oh my friends are all such gifts of giftedness!

Monday, dec. 4, 2006   |   0 comments

Good news is coming in fast from every corner of my network of golden pals:

Stephanie Vander Weide Lucianovic, also known as Keckler from Television Without Pity gives us CocktailSmarts: “It’s a booklet! It’s a game! It’s some brightly colored coasters! With recipes!” An educational drinking game that teaches you stuff that makes you want to drink even more? It’s like Quarters, only better. I KNOW! I’ve already ordered three: one for me, one for a Christmas gift for some secret special someone, and one just so I’m prepared the next time an emergency hostess gift scenario rolls around.

This past Sunday, dear Maggie appeared on NPR’s Weekend Edition show! Maggie was so eloquent, and her shopping advice so compelling, that half the world clicked over to Mighty Goods, creating a traffic storm so frenzied, it temporarily choked the site. And as a long-time fan of Maggie’s writing and sixth sense of style, I absolutely understand all the hullabaloo.

The Bellyachers (superfine friends Brian, Sandra, and Peter) have just launched a stylish little mini-trampoline of a site, lovingly designed to give you the jump on their new album, “300 Letters to God Found in the Atlantic,” which they’ll be releasing song by delicious song.

And friend-since-third-grade China Adams has assembled a majestic sampling of her tight body of work. Looking at her stuff all in one place like this, I’m awestruck by how smart and talented and inspired and funny and, wow, just so incredibly hard-working she is, and how lucky the world is to have her. (Back to me: though my photo isn’t one of the ones up on the sample site, yours truly was one of the ten people photographed for her Blood Consumption project — I donated a pint of blood and everything. I’m kind of a patron of the arts that way.)

How did I get so lucky to be surrounded by such a candy cloud of smarts and talent? I wonder.