popplers

Grr. Arrgh.

How Stuff Works: Zombies!

(And, because I suspect that someone will bring it up, the founder of HowStuffWorks is indeed, Marshall Brain.)

Goin' down to South Park, gonna have myself a time

Short CNN Q&A with Matt Stone and Trey Parker:

Q: Cartman once described independent movies as "gay cowboys eating pudding." Now we have "Brokeback Mountain," an upcoming movie by Ang Lee about gay cowboys.

MATT STONE: If they have pudding in that movie, I'm going to lose my mind.

TREY PARKER: No, if there's pudding eating in there, we're going to sue.

Will no one think of the penguins?

Luc Jacquet, director of documentary hit March of the Penguins, is concerned that his documentary has been hijacked: "It does annoy me to a certain degree," he said. "For me there is no doubt about evolution. I am a scientist. The intelligent design theory is a step back to the thinking of 300 years ago. My film is not supposed to be interpreted in this way."

I'm glad that he finally spoke up. Contrast Jacquet's statement with this all-too-typical view from the religious/ conservative/ I-D camp:

"The complexity of the penguins' lifestyle testifies to a Divine Creator," said one commentator on Christian Answers.

"To think that natural selection or even the penguins themselves could come up with the idea to migrate miles and miles multiple times each year without their partner or their offspring is a bit insulting to my intellect. How great is our God!"

Hrmph. "Insulting to my intellect," indeed.

Sunday brunch

Some weeks ago, Chris and I were watching America's Test Kitchen on PBS. They were making a German Apple Pancake, and it reminded him of a fancy brunch dish that his family used to make: David Eyre's Pancake. (And which, as it turns out, isn't really David Eyre's at all; the recipe dates back to at least 1919, when it appeared in a San Francisco cookbook.)

Chris's version of the recipe had apples in it; the "official" version does not. We made it this morning, and it was quite tasty. In the process of searching the web for a recipe variant that included apples, I stumbled across this fun foodie blog: h o m e * e c o n o m i c s. Her recipes and her writing are both highly enjoyable. I'd love to cook with her.

Chris Moriondo's Pancake
Adapted from Craig Claiborne and David Eyre

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 large apple (granny smith)
confectioner’s sugar (to taste)
fresh lemon juice (to taste)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, flour, and tablespoon of vanilla sugar. Melt the butter in a cast iron 10-inch skillet, set on low to medium heat. Add apples to skillet in a single layer, then top with 3 tablespoons of dark brown sugar. Let the sugar melt into the butter, then turn off heat. Pour the batter into the skillet and bake for 20 minutes or until the pancake puffs up and turns golden brown. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar and/or lemon juice to taste. It will deflate quickly; serve immediately.

Serves two to four (depending on your will power).

Paragon City Board of Tourism

Shadow Shard
Originally uploaded by popplers.

Cardiff Championship, here I come!

Scrabble yn Gymraeg: On the plus side, you'll never get stuck with a Q, X, or Z in your rack. On the minus side, start memorizing your Welsh word list, which is filled with words like camddefnyddio, llyfrau, cymharu, and rhedeg. (ll, dd, rh, and ng are double letter combos that appear on a single tile.) Angenrheidiaeth ("necessity") could yield 164 points, if played across the triple-triple.

Maybe I'll stick with Amurrican words; a new Official Word List for competitive play is due out by the end of the year.

Shouldn't that be ursine distemper?

Poor panda.

Whedon, you bastard!

Serenity (IMDB:8.4|Rot:81%)

If you haven't already, go see Serenity. Then read Ron Swartzendruber's extremely funny Serenity in 2000 Words or Less.

(No pullquote because there are so very many spoilers. Just go see the movie, okay?)

Zombie quickies!

• I love The Onion: Study Reveals Pittsburgh Unprepared For Full-Scale Zombie Attack. (Amusingly, I had actually added "prepare for zombie attack" to Chris's to-do list about half an hour ago.)
• Dawn of the Dead reenacted by yarn dolls
• Toronto Zombie Walk
• Two different t-shirts from Threadless.com

Today's public service announcement

Three things that I hate about Juniper Bank and my TiVo MasterCard:

• Phone tree rigamarole. I realize that this is pretty much par for the course when dealing with a faceless corporation, but why do I have to enter in my personal info, then provide that same info again when I actually talk to a customer rep?

  Side note: Find-A-Human has a great cheat sheet for cutting through the annoying bramble of IVR (interactive voice response) choices for banks, cell phone companies, computer tech support lines, etc. (Alas, no entry for Juniper Bank.)

• I am used to dealing with customer support. There is nothing wrong with calling it that. When I dial a toll-free number and am told to "please hold" because a relationship manager will be right with me, I want to throw up. I want the person to solve my problem, not offer me marital counseling or dating advice.

• Evil and exorbitant $39 late fee: I missed the payment deadline by 90 minutes, but my relationship manager (and her equally helpful supervisor) refused to waive the fee. Apparently Juniper had waived the fee once already (when I missed it by less than a day), so they won't ever do it again. The reps don't have a vested interest in keeping me as a customer, so it's no surprise that I didn't having any luck convincing them to set things right.

In a nutshell: if you're thinking about getting a credit card from Juniper Bank, don't. Go to your local credit union instead; you'll be glad you did.

Another book that you shouldn't read while traveling

I was originally supposed to leave tomorrow for a quick business trip, but now I'm not going. It's probably for the best, since I'm currently reading Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic. Some years ago, I took Richard Preston's The Hot Zone with me on an airplane. Nothing like reading about hemorrhagic fever while you're breathing in the recycled air of the cabin and wondering about the health of your seatmate.

Flu is a gripping read (no pun intended); it's also scary as hell. The 1918 pandemic isn't something you learn about in history class, and I think it's fascinating. What's surprising to me is the huge local connection— Fort Devens and Boston were two of the first places to show signs. (Fort Devens experienced some 100 deaths per day at the height of the epidemic.)

Creative Catering, indeed.

Lord almighty, I think this is the scariest thing I've read all day. The very idea of fried strawberries is bad enough, but this is heart-of-darkness territory.

Every year, there is always one new deep-fried creation that everyone must try at the fair.

This year, one food vendor, Creative Catering of Raleigh, has ventured in previously untested frying territory: fruit.

The owner, Vincent Thomas, 49, says he got the idea for fried banana puddin' bites last year. "I had a vision from God to do the banana," he said. […]

Gregory Maguire news

I can't seem to locate any information about local readings (it looks like the closest he gets will be Vermont in November). But he is touring, reading from, signing, and otherwise promoting his new book, Son of a Witch. I did find a few interesting nuggets:

• A short-ish Boston Globe interview/ article
  
• Synopsis from his Harper Collins web page
  
• Amusing essay on storytelling and kids: When Wolves Sing Mozart
  
• Wicked: the Musical is touring (Boston in April 2006!).

If this is "viral," I'd like the antidote

A few months ago, we went to see the Merrimack Repertory Theatre's production of The Homecoming, by Harold Pinter. It was, without a doubt, the least favorite play that I've ever seen, anywhere, ever.

This morning, I learned that Harold Pinter had won the Nobel Prize for Literature, which means that there are an awful lot of articles gushing over how amazing he is:

Mr. Pinter "uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms," the Swedish Academy said in announcing the award, which carries $1.3 million in prize money.

And this one (also in the New York Times) with the headline A Creator of Theater That Seizes the Senses:

Great theater, the kind that changes the way you see and hear the world, acts like a benign virus. It creeps into the bloodstream, without your really knowing it, while you are watching a performance. Then it grows, it mutates, it seizes the senses. And often it won't leave you for hours, even days, after the curtain has come down.

Harold Pinter is the greatest living practitioner of viral theater. If a production of his "Homecoming," "Birthday Party" or "Betrayal" is even passably acted, you leave the theater with an overwhelming suspicion of everything and everyone around you. That includes yourself.

I have little doubt that MRT's version was more than passably acted. The cast, sets, props, lighting, and costumes were all fine. The only suspicion that I had upon leaving the theatre was that I'd just been conned into paying $50 to see a play that didn't make a particle of sense. The synopsis from this BBC Four film version makes it sound like a taut, gripping drama. But it's not— the characters' actions and motivations are baffling, the "pregnant pauses" did not seem fraught with meaning, and if I wanted to spend the evening with a dysfunctional family I'd stay home. To the Nobel Committee I say this: Feh.

Aieee.

Nancy and Tonya: The Opera.

The soap opera-like saga that followed the knee-bashing of Olympian ice princess Nancy Kerrigan 11 years ago has been adapted into a musical opera, with Kerrigan's cry of "Why me? Why me?" providing the performance's climactic moment.

"Nancy and Tonya: The Opera" is scheduled to be performed at Tufts University in the spring.

Touched by his noodly appendage

Today's ancient Chinese secret: 4,000 year old noodles. I'm sure that they taste better than 1,000 year old eggs (not that I've ever had one).

Mmm… chocolate.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (IMDB:7.5|Rot:82%)

Finally went to see Charlie at The Strand. Quite good, but it made me want to watch the original again. I think I prefer Gene Wilder's quiet malice to Johnny Depp's china doll creepiness. (As an aside, is there any movie that Helena Bonham Carter isn't in?)

With Edward Scissorhands-style flashbacks to Wonka's youth, songs by Danny Elfman and Roald Dahl, Bollywood dance numbers with Oompa Loompas, and kids who get what they deserve… what's not to like? Well worth the $5 ticket price. Go ahead— splurge on a Wonka bar at the concession stand.

Not even Wensleydale?

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (IMDB:8.1|Rot:95%*)

If you haven't already gone to see W & G: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, what are you waiting for? It's got everything you expect from a Nick Park film: delightful claymation, whimsical inventions, kindness to animals, and a surfeit of cheese.

According to this brief blurb from Sci Fi Wire, Gromit was initially supposed to be a cat(!):

"He was going to be a cat at first, and then when I was molding him, I found out it was simply easier to make a dog," said Park, who created the Academy Award-winning stop-motion-animated duo of a cheese-loving Englishman and his brilliant dog. "They became a couple, like an elderly husband and wife, and Gromit is the long-suffering wife, always rolling his eyes."

*Cream of the Crop: 97%

Chocolate Malta

Beware the Malta 2
Originally uploaded by popplers.

Now that's just mean.

If there's any justice, the kid will develop heat-vision and make his parents pay.

P is for Panda

• Panda news
• Panda pix
• Panda bento
• Panda pun

Quickies!

• Best. Movie Trailer. Ever.
• Giant squid. Giant squid.
• I love the little thylacines.
• A two-part interview with Joss Whedon: Part 1, Part 2 (thanks, chrism!)
• Scary/ funny Lysol ads from Slackdaddy. (This one is my favorite— it frightens me.)
• Brilliant parody take on the USPS's American Scientists stamp set.
• Vintage test photos from Consumer Reports