RIP, Single Ladies

I am now officially declaring the Single Ladies fad dead and deceased because of the super skeevy video I've posted below of some 7-year-old dancers slutting it up to our favorite Beyonce song. Single Ladies has had a great life, with a heelarious spoof by Justin Timberlake and a shout out from President Obama when he demonstrated his own hand-flipping ability, but now it's time to bid it farewell (and I do so with great sadness) because it's just gone too far.

BTW, the Modern Love Machine and I have finally gotten around to digesting the first season of Glee (and it is delightful), and I finally saw the episode that involved a whole lotta Single Ladies, and it was spectacular. I mean, it blended my love of Beyonce and football. What more can I ask for?

And now, prepare to feel icky:



I'm not accepting nominations for the next Single Ladies fad. Until then, here's Beyonce's latest. It ain't bad (and it's sure a hell of a lot better than that Telephone song with Gaga, which I really wanted to like.)

"Why Don't You Love Me" - Beyoncé from Beyoncé on Vimeo.

And now for a word from the Modern Love Machine

The Modern Love Machine asked one day if he was allowed to blog here at The Modern Gal, and I said, 'Of course! I'd be thrilled if you wrote regularly at the MG.' And then he claimed he had no idea what to blog about. Sheesh. Amateurs.

So instead of come up with his own idea, he asked his students to submit a list of interview questions to him, and he has graciously answered them here so you can all get a chance to know him better. Keep in mind he teaches Algebra and Geometry at an inner-city school, so, yeah.

Here we go ...

Q. Why no changy my sucker?
A: Because you don't know how to spell change.

Q. If you could travel the world were would you go or visit?
A: There are so many places that I would head off to that I'm not sure where I would start. Spain, New Zealand, Japan, Italy, Germany, Vatican City.

Q. Have you ever...been skydiving?
A. No. I'd like to say that it would be a blast, and I would love to do it. I have a feeling though that once I was up there it would be hard for me to jump out of the plane.

Q. Who's your favorite Marvel hero or villain?
A. I don't read comic books anymore, but when I was a kid I read a lot of Spiderman and really enjoyed it b/c he was a nerd before he became Spiderman. I always hoped that I would get bitten by a radioactive spider and get those powers too. It didn't happen.

Q. Why do you teach at XXXXX High School?
A. In reality they are the first ones who offered me a job. Now it's b/c I love teaching here.

Q. Have your got drunk at a party?
A. I assume you mean have I ever gotten drunk at a party. The answer to that question is yes.

Q. Why are you bald?
A. Technically I'm not bald, I have a receding hair line. So I'm in the process of going bald. To answer your question though I would assume it's genetics. Also the Modern Gal loves my hair, or lack there of. (Editor's note: True story)

Q. What kind of music do you listen to?
A. I really enjoy rock, pop, 80's, 90's alternative, 90-2000's rap, old school country, and various other musical stylings. I've really been into Ok Go, Them Crooked Vultures, and The Beatles of late.

Q. Why is the ACT so friggin hard?
A. If it was easy then everyone would be able to go to Harvard and they probably wouldn't like that.

Q. How old was you when you first got drunk?
A. I believe I was a freshman in college, so 18.

Q. Do you party?
A. All the time. My life is one big party.

Q. What inspired you to become a teacher?
A. My parents told me that I had 4 years to graduate from college and then they were going to stop paying for it. I picked something I was good at (Math) and kind of wanted to do (teach). That plus I had an amazing high school calculus teacher by the name of Mr. Stelmaszak. That guy could teach math to a stick.

Q. Was you bald in high school?
A. No I were not.

Q. What's your name?
A. Bill Liverwurst

Q. What is the meaning of life?
A. I'm not really sure.

Q. Did you party in high school?
A. I did not party a single bit. I was a huge nerd in high school and was often found in my garage with my other nerdy friends playing nerd games.

Q. What does parabola mean?
A. The curve formed by the set of points in a plane that are all equally distant from both a given line (called the directrix) and a given point (called the focus) that is not on the line.

Q. I heard freshman year that you were an atheist is it true, just curious?
A. No that is not true. I haven't picked a major yet and am still pursuing my options.

Q. Next time you get candy can you get chocolate?
A. I can, although I do believe I went out and bought dum-dum suckers instead. Chocolate is expensive and I don't make that much.

Q. Can you get me a soda from the teachers machine? I'm really thirsty!
A. No. I'm mean like that.

Q. Who's your favorite musical artist?
A. Of all time I would have to say Queen. Right now though Ok Go rocks my socks off.

Q. Are you a morning pooper?
A. I'm a pooper. Like most guys I enjoy my poops and don't like to rush them if I need to, which can often happen in the morning. However sometimes you just go to go.

Q. If you were a fruit what would you be?
A. A lime b/c I would go great with a G&T or tequila.

Q. Have you ever fight at any school?
A. I used to get beat up all the time in middle school. I haven't been in a fight since then.

Q. Are you two faces with student?
A. I generally try to treat everyone the same, but I will admit if you're an asshole to me on a regular basis I probably won't treat you the same as everyone else.

Q. What's one thing you want to do before you die?
A. I really want to see one of those billboards that shows you what the Powerball jackpot is change numbers. Not sure why, but I think that would be kind of cool.

Cookie Monster and the origin of 'Om nom nom'

My main man on Sesame Street may have indeed been the originator of the oft-used 'om nom nom' phrase. Come to think of it, he may have had a role in the origins of LOL speak too. Me can has cookie?



I posted on this a long time ago, but as a refresher: the always entertaining Om nom nom nom blog.

P.S. Happy birthday, Sesame Street!

Trip down Michigan Memory Avenue

I got to Chicago early yesterday morning, with the plan of just spending some time wandering around the city while waiting for friends to get off work. Because it had been soooo long since I'd really gotten down and dirty shopping, I wandered over to the Miraculous Mile on Michigan Ave. and hit up all the cheap affordable stores that I can't find at home in Tennessee.

I don't do a lot of strolling through stores whose merchandise I know I can't afford or stuff I know I really don't need with the notion if I don't actually see the stuff I won't have the temptation to buy, but I did take a side trip through a store which I didn't really need anything ... The American Girl store.

I know, what, am I 8 years old again? Still, American Girl was a big part of my childhood. I began reading the books when I was 4 (I blossomed early as a reader) -- back when the only options were Kirsten, Samantha and Molly. A few years later Santa brought me a Kirsten doll for Christmas. And subsequent Christmases and birthdays resulted in gifts of her clothing and accessories. I used to hide in the bushes in the backyard to pretend I lived on the frontier like Kirsten did.
Being in the store really took me back and blew my mind. They have like a dozen characters and dolls now! And they 'retired' Samantha for some reason. Still, I was drawn to all the little outfits and knickknacks, just as if I were 8 again.

I'm guessing a bunch of you modern gals were American Girl fans too. Which was your favorite character? Did you have a doll?

P.S. I'm having a blast so far in Chicago and BlogHer hasn't even started. I'm sure I'll be doing more updates later. Stay tuned!

In which I let my nerd flag fly

So even though I've been too busy to post here lately, I was not too busy to do a guest post today for one of my favorite blogs, The Park Bench, a gathering place for nerdy women and nerdy men of discerning taste.

Liz, the blogkeep over at the Bench does a great job of keeping track of things that are near and dear to the hearts of nerdy gals everywhere (and a little bit of nerdiness is key to every modern gal's life), so I was thrilled when she asked me to write about a nerdy experience of my own. I shall say two words about the post and you'll have to read the rest: Space Camp.

Also, check out Liz's own post about how to meet and woo a nerdy girl. Her tips are awesome, especially No. 8 which has been used on me countless times and yet never gets old.

1992 called and said 'Wasn't TV better back then?'

I love that three different friends sent me the link to the clip of Zack Morris on Jimmy Fallon yesterday. I don't think I've ever talked about it much, but yes, I was a huuuuuuuge SBTB fan back in the days when it came on twice on TBS and twice on WGN after school. I've seen every episode so many times I could probably do a Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)-style re-enactment of the show's entire run. My parents bought me the DVD sets one Christmas without me even asking. I sometimes converse in SBTB speak. Por ejemple:

Setting: Phone conversation between Modern Angie and myself, Tuesday night
MG: How are you doing?
MA: You know the episode where Jessi got hooked on caffeine pills?
MG: I'm so excited! I'm so excited! I'm so ... scared.
MA: That's how I feel.
MG: Oh man, let's talk.

I digress, here's the Jimmy Fallon clip if you missed it:


Other than the whole coming-out-in-character bit, I was kinda disappointed. Or maybe it was just that I couldn't get past how disturbingly old Zack Morris' face was. Well, I take that back, the timeout/time in thing was funny, as was the reference to Kelly moving to a different zip code.

I should mention also that I've met Mr. Belding. We used to live in the same city until I moved on to bigger and better things.

In other childhood TV news, check this video out of a guy who made a pilgrimage to the Family Matters house in Chicago. The video isn't that spectacular, but it's worth watching the first few seconds just to see the house next door.



BTW, while we were in San Francisco last week, Modern Jay and his lady made his own pilgrimage to see the Painted Ladies houses made familiar to a whole generation of kids in the Full House opening sequence. Though it was very near the house we stayed in, I did not make the trip myself and am stealing her photo to share with you. I hope she doesn't mind.


Ok, sing with me now .... "Everywhere you look ..."

Wedding crashers

As we all know, when you make plans in life, life often has other plans for you. Such was the case for me this weekend.

I had been planning for weeks -- well really years, I guess -- to travel again to Memphis this weekend, this time to see a dear friend of mine from childhood be ordained a Catholic priest. A very big deal as the Catholic church is obviously in need of some good, young priests and my friend had been preparing for some time for this big day.

Alas, I realized by Tuesday that I might not physically make it to Memphis. With back-to-back long weekends in Memphis and San Francisco which included the 24 hours of traveling it took to get to and from those two places, my body was about to give up on me -- my brain more or less already had -- and I couldn't find anyone who was interested in making the trip with me. I was torn, but I knew I had to make the decision to stay put in Knoxville for the weekend for my own health. And it would give me a chance to get my life sort of back on track after being gone so much. The plan was to wash clothes, cook meals, sign the lease on the house and just take a breather.

Heh.

On Wednesday, another good childhood buddy came to Knoxville for an extended weekend of wedding festivities of a high school classmate of ours, with whom I was also friends. We had plans even while I was still anticipating driving to Memphis to get dinner on Wednesday night. Dinner Wednesday night turned into participation in some of the subsequent wedding week partying after I decided not to go to Memphis. Before I knew it, I too was invited to the wedding.

There ended up being five or six guys in attendance for the wedding whom I knew really well in high school. I was in many, many classes with them, we did band together and I even worked with one of them. To a teenage girl, they were your typical high school boys: weird but funny, also awkward and (some of them) only manageable in small doses.

Well, guess what. They grow up. They're still weird and funny but not nearly as awkward as they once were and much more enjoyable in longer doses. We had a blast, and it made me actually want to go to my high school reunion which will be looming over my head in about a year.

And as an added bonus, the wedding photographer just happened to be the Modern Fella, who makes his living making photographs (though for more than just weddings). He ended up hanging out for all the festivities. Having not seen him much in the past few weeks, it was good to be around him even if he was working most of the time.

The wedding was outside and very, very laid-back -- well suited for the bride and groom, who met while playing ultimate frisbee. Also well suited for some ultimate frisbeeing before and after the ceremony, which was performed by a friend of theirs who had gotten ordained via the internet. If the frisbee wasn't enough, there was also a slip-n-slide, provided by the father of the groom. The bride, groom, parents of the happy couple and friends all took turns racing each other down the slide.

And I can say this much: if you're going to crash a wedding, you might as well crash one that involves frisbee and slip-n-sliding, amiright?

The groom (left) and his father racing down the slip-n-slide.

I've got your picture

So while I'm going through Purgeathon 2009, my mother has been doing her own home purging in preparation for a bunch of visitors in town this weekend for my uncle's wedding. And despite the fact that I'll be the only one staying in my bedroom, she's used this as an excuse to clean out my closet.

This has been going on for a few months, and every time we cross paths she sends me home with a box or two filled with old stuff for me to go through and either get rid of or return to her for further storage. Last night I poured myself a large glass of wine and broke into the most recent collection of Rubbermaid tubs.

The first was easy: a bunch of old purses, most of which ended up in the Goodwill pile while the rest went into my closet.

The other two were filled with the most random crap: old jewelry boxes with cheap kiddie jewelry, 20-year-old baseball caps, old school projects, greeting cards from schoolmates and my parents, Magic Eye books, etc. At the very bottom of one tub, pinned below a 1,000-page book on the history of the Catholic church in West Tennessee (it was a Confirmation gift -- it's going to the used book store) was a photo, one that had seen some wear and tear.

It's a photo of my high school sweetheart and me. The one whom I'd gotten together with and broken up with probably two dozen times before deciding I was done with him for good upon arriving at college. My first love. My first everything. He's got his left arm around me, and his right arm is stretched out taking the picture. We've both got big smiles plastered across our faces.

The funny thing about this photo is I cannot for my life remember taking it or when it was taken. I can look at most any photo of me and tell you when it was taken and under what circumstance. Not this one. Judging by the way we look and the clothes we're wearing and the fact that the car he got for his 16th birthday is behind us, I'd peg it to the beginning of my sophomore year. I could be an entire year off, though.

But I keep going back to our smiles. They're so ... I don't know ... real. Most photos I see the subjects have fake smiles -- not necessarily bad smiles, just smiles that were obviously put on for the camera's sake. Say cheese.

I just wish I knew what we were smiling about. Were we just doing a really, really good job of faking it?** Or were we genuinely happy about something?

Now, here's why finding that photo last night was kind of uncanny: I had gotten a text message from him earlier in the day. He and his wife are pregnant. I knew what the occasion of the text message was before my phone even buzzed to announce its arrival: 'IT'S A GIRL!'

By all measures, I should be bitter. Here's my first love making one of the happiest announcements of his life (he's never told me, but I know for a fact he wanted a girl) while I'm all the way at square one when it comes to having a family of my own.

And yet I smiled. A big smile. A real smile.

Maybe, just maybe those smiles in that photo were because of a secret that only our subconscious minds knew: that one day long after our lives went opposite directions we'd still be friends sharing important news. And still smiling about it.

But lest I leave you with the impression that we have just a perfect little friendship, I should say this: he still manages to annoy the crap out of me after all these years.

**We were involved in this performance at school one time that required us to dance with each other in front of an audience. We were told after the fact that we did such a good job looking like we were so into each other. The funny thing is we had just had a humongous fight, and I didn't look him in the eyes the entire time. I looked at his forehead.

Really, I am with the band

I have had a super hard time getting back into the blogging routine after vacation. Isn't that how it always is? You need a vacation to recover from your vacation, and I've certainly acted like I was still on vacation this week, despite having a few long days at work.

Anyway, back to interview week(s), where the next question comes from Mickey, who is off roaming in the mountains of Wyoming somewhere: If you could have been in one 80's metal band, which would you choose? And what instrument would you play? Or would you sing?

Wow, that is such a good question, and I think it was the one I struggled most with because I obviously take my '80s music seriously and it was hard to narrow the field.

KISS sings a song that I completely identify with (though I cannot reveal which song here on the blog), but that particular song was released in the '70s, so I guess that puts them off the table. I think I'd get sick of doing the makeup anyway. Poison sings my favorite '80s power ballad (Every Rose Has Its Thorn), and Guns N' Roses is my absolute favorite '80s metal band of all time, and the one I feel has withstood the test of time.

The only thing about those three bands is I actually discovered them all in the '90s after I discovered there was a world of music out there beyond the oldies and easy listening stations my parents listened to on the radio. BUT, there is one metal band I formed a connection with in the '80s: Twisted Sister.

Now for story time in which the Modern Gal really reveals how much of a dork she is. (I know it's long, but stick with me. I PROMISE it's worth it.)

How did I form a connection with Twisted Sister in the '80s? Does anyone remember the Flight of the Navigator? If you do, then you probably get the Twisted Sister reference. If not, read on.

Flight of the Navigator was this Disney movie, which in retrospect was incredibly lame, but to a budding young nerd in the late '80s it was AWESOME. So awesome that my best friend and I would watch it every time we spent the night at one another's houses. The premise is that this kid falls into a ravine in the late '70s and wakes up in the mid '80s without having aged. NASA wants to study him to see why. The key to getting him back to the '70s where he belongs is this robot named Max (voiced by Pee Wee Herman) and his flying saucer which can zip him back through time. There's more to the plot than that, but it's been so danged long since I've actually seen it, I really don't remember.

ANYWAY, there's a scene while he's at NASA where, OMG, SARAH JESSICA PARKER! ... (those reading through your blogreader should click through now to see awesome SJP video)


After he points out her purple hair, she goes on to say she had gone to a Twisted Sister concert the night before, and he's like who are those girls? And she's all, 'they're not girls.' Yadda, yadda, yadda.

So at the tender young age of 8, I had no clue of any of the music Twisted Sister sang (We're Not Gonna Take It would eventually work itself into my '80s music rotation), but any group of male musicians who called themselves Twisted Sisters and compelled someone like SJP to turn her hair purple was a band that rocked my tiny little world. The name Twisted Sister would stick with me forever.

Now, here's where the story comes full circle: Fast forward to February 2008, when I find out that I'm getting the job that's going to officially transfer me from Nashville to Knoxville. My boss calls me into his office to tell me the news and then shares the news with the rest of my co-workers, who clap and congratulate me. One co-worker, whose job description has him interacting with famous people day in and day out, was on the phone at the time. He got off the phone and said he had been talking to someone famous who asked what the commotion was. Co-worker told the famous person about my new job and that everyone was clapping for me, and then famous person told co-worker to tell me congratulations.

The famous person? Dee Snider.

So Mickey, if I could be in an '80s metal band, it would be Twisted Sister, really just because I wanted to tell that ridiculous (yet completely true) story about how Dee Snider and I are already BFF. Well, I'd enjoy the awful permed hair too. I totally went through a permed hair stage. Twice. Ok, three times. And I'd probably play bass, because it just seems hot for a Modern Gal to play bass, right? And 'We're Not Gonna Take It' has a sweet bass line.

Better than a boob job

Barbie turns 50 and decides to get inked. Yes, that's right. There's a Totally Stylin' Tattoos Barbie. She comes with her own tattoo gun.

I haven't searched around the internets much, but I'm sure this is causing all kinds of outrage among the mommy bloggers. I say the woman's got to deal with her midlife crisis, so lay off her.

This is how we rolled

Man, The Modern Gal is looking a little pale lately. All words, no pictures or videos makes for a very boring-looking blog. Let's fix that, shall we?

(Don't watch if you're offended by potty-mouth language)


Why do I bring up the Dude? Well I am a huge fan of the Coen brothers' flicks, but that's not why. It's because I did something this weekend that I haven't done in years upon years: I bowled on a Saturday night.

To be clear: bowling on a Saturday night is far different than bowling any other night of the week or even bowling on a Saturday afternoon. I've rolled on a random Tuesday night with friends just to break up the monotony of the week. For my 25th birthday, my friends and I commenced an in-denial kiddie bowling party on a Saturday afternoon that came with pizza and coke served in teeny-tiny paper Dixie cups. There's not anything terribly weird about bowling in those situations though. Bowling on Saturday night, however, involves a whole different subculture.

Sure, there are plenty of normal people at the alley on a Saturday night. People who just want to have a good time. Families looking for some PG fun. Then there's also the bleach-blonde, orangey fake bake gal wearing an inappropriately tight sparkly pink halter top with a big bow on the front (when it's 30 degrees outside).

There's the classic jukebox lineup: Britney Spears' 'Crazy' followed by GNR's 'November Rain.' And Chris Brown followed by Conway Twitty. I only wish I were kidding.

And did you know that they still turn the lights out at 10 p.m. for cosmic bowling despite the fact that black lights and day-glo paint stopped being cool like 10 years ago? (or at least as best as I can tell -- I really don't know what it is the kids are into these days besides Hannah Montana.)

I was a regular at the bowling alley in my high school days. Many people have a mall phase or a movie theater phase when they're in their teens. My friends and I had a bowling alley phase. When you go as often as we did, you roll pretty decently.

But as an adult, unless you're in a bowling league (and I think it's very awesome if you are) you're probably lucky to break 100 -- hell, you may be lucky to even break 50. It may have been months or even years since you last bowled. You're not as agile as you once were. You can't see the markers on the lane to line up your roll as well as you once could. I tell you, it's a bitch to get old. I tell you, in our party most of us were celebrating simply knocking pins down and not rolling a gutter ball.

And then there's the whole deal of adding alcohol to the equation. We were at a family establishment that tried to make it as difficult as possible on the underage drinkers -- you had to go to the bar to get a drink and you could only get one drink at a time and there were no pitchers. Let me repeat: NO PITCHERS. What that all adds up to is more time spent in line at the bar than at your lane waiting your turn to bowl. It took us two hours to get through one game.

Still, it was a blast to be able to laugh at myself and my bowling skillz (hey, I rolled a 91!) and the characters around us. You know, sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes, well ...

The making of Barbie

Sorry for the lack of posting in the past two days. After a spectacularly craptastic week at work (don't worry, I'm fine) and 10 hours of overtime over a three-day period, I've needed a bit of a mental break. I hope to get back to regular posting tomorrow.

In the mean time, here's an interesting and weird photo feature for the modern gals: The making of Barbie. Make sure you flip between the different galleries, which show some of the Barbie fashions and models. I admit, I had a rather large Barbie collection, but it was balanced out by my love of Legos and Matchbox cars.

Super Mario Hunt

This is kind of awesome.



Now if they could only work the World Class Track Meet with Power Pad into this somehow.

The most underrated Muppets

UPDATE: See additional note below.

I have a sense that a number of my Modern Friends are big Muppets fans, and for very good reason. Muppets are AWESOME.

But sadly, not all the awesome Muppets get their due. Topless Robot recognizes the eight most underrated Muppets. There are some great ones on this list, including my favorite: the Yip-Yip Martian Monsters.



I'd also say the Honkers were underrated. I had a Honker Bike Bell as a kid. It had a Honker face, and you hit the nose for it to ring. It was awesome.

While we're on the topic of Muppets and because Christmas is drawing ever near, if anyone wants to get The Modern Gal a really cool gift, consider making her her own MG-look-a-like Muppet at the Muppet Whatnot Workshop at FAO Schwarz. Talk about an underrated muppet.

I want my MTV!

I've had some seriously late nights at work lately, which require as serious of an effort to unwind after they're through. And my Modern Friends, I have found the key to serious unwinding without the need for alcohol.

MTV (you remember MTV, right?) has posted its entire music video collection (you remember music videos, right?) online at MTVmusic.com. They even allow embedding! MTV, you've finally done something right.

The Buggles MTV Music

And friends, believe me when I tell you this: THEY HAVE SOME POP-UP VIDEO SELECTIONS. I was a devoted viewer of Pop-Up Video and have mourned it's passing for quite some time.

Wham! MTV Music

I don't recommend checking out the site while at work. You will get nothing done for the rest of the week.

Who's bad ... and 50?

That would be the King of Pop.


I like to think that the real Michael Jackson fell off the stage at the 1993 Super Bowl halftime show and passed out of this realm and the MJ we have now is just a droid. If you think of it that way, it's so easy to focus on the goodness that was MJ of the '80s.

And so, Modern Friends, I share with you what I've been focusing on all morning in lieu of actual work. I nearly jumped up during the "Beat It" video to do the dance, but was worried my officemate might walk in at any moment and I do want to retain what little dignity I have here.

Here's a list of 50 weird MJ facts. (You have to click the arrows to see them)

A pictoral HisTory of MJ's face. (Don't view over lunch)

The MJ channel on YouTube. (I've spent most of my morning here)

It's time to play the music

I'm very pleased to see that Marshall Jason Segal wants to resurrect the Muppets with a new movie. Even better, should the movie do well, he may try to bring back the Muppet Show, reruns of which I watched obsessively as a child. I think the Muppet Show was the best thing they ever did.



Oh that Gonzo. What will come out of his trumpet next?

Stories that inspire

One of the best ways to improve your writing skills is to read the best things you can find out there. I'm sure every one of us has been inspired by a particular story, blogpost or writer.

Here are three news feature stories that I love. Two of them I've gone back to a number of times to find inspiration as a writer by trade. The third one I read for the first time yesterday, but I know I'll want to go back to it too, even though it's a hard one to read. They're all a bit long, but if you have the time to take to read any of them I assure you it will be worth it.

1. Pearls Before Breakfast from Gene Weingarten, The Washington Post, April 2007. If one of the world's most talented violinists plays one of the world's finest violins at a subway stop during rush hour, will anyone notice? Be sure you watch some of the embedded videos, they're key to the development of the story, which won a Pulitzer.

2. Life's Hardest Round from Michelle Hiskey, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, October 2007. A story about when sports take on a greater meaning than just game and the complex relationship between a father and daughter. I did a workshop with Hiskey one time, and she spoke of this being the toughest story she's ever written, but the one that's received some of the best reception. I'll bet many of you find that in your blog writing too.

3. The Girl in the Window from Lane DeGregory, St. Petersburg Times, July 31, 2008. The case of a child so neglected that she cannot speak, feed herself or play as a normal 9-year-old. Also the story of the family which adopted her and the mother who denies there was ever a problem. Have Kleenex ready. I will go ahead and call this for a Pulitzer win.

Two more Sesame Street videos

Y'all are probably thinking I watch Sesame Street regularly these days ... weeellllll ...

Actually, this first one is a mashup of Bert and Ernie rapping. I know everyone thinks their gay, but I knew they had a harder edge to them from living in the city. This might even replace this video as my favorite mashup of all time.



In my NPH post, I also neglected to mention his Sesame Street Shoe Fairy cameo. See it here.
(Cheers to Fishing Around for bringing it to my attention).

Feist does Sesame Street

I was all set to write a post about Project Runway and green fashion, but I just can't find the words in my exhausted brain tonight. So instead, I leave you with this video of a Sesame Street cameo from Feist and 1, 2, 3, 4.

It's cute, and watching it makes me think back to all those Sesame Street pop songs that totally changed my life as a 4-year-old. Like (and this makes me feel like a nerd, but I loved it) Smokey Robinson's "U Really Got a Hold on Me." Sesame Street was also responsible for me learning to appreciate Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher."