6 Pic Friday: The Forgotten Pic

Just kidding; it's not forgotten. I just saw this on noted Hi Fever and Gone Fashion' writer Breniecia's excellent twitter feed.

WHOA FOLKS!

@@------ CrUSh AlErT ----@@

Northern Exposure is rocking my world lately. What a great show! (Almost) Makes me want to move to Alaska! There are so many great things about this show - especially the fashion. Early '90's wilderness style never looked so good! Shelley's earrings are always a bright spot in any episode.

I'm watching Season 2 and so far Chris Stevens has pulled into the lead for hottest guy on the show. Chris is played by John Corbett who will later go on to become Carrie Bradshaw's hottest and best boyfriend ever on Sex & the City. What was she thinking cheating and breaking up with him??? On Northern Exposure, Chris is the DJ for the only radio station in town. Everybody loves "Chris in the Morning".

It's a morning show that's a mix of town announcements, book readings and overall life discussions. Apparently he even warrants a book. He is the town's only clergyman so he's your go to guy for all religious functions. Chris is a chill soul who has the hottest girlfriends in Cicely - and it's not hard to see why!

Also, he kind of bears a resemblance to David Foster Wallace at times.

5 pic 5riday

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Happy 75th Birthday Blue Ridge Parkway!




A JoP crush alert from way back celebrates NYC Fashion Week.

Did everyone get the memo? It's time to blog about fall decor. Get out your wagon wheels!

This pic is so awkward I couldn't resist it!

re: Crazy Pastor in Gainesville

I haven't followed "the crazy pastor is going to burn the Koran on Saturday" much because it sounds ridiculous. However, I was forced to hear about it on NPR this morning. Yes, it's crazy and clueless, but why are they giving this guy so much media time? I know he's doing it on the anniversary of September 11th, but does that warrant this becoming an actual story? Not to get all Sarah Palin on you, but - isn't the "main stream media" making this guy a celebrity? Aren't there intolerant people all over this country every day? Why is this guy getting coverage?

FRiDaY MyStErY TwEeT

It's time for a brand-new feature, one that has prizes! The first person to figure this out in the comments is the winner.

As a side note, I got a new phone this week and I can finally say I think I understand Twitter. If you're bored/stuck in traffic/waiting for someone, you know how you usually reach for your phone--just to look busy or send a text? Now that I can get it from my phone, I realize how Twitter is like a neverending stream of texts, to and from other people, that are occasionally funny!

That said, here's this week's Friday Mystery Tweet:

Parabéns @huckluciano feliz aniversário meu irmão!!Abraço para voce e outro para @angelicaksy! HAVE FUN BRO!

Pro tip: pay attention to context clues, and follow the links back to the source!

GOOD LUCK!

baby baby fallin' in love

5 Pic 5riday

Are the cicadas attacking everyone or is it just me?

pic I can't tell if this is real or fake.

Monkey saves Puppy.

Cleaning Big Ben. Not as big as I thought.

Cat with 4 ears????

Summer Reading Roundup: Far North

This is the cover of Wolf Whistle by Lewis Nordan, one of my favorite books, and what I tried to draw your attention to via highlighting or some kind of very simple text-boxing (but couldn't, because apparently this computer doesn't have a thing that will do that) is the review in the middle: "Six words of advice: Read him. Read him. Read him."

I always laughed at that review, but it's the best I can come up with right now for Marcel Theroux's Far North. I blew through this one in like two days, and I wish it would go on f

orever or that the author would write 100 sequels. Read it, read it, read it!

Again without going too much into detail, Far North's protagonist is the sheriff of an abandoned town in Siberia settled by Quaker Americans during what seems like our lifetime. Then, later in our lifetimes, the earth heats up until there's famine and disease everywhere except the Arctic Circle, so the peaceful Quaker towns they'd settled are overrun with basically everyone in the world who can make it north to look for food. Nuts!

Don't read the NYT review of this book, by the way: it's favorable enough but the reviewer gives away some exciting twists in the plot and gets a few details wrong. Which is a bad combo! I had the luxury of reading this without having heard or read anything about it before--so everything was a surprise, and I liked it that way. I should also say that this was impressive because/despite I'd never read the other big apocalyptic-dystopia books (The Road, The Stand, etc.) and this was all fresh.

Sooooooo, Far North gets an A and might be the best book I've read all summer??????????

Busy week!

There's a lot going on this week, all over the country. Here are 3 events I've considered, yet I can only make it to one...can you guess which one????

11th Annual Gathering of the Juggalos (August 12-15, Cave-in-Rock, Illinois)

The Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting (August 11-15, Washington, D.C.)

U.S. Masters Swimming's 2010 Summer Nationals (August 9-12, San Juan, Puerto Rico)

Summer Reading Roundup: Eating Animals

I'd never read anything by Jonathan Safran Foer before, but I was always drawn to his cover art. Eating Animals was no different, plus it was on a topic that matters to me, and I may have bought it for Robert this Christmas because I wanted to read it. Well folks, I finally got around to reading it, a mere 7 months later!

I get preachy enough on JOP that I'll spare you a point-by-point summary of this book, but you should know that it is really good, really thoroughly researched, really well written, and I am vividly sicked-out by the bacon that just a few weeks ago I (a "vegetarian") ate.

The premise is that we all know animal slaughter is disgusting; we all know factory farming is wrong. The information is there for all of us and nobody doubts how awful factory farms are for us, for the environment, for communities, and finally for the animals. So why do we ignore that and keep eating meat? "Because it tastes good." Weak! Don't start with the "protein" junk, either. Americans get way too much protein and it has a lot to do with our cancer incidence.

But don't take my word for it! Eating Animals, which is a quick, page-turning read, gets the solidest A.