Mr. Hyde takes the night off

Last night Rob and I went out to dinner with our friends Tom and Meredith. Afterwards, we were in the Meatpacking District trying to catch two cabs uptown when some woman walked up next to us and then positioned herself at the opposite corner, where she would easily snag the first cab to come by. Illegal. We called after her as she crossed the street, but she conveniently pretended not to hear us. Sure enough, a cab came down the street, saw her first, and picked her up.

When we finally did get our own cab, Rob told me that had it been any other night, that woman would have had to race him for the cab while getting an earful of some choice words. But because we had had a lovely dinner and Meredith is pregnant, he was being “Civilized Rob.”

Rudy Can Fail

It doesn’t surprise me that Rudy Giuliani did not win the Florida primary. Nor am I shocked that he is consequently dropping out of the race. What is surprising to me is that he actually thought his campaign tactics would be effective. The man had nearly twice as much money as Mitt Romney last Fall and even Romney had three times the funds of the next closest candidate (McCain.) So Giuliani chose to spend his millions on…direct mail. And ok, campaigning in Florida.

I suppose there was a possibility that it could have worked. With the confusion surrounding the initial primaries and caucuses, there was—for a time—no clear frontrunner on the Republican side. Maybe Rudy and his marching band of Floridians could have capitalized on the indecision and won big.

Yet even with the emphasis squarely on the Disney World State, the word is that Rudy just wasn’t Republican enough for the voters. He finished third in Florida, which suggests that his money would have been better spent if he had simply thrown it off the top of Space Mountain in handfuls while screaming “9/11!”

Also, Edwards is bowing out of the race today without endorsing another candidate. Another attempt to hold out for VP, perhaps?

Twinkle twinkle little bat

Rob and I had dinner with our new neighbor, Eric, on Saturday. We were talking about books (shocking) and Eric told us about a book he had recently read that explained the origins of phrases. His example was “mad as a hatter.” The phrase referred to the regular use of mercury in the hat-making process, which poisoned the hatters and caused neurological damage, a penchant for tea parties, and other general wackiness. I looked this up on Wikipedia today. Verified.*

For the origins of other interesting phrases, check out The Phrase Finder.

*Sadly, not the tea party part.

Valerie and Marie

I know Brooke and I are not alone here.

Let’s talk about Joe

As some of my loyal readers may have noticed, this guy named Joe comments on the blog a lot. I want to tell you a little bit about Joe. To begin, he’s my dad. And there’s something so endearing and ridiculous about having your dad be your blog’s biggest fan. It sort of reminds me of high school, when he would come to my soccer games and sit in the stands. Hmmmm. Actually, he missed a lot of those because he was at my brother’s baseball games. What’s up with that, Joe?

What’s up with that? is something Joe likes to say. He also loves the word “outstanding,” is a member of Mensa, and is fond of statements like the following: You can’t have that cheese. That’s nacho cheese. (If you don’t understand this one, I can’t help you.)

A propos of Dan’s comment on the last blog, Joe (who used to be a junior high school teacher) is now splitting his time among several activities: golf, listening to audiobooks, driving a trolley through Chicago giving tours, and starring as an extra in movies. On his repertoire, but sadly not on IMDB, are Flags of Our Fathers, Fred Clause, and The Dark Knight. If I am forgetting one of his roles, he will surely tell us in the comments section.

During the filming of The Dark Knight, the director requested that the casting agent go to wherever the extras were hanging out and bring him back the two “most Italian looking guys” for a gang scene. Guess who was chosen? That’s right: Joe. He got “arrested” in one of the scenes, so it’s possible you might even be able to find him in this film.

If I had to guess where Joe was right now, I would say he’s in the kitchen drinking “pop” out of a coffee mug while playing Scrabble on his laptop. But if I’m wrong about that, he will surely tell us in the comments section.

Heath Ledger

I suspect this is news to no one, but Heath Ledger died today in New York. I found this shocking and I also found the fact that I was shocked rather...unexpected. Who knew I cared so much? I got into a brief conversation about it with coworkers and everyone felt the same way. Kind of sad and surprised, the way you would feel if the person who had died was someone you knew just a little bit.

I'm pretty sure there's a word or phrase for that feeling that you really "know" celebrities and that phrase is not "traumatized loved one."

I know this is unrelated, but speaking of celebrities, Rob just got mad at me because I don't really know who Valerie Bertinelli is and guessed that she was the one who married that guy from Bon Jovi. Yeah, that's not the right answer.

On hating a book

Rob brought this book home from work called The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich. I can’t remember another time in my life that I have had such a visceral reaction to a book. Now, it’s entirely possible that I was just in a bad mood, dubious about the possibility of a successful work week that lasts as long as two feature films, or sick of hearing about self-help books that tell you work and effort are not required and you can still BE RICH! Whatever the reason, I hated this book. I read the back cover, the intro and several chapters. I looked up its sales numbers (because I can do that) and saw that more than 225,000 copies have been sold. “People are so stupid!” I yelled. I stomped around. I flung the book aside and picked it back up several times in order to keep the hatred alive.

“Would you do this to a book of fiction I was reading?” Rob asked.

“No.” I said, aware that I was annoying him with my tirade, but unable to stop. The author actually suggests that you outsource your professional and/or personal life to “overseas virtual assistants” in India. This way, you can be rich and they can make $5 an hour. One example he gave came from an Esquire article by AJ Jacobs where Jacobs hires an Indian personal assistant and asks her to communicate with his wife for him.

Basically, it seems the entire idea here is to start an online company and hire others to do the work for you. Then you can go spend time doing whatever it is you really want to do with life. Really, that’s fine in theory and I know people who have done it (though I think those people take a little more pride in their businesses and stay involved to ensure quality.) But what I read of this book was empty enough that I can't imagine it could truly be helping people. It's gimmicky in the right ways and the concept clearly speaks to people, but I'm simply not buying it.

Not when I'd rather throw it.

Monkeys and sex

Because I am lazy and don't have any good stories today, because I took Tylenol PM last night to help me sleep and it kicked in this morning, because I ate 2 pounds of pineapple (not an exaggeration) and feel slightly ill, and because I am still committed to posting something: you are now being directed to a story on monkey prostitution. Crazy little buggers.

How to pose for pictures

This post would be better with photos, so I'll add them as soon as I can. A group of people celebrated Cameron's birthday on Saturday night* at Vol de Nuit, a Belgian beer bar in the Village. I think beer bars might be the key for me. Unlike wine, beer fills me up so that I simply can't overdo things and end up a shell of a person the next day.

Stephen shared some information he learned at a photo shoot recently about the best ways to pose for pictures. He explained to us that people have a tendency to square their shoulders towards the camera and lift their chins slightly, the result of which is that you look like a chubby animal. Ok, I look like a chubby animal. Other people just don't look their best. Really. We tried it. We have before and after pictures of everyone there. The after? You stand slightly angled toward the camera, one foot forward and your weight on that foot. Lower your chin slightly and grin maniacally at the camera. Wait, don't do that last part. You'll want to, because after you get all set up in your pose you feel so ridiculous that you can't smile normally. But try. You will be very pleased with the results.





*The last time we got together to celebrate Cameron's birthday was in June, at her fake birthday karaoke party. Coincidentally, Deepish Thoughts was launched the next day. I hope we'll have another fake Cameron's birthday party this year. I'm guessing Jay does not agree with me.

Twins Marry...each other

Please enjoy today's creepiest news story, which can be summed up by the following quote:

"And if you don't know you are biologically related to someone, you may become attracted to them and tragedies like this may occur."

Happy Birthday, Rob!

Rob got back last night at 2am from a trip to Las Vegas where he spent several days communing with tech geeks from around the world at the Consumer Electronics Show. So he started his official birthday morning in an unconscious heap of jet lag, accompanied by Smokey, who does not sleep well when Rob is gone and can finally, finally rest. Which means that tonight maybe I can finally, finally rest.

For his birthday dinner Rob has requested pizza and cake. Yes, that's right, he's turning nine.

Election Obsession 08 Continues

Last night’s primary has everyone scratching their heads over how they could have been SO wrong in their forecasts about the Democrat results in New Hampshire. Now it’s all about how Hillary Clinton managed to get the women voters back in her corner, partly (or mainly, as some reporters seem to be suggesting), with her display of emotion on Monday. I realize that this is how people vote—they vote based on how a candidate makes them feel, whether it seems there is a real person behind the lingo and the promises, and whether they feel that they can trust that person. But it still seems like such a fickle reason to get on board the Clinton train. I hope the women of New Hampshire, who were 2/3 of the Clinton vote, had bigger and better reasons to cast their votes this way. I choose to believe that they did.

At any rate, this is not necessarily a bad thing for Obama, although it certainly adds a level of complexity to the race that went missing for a few days. Between Iowa and New Hampshire, Republicans had basically shifted all of their attention from Clinton to Obama, and now that Clinton has shown she’s still very much in this race, the Rep. group will have to split their criticism once again between the two Dem. candidates. And Obama is solid when he’s on the defense, anyway.

One note on the Republican primary side, boy was John McCain’s speech surprisingly bad. He seemed stiff and uncomfortable and I don’t think he did himself any favors. But I’m sure he can bounce back easily by crying tomorrow or hugging puppies.

Let's get this out of the way

I don’t really want to talk about Mike Huckabee because I don’t want to lend his campaign any credence, especially the kind that comes from a cutting-edge political blog of this caliber. [See It’s possible I have too much time to think.]

However, I do have to say that it is most frustrating to read accounts of his New Hampshire approach that all say “he’s toning down his conservative Christian message” in advance of tonight’s primary, since NHers are considerably more socially liberal than Iowans. Excuse me. How does that work? People haven’t been listening so far and they’ll be fooled by the fact that oh, he seems like a good guy and he’s all about change and he’s not really mentioning that he’s staunchly pro-life and anti-gay marriage and believes that every word written in the Bible is literally true? Are you kidding me? I don’t even believe that every word written in The Joy of Cooking is true. That chapter on bread? Iffy.

Obviously, Huckabee will not come out ahead in NH, but either way, people—aren’t we smarter than this?

Something else that is not worth mentioning: a restaurant in New Hampshire is serving The Huckaburger, which is made with lean bison, baby spinach, sprouts, and tomato on a whole-wheat bun topped with a fried pickle. It does not get my vote.

Free Rice!

Check out the website freerice.com. It's a really great concept for a site: you're given vocabulary words and four possible definitions. Choose the right one and 20 grains of rice are donated through the United Nations. As you continue, the words get harder or easier depending on whether you're answering correctly. The rice is paid for by the ads on the site and the website itself is a non-profit offshoot of poverty.com.
So, you get smarter and hungry people get rice. I love this site. Thanks to Joe for the link!

The road to Washington

As most people know by now, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee stole the show in the Iowa caucuses. This is exciting stuff for Obama—depending on what happens in New Hampshire and beyond, he could definitely widen his base and potentially bring out voters who wouldn’t normally cast a ballot in November. It will be fun to watch how this plays out.

NPR interviewed Iowa #2 John Edwards this morning and he was unable to directly answer Renee Montagne's question: where do you have to come out in New Hampshire in order to stay strong in this election? He literally talked around the issue for 45 seconds until she asked “But, back to the question, do you have a number?” and he talked around the question some more. I so need to master the technique where people ask you direct questions and you just respond with a few enigmatic code words, a bit of sign language, and then yell "Look over there!"

As for Mike Huckabee, though I doubt he’ll keep his momentum, I welcome him as the Republican candidate, since any number of Dem candidates could totally trounce him in a general election. After the results last night, he announced that now he was “grooving” or “in a groove” or something like that. I don’t know a ton about the Baptist minister from Arkansas, but I suspect he wouldn’t know what a groove was even if James Brown was attached to his ass. And I say that after having seen him performing Freebird in New Hampshire. Check it out if you must.

Taunting Winter

It is 13 degrees in New York today, although with the wind chill it feels like somewhere between 0 and 10. It’s cold. And yet, as I walked to work this morning, I continued past the bus I could have taken, secure in the fact that I was dressed like I was on my way to a Jack London novel.
I saw many shivery people on my path: people with cold tears rolling down their cheeks, people holding scarves up to their faces to block the wind, people making the little mad faces people make when they can’t believe the weather is doing this awful thing to them and they are required to deal with it. But me, I trotted on happily, layered up like the kid in A Christmas Story (I can’t move my arms!) and just as uninterested in bumping into people. Dare I say it, I was prepared for the weather.
The reason: last night when I got home from work, I was the shivery one. It was 25 degrees, but when I walked into our building, I greeted Manny, the doorman, and said, “Oh my god, I can’t believe how cold it is!”
“Just wait until tomorrow,” Manny said.
“What does that mean?” I asked, suddenly nervous.
“I don’t know,” Manny replied honestly. “But people keep saying it.”

Armed with that elusive warning and the more specific information on NPR this morning, I was ready.

Happy new year!

And happy 100th Deepish Thought! I apologize for not posting lately. I've been drunk.

I hope everyone had a very happy and fun new year's eve. We were at Chat and Nina's, eating delicious food, including pounds of cheese that I can now proudly call my own pounds. Nina taught me a few fabulous Bollywood dance moves and we all proclaimed our love for Aishwarya Rai.

In reflecting on 2007, I am blown away by how much traveling Rob and I were able to do: we went to Jackson Hole, Mexico, Miami, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, San Diego, Mexico again, Boston, Martha's Vineyard, and Fort Myers. We got engaged, and some very important people in our lives announced that they were pregnant or engaged (I am not referring to Jamie Lynn Spears.)

I also think that this was the year my skin thickened appropriately to New York's weather and I, so far, have not been excessively whiny about how cold it is. (Sorry, Chicago. I know we haven't seen anything yet.)

I still bite my nails, skip the gym, and occasionally pick unnecessary fights with Rob, but this just means I have more to work on in 2008. Exciting.