At least not one that you’d want to watch. And while Mavis is not the least bit likable, you do feel for her. You don’t want her to succeed in her plan, but you do have a certain sympathy for her. That’s the combination of good acting, good writing, and good directing. Without all three, I suspect you’d just hate Mavis for being the pathetic self-centered alcoholic that she is. Another saving grace of the film is Patton Oswalt, who had the locker next to Mavis all through high school, and who worshiped her for the beautiful popular girl she was, and whom she never noticed, except she remembered that he was beaten and left for dead by a bunch of jocks who thought he was gay. They strike up a conversation at a bar her first night in town, and they recognize something in each other that allows them to open up and really talk. They become friends, and while you still don’t get the feeling that they actually like each other, they do like to drink together, and they can call bullshit in each other when they see it.

I found myself thinking about ‘Young Adult’ quite a bit after seeing it. I liked it a lot, and I think it might be worth a second viewing.

 

Tea Cake Sandwich Cookies

Posted in Holidays, Recipes on 12/19/2011 04:23 am by J


Saturday we celebrated one of my favorite holidays of the year: Baking Day. Baking Day is the day that the family all gathers together at Ted’s parents’ house, and we each pick a cookie (or other sweet treat) recipe, make it, and then we all take home an assortment of yummy goodness. I like it because it’s not a day for large meals and grand statements (like Christmas and Thanksgiving, both of which I love, but it’s really nice to have such a casual, fun day there in the middle), but instead it’s just a day to come together, bake delicious treats, and at the end of it all, counteract the rich sweetness of it all by feasting on salt and fat in the form of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yum.

When deciding what to make this year, I saw this recipe online. Bon Appetit is pretty safe for recipes, they’re generally delicious, and the picture was beautiful. I love the colors of the different jams, and buttery sugar cookies are a nice counterpoint to the rich (and delicious) brownies/fudge (Joan Lunden fudge…I can see I need to post that recipe as well…) that Ted always makes. I have to say, this recipe was a delicious success. They were buttery, flaky, tender, and sweet. The keys to yummy cookies (as if you’d listen to me, I’m not a baker at all) are fresh ingredients, cold dough, and in this case, I love the hint of lemon in the cookies and the icing. For my jams, I chose apricot, seedless raspberry, and pomegranate/blackberry. All delicious.

Tea Cake Sandwich Cookies
Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons whole milk
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
Assorted decorations (such as powdered sugar, icing, colored sugar crystals, and edible glitter)

2/3 cup preserves (such as apricot, seedless raspberry, or seedless blackberry)

test-kitchen tip
Rolling out the dough between sheets of waxed paper cuts out the need for lots of extra flour to prevent sticking.

Preparation

Whisk flour and salt in medium bowl to blend well. Using electric mixer, beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in milk, lemon peel, and vanilla extract. Add flour mixture and beat until blended. Gather dough into ball; divide in half. Flatten into disks. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 2 hours. DO AHEAD Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled. Let soften slightly before rolling out.

Roll out each dough disk between sheets of waxed paper to 14×11-inch rectangle, occasionally lifting waxed paper to smooth out wrinkles. Refrigerate dough on baking sheets, still between sheets of waxed paper, until cold and firm, about 30 minutes. Place 1 dough piece on work surface. Peel off top sheet of waxed paper. Press same waxed paper gently back onto dough. Turn dough over (still between waxed paper sheets). Peel off top sheet of waxed paper and discard. Using 2 1/4-inch scalloped round cutter and with dough still on waxed paper bottom, cut out cookies. Using 1- to 1 1/4-inch scalloped round cutter, cut out center from half of cookies. Gather dough centers and excess dough around cutouts; shape excess dough into disk and chill. Slide waxed paper with cutouts onto baking sheet and chill. Repeat with remaining dough disk, cutting out rounds, cutting centers from half of rounds to make top rings, and gathering and chilling excess dough. Roll out excess dough between sheets of waxed paper, making more cookie bottoms and top rings. Repeat rolling and cutting until all of dough is used.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Spray 2 large baking sheets with nonstick spray. Using metal spatula to lift cutouts from waxed paper, transfer cookie bottoms to 1 prepared sheet and top rings to second sheet, spacing slightly apart (cookies spread very little). Sprinkle some top rings with colored sugar crystals (or leave plain to decorate later). Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until pale golden, about 8 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks; cool completely.

Arrange cookie bottoms on work surface. Spread each with 1 teaspoon preserves. Sift powdered sugar over plain cookie rings or decorate with icing and sugar crystals or edible glitter as desired. Press 1 top ring onto each prepared cookie bottom. DO AHEAD Cookies can be made 3 days ahead. Store airtight between sheets of waxed paper in refrigerator.

Icing
Ingredients

3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons light corn syrup
Water

Preparation
Sift powdered sugar into medium bowl. Mix in lemon juice and corn syrup. Mix in enough water by teaspoonfuls to form smooth icing soft enough to pipe but firm enough to hold shape. Divide into 3 or 4 portions and tint with food coloring, if desired.

Spoon icing into pastry bag (or bags if using more than 1 color) fitted with small (1/16- to 1/8-inch) plain tip. Arrange cookies on work surface. Pipe icing onto cookies in desired patterns. Apply decorations as desired. Let cookies stand until icing is dry.

I tried both the icing and the powdered sugar, as you can see. The powdered sugar was far easier than the icing, which oozed out of the top of the pastry bag and made a mess (did I mention, I don’t bake?), but the icing, with the hint of lemon from the juice, was delicious as hell. Totally yum.

 

War Horse

Posted in Books on 12/14/2011 04:23 pm by J

War HorseI’ve seen the previews for the film adaptation of War Horse, and mostly I wasn’t that excited.  I love horses, but I’m not always sure I want to see a horse movie.  I read an article in the local paper that pretty much changed my mind by saying that it was a ‘film to watch out for’.

Oh, who am I kidding.  I’ll see it.

When I read it was based on a well loved children’s book, I decided that if I were going to see the film, perhaps I might want to read the book first.  Luckily, my local library has it, and there was no waiting list.

The ‘war horse’ of the title is Joey, a young British horse bought at auction by a small farmer with a drinking problem, who buys the horse simply to keep a town rival from getting him.  Luckily for Joey, the drunk farmer has a son, and the son has a way with horses, and the two quickly become best friends.  Of course, in a book titled War Horse, this horse is going to have to go to war.  Drunk farmer dad sells the horse to an army representative, who is scouring the countryside looking for horses to bring to the front in World War I, which is raging across Europe.  Albert, the son, is devastated by the news, and tries to enlist in the hopes of staying with his horse.  Alas, he is too young, and Joey goes off to war without him.

The rest of the book is Joey’s adventures in Europe.  He makes friends, both human and equine, and sees far more death than he would like.

I liked the story, but even more, I was fascinated to learn of the role horses played in the war.  I had no idea.  I had no idea that they might put a cavalry up against machine guns.  Luckily, that didn’t last long, and soon the horses were used instead to transport heavy machinery and carry wounded soldiers from the front lines.

This was a quick read, and an interesting one.  I’m not sure that there’s enough there for a film, but I’m sure Spielberg will fill it in with all kinds of stupidness that will make it feel like a long, drawn out spectacle.  I hope it’s good.

 

Movies

Posted in Movies on 11/28/2011 04:23 am by J

We’re a movie going family.  Ted was a film major, once upon a time, and loved seeing any film, even if just to see what was wrong with it.  I’m not quite (or nearly) so forgiving, but I do enjoy plopping down and enjoying a story, seeing what they might have to tell me, figuring out if it worked, all of that.  So this last week, on our Thanksgiving break, in addition to seeing ‘Like Crazy‘, we saw three other new films, and one old one.

The Descendants

First, on Wednesday, we went to see ‘The Descendants‘.  I’ll admit that when I first saw the previews a few months ago, I was not the least bit interested.  Truly, what a horrid story.  George Clooney’s wife is in a coma, and here he is, running down the street in a passion, trying to find out who she was having an affair with prior to her accident.  Ugh.  Oh, and he’s an uninvolved dad (but who was living in the house with his wife and kids) who has no idea of how to cope.  I’m so tired of this story line, of dads who don’t know how to change diapers, who don’t know how to talk to their kids, who don’t have any idea of how to get along in the world without their wives to take care of the dirty minutia of day-to-day life.  But that’s not this movie at all.  The kids are far beyond diaper stage, and you get the feeling that he’s been around, it’s just that he doesn’t know how to deal with his daughters while they’re in the midst of grief and anger at what is going on around them.  Well, really, who would?  There’s a secondary story, from which the name of the film derives, where we learn that Clooney’s family is a long standing haole tribe in Hawaii, and that they descend (on one side of the family) from King Kamehameha.    They have inherited a large piece of pristine land, worth billions to developers, and time is running out for them to decide what to do with it.  Some cousins are broke and could really use the money, while others would rather see the land left wild.  This story was interesting, but more as a backdrop to the story of Clooney and his family.  I thought he did a wonderful job,  and brought a lot of depth to his character, as did the actresses who played his daughters.  I could have done without the older daughter’s boyfriend, but I guess he served his purpose, thematically.  This was probably my favorite of the three films.

Melancholia

Next was Melancholia, which happily was released to OnDemand either before or at the same time as to theaters, so we didn’t have to drive against holiday traffic to see it, but instead could order it up for the bargain price of $6.99 for the three of us.  That’s better than a maintee’ or senior discount.  Melancholia is the story of two sisters, Justine and Claire (Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg), trying to focus and figure out their life and fighting severe depression, all while another planet (named Melancholia) hurls on a  collision course with Earth.  Justine (Dunst) is a socially inept and extremely depressed bride, and watching her attempt to go through the motions of a happy wedding is like watching a person try to swim through maple syrup, or perhaps more aptly, tar.  She’s sinking, fast.  Claire (Gainsbourg) is Justine’s sister, and is clearly used to dealing with Justine’s depression, and is trying to get them all through the trials and rituals of a wedding reception, held at her gorgeous country home, which she shares with her extremely wealthy husband, played by Kiefer Sutherland.  The cinematography of this film was amazing and gorgeous, but somehow it felt like it missed the mark to me.  I’d recommend it, but especially if you liked “The Tree of Life” (it’s not as good as ‘Tree’, but it does have that vibe in certain scenes), and especially if you really like movies for their own sake, and most especially, if you can see it OnDemand for $7.

Then, Ted and I went to see ‘My Week with Marilyn‘.  This film has been getting great reviews, especially for Michelle Williams’ portrayal of the glamorous and troubled Marilyn Monroe.  The story is that Marilyn is in England filming “The Prince and the Showgirl” with Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh), and she kindles a small romance/friendship with the third assistant director of the film, Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne).  The story is told from Clark’s point of view, as an extremely wealthy young man from a very powerful family, trying to make his own way in the film industry.  He is assigned the task of watching over Marilyn, and when her new husband, Arthur Miller, goes back to the U.S. for a stretch, he keeps her company.  The reviews make much of Williams’ performance, of how she captured the glamor and light that seemed to emanate from Monroe.  Personally, this was my least favorite of the films we saw.  The story was very traditional and not in the least bit innovative or interesting, and to me, as much as Williams did a fine job, and as much as the camera work tried to convince you that she was lit from within, captivating and enthralling to all who might see her, it just didn’t happen for me.  She did a fine job, but she wasn’t Marilyn.  To be fair, I’m not sure that lightening strikes twice.  Branagh was his usual amazing self as Sir Laurence Olivier (Larry).  To me, his was the performance to beat in the film.

Fargo

Lastly, we watched an oldie but a goodie on HBO, Fargo.  I’ve seen bits of this movie since first seeing it in the theaters back in ’96, but I don’t think we’d sat through the whole thing.  At least I hadn’t.  What a wonderful film.  While the horror aspect of it is indeed grisly, and William H. Macy as the despicable yet somehow almost likable Jerry Lundergaard gives a great performance, I don’t think anyone would deny that the film belongs to Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson.  Marge is so sweet and honest and true, she really wants to understand people, and to think the best of them.  But she takes shit from no one, and she’s smarter than anyone else in town by a long shot.  If you’ve somehow missed this tale, please do yourself a favor and watch.  Not really for the little kids, with violence, swearing, and sex, but not too much for a teen if they’re not squeamish.  Maya didn’t watch it with us, but I would have let her.  I was glad to spend a bit of time back in Marge’s company.  “Oh yah?”  “Yah.”

 

Like Crazy

Posted in Movies on 11/22/2011 04:23 am by J

Like Crazy

Jacob and Anna are a young couple who meet in college.  They fall in love and spend a wonderful year together, before they graduate and it’s time for her to go home to England.  She’s too much in love, though, and decides to stay through the summer before going home.  Mistake.  She’s violated her visa, and now she can’t get back into the country.  So now what.  He’s in Los Angeles, trying to start a business making furniture.  She’s in England, trying to start a business doing some kind of writing.  She can’t come to him, which she’s willing and eager to do.  He could go to her, but he’s not exactly eager nor willing.

I really liked this romantic comedy a lot.  It’s in no way related to the foolish and fun romantic comedies that we mainly see, pumped high with music and full of zany misunderstandings and scenes of shopping and confusion.  There’s none of that stupidness here.  None.  Here we find a couple in the throes of their first true love, deeply in love, and yet…one is more in love than the other.  She’s more willing to give up her family and her home than he is.  Which is interesting, because the movie introduces us to her wonderful, charming parents, not to his.  We see all that she has going for her in England, which she is so willing to give up, and not much of what he might have going for him, which he is not willing to give up.  I would have liked to meet his mother.  (His father died when he was a child.)

What I loved about this movie was how real it seemed.  This is love how it really happens, as opposed to the stupid arguments and star-crossed love of most romantic comedies.  Especially love in the early 2os, when we’re SO open and honest to it, and yet, so very much trying to figure out how our real life might turn out, and who we really want to be, deep down.  The harm of this movie is how it shows the pain of separateness…and not  just a sweet, I Miss You pain, but a real, deep, This Hurts pain, the kind of pain that can easily destroy a relationship, and which anyone who has tried to traverse the waters of a long distance relationship will recognize, even if they find themselves thinking, “there but for the grace of god go I…”

 

Friday Randomness ~ 11/11/11

Posted in Culture, Family, Holidays, Musings, Politics on 11/11/2011 11:11 am by J

First off, let’s take a moment to thank all of the Veterans this Veterans’ Day, for their patriotism and service.  There is a sad, lovely poem written during the First World War, by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian soldier and surgeon, after he witnessed the death of a friend.  Lieutenant Colonel McCrae died of pneumonia during the war, in 1918.

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.”

The picture is my Great Grandfather, Percy Herndon, in his WWI uniform.  This is before he married my Great-Grandmother, and the woman in the picture is his sister, my Great Aunt Julia, for whom I was named.  Aunt Julia died before I was born, but she was a large and important presence in my mother’s life.  My Great-Grandfather served in Russia, and came home safely.  He married my great grandmother, and they had 5 children, 3 of whom lived to adulthood, and all 3 of whom are still alive today.  (My Grandma and Great Aunt, who live together in Stockton, and my other Great Aunt, who lives a bit north of Sacramento.) I didn’t know him growing up, as he died right after we moved back to California from Alaska. But I know him through stories, and I wish I had known him better.

Next is Happy Birthday to Little One, my friend Chrissy’s daughter, who is 3 years old today.  Little One was born 3 months premature, and her first few months outside of her mommy were harrowing indeed.   But now she’s a gorgeous, healthy, strong, opinionated, sweet little girl.   I hope you’re having a great celebration, Chrissy, John, and Little One!

Now I wonder if any of you have any tips for getting a stubborn old dog to take her medicine?  Poor Gen is on so many pills now, and she hates them.  HATES them.  Two days this week, she took them easily, just wrapped in salami.  I felt like I had won the lottery, it was so easy.  Seriously, I should have gone and bought a ticket.  Yesterday she refused, and I had to shove them down her throat, which I’ve done with cats before, but Gen is bigger and stronger than a cat.  It worked in the morning, but when it came time for her evening pill, she clamped her jaw shut on my finger.  She’s been bragging about how fierce she is, that she bit Medium Boss, but really, she was just trying to not take her pill, and she didn’t even draw blood.  Not as fierce as she likes to pretend.  So Maya and I figured out that if we packed the pill in grated cheese, and gave her a treat RIGHT AFTER, she would eat the pill and not spit it out.  That worked last night, and again this morning, but our experience thus far has been that she’ll take the pills well once or twice, and then get a taste of one (one particularly is VERY bitter), and refuse that method from then on.  So I’ve tried mixing the powdered pill into sugar water, which she liked a little bit but not enough.  Peanut butter, cream cheese, salami, all worked for a little while, but not consistently.   Any sure fire tips out there?

Tomorrow I’m going to get my hair done.  Always an adventure, since I go to a beauty school to save money.  They do a decent job, but sometimes my hair comes home a different color than I intended.  That’s happened at the expensive salon too, come to think of it, so whatever.

The whole Penn State scandal got me pretty riled up.  I think everyone involved should have been fired, and I cannot for the life of me understand the reaction of the students who rioted in protest.  These men think they’re above the law, and that their football team and department are more important than the lives of disadvantaged boys.  It’s disgusting.  And how much more damage have they done to the department and school than if they had called the police when they first learned of the crimes?  Ugh.  It makes me sick.  Some people need a lesson in ethics.

Thanks to Nance for the link to this article, explaining the anger of Occupy Wall Street.  The problem isn’t that the poor and middle class hate the rich, or are envious.  The problem is that we’re pissed off at the fact that the Wall Street folks gamed the system, they cheated, and they don’t think there’s a darn thing wrong with that.  They think they were smart to think of it, and they’re busy planning how to do it again. And again.  And as long as people make money at it, if their 401(k) goes up and the value of their house rises, they don’t care that it’s not sustainable.  That’s the problem, and it’s not just Wall Street.  Some of it is Main Street as well.  We need to get angry and stop trusting these a-holes.  That’s what the Occupy movement is about.

I guess that’s it.  I could start in on what an idiot I think Herman Cain is, and how I wish he’s just go away, and that I think he’s a lech and he still thinks he can get away with it, but I’ll leave that for another day.

Happy Friday, everyone.

 

Fall Back…

Posted in Musings on 11/05/2011 08:37 pm by J

Love it or hate it, it’s that time….Daylight Saving.  Fall back, meaning that you turn your clock back an hour and get an extra hour of sleep.  You’ll come home in the darkness, and perhaps it shan’t be quite so dark when you’re trying to awake in the morning.  I like the evening sun, but I also like the morning sun, so I wonder if perhaps the answer isn’t to be found so much in fiddling with the clock and nature, but rather with moving closer to the equator.  Either that, or following our bodies’ clocks, which would be closer to sleeping more in the winter and less in the summer, and stopping pretending that we have so much control over it all…

 

How Progressive Taxation works

Posted in Politics on 10/31/2011 04:23 am by J

(click the tax tables to enlarge)

I’ve been hearing a lot about a proposal to simplify the tax code lately, using a flat tax, which would tax everyone at the same flat rate. Cain says 9%, and would add a Federal sales tax to the mix. Perry says 20%, but doesn’t mention a sales tax. The idea is that we should all be taxed the same rate, because it’s more fair, and that having one tax rate would simplify things. Well, before you fire your accountant (job killers!), remember that it’s not the withholding tables that make things complicated. It’s the exemptions and deductions and credits. So really, in order to eliminate confusion, the government could eliminate all of these deductions and credits, and treat us all the same in that way. Own or rent, married or single, kids or no kids, business expenses or not, health care expenses or not, all of that just goes away. They could then adjust the tables so that people’s taxes didn’t double because they just lost all of their deductions.

It occurred to me that I don’t think many people understand how taxation really works. I’ve been working in payroll for awhile now, so I thought I’d give you a quick tutorial. See that tax table up there? Those are the Federal withholding tables for 2011.  And they’re progressive, meaning that as you earn more money, you pay a higher percentage.  But the thing that’s confusing is that many people think (as I used to) that if you earn the amount in one bracket, you’re taxed on that bracket, and that’s it.  Not true.  If you look at the Single side there, you see that for people earning under $2,100 a year, no taxes are withheld.  But really, none of us pay taxes on that first $2,100.  So if you earn $75,000 a year, you pay zero on the first $2,100, 10% on the next $8,500 ($10,600 – $2,100), 15% on the next $26,000 ($36,600 – $10,600), and 25% on the last $38,400 (your $75,000 salary – $36,600).  And everyone else is paying those same rates, within those same brackets, until they get to the top bracket.  For those who earn $400,000, they pay all of the brackets…and only pay the 35% on the amount OVER $381,250.  The $110,016.50 that you see is the culmination of all of those other tax rates, building up to the top rate of 35%.  If they were truly taxed at 35%, they would be paying $133,437.50 on that $381,250.

In other words, Bill Gates pays the same income tax as I do, and the same amount you do, on the same amount of income.  He pays more on the amounts he earns above what we make.

Another thing to think about is that while the top earners pay a higher percentage of their wages in income taxes, low and middle income earners pay a much higher percentage of their wages on sales tax, property tax, and Social Security taxes.

Sales tax, because they spend a higher percentage of their income than the top wage earners, who have more available for savings, 401(k), etc.  If I earn $1,000 a week, it’s more likely that it will all get eaten up by medical insurance, rent or mortgage, food, gas, clothing, and so on, than someone who earns $8,000 a week.

Property tax is the same..it’s a set amount, based on the cost of your house, not on your income.  So if I make less, it takes a bigger percentage of income to pay the bill.

Social Security tax is a flat tax with a wage limit.  For 2012, the wage base will be $110,100.  Which means that for the first $110,100 of income, everyone pays the same flat rate.  But the tax stops at $110,100.  For the majority of wage earners, we pay that percentage on 100% of our wages.  It is only those making over $110,100 that pay a lower percentage.  That lucky person making $400,000 a year pays Social Security taxes on 27.525% of their income.  And the people who make the very most in this country, the people making millions, or (gasp) billions a year?  They pay almost nothing towards Social Security.  One could rightly argue that those at the top won’t get as much at the end, because they will have put in far more than they ever have a chance of withdrawing.  To that I say, we need a safety net in this country.  The problem of poverty in the aged has gone down markedly since the implementation of Social Security.  It seems a small price to pay for everyone to pay this tax on 100% of their wages, and just accept it as a cost of living in our society.

So, my answers to the complicated tax regulations?  Get rid of exemptions and deductions.  Then it’s simple.  Add more tax brackets at higher levels, so that a surgeon making $500,000 a year isn’t taxed at the same rate as a CEO making $2,000,000 a year.  And eliminate the wage base limits on Social Security and Medicare.

 

The Solitude of Prime Numbers

Posted in Books on 10/30/2011 04:23 am by J

The Solitude of Prime Numbers

The image of Michela playing with a twig and breaking up her own reflection in the water before sliding into it like a sack of potatoes ran through his head like an electric shock.

Exhausted, he sat down a couple of feet from the river’s edge. He turned around to look behind him and saw the darkness that would last for many hours to come.

He stared at the gleaming black surface of the river. Again he tried to remember its name, but couldn’t. He plunged his hands into the cold earth. On the bank the dampness made it softer. He found a broken bottle, a sharp reminder of some nighttime festivity. The first time he struck it into his hand it didn’t hurt, perhaps he didn’t even notice. Then he started twisting it into his flesh, digging deeper, without ever taking his eyes off the water. He expected Michela to rise to the surface from one minute to the next, and in the meantime he wondered why some things float while others don’t.

Mattia is the mathematically gifted twin brother of Michela. His brain works exceedingly well, while hers is confused and clouded. Mattia is responsible for Michela, and spends his time defending her from the taunts of cruel classmates at school. He resents that he has no real friends, and is never invited to parties because Michela makes the other children (and their parents) uncomfortable. In the third grade, Mattia is finally invited to a party, finally has a chance to be with the other children, but is forced to take Michela along with him by his mother. He knows things will not go well. He knows she will ruin his good time, and for once, he rebels. On the way to the party, they stop at a park they both know. “Wait here”, he says. And leaves her there, for a few hours. The party is not as much fun as he had hoped, he still feels out of place with the other children, and he worries about what he has done to Michela, so he leaves early. When he comes back, she is gone, and no trace of her is ever found again.

Alice is an only child, pushed by her father, who wants her to become an expert skier. Every morning during Christmas vacation, she has to get up early and go to ski school. Every morning her father forces her to quickly finish her breakfast, and every morning, by the time she gets to the ski lift, she is desperate to go pee. It doesn’t matter how much she tries to empty her bladder before leaving the house, while she’s on the lift, her breakfast has caught up with her, and she’s in agony. Every morning, she gets off of the ski lift, crouches down, pretends to tighten her boot, and pees inside her ski suit. Every day is agony. This fateful morning, the mountain is shrouded in fog, which gives Alice a place to hide, for which she is grateful, because this time she not only pees herself, she also poops. Desperate to hide from her ski school mates, she decides to make her own way down to the lodge, to lose her ski pass along the way, to get cleaned up and spend the rest of the day inside in the warmth instead of on the side of a frigid foggy mountain. She is so busy making plans that she skis off of the trail and breaks her tibia, and spends the rest of the day wondering if she will freeze to death first, or be eaten by wolves, while waiting to be rescued.

Mattia and Alice are both wounded by their childhoods, and live fairly tortured lives, trying to fit in. Alice turns to anorexia as a method of coping, hiding her food in her napkin at the dinner table rather than eat. Mattia turns to cutting, finding relief from the pain his sister’s disappearance has brought into his family by wounding himself. Perhaps Mattia and Alice would have been solitary outsiders without these behaviors, but while they think they are hiding their pain and their self destructiveness from their friends and family, the reality is that the others only pretend not to notice, because to notice and act would be too difficult. When Mattia and Alice meet, as teens, they are drawn to each other, and while they never truly connect, their friendship is the closest thing either one of them has to something real.

Years later, Mattia and Alice have drifted apart physically, but are still very much in each others thoughts. He is working as a mathematician in a northern European country, she is working as a photographer in their native Italy. Her anorexia has robbed her of her health and her marriage. His cutting and solitude have robbed him of love and true friendship. One day, she spies something that startles her, and causes her to reach out to him, telling him he must come.

The Solitude of Prime Numbers is a story of loneliness, but a loneliness combined with love. A prime number can only be divided by itself and the number 1. Mattia and Alice are only truly connected with themselves and each other, and perhaps not as much with each other as they might wish.

Paolo Giordano, an Italian physicist, has a definite gift, and the writing here is stark and lovely. The story itself is somewhat disquieting, and you wish several times that things could go differently for Mattia and Alice. A beautiful read.

 

Soft Shell Chicken Tacos

Posted in Recipes on 10/17/2011 04:23 am by J

Soft Shell Chicken Tacos

Back before the internet gave me good cooking ideas, in the days of ridiculously slow modems and no real websites to visit, we got a little spiral bound cookbook produced by Sargento Cheese, called Simply the Best, filled with ingredients that utilized their cheesy products.  We have a few quick favorites that we find ourselves returning to, again and again.  The recipe we probably make move in this cookbook is for Soft Shell Chicken Tacos.  It’s stupidly easy, and really tasty.  And if you have some of the chicken mixture left the next day (we usually do, because I double the recipe) it makes an AMAZING omelet, with either some Mexican Cheese Blend or some shredded Sharp Cheddar.  Really, really good. I think I like the omelet better than the taco, actually. I’ve recently discovered that making them with Green Chili flavored corn tortillas from La Tortilla Factory bumps the recipe up from good to great, in my book.  Ted and Maya stick with plain flour tortillas.  Heathens.

Soft Shell Chicken Tacos

Ingredients

  • 3/4 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 tsp. cumin
  • 1 can (8 oz.) stewed tomatoes, undrained (I use 1 15oz can for 1 lb of chicken)
  • 1/3 cup salsa (eyeball it…I think I use 1/2 cup)
  • 1 green onion, thinly sliced
  • 8 (7-inch) flour tortillas, warmed
  • 1 cup shredded lettuce
  • 1 medium tomato, chopped
  • 1 cup (4 oz.) Sargento® Shredded Mexican Cheese blend
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
  • 1 avocado, diced (I added this, because DUH, avocados rock!)

Directions

  1. Place chicken in one layer in skillet over medium heat; season with cumin. Pour stewed tomatoes and salsa over chicken. Simmer, uncovered, 15 minutes or until chicken is tender, turning once.
  2. Remove chicken; reserve liquid in skillet. Cool and shred chicken; add to skillet with green onion; cook 2 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Divide chicken mixture evenly down center of each tortilla. Top with shredded lettuce, chopped fresh tomato and cheese. Add cilantro, if desired; fold and serve immediately.

(Recipe and picture found on the Sargento website, not available in 1992. And yeah, it’s the same picture as in my cookbook.)

 

Body Image for Girls

Posted in Feminist, Musings, Politics on 10/15/2011 04:23 am by J

Starshine wrote a post a little while ago about the hyper-sexualized advertising she sees at the local mall, and brought up her concerns about raising her sons to be respectful of women and not objectify them, when they are surrounded by these images. She brings up a good point, and it’s important to raise our boys to understand that this is just advertising, and that the majority of women and girls do not go around in their underwear, with ‘come get me’ looks permanently on their faces, bent into unnatural positions. It’s a fantasy, and not even one that’s very interesting or original.

As the mother of a daughter, my mind travels to what these ads teach our girls. There is SO much focus on how a girl looks, as if that’s the only important thing a girl can do. Look good. And as if the only way a girl can look good is to wear revealing clothes and be available to guys all the time. It’s important to teach our children, boys and girls, that they have a lot to offer the world, a lot more than their looks and charms. For some reason my mind goes to a pretty innocent movie, “Back to the Future”, where Marty is telling Doc Brown that he wants to get back to 1985 because his girlfriend is there. Doc’s first words? “Is she pretty?” And she is, and she isn’t much more, since the story isn’t about her or their relationship, so all the actress has to work with is being pretty. But what about the plain girls in the world? Are they not deserving of love and attention, of respect and acclaim? What if he had had an amazingly caring and smart girlfriend, or a talented and funny girlfriend, but one who wasn’t society’s idea of ‘pretty’. What then?  Shouldn’t he still be interested in getting back to her, and to his life in general?

And what of the constant pressure to have a ‘perfect body’?  What does that do to a girl’s self esteem?  How much energy and time are lost by girls obsessing about how their thighs look?  I remember two separate articles on Yahoo that covered this issue.

Running in Skorts

One was a girls’ track team in Washington DC, where the coach noticed that the team members seemed to be spending a lot of effort obsessing about how they look.  Since high school is the age when women’s bodies start changing, and some girls are more likely to get cellulite than others (even runners), I’m sure they were worried about their butts and thighs, and did they look OK.  His solution was to have a runners skort designed that would allow a full range of motion for the girls, and yet still cover them up enough that they felt more comfortable and could focus on their running. The result?  A marked improvement in their running times.  They’re kicking butt.

Cheerleaders

The second story, from last fall, was about cheerleaders in Connecticut, who were embarrassed because they couldn’t raise their arms without their midriffs showing while wearing their uniforms.  Perhaps some of the girls were fine with letting it all hang out, but others were not, and didn’t want to feel self conscious when standing up to do their cheers.  There’s a perception out there that high school girls are hyper sexualized and want to wear sexy clothes, tight sweaters and short skirts, and certainly, that is how some girls explore this age and their sexuality.  But not all girls feel this way, and putting them in sexy outfits as cheerleaders makes things more difficult for them.  The solution was to buy them body suits to wear under their uniforms.   I hope they have new uniforms this year, because the last thing you want to add to your uniform on a hot fall afternoon is a black body suit.  Maybe they don’t have hot weather in Connecticut at the beginning of the football season, but I remember last year when Maya was cheering, there were some games that were up in the mid to high 90s.

The answer, I suspect, is to treat children like children.  I know that a teenager is not the same as a child, and yet, a 17 year old senior is not the same as a 14 year old freshman in so many ways.  But if we can just understand that kids mature and grow up at different rates, and that not all of us want our butts or tummies hanging out while we’re trying to perform a sport like cheer or running races or whatever, then maybe we can stop pushing our daughters and sons into becoming adults far before they’re ready.  And we need to understand the pressure that this idea of a perfect body is doing to our children.  It is almost unattainable, and the struggle is heart wrenching.   And hell, even kids who are born with that ‘perfect body’  have their problems in the world as well.  No one has a perfect life.  So this pressure, every time you turn around, to have a diet plan, count your steps and calories, watch the fat content in your milk, and try to figure out how many minutes of cardio you have to do to to counteract the sandwich you had for lunch.  It’s exhausting, a waste of time, and horrific.  I’m not saying that all of the ads at the mall have to be prudish, or that girls can’t wear a short skirt if they want to.  But I wish that there were more ads at the mall and in magazines that didn’t show under aged women waiting breathlessly for the opportunity to have sex, and that uniforms didn’t make girls feel uncomfortable about the shape of their legs or their stomachs.

 

Friday Randomness

Posted in Books, Culture, Dogs (mostly), Family, Friday Randomness on 09/30/2011 04:23 pm by J

Nothing earth shattering today, so we’ll dive on in, OK?  Just a bunch of randomness that’s been swimming through my brain a bit.

Happy Gen.jpgWe’re trying Genevieve on a new drug.  She had stopped eating, which had us really concerned.  Or, to be more accurate, her eating was very sporadic and unpredictable.  She didn’t want her kibble, so I started making her some homemade food.  She liked that for awhile, but then seemed to tire of it.  We’d try to hand feed her, and she’d just turn her head away.  She was always happy to eat dog treats, cheerios with milk, that kind of thing, but not regular dog food.  She has been pacing a lot lately, and gets stuck in corners, circles a LOT before laying down, and has been kind of distant and not as engaged with us.  And she’s losing her beautiful coat.  So we took her to the vet, fearing the worst.  I have a pretty flexible schedule, and the vet is very close to home, so usually I take her on my own.  This time Ted and Maya wanted to be there, just in case the vet said she was in pain and needed to be put down.  They wanted to say their goodbyes.  The good news is that she doesn’t seem to be uncomfortable or suffering.  The vet said she has a form of canine dementia, and there’s a drug that’s proven pretty helpful for that.  It takes about 30 days to really get in their system, and we’re 1 week in, so it’s too soon to tell if it’s helping or not.  We gave up on the homemade food, though, and started giving her 1/2 kibble mixed with canned dog food, which she LOVES.  So that’s a relief.  Hopefully before she tires of it, the drugs will have worked to stimulate her appetite and all will be well again.

Speaking of food, this coming Tuesday is the second annual Bay Area Dine Out for Meals on Wheels, which is a fundraiser where you go to a participating restaurant on a certain day, have a delicious meal, and they give a portion of their proceeds to Meals on Wheels.  Well, I’m a  huge fan of the organization, and I deliver meals for them once a week, so I’ve been planning on going.  Then last week, I saw an episode of Check Please Bay Area, where they talked up a restaurant in a neighboring town, The Peasant and the Pear.  The food looked really good to me, and as I’ve complained before about restaurants on our side of the tunnel, and how many of them are just so-so, I was eager to try it.

YouTube Preview Image

Next thing you know, The Peasant and the Pear showed up on the list of restaurants participating in Dine Out for Meals on Wheels, and suddenly it felt like kismit.  So we’re going to go give it a try.  I’m thinking fondue and salad, a glass of wine, and a pear tart for dessert.  YUM.

Speaking of Meals on Wheels, this last week when I was delivering food to a couple on my route, their son came out to get the food.  He’s a nice enough guy, and the parents are very friendly as well.  I asked him how he’s doing, and he said, “Tired.  Tired of Living.”  Wow.  I patted him on the shoulder and told him to hang in there, it will surely get better.  Then he said, “Well, I’m an addict, and the whole thing is a cycle.  I use for awhile, and it’s horrible, and I get tired of living.  Then I muster the strength to quit, and I’m off for years at a time.  Last time it was 15 years.  Then I start up again.”  I said, “Wow, that’s a terrible burden to have to carry.”  And he said, “Yes, but it will be a lighter burden once I stop using.  I just have to get there.”  I’ve thought this many times in my life, and more often in the last few years stopping at people’s houses to deliver them meals…it’s amazing the different lives people lead behind closed doors, isn’t it?  And amazing that he was so burdened that he felt like he needed to tell SOMEONE what he was going through, even a complete stranger.  Poor man.  I wish him success, that he can quit for good this time, and find peace in his heart.

GambleI recently read a new mystery, Gamble, by Felix Francis.  Felix Francis is the son of the late Dick Francis, the former-jockey-turned-mystery-writer, who managed to keep racing and horses as a theme in all of his books.  Dick and his wife had a lovely life of it, traveling the world together researching his books, and after she passed away, Felix stepped in and helped his father, first with research, and then with writing.  They wrote a few books together, and now that Dick has passed away, this is the first book to be authored solely by Felix, though confusingly enough, the title seems to be “Dick Francis’s Gamble”, which made me wonder if Dick were somehow a character in the book.  He’s not, so I guess it’s just a way to make sure people know of the connection.  I have to say, he did a very good job, and the transition to writing on his own was fairly seamless.  Yes, the voice is different, as it should be, from his father’s.  But it was a fun, fast read, and I was HOOKED, as always with a good Francis mystery.  I’ll be looking forward to more from him in the future.  One bonus is that my aunt is also hooked, and she pays attention and puts the book on hold at the library.  She then reads it so quickly, there’s plenty of time for me to read it before it’s due.  So I don’t have to do anything but live my life, secure that Auntie will get the next book to me when it’s ready.

Speaking of family, I’m going to Rutherford tomorrow evening to a fancy wine and appetizer reception with my beloved Mother In Law (heretofore shortened to MIL).  Really kids, remember that when you marry, you marry the whole family, so be careful.  Happily, I married very well, and I love Ted’s family and feel very close to them.  So my MIL invited me to this lovely evening, and I’m looking forward to getting a bit dressed up, having a nice drive up through wine country together, and enjoying the winery.  It’s supposed to be very pretty, and it’s my MIL’s favorite.
HATE
Lastly, I know this makes me an old fogey, but I am not happy about the current trends in shoes.  I have a cute pair of short boots that I like to wear with nice slacks.  But they are dying, and I need a new pair.  So I went to two stores today, to try to find a replacement pair in time for the semi-fancy reception tomorrow, with absolutely no luck.  I’d see a pair that I thought was cute, but then I got close, and they have a horrid wedge heel.  Or a super skinny spiky heel that will kill me within 20 minutes.  Or that platform thing on the bottom of the shoe, combined with the heel.  I know, Lady Ga Ga and all of the young hip people in the know LOVE the look.  Some of my most stylish friends LOVE the look.  Me?  I think it makes your feet look heavy and gloppy, and I’m not going to do it.  So I’m either going to have to go look for a new pair at different stores tomorrow, or wear my old pair, and hope no one notices that they’ve seen far better days.  At least it won’t rain, because they leak.

 
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