LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics

While traveling over the holidays, I came across a delightful retail store: LUSH. Headquartered in Canada, LUSH sells a wide assortment of "fresh, handmade cosmetics" in stores across the US and Canada. They also have a great website with descriptions with each of their products including detailed lists of ingredients, user comments, and ratings.


Irreverent and quirky, LUSH has products like Sex Bomb (get your minds out of the gutter, it's bubble bath), Mask of MagnaMinty (a minty face mask), and The Big Tease (hair styling gel). Their core philosophies are environmental consciousness, no animal testing, and fun. Here's some information about the company from their web page.

A LUSH LIFE.......what we believe!
FRESH...We believe in making effective products out of fresh organic fruit and vegetables, the finest essential oils and safe synthetics, without animal testing, and in writing the quantitative lists on the outside. We also believe that words like FRESH and ORGANIC have honest meaning beyond marketing.
NO ANIMAL TESTING...We also believe in buying only from companies that test for safety without the involvement of animals and in testing our products on humans.
HAND MADE...We believe in making our own fresh products by hand, printing our own labels and making our own fragrances.
AMBIENCE...We believe in long candlelit baths, massage, filling the house with perfume and in the right to make mistakes, lose everything and start again.
GOOD VALUE...We believe that our products should be good value, that we make a profit and that the customer is always right.

I purchased Dream Cream and I absolutely love it. It's a rich hand cream that is very moisturizing but is somehow not sticky or greasy. Even better, the effects last for a long time. Most hand creams I've tried seem to last for about 10 minutes. Now I'm wishing I'd purchased more things when I was in the store.

Waiter Rant

If you eat in restaurants, you will be amused and/or horrified by Waiter Rant. In this blog, the unnamed waiter posts horror stories (i.e. rants) about his mostly ghastly experiences waiting tables at "Café Machiavelli" in an unnamed city.


Here's the beginning of Leave Home Without It

The quartet of chattering yuppies on table 24 have finished dessert and ask for their check. They’ve been running me ragged all night with special requests, menu substitutions, and water refills for glasses three quarters full. I’m glad they’re leaving.
“Here you are, sir,” I say, laying the check presenter on the table. “It’s been a pleasure serving you this evening.”
“Don’t go anywhere,” the host, a balding man wearing black framed designer glasses, says imperiously. “I’ll give you my card right now.”
The man pulls his wallet out of his breast pocket, peruses the dozen or so credit cards it contains, selects an American Express Platinum Card, and puts it on the table. Crap.
“I’m terribly sorry, sir,” I say. “We don’t take American Express.”
“What?” the host gasps. “Why not?”
“I’m sorry, sir. It’s the restaurant’s policy.”
“That’s ridiculous!” the man says. “What would happen if I didn’t have another credit card?”

The posts are all well-written and funny. As a restaurant patron, they're thought provoking as well. Why are so many customers assholes?

Real Age Calculator

Would you like to know how old you really are? Check out the Real Age Calculator. I'm not any kind of health professional, so I have no idea how accurate the thing is, but it gave me an answer 10+ years younger than my biological age, so it gets a big thumbs up from me!

Rumor Has It

If you're like me, you frequently receive forwarded emails containing urban legends, myths, and rumors from friends and associates. Before forwarding these things on, PLEASE check them against The Urban Legends Reference page, Snopes.com.

If you do check the forwarded emails you receive, you'll find out that almost all of them are false. Snopes goes to great lengths to prove or disprove the validity of the claims found in these things. They cite references, such as newspapers and even scholarly journals. On top of all that, their writeups are usually really funny.

Remember: Snopes before you forward!

Urban Dictionary

I find it extremely annoying when someone uses an acronym, slang expression, or phrase and I have no idea what they're talking about. Fortunately, there's a solution to this minor problem: Urban Dictionary.

Full of R and X-rated content, this user-generated dictionary has definitions of every possible slang word. Since anyone can submit, some of the words and definitions are ridiculous. Each entry has a thumbs up and thumbs down count next to the definition to give the user an idea of how popular the word and its definition are.
The site offers a Word of The Day, which you can sign up to receive by email or by RSS feed. These words are usually pretty funny and actually useful. Here are a few current examples.

December 12
w00t
An expression of joy and excitement.
I just got an A on my test. w00t!

December 11
wi-five
It's a high five that doesn't involve actually contact, normally over a long distance where a real high-five isn't possible. Mix of "wireless" and "high-five", hence "wi-five", (wireless high-five)
Iain (yelling across the room): Dude, that mess was teh pwnz. Wi-five, brosef.
Eric (in response): You need to chill with that nano shit, son

December 10
compunicate
When you are in the same room with someone, each on seperate computers, and you talk via Instant Messenger instead of speaking to them out loud, in person

Even though they are sitting right next to each other, Jesse and Justin only compunicate when they have to tell each other something.

Next time you're reading something on the internet, whether a website, a blog, a forum, or whatever, and you come across an unfamiliar word or acronym, give Urban Dictionary a try.

Happy Bloody Holidays

I went in for a routine blood test this morning. No big deal, right. Poke my arm, take my blood, get me outta there so I can go to Starbuck's (or better yet, Peet's). Man I hate this "nothing by mouth after midnight the night before" stuff. So I'm in the waiting area looking at the corny, corporate holiday decorations and I'm completely floored when I notice this on the wall behind me:

The first two things are standard-issue junk; fake poinsettias and a plastic "Season's Greetings" sign. Nothing celebrates the joy of the holidays like plastic. But wait. What is that below it? A bunch of stuff scotch taped directly to the wall. Here's a close-up.

Those are the vials they use to collect your blood. Somebody in that medical office has a sense of humor. I love it.

Confidence

How's that for a vague post title? Here it refers to the title of a film (normally I call 'em "movies", but I watched this on the Independent Film Channel, so I guess this one is a "film"). Confidence, released in 2003, stars Edward Burns and Rachael Weisz, with Dustin Hoffman. The film plays like a foul-mouthed version of The Sting with Paul Newman and Robert Redford (according to IMDB, the word "fuck" is said in Confidence 130 times).


The film starts with a voiceover: Jake Vig, played by Edward Burns, says "So, I'm dead." This reminded me of the end of the other movie when Robert Redford was "dead" at the hand of the "FBI agent." So already I'm thinking "Jake is SO NOT DEAD." Fade to black and "Three Weeks Earlier ..."


Jake and his team of grifters run a con. The mark turns out to be an operative of The King, the local big-shot crime lord. The King is really, really mad that his money is missing and has one of Jake's guys killed.


So far, we're about 30 minutes into the movie and they've practically copied The Sting's screenplay.


Jake visits The King (played to the hilt by a scenery-chewing Dustin Hoffman, clearly having a great time). The King, eccentric and possibly off his rocker, tells Jake that he'll stop killing Jake's friends and let him repay his debt if Jake manages to con Morgan Price, a banker with deep ties to organized crime. Of course, Morgan Price is The King's biggest enemy and The King wants nothing more than to humiliate this guy (and of course, The King thinks all that money would be nice, too).


The Sting again -- this is the Setup. Just like they dangled lots of easy money in front of the mob boss in the earlier movie, they're doing it here. There's even a scene were one of Jake's team says "Nobody pulls that con anymore," and somebody says something just like that in The Sting. The idea is that this con is so old it's new again. Brilliant.


I'm not going to give away the rest of the plot, because from this point on the movie, er film, is actually pretty absorbing. It gets pretty twisty and complicated and there are lots of crosses and double-crosses. It's very entertaining and it does keep you guessing from the middle onwards.


Ed Burns does an excellent job playing the smooth operator. There's something kind of blank about him in this film, by necessity. I'd like to see him in a role with more depth. Dustin Hoffman was both hilarious and frightening as the omni-sexual, brutal and eccentric crime boss.


Overall, I'd recommend this film.

A Christmas Story: A Generation X Thing?

A Christmas Story has been my favorite Christmas movie for a long time. I don't remember seeing it when it came out in 1983, but then again, most people don't, because it was something of a flop in the theaters. It became a cult hit 15 or 20 years ago, and now that TBS runs it "wall-to-wall" (24 hours straight) on Christmas day every year, it's pretty much mainstream.


In case you're haven't seen it, here's a brief synopsis. The movie is set in Indiana in the 1940's. Nine-year old Ralphie wants only one thing for Christmas: a Red-Ryder BB gun. All the adults in his life tell him the same thing: "you'll shoot your eye out."


If someone asked me to name the funniest moment in A Christmas Story, I'd have a very hard time coming up with just one. All of Ralphie's dream sequences, especially the ones where he has his Red Ryder and he gets the bad guys. The scene in the Chinese restaurant. The time Ralphie got to help The Old Man change a tire, lost the lug nuts, swore and got his mouth washed out with soap. In fact, any scene with The Old Man is golden. Probably best of all is the "major award" and the mother's reaction to it.


How anyone could say A Christmas Story has "attitude" is beyond me. It is just like a real childhood. I could never relate to It's a Wonderful Life. It strikes me as forced and preachy. When Donna Reed looks at Jimmy Stewart at the end, all dewy-eyed, I want to shout at the screen, "Oh for goodness sake, woman, get a life!" To each his own - if that's your favorite Christmas movie, please watch it. It just doesn't work for me.

A recent article in Time laments "A Christmas Story's attitude is superseding It's a Wonderful Life's earnestness" and goes on to say that this change is caused primarily by Generation X and Y.

In a 2006 Harris poll, respondents from 18 to 41 years old named it (A Christmas Story) their favorite holiday movie, while their parents and grandparents picked Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street.

That's not to say Christmas Story or its viewers are cynical. It's nostalgic--but for the past's faults, not its imagined perfection. It's the nostalgia of its Gen-X and -Y fans, who remember childhood in terms of divorces and bad haircuts.

I agree about the nostalgia part. Here's a big problem about the demographics: I'm 52, well out of Generations X and Y. Many of the people in my ancient age group also love A Christmas Story and watch it every year. Please respond to the poll have at the top of the page and let me know if I'm alone on this. I'd love to hear your comments, too.

Always Love

Moving out of my self-imposed box of websites, TV, and movies, this post is about something new: a song. I heard a song on Radio Paradise today that "blew my mind." (Oh no, my 1960's are showing again.) Normally when I listen to the radio, the lyrics of a song that I haven't heard before form a pleasant blur in my head. As long as the song is musically pleasing, it's all good.

"Always Love" by Nada Surf jumped out at me, though. Video.

Here are the lyrics:

ALWAYS LOVE

to make a mountain of
your life is just a choice
but i never learned enough
to listen to the voice that told me

always love
hate will get you every time
always love
don't wait ‘til the finish line

slow demands come around
squeeze the air and keep the rest out
it helps to write it down
even when you then cross it out

but always love
hate will get you every time
always love
even when you want to fight

self-directed lives
i want to know what it'd be like to
aim so high above
every card that you get dealt you

always love
hate will get you every time
always love
hate will get you


and i've been held back by something
you said to me quietly on the stairs
you said hey you good ones
always love


The song is plaintive and sweet and yet full of retribution. Hate will get you every time. Karma is a bitch. There's a symmetry to that that really speaks to me.

Moonbeam McQueen

The short description I have given to Moonbeam McQueen is "a uniquely literate woman's take on life," but that doesn't begin to do it justice.

MBMcQ blogs about whatever is on her mind, and she has a lot on her mind. Her posts range from thoughtful to gut wrenching to hilarious. Today, for example she ruminated about the technological challenges of blogging vs. her aging mind in a post called I Can Has Feedburner? In a world where "LOL" is so overused, the title of the post alone made me truly laugh out loud.

It's silly to explain a joke, but subtlety has never been my strong suit, so I'm going to explain anyway. "LOL Cats" have been a phenomenon on the internet for a couple of years now. People have taken pictures of cats and applied silly captions to them and these have been passed around by email and collected on various websites. One of the largest collections of these pictures appears at I Can Has Cheezburger?, so named after one of the first pictures on the site.

Feedburner is a tool used by bloggers to, well . . . burn their feeds. I have no idea what that means. I've heard of it, I've seen their little firey logo on other blogs (belonging to bloggers presumably smarter than me). That's why I thought Moonbeam's post was so doggone funny. I highly recommend her site.

Paul Bettany

While Christmas shopping in Target, I happened on the $9.99 DVD rack. I grabbed a copy of 2003's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, starring Russell Crowe. There's no question that this is Crowe's movie, as he is in fine form as Captain Jack Aubry, commander of the H.M.S. Surprise, intent upon his orders to "sink, burn or take as a prize" the French privateer Acheron. Crowe swaggers, shouts orders, and swash buckles.

For me, however, the best part of the movie is Paul Bettany's portrayal of Dr. Stephen Maturin. Bettany brings a quiet dignity to the role of ship's surgeon and captain's friend and confidant. He truly is the heart amid all the noise and bluster of this movie. He's no warrior, but he's no wimp, either. At one point, he must perform abdominal surgery on himself while looking into a mirror because there was simply no one else qualified. Yikes.

Dr. Maturin's dream was to spend time in the Galapagos, discovering new species, but "the requirements of the service" (that is, chasing after the Acheron, Capt. Aubrey's white whale), seem to always prevent him from doing so. He bears this disappointment with great dignity and stoicism but it is clear how greatly he is crushed by this loss. Bettany never oversells any of this; his performance is clear, yet subtle.

I first became aware of Paul Bettany in the anachronistic but very fun movie A Knight's Tale, in which he played Geoffrey Chaucer. This is a silly movie about a lowborn boy (Heath Ledger) who dreams of becoming a knight. Chaucer (yes, the famous poet Chaucer) becomes his herald in order to settle a gambling debt. The speeches that Bettany, as Chaucer, makes before the jousting matches are unbelievably funny.

Another one of Paul Bettany's famous roles was with Russell Crowe, in A Beautiful Mind. He played Charles, John Nash's friend who turned out to be imaginary.

He's an excellent actor that always brings something extra to his films.

Save Journeyman

One more post on Journeyman, and then I'll change the subject, I promise.

This show is on the cancellation bubble. The consensus on the various Internet discussion boards is that there are two reasons for the show's difficulty:

1. NBC scheduled the show badly. It's on, Mondays at 10 p.m., opposite CSI:Miami. Jerry Bruckheimer's CSI franchise cannot be stopped.
2. NBC failed to promote the show adequately. The network ran endless promotional spots for other shows - Bionic Woman being a glaring example - and very few for Journeyman. The few that they ran did very little to reveal the true nature of the show. It sounded like a hokey Quantum Leap ripoff, which it isn't. They share a time travel premise, and that's it.

This show is too good to let die, especially in the middle of a season. The latest news, as reported by Ain't It Cool News, is that NBC is going to air all completed-to-date episodes of the series after all. This amounts to three more episodes.

In order to keep the show on, fan action will be the key. This has worked in the past for other shows.

Send an email, fax, or phone call to NBC telling them you enjoy the show and would be disappointed to see it cancelled. Feel free to copy and paste the suggested text below, or use your own words. Whatever works for you.

Joanne Park, Senior Press Manager - NBC Entertainment Publicity
(Project Assignment: “It’s a Wonderful Life” “The Singles Table” “Journeyman” “The Office”)
Phone: (818) 840-4579
Fax: (818) 840-4943
Email: joanne.park@nbcuni.com

___________________________________
Dear Ms. Park,

I'm contacting you to express support for my favorite NBC show, Journeyman.

Journeyman is a quality show that has developed well-fleshed out characters that emotionally resonate. Because the emotions portrayed on the show are so real, identifiable and emotionally accessible, it makes suspension of disbelief all-encompassing when it comes to Dan's time-travel adventures. The only real problem I can identify with Journeyman is the lack of promotion by NBC.

My husband and I both watch Journeyman and enjoy it immensely. We would both be very upset if Journeyman were canceled. I am a xx-year-old female, my husband is a xx-year-old male, and we watch every episode of Journeyman.

Please do what you can to save the best show on NBC, Journeyman.

Thank you for your consideration.

Best regards,
___________________________________

If you want updates on the status of the show's fight to stay alive, check out Save Journeyman.


Post edited to add:

I received a reply from Joanne Park at NBC. Here it is, in its entirety:

We love this show too. I encourage you to get all your friends to watch in two weeks! Thank you for your support! Thank you so much for writing!
Joanne

Journeyman

Journeyman airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on NBC. Kevin McKidd stars as a San Francisco journalist who is whisked off to various times in the past to change people's lives.
I was thrilled to see that Entertainment Weekly's Pop Watch blog has joined in support of this show.

There's a petition afoot to encourage NBC to renew this brilliant but neglected show. If you like Journeyman, please go to the link and sign the petition. Can't hurt, right? The network hasn't adequately promoted Journeyman, and worse yet, scheduled it opposite CSI For Dummies, er, CSI: Miami.

Before you dismiss the show as another Quantum Leap, stop right there. It actually has more in common with the X-Files. Quantum Leap was an episodic drama, meaning each show stood on its own. What's-his-face (I only watched that show once or twice) would leap into someone's life, fix their problem, and leap out. And scene.

Journeyman has a complicated, continuing mythology underlying those leaps in and out of time. The main character, Dan, is met in the past by his former fiancé Livia, whom he had presumed to be dead. She can't / won't explain exactly what's going on but she keeps showing up. Dan doesn't know why he time travels and wants it to stop. A mysterious physicist who never seems to age shows up at various points in time in various episodes - and this physicist seems to know a lot about tachyons, mysterious particles that may or may not have something to do with time travel. The guy is creepy, and he probably has something to do with Dan's traveling, but who knows? It would suck if NBC cancelled the show before this question is resolved.

There's a lot more but it would fill up pages and pages and I don't want to do that to you. If you want to read more (lots more) about Journeyman, there's an excellent discussion board at the Television Without Pity forums.

Cane vs Dirty Sexy Money: A Comparison

Dirty Sexy Money is a well-reviewed new show starring Peter Krause (Wednesdays at 10 on ABC). Cane is a critically reviled new show starring Jimmy Smits (Tuesdays at 10 on CBS). What could they possibly have in common?

Well, obviously, both shows are hour-long dramas airing at 10 p.m.

Both are sprawling family sagas reminiscent of those power dramas of the 80's, Dallas and Dynasty.


Both shows have a "not quite son" in the lead. Jimmy Smits' character, Alex, is the adopted son of the Duque family on Cane. Peter Krause's character, Nick, isn't a son at all (as far as we know!) but he is the family's attorney, lead character, and the father's favorite "child" on DSM. One of the most touching moments in the season so far was when Tripp told Nick "I love you, Nicky."



Both shows' families are rich and powerful.

Everybody on both shows is beautiful. I know that's true of almost everybody on TV, but these people are amazingly gorgeous. Jimmy Smits can beat the daylights out of a Cuban mobster one minute and be well-pressed and tailored the next. In Miami!

All characters of both shows live incredibly opulent lifestyles.


Both families have a young ne'er-do-well son, who - while incredibly handsome and the owner of the most amazing dimples - isn't particularly well employed. The one on Cane owns "a club," which appears to be a hugely successful nightclub, but is somehow looked down upon by his family. The cutie pie on DSM isn't employed at all until he volunteers to get an actual job, which chokes the old man up like crazy. He is so without skills that he ends up working up in a parking garage owned by the family.


Both shows have well-respected actors playing the family patriarchs (Donald Sutherland in DSM and Hector Elizondo in Cane) and matriarchs (Jill Clayburgh in DSM and Rita Moreno in Cane).



Both shows have an incredibly pissed-off brother who hated the lead character at the beginning of the series and gradually starts coming around. Frank Duque in Cane is jealous that dear old dad name Alex CEO of the company but is just now beginning to get along with him. Over at DSM, Brian Darling, the priest with anger management issues, has hated Nick since childhood. Since Nick has helped Brian out of various jams lately, Brian is starting to come around. The two shows' hateful brothers appear to be in sync with one another.




Both shows have places on my Tivo season pass list. Dirty Sexy Money is the better of the two shows. The acting is much better throughout, and the story lines are much less predictable. However, Cane is a much better show than the critics have suggested. I recommend both shows.

Free Rice

When is the last time you played a computer game that improved your mind and also helped to feed the hungry people of the world? Go to Free Rice and you can do just that.

Go to the site, and you'll see a word and four definitions. Choose the correct one and the site's advertisers will donate 10 grains of rice to the World Food Program, a United Nations agency that is the world's largest humanitarian organization. The program has beautifully designed graphics, with a large rice bowl on the right side of the screen. As you continue, the words get more difficult, and the rice bowl fills up.

Here's a cool feature. Your "vocab level" appears at the bottom of the question portion of the screen. (I wonder why they didn't use "vocabulary" instead of "vocab"? I both nitpick and digress.) When you get three words correct in a row, you advance a level and the words get harder. When you miss a word, you go down a level and the words get easier. This sounds basic but it's actually brilliant because "This one-to-three ratio is best for keeping you at the 'outer fringe' of your vocabulary, where learning can take place." The site's FAQ says that there are 50 levels "but it is rare for people to get above level 48." This is an ego trip for me because I spent most of my time at levels 43-45.

You may be thinking, "10 grains of rice? You're kidding, that's nothing!" Actually, that's true; 10 grains aren't much. When added together, however, they really mean something. When the site launched, on October 7, 2007, recorded donations were just 830 grains of rice. On October 17, 2007, recorded donations were over 12 million grains on that day alone. Each day's total has grown incredibly. November 20, 2007 had a total of over 218 million grains of rice donated.

For more information, here are some resources:

The Urban Legends Resource Page
FreeRice.com

Washington Post (free registration required to view this link)
What's the Word? We Can Help Feed the Hungry

Project Runway

Project Runway (Bravo, Wednesdays 10 p.m.) is the best reality show in the history of TV. Now in its fourth season, this is a competition show that requires real skill of its contestants.

Emmy-nominated competition reality series "Project Runway" features host supermodel Heidi Klum and a panel of industry luminaries, including judges Michael Kors, top women's and men's wear designer and Nina Garcia, Elle magazine fashion director, as they decide who is “in” and who is “out.”

Tim Gunn, Chief Creative Officer at Liz Claiborne, Inc. once again acts as a mentor to the contestants as they navigate weekly fashion challenges. In what will prove to be the most exciting season yet, some of the biggest names in fashion, sports and design will guest star this season on “Runway.”

The 15 “Project Runway” contestants will be whittled down to the finalists who will show their own line in front of an audience of fashion industry movers and shakers at New York Fashion Week.

Like all reality shows, the producers throw increasingly difficult challenges at the competitors. Previous seasons have had challenges such as: design an outfit out of garbage. Design an outfit out nothing but the clothes currently on your own back. Design an outfit out of nothing but the items in the show-provided apartment. It's simply amazing what the competitors manage to come up with, all under tremendous time pressure, of course.

Mentor and guide Tim Gunn is the heart and soul of the show. He periodically makes the rounds of the workroom as the designers are frantically sewing and piecing together their creations. He'll pause at someone's station, put his hand to his chin and murmur, "I'm worried." Some of the idiot designers actually argue with him at this point, and they're usually the ones to get eliminated in the next round. Tim's advice is always perfect.

The perfect companion to watching Project Runway is reading the blog Project Rungay. Their "About Us" states, and I quote, "Two fabulously glamorous fags ripping the show they L-O-V-E to watch." Tom and Lorenzo analyze Project Runway in excruciating detail, and they spare no opinions. Their blog is absolutely hilarious.

Hobo Teacher

This is the very first blog I ever became addicted to: Hobo Teacher. Here's the description from his "about" page:

You see, here’s how it all started. We're teachers. We love teaching but, the thing is, it doesn’t really pay the bills. As a matter of fact, we picked up odd jobs along the way to help make ends meet. This really takes its toll when you add on the countless hours already spent at school, the lack of sunlight, and the hazards of the job (Have you ever spent an hour and a half with 30 hormonal teenagers? Of course you have.).

You find yourself drawn to signs that promise, “Free samples!” Coupons become your best friend. Major decisions turn on a dime. Your social schedule is determined by how much change you have in the ashtray of your car. It creeps up on you until eventually, you embrace your situation. You work through your twenty-minute lunch. You eat less. You sleep less. You take students’ work to bed with you. You bathe less. You shave less. You see “home” less. You become… Hobo Teacher.

He teaches English in a "privileged" school, where the students don't bother to do their homework or (sometimes) even bathe. Some parents get mad at him if he misspells the kid's name, but disregard the grade on a failing grade report. He writes about the idiocy of the school administration, the overall ennui of the students, and the grind of teaching. What could become downright appalling is witty, sarcastic, and quite funny.

Vicarious Mischief

Remember when you were a kid, and you had a chemistry set, and you didn't follow the directions, and you blew stuff up? Remember how much fun that was?

That's what Myth Busters is all about. (Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on the Discovery Channel)

Currently in its sixth season, this show tests urban legends and myths ranging from the entertaining to the absurd. The show always seems to involve some kind of carefully set up and filmed explosion. For example, Episode 89, "Exploding Water Heater," which originally aired on 11/7/07, tested whether an ordinary home water heater, if poorly maintained, could overheat and explode, turning into a rocket.

The short answer to the water heater question is "yes," but that doesn't do the show justice. Hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman have years of special-effects experience on both movies and commercials, and they clearly know their way around a workshop. They also have amazing chemistry (sorry, I've used that pun before, but it fits) and real charisma. Adam is the goofy one; Jamie is the lets-get-down to business guy.

For the record, when a 52-gallon water heater is pushed beyond its limit to something like 350 degrees F, not only does it give way, it will take out the structure it's in. They tested it and filmed it with a high speed camera. It was beautiful, and Adam giggled like a little girl. So did I.

Am I the Only Person in America ...

... who doesn't watch Dancing With the Stars?

<< Get your damn hand off my boob.

I've tried, I've really tried. It makes my eyes glaze over. As my friend Ginny would say, "It makes my hair hurt." I just don't get it. What is the appeal of spending hours and hours watching pretty people dancing? It's like watching a screen saver, except with really irritating narration.

If anybody reads this blog, I'm going to get flamed. DWTS is the most popular show in the entire country. In fact, for the Season to Date, not one but two of the top ten shows are DWTS. Color me clueless.

I almost forgot to mention the really insidious thing about this writers' strike that's happening in TV-land. Once the shows that are "in the can" get used up, if the strike is still on, we won't be left with much. All that we will be left with is mindless drivel like this and reruns of scripted shows. I fear for the the near future of TV, and I fear even more for the short run (six months out) which the public realizes all that is on TV is garbage.

The great game of chicken that the writers and the networks are playing (we're the oncoming train) may result in more loss of viewers carnage than they're actually expecting. I predict that in the event of a long-running strike, viewers will leave network TV in droves for alternate forms of entertainment, including DVD, Internet, cable video on demand, and who knows, some may even (gasp) read a book.

Couch Potato Fashion

Continuing in yesterday's fashion vein ...

Watching TV and critiquing other peoples' fashion: what could be better? I love watching What Not to Wear (Fridays at 9 p.m. Eastern) on TLC. Based on the nominations of friends and family, the show's hosts, Stacy London and Clinton Kelly, ambush a poorly dressed victim and tell them what's wrong with their wardrobe. Stacy and Clinton then present the "contributor" (that's what they call her - it's almost always a she) with $5,000, whisk her off to New York, teach her about fashion, and send her off to Manhattan's chic boutiques to go shopping. Pick me! Pick me! I look terrible! I want to go! A free trip to New York City. Are you kidding me?


The thing I really, really love about this show is that the contributor usually is fairly unhappy with herself at the beginning, and is almost always thrilled with herself at the end. Sometimes Clinton and Stacy do have to use a "tough love" approach on some of the contributors who say things like "but I've had it since high school" or the dreaded "but it's comfortable!" Note to self: if you're ever on What Not to Wear, do NOT under any circumstances defend your outfit by calling it "comfortable." Stacy will just laugh at you, especially if the item in question is shoes.

My favorite part of the show is the last 20 minutes or so, when the contributor gets a beauty makeover. It's always astonishing. Hairstylist Nick Arrojo and Makeup Artist Carmindy perform absolute miracles, provided the contributor gives them free rein and is open-minded to the process. Occasionally a contributor won't let Nick cut her hair and the results, in my opinion, are always the poorer for it. If I were in the chair I'd say, "Do what ever you think looks great, you're the expensive big city stylist!" How often do you get a chance like that - for free?

The end of the show is always the contributor modeling her new outfits. They're always giddy with their own fabulousness. It's uplifting and great fun to watch.

Go Fug Yourself

This is the most vicious, wickedly funny blog I've ever read. This blog has been mentioned in everything from PC Magazine to the front page of the Wall Street Journal. It's a sensation.

Fug = "Fantastically Ugly"

There are no real redeeming values here, except:

• If you're in need of time suckage, this is an excellent and entertaining way to have your time sucked.
• It's nice to know that celebrities, with their stylists and groomers and publicists and agents and whatnot, can still look like crap like the rest of us peons.
• The site does give praise (seldom, but they do) under the heading "Well Played" to celebrities who show up in public looking great, so they're not completely evil. Here's an example.

So if you are in the mood to laugh at celebrities, Go Fug Yourself.