not to give sarah palin additional PR...

But I must respond to her idiotic comment about funding and the economy, undoing my personal pledge to not give this woman any more exposure than she deserves. I know, I know.

Palin recently described the National Endowment for the Arts as a huge waste of tax dollars during the current economic climate. I hope the 5+ million people who are employed in the nonprofit arts and culture industry take no offense. And, shoot, should we blithely ignore the millions and millions of dollars in economic activity that the arts generates?

Heavens to Betsy, she's a dumb ass.

the allure of renee zellwegger

J and I spent Saturday night watching "Case 39," a pseudo-horror flick starring Renee Zellwegger. It occured to me as the movie concluded that Renee has had her fair share of romances with high-profile, and mostly attractive, men. George Clooney had a very public crush on her. That was followed by a relationship with Jim Carrey. Then Jack White of the White Stripes. And Bradley Cooper, who, let's face it, is not a great actor but very easy on the eyes. And we can't forgot Kenny Chesney, the gay country singer. A gay guy married her!!

I asked J casually if he thought Ms. Z was attractive. "Not at all," he said.

Today at work, I asked a couple of male colleagues if they considered her hot. "NO WAY!" was the uniform response.

Okay, so, she must have a vivacious personality, right?

"She seems dull, probably obsessed with working out and not eating," said D.

So how do all these men fall for her? What could it be?

"Her vagina is bedazzled," D said, deadpan.

I thought about it and couldn't come up with a better response. Renee's vagina is bedazzled.

Let's go with that for now.

where the hell is ronald reagan?

I seriously feel like we've been transported back to the 80s and the reign of Ronnie R.

There are hearings about Muslim terrorists underway. States are stripping away public employees' right to collective bargaining (already passed in Wisconsin, with similar efforts taking place in Iowa and Pennsylvania, financed by those titans of right-wing causes, the Koch brothers. But no tax cuts for businesses, purportedly...) And Republicans are all up in arms about Planned Parenthood and funding for national public radio.

Sadly, I think Magnus and Magnus's children will have to endure the same tired debates from these idiotic neo-cons.

Are they planning to re-release "Red Dawn," too?

J rocks my world

Came home last night to a full box of Cadbury Creme Eggs. Does it get any better? Seriously?

who is the girl next door?

For many years, I have come across the phrase "the girl next door." This has been used to describe up-and-coming actresses, models and felons ("We are shocked by her homicidal rampage. She seemed like the typical girl next door!"). But who is this mythical creature, this girl next door?

The girl next door to me, growing up, was an overweight loudmouth who once tried to seduce a boy I was dating. She lured him into my bedroom, not noticing I was right outside the door. She pulled her shirt down to reveal her cleavage and laid suggestively on the bed, which then broke under her weight. I almost wet my pants from laughing.

When I had my first apartment, down the street from where OJ stabbed his wife, the girl next door was a 24-year-old Lebanese immigrant. She smelled of turmeric and rarely left the house. Not exactly the movie-star type.

My next residence, a townhouse, had a 75+ year old woman living next door. We had to pick her up from the hospital after she tumbled down a flight of stairs.

Does anyone actually live next to the quintessential girl next door, which based on popular culture we can only presume to be petite, blonde, Christian and a virgin? Who is this bitch?

why old school cookbooks rock

We just returned from a trip to see J's bro in San Francisco. My sister-in-law is an avid collector of cookbooks, particularly cookbooks from the 30s and 40s. What a trip to flip through some of those old-school recipes! Not only is the typeface super-cool, but the subheads are hilarious. For example:

Walnut Loaf Bread
By Mrs. James Pincher
Ideal for brunch after church, or as a tasty treat for dinner party guests.

It's also interesting to see what ingredients were essential (salt pork, anyone?) and what were the trendy dishes at the time. It seems you couldn't go wrong fusing various elements into a gelatinous mold (I must have seen 40 recipes for jelly molds), or using mincemeat.

The best cookbooks had sidebars with tips on being the consummate wife. In addition to making the dishes outlined in the book, the proper housewife should also don a "fancy dress" and meet her husband at the door with a dry martini when he returned from work. Love it!!

Obviously I didn't return home with any new recipe ideas and I'm not longing to return to the 40s anytime soon, but there was something oddly sweet about flipping through the aged pages, reading someone's hand-written notes in the columns and being transported to a more innocent time.

Ina Garten's recipes are probably better, but her cookbooks don't rock like the oldies.