Beyond Rivalry - lists

Cavalcade of Christmas Extravaganza

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:00:00 -0500

Welcome to the festival of Christmas goodness!

The Astonishing BetaMax Christmas: Click on the TV Guide to see the bazillion Christmas ads, Christmas shows, Christmas cartoons from days of yore, including ads by Folgers, Nyquil, McDonald's, Atari, Kodak, Tesco, Cabbage Patch kids, plus clips from Perfect Strangers, Teddy Ruxpin, Pee-Wee's Playhouse, the Muppets, One to Grow On, Will Vinton's Claymation, the annual CBS Christmas card, a Hall and Oates 'Jingle Bell Rock' video, some Max Headroom, ETC! Click the remote's channel buttons to change channels, and click on the TV Guide to see what's coming up in the next hour and a half or so.

If nostalgia from the 1970s and '80s isn't nostalgic enough for you, listen to Voices of Christmas Past, humdingers from 1898-1922, including Santa Claus Hides in the Phonograph, 'And the Glory of the Lord' from the Messiah, Christmas Morning at Clancey's, Uncle Josh Plays Santa Claus, Angels from the Realms of Glory, and 18 more!

Santas Working Overtime is a chaotic link dump of all things Xmas, from recipes and crafts to videos, audio clips, lists, quizzes, reviews, podcasts and mix tapes, charity links, classical music, Christmas customs, cartoons, and on and on. For instance: John…

Plan to Take Over World, in 11 Easy Steps

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:26:00 -0500

There's a lot going on here ...

Comments interesting, too ...

1918

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:16:00 -0500

It was 90 years ago today that the fighting of World War I between the Allies and Germany ceased, on 11 a.m. on 11 Nov. 1918 -- now variously commemorated as Veteran's Day (U.S. only), Armistice Day, Poppy Day, and Remembrance Day. The Treaty of Versailles officially ended the war (and some would say laid the ground for the next one) when it was signed the next year in June.

I started thinking about what else was going on in 1918.

NOTABLE EVENTS

The Spanish Flu epidemic, coming in waves from 4 March 1918 to June 1920, infecting from 500 to 950 million people worldwide and killing 20 to 100 million people, likely quite a bit more than the number of people killed in World War I (8.5-10 million combatants plus about 10 million civilians, mainly of famine and illness other than the flu). The Spanish Flu was unusual in that it killed healthy adults (average age: 33) and spread even to the Arctic. It seems to have started in the U.S. state of Kansas.

The Sedition Act was passed in the U.S. at the behest of Pres. Woodrow Wilson and "forbade Americans to use 'disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language'…

What 5 Things Do You Do Each Day To Stay Sane?

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 06:00:00 -0400

The question presupposes that you are sane, of course.

My sanity enhancers are:

I work out for 30 minutes almost every day, and I take a 30-minute walk most days

I very rarely weigh myself

I spend time meditating and reflecting

I hang out with my dog a lot

I don't rush

Like Tyler, below, I rarely check my portfolio and I avoid TV ads and commercial radio.

Tyler Cowen (Marginal Revolution) offers four:

"I try to listen to beautiful music at least once a day, I don't check my portfolio even in the best of times, I hug a loved one at least one more time than was expected (with adaptive expectations this is hard to sustain over time but I have my tricks), and also I avoid television advertisements as much as possible."

You can weigh in at Mindapples (or here of course, in the comments) with your five, and also name 5 famous people you'd like them to pose the question to.

More on the project at the British Psychological Society Research Digest.

More Meals

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 09:30:00 -0400

Dinners since last post, so these are from 24 Aug - 6 Sept.

Last Week

Sunday: We ate out for lunch so just had sparse leftovers for dinner: a couple of tofu corn cakes, the green salad with tuna, and T. had half of his lunch meal that was left over. I think we had a new red wine with that, Bohemian Highway 2006, a Calif. cab sav., which I bought the day before at Whole Foods for $6. Sugar-free fudgesicle for dessert

Monday: I steamed two ears of corn-on-the-cob, and I made a one-dish meal of whole wheat rotini with pesto, steamed green beans, and grilled mahi-mahi. I grilled (really, broiled) the mahi-mahi on skewers in the oven for about 6 mins. total, after marinating them for a while in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, fresh chopped basil, and black pepper. Split a Negra Modelo for dinner. Sugar-free fudgesicle for dessert

Tuesday: You guessed it: leftovers! The rest of the pesto pasta mahi dish, and I made two more ears of corn, plus I made another green salad with the usual ingredients (including egg but minus tuna), and then at the last minute I cooked up (pan-grilled) about 12 jumbo shrimp…

Speaking of food ...

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:00:00 -0400

Joe Posnanski blogs in some depth about favourite childhood foods that don't taste the same to the adult palate. And so far, there are 167 comments.

Q.v., Baseball Card Gum ("As a child it tastes like: Bubble blowing magic. As an adult it tastes like: Sugared sandpaper"); Beanie Weenies; Candy Cigarettes; Cotton Candy; Dinty Moore Beef Stew; Fig Newtons; Fluff; FunDip; Hungry Man (Turkey TV Dinner); Kentucky Fried Chicken; Necco Wafers; Pink Snowballs; Pop Tarts; Spaghetti-O’s; and Tang.

Songs for Summer

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:15:00 -0400

On NPR's All Things Considered today, a selection of summer songs from Tom Moon's 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. You can hear audio at NPR for 'I Want to Take You Higher' from Sly and the Family Stone's Stand! (I think I would instead choose 'Dance To The Music' or the obvious 'Hot Fun in the Summertime'), 'Poinciana' from Ahmad Jamal's But Not for Me: Live at the Pershing, and "L'estate: First Movement" from Vivaldi's Four Seasons as performed by Janine Jansen. Moon also cites Springsteen's Born to Run album.

Entertainment Weekly lists its 100 Greatest Summer Songs of All Time ('Hot Fun in the Summertime' is #9 on their list); Pop Culture Madness lists 40 Beach Music Vacation tunes.

The most summery song I know is The Catalinas' 'Summertime Calling Me' (1975). Brings back those Myrtle Beach days. Lately, I'm loving Springsteen's 'Girls in the Their Summer Clothes.'

Meals

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:05:00 -0400

I feel like blogging what I'm eating and making for dinner these days, I'd love to hear what other people are eating and making, too. I'm trying to incorporate more fish and fiber into my diet. A lot of that happens at breakfast (fiber -- 10 gms. in the oatmeal!) and lunch (fish and fiber) but I'm focusing on dinner here.

Last Week

I was on vacation in Boston, MA, and in Rehoboth Beach, DE. To the best of my memory, this is what I had for dinner (I didn't cook any of it):

Saturday: I attended an outdoor wedding of people I don't know with X, who does know them. Ate some appetizers like spicy cold shrimp and spanikopita (one of my favourites), along with champagne, then dinner for me was veggie kabobs and something else veggie with rice. Red wine with dinner, and lots of water. Dessert (the wedding cake) was scrumptious, moist red velvet cake. We ate outside, overlooking a meadow, and it was idyllic. I talked with my tablemates (an interesting ex-Presby pastor now working with juveniles in the prison system and his wife, an Episcopal Sunday School teacher/learning disabilities teacher) about Girard and mimetic theory! God…

Favourite Crime Novel Websites

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 07:40:00 -0400

A few websites that offer excellent comprehensive and/or in-depth information about crime novels.

LISTS

Stop, You're Killing Me! lists more than "2,500 authors, with chronological lists of their books (nearly 29,000 titles), both series (2,900+) and non-series." Also offers indexes by location, jobs and professions, historical time period of series character, and diversity (ethnicity, age, etc.), as well as category read-alike lists and lists of mystery award winners.

Clerical Detectives maintained by Philip Grosset: Excellent and expansive website offering information about authors and in-depth summaries of books in more than 50 series featuring clerical detectives -- 'any detective with a significant church or religious background' including priests, ministers, monks, nuns, ex-nuns, rabbis, church administrators, a church organist, and the clerk of a Quaker Meeting. Also has 'A Beginner's Guide to Detective Nuns.'

BiblioMystery: Mysteries Involving Libraries and Librarians, maintainted by Candy Schwartz at Simmons College in Boston: Extensive list of library-related mysteries with their publication info and one-line synopsis of plot. These include "mysteries in which books, manuscripts, libraries of any kind, archives, publishing houses, or bookstores occupy a central role, or mysteries in which librarians, archivists, booksellers, etc. are protagonists or antagonists (and preferably the location or occupation is important…

More Funeral Stuff

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:45:00 -0400

A short McSweeney's list: Phrases I'd Rather Not Be Used At My Funeral by Harry Burt, with my anxious additions:

"autoerotic asphyxiation" [likewise: "left 10-inch clawmarks"]

"found by cadaver dogs" ["according to the forensic entomologist"]

"hopped up on goofballs" ["ate her weight in Oreos"]

"minutes from rescue" ["last-second airline flight change"]

"prehensile tail" ["cascading sheets of mucus"]

["salvaged what we could," "leaned over the rim a smidge too far," "must have been in unimaginable pain," "what's that on his forehead? 'syawliarT'?"]