The good: This one has a fair amount of stuff I like. Three sweaters (see here, here, and here), though the first and last would be very expensive to knit in the recommended yarn. Also a hat, a scarf that's interesting, but too labor intensive, and some socks that are, at the very least... interesting-to-positive. Also, Q-berty. The cover shawl is ( Read more... )

So I'm deep into reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (now in glorious paperback!). It's interesting, and disturbing in a far less visceral way than Fast Food Nation was (perhaps because it deals far less with... well, viscera). That's about all I have to say about the book right now, other than that I recommend you read it.

The book has ( Read more... )

So, the Today's Papers article from yesterday.

Article title: "Murmurs of a Reckoning"
Page title: "Is Petraeus out of time for his fables of the reconstruction?"

Nicely played.

So I was perusing the Dress a Day blog (go, female alums of the UChicago quizbowl team) and found a post on this dress from Bloomingdale's. Despite many comments noting its resemblance to a bathrobe, I thought it was a cute holiday partydress and ordered it a week later (when it was down to $45 on sale--woo hoo!). A dress arrived from Bloomingdale' ( Read more... )

Thank you, Gapers Block, for letting me know that the Reader Archives are currently free of charge to peruse. I'm currently going through Jonathan Rosenbaum's back catalog from 1987 on. Highlights of his writing include his takedown of Fatal Attraction and his positive review of  Tampopo (one of my faves from my high school years, but it's nice to ( Read more... )

One of the music blogs I read, Idolator, has a posted asking what your most "indie" year was. Their way of judging the most indie year is based entirely off of how many indie albums were in your top 10.

Well, on that basis, I picked 1997. I went to a single show that year (I lived at a strict boarding school and was in Israel over the summer), and ( Read more... )

A woman came into the elevator a few floors below me this morning. She was a 40-something businesswoman type, dressed smartly. She was carrying what looked to be a magazine, several papers, and a binder.

The magazine was an issue of "Cowboys & Indians". The binder was a twelve cassette box set of the Holy Bible.

So, I took another half-day off work due to the cold today. I was up at my apartment for the midday, and decided to go to Mr. Z's for the evening, even though he's in Europe (what can I say? his place is nice ( Read more... )

Okay, it's actually a haiku.

Rosehips, chamomile,
mint - Intelligentsia,
I love 333I know I go on about this stuff every time I get a throatache, but I adore Intelligentsia Coffee's 333 Blend when I have throat problems. I should really buy a pound of the stuff, since those happen so frequently ( Read more... )

So, I need to make a mix CD this evening.

The overriding theme of the mix exchange is "nothing about love". So I've decided my theme will be "Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n' Roll! (plus some stuff in other languages)".

So far, I have:
Dynamic Calories by Steven Malkmus & the Jicks
Formed a Band by Art Brut
Maybe something by the Hold Steady, as it could be about ( Read more... )