Chelsea Clinton... or Mel?

I passed a newsstand this afternoon and caught a glimpse of this week's issue of New York magazine. I was like, "Awesome! Some genius editor at New York finally recognized the brilliance of Mel (of Flight of the Conchords fame) and put her on the cover!"



Upon closer inspection, I was disappointed to realize that it was actually a cover story about Chelsea Clinton. But the resemblance (in the above photo, anyway) is uncanny to Kristen Schaal:



Eerie... no?

Fondue Fountain

Earlier tonight, Arielle and I attended a Tufts-sponsored lecture by Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and some other stuff, because we're cultured and active alumnae (even though I haven't read any of his works... oops). He's a pretty entertaining speaker and seems to have a wicked (ha!) sense of humor.

Anyway, we're about to leave and we're patting ourselves on the back for being so cultured and active when the organizer announces that there's a dessert reception. 'Great!' I think. 'Cookies and coffee!' Oh, how I was wrong...



Do other people know that this invention exists? For all my culture and activism, even I was clueless to the existence of THE MOST AMAZING GADGET IN THE WORLD. It's a streaming fountain... of chocolate! (GOOD-quality chocolate, none of that Hershey's crap.) For the purpose of fondue-ing!

Actually, the whole thing was really bizarre because - as Arielle pointed out - it wasn't really a frou-frou event, but the inclusion of the Fondue Fountain seemed too frou-frou for that specific occasion. But yeah... there were strawberries, pineapples, marshmallows, pretzels, and some other stuff available for dipping. YUM... although all I got were a strawberry and a marshmallow. Unfortunately, common decency prevented me from shamelessly stuffing my face with everything on the table. (Trust me, I was tempted.)

I. Want. Fondue. Fountain.

Stuff White People Like

My friend directed me to the blog, Stuff White People Like. At first, I was mildly annoyed because this is the friend (one of the nearest and dearest to my tiny little non-heart, I must preface) who once asked me, wide-eyed, what I discussed with my white friends.

(You know I love you.)

But as I started reading this list (which really should be titled Stuff Young Liberal Hipster Yuppies Like, and no, that is not an oxymoron)... I realized, this pretty much summarizes everyone under the age of 35 in New York* who is even mildly educated but not yet rich enough to stop putting up the pretense that they Care. (I'd wager that this blogger is Asian since I think the truest liberal white yuppies feel too much white guilt to compile something like this, even anonymously**.) Some people might think the whole thing is reverse racism, but... it is still pretty darn hilarious and totally a dead-on characterization of... well, everyone I know. Which is kind of upsetting since we young people like to think that our problems are so unique and that we're so clever for recognizing that we have these issues, but really, like our parents' generation and people who live in fly-over states, we are reduced to a bunch of (completely true) stereotypes. Sad.

Note: I read this blog after coming home from a night of eating an $11.50 sandwich and watching Be Kind Rewind. (Why am I a cliche?) I wanted to love this movie so much for Michel Gondry because Eternal Sunshine was so brilliant. Alas, beyond the let's-remake-movies schtick, there really wasn't too much else besides my wondering if Danny Glover still has private Pilates sessions with Mari Winsor.

-----

* I am referring to the five boroughs of New York, not the state. The term "New York City" really ought to be illegal... nobody says "London City" or "Los Angeles City"... although I think people do say "Quebec City"?

** Or maybe not, what do I know?

Some people are apparently exempt from insults

Once I worked with this girl who had really bad eczema. Like, REALLY bad. Her skin was all red and dry and looked like one big peeling sunburn. She never really talked about it, but I was impressed that she wore a lot of sleeveless shirts because it represented to me that she was okay with how she looked (pretty rare nowadays for anybody, let alone a girl with an actual condition). Sometimes it got a bit distracting because she would constantly be scratching herself everywhere while she was talking to you.

We got along pretty well, and we'd joke around a lot together. But one day, we were trading friendly barbs, and then she made a comment about my weight (she was a lot skinnier than me). Whoa, I thought. What was I supposed to do? Make a comment about her ECZEMA? That'd be so low of me, right?

I wound up not saying anything. But gosh darn, was I mad at her for putting me in that kind of pickle. Curse my conscience!

Filler

I've been very inspired by Arielle's regular blogging. I don't blog as often as I did in college. I guess I had more interesting stuff happening back then? Anyway, last night was my final class of a six-week non-fiction writing course that I'd been taking, and my teacher kept stressing that we should blog and have an "online presence" which, ironically, I've taken careful measures to avoid since I'm always paranoid that someone's going to steal my identity or kill me. But here goes, I'm trying to build my online presence by rambling:

1. I went to Shake Shack yesterday for lunch with my friend and ran into my aunt there. What the heck. It was weird because she's not really a burger person, but a few weeks ago, my sister was raving to her about the place and like a week after that, my aunt was telling my sister how she tried going before work at like 8-something in the morning but it was closed. Then we both run into each other. Odd.

2. I had a lot of time to kill so I watched two movies: In Bruges and Atonement. (I was off work yesterday.) The sad thing was that during In Bruges, I kept marveling at the Harry Potter connection since Voldemort, Mad-Eye Moody, and Fleur Delacour were all in it. (Also, Ralph Fiennes' character's name was Harry. Weirdly, I was reading Goblet of Fire before the previews started rolling in the theater.) Also, Sayid's German girlfriend from the most recent episode of Lost was in it. Also appearing was guy who played Giant Bag of Weed from Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. Who I was SURE was Peter Dinklage and then I looked him up and was wrong and then I felt SO mean and sizeist.

3. I did my laundry today. Before I even had to revert to Bad Underwear or Bad Socks. Go, me!

:-)

Maybe it's airborne crack from the 80's

What is it about New York that makes otherwise rational adults even entertain the idea of paying $2.50 for a subpar cupcake, $200 an hour to have someone listen to you talk, or $2,975 per month to live in a one-bedroom convertible box (with another person)?

Shrug.