Random Flashback for Friday 5/7/10

Random Flashback for Friday --> Prom season! I was a late bloomer and still just a year out of high school ... so I was in the right age bracket to go to these classic parties at schools I didn't attend. In the summer of 1990, it was all about working the McDonald's drive-thru on the strip and flirting with all kinds of customers through the window -- which is actually how I ended up in this picture! Hopefully my boutonnière matched her shiny gold dress better in person than the way it looks in this pic!

Random Thought for Thursday 5/6/10

I thought I'd balance the yin of picking on the French yesterday by bringing up Cinco de Mayo (where they were defeated) with the yang of a recent realization I had about their chefs. It's somewhat known that those who have lived in any of the various geographic regions of that country have a reputation for a touch of pretentiousness, anti-Ami-ness and inability-to-play-well-with-others-ness that helped fuel our xenophobia a decade or so ago and brought America to its shining moment promoting freedom fries. But, thanks to shows like Top Chef Masters and Chef Academy, I've learned that most of that country's reservoir of wit and humanity and humor was simply reserved for those Frenchies imported to cooking shows: Ludo Lefebvre, Hubert Keller and especially Jean-Christophe Novelli. My best meal that I can make by myself is still Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup (so long as I have the right crackers) so I'm not necessarily learning anything ... but that doesn't stop me from being pleasantly surprised by viewing these stereotyping-smashing personalities!

FREEDOM FRIES DOCUMENTARY:
http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Fries-Stupidity-Explain-Grandchildren/dp/B000J10FOG

NOVELLI COOKERY SCHOOL:
http://www.jeanchristophenovelli.com/

THESE JUST REPLACED OYSTER CRACKERS IN MY SOUP:
http://www.nabiscoworld.com/Brands/ProductInformation.aspx?BrandKey=premium&Site=1&Product=4400001777

Random Wordplay for Wednesday 5/5/10

Pelota Purépecha.

Used in a sentence: "On this Cinco de Mayo, let's celebrate with a game of Pelota Purépecha, (unless the cops come and make us stop)!"

I don't care if you're a Tea Partier, a Coffee Partier (have you heard of this alternative movement started in 2010?) or an Alcohol Partier (not a political movement, just a way of life for many of us), this game from south of the border sounds like something I only wish I had played when I was younger. Described as a sort of "field hockey for pyromaniacs" -- teams knock around a zapandukua (ball of twine and rags) that is lit on fire. I vote that this game replace the frat boy corn-hole toss or beer pong at your next all-night party!

It's part of a movement to have "pre-Hispanic" traditions remembered for their cultural signifigance. And it sounds a little nicer than another popular game -- pelota mixteca -- where the ball back in the day often had a human skull in its middle (from losers of previous tournaments who were sacrificed to the Aztec gods).

However you choose to celebrate (stuff a skull in a bag to make a ball or light one on fire to bat it around -- or both if you can stand the smell of smoking bones) ... happy Cinco de Mayo!

ANCIENT MEXICAN GAMES REVIVED:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010-03-28-mexico-games_N.htm

COFFEE PARTY ALTERNATIVE TO TEA PARTY:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_Party_USA

CINCO DE MAYO IN A NUTSHELL:
http://www.vivacincodemayo.org/history.htm

Random Tune Therapy for Tuesday 5/4/10

Dearest Mama Bowersox:

I'm sorry that Ryan Seacrest has been such an ass to you. I'm sorry that he said last week that Shania Twain had such bright teeth, a clear dig at you and some of the early slams that were sent your way. I'm sorry that you trusted him with some information and I'm sorry that he blabbed your confidence when he ran out of things to say on the air on one of his shows. I'm sorry they didn't just cancel the contest once we got down to the top ten and I'm sorry they didn't just give you this season's "honor" and I'm sorry that you had to worry that the boy with the bright white smile (oops -- how Ryan of me) might actually make it to the top three instead of you and Lee and Aaron (that's a prediction, y'all). Most of all, I'm sorry that you sang that awful version of Shania Twain's "No One Needs to Know", and I offer up this version of Shania performing the song live in 2003's concert that took place in my new hometown, Chicago's Grant Park, which was once a Twain yard. (Oh, and I'm also sorry that I had to add to the uninspired puns so prevalent in last week's episode.)

SHANIA IN CHICAGO's GRANT PARK IN 2003:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6YLFKXNb4Q

Random Memorial for Monday 5/3/10

Gone but not forotten: Lynn Redgrave.

Quoth the raven, "This is living" nevermore. Quoth Lynn herself, "But I'm looking at life, and I'm putting nothing off".

May we all find the way to spend each moment in such a way that we too can say as she did in the Weight Watchers commercials of my youth, "This is living!" when we pause to reflect on our own days.

[Also quoth Lynn, "I would urge all women to have that regular mammogram."]

Acting royalty family member Lynn, you will be missed.

LYNN REDGRAVE QUOTES:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/l/lynn_redgrave.html

DONATE TO BREAST CANCER RESEARCH:
http://www.bcrfcure.org/

MAMMOGRAPHY INFORMATION:
http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=mammo

Random Scandal Sheet for Sunday 5/2/10

What Chicago is talking about this week:

Take me out to the ballgame. Take me out with the crowd [of immigration reform protesters]. Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack. I don't care if I never get back [so long as I don't get blown up in Times Square].

Baseball, America's favorite pastime, meet the 24 hour news cycle. You had to bypass the immigration rally to see a Cubs game this past weekend because we were playing (make that sweeping) the Arizona Diamondbacks. And the White Sox players all got a taste of the big apple when they found themselves in a hotel just two blocks away from the smokin' SUV in Times Square on their way to losing to the Yankees (and since the Sox were in NY for 9/11, they narrowly avoided a really bad case of deja vu). Play ball (without distractions, ideally)!

FOOTAGE FROM IMMIGRATION RALLY AT WRIGLEY:
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-438037

WHITE SOX AFFECTED BY SMOKIN' SUV SCENARIO:
http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/news/story?id=5155951

Random Soapbox for Saturday 5/1/10

I don't mean to go off on a rant here, but ...

... I live in a city where it's "illegal" to drive and talk on the phone at the same time, and yet I can walk my usual 25 minutes to work and see at least a dozen drivers (if not a score) distracted as they travel. Now I have Oprah and the Glee kids telling me that I should consider the driving world a no-phone-zone and my cell provider AT&T telling me that "txting and drivng can wait". There is a certain sense of the macabre in being instructed to pull out my cell phone, view my last text and ask myself if it was worth dying over. [Performing this exercise today leaves me pondering the message "118 up here" as I last texted that to a co-worker at an event last night where we were collecting information from DePaul students. Maybe if the number were 300, then self-sacrifice might have been called for.]

I'm afraid I'm going to have to take a stand and ask to be trusted with my own abilities to process distractions (and, let's face it, with me, I'm more likely to be in a car accident from having swerved to avoid a small animal in the road than from texting contacts in my cell). I wish I could say that I'll sign that pledge, but that would mean I'd be relying on the full power of denial as perfected by generations of alcoholics. Just as is true when the subject turns to self-pleasuring, I'm afraid texting while driving is something we all do in the comfort of our own surroundings.

And to the young-uns out there -- do as I say and not as I do -- especially if you haven't done as much driving as I have in my life to date. [To be clear, I'm referring to NOT texting and driving and NOT referring to the act of self-pleasuring, although I could always discuss the epidemic of sexting for a different diatribe on another Saturday.]

AT&T CAMPAIGN:
http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=2964

OPRAH'S EDICT:
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/End-Distracted-Driving