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Veterans Day
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…
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Skyfall
If you like your James Bond movies full of action, adventure, PG sex, and some campy fun, this is not the James Bond movie for you. If you prefer action, adventure, PG sex, and a dark undertone of aging and at at least some level, not really liking your job, it is. Full disclosure here, I don’t really care for James Bond movies. They’re all a bit too shoot em up, far too sexist, and at their heart, boring, for me. I know, how can a person who loves to watch Flashdance dare to judge? The answer is, I can’t, and I won’t, I just thought you should know going…
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Friday Randomness
Friday already? Wow. That’s crazy. OK, here we go. I adore the fact that Obama won. I keep hearing how our economy is on the mend, things are getting better, all of that. I want Obama to get credit. I don’t necessarily think that the President actually has much power to make jobs and fix the economy. But if Obama is in the White House while it happens, then he gets credit, and hopefully the next election will also go well. If Romney were in the White House, he would get credit, and the next election might go his way. I don’t like that. Then of course there’s the whole…
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Heartsick
I’m a volunteer driver for our local Meals on Wheels, which means that one day a week, I take a long lunch (thanks to my kind company, that agree that I’m adult and if I can get my work done, they don’t mind me doing this…in fact, they encourage it), drive to the Senior Center, pick up 16 meals, and drive them to senior citizens who are on fixed budgets and are unable to get out and shop for themselves, or are unable to cook, or both. They are in varying degrees of need, but I don’t think anyone goes on Meals-on-Wheels unless they are needing some assistance. I started…
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(Nearly) Wordless Wednesday
My favorite fake picture from the election coverage this week, would be Biden sporting Katy Perry’s GOBama dress. Awesome. Picture courtesy of ‘The Daily Show’.
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Why I vote Democrat
I couldn’t post yesterday, because by the time I had time, my host was doing some maintenance or something, so when I typed in ‘jellyjules.com’, I got a message saying, can’t be found. NoBloPoMo fail. However, in the spirit of the thing, which is to post more often, I’ll just post twice today to make up for it, k? This post is cribbed from a Facebook message to a friend of mine. We were talking about politics, and why we vote the way that we do. Here’s my side: I heard an interesting discussion on the radio a week or two ago, about religion in politics, that you might find…
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Vote Baby Vote!
Just in time for today’s election, we have a very one sided (but it’s the side I’m on, so yay!) reminder to get out there and VOTE, people. Happy Election Day, and to those of you in swing states, I’m sure you’ll be THRILLED that this campaign season is OVER.
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Lentil and Rice Salad
This last week I was trying to think of a nice side dish to serve with a lovely grilled lemon chicken recipe, and for some reason, I thought, ‘rice salad’. Rice salad isn’t an idea that I come up with too often. Generally we have straight rice, or potatoes, that sort of thing. A few weeks ago I took some leftover salmon and made a lunch out of it, tossing it with a few other ingredients, and I decided to throw some leftover rice in there, and it was delicious…so I thought I’d give it a try. Did a quick internet search, and found a Lentil and Rice Salad from…
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Flight
Denzel Washington’s portrayal of Capt. ‘Whip’ Whitaker in Flight is that of a thoroughly gifted airline pilot, but one who has nothing else going for him in life. He is a functioning alcoholic, one whose way of coping with a brutal hangover is to snort a line of cocaine. ‘Flight’ begins with Whip waking up in a hotel room with a beautiful (and very naked) young woman, who is an attendant on the flight he is piloting from Florida to Georgia in 90 minutes. He’s seriously hung over, snorts his coke, gets in a fight on the phone with his ex-wife, and then goes to work, where you would not…
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Friday Randomness
Did anyone notice that it’s November? Thinking maybe I’ll try for NaBloPoMo this year. A few years ago, it was more difficult for me to restrict myself to a post a day, and now it’s crazy for me to post two days in a row. So let’s see if I can rise to the challenge. We’ll start with some randomness, shall we? Maya took her written driving test on Tuesday, and passed, so now she has her permit. I don’t know what the laws are in your state, but here, that means she has to take 3 driving lessons (2 hours each), drive at least 50 hours for practice, and…
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Día de los Muertos
Today is The Day of the Dead, otherwise known as Día de los Muertos. It is a day to remember and pray for beloved family and friends who have died. I thought maybe I’d slow down and reflect on some loved ones who are gone. First, of course, is my mom. It’s been 4 1/2 years since she died, and of course, I still miss her every day. I miss our long conversations, and I wish she were still here. I don’t miss her being sick, and all of the stress that that gave me. Mostly, I think about all of the things that she’s missing by not being here. …
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Cloud Atlas
cool graphic found here Cloud Atlas is a 2004 novel by David Mitchell, which I reviewed back in 2007 on this very blog. The book was so ambitious, and was such a treat to read. It was told in nesting chapters, with different characters, and different genres, which refer to each other and interconnect in interesting ways. I loved it. When I heard it was being made into a film, I wondered how the different genres would translate…Melvillian sea story, 20th century crime drama, post apocalyptic tale, amongst others. I’m happy to report that they did a darned good job with it. I’m not sure I loved it as much…
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Everything’s Better With Butter
Way back in 2007, a friend of mine mailed me a newspaper clipping with a recipe for fresh tomato sauce, knowing (from my blog) of my love of tomatoes and pasta and cooking, via this very blog. It was fun getting a recipe in the mail, but the butter scared me, so I never tried it. Since then, I found a very similar recipe on Smitten Kitchen, and was intrigued. But again, never tried it. On Sunday, I went to our local farmers’ market, and picked up maybe 5 lbs of slightly overripe tomatoes. My favorite thing to do with overripe tomatoes is to make tomato sauce. My only problem…
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The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Ted and I went to see ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower‘ yesterday. I really, really liked it. Here’s the quick wrap up, without giving anything away. Charlie is a damaged and shy high school freshman, excluded from groups that he had hoped to be included in…his senior sister and her boyfriend won’t eat lunch with him, his friend from middle school friend won’t eat lunch with him, and his older brother’s football teammates won’t eat lunch with him. He’s on his own. On his first day, he makes only one friend, and that’s his English teacher, which even Charlie knows is pathetic. Time goes by, and he finally makes…
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Cindy Sherman
This last Monday was the final day of the Cindy Sherman exhibit at the SFMOMA. I’ve been wanting to go for a few months now, but finally we hit a day that worked for all of us. If you’re not familiar with Cindy Sherman, she is an artist who explores identity through photography. She does the makeup, lighting, modeling, clothing, background, all of it. She is the photographer and the subject. The earliest works on display were from the 1970s, and the most current were very recent. I really liked the exhibit. I liked how DIFFERENT all of these identities were, and yet how you could tell so much about…