THANK GOODNESS it is finally Friday.  A horrifically long workweek and this disgusting, stinking humidity, which makes Manhattan feel like one giant unwashed mouth – gross, but true – have put me a kind of foul mood this morning (if you didn’t notice).  BUT it has put me in the perfect frame of mind to laugh at this series of unintentionally sadistic, effed up vintage magazine ads that some FOAFOAF (I really don’t know this guy, but apparently one of my facebook friends does) pulled together for our benefit.    I especially like the cheery family of five playing with their new Christmas rifles.

Another favorite below, indicating that media portrayals of women screwed our mothers up, too.

So if you live in New York – or just about anywhere in the Northeast, I guess – you’ll be all too aware that the last 30 days have brought something like 25 days of rain.   Drippy, messy, sloppy rain that has spoiled many fine picnic plans, triggered strings of bad hair days and made my commute a pain in the ass, to say the least.

I usually like rain, though.  When it has the decency to fall in thoughtfully timed afternoon showers or the occasional awesome thunderstorm, or at least when it takes breaks of a week or two in between visits,  I really like watching the rain (from indoors), hearing it on the roof,  and sometimes taking a walk in it.    Not to mention reading about rainy scenes in books, watching it fall in the movies, seeing it in art …

Some favorite rainy things, after the jump.

read more »

So one of the best things about summer in the city – aside from all the adorable warm-weather fashions that Kai keeps digging up – is the plethora of outdoor concerts, shows, and other events that go on all throughout town from May to September – many of them free! I’ve been fortunate enough to attend a handful of these recently and hey, you can’t beat the mix of high and low culture, good weather and great company (and maybe some wine). Show up early to get a good seat, or just show up late and try your luck. A few ideas after the jump!

read more »

So I know we all need to grocery shop more efficiently, cut back on calories and save money … but i couldn’t resist.

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of dining chez T, a FOAFOAF (that’s friend of a friend of .. etc) who -  when he’s not working as a doctor – is a gourmet chef.   (Overachiever central.)  T served up a five course meal complete with wine pairings that can only be described as ridiculous (in a good way).   But that’s not the point of my post.

In between mouthfuls, I asked T where he gets his online foodie fix, and he recommended that I check out Chocolate and Zucchini, a thoroughly delightful blog about all things food.

C&Z is the collection of online musings of Clotilde Dusoulier, a 29-year old Parisian who lives in Montmartre. She started the site 6 years ago as “an outlet for someone who feared her friends might tire of hearing about what she cooked/ate/baked/bought, though they didn’t seem to have a problem with being fed dinner.”

Like any good food blog, it’s full of recipes and ideas, but Lady Dusoulier has charm galore (she may be the living embodiment of gamine, a culinary Audrey Hepburn for our times. Don’t even THINK about mentioning that creepy Amelie movie) and will tell you about making her own strawberry mochi (Kai, are you listening?), her personal recipe for Happiness, her recommendations for Paris food markets, and also an education in French idiomatic expressions that relate to the culinary world. She has also written a cookbook and a foodie’s guide to Paris.

So to hammer home the point, this is a 29 year old who lives in France and cooks, eats, and talks about food for a living. I want this chick’s life! But enough about that. Go check out her blog.

I unfortunately haven’t had opportunity to post much lately (damn work!) but I wanted to take a quick minute to bring this article to Femmeiniste’s attention.  This opinion piece in yesterday’s NY Times, entitled “Liberated and Unhappy”, comments that the many advances women have enjoyed over the last few decades – educational, social, financial – have not, it seems, brought them any greater happiness.

To quote:

“American women are wealthier, healthier and better educated than they were 30 years ago … on some fronts — graduation rates, life expectancy and even job security — men look increasingly like the second sex.”

And yet:

“But all the achievements of the feminist era may have delivered women to greater unhappiness … male happiness has inched up, and female happiness has dropped. In postfeminist America, men are happier than women. ”

read more »

Released this month, Postcards From Yo Momma compiles hilarious actual email and IM exchanges between mothers and their adult children. I’ve been laughing over following two, and more like them, for the last 20 minutes. Enjoy. If your mom has a good sense of humor – it might make a great Mother’s Day gift!

Mom: Movie time – yeah! We’re starting with “Debbie Does Dallas”. Sounds weird. Tonight is double feature; don’t know what’s next. lv u

(2 hours later)
Mom: Well, that was an eye opener if I say so myself. 2nd feature is Gidget Goes to Hawaii. lv u

Me: are u kidding or have you been replaced by pod people?

(2 hours after that)
Mom: Well, debbie and gidget live very different lives. From now on I’m leaving the movie choices to your dad.

******************

Mom: So when we come to Sydney can we stay at yours?

Mom: Hello?

Me: Oh. Sure. Well, actually there are a number of awesome hotels just a two minute walk from my house. I’ve just emailed you a bunch of links. Have a look! Am happy to book any of them for you. But, yeah, of course you are welcome to stay at mine, if you really want to.

Me: Mom?

Mom: You were welcome to stay in my uterus for nine months, and then my house for 17 years. But I understand, a week at your apartment might be a bit … much.

Me: Don’t you passive-aggressive-smiley-face-ME, woman.

Mom: Fuck off. Love you – M.

One more, after the jump.

read more »

So you got dumped.

And you feel like crap, but listen up: breaking up is really not such a bad thing. One of the best things you can do for your love life — and for your sanity in general — is to develop a healthy attitude toward breakups, which are of course inevitable. If you believe in both dating and monogamy, virtually all your romantic relationships — save a precious one or two — are going to splinter apart somehow. So if, despite your best intentions, things fell apart –- well, we’re sorry. But let’s figure out how to handle things gracefully and move on with life. read more »

Another bit of pop-culture analysis from NYC-based artist Dan Meth. The Movie Trilogy Meter, a visual test of the widely accepted film principle which states that perfectly good movies are often undermined by crappy sequels and even crappier Part 3′s. Well according to these charts, it’s often not true – in many cases #2 is actually better than #1 (see Terminator, Star Wars, X-Men, Mad Max), although #3s are almost always worse.

And frankly I’m not sure if LOTR really goes in this category, since it was one long story told in three parts (but written, filmed, and produced as one project). Thoughts?

If you watch too much TV (or did in the 80s-90s, the heyday of sitcoms) you know that tons of sitcoms take place in NYC. But exactly where in NYC? Wonder no more – Dan Meth, an NYC-based cartoonist/illustrator, brings us the NYC Sitcom map, which nicely lays out the (approximate) locales of your favorite NYC-based sitcoms.

How Hollywood maps to New York City

But wait, what about the rest of the country? For that we have the USA Sitcom Map.

How Hollywood Maps to the US

Hmm. Hollywood is clearly obsessed with our major metropolitan areas, whereas Big Sky country could use some lovin’.

This blog entry in today’s NYT makes the case for keeping pet cats indoors all the time. Not just at night, not just in winter, but always. The author argues that indoor cats live 5-6 times longer than “free-range” felines, who have regular and often fatal run-ins with cars, dogs, wild animals, poison, mean people/other cats and also spend a fair amount of time killing birds, upending garbage cans and generally being a nuisance. If cats get separated from home (and are declawed on top of that), they typically cannot defend themselves and either die or join the legions of stray cats who, if “rescued”, are typically euthanized after some interval. Indoor cats, the argument goes, live longer, healthier, and less disruptive lives.

I know plenty of people who have indoor cats by necessity (i.e. city dwellers), and after all, that’s one of the great advantages of owning a cat: if you provide food, water, and a litterbox, a cat can stay indoors, alone if necessary, for hours or even a couple of days without ruining your furniture or becoming interminably depressed. (Try doing that with a dog!) And yet .. my cat (bless her soul) lived to the ripe old age of 15 and went outside nearly everyday. She killed more birds than I care to remember, but was generally happy and healthy ’til the end.

Well, maybe we were just lucky. Any thoughts from you cat lovers out there?