Germaine

I saw this photo in today's Books section of the paper and thought it was beautiful. Whatever you may think of Germaine Greer's politics, this is a gorgeous face. Her skin is wrinkled and sagging, she has dark circles and bags under her eyes, her hair is white and uncoiffed, she had wattles under her chin. She wears corrective lenses and probably is carrying a couple of extra pounds. But, isn't this a mature, intelligent, interesting natural face? Isn't she, at 70 so much more stunning than some other celebs around the same age who have put a lot of money into looking not aged?

Brunch

Goodtime party girl blogger, Alison has come to the realization that her partying ‘til dawn isn’t as much fun as it used to be.

I think I hit that wall long ago. In recent years I’ve noticed that most of my socializing revolves around brunch. Brunch is a good time to get together with people because:

No one’s not drifting off -- which old people tend to do after 10:00 pm.

Food options are awesome – it’s the only time you can have baked goods with whipped cream, chocolate and syrup and legitimately call it a meal.

It’s late enough in the day to start drinking, but early enough in the day for the drinks to wear off, giving you some productive afternoon time before the evening drinking begins.

Brunch drinking is totally different from night-time drinking. There are a whole range of drinks specifically designed just for brunch: Bloody Marys/Cesars, Mimosas, Bellinis, Sangria, Mojitos, Morning Martinis, anything you can make in a blender, anything you can add to juice or coffee, any kind of beer and wine – especially Rosé.

Brunch starts mid to late morning and can finish in an hour or you can make a whole day of it. (in which case there will be no productive afternoon break).

Hosting brunch is a lot easier than hosting a dinner party.

Or, if you want to go out, there are so many amusing brunch places to explore – surprising places sometimes, where completely different things happen at night.

Brunch takes care of two meals at once, saving both time and money.

And, finally, you can have lots of good-time party fun and still get to bed by 11:00.

Here’s a recipe for Goat Cheese, Roasted Pepper & Baby Spinach Frittata that I think I got from the LCBO Food & Drink magazine.

6 eggs
¼ cup milk (or milk-like product)
Salt & pepper
1 roasted red pepper cut into thin slices
Handful of baby spinach1/2 cup creamy goat cheese
1 Tbsp. butter (or butter-like product)
2 Tbsp. thinly sliced green onion

Whisk eggs, milk, salt & pepper. Stir in roasted pepper, spinach and half the goat cheese. Melt butter in frying pan, (cast iron is best) add onion and stir around for a bit. Stir egg mixture and dump into medium hot pan, making sure all the stuff is evenly distributed. Cook until barely set and then stick the whole thing under the broiler for half minute or so until the top gets a bit brown. Sprinkle the rest of the goat cheese on top. Let it cool for a minute before cutting into wedges

This is Not a Cat Blog

This post is going to seem like I’ve jumped on the kitty-blogging bandwagon, but I haven’t. This post is really about laundry and only incidentally about cats.

After I finished doing laundry yesterday (see?), there was enough cat fur in the lint trap to make a small kitten (photo not available). I’d washed a lot of rugs and blankets and stuff the cat hangs around, but still.

It’s spring, so critters are shedding their winter fur (or long underwear in the case of Zoom’s giant feline). Bazel (my cat) has also been doing a lot of wretching the last week or so, but since I very cleverly give him regular doses of furball dissolver, he hasn’t hacked up anything too disgusting.

Nevertheless, I figured I’d better start brushing him. Cats love it, they tell me. They don’t know Bazel. Bazel doesn’t love anything that involves touching him – no petting, no stroking, no cuddling. As far as he’s concerned, I only exist to feed him and to give him nice fleshy bits to attack.

He’s like the Kato to my Clouseau. I never know when Bazel will pounce and gnaw. A dangling hand, a bare foot...maybe my elbow looks particularly fetching one day. It can be annoying. He does it when I’m sleeping, too, when he reckons it’s time to get up.

Anyway, the brushing wasn’t a big success. I had to wait until he was snoozing and sneak up on him. As soon as the brush appeared he was on me. But with some diligence and many hours, I did manage to thin him out a bit.

Bazel may not be cute and cuddly, but he's kind of interesting and always on the alert for something to attack, so our place is completely bug and rodent free at all times.

5 things I think are odd today.

Gum. It has about 30 seconds of flavor and then it’s just a rubbery blob. I don’t get the whole gum thing. People chewing gum where I can hear or see them makes me gag – literally. I have to move away.

Brenda Martin. the Canadian chick who moved to Mexico and then committed a crime and went to jail and has been whining and crying about it for so long and so loud that Canada is sending an MP down to bring her home. Now she’s apparently worried about her mother’s health if she has to see her daughter finish her sentence in Canada. Huh?

Germany/Austria. What the hell are they putting in the drinking water over there? First Armin Meiwes, then Natasha Kampusch, now Josef Fritzl.

Mayor Larry giving Councillor Clive Doucet some sage advice : "You can't listen to the public if you are on your own political high horse in terms of your own personal agenda.”

People standing on escalators. Makes me cuckoo. You’re walking along. You come to some stairs. You step on. And then you stand there waiting for them to take you for a ride. They’re stairs, not a carnival ride! Walk up and/or down them. Or if that’s too much of an effort at least get the frig over to one side so normal people can get by.

Unexpected Encounters of the Celebrity Kind

Ev, over at Nowhere, IL was recently reminded of her close personal relationship with Paul McCartney by reading all about Feral Mom’s Beatles reminiscences. So, of course I felt I had to share my close-personal-relationship-with-a-celebrity story, too.

It all started after a night of carousing in downtown Toronto. I was struttin’ from bar to bar with my posse late, late when I was accosted by a scruffy, urine/muscatel-soaked gentleman attempting to sell me week-old newspapers.

No, this wasn’t the celebrity. However, this fragrant fellow got rather aggressive and grabbed me by the arm, which caused me to pull away rather abruptly, making me spin backwards and smack into Elton John. (Before he was a Sir and before he was even gay.)

I said “holy shit”. He smiled and walked on with his two poncey friends. That’s it. My only brush with fame, not including anyone I might have seen or hounded for an autograph at concerts, literary readings, sporting or other events. (The only time those things count are when you make it into the groupie pool. Which reminds me – once when I worked at an Arts Centre, the secretary for our section made it into the Burton Cummings groupie pool, but she had an unfair advantage because she was working at the venue he came to play at.)

What are your most unusual celebrity encounters?

From the Scary File

George & Steve after their date at the North American Leaders Summit dinner in New Orleans.

Best TV Ever

The New York Post has compiled a list of what they call the 35 Best Shows on TV Ever. Here’s the list, though you can read the whole article if you want to see their rationale for the shows they’ve picked.

Their choices make sense for the most part, I suppose, but I do cringe at Oprah and American Idol being on this list. They seem to be on it just because they have a huge following. That doesn’t make them good.

I love that Twin Peaks is on the list – a highly under-rated and much maligned show and probably the best thing that was ever on TV, in my opinion. Of course, maybe if I saw it now I’d change my mind.

Seinfeld, way down on the list, is still good, though I often can’t help thinking how different the show would have been if they’d had cell phones. So much of the show is dependant on not being able to communicate for various reasons.

SNL, Laugh-in, Mission Impossible, Law & Order – all among my faves. And the Dick Van Dyke Show! My goal in life when I was a kid was to work as a writer on the Allan Brady Show with Rob, Sally and Buddy. Instead I ended up working somewhere much more hilarious.

Did they miss any really good shows? I think maybe Bewitched and Tales of the Wells Fargo should have been on the list.


Sopranos
All in the Family
Oprah
American Idol
West Wing
Mary Tyler Moore Show
Dallas
24
Twin Peaks
Sesame Street
Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
60 Minutes
Ed Sullivan Show
I Love Lucy
Law & Order
Monty Python’s Flying Circus
Carol Burnett Show
Simpsons
Sex & the City
ER
Honeymooners
Miami Vice
Seinfeld
Gunsmoke
Rown & Martin’s Laugh-in
Hill Street Blues
Star Trek
X-Files
Dick Van Dyke Show
Saturday Night Live
Jeopardy
Moonlighting
Mission Impossible
Cosby Show
General Hospital