Respect the beard

I like when a male television character is going through something and he grows a beard.  The beard conveys gravitas, and a turning inward.  It shows internal conflict ("I have had neither the time nor the shallow vanity for my appearance, for I have been wrestling in my soul") and earned wisdom ("not only am I old enough and manly enough for a beard, but I have struggled for the self-knowledge this beard signifies").

Respect McDreamy's beard.

WHMFASS Urban Legends

If your dog chews on toilet paper, don't use that toilet paper, or you'll turn into a werewolf.

Leftovers: living frugally, well

Reheated spaghetti or rice doesn't sound appealing. But if you mix in fresh vegetables with the leftovers, you've got an appealing, tasty meal. Mix fresh food in with the leftovers, and the enjoyment of the meal improves greatly.

The Best Hour of Comedy on Network Television

In my opinion, it is not NBC's Thursday night combo of The Office and 30 Rock. It is CBS's Monday night combo of The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother.

Both The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother have what most quality sitcoms feature: unique, unpredictable characters and very sharply written dialogue. But they are also both unique, and it is their originality that makes them particularly entertaining.

The Big Bang Theory often relies on conventional sitcom situations. What it does, however, is thrust odd, eccentric, smart, and creative characters into these conventional situations, and observes how these characters will play out the familiar situations. The result is often an unfamiliar storyline, unexpected plot twists, extremely funny actions and reactions.

How I Met Your Mother often transcends the conventional "situation," though often has familiar features. And the characters are unique, creative, and funny--they drive the show. But How I Met Your Mother often operates with unconventional narrative form: frame stories, non-chronological stories, stories told in pieces and from multiple perspectives. These narrative styles are familiar to students of literature, but How I Met Your Mother brings them to the sitcom in original and entertaining ways.

The shows treat their audiences like intelligent human beings. The result is an hour of television that is unpredictable and authentically funny.

Being Bourgeoisie

Perhaps in college I could smirk at various excesses of American consumer life and say "Ah, that's so bourgeoisie."  But as the skinhead in Tony Harrison's poem "v." writes, "now yer live wi' all yer once detested..."  Now I'm constantly doing things that make me say, "Gosh, this is so bourgeoisie."

My regular coffee order?  An iced soy latte.  Is there anything in the history of civilization as bourgeoisie as an ICED SOY LATTE?

And as I take my pet POODLE for a walk (yes, a lapdog), and she finds it right and salutary to poop onto the sidewalk, I bend down with a plastic bag and pick it up.  That isn't quite as bourgeois as an iced soy latte, but still makes me want to call myself a pig.

Local News Sort of Sucks

Kare 11's lead 10:00 story: a community is annoyed because trains are left parked on the tracks.

Facebook

According to Matt Labash, Facebook sucks.  I use it now, but he's mostly right.

(via Arts & Letters Daily)

Local Interest Story

In current events (since this is a blog about local media) the famed Cruelty-Free Mommy is back, after taking a full year off of blogging.

This vegetarian approves of Panda Express

As a vegetarian living in a flesh-consuming society, I have to get accustomed to minor consumer injustices. I pay the same for my Veggie Delite footlong Subway sandwich as meat-eaters pay for a sandwich loaded up with meat and whatever vegetables they want (I don't even put cheese on my sandwich, though I now get the cheese on the side for my toddler). This is particularly galling as Subway actually raised the price of the Veggie Delite sub to $5 for the same promotion in which it lowered the price of meat subs to $5. So it goes--one gets used to it (I could just stop going to Subway, but living mostly vegan, Subway offers a good, healthy meal). Most restaurant menu salads include meat; ordering such a salad without meat sometimes lowers the cost, but often doesn't. Sometimes I just have to be happy if there is a vegetarian entree available (at a recent trip to Champps, basically the appetizer menu was all that was available to me. Of course, eventually I just don't go to restaurants that don't offer good vegetarian options, and frequent those that do...or eat at home, of course. If you mostly eat fruit and vegetables, there's no need to frequently get it served to you).

But I was surprised and pleased recently at Panda Express. At Panda Express, the entrees are primarily flesh-based, and the sides are vegetarian. To get food there, I fully expected to need to turn the sides into entrees. But after ordering the fried rice, lo mein, and mixed veggies, the cashier rang it up as three sides--which made the meal about $3 cheaper than if the sides were turned into entrees. I even said "Really?" and the cashier confirmed that yes, it's just three sides, so it's cheaper. It turns out to be a cheap, filling vegetarian meal.

Yay, Panda Express. At a different blog, "Yay, Panda Express" might follow with an exclamation point. But this is a blog of restrained feelings (look at the title). At this blog, you reallllly have to earn your exclamation points (though apparently you don't really have to earn extra consonants). I've also got a problem with parentheses.

Public Restroom Policy

I detest some public restroom garbage cans. Do you know the trash bins that have a lid you have to push, and as soon as you let go, it springs back? This is the stupidest garbage can in the history of the world. So I either need to use my newly washed hand to push open a garbage lid that has been touched by who knows what and whom, or I need to use the paper towel to push it open, trying to let the towel drop into the trash before the lid springs shut (and it springs shut at super-alien-speed). If it doesn't work and falls on the floor, I get another paper towel and pick it up to try again, feeling bad about leaving trash on the floor of a public restroom.

No more. From now on if I'm forced to use a paper towel, and the spring-lid springs shut, pushing the paper towel to the floor, I'm leaving it there. It is a stupid garbage can, and it is a stupid decision to use them in public restrooms. Certainly, the poor employee who must clean up the restroom mess didn't make the decision on the stupid garbage can, but then that employee is probably forced to clean up messier problems than some used paper towels that didn't make their way into the trash bin.

There are many problems with public restrooms (I, for one, would like to get out of any public restroom without touching anything after I've washed my hands, but it is a rare bathroom that allows this easily). Spring-back lids on trash cans compound an already delicate situation into a misery.

Ahhh, Sven.

The other day, I was watching my 2 year old while the 6:00 Kare 11 news ran in the background and suddenly I realized that what was being covered was not actually news, but fluff. I don't remember the exact topic (what makes rainbows so pretty? how exactly do spiders make their brilliant webs? who cares), but I remember going on a short tirade, saying something like, "This isn't even news! And it's only 6:09! Look, there is the little clock thing in the corner! 6:09!! What the hell is this?"

A moment later, the segment ended, and I learned from the graphic and voiceover that it had been "Simply Science" with Sven Sundgaard. Oops. Sorry, Sven. I forgot I am supposed to heart you. 

Public Radio

June Thomas at Slate on Public Radio's pledge drive ploys. Fun times.