The Weather of the Future

Just 5 minutes of this Fresh Air interview was enough to make me stay up all night thinking about the water table in the SW United States. Anyone brave enough to read Heidi Cullen's book The Weather of the Future should report back to me. Am I exaggerating the coming apocalypse or am I not doing enough to sound the alarm?

Chocolate Gelato recipe in LAT

Why yes I would like to attempt this chocolate gelato recipe! I appreciate any frozen dessert recipe that does not require (or even suggest) an ice cream maker. Who has the space?

Next up, a trip to buy Popsicle molds for these and these.

Sarah, when are we starting up our frozen pop food truck, The Stick?

Ticket2TearTown

Apparently a lot of my time now is spent thinking about what makes me cry. To that end, I started a new secret Twitter feed.

I don't feel strange disclosing that information here, because this blog is also a secret.

The next logical step would be to start a secret Tumblr about secrets but that has been done.

I would like to expand upon a recent piece about the saddest movie scene of all time. My thoughts are that science is wrong in this instance. The most tear-inducing scene has to be from Radio Flyer or A League of Their Own or an old standby like Terms of Endearment. Or maybe I was born too late to appreciate Jon Voight tears?

Cry Baby Cry: Songs That Make You Weep

I call BS on this piece from NPR's All Songs Considered department. There is no mention of Landslide or Silver Springs? Are they not human?





And for my dad:

Dances with Dustbusters

Thank you, Lisa.

Best part of Will & Kate's visit to LA

This creeper lurking in the background of their post-match kissing pictures.

The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia

A few nights ago at Mike's I stumbled upon this riveting, hilarious, horrifying documentary, The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia.



I am not sure if the film is exploitative, though it does seem to be glorifying and possibly encouraging illegal, unhealthy, self-destructive behavior. That being said, I suggest you watch it on a weeknight or a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Mike and I disagreed over the films best (or most telling) moment. In my eyes, the film is captured by (SPOILER ALERT) the scene where Kirk, still in the maternity ward after delivering a baby girl, crushes up some pills (Oxy? Percs? Vic?) with her friend and snorts them. She is subsequently shocked and devastated when Social Services decides she is unfit to have full custody of the child.

Mike's favorite scene was when Mousie, recently released from jail, tracks down her estranged husband Charles Green, removes him from his pregnant girlfriend's house, and forces him to kiss her int he back of a truck while her young son Wimpy is present. They then take a trip down memory lane, to the drug store where they were married; luckily, the pharmacist on duty one night was also a pastor, and after picking up some pills and snorting them, they were escorted to the flower section and married.

There were many sad scenes in the movie, but I was most struck by the fact that this is a dysfunctional family where everyone is making bad decisions, but the women keep everything from totally falling apart. The women keep the family going (literally), picking up relatives from jail, from the hospital, and from court. Clearly they could be doing a better job, and I am amazed the state of West Virginia hasn't evicted them yet. Consider how much money the state of WV sinks into this family every year, between welfare payments (their main source of income aside from selling drugs), time spent in the criminal justice system, and interventions by child and family services.

Every hour, an American dies of melanoma

Also, it's not cool to look 60 when you're 40. So slather on some SPH 50+ and reapply often!

For inspiration, please read this, my favorite Shouts and Murmurs piece.

Of Course I Take Pictures of My Penis and Send Them to People

I think Anthony Weiner is getting too much press but I laughed at this.

It's getting real in the Whole Foods parking lot

Slow start but my ears perked up when he referenced the GT's Kombucha reformulation disaster.

I love you so

Mogul Masher

While some of my closest confidantes believe that I need no more vest in my life, I disagree! I want this one:

High-waisted trouser pants

I would like to pull off this look, but don't want to shop at American Apparel to do so.

Also, this couple's hair can go elsewhere.

Stand Back: Toilet Edition

After a wild night full of pomegranate-champagne punch re-purposed as Judgement Juice in honor of this genius, I discovered that my toilet was broken. Nobody knows how this happened, though a couple gentlemen suggested an upper decker was involved.

After a brief stop at Koontz hardware, I was armed with a new handle, and one viewing of this foreign gem later, my toilet is back in business! Thank you, homeserve.com.

P.S. Huffington Post has a religion section?

P.P.S. That toilet video is not embeddable?

Shmuly and Peanut

Sometimes I peruse the NYT Vows section to look at the names of the newlyweds and imagine where they met, if they will have attractive children, and how many of the couples will eventually divorce.

This week's paper didn't have any goat cheese farmers, but did feature a bride named Peanut Wong and a groom named Shmuly Yanklowitz; unfortunately, these two were not married to each other.

To Shmuly I say Mazel Tov, and to Peanut I say please start a career as a reality star or pop singer in China.

Guess the celebrity mustache

The LAT and I disagree on the proper spelling of moustache, but I choose to put our differences aside and unite to celebrate the celebrity moustache guessing game.

Stevie with a perm!

Just because.

Results of the 2011 World Beard and Moustache Championships in Norway

This is the kind of piece that could really benefit from a slideshow!

FYI the guy on the left was the overall winner, and crafted a reindeer out of his beard (that creepy rat-looking thing on the right side of his face). The guy on the right won the Full Beard Natural category, or as I like to call it, the Old Hasid category.

Full Beard Natural sounds like a sub-genre of gay mens' porn to me.

Holy Ghost! at the Echoplex

After a killer seder, Mike and I went to the Echoplex to see Holy Ghost! play their new, self-titled album live. I really like this album, though I don't think Do it Again was the best choice for a first single.

We arrived at the Echoplex around 10 and caught the end of Futurecop's set. They were joined by a couple vocalists.

Next up was this guy, who I thought was performing ironically, but now I think is sincere. He may have been my bat mitzvah tutor.



After shalom Mattie was Chairlift, whose 2009 release I enjoyed casually. They played new songs that I liked, but I can'd find any clips of them. So deal with this Bruises cut:



Finally, Holy Ghost! took the stage. At this point, it was about 12:30 am and some members of my party were having a hard time maintaining a positive attitude (all that Manischewitz can induce fatigue and grumpiness). One man mosh pit guy right behind us was also not helping, nor was a frequently malfunctioning piece of equipment. Despite these setbacks I thought their set was fun, and offered a nice translation of a studio album that is mostly computers.



We bailed during Jam for Jerry, which is a song I appreciate in sentiment but not execution. By that point, we had seen most of their set, but had to be real about the 1:30 am in Silverlake factor. Holy Ghost! Come back! Start earlier! Thank you!

Niggardly

In an effort to prove that the GRE verbal section is a test of your knowledge of antiquated, fringe words from the English language, the following gems appeared in my practice test yesterday:

• Toothsome
• Niggardly
• Minatory

At least one of these words just appeared in this Slate article about words and their changing definitions. Take note, GRE! Make this test a little more toothsome for me.

Related: If you want to see a pink website about one grammatic rule, please go here.