Having just come off the Big Sex Talk, I don't know if I'm ready to talk to my kids yet about getting a stay-at-home server. (via the Presurfer)
« December 2007 | Main | February 2008 »
Having just come off the Big Sex Talk, I don't know if I'm ready to talk to my kids yet about getting a stay-at-home server. (via the Presurfer)
11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Last night at book group, Janice expressed her surprise that I hadn't mentioned Pantone's Color of the Year for 2008! So, without further ado, I give you:
Pantone, Inc., the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries, selected PANTONE 18-3943 Blue Iris,
a beautifully balanced blue-purple, as the color of the year for 2008.
Combining the stable and calming aspects of blue with the mystical and
spiritual qualities of purple, Blue Iris satisfies the need for
reassurance in a complex world, while adding a hint of mystery and
excitement.
10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
After many months' hiatus, our book group finally met last night to discuss About Alice, Calvin Trillin's beautiful, touching homage to his late wife. It's the book-length version of the New Yorker essay Trillin wrote a couple of years ago—supposedly expanded, although I don't think I came across a single sentence that I didn't recall from the original essay.
It's a slim volume, maybe 75 pages of double-spaced text, but it's something I had to own just so I could have the photo on the back cover, which also appeared in the New Yorker. It shows "Alice and Calvin Trillin leaving the London registry where they were married, August 13, 1965." All the love and respect and joy he expresses in the book comes shining through in this photo; I could gaze at it all day. So while I could suggest you read the entire book while standing in the aisle at your favorite local independent bookseller (it will take you less than an hour, I promise), then you won't get to have the photo to keep forever.
We talked briefly about what our husbands might write about us if they were amazingly talented writers who were in touch with their feelings. Then we just gabbed. There's not much to talk about with this book, but I can't really imagine anyone not feeling glad they'd read it.
Next up is Sara Gruen's novel Water for Elephants, which just happened to show up in my mailbox last week for BAFAB! (Thanks, Joel!)
10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
There's a mailbox we pass on our walk back and forth between home and school every day; it's where we send off my Netflix envelopes (which is practically the only thing I mail these days besides holiday new year's cards, birthday party invitations and thank-yous, etc.). I always knew there was some kind of notice on top, but I never really looked at it until the other day:
Blahblahblah, right up until the last word: mailpiece. Mailpiece? Who on earth uses that word? Postal workers, apparently, but none I've ever heard. Man, I hate that kind of bureaucratese.
10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Some of the fallout from yesterday's Big Sex Talk with Steph:
1. Don't worry, no one wants to think about anyone else having sex.
2. Yes, you have to do it again every time you want another baby. (Followed by review of biology.)
3. Well, yes, sperm do have tails and they do "swim," but they're much tinier than tadpoles.
4. Yes, adoption is definitely an option.
5. That is correct: Lesbians do not have sexual intercourse.
Can't you just see her little wheels spinning? I am trying to let her know that it's not as disgusting as it sounds, but I don't want to make it sound all that appealing either!
I also mentioned that all mammals have sex, so we got into a long speculative discussion about how whales might manage it. Oy.
04:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
I'm not a big fan of spectator sports in general, and really the only sporting events I can bear to watch on TV are Red Sox games. One of the problems is the boring, repetitive, stupid commercials; the other is the boring, repetitive, stupid sportscasters. Here's a great compendium of sports clichés used by sports announcers; I especially got a kick out of the section on "the John Elways."
01:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Did anyone else see George McGovern's op ed in yesterday's Washington Post? Of course he mentions only the most egregious of Bush's "high crimes and misdemeanors," but surely that ought to be enough to work with for now, no?
Regardless of what anyone thinks of McGovern, I'd love to hear a rebuttal to each of his points—which are presented about as clearly and succinctly as I've seen anywhere. Is there really any possible way to justify Bush's actions within the framework of our Constitution?
01:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Tonight I had The Sex Talk with Steph! Oy. Oy. Oy. I had been putting it off for all the usual reasons (ewww!), but it really was time. She'd been asking questions that don't have easy answers, and I figured that soon enough someone was going to tell her anyhow.
I wondered whether she'd already learned the truth from her friends, but no: She was stunned; she was horrified. She wondered if you have to go to the doctor to make it happen. I tried to walk the line between "It's really not that horrible" and "You are not to even think about doing that for a good long time." Honestly, I could've told her that a dead possum was going to fly out of her left nostril and she wouldn't have been any more appalled.
I gave her a few books to read (Yeah, books. What can I say? That's my MO.), and she's been running downstairs with questions every 5 minutes. Bartender? Another one over here, please.
07:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
One of Julie's Hanukkah gifts was a computer game. She's certainly on the computer at a younger age than Steph and Pete were, but she sees them on it and wants to do it too. I bought JumpStart World Kindergarten at Target for about $20 because it seemed to have a good selection of educational games. We have some much older JumpStart products, and I knew they were high-quality.
Julie dug right in and really enjoyed it. There's a graduated "curriculum," so the kids advance as they master certain skills in math, reading, and problem-solving. The games involve cute little animals and fun graphics. She completed Adventure Pack 1 and was working on Adventure Pack 2 when she told me that she was unable to buy any tricks at the pet store to train her pet—the tricks icon was always grayed-out. I called customer service, and the guy (who turned out to know squat about it) suggested that perhaps she hadn't yet earned enough gems to be able to afford a trick.
So she started playing more games, and after she had amassed more than 500 gems and still couldn't buy a trick, I called again. This time I got someone who knew what he was talking about. He told me that tricks aren't available until Adventure Pack 4. But he also mentioned that only the first two Adventure Packs are included in the purchase price; to get access to the other ten, you have to subscribe to the online program. So I went to the web site, and sure enough, there it is: Only $9.99—now $7.99—a month!
The customer service guy told me that this was explained on the back of the box I bought. I checked, and nowhere does it say anything about having to pay to play. It says:
1. Buy and Play! First 2 Adventure Packs Included! Over 60 learning games and missions.
2. Play More! Subscribe! Get a new Adventure Pack each month!
Maybe I'm just dumb, but I don't think that makes it clear that the subscription costs anything. I thought it would be like Webkinz,* where once you buy the stuffed animal, you get access to the games and activities at the Webkinz site for free (well, for a year anyhow). I told the customer service guy I thought that was lousy.
I am so ticked off. I told Julie there was no way I was plunking down a monthly fee just to play more games, and she got really sad. But I told her I would find other games for her—there are tons of online games that are free, and I'm sure I can purchase some other game at that is complete in the package.
*I've been uncharacteristically silent about Webkinz. On the one hand, I think that the whole concept is pure genius. The stuffed animals are cute, and the web site is a truly safe and comfortable way for kids to start being online. The problem is that, at least around here, the stuffed animals themselves have become "collectibles" like the Beanie Babies of yore. Kids "have to have" all the latest ones and then brag about how many they have. It's just hoarding, and I hate it. I have not only refused to buy any more Webkinz for Steph, but I have also forbidden her to buy any with her own money! She has about a dozen already. I know she will ask her friends for them for her birthday party at the end of the month, and there's nothing I can do about it. I told her that in another year or two, she's going to look at this pile of stuffed animals and wish she had the $200 instead. Pete and Julie each have one or two, but they're not obsessed about them the way Steph is.
12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
And now, the two most different comedies I've ever watched back to back:
"Keeping Up with the Steins" is exactly what it professes to be: a humorous look at a Bar Mitzvah run amok. It takes place in Brentwood, where apparently it's not unheard-of to have a Bar Mitzvah party aboard a cruise ship. Most of it was not even remotely believable (for instance, I refuse to believe that anyone who runs in those kinds of circles actually waits until 3 months before a Bar Mitzvah to start making their arrangements—you can't even put together a very modest Bar Mitzvah in that amount of time, let alone one to be held in Dodger Stadium), but if you just enjoy it as a total caricature, it's enjoyable enough. Garry Marshall is just right as the grandfather.
Now "Secretary." What can I say about this movie? Well, for starters, it's an S&M love story. Really. Maggie Gyllenhaal is outstanding in the role of a young woman who has been hospitalized to treat her compulsion for cutting and burning and otherwise hurting herself. Upon her release, she takes a job as a secretary to Mr. Creepy himself, James Spader, who turns out to enjoy inflicting pain, punishment, and humiliation on her. Perfect! And did I mention that it's also pretty funny in parts, although (rather obviously) in a dark and twisted way. I'm not sorry I saw this movie, but I can't exactly say I recommend it either. I found the self-mutilation really hard to take.
05:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
1. Deep Dark Truthful Mirror (live) - Elvis Costello
2. In the Sky - Mark Knopfler
3. At Last - Neko Case
4. Empty Shell - Cat Power
5. Make It Happy - Lyle Lovett & His Large Band
6. Shells from a Thirty-Ought Six - Tom Waits
7. Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way? - Uncle Tupelo
8. Can't Let Go (live) - Lucinda Williams
9. Birmingham - Randy Newman
10. Under the Boardwalk - Tom Tom Club
10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Yikes, and to think that I got a couple of them right by wild guesses! How'd you do?
09:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
07:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Our wonderful school librarian did a program for the fifth graders today on web sites that are hoaxes, jokes, or otherwise untrue. She showed the kids a bunch of real web sites: an article about this year's poor California velcro crop harvest; the results of a research study investigating whether cats prefer men with or without beards; an alarming site about how the compound dihydrogen monoxide (they refer to it as DHMO, but I think you can figure out its more common abbreviation) is found in every lake, river, and ocean on the planet and can carry disease and cause great destruction à la Hurricane Katrina; a tourism site for Mankato, Minnesota, including information on its lovely beaches, whale-watching excursions, pyramids, and so on; and an informative piece (with photos!) on the jackalope, a cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope.
She asked the kids if they could figure out what all these sites had in common. They guessed all kinds of structural things, like they all have links, they all have pictures, etc., so she tried to steer them toward content issues. They couldn't come up with it, until she led them by the hand: "What do you think velcro is made of?" "Plastic!" And so on. She said she's been doing this program for several years, and every year she thinks that the new crop of fifth graders will be that much more Internet-savvy than the last and will figure it out. No dice. The point, of course, is that just because you read something on the Internet (or in a book or newspaper), that doesn't mean it's true. I'm not sure all of the kids got that—one girl was still saying, "You mean water causes cancer?" at the end of the period.
02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Time to learn something!
1. Go to Wikipedia.
2. Click on "Random article" in the left-hand sidebar box.
3. Post it!
Eww, again with the math:
Shizuo Kakutani (角谷 静夫, Kakutani Shizuo?, August 28, 1911–August 17, 2004) was a Japanese mathematician, best known for an eponymous fixed-point theorem.
Kakutani attended Tohoku University in Sendai, where his advisor was Tatsujirō Shimizu. Early in his career he spent two years at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton at the invitation of the German mathematician Hermann Weyl. While there, he also met John von Neumann.
Kakutani received his Ph.D. in 1941 from Osaka University[1] and taught there through World War II. He returned to the Institute for Advanced Study in 1948, and was given a professorship by Yale in 1949.
The Kakutani fixed-point theorem is a generalization of Brouwer's fixed-point theorem, holding for generalized correspondences instead of functions. Its most important use is in proving the existence of Nash equilibria in game theory.
Kakutani's other well-known mathematical contributions include the Kakutani skyscraper, a concept in ergodic theory, and his solution of the Poisson equation using the methods of stochastic analysis.
The Collatz conjecture is also known as the Kakutani conjecture.
His daughter, Michiko Kakutani, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning literary critic for the New York Times.
I have not heard of him or his theorem, but I have certainly read many of his daughter's book reviews in the Times.
01:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
If you found one of those waxy USPS envelopes containing 100 stamps, what would you do with it? Depends where you found it, I guess. If you found it in the street, you'd keep it. If you found it on the floor of the post office, would you give it to a postal worker? If you found it on the shelf next to the ATM at the bank next door, would you turn it in to one of the tellers?
You guessed it, last week I bought 100 stamps for my holiday New Year's cards and now I can't find them. There's only one place in the house they could be, and they're not there. I looked in my purse, under the car seats, everywhere. I even asked at the bank and the post office if anyone had turned in an envelope full of stamps, but no luck. I can't remember where else I went after buying them that day. Damn.
01:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Did you by chance receive a holiday gift of a book that you don't want, or that you already own? Perfect! Because it's BAFAB week once again, and regifting counts. Surprise someone with it—preferably someone who might actually like it.
12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
The other day Julie was doing something that I guess could be called interpretive dance. She suddenly stopped and said, "I think I lost something!" to which Steph replied with a practiced sneer of sarcasm, "Your dignity?"
(Turns out it was just a bracelet that had slipped down Julie's sleeve.)
12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
For the umpteempth year in a row, I was sound asleep in my bed long before the new year rolled in. Last night we all had arroz con pollo for dinner—yes, the kids even like it!—and Andy and I split a beautiful 2005 Stags' Leap "Artemis" Cab that a friend had given us. After a long day of cleaning, I was ready to hit the hay by 10:00. Tomorrow the Big Brother truck will arrive and cart off 18 big boxes and 2 Hefty bags full of old clothes, shoes, toys, books, kitchen stuff, and so on. The house looks only a little less cluttered after all that work, so more must be done. We just have way too much stuff.
Jo and the kids are in from London, so they and Barbara and Jerry will all come over for Chinese take-out tonight. (They can't get Boston-style Chinese-American food over there, so it's always a requested dinner when they're in town.) We're also going to make a cake for Lily's birthday this afternoon.
A light snow is falling, but I will not even think about the possibility of school being closed tomorrow (remember 2006?).
11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)