Culture
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My Thoughts on Paris…
In between Buy Me, the ever pessimistic view of the real estate market, and a repeat of the always charming Groundhog Day the other night, I found myself briefly watching the obnoxious TVGuide Channel, which was busy crowing about Paris Hilton checking into prison. For the first time ever, I found myself feeling a little bit sorry for her, as the vultures joked about what her roots will look like when she gets out of prison. Prior to this, I have never felt the remotest sympathy for Paris. She’s a spoiled brat media whore, famous for sex tapes, partying, and having a crappy attitude. She has more money than God,…
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Earth
I finally watched Earth the other night. If you haven’t seen this film yet, it is the story of the partition of India into India and Pakistan in 1947, at the end of British rule there. The story takes place in Lahore, in the Punjab region of India, where many cultures come together. The picture above is of Lenny, the little girl who tells the story. The woman next to her is her ayah, or nurse. The men are the ayah’s admirers, and they include Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims. They are a group of friends who all get along very well, until the divisive power of partition takes them over, and…
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Song of the Day – Summer of Love
The SF Chronicle is currently running a series on the Summer of Love, aka, 1967. This is the 40th anniversary of that crazy summer, just one in the hippy era at Haight Ashbury in San Francisco. When I see those words, Summer of Love, part of my mind thinks of the actual cultural reference, but then I start thinking about when I first moved to San Francisco, back in 1987. It was the 20th anniversary of the Summer of Love, and San Francisco, quite the provincial little city, always in love with itself, was all atwitter, just as it is now. I moved to a flat just a few blocks…
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Wordless Wednesday
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Living in the 20th Century
A few days ago, C-Lo called me to ask me to make a recording for Ted’s birthday, which she then ran on the radio. Cool idea, right? Lots of his friends and coworkers wishing him a happy day on the air. 🙂 That C-Lo, she’s full of good ideas. Anyway, when she called, she thanked me for answering the phone. I thought that was an odd thing to say, but I just said, “You’re welcome”…she must have heard the confusion in my voice, because she explained that when she doesn’t recognize the caller ID, she often figures it’s a sales call, and won’t answer. Crickets. This is when I had to explain that…
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Feminine Mistake?
Guess who has Jury Duty? That’s right, I’m juror #2 today, on what is supposed to be a very quick trial, so hopefully I’ll be back to “real life” tomorrow. Yesterday morning was spent in the “Jury Room”, where you go to sign in and wait to see if you’ll be called to meet with the judge and lawyers. (I’ve never gotten farther than this room before, so I’m kind of excited to be on an actual jury today!). The Jury Room is a good place to catch up on your newspaper reading, try to think of interesting ‘interview questions’ for fellow bloggers (I’m working on it…), and catch up…
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A Sea of Troubles
I found a new blog the other day (not really new, just new to me), called Majikthise. I was looking through her posts on Gender Issues, and I came across something that had slipped by me a few weeks ago…do any of you watch America’s Next Top Model? I have never seen it, and never plan to, especially after reading about an episode a few weeks ago, in which the models were all posed in photographs as though they had been murdered. WTF? Majikthise linked to an article at Women in Media and News about this episode. If you want to see the pictures, and read the truly creepy comments…
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Fat
I watched a show on PBS last night called, “Fat: What No One is Telling You“. I thought it was a pretty interesting show, and one that many people might have a few things to teach many of us. From the website: FAT: What No One Is Telling You explores the myriad psychological, physiological and environmental factors that can make it so tough to shed pounds and keep them off. In this documentary, Executive producer Naomi Boak and producer/director Tom Spain, both Emmy Award honorees, share new scientific knowledge about hunger, eating, and human metabolic operation. This film also explains our psychological responses to food, and shows how external pressures…
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Etiquette
I like to read Miss Manners’ column in my local newspaper. I like how she explains the rules of etiquette, and what they’re for. Etiquette can sometimes seem arbitrary and confusing, but mainly it’s a set of rules that helps us disparate humans to get along together, without offending each other or hurting each other’s feelings. For example, a gentle reader writes in, asking how they should best go about telling their neighbor that their new painting is crass and ugly, or perhaps that cousin Bertha’s new baby looks amazingly like a small chimpanzee, and really, isn’t it my DUTY to let them know how I feel? Isn’t honesty the…
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The Good China
Whilst out and about, watching a certain Bride to Be try on beautiful wedding dresses, I have recently had occasion to peruse the bridal magazines that they have sitting around at the salons. Anyone remember these? They’re full of pictures of dresses, of course, tips on how to get in shape before the wedding, ideas for fun honeymoons, ettiquette advice, and checklists galore. Things to be done, and when (6 months before the date, pick your venue and your dress…3 months before the date, order invitations, etc.). They also have suggestions for your bridal registry. Different people register for different types of things, some for the conventional china and silver,…
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Wordless Wednesday – Don’t Bother Me, I’m reading…
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Pi
Oh, also, today is Pi day…3.14, you know. Pie Day was in January, but it seems like today would be another good opportunity to, well, eat some pie. Right? (And yes, I’m totally a dork. But I’m NOT singing happy birthday to Albert Einstein. I’m not THAT much of a dork.)
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Does Size Matter?
Magazine covers like this one make me angry. See how Kate Winslet is talking about how she doesn’t worry about weight anymore? At the same time, see how the biggest word on the cover is DIET? Do you think Kate would approve? I don’t. I think she would be resigned to it, and know that women’s magazines generally have diet articles and how to make a cake articles and so on. I glanced at the interview with the divine Ms. Winslet (otherwise known as Autumn’s future step-mom), and she talks about eating, not dieting, being healthy, having more important things to think about than numbers on a scale, etc. I…
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This One’s for the Local Folks…
Though you may have seen something similar with towns in your area in place of the towns around here…I received this as an email from someone at Maya’s school…kinda funny… NEW BARBIES FOR THE EAST BAY! Mattel recently announced the release of the improved limited-edition Barbie dolls for the East Bay market: “Walnut Creek Barbie” This princess Barbie is sold only at the Broadway Plaza Mall. She comes with an assortment of Kate Spade handbags, a Lexus SUV, a long-haired foreign dog named Honey and a cookie-cutter house. Available with or without tummy tuck and face lift. Workaholic Ken sold only in conjunction with the augmented version. “Pleasant Hill Barbie”…
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At The Mall
People didn’t really believe in war even while they planned it. The Salinas Valley lived about as it always had. ~ John Steinbeck, East of Eden Ted and I were watching “NOW” the other night, an episode titled “Back to the Front” that followed troops from Fort Stewart, in Georgia, as they prepare to go to Iraq on their second, sometimes third, tour of duty. Although I have a dear friend who was a Captain in the Air Force, she left the military prior to September 11th, and never had to leave her children and husband behind while she went to war. Neither did she have to wait at home…