I am so smart. S-M-R-T.

My Thoughts On Christmas Cards

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:35:00 -0600

Now that I have sent my Christmas cards out, I can sit back and judge all the ones that come in. I love to see pictures of people (why send out a family card without one?) and enjoy seeing how people’s personalities come through (Grannie always chooses a Snoopy card, my mom does something uber religious, etc)

My only gripe with Christmas cards is the braggy Christmas card that details all of the ways each member of the family is wonderful and perfect. Witty notes are great— braggy ones aren’t.

One year, kid you not, my family got a braggy card which not only featured the blue print sketch/design of the front of their newly constructed, multi-million dollar home in Lake Forest, but went ahead and described how “Little Susy” was the star of the Chicago Ballet’s Nutcracker (meaning she was an extra dancer in one of the scenes) and “Little Timmy” was the star football quarterback… barf.

That being said, an interesting article in today’s WSJ about cards. I think Felten gets it wrong however. The handwritten note (if missing) has not been replaced with pre-fab sentiments. If card buying customers have such control over what goes on their cards, then they are actively thinking of their recipients more than ever. The act of selecting the card, choosing a photo, addressing the envelope, stamping it, licking it… all these actions aren’t done in a vacuum. Maybe it’s just me, but as you take each individual card, you think of the person it is going to, even if for a second. And that is worth sending them to me…

_______________________________________________________________

From “Christmas Spirit: It’s all in the cards” by Eric Felten of the WSJ:

You’d think that Christmas cards, those small holiday tokens of love and friendship, would be greeted with joy or at least with some mischievous amusement (wow, the Joneses managed to stay married another year). Instead, the arrival of envelopes prompts an annual avalanche of complaints. Let us count the gripes: Cards are too secular, proclaiming “Happy Holidays” out of a politically correct fear that “Merry Christmas” might offend; cards are no longer about Christmas at all but just annual vehicles for sending out pictures of the kids or snaps of the family vacation; cards have become impersonal, with pre-fab sentiments replacing the handwritten note.

Could it be that this sour way of looking at things is wrongheaded? Perhaps we should be celebrating that the recent advent of online custom digital printing has fostered a great resurgence in holiday greetings. Computers may have killed off most pen-and-paper correspondence, but not Christmas cards. (This may be the only time of the year when we address an envelope, affix a stamp or grapple with a mailbox.) There’s a case to be made that we are enjoying a Christmas card revival that gets us closer to the original tradition than we might have imagined—even if that happy development does come with burdens peculiar to our age.

The tradition got started in England in 1843 (the same year that saw publication of Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol”) when Henry Cole hired well-regarded illustrator John Calcott Horsley to design a Christmas greeting card that could be mass-produced. Cole was an author, an industrial designer and a savvy political insider with a long list of friends and acquaintances and not nearly enough time to write Yuletide letters to them all. The card Horsley designed left no space for any correspondence beyond the scribbling of the recipient’s name at the top and Cole’s signature at the bottom. And so when we’re tempted to tut-tut that Christmas cards these days deliver prepackaged sentiment without much in the way of the personal touch, well, that’s what they were designed to do in the first place. (Emphasis Mine)

To those tired of seeing family pictures and secular sentiments on modern cards, it’s worth remembering that Cole’s original Christmas card featured not a pious image but a family gathered for their holiday feast. All are raising a glass—if you look closely, you’ll see that the nanny is helping a little girl of about 4 to gulp her share of the grape.

One obvious difference between cards of the past and present, though, is in their artistic quality. When the craze for Christmas cards first hit, no small part of the sensation was the visuals—elaborate paintings reproduced with miraculous color-saturated fidelity by the hot technology of the day, chromolithography. The king of the American Christmas card, lithographer Louis Prang, held an annual competition starting in 1880, challenging popular illustrators to see who could design the most beautiful, remarkable card. The contests were followed in the press with a sort of 19th-century version of “American Idol” breathlessness.

Few of the cards we receive today can match those elaborate designs, because the hot technology of our day, custom digital imaging, demands that we all become our own card designers. The powerful new digital tools we enjoy give us great freedom to create. But having those tools in turn puts the burden on us to be creative. Once you could go and select an appealing card from among the thousands of professionally designed cards. The only challenge was deciding on one that seemed to capture your own style. Now you’re pressured to create your own style from the bewildering assortment of design elements heaped in front of you.

Sure, the online card services provide the templates, but the bulk of the aesthetic choices fall on our shoulders. What photo(s) to use? Color or black-and-white? How to crop the picture in the template frame—should I show little Johnny head-to-toe or zoom in on his face? Should the sentiment be printed in block letters, script, sans-serif type, italics, all caps? Once there were people whose job was to make those judgments. It’s one small tyranny of the computer age that we’re all expected to be our own art directors.

The cards that show up at the Felten house suffer from a predictable sameness that comes from the fact that most of us use the same online templates. Even so, they aren’t too bad given that most are designed by amateurs. But then there are the friends who ruin it for us all. Like the pocket-protected kid in college who skews the grading curve in calculus, they set the bar ridiculously high. Every year we get a card that puts all the rest to shame, clearly cleverly designed well before the professional photography and impeccable graphic work realize the vision. (The kids are posed in a series of tableaus with an amusing dramatic arc, the artsy black-and-white pictures punctuated with color embellishments.) I can huff that, well, they have a professional photographer in the family (and they do). But, nonetheless, they’ve set the standard in our circle, and one doesn’t want to be embarrassed. Next year I’m hiring an illustrator.

Does anybody have John Calcott Horsley’s email address?

Yes Virginia, Gift Cards Do Suck...

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:40:00 -0600

My coworker and I were discussing gift cards the other day. As a Christmas shopper who LOVES finding the perfect gift for someone (or at least finding the gift that you thought was perfect for someone), gift cards are a cop out. My problem with them is that Christmas has gotten so big, so commercialized, that people feel obligated to BUY something. Some of the best gifts are for those relationships where you promised not to buy each other gifts, but while you were shopping you found something that (you thought) they absolutely had to have.

Also, I feel like you’re just giving the company your money, with no product in return. Gift cards can get lost, forgotten… when I went on a rant about how then they lose $1 a month or something, my coworker mentioned that there is a consumer protection law now preventing that from happening, but still.

This article (below), was forwarded to me from a coworker. It sums up my thoughts perfectly. I especially love the last suggestion, giving cash while it’s still worth something. Ha ha ha. Also, I can’t fathom that $5 billion in gift cards goes unclaimed— proves my point.

Merry Christmas!

______________________________________________________________

Yes Virginia, Gift Cards Do Suck…

OK, folks, listen up: we are getting closer to the holidays, and some of you are starting to panic. Less than 10 Shopping days to go, and more than a few of you are on the verge of buying a gift card.

Don’t do it!

Uncle Barry will tell you what no one else will: Gift cards blow. The straight dope your nephews and nieces and grand kids are too nice to tell you: They hate getting them.

Why? Because they suck.

Nothing says “I am both thoughtless and inconveniencing” like a gift card. They let the recipient know that you couldn’t be bothered actually picking out a present, so here is a cash equivalent — only so much less convenient than the crisp paper kind of cash. And, you can only spend it in one place.

How much do gift cards suck? Each year, $5 billion in gift cards go unclaimed, forgotten about or lost. That’s how much people value them — they throw away $5 effen billion dollars worth every year!

They are an expensive and inefficient way to say “I feel obligated to get you something, but don’t know what.”

There is even a cottage industry to buy unwanted Gift Cards from their unhappy owners. The only reason sites like Gift Card Rescue or Swap A Gift or Plastic Jungle or Gift Card Buy Back even exist at all is because so many people want a way to get the damned cards out of their hands. That these firms even exists is a testament to the gift cards’ crapulence.

Ahh, but there are alternatives. Sure, you could actually select a thoughtful gift tailored to the recipient, but if you were that type of shopper, we wouldn’t be discussing gift cards, now would we?

My advice to those of you who are haven’t figured this out yet yourselves, consider four superior options to the random gift card:

1) If you must get a gift card, then get them a Gift card they will actually use. Maybe they have a favorite clothing store or gadget shop. Not a random retailer, but a place you KNOW they really like. (as opposed to being near where you live). If your daughter is a Starbucks junkie, then at least you know the gift will be used — and appreciated.

2) Better yet: Get them an Online gift card (aka eGift Cards) But only to an account you are sure they already have. (This is the key). If your nephews shop at Amazon, if your nieces are regular eBay bidders, if your grandkids frequently buy songs at the Apple iTunes Music Store, then that is a far better option. eGift cards are far less likely to be lost or go unclaimed. They can be recovered if accidentally deleted. And, they reflect some thought on your part.

3) Even better still: Get them a prepaid credit card. All the major credit card firms (Amex, Visa, Master Card) let you buy prepaid CC as a gift card. These can be used anywhere credit cards are accepted. Its practically cash, and far more flexible than a Abercrombie or a Sears gift card.

4) Best of all: Just give them the damned cash. Hey, its gonna be worthless in a few years anyway — you might as well start giving it away now, while it still has some value!

There you have it — my holiday present to all the lousy gift givers out there.

Seasons Greetings!

From TopCultured The sad thing is, it isn’t even Christmas...

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:56:07 -0600

From TopCultured

The sad thing is, it isn’t even Christmas yet. But with the recent cold snap (it was 1 degree when I walked to work last week), I’m already ready to give the finger to dear old Winter.

That or find a job some place warm. Austin, TX, anyone? Atlanta, GA? Durham, NC? California?

'Tamale Guy' an icon at bars where kitchens close early

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:56:06 -0600

'Tamale Guy' an icon at bars where kitchens close early:

I love Claudio! This is so funny. Seriously, look up @tamaletracker on twitter—- gotta love Tamale Man!

I Attempt Indian Food Again: Channa Marsala

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:06:00 -0600

Instead of trying my Tempeh Curry again (because I wasn’t sure if the crappy Jewel by my house even carries tempeh), I decided to go for channa marsala, knowing I had rice to accompany it already waiting at home.

Stolen from Serious Eats, who apapted a version from Recipezaar.

Channa Masala

- serves 2 (really hungry people)

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter
1/2 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove
1/2 tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
3 tablespoons chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup water
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon salt
Juice of 1/4 lemon
1/2 jalapeño, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
1 teaspoon ginger, grated

Procedure

1. Toss the butter in a skillet set over medium heat. When melted, add the onion and cook until soft and beginning to brown, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

2. Add the coriander, cumin, cayenne, and turmeric. Stir until combined and cook for 30 seconds or so, or until it is very fragrant.

3. Stir in the tomatoes. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Dump in the chickpeas and the pour in the water. Stir until combined, and then bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer. Add the paprika, garam masala, salt, and lemon juice. Cover and cook at a simmer for 10 minutes.

5. Sprinkle in the ginger and jalapeno. Cook for another 30 seconds. Season with salt if needed.

I added mushrooms and carrots, and thus bastardizing the recipe. But it was good! :o) And I have enough to last me until Thursday night, when Eric gets home.

Unemployment Rates by County

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:15:58 -0600

Watch as the whole country slowly goes to black… this is scary.

http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html

I want to meet this guy… :o) From Time Out Chicago’s...

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:06:00 -0600

I want to meet this guy… :o)

From Time Out Chicago’s “Around Town” feature

Baking Win: Cookies!

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:28:45 -0600

I finally made cookies that turned out! (See my earlier post: Cookie Fail).

I guess I subconsciously realized that Friday (Dec. 4th) was National Cookie Day, because I came home feeling the need to turn up the Christmas music, make a boozy peppermint mocha and bake cookies.

Challenge #1: Ever since my mixer died while making cheesecake, I am minus an electronic mixer. The recipe had to be simple enough that it didn’t require anything that couldn’t be done by hand.

Solution #1: Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Challenge #2: One of my problems with baking cookies is that the recipes always end up making, say, three dozen cookies. That’s a lot of cookies, considering that it’s just me and Eric here, and as many people as I can give them away to.

Solution #2: So I googled “Small Batch Baking” on Friday and found out that there is an entire cookbook (I should have guessed) dedicated to this. Here is the recipe I used:

Giant Chocolate Chunk Cookies (adapted from Culinary Adventures of A New Wife)
Yield: 4-5 cookies

4 tablespoons very hot melted unsalted butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons beaten egg (break egg, mix it with fork, measure)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon water (optional)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used mini chips)

In a bowl, stir together hot butter, powdered sugar and brown sugar until smooth. If still very hot, let cool for about a minute, then stir in egg. Beat with a spoon until egg is fully mixed then stir in vanilla, baking soda and salt. Add flour and stir just until mixed. If dough seems too dry (falling apart), add the water. Stir in chocolate chips and broken cookies. Shape dough into a fat log of about 5 inches log. Chill for 1 hour. Carefully cut log into 4-5 equal pieces. If chunks of cookies and chips fall out, just stick them back onto the cut pieces.

Place cut pieces, spaced about 4 inches away from each other, 4-5 to a sheet, on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees F for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Cool on cookie sheet for 3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.

Things I learned while baking cookies this time:

Parchment paper is critical: The cookies slid right off the paper. Just another reason that I will be asking for a SilPat for Christmas.
Refrigeration is critical: Indeed, as promised, chilling the dough did wonders for the cookies’ size and shape. Instead of flat, thin cookies, I got six plump and nice looking cookies.

These were cookies that I didn’t feel ashamed in giving to others… win!

"Being a virgin in this day and age is something to be proud of. You’re like a unicorn!"

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:39:35 -0600

“Being a virgin in this day and age is something to be proud of. You’re like a unicorn!”

- Best quote from Community… ever.

Group of NU Students Demolish Tradition

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:11:00 -0600

http://www.northbynorthwestern.com/2009/12/61306/chipping-away-tradition/

Best quote from the comments: “Oh, wait, you just destroyed history. Your art history professors should fail you.”

This (like my friend Gayle said) makes me irrationally angry. But c’mon NU. Really?

Had I been on campus I would have mobilized my friends and protested.

Christmas Time at Muffin Top!

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:47:11 -0600

I figured today was the perfect day to bust out my Christmas decorations (I bought the lights at CVS and the rest was left over from El Dorado) and listen to my first Christmas songs of the season as I hung said decorations. Behold! The results:

My living room.

A shot of the front door.

Stockings over the door…

The Kitchen.

I’m mad at myself for forgetting my fiber optic tree at home. Wa wann. But I think these decorations will get me through until I go home.

Eric and Me in Tim Burton form

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:03:00 -0600

Last week, Eric hit up the Tim Burton exhibit at the MoMA while touring NYC/visiting his brother.

Yesterday, when I came home he had a present waiting for me: Corrie and Eric in Tim Burton’s world. :o)

“Brie Boy” and “Staring Girl” figurines.

My desk is really really starting to look like a 5th grader works here…

My family’s annual “crazy” photo… this...

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:41:20 -0600

My family’s annual “crazy” photo… this one won’t be going out in the Christmas card.

Cooking without Eric: Experimental Tempeh

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:22:38 -0600

After this dinner, maybe I should cook without Eric more often. :o)

I’ve never cooked with tempeh before (hence the “experimental” title, an ode to Lila’s experimental tart”), but after seeing Tempeh Curry from 101 Cookbooks come across my gReader, I thought I’d give it a try. Also, see my failed Pumpkin Curry, and you will understand the second reason this is experimental.

Now, the recipe calls for potatoes. :o/ I am not the biggest fan of potatoes, but you know what starch I am a huge fan of/happened to have in my fridge? Rice cakes! (Dduk in Korean).

They look like this:

The problem is, Korean cooking only really uses these babies in one dish. One. Dduk bokge (from my old blog, corzcooking). And Eric refuses to “depart from the text” (Goodnight Opus, anyone?) and make anything else with rice cakes.

I love them a little bit crispy on the outside, after a little pan frying. Okay, enough about my love of rice cakes. Back to my curry tempeh.

Now, the following must totally be credited to Lila, who taught me that recipes are loose sets of tips: I “basically” followed the recipe, only 1/4ing it. First I fried up the rice cakes in a side pan and browned the tempeh a little bit in the same pan. The onions and butter and tomatoes etc. were made in a separate pan, and I didn’t bust out a measuring cup once. :o)

And the final result:

A dish I would definitely make again. The curry sauce was actually thick (thanks to the leftover whipping cream in my fridge) and the spices were evenly balanced (for me). I would want to know what Eric thought of htis, if he allowed me to bastardize rice cakes. All in all, I’m really proud of cooking this by myself, and not just succumbing to a salad or something. :o)

Photo

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:09:14 -0600

The Office according to "The Office"

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:20:45 -0600

The Office according to "The Office":

If all business theory was this fun, I’d go to B-school!

"[Oprah’s] audience, of course, doesn’t want her to move on. Americans are congenitally..."

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:23:01 -0600

“[Oprah’s] audience, of course, doesn’t want her to move on. Americans are congenitally attached to too much of a good thing: “Law & Order.” Professional sports. Christmas. (The national calendar seems to be divided into two seasons: Baseball and Holiday Shopping.)”

- Gail Collins in yesterday’s NYTimes.

It relates to this article I saw a few days ago about “the Christmas creep” and how Nordstrom’s posted a sign saying they will hang their Christmas decorations after Thanksgiving. (Good for them).

I think the only instances of Christmas creep I’ve seen so far are the seasonal aisles at CVS and Walgreen’s and when I went into Macy’s a few days after Halloween and they had Christmas decorations up. I’m pretty safe, given that I don’t listen to the radio and can’t hear the 24 hour Christmas music stations. It’s been nice.

And I’m about to start my Christmas shopping (online) today, so I am getting a little excited for the build up, but I agree with Gail. Ha ha.

Is it just me, or is Lady Gaga getting thinner?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:39:59 -0600

Yet another example of how white women’s sexuality must be expressed through being stick thin.

Lady Gaga in Beyonce’s “Video Phone”:

Not the curvy Lady Gaga we’ve come to know and love. She has no thighs. Just saying.

Aaand no butt.

Look at her arms and body relative to the size of her face. Like I said, just saying.

Older Gaga material:

Hips! (“Paparazzi” video)

“Poker Face” video

Even in “Bad Romance” she’s not crazy thin looking…

Who knows. Maybe she’s just that good at manipulating her image. But even if she is just manipulating her image in “Video Phone,” why must you have lollipop head and look tiiiiny? I thought Lady Gaga was a champion of positive body image, and now I’m just not so sure. It’s kind of a let down.

It’s me in Kitty form!

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:03:40 -0600

It’s me in Kitty form!

Mom's take on the Psalm 109:8 Meme

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:04:11 -0600

Today I forwarded an article to my mother about the whole “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8” meme going around in crazy conservative circles.

Here’s her response:

Okay, I did find something interesting (or at least I think it is).

This same verse (Psalm 109:8) is quoted in the New Testament (Acts). This is after the resurrection in the very early days of the church. The apostles are talking about how to decide who should replace Judas. I’m typing from the text:

“In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus — he was one of our number and shared in this ministry.”

“(With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is Field of Blood.)”

“”For,” said Peter, “it is written in the book of Psalms, “May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,” and, “May another take his place of leadership.” Acts 1: 15-20

So, according to the apostle Peter, this verse is a prophecy about what would happen to Judas.

This scripture has everything to do with being personally wronged, slandered, betrayed (for both David and Jesus), nothing to do with what one thinks of his political/national leadership.

You asked!

Mom

Sometimes I forget what a wealth of knowledge she is.