More Yummy Links? Really?

As I may have noted not too long ago, there are few things as satisfying as a little bit of shameless self promotion. Well, I suppose there are always things like flying to Vegas for the weekend and… well, that’s actually pretty different, isn’t it? Never mind. Anyway, I guess some more shamelessly yummy links will have to suffice:


The 10 Best Ways to Lose Weight and Keep it Off

Healthy, Delicious Recipes for Your Labor Day Celebration
Three Recipes that Add Up to One Great Meal

Indoor Rock Climbing in New York City
Three Places to Get Off that Boring Treadmill and Start Climbing

Mmmm, delish.

Routine? Not today, baby.

Although there are few things as reassuring as routine, occasionally breaking out of that routine can be enlightening. Or weirdly entertaining, or even liberating. So this afternoon I found myself on an elliptical machine at the gym a full three hours later than usual which meant that I was exposed to a whole new world of bad TV; as opposed to the bad TV to which I’ve already grown accustomed.

Anyway, it seems that a part of that world is someone named Bonnie Hunt who has a talk show (who knew?) which, this very afternoon, featured an overly-enthusiastic audience engaged in a karaoke competition. Normally my default reaction would have been something predictably smug like muttering “really?” while rolling my eyes, but in this case I was transfixed by a young couple that got up and sang Don’t Go Breaking My Heart. They shook. They shimmied. They gave themselves to this performance as though it was a life-defining moment, which it may well have been. Ultimately though, not only was the performance cringe-worthy in both a meta and specific-to-them kind of way, but my heart also went out to this young woman who... wait for it... has no idea that she’s married to a gay guy.

Or maybe she does. Or maybe he isn’t actually gay, but just super-thrilled in an especially fabulous way to be in front of an audience singing an Elton John song. Who knows? More to the point, I guess, is that this couple clearly broke out of their routine for an afternoon and had a great time. So go on, turn off the machine and go do something different for a change. Just like I’m doing right...



P.S. - Oh yeah, and as always, Calvin has something trenchant to add:

Mmmm, smells like fresh links. Yummy.

There are really very few reasons that come to mind when trying to justify keeping a blog going while you’re busy writing here and there for other spaces; but of course there’s always shameless self promotion.

Not the sort of shameless self promotion that’s even aimed at real people exactly, but more of the sort that relies on tossing up links to work in as many places as possible just to give the All Powerful Search Engines something to chew on and index. (Yeah I’m looking at you, Google, Yahoo and yes, even you, little Bing. So cute!)

So then, on to business:

Review of the New Hard Rock Cafe in Yankee Stadium

Three "One-Tank-Getaway" Vacations from New York City

Day Hikes in the Lower Hudson Valley

Have a nice day!

The Race to the Bottom Continues.

The new bank down the street from us doesn’t think I can figure out their ATM. At least that’s what I’m guessing, judging from the great lengths they’ve gone to make it as blinky, flashy and generally exciting as it is. Actually I think they’ve done such a good job of removing even the slightest hint of mystery as to how the contraption works that even our dog must be tempted to grab a cash card and give it a try.

Really:



I guess the next time I see that old guy on the floor next to the ATM I’ll have to consider that he may not be a hobo after all. For all I know he may just be a victim of a flash induced seizure. I really need to find a new bank.

Michael Jackson AND Farrah Fawcett? Somebody crossed the streams.

Goodness knows there’ll be terabytes written about both of them, but what I’m tickled by is that already the coincidence that they met their demise on the same day is being pondered, mused and mulled over by everyone from the Times to Blogger Bob. They don’t, after all, really have anything in common =(Except for the fact that they now share one very unpleasant date)= other than the fact that each was a cultural icon during roughly the same era.

But icon-wise, they were both compelling in their own way; one was a hot looking white chick, and the other starred in Charlie’s Angels. =(Too easy? Sure, but sometimes I just can’t help myself.) = But really though, there’s an entire generation in the western world that grew up with them and spent far too much time either listening to the Gloved One or gazing plaintively at that poster. Sigh.

So, that said, I have to admit that although I wasn’t really a fan of either of them I did still feel that odd sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach when I heard the news of their simultaneous demise. I guess the real lesson here is that that you don’t always get to choose the influences that wire your synapses and make you who you are. Go figure.

Coffee and cows. And rain, lots of rain.

It's not that I don’t enjoy a rainy day as much as the next guy (which I don’t, actually), but I’m pretty sure that we’ve all had quite enough of this month’s Old Testament-style precipitation. We are, in fact, in the middle of the wettest, coldest June on record here in the East.= Really.

Now this may not mean much to you if you’re A: in the southwest where it’s always hot and dry and everyday would be a beach day if you had any beaches, or B: if you’re in the northwest in which case you probably wouldn’t have noticed all this rain anyway. = (Although I am now starting to get a little perspective on why Seattle is the birthplace of such things as grunge music and Starbucks: ‘cause jeez, if it really did rain all the time I would need to either drown my sorrows in the self-indulgent music that launched the careers of a thousand crappy, self-indulgent bands like Nirvana… =or, I’d be self medicating with Grande-Frappe-Mocha-Chino-Lattes till the cows come home.) =Which pre-supposes that there are any cows in Seattle, which I doubt because I’m also under the impression that vegan diets are mandatory up there. Of course I may be wrong about that last part, but it’s really not my fault because all this rain has got me a little muddled up.

Anyway, my point is that somebody had better be mostly done building an ark of some sort, because it looks like we’re going to need it sooner rather than later. And my only suggestion there is that this time we learn from experience and leave a few things behind: mosquitoes, spiders and most of the other creepy-crawlies for instance. Yuck. = Oooh, but we can’t forget to bring the cows, because unlike those hippies from Seattle I think they’re delicious.

Have a great day.