new article from my main man.

Tom Friedman's new article "Gonna Need a Bigger Boat" (November 16, 2008). Read it.

hasn't this season of antm taught you anything??

while spinning through people magazine's "star tracks" section (highly intelligent reading material), i noticed a picture of heidi klum with her new makeup line. her arms were stretched out, and there appeared to be a tattoo on her inner right forearm. what?! i hadn't noticed it all last season on project runway, so this had to be new. after a quick consultation with my resident celebrity info genius, i was still left with nothing. but google knows all: apparently heidi got inked mid-June of this year. not that i'm a tattoo connoisseur, but isn't this lame? and if it really is a tattoo of Seal's name (yea, maybe their kids designed it), i'm moderately concerned about the direction of their relationship...

"the reason this sport is perfect for me is because i don't have to be active"

-- my sister, about being a coxswain for the University of Michigan crew team

starring ed norton and..... ed norton.

What's better than a movie with one Ed Norton? Quite clearly the answer is a movie with dos Ed Norton! Well buckle up for 2009 when Leaves of Grass comes out. Ed plays identical twin brothers, one is an Ivy League classics professor and the other is a pot-smoking career criminal..... Does anyone have a time machine so I can see this ASAP?!

(Did I mention that the aforementioned film is directed by Tim Blake Nelson??)

special soup day.

It's here. Today is the day.

Hale & Hearty's Yukon Gold Potato and Four Cheese soup! The whole reason I started going to Hale & Hearty in the first place! Although I am told it is "pureed potato baby food" by my coworkers, I don't even care since it is delicious. Also, if you sign up for it, they will email you with their daily soup menu every morning, so you can appropriately plan your lunch.

How very true....

comedy tv wisdom.

Mademoiselle, beer me dos long island ice teas, s'il vous plait.
--Andy, The Office


L: There's always money in the banana stand.
Me: I wish we had a banana stand...
L: Oh my god, that would be so yummy.

science in the news!

In the spirit of my middle school "Science in the News" Tuesdays (yes, I realize it's Thursday, but I don't control the news):

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken the first visible-light snapshot of a planet circling another star. (!!!) I'd like to remind everyone that our planet (Earth) circles a star as well. This amazing discovery comes after years of improvements in data analysis and observational techniques. According to Dr. Marois, (of the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Canada) the images and data amassed so far are "a window into what our own solar system might have looked like when it was 60 million years old.”

Stay tuned for further ridiculously amazing discoveries!

For further reading:
NASA Press Release
NYTimes Article

highly important entertainment news!

First - The Office. It seems that writer/actor BJ Novack is taking a "leave of absence" from the show to be in a Quentin Tarantino film? What the heck, Ryan? You were the hired guy! Now you're the fire(d) guy again?? Also, does this mean that Pam is going to be back soon as the receptionist? And what does this mean for our girl Kelley?

AND - Lost stars preview Season 5 on ew.com! If you are a nutto like me about this show, you will not want to miss out on all of the videos, including interviews with different cast members, tours of the sets (including inside Ben's house), and Doc Jensen's (ew.com master lost recapper) predictions for the new season. Ahhhhhh!

reality tv show wisdom.

"the last thing you want to do is be voted off first."

-- Ariane, Top Chef

dive bar.

mom: Oh! I forgot to tell you! As we were driving out of the city on Sunday for the airport, we drove by this bar!

me: Yea...

mom: And it had the funniest name! It was called "dive bar"! You know, that's like an expression. But it was also the name of the bar!

me: Yes, mom. that's Dive Bar. It's right by my apartment.

mom: Ohh! ....Is it really a dive?

"oh, my life is changing everyday/in every possible way/and oh my dreams/it’s never quite as it seems/never quite as it seems."

--Dreams, The Cranberries

"if i could be in a facebook relationship with excel, i would be."

--coworker, working late one night

afternoon shenanigans.

already reading:

• One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (by Ken Kesey)
• Blindness (by Jose Saramago)

early-afternoon trip to the library:

• Special Topics in Calamity Physics (by Marisha Pessl)
• The Gift of the Magi, and Other Short Stories (by O. Henry)

to the confused man at Hale & Hearty: sorry we all laughed at you when you couldn’t find the huge chalkboard menu; the country of New York is a harsh place.

to the man i ran full-force into while crossing 45th street: so sorry! i have a tendency to not look where i’m going, you just happened to be in my path of destruction.

to the mysterious co-worker who cleaned my pyrex in which i brought homemade cupcakes to the office this week: thanks, you rule. glad you enjoyed! (i know certain people had 3 cupcakes - in one day - and that’s pretty sweet.)

delicious invite.

E: by the way - must check the mail tomorrow
me: me check mail?
E: important mail is coming for you tomorrow
me: for me me?
E: for you. like mailbox mail
me: me??
E: yes
me: what? is it a baby alien? or is it Z's head in a box?
E: the latter
me: ewwwwwww. what is it..... now im all in suspense
E: oh please its our wedding invitation silly
me: OH YESSSSSSSSSSSS! i am gonna frame that thing in gold. or dip it in gold. or chocolate. yummy invite. you should have just made them out of chocolate to begin with
E: that would have been smart! damn. can you do that for your wedding?
me: oh yea no prob. just wait about 10 years. but by then we'll be using bionic chocolate.