Christmastime is Here Again!
So last year I posted regular (weekly, I believe?) Christmas-related videos. Though I haven’t blogged as much lately as I used to, I figure that this is a good tradition to keep up. So here’s the first – enjoy!
Also, I’m still going to blog about Becky’s wedding, and my trip to Oklahoma, and other things. Someday. 🙂
Happy Birthday, Sesame Street!
As everyone has heard by now, Sesame Street turns forty today. Whoa. Forty!
Well some of you reading this (namely, those who didn’t know me 27 years ago) may not know this, but I love Sesame Street. As do most Americans, I know. But I have a serious warm spot in my heart for this show. My mother maintains that the show is the reason I was such a young reader; I contend that Sesame Street (plus Richard Scarry’s books) are the reason I always wanted to live in a big city. But I do know that I have a lot of really great childhood memories of Sesame Street – frankly, of a lot of PBS’s childhood programming. Square One! Reading Rainbow! But today is all about the Sesame Street.
So, in honor of Sesame Street’s 40th, I decided I’d post some videos of clips I loved when I watched, nearly thirty (gulp!) years ago (all taken from Sesame Street’s YouTube Page)
How crayons are made (note: I highly doubt they’re still made this way)
A loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter
Heeeeere, fishy fishy fishy!
Batty batty bat – I’m not saying that Becky and I stood on our heads and sang along to this song. I’m not saying that at all.
Okay, okay, I could go on, but I’ll stop now. But cheers to Sesame Street – here’s hoping it sees another 40 years! (though by then, I hope Susan, Bob, and the rest are no longer on the Street…)
Mad Men
So there’s this show on the television called Mad Men. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Well, I’m very very very late catching on to this show…but I finally started season one, and I’m digging it so far. Only three episodes in, but I’ve already learned so much!
1. Don Draper is a dick, and I don’t know why all the girls and boys love him so much.
2. If you don’t have a drink in hand, you’re doing something wrong
3. Not only is smoking socially permissible, it’s good-hostessing to have a tray of cigarettes for your guests next to the ash tray
4. In the same vein, drinking and smoking while pregnant are a-okay
5. Women really did used to be treated like dirt (if this show is accurate to 1960’s life – Gran? – then I truly am one of those young women today who has taken “women’s lib” for granted)
So I don’t know how historically accurate all this is…but it seems pretty spot-on. And the attention to detail in production? Impeccable. The show is an amazing snapshot of what life was like back then – and so much of it is just so WRONG…the misogyny, racism, anti-semitism, etc. etc. Except that drinking at work thing – gotta love that. Needless to say (pretty sure every television on the planet has already said so): it’s a really good show. Surprise, surprise. Now I just need Netflix to deliver disc 2.
What to Do? (Part II)
So it’s Wednesday in New York City (and everywhere else in the world. Except maybe Australia. It might already be Thursday there). ANYWAY. Options, options for what to do tonight…
1. Trivia Night with Jason et. al. I heart trivia night, but it’s SO far uptown, and I always spend more than I should on unhealthy-but-delicious foods (lobster mac & cheese, YUM) and beer there.
2. Watching the World Series Game Six. I really don’t care about baseball, and I think it’s boring as hell to watch on TV. But it’d be fun to hang out with Matt, and it’ll be pretty crazy to watch the Yankees win out in the city. Would be fun to be in the mix of that, assuming the fans don’t start tipping over cars and stuff. They don’t do that, do they?
3. John Hodgman book reading/signing. This has been a week for book signings at B&N in Union Square! Monday was Augusten Burroughs (I ended up skipping that because I’d been to his once before, and I wanted to dog-sit instead.), yesterday was Plouffe (which was great, more on that another time), and tonight John Hodgman will be reading from his book More Information Than You Require (John Hodgman is a regular contributor to The Daily Show, and he’s also the PC in those “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” commercials)
4. Go Home and Do Nothing
What to Do?
So it’s a Tuesday afternoon, and three things are happening tonight in the city. Well, technically there are more than three things happening – but these would be on my list:
1. Cast of Glee signing copies of the new Glee Soundtrack at Borders in Columbus Circle
2. Jen Somethingorother, who does the Cake Wrecks blog, signing copies of her Cake Wrecks book at the Barnes & Noble in Lincoln Triangle. I don’t really want a copy of the book, but this book signing has free cake…
3. David Plouffe speaking about and signing copies of his new book The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama’s Historic Victory at the B&N at Union Square.
So which one am I going with? Obviously the Plouffe reading/signing. I’ve been looking forward to this book anyway – regardless of what happens with his Presidency, Obama’s campaign and win were game-changing and historic, and I think reading Plouffe’s inside take will be interesting. However, it’s also gotten good reviews – and Arianna Huffington at HuffPo had a great take on it this morning: What would Candidate Obama think of President Obama? What indeed. I really recommend reading the piece – and I think that the book will serve as a great reminder of why we all got on board with Obama to begin with – and what he could be doing differently in his presidency.
But I’ll let you know after I’m finished reading it 🙂
UPDATE: David Plouffe responds on HuffPo: “No Difference Between President Obama and Candidate Obama“
Aide-mémoire 