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November 29, 2006
Thanks Peter Meehan
...for letting the secret out on what may be the best pizza ever. We sampled the pizza once and it was devine, the crust perfectly charred and chewy, the sauce saucy, the cheese fresh and bubbly. And it's BYOB, my favorite 4-letter acronym. AND it's right around the corner. Why did Meehan have to spoil things for us in the neighborhood? He's also responsible for spilling the beans on the Red Hook Soccer Field taco scene. Ahhh I'm just jealous- he has a job I would love to have....anyhow, I've got other things to worry about, such as my kugel.
My kugel, you see, is stuck in its bundt pan. I made a pecan noodle kugel last night and after I let it cool, it would not release itself from the budnt pan! It was supposed to invert itself when I turned it over, like a pineapple upside-down cake, but it did not...what do I do???
I was not thinking straight when I made this kugel. I was at a fundraiser for a friend's upcoming volunteer trip to Peru and I ended up coming home later (and tipsier) than I anticipated. And now my kugel is having problems.
Why am I fretting over a kugel? I'm entering a kugel contest tonight, to be judged by Mr. and Mrs. Jew-U.S.A. This is not, I swear, the beginning of an anti-semitic joke. A friend of mine works at the 14th Street Y and is putting on an event called "The Kosher-Style County Fair" for Heeb Magazine, the magazine for hipster Jews. I was given two choices: make a kugel or enter the Hebrew National hot dog eating contest. I have some questions: Will my kugel good enough for these people? Or will it be laughed out of the room? Or might I...might I win a trophy? Do they give out trophies for Best Kugel? What if they find out the kugel was not, gasp, my Great Bubby's recipe, but something I found online?
Posted by debbie at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)
November 28, 2006
Wan Hoo and His Space Vehicle
Note: The following is not entirely random. We're producing a "spacetime adventure travel xmas time special" (their words, not mine) and I'm researching some NASA footage and images for us to use....did you know all of NASA's images are copyright free? Here is one that you might enjoy:
According to one ancient legend, a Chinese official named Wan-Hoo attempted a flight to the moon using a large wicker chair to which were fastened 47 large rockets. Forty seven assistants, each armed with torches, rushed forward to light the fuses. In a moment there was a tremendous roar accompanied by billowing clouds of smoke. When the smoke cleared, the flying chair and Wan-Hu were gone.
Posted by debbie at 12:47 PM | Comments (1)
November 27, 2006
A Photo Essay: Pick of the Litter
All of these "beautiful couches!" are "less than a year old!" and have "rarely been sat on!" This couch looks like it's from the set of a 80s sitcom set in Florida (Golden Girls, Empty Nest, etc.) It may have rarely been sat on but there are some strange stains there that I don't want to know more about:
This couch looks like it has been dragged out of a burning building and then doused in pee. And it's only $500!
This couch. I have no words. Less than a year old?
Oh Craigslist, though you have found me roommates, apartments, and jobs....you have failed me in the couch arena.
Posted by debbie at 12:38 PM | Comments (0)
November 21, 2006
Exercises in Humiliation
I'm working on a very fascinating story right now about international adoptions; specifically about Americans who adopt Chinese babies. China has been the number one country for American adoptions for about a decade now, mostly due to the fact that tens of thousands of babies (mostly all girls) have been abandoned there after the "one child per family" policy. They have so many babies that they have since relaxed their adoption laws and now it's quite easy to just hop on a plane and go get one. I jest; it's not that easy, but it's easier to get a Chinese baby than say a Malawian baby, unless you are Madonna but even then....
Speaking of work, tonight I agreed to appear on a segment for a popular prime time show on Fuji (which is like ABC in Japan) about Japanese culture in America. The segment is about young Americans who love all things Japanese. Why oh why do I agree to these things time and time again? I can't even speak in front of a small group of people without getting nervous and sweaty (for example, see evidence from last week's reading here)
It's times like these when I am reminded of the nightmare that was my experience with MTV. But this time around I will not be alone; I recruited Laura T to be in the piece with me. She's very excited. She's lucky, she's a natural performer. In fact, she's a talented performance artist. I am not. But it will be ok this time. I will play it cool. I will not be nervous. I will not be sweaty. This is what I am telling myself, because really, who cares if I'm on national tv as long as it's national tv in different country? We're going to this Japanese tea house in the East Village called Cha-An where they'll film us participating in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony and then afterwards, sitting down and having said tea and then a brief interview on why we love Japanese culture. I have no idea what this is all about really, but what else is new?
Posted by debbie at 1:31 PM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2006
The only advice you'll ever need
I've already emailed this around a few days ago, but number 4 is still cracking me up....
Saturday Night Live's Amy Poehler gave NY Mag her 8 Simple Rules For Being A
Civilized New Yorker...
1. Be nice to everyone, especially people wearing hospital bracelets.
2. Don't ask white girls if they "left their ass at home."
3. If you have to bring your baby to a movie, make sure he laughs at
appropriate times.
4. Don't eat Cheetos and then sit down at a fancy hotel piano.
5. If you are in Central Park and think you are getting mugged, first check
to see if maybe you're just part of a student film.
6. If you see Oprah at a fancy function, don't grab her wrist and ask for
money. Quietly sneak up behind her and whisper, "You give me that money,
Oprah. You hear me?"
7. When walking on a New York street, try not to spit, litter, bleed, or
take a crap.
8. If you need to do any of these things, try to do it between two parked
cars.
Posted by debbie at 4:46 PM | Comments (0)
"The line between brilliance and insanity is fragile; the line between meat and liquor, less so."
Truer words were never written. We're going to this new restaurant tonight for our third anniversary and coincidentally, the restaurant was featured in last weekend's Sunday Styles section of the Times. It was a like a wink from God. Pork margaritas here we come. Happy anniversary, Rafe. And as it happens, I was looking for a new cocktail recipe as well, and I think I found it:
"...Weeniecello. The concoction, he said, results from soaking Hebrew National hot dogs in 100-proof vodka for five weeks, yielding an infused vodka with, according to Mr. Fenton, 'a fine beefy taste, with a hint of salt and gentle spiciness.'"
Beefy AND kosher.
Posted by debbie at 4:43 PM | Comments (0)
November 1, 2006
Jinkies! I Can See!
I'm an idiot. I had been walking around for months without my glasses, not thinking they made much of a difference, except at the movie theater where if I forgot my glasses and we sat too far back I'd make Rafe play out the actors' movements in the palm of my hand, a la Hellen Keller. I went to the eye doctor a few weeks ago because my eyeballs were hurting and I thought that was, um, not so normal. Turns out I'm practically blind! Well, I have a stigmatism in both eyes, which means, as the doctor laid out in idiot terms "my eyes are shaped like footballs instead of basketballs." She couldn't believe I didn't notice how bad my vision had become. So I got a new pair. I picked them up last night. And it is amazing. They are magic glasses. Or maybe just the right prescription. Regardless, my world has been transformed. My world, once a blurry Monet is now as crisp and as clear as the highest resolution digital photograph (bad analogy but you get the picture). I can read signs! I can recognize friends and loved ones from afar! As for how I look in them, I look alright, but I have to wear them everyday. There's no taking them off. Never. Even at night. Ok, maybe at night. I do worry though that they will take over my identity, that I will now be forever described as "that girl in the glasses." Or as Kristin said, "Wow, you look more and more like Tina Fey everyday." I don't really look like her, but just as all Asians look Chinese, all glasses-wearing women look the same, right? What's that about? I look more like Velma anyhow.
Posted by debbie at 10:30 AM | Comments (1)