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I interrupt my long blogging hiatus to bring you this story (with a strong warning that it is NSFM - not suitable for mealtime).Three thoughts:- This story is a week old. How did I just hear about it today? Are my friends too tasteful to post it on their Gmail Talk status lines?
- Whoever dreamed up this ad campaign had clearly never ridden a Greyhound bus, or been anywhere near a terminal.
- Wow.
It's been an eventful month, so I'll blame my complete lack of blogginess on feeling that my life is in such a state of flux. Also on relating interesting anecdotes to K when I get home instead of sitting down to blog about them. In an effort to make up for it, here's my month in review:
- K, upon contracting a bad sore throat, declared she was allergic to the futon and began sleeping on the floor. She swears it's not so bad.
- K and I found a new place, a rowhouse in a neighborhood few have heard of, and those that have believe to be sketchy. However, it's a rowhouse! That we can afford! In the city! And it's near a metro stop! The move is scheduled for Saturday.
- HSBFF came for a visit, and we spent Veterans Day weekend in NYC. It was cold. We ate a lot, and I introduced HSBFF to Malaysian food.
- I saw The Tragically Hip (which henceforth I'll refer to as the Hip, thus affecting an intimate knowledge of Canadian culture), Zappa Plays Zappa, The Taming of the Shrew, the Karelian Folk Music Ensemble, and They Might Be Giants. Also Bad Boys 2. Woo-sa!
- Agent V [this is what happens when you let people pick their own monikers] had K and I over for Thanksgiving, along with a few mutual friends and his parents. The stuffing and company were both excellent (really the only criteria that matter in judging a Thanksgiving, IMHO). I made two pies, trying my hand and making crust for the first time. For a recipe with so few ingredients, crust is surprisingly difficult. But the results weren't disastrous, just somewhat humbling.
Today G.R. made a disparaging comment about how I hadn't blogged lately, which was nervy of him considering we're lucky to hear from him once a week. Rather than point this out I just said my life's been too boring to blog about lately. But that was before I arrived home to find a package from G.R.'s homeland, containing this awesome t-shirt. It's exciting if you're lazy, and you were a chemistry major, and especially if you only ordered it last week and selected the cheap shipping.
I don't want to sound prejudiced here, but is anyone else a little unsure of how to classify Canadians? They're a strange hybrid of foreigner and not-foreigner, fitting in well here apart from their superior enunciation and flappy heads. You can't teach them new words like "faucet." But once in awhile they say something that reminds you they do in fact hale from a different culture.
For example, today I had a drink after work with a Canadian friend who's lived in the U.S. for six months or so. We were talking about Al Jazeera; a friend of hers just moved here from Toronto to work for the new English version. Apparently all the non-anchor personel at the English Al Jazeera are British or Canadian because Americans don't want Al Jazeera on their resumes. There was an article in the Washington Post today that this friend thought was strangely biased against Al Jazeera, too, which led her to ask me, "Why are Americans so freaked out about Al Jazeera?"
To me Americans' automatic Al Jazeera-disliking reflex is such an obvious fact of life that I probably would never have questioned it. It would be like asking why cats hate vacuum cleaners (although a friend of mine thinks cats' ancestors were terrorized by a prehistoric feline-sucking Hoover, ingraining that aversion in their genes, so maybe that's a bad example). I could have said that post-September 11 Americans fear and despise all phrases that begin with "al," but I went with the less rascist explanation and said that the only time we ever hear about Al Jazeera is when Osama bin Laden releases a video, so of course we think they're the network of terrorists.
Here's my plan for salvaging America (and its reputation): Those of my readers who are not stealing cable should email their providers and ask them to carry Al Jazeera. We'll kill two birds with one stone: America will get more news of foreign lands, and we'll show the world we're not afraid of all things "al."
