Author Archives: Murphy

kinda like french fried twinkies

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I have been admiring the new IHOP stuffed french toast from their TV commercials. They sounded yummy to me.

So when we were in the middle of Saturday’s downpout, me and Chris decided comfort food was in order. IHOP popped to mind.

We looked over the menu carefully, but they weren’t listed. We did, however, find out that the International House of Pancakes is a California company, started here. That made me like them slightly better.

I do try to maintain a snobbish avoidance of chain restaurants, but the fact that it is a local chain is slightly better.

Chris would prefer to eat at the same three chain restaurants every day of his life. Fortunately, our relationship is more than just what we eat.

We asked Maricela, our waitress about the stuffed french toast. Apparently, there is a separate flyer-type dealy that explains your stuffed toast options.

There is the regular option, and then the Big option which has two extra pieces of fatty meat. The Super option included a total of six pieces of various fatty meat.

I thought two pieces was enough, so I got the regular. Cause I was mostly interested in the toast, anyway.

Well, the toast was like two pieces of bread sealed on all the edges. You might think it would be difficult to seal two pieces of bread. It is. IHOP’s solution was to deep fry it shut.

They must have deep-fried it, and then warmed in up again on a grill, because one side had an extra browning on one side.

Well, they had fruit and whip cream on the top. THe filling seemed to be cream cheese with a lot of powdered sugar mixed in. Mine did not have a lot of filling, which is probably good, because it was very sweet. Since there wasn’t too much, it tasted pretty good.

It reminded CHris immediately of the State Fair’s deep-fried twinkies. We hadn’t actually tried the deep-fried twinkies, but we could imagine.

It was good. ALthough the grease sat on my tummy the rest of the day. I’m glad I didn’t opt for the 6 pieces of fatty meat.

They Might Be Giants

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“Blue canary in the alley by the light switch
Who watches over you!
make a little birdhouse in your soul
Not to put too fine a point on it
I’m the only bee in your bonnet”

I LOVE that song. If I have to say why, we are not on the same page. TMBG’s Flood is a album where I can say, “Set phasers on repeat, Spock!”

But most of the other TMBG albums are like that. I saw them play live at the Warfield in San Francisco. The concert was so much fun! Fun! Fun!

It was interesting to compare notes afterwards with the guys at the record store I worked at during that time…The week before, the boys had gone to see Marilyn Manson at the Warfield. Apparently, the highlight of that concert was when all the people in the balcony began spitting towards the stage. The boys in the pit got a rain of saliva, even though most of it hit the band. Apparently the band just rubbed it in, making it part of their act.

Not my Warfield experience. MY band did not encourage that sort of thing. We were all in the pit bouncing up and down and bobbing our heads to our favorite songs. Everyone there was congratulating each other on their mutual love of nerd rock and by extension, nerds.

Yay for nerds and yay for They Might Be Giants!

I am excited to read the TMBG and David Eggers are on tour together. How interesting would that kind of show be? Pretty darn, I think.

Anybody going to be checking it out?

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The Vagina Monologues

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It’s Woman’s history month, but even if it weren’t, this is a good show to watch.

I didn’t see the live version, that would have required forethought and effort.

I just happened to see teh DVD at the library when I was browsing for things to entertain me.

I loved it. I just hope my neighbors didn’t hear me yelling out responses to the TV. I was loud.

I absolutely LOVE hearing women talk about what is. So often, we will skip straight to what should be. But that leaves out a good appreciation and assessment of what is going on right now.

It was so sweet to hear the older ladies talk about their vaginas. The way we think about women, older women, and sexuality, you get the impression that they just seal over at a certain age. Of course, that’s silly. I plan on being an old ladies someday, and it’s nice to know that my vagina will still be there.

The whole things makes me want to ask more and different questions of the people I know.

“everybody move to the back of the bus…”

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I heard this song on the radio once, and I could not get it out of my head.

It is a truly amazing song; it makes me start to move all the different parts of my body to the earthy beats.

MMM!

I only wish I had more body parts.

So I found out what the song WAS:

“Rosa Parks” from Aquemini

It’s by far the best song on the album. There are others I kind of like, but this one really grabs me by the scruff of the neck and makes me want to dance in ways I haven’t thought of yet.

There can be only two…

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Green and Red.

These are the traditional jello colors. And jello, strange food that it is, is surprisingly traditional. American as apple pie. Or green jello.

There is a rumor, though I couldn’t find a website for it, that green jello conduct brainwaves.

What does this mean?

I first encountered jello as an abstraction when I visited North Dakota. That’s jello country. My youngest brother was attending the university there, and he had a lot of anthropological observations.

“There are only two acceptable colors for jello: Green and Red.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. But there’s more! Jello can be either a side dish, as in ‘salad’, or a dessert.”
“How do you tell when it’s which?”
“When it’s dessert, it has whipped cream on top.”

The reason I bring this up, is that I’ve been rediscovering the joys of jello in my own life. I use whip cream on it, so it must be desert.

I like orange.

And yellow jello. This same brother, when he was in the hospital getting his tonsils out, was offered jello.
“Yellow jello?” he asked the nurse hopefully.
“No, we only have green or red jello.”

He turned them down. If it wasn’t yellow, he didn’t want jello.

I have some yellow jello waiting to be made. But as I was at the grocery store, I thought I ought to give green and red a chance. Maybe they were popular because of innate qualities, not merely blind tradition.

Green jello is simple. It’s lime.

But red jello could be many flavors. Cherry. Strawberry. Raspberry.

And there was a new one. Cranberry.

I thought I would try it.

It wasn’t as good as I hoped. Not tart enough.

Just thought I’d let you know.

In The Beginning…

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(This is Cross-Posted)

Everybody knows Mark Twain, but he has written more stories than most people are aware of.

I was gifted with The Diary of Adam and The Diary of Eve for an anniversary present some time ago.

They are wickedly funny. The oldest arguments between man and wife had very early beginnings. I recommend couples reading them aloud to one another. It’s fun to compare the different perspectives on the same events, too.

Check it out.

The Ends Justify the Meanness

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(This is cross-posted)

Some days I go to work, and I can smile at people. We exchange pleasantries and stale jokes in the coffee room.

It is easy to forget that none of them want what’s best for me. NONE of them.

In a perfect world, we would all work together towards improved efficiency, lowering costs and bettering service.

This is not that world. Everyone has to watch out for their own interests.

And that’s not such a bad thing. Who is the one most qualified to watch out for your own interests than you? really, the scheme is an excellent division of labor.
In the system, NOT looking out for your own interests would really be letting your employer down.

A book that I picked up at a trade show after a cranky and frustrating morning at work reminds me of my duty to look out for number one.

What Would Machiavelli Do? the Ends Justify the Meanness

It’s pretty silly, but sometimes I have to remember that I am not among friends. I am among co-workers.

GAAHHHTA DANCE!

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I have an urge to wear sparkly clothing and take long lungey steps that include over-my-head high kicks.

I just saw Chicago.

It reminded me of Moulin Rouge, with the whole staging, singing, and dance thing going on.

It felt like a stage show on a movie screen. There were some effects that could not have been accomplished on a stage, but for the most part, it really felt like a broadway production.

The underlying message seemed to be how women, or more universally, people, can manipulate the public interest and get what they want.

THe story was based on events that happened in the 20s. I think we have the same things going on today.

It was a abstract portrayal of what the events and relationships. I liked that. Made things seem more evident that strict realism.

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It’s the right thing to do, but we have to do it right.

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Thomas Friedman was on CSPAN2 last night.

The show was really compelling. Friedman seemed to have a compassion for the Arab world that led to understanding of the situation.

I think compassion is really important in times of war…Actually, it’s important right before times of war. Which would be now.

This has been one of my difficulties in discussing the Iraq situation with folks. I know for sure that no one I have met understands the situation even fundamentally.

Yes, we know about non-compliance of resolutions. We know about the possible consequences of mass-destruction weapons.

But before you engage someone, it seems intelligent to understand their motivation.

Calling Saddam insane, which W. essentially did in his State of the Union address, is simply lazy diplomacy.

Just saying “He’s crazy! He might do anything!” is a very weak strategic position.

I don’t know if I agree with everything he said, because I haven’t checked it all out yet. But he’s the first person I’ve heard that I had initial respect for.

I just keep thinking that we haven’t really sat down and LISTENED yet.