Archive for the ‘Lists’ Category

Amen

January 22, 2015

“But Bruchy knew, as anyone with any sense did, that this was certainly not a book for boys.  Boys were to keep their minds pure and spend their days with Torah study.  Girls were not required to study Torah.  He who teaches his daughter Torah, the sages said, teaches her foolishness.  Girls, we were told, didn’t have the urges and temptations that boys did.  Girls were allowed to gaze at boys, but boys were not allowed to gaze back.  Some said that women possessed loftier souls than men and therefore didn’t need to study Torah, weren’t obligated with as many commandments, were allowed to study English literature and history and even a little art and science, too, because their souls were so lofty that those subjects couldn’t hurt them, or not nearly as much as they could boys.”

~All Who Go Do Not Return, by Shulem Deen

Other things best left to women:

Politics (all of ’em)

Managing large amounts of money/running corporations

Determining how much space each individual ass deserves on subway benches

Recipes

September 3, 2014

included in the most outrageous cookbook ever, Darling, You Shouldn’t Have Gone to so Much Trouble, compiled by Lady Caroline Blackwood and Amanda Haycraft

Sonia Orwell’s Tagliatelli with Truffles

Marianne Faithfull’s Different Sweet/Sour Pork

Barbara Cartland’s Filets de Sole Caprice (“cooked by her chef Nigel Gordon in 10 minutes”)

Quentin Crisp’s Tibetan Workhouse Soup (ed note: oooo boy)

Bernard Shaw’s Vegetable Salads

Beryl Bainbridge’s Stovies

Anne Dunn’s Cold Omelette

Lucian Freud’s Tomato Soup au Naturel

Nicholas Haslam’s Fake Mayonnaise for Masking Cold Chicken

Natasha Spender’s Ukrainian Eggs

Jonathan Miller’s coleslaw

Roald Dahl’s Norwegian Cauliflower

Doon Plunkett’s Caviar Soup

Francis Bacon’s Thick, Fat, Genuine Mayonnaise

(The author would like to thank Nancy Schoenberger for her help compiling this list)

Reasons Susan Sontag and I Might Be the Same Person

August 28, 2014
We’re cinephiles

We were raised in non-religious households with catholic nannies

We both change our minds and pretend our new stance actually was what we believed all along

We both worship intellectuals as if they’re movie stars
 

So Apparently

August 17, 2014

I guess it will be not that surprising to people who know me that I got sucked into a bit of a k-hole today reading the last statements of criminals about to be executed in Texas.  Oh, Texas––that bastion of bureaucratic productivity!  Thank you ever so much for being so organized in your effort to let the public see what those poor suckers you’re offing have to say!  Perhaps my favorite is Michael Yowell’s, because he takes the opportunity to call out his friend (?) Gerald for being a “zero.”  Also I really enjoy Caroll Parr’s, because she takes the opportunity to quote The Terminator.  But mostly, they are really harrowing (“I’m an innocent man. I did not kill anyone. Ya’ll are killing an innocent man. My left arm is killing me. It hurts bad.” ––Jonathan Green) or predictable (“I am going home to be with Jesus. Keep the faith,” says Kimberly McCarthy) or heartbreaking (“Can you hear me? Did I ever tell you, you have dad’s eyes? I’ve noticed that in the last couple of days”: Ramon Torres Hernandez ) or intriguing (Last statement of Douglas Alan Feldman: “I hereby declare, Robert Steven Everett and Nicholas Velasquez, guilty of crimes against me, Douglas Alan Feldman. Either by fact or by proxy, I find them both guilty. I hereby sentence both of them to death, which I carried out in August 1998. As of that time, the State of Texas has been holding me illegally in confinement and by force for 15 years. I hereby protest my pending execution and demand immediate relief.”)  For your Monday morning: YOU’RE WELCOME.

 

 

Pullman vs. Paxton

August 3, 2014

While on vacation with my family in Bermuda, I inadvertently came up with the most genius game since Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: Pullman vs. Paxton!  Up tonight, level one––basic IMDB info.  Which Bill P. was in the flick?  Score yourself below.

Let's play!

Let’s play!

1. Spaceballs

2. Lola Versus

3. Titanic

4. The Grudge

5. Mighty Joe Young

6. Boxing Helena

7. The Terminator

8. Brokedown Palace

9. True Lies

10. Newsies

 

DON’T PEEK!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answers:
1. Pullman, 2. Pullman, 3. Paxton, 4. Pullman, 5. Paxton, 6. Paxton, 7. Paxton, 8. Pullman, 9. Paxton, 10. Pullman

 

Between 0-3 correct: Steerage Class

Sorry, you’re just not ready for the Paxton vs. Pullman big leagues just yet.

Between 4 and 7 correct: Pizza the Hut

Well done!  Grab yourself another wife.

Between 8 and 10 correct: You’ll Be Back

Wowee, you really know your stuff!  Advance to the next level, “Who Said It: Quotes by Bill P.”

 

 

Celebrities I Hate Because They’ve Insulted Me In Ways Real or Imagined

June 15, 2014

Natalie Portman

Etgar Keret

Simon Winchester

James Franco

Kate Bosworth

Marina Abramovic

Eva Mendes
(There are more to add, definitely, but I can’t think of them right now.)

Things James Joyce Was Afraid Of

June 11, 2014

The Ocean

Heights

Dogs

Horses

Machinery

Thunderstorms

The number 13

Opening umbrellas inside

Placing a man’s hat on a bed

Two nuns walking together down the street

 

How Long Is Salaciously Long?

May 24, 2014

In the Babylonian Talmud, a number of rabbis got together to argue how long “the beginning of cohabitation” takes.  This is all related to the sotah––the unfaithful woman––but you need not worry yourselves about that.  What you should do is find the rabbis approximation of length of sex hilarious:

The time it takes for the mixing of a cup

The time it takes to drink a cup of wine

The time it takes to roast an egg

The time it take to swallow an egg

The time it takes to swallow three eggs successively

The time it takes a weaver to tie a string

The time it takes a woman to extend her hand into her mouth and remove a splinter that was stuck between her teeth

The time it takes a woman to extend her hand into a basket and remove a loaf of bread

Back By Popular Demand

May 7, 2014

By request, I’ve decided to recreate one of my most popular posts of last year: quick and dirty reviews of Met Ball looks.  This year, I’m using the Cut’s slideshow (which is not to say I didn’t use it last year––I genuinely don’t remember) and I have to say, I HAVE A LOT OF PROBLEMS WITH YOU PEOPLE:

1. Beyonce: Interesting, I admit begrudgingly

2. Taylor Swift: Dancing with the Stars prom-themed reunion show

3. Lupita Nyong’o: so many feelings

4. Kim and Kanye: boring, as always

5. Anna Wintour: ditto

6. The Olsen Twins: Why do I love this?

7. Rihanna: Hashem WHEN WILL THE CROP TOP TREND DIE?

8. Anne Hathaway: the only good example of a CT I’ve seen in ages

9. Gisele: Yet another reminder that perfection is boring

10. Jessica Lange: Hello eyebrow lift

11. Kristen Stewart, I like parts and hate the whole

12. SJP: I am bizarrely underwhelmed

13. Victoria Beckham: WHY IS EVERYONE SO BORING

14. Naomi Campbell: without the cut-outs this would have been awesome in a Liberace sorta way

15. Karlie Kloss: Hate elbow length gloves on women

16. Amber Valletta: THERE ARE NO PANTS AT THE BALL!  (name that movie)

17. Katie Holmes: Why kick her when she’s down?

18. Michelle Williams: I feel like I’ve seen her in this a million times before

19. Amy Adams: The first one I’ve actively liked

20. Rita Ora: Who exactly is Rita Ora?

21. Donatella Versace: Hard to look away from that face

22. Nicole Richie: I know I should hate this more than I do, but it reminds me of 8th grade

23. Jourdan Dunn and Toni Garra: Models?  I like both.  Then again, hard to go wrong when you’re that tall

24. Emma Stone: She looks pretty great

25. Kate Upton: Chiquita Banana, in mourning

26. Cara Delevingne: Michelle Rodriguez was a bad sartorial influence

27. Kirsten Dunst: Oh please

28. Lena Dunham: What I want to say will certainly not be PC

29. Jenna Lyons: AHHHH IT’S A TALL GOLUM

30. Marion Cotillard: Not so bad from this angle, but I think I’d hate it from a different one

31. Solange: Is that a bad toupee?

32. Joy Bryant: Hello 2001?

33. Chloe Sevigny: forgot the gestalt aspect

34. Jessica Pare: Not bad

35. Kristein Wiig: WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT PANTS

36. Bradley Cooper: skipping stupid boys

37. Shailene Woodley: Disaster

38. Amber Heard: fine, but Johnny Depp looks like Ebenezer Scrooge out on the town

39. Florence Welch: Never change

40. Zoe Saldana: Decent

41. Kate Bosworth: decent, albeit sorta emaciated

42. Stephanie Seymour: Chiquita Banana, at play!
43. Rachel McAdams: too monochrome for her own good

44. Rashida Jones: the ball gown thing doesn’t really work for her

45. Erykah Badu: Pharrell’s hat on steroids

46. Maggie Gyllenhaal: Someone else said it best––a 70s cult leader all dressed up

47. Stella McCartney: Why so glum?

48. Allison Williams: nice

49. Frank Ocean: I think I like him, in general

50. Charlize Theron: lose the jacket

51. Margot Robbie: Oof

52. Miguel: who?

53. Naomi Watts: I’d also like to get rid of this sheer bottom trend thing

54. Claire Danes: I hate it despite the fact that it’s relatively unoffensive

55. Chrissy Teigen: A little strange in the stomach area, but different, so yay?

56. Anna Kendrick: Didn’t she wear this to the Oscars?

57. Emmy Rossum: tablecloth

58. Kate Mara: moss on a rock

59. BOY

60. Chanel Iman: She looks great, but A$AP ROCKY is terrifying

61. Hailee Steinfeld: Um.  It’s not doing anything for me.

62. Blake Lively: The usual Barbie fare

63. Elizabeth Olsen: Toddlers & Tiaras (although I dig the shoes)

64. Sarah Silverman: I cannot deal with her in this context

65. Christy Turlington: Well done

66. Rosamund Pike: No

67. Donna Karan: diaphanous ain’t working for her

68. Reese Witherspoon: Yeah I like it

69. Joan Smalls: The lipstick would have worked LAST YEAR

70.Karolina Kurkova: Very… large

71. Adele Exarchopoulos: I didn’t even recognize her.  Hm.  I need to think about this.

72. Bee Shaffer: Alright

73.  Dee Hilfiger: Poorly executed Mad Men reference?

74. Fei Fei Sun, Marina Rust, Tori Burch: Okay for the first two, I take back what I said re: gloves.  Tori, on the other hand, looks matronly.

75. Karen Elson: Kinda love it.

76. Maggie Q: Who?

77. BOY

78. Alexa Chung: I am positive I would have loved this when I was 21

79. Chloe Grace Moretz: I am rooting for this kid, really

80. Amanda Peet: Makes her look dumpy.  Which is… crazy.

81. Robin Deardon: Fine

82. Zooey Deschanel: Too prom-y

83. Sofia Coppola: I don’t hate this!

84. Diane Kruger: Nice, but a little old for her?

85. Janelle Monae: Hipster matador

86. DUDE

87. Greta Gerwig: UUUUUUGHHHH

88. Felicity Jones: Coulda used some make-up?

89. Kendall Jenner: I respectfully decline to recognize her existence

90. Natalie Massenet: Her torso looks like book pages flapping in the wind

91. Jessica Alba: Makes her look pregnant, oddly

92. MEN (ish)

93. Lily Allen: Hate. Loathe. Despise.

94. Oh I just can’t

95. Lake Bell: She looks bomb.

96. Elettra Wiedemann: They spelled her last name wrong.  That’s all I’ve got.

97. GUGU!?

98. Olivia Munn: Would have been better with slightly less tit

99. Riley Keough: Disqualified for pants

100. Fabiola Beracasa: Uh, sure.  Not wild about the color but everything else is pretty glam.

101. Lea Michele: A poor man’s Amy Adams in American Hustle

102. Catherine Martin: Delightfully wacky

103. Kylie Minogue: Yawn

104. Zoe Kravitz: I can actually SEE YOUR VAGINA

105. Hayden Panettiere: Prom in Palm Beach

106.Elaina Watley: I don’t know who this is, and I never want to see her dress again.

107. Leighton Meester: I don’t hate this.

108. Laetitia Casta: Hm.  Interesting.  The cut on top is a little dumpy but otherwise not bad.

109. Ruth Wilson: I like her face?

110. Selena Gomez: She dresses like a 47 year old

111. Lily Aldridge: She is as exciting to me as Melba toast

112. Ming Xi: My lord she is slim

113. Michelle Monaghan: You go, Maggie!

114. Julie Macklowe: It’s so bright.

115. Ivanka Trump: Rivals #114 for worst color

116. BOY

117. Dree Hemingway: I’ve stayed up since I saw this trying to decipher how I feel about it

118. Imogen Poots: Her last name sounds like how I feel about this dress

119. Livia Guggioli: Orange and black––bold idea

120. Dianna Agron: Feh

121. Georgia May Jagger: My lesbian crush looks awesome

122. Suki Waterhouse: Looks way skinner than she did last week, eh?  Dress is fine?

123. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley: Yeah, okay, I’m into it!

124. Liu Wen: A

125. Dita Von Teese: the mermaid tail is amazing

126. Katie Couric: Does nothing for her

127. Emily Cole: Is that his daughter?  That’s as much enthusiasm as I can muster

128. Giovanna Battaglia: Looks like it’s going to fall off

129. Gabrielle Union: Burn this

130. BOY

131. Dakota Johnson: Do we just have to lie down and take her fame now?

132. Brie Larson: Clown with a spending problem.  Or something.  PLEASE KILL ME.

133. Stacy Martin: Man, what a person with a teaspoon of fashion sense could do with her body.  Sigh.

134. LaLa Anthony: WOAH

135. Sandra Lee: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA

136. Arizona Muse: Yep, awesome

137. Aerin Lauder: Is it weird that I keep thinking about how old we’re all getting?

138. Tabitha Simmons: Interesting but it sort of makes her look… stout?

139. BOY

140. Nancy Chilton: I should know who this is

141. Oof, Anna Wintour’s son looks… not cute

142. BOY

143. Coco Brandolini and Bianca Brandolini: They look just like the D&G ads?

144. Idina Menzel: Lea Michele made bigger

145. Selby Drummond: Thoughtful, at least?

146. Hannah Bagshawe: LIPSTICK: wear it.

147. Sandrina Bencomo: Don’t like the hoop at the waist, but it seems like it would be hard for her to look really horrible.

OMG That was painful.  Off to have a morning martini…

 

 

MY BIRTHDAY

March 25, 2014

When I was a child, I used to pour over the catalogs that came into our house and carefully note the items I wanted to purchase.  I’ve always been meticulous in charting my desires, and though my parents and boyfriend (this one’s for you, sweetheart!) make fun of me for obsessively making lists (my book wish list is divided into need to buy and have purchased but not read) I find a great, though empty, comfort in it.  Herewith, thirty things you, my loyal readers, are welcome to give me for my 30th birthday, a bit more than one month away:

1. DSM-V

2. P-Touch labelmaker

3. Bensimon sneakers

4. An old school Gameboy with Tetris and ONLY TETRIS

5. Popover tin

6. This mug

7. Tiny sheepskin rug

8. Any piece of jewelry that has a human body part on it (like a hand or an eye.)  This sounds cryptic, but examples abound.

9. Gold mascara

10. Any patterned turban

11. A laminating machine

12. Any lounge pants that can be worn on the couch or outside, to fit my freelancer’s lifestyle

13. Mini stairs!!!

shopping

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14. Dorothy Parker doll

 

il_570xN.545199278_mcuu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15. The Tenant on DVD (yes, I still want to own physical DVDs)

16. Cool frum skirts

17. Anything from the Evolution Store

18. Le Creuset anything

19. This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen:

31r86mda3pL._SL500_AA300_

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

20. Illustrated Tender Buttons, as featured on this website

21. New bathing suits (athletic and not)

22. A tray made by my friend EM, mosaic artist

23. an endless supply of Meyer’s candles

24. Bunny chair, also featured on this site

25. A keychain (lame, I know, but you have the potential to get creative with this one!)

26. Chanel pearl bobby pins

27. An assistant (for just one day a week)

28. Millions of pairs of black opaque tights

29. File cabinet

30. A $500 gift certificate to a cool independent bookstore… OH WAIT…