Through various readings, I stumbled across this “guest blogging” entry by Tony Bourdain about the Food Network. Generally, the Food Network is one of my favorite “hey, let’s veg out and watch TV” kind of channels, but I also agree that the Food Network has relatively recently been in decline. Anyway, what Bourdain says here in his oh so gruff way strikes me as pretty much on the money. If you are a Food TV fan, read and enjoy.
On NyQuil
I’ve had a cold for the last couple of days– not one of those “agh, pass me the puke bucket” kind if sicknesses (I think I’ve managed to dodge that bullet this year, and that’s saying something since this was going around at work big-time in December), but just one of those “I feel just miserable enough to complain about it, but not quite miserable enough to just stay away from work” colds.
In the words of Lewis Black, this is just the sort of event that allows me to indulge in my favorite drug, NyQuil. Or at least it was my favorite drug– see below. Every time I’ve gone to the doctor with something like what I have right now, they either seem to suggest NyQuil or to at least say that there’s nothing wrong with it.
I went out and bought me a double-pack of NyQuil and settled down to have my dose before bed. Of course, I chose the original flavor, but this did beg the question last night as I was pouring out my shot: what flavor is the original flavor?
I asked Annette. Her response was “What’s wrong with you?!”
So, naturally, I turned to the Internets for an answer. Oddly, even with this fine wikipedia entry, I could not find a satisfying answer to my question. Apparently, Denis Leary once described the flavor as “Green Death,” but to me, that would be more ashy-flavored.
Anyway, last night, I think I actually had a bit of a reaction to the NyQuil. I ended waking up at about 1 am with a dry hack and a hard time breathing. I ended getting up and drinking about six glasses of water, and then this morning, I went out and bought a humidifier. Hopefully, that will help.
Oh, and I think I know what the flavor of NyQuil “original” is: Jägermeister. Which makes a certain amount of sense because because Jäger is kind of a medicinal liquor. And it’ll mess you up bad.
Maybe I’ll try to use the left of my NyQuil to make a flaming moe or something….
Howto: A Simple Paper CD Jacket
This is actually kinda cool: How to make a folded paper CD case. For Christmas, we gave the parents a DVD that had a little movie and some pictures of our trip to Europe last August, and I can tell you that one of the things that was an ENORMOUS pain in the ass was figuring out how to package it nicely. Besides being quite a bit cheaper than a plastic case, this seems to have a bit more of a personal touch. Anyway, a good tip.
Nothin’ but Star Wars…
Four or five nights ago, we came across Revenge of the Sith (Episode 3– or is that 6?– of the Star Wars saga) on HBO. We all watched it and a good time was had by one and all. Then, Will decided that we need to watch the next three (or is that the first three?), which we have (all three, that is) on video. As I type this, the Ewoks are doing their stupid little song and dance routine at the end of Return of the Jedi. It’s been an interesting viewing experience since it’s been a while since I’ve seen all of these films. A few thoughts:
- I still think the same thing that I’ve thought for years: The Empire Strikes Back is the best of the lot. Of course, I’m biased because this movie came out at a time (1980) where nothing was available on video (certainly not like now) and so me and my friends went and saw this in the theater like 25 times.
- The original
Star Wars— oh, excuse me, Episode 4, A New Hope– is a close second, and, if you want to be all sentimental about it, I suppose you could argue it’s the best one. It’s interesting the extent to which this is a “B” movie compared to the rest of them though. - Episode 3, Revenge of the Sith, is a darn good movie and a solid #3 in the series for me. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the first two episodes (that is, movies # 4 and #5), but I still feel comfortable in ranking Return of the Jedi if for no other reason the awful AWFUL Ewok song at the end of it all. I am certain that music will haunt my dreams tonight.
- Thing #1 I hadn’t noticed before: besides the obvious improvements in special effects technology, the biggest difference for me between the first one and the last one is the light saber battles. While the fights in the newer ones are great, the big light saber “show down” in the original Star Wars is completely lame, as if they just handed the actors a couple of sticks and said “okay, don’t hurt each other out there.”
- Thing #2 I hadn’t noticed before: R2D2 (who is really the star of the series since he’s the only “character” who witnesses the whole thing and who doesn’t have his memory erased– sorry C3PO) is the ultimate computer hacker. Plug him into anything and he gets the answer/the job done.
- And, of course, I kept wanting to hear Bill Murray’s “Star Wars song,” and to see (maybe) The Star Wars Holiday Special. (Least you think this YouTube video is a goof, read this review of the 1978 TV show).
So, may the force be with you. Or whatever.
Two things I forgot to mention before that I’ll mention now:
First, Annette (who, truth be told, is almost as geeky as me and Will about these things) pointed out that the newer prequel movies come after the successes of movies full of really REALLY elaborate martial arts scenes like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. So they couldn’t very well just hand two actors sticks and say go at it.
Second, Will and I spend a fair amount of time correcting the inconsistencies between the original three and the new three prequels. For example, “Obi Wan wasn’t trained by Yoda! He was trained by Qui-Gon Jinn. Duh!” Annette loved this.
Post-It, the movie
Yes, but the thing is this: you didn’t think of this, so it’s art, right?
Christmas in Florida (part 4): Sandcastles
To close up our Florida Christmas, we spent some time the last two out of three days at the beach. (And, besides that, events included a trip for Will to a wolf sanctuary and a children’s dinner theater, a shopping/lunch trip for Annette and Steve to a nice Italian place, and nice dinner for one and all at a place called the Waterside Cafe). When in Florida, one should go to the beach, right?
A couple days ago, we went to the Vanderbilt beach in the afternoon and I was actually quite surprised by the crowds. Some of it might be the result that this area of Southwest Florida is just getting more and more crowded, but a lot of it was we were there in the afternoon, which is not a usual Wannamaker time for beach-going.
This morning, we went back to a different beach (this one closer to the Naples Pier), and Will and I worked for quite a while on an grand sand castle. Now, when it came time for Annette to take pictures, she had a slight, um, malfunction. Basically, the camera was set to capture video and not still images, but Annette didn’t realize that.
So, the bad news was we didn’t get any good still pictures of the castle and the construction process. The good news was we got this sort of odd movie out of the whole thing, accidentally made by Annette and narrated by Will and myself (about 8 MB). (BTW, I tried to upload this to YouTube, but it was taking too long. Maybe later; when it shows up, it show up right here:).
Anyway, here’s the even more cool part:
We got home about noonish or so, and then hung around the house, packed for the trip home tomorrow, etc. Annette’s parents went out to a previously planned event, so Will and Annette and I went to a Naples Art Fair (kinda lame), out to dinner, and then back to the beach. Will and I wanted to see if our castle was still standing. And you know what? As the picture at the top of this page suggests, our castle survived all day! Makes me want to go back tomorrow and see if it’s still there. But alas, we’re back to Michigan then….
Be sure to check out the other pictures at my Flickr set for Christmas 2006 pictures.
Oh, one last thing:
Just to let you know about the latest trends, it seems like the most popular accessory down here in southern Florida is a little dog. Seriously. We saw this phenomenon a handful of times in both South Beach and here in Naples. I can only assume this is the evil influence of Paris.
Christmas in Florida (part 2)
To be honest, I have nothing really to share here that’s too interesting. Since my last Florida Christmas post (which included details on our trip into the the Everglades), I’ve left Annette’s parents house/neighborhood compound only a handful of times. Annette and I went out to dinner at a very nice place one night (on a gift certificate from her parents– thanks again!), and then we wondered around the fancy-pants area of third street. We all went out to a fine restaurant that was an Italian place and sushi bar (a better Italian restaurant than it was a sushi bar, but still…), followed by a night of looking at “tacky” Christmas lights in a neighborhood known for them.
Christmas eve is the traditional family night with the Wannamakers, and we did the usual things followed by watching commie propaganda filmIt’s a Wonderful Life. Tonight, we had a lovely dinner and were joined by a local friend of the in-laws in good and festive fun.
To be honest, most of my time (other than what was mentioned above) has been spent working on things for school– progress has been made, but much more has to be done.
Oh, and I am no officially sick of Christmas music. The station we’ve been listening to here for our Christmas music needs seems to have a tape loop and/or iPod-type shuffle set-up with a fairly limited selection. I think I’ve heard the Bruce Springsteen version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” about 15 times.
Anyway, as the season comes to a close, feel free to visit these fine list of links at boing-boing, here and here. Annette and I are going for an overnight get-away to South Beach, so I’m sure I’ll have pictures and stories to report in a couple of days.
Here’s a way to get a new iPod…
Apparently, as I learned when I went to the “Will it Blend?” web site, this actually a promotional gimmick for a series of real blenders made by a company called Blendtec. Go figure.
I hate kids who are more coordinated than me…
Christmas Greetings/Sexually Explicit Cards/Christmas Letters/ Pepper Nuts
I was talking with my friend Mary T. today and she mentioned that I must be pretty busy with that pesky teaching/job thing because I haven’t been posting here much lately. You’re darn tootin’ I’ve been busy! You can read about some of it at the official blog and also at EMUtalk.org, which is the community blog that I started this year because of the faculty strike. But the short version is this has probably been one of the busiest semesters in my academic life, simultaneously and at different times horrible and wonderful.
Actually, the whole year– official and unofficial– has been like that for us around here.
Anyway, to get to some things in the order they appear in the subject line here:
- Sure, have a Merry Christmas; or a Happy Holiday. Or a Happy Festivus. Whatever. Just don’t war against Christmas, okay?
- About the, um, “suggestive” Christmas greeting: I got this card in a store in Ann Arbor the other day; it probably requires at least a line or two of explanation for non-locals. Among many other fine things, Ypsilanti is home to the Ypsilanti Water Tower, which has been voted as the most phallic building in the world. So really, this photo was just inevitable. I like the text on the back of this postcard, all of which is true to local legend: “The Ypsilanti Water, also known as the Ypsi Dick, was erected in 1889. It is located next to Eastern Michigan University. Legend says the Ypsi Dick will fall when a virgin graduates from the school.”
- I thought about writing a blog version of one of those Christmas letters that are so popular this time of year– you know, the notes that you get from people you barely know once a year that report on things that happen in these peoples’ lives. I enjoy the ones I get from my relatives and one of my friends, Bruce, writes a pretty entertaining one. But other than that….Besides, why write one of those letters when I can just point to the archives? Ah, what a year it’s been. Beer, eating out (this restaurant review gets hit a fair amount), Coldplay, Not Coldplay, Florida, the big 4-0 birthday week, Omaha, stupid dog, Holland, Monkey Chow, Annette’s messed up knee, A new mayor in Ypsi, Chicago, near-death golf experiences, Florence and Mittenwald (of course, that trip!), Will’s birthday, Barbie Poo, Dan Bern, dead TVs, Kathi Griffin, Darth Vader Jr., White and Nerdy, Thanksgiving in Iowa, and the best gallon of milk ever. That about sums up my year.
Finally, I just wanted to mention that I cooked up a batch of Grandma Krause’s famous “pepper nuts,” an annual Christmas cookie of sorts for the Krauses. I’ve written about this a couple of times in the recent past; here’s the recipe I followed this time. But because I have described these in the past described them as looking like dog food and/or little nut-like pellets, I thought I’d include a picture:
They are tasty though….