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| Hi all! I made it to New York! And after a nice long breakfast, multiple cups of coffee, a rainy walk around shi's neighborhood, and a 3 hour nap (red eye flights = no fun) I am feeling somewhat coherent! And I love Brooklyn!
A couple observations from this morning:
Driving in NY is a lot like driving in Africa - lanes are only suggestions, and people use their horns and use them often.
A small Jewish shop specializing in both silk-screened T-shirts and health food/energy juices.
There is a HUGE LOUD raccoon living in Shi's fireplace. I think he is trying to kill me.
To Be Continued.... | | |
| Today there were Tootsie Roll pops in the kitchen at work. What a PLUS to an otherwise crappy day, full of looooong boring conference calls and an incredibly-loud, non-stop-gum-smacking coworker (if this doesn’t grate on every single nerve of your body, until you want to scream, consider yourself blessed). I have already eaten a couple of these yummy treats, the second of which had the uber-exciting star, near the Indian, on the wrapper (OH BOY!) Ever since I was a little kid, these particular wrappers were sacred and collected, in order to be sent in to Tootsie in exchange for free pops (though I don’t think we ever actually tried it, as our collection of wrappers never seemed to stick around for very long). Still, it has never once entered my mind that this promotion might be just an urban legend passed down through the ages…UNTIL – some people at work challenged my rock solid conviction that they should definitely save those wrappers, and I looked it up! ALAS – IT IS NOT TRUE, and a little piece of my heart has broken. I included the following, because I thought it was interesting (although, for me, reading this was equivalent to, for the first time, being told “santa is only your dad”, or “the easter bunny is just a guy in a suit, reminding mom to buy candy”) Where did the rumor come from that you could get a free Tootsie Pop if you found a star on your wrapper? I've tried contacting www.tootsie.com but they do not provide an email address or way to contact them. Is it possible to find out the answer to this?
Dear Reader:
Probably not. Nobody seems to know how this rumor got started, least of all the folks at Tootsie Roll Industries in Chicago, Illinois, who have been politely deflecting mail-in requests for free Tootsie Roll Pops ever since the 1930s. They maintain there was never any sort of official promotion or contest associated with Tootsie Pop wrappers. Where the notion came from remains a mystery. Actually, there's more to the mistakenly revered wrapper than just a star. The illustration shows an American Indian shooting an arrow at a star, and it's that Indian most people mention when they speak of the legend. I'm told about one-third of all Tootsie Pop wrappers sport the design. Why? For variety, apparently. Not much of a mystery there. I'm not sure how commonly this happens, but readers have also reported to me that some independent grocers do unofficially honor the supposed free Tootsie Pop offer when kids bring the Indian wrappers into their stores for redemption. But it's neither sanctioned nor financed by Tootsie Roll Industries. The Legend of the Indian Wrapper For many years the company responded to kids who wrote in to claim their free Tootsie Pop with an apologetic (and surely disappointing) note, but since 1982 they've also enclosed a short work of fiction called "The Legend of the Indian Wrapper," apparently intended to serve as a sort of consolation prize. In fine ad-executive prose, it tells of a man "long, long ago, when all lollipops were made alike," who wanted to make a new kind of sucker with something special inside. But he couldn't figure out how. Well, one day the man awoke "to find a grand Indian chief smiling at him. The chief told the man that he would help him make a lollipop with a chewy candy center, if the man promised the chief that he would never, ever, stop making them for people. The man promised. ... The 'Indian Wrapper' is supposedly a sign that the grand chief has personally checked that particular lollipop for the chewy candy center." Maybe it's just me, but I would think that adding yet more hype to the Indian wrapper mystique must simply confuse a lot of children instead of quieting their false expectations. Mightn't it be less distressing for the kids and more cost-effective simply to chuck a free Tootsie Roll Pop in the mail? | | |
| So, Kevin Devine was indescribably amazing on Friday night (thanks Lay! - best date EVER)
I mean, he has never EVER been anything close to not-amazing, or even so-so, so it's not surprising that I've been walking around in a cloud since seeing him play again. BUT - a lot of that has to do with a brand new song he played (I think it's called "Bag of Bones") and I haven't been able to find it anywhere since except on YouTube of other people's live recordings of it. I have listened to it approximately 67867568 times today, and even typed out the lyrics, because they're THAT good.
He played a few other new songs as well, so hopefully there will be a new album in the very near future??
Bags of bones
It’s a brush fire spreading, feeding as it moves,
It’s a disappearing glacier, it’s an airborne flu.
It’s your disbelieving eyes, locked in concrete minds,
It’s your yawning conscience and your lawyers smile.
It’s an occupied country foaming at the mouth,
It’s a smoking gun and a mushroom cloud.
It’s a military mother with her boy in hell.
It’s a flag-draped casket down an oil well.
It’s an Argentine school-girl gagged and bound.
It’s a torture camp and it’s a long way down.
It’s the constant brace and shock of now.
And it’s the whole damned world turned inside-outright.
It’s a march to extinction with your God in step,
It’s His name in your mouth, it’s His cross on your neck.
It’s the farm-boy sprinting over desert dirt,
He’s panting the “Our Father” in staccato spurts.
It’s his automatic rifle and it tells no lies.
That’s his truth in your stomach, it’s no alibi.
But the trouble lies on the other side,
With equal truth preppin’ for his holy night.
He sees the crescent and a star up in the virgin sky,
It’s the call of milk and honey from the afterlife.
As he eases to the check point, he is calm and sure
That collateral damage is the cost of war.
It’s another bag of bones for the gods to sort,
It’s just another bag of bones for the gods to sort.
It’s a species disappearing, all the birds fly south,
In a January heat wave, in a pulsing crowd.
It’s an African militia, kids with sub-machines,
It’s a conflict diamond on your bride-to-be.
It’s the dispossessed lining up at every gate,
It’s the facts worth facing, faced way too late.
It’s the mission of identity, you go get what’s yours,
Til there’s nothing leftover, til they get no more.
And it’s not what we’re owed, but it’s what we’ve earned,
And it’s closer than we realized, so it’s time now, to burn…
Yes it's time now to burn.
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| One of the main reasons i have disliked my workplace in the past is because they block so many different websites! One of them being Xanga! (so unnecessary!) And this is especially despressing since I love to blog during work. Not only do most of my profound thoughts come during early morning, right when my brain begins to function, but who wouldn't want to do something they love while getting paid for it?! Anyways - occasionally I just check. Thinking maybe the IT department will have realized the error of their ways and it will be available to me. But never has it been. I decided to check it again this morning and BEHOLD!!! Xanga popped right up! We are having all sorts of upgrades and transitions in our office lately, including with the internet so i thought i would give it a shot and I'm so glad i did! So, at least until they decide to ridiculously block it again, I can blog at work, and that makes my heart happy. Confession: for whatever reason, blogspot is NOT blocked (so random). I actually flirted with idea of cheating on xanga by creating a blogspot, due to my need to get things out of my head and onto "paper". If for any reason they decide to block xanga,and i feel the need to run to this new love, I will be sure to let the xanga world know! i hope it never happens! :) Happy thursday! I LOVE thursdays! | | |
| If you don't love him already, check out this Daytrotter on Kevin Devine - and you will come to love him. He has the most amazing lyrics and songs in general. and is great live! (will be playing in LA in March if you're interested) http://www.daytrotter.com/article/1176/the-strain-of-being-okay Besides that... It was a GREAT birthday weekend for me! We went camping in Joshua Tree and it went swimmingly. It was a tad cold at times (ok - I froze my ass off) but in the daytimes, the weather was perfect and I could probs sleep in the new mummy bag every night for the rest of my life. Then Bon took me to dinner at a new place (Alta Coffee) HA! we thought about trying a new place for a minute, but then saw our fave server's car out front and thought - Nah... Alta it is. And it was a good choice. We got some good conversation with unexpected friends and a fellow Atlas Shrugged traveller. Then I got a piece of pumpkin bread on a plate with a candle and a birthday song and dance! oh man! it was perfect! Thanks to everyone who was a part of my weekend! And the texts/calls/messages made my day bright! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! the big 2-5 does not feel much different from any other year. but i will let you know if that changes. And I must say that besides the half Fridays off, the sole other reason i like my work is because of the payed day off they give you in your b-day month! Which I am taking today. So now that I have spent an hour online catching up on things and people, the possibilities on what to do next are endless. Mabes a little Project Runway, or OTH (don't judge me). Mabes it's time to buy some glasses!! Mabes finish Love in the Time of Cholera..... DEFINITELY a little Guitar Hero at some point. anyways - i don't necessarilly wanna rub it in that i have the day off, but maybe kinda a little bit, I do. ;) Hope it's great for y'all too! | | |
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