a book, an article, a monologue, and a hoodie

Monday, oct. 30, 2006   |   0 comments

Tara and Sarah of Television Without Pity have a new book out! It’s called Television Without Pity: 752 Things We Love to Hate (and Hate to Love) About TV, and it is delightful. I pre-ordered my copy months ago, so when it arrived last week, it was like a little surprise party in my mailbox. I just keep fanning this tidy little book open to random pages and marveling at each odd and insightful listing: “Alien Species, Dermatological Problems of”…“Future on TV, Similarity to Present”…“Orphans.” I can do this — open up this book and get a quick shot of glee — 752 different times. Seven-hundred-and-fifty-two! What did I do to deserve this? Something pretty good, I’m thinking.

My friend-since-high-school Kari Kiernan has a piece up at the prestigious Huffington Post, one of the top one hundred blogs of ALL TIME. The thing she wrote is called The Frying Pan and the Fire, and it’s a very funny and endearing peek at the struggle borne from being completely outclassed by your cooking gear. Since my rudimentary cooking skills and I also cower in the shadow of high-end cookware (in my case it’s an intimidating All Clad 12-inch fry pan), I sadly can very much relate to the plight. If only Tamalpais High School had offered Home Ec, just think how much better our lives would be! Dumb Tamalpais High School.

It’s been a great week for my favorite star-crush, Julia Sweeney: she landed herself a NYT prescription required) for her NYC staging of Letting Go of God, plus she got the plum Terry Gross treatment. All of that, and her self-released CD is finally in its final launch countdown (which means there’s still time to get that buying-click finger nice and warmed up).

Good old Old Navy is now torturing me with its woodgrain hoodie, which I crave so hard it makes me dizzy, but for some insane reason, it comes in man shapes only. Sad, sad world! Do you think I could get a small and then bring it to a tailor and have the shoulders brought in? Or would that be crazy? Yeah, that might be a little crazy. (Thanks to Anatomy-of-a-Skirt Erin for the woodsy tipoff.)

And oh yes, there’s also another Desperate Housewives recap to contend with. This one weighed in at 12 pages, 6,999 words, 9 solid hours of typing, and one salty tear.