Who do I have to . . .

From NatalieDee.com

Seriously! Not a Burpee Ford nor a Turberville Melon to be found! R.L. would be VERY disappointed.

Give me your cheeky. Your contrary. Your catalytic.

A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill.
-Robert A. Heinlein, science-fiction author (1907-1988)

(From today's A Word a Day by Anu Garg)

Funny. Some of my best peeps are troublemakers. The good kind. You know who you are.

One More Gold for Team USA

Michael Phelps hogged the gold medal glory for media attention. Don't get me wrong. This former tyke swimmer is all pro-Phelpsian and just about peed her PANTS when Jason Lezak pulled out the stops in the last leg of the 4X100 free relay in the ultimate assist in Phelp's quest for 8 gold medals.

/rant mode ON
The effing asshats at NBC won't post the footage of the race for our viewing pleasure, and has chased down any vidsters who posted it. Argh! But I digress. As is my wont to do.
/rant mode OFF

In case you missed it, Team USA won a gold medal in basketball yesterday, coached by Mike Krzyzewski. I may be a Carolina Tarheel basketball fan, but there's no dissing Krzyzewski's coaching. He rocks.

Nike's superlative ad fetting the team to the tune of Marvin Gaye's rendering of the national anthem: fantastic, and an unsuck listen.



And now, back to regular sleep cycles.

Desperate Times, eh Cap'n Noise?

From Toothpaste For Dinner

Sheena, hope they don't come down the aisle with the tin cup on your overseas return!

Luscious Mad Men

The best show you're likely not watching: AMC's Mad Men. I only fell into watching it in the last few weeks because of its copious 16 Emmy award nominations. Provoked to know what the buzz was about, at least once, I set the DVR.

Wow. Luscious is the best word. The sets, the costumes, the images, the dialogue, the story. It defines, to me, What Is Sexy. From like, before, you know?

What I like best? Scene after scene after scene with what is NOT said. What is left to us to interpret, to noodle, to recognize and go "Yes!".

John Maeda's Laws of Simplicity, Law #10:

"Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful."

Mad Men embodies this law. Check it out.

(Ok. So I'm in lust with Jon Hamm. Sue me!)

Bacchanalia, revisited

Sheena is returning soon to the kudzu. Many Atlanta institutions are preparing to roll out the red - er, animal print carpet - in her honor. One such establishment - Bacchanalia - was the scene of Cheek's F*ck Forty milestone, celebrated with Kimplicated. Sadly, I didn't do justice back in January to describe the foodgasm that is Bacchanalia. So Sheena, here's a hint of what you're in for. I can't BELIEVE you and the Georgia Peach are going to go without me while I head to setup for the gig that night. B*tch!

I missed capturing the first course, but the amuse bouche served afterwards was a lovely celery soup:

Scallops were my main. Only the third time I've had them since the food revolution of 2006, and these were the best ever. A hint of garlic, and a yummy light cream sauce.

A light salad with yummy stinky cheese was next. Sorry Sheena - it's been too many months for me to remember which kind.

Speaking of cheese, Sheena's like to really dig the storefront of the restaurant, better known as Star Provisions. Absolutely scrumptious finds of cheese, oils, wines, and more, as well as various cooking and kitchen accoutrement.

A warm cider and small cookie served as the taste after the salad, with no hint of the decadence to come:

Dessert was a three course affair. The ladies dining next to us ordered everything on the dessert menu about the time that our mains were served, so Kimplicated and I got the tour and diner feedback as to best selections. My poison was a warm apple-y cake with caramel and ice cream, while Kimplicated's was flourless chocolate goodness.

Next came a dessert course surprise - Bacchanalia's own birthday cake. Absolutely the best I have ever had, with a perfect proportion of icing to cake. It kicked the previous desserts' asses.

But wait! There's more! The final presentation involved tasty sweet bits, all of which were taken home as stuffed silliness was upon us. Delight the next day upon opening the box for breakfast to discover extra bits added by the staff.

Driving home meant light imbibing, so we didn't opt for wine pairings with each course. Our server steered us towards ordering a glass with the main and then the cheese/salad courses, splitting between the two of us each time. We shared a moscato d'Asti with dessert.

Enjoy, Sheena. I can't wait to read your review!

Her energy policy doesn't completely suck

I wouldn't vote for Paris Hilton for president, but her energy policy does not completely suck. Definitely a Video You Should Know About (V.Y.S.K.A.). Spanks to Pid for sharing!

The XY Games

A fabulous op-ed piece appeared last week in the NY Times, entitled "The XY Games", by Jennifer Finney Boylan. The article details why the sex tests for Olympic athletes are profoundly flawed.

"The Olympic hosts seem to want to impose a binary order upon the messy continuum of gender. They are searching for concreteness and certainty in a world that contains neither.

Most efforts to rigidly quantify the sexes are bound to fail. For every supposedly unmovable gender marker, there is an exception. There are women with androgen insensitivity, who have Y chromosomes. There are women who have had hysterectomies, women who cannot become pregnant, women who hate makeup, women whose object of affection is other women.

So what makes someone female then? If it’s not chromosomes, or a uterus, or the ability to get pregnant, or femininity, or being attracted to men, then what is it, and how can you possibly test for it?

The only dependable test for gender is the truth of a person’s life, the lives we live each day. Surely the best judge of a person’s gender is not a degrading, questionable examination. The best judge of a person’s gender is what lies within her, or his, heart."

This article brought a great read to mind that I tripped across 2 years ago after listening to an NPR segment: Norah Vincent's Self Made Man.

Her writing about how men interrelate when women aren't around was enlightening and stereotype-busting. Definitely an unsuck read.

Have you been naughty or nice this summer?

He's always watching!

From Tony Carrillo's F Minus

They should make one of these

From Randall Munroe's xkcd.com