What Would Jane Austen Do?

"Save us from weak resignation to the evils we deplore..."

Dinner with Christina and Carly at Pondicheri .

 Reading: The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. I didn't like it nearly as much as A Gentleman in Moscow . In fact, I liked it only barely enough to keep reading. Watching: Poker Face , on Peacock. Papi and I have enjoyed watching this, one episode at a time, and not every day. It's a little formulaic, but the sets and the guest stars are fun. I like that it changes scenery every episode. Listening to: The Beatles Channel, Sirius XM. Ever since watching Get Back , the Beatles documentary, I've enjoyed listening to them with new ears.

 Dear Florida, You are a lovely state full of outstanding people. But your governor is a piece of shit, and you can tell him I said so . Yours, Mamacita

Tonight I visited the MFAH to watch the Oscar-nominated animated short films. These were my two favorites: An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It from Olof Palme on Vimeo . My Year Of Dicks (2022) from Sara Gunnarsdottir on Vimeo .

  One night I went to bed while my children were safely in their beds; when I woke up they had been replaced by adults. This vexed me because I had made so very many plans to do fun children's art projects with them. My Pinterest boards are still full of ideas. But these nocturnal goblins who supplanted my babies have their own inscrutable hobbies, and not much interest in playing Kindergarten with me. In school I avoided art classes, watching with envy as my friends developed their skills. At the time I was too focused on making sure I never did anything wrong, ever. That's not only antithetical to art; it turns out to be a miserable way to live. So I'm assigning myself some of the art projects I pinned for those children who vanished in the night. It involves full permission to waste time and money on terrible iterations of useless endeavors. It involves finding some mentors who dig imperfect art, too, and glomming onto their style. It involves a new mantra: the process i...

Robert Baddeley as Moses (painting by Johann Zoffany , c.1781) via Wikipedia I almost walked out. To be honest, I always have reservations about sitting down to five-act plays, because I've ruined my attention span with the internet. However, a friend was particularly keen to see The School for Scandal at Classical Theatre Company , so I got tickets. When we arrived at our seats Saturday night, open curtains revealed an assemblage of random theater arts flotsam. Then the actors started playing with Barbie dolls. To be fair, the theater company's press hinted at the need for lowered expectations. "This particular adaptation is going to involve a decidedly creative take on the play, utilizing only six actors to fill out a cast of 16 characters," they said. But I was not prepared for two of the characters to be a Barbie and a Ken doll, puppeteered by other characters. I was distracted, even outraged, by the lack of scenery. There were no costumes to speak of, either-...

 I love making signs and cheering for the marathoners. I held this sign in Mile 6. It was crowded at that point, and people may have been going too fast to read it all. This is the sign I held in Mile 11 of the Half Marathon. I got there late-ish, and those folks were on the struggle bus. But lots of people liked the sign and ran by to slap "Believe." It was very gratifying.

  I wanted to see the exhibition for a pretty shallow reason. David Sedaris mentioned Philip Guston in his last book, in the context of owning some of Guston's work and wishing he had bought more. That was enough to pique my interest in seeing the MFAH show.  An image of the painting, The Ladder (above), was on the MFAH website, and my initial thought was, "cartoonish." Like all honest people, I never trust my instincts about art, and I wondered what I was really 'supposed' to see. To my relief, "cartoonish" was a word that came up a lot during the docent-led tour. The show was a comprehensive review of Guston's career. He changed styles dramatically over time. The earliest works shown were in the Mexican muralist style of Diego Rivera; then there were some paintings that were modern takes on Renaissance forms and themes. His depiction of the Guernica massacre ( Bombardment , above) was especially intriguing. I was left a little cold by his abstr...

I got a letter in the mail today telling me that some of our medical debt had been canceled, through the offices of a group called RIP Medical Debt. The debt was $64.25, arising from an ER visit Becca made in 2015. The debt belonged to Matt, specifically, as he was the guarantor. I vaguely remember the bills from that ER visit. We were making a lot of ER visits in those days, but that one happened while we were out of town, at the Medical Center of SE Texas in Port Arthur. I remember getting bills from them that didn’t match anything we were getting from our insurance company. I tried for a little while to figure out what the issue was, but eventually I gave up and just let it go. In my defense, I had (I have) a chronically ill child to worry about. Last fall, I read that our church had “generously and with compassion” given $29,000 to RIP Medical Debt , joining their cause to settle medical debts for pennies on the dollar. I thought the generosity was misguided. Did Jesus pay a ransom...

One thing I like to do over Christmas is watch the British Arrows advertising awards. You can watch them all through the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis ($20 online). There were a lot of ads for period products this year, which was sort of interesting. Some of our favorites, which weren't about periods: Rustlers (Kepak Food) "Dance Fight"   Danish Road Safety Council, "Helmet has always been a good idea"  CALM "The Invisible Opponent"  

Did you hear about this? In addition to the annual appearance of Count Chocula, Boo Berry and Frankenberry, this year General Mills brought back Fruity Yummy-Mummy and Frute Brute! I don't remember either of them from their original run, but you bet your sweet ass I bought them as soon as they appeared at Kroger. Frute Brute is "cherry" flavored; if you like artificial cherry, you will probably like it. Fruity Yummy Mummy is supposedly the only orange-cream flavored cereal. It's pretty good, too. You should give it a shot. I still hate the marshmallows in all the Monster cereals and I considered whether I could pay somebody on Fiverr to remove them for me. But it's not too cumbersome--if you're eating this, it's not likely you have places to be , amirite?

Asha had a good post up the other day, reminding us to flex our library cards this summer when looking for DVDs. I'm having some luck finding titles at the library that were mentioned on GKids. GKids is the site of the New York International Children's Film Festival. They feature foreign movies made for children that didn't get a wide release in the US. They're big on Hayao Miyazaki/ Studio Ghibli movies, like Ponyo and Kiki's Delivery Service , of course. I think this might be where I first heard about A Town Called Panic , which is funny and quirky and beloved in this house, yet absolutely not something I would have known about without GKids. Now, if Letitia were here to keep me honest, I would have to admit that the kids aren't always enthusiastic about the movies I pull up from that site. Chiefly they are resistant to any movie without a Happy Meal tie-in, or not titled Shrek 4: Yet More Booger Jokes . That's why we had to institute a 10-minute ru...

We are watching last week's Mythbusters . Kari is wearing an amazing swimsuit for some kind of sauna test (not to worry about exploitation, of course: Grant and Tory are naked). Anyway, Becca and I are in love with the suit. Somebody asked her about it on Twitter--it's from an Australian company called Black Milk. They have lots of goth suits. I guess Becca's set for her teens. N.B. to Sara--There's a Steampunk version , too:

This was a very exciting discovery . I am not Catholic, but I have long admired their dedication to celebrating the saints of the church through pastry and fried foods. Of course I had heard of King Cake for Epiphany, but how about: Pentecost Pie Probably less tasty, but visually way impressive, FLAMING Pentecost cupcakes Or these Pentecost brunch ideas. All red food! And the Cocoa Krispie Treat grotto for Our Lady of Guadalupe? Oh yeah. FWIW, the Feast of St. Nacho is on July 12.

There was a great thread on Reddit last week: "Fast food employees: what is the best thing on your restaurant's menu that no one ever orders?"  Now I ask you, is that most-Reddit question ever? Anyway, it pointed me to my new favorite thing: Pineapple Dr. Pepper from Sonic. There is REAL pineapple in it! I mean, it's life-changing. [The Pineapple Diet Dr. Pepper, fortunately, is also good.] Sonic wants you to use this as your wallpaper.

I don't know if this is the same one. Over at Collector's Weekly there is a post today about Vinegar Valentines. I never heard of them before today, but I think that must be what my Grandmother received one year as a kid. She told me that her maternal grandmother gave her a Valentine that said something about being an Old Maid. It broke her little heart so much that she remembered it decades later. Can you even imagine doing such a thing to a little girl? And listen, my Grandmother was no pansy, either. Just in case you ever thought that the Internet invented rudeness. HT: Sarah Pavis @ Kottke

We went to the Houston Mini Maker Faire last month. The kids had fun. Papi and I were SO excited about it. We planned everything in advance--maps and tickets loaded on our phones; clothes and backpacks laid out the night before. I was expecting there to be a massive crowd, because it was going to be full of fun and educational stuff, but it was definitely not overwhelming. Their loss! Personally, I was mostly interested in the food trucks: Monster PBJ , Coreanos , Waffle Bus , Bernie's Burger Bus . Monster PBJ has, hands down, the best graphics. Becca requested a Classic PB + strawberry jam on white with sliced strawberries and Nutella, cut into FOURTHS thankyouverymuch. She would not so much as let me look at it until she got bored with eating it. I can confirm that the crust was tasty. I was really looking forward to trying Coreanos, but I was a little disappointed in what I got. It turned out to be one of those humongous burritos that can't even fit in your...

photo via I emailed my pal Emily for some advice about San Francisco food. Here's what she said: How fun is this! Let's think...hot crab dip with sourdough? Anything Chinese, pot stickers?  Shrimp cocktail, artichokes, oysters. We are also the home of green goddess dressing, red vines, Irish coffee and the mai tai. Rice a Roni :) And garlic fries ! I also found recipes for cream of artichoke soup and cream of Anaheim pepper soup, which are sometimes combined at this restaurant outside SF. I think I can get on board with that. So we will have: Cheetos with Old Bay (B) Cream of Artichoke / Anaheim pepper soup (SF) Ricearoni (for Emmet) (SF) Crab cakes (B) Garlic fries (SF) Berger cookies (B) I think I can scare up an Anchor Steam beer, but Natty Boh might be a little more difficult.

So, we have San Francisco vs. Baltimore in the Super Bowl. I asked my friend Meg of Pigtown*Design for advice about what they eat in Charm City. Mamacita: I was disappointed to discover just how much love your fair city has for mayonnaise. It's in everything! I have a whole Pinterest board devoted to this subject of Super Bowl food. The Pit Beef recipe looked intriguing (until I saw the Tiger Sauce recipe with m-a-y-o). The crab pretzels also looked good up until the m---- part. One time I made Berger cookies, but I was a little disappointed with how they turned out. Maybe it was a bad recipe? Meg:  First, looking at your Pinterest board, no one knows anything about Smearcase. To me, it sounds like some ghastly OB/GYN sort of problem. Second, what's the matter with mayo?! Food of the gods - especially Duke's or Hellmans. photo via Roopa's twitter feed Third. Here's the secret recipe: CHEETOS + OLD BAY ! Yep, that's it. I've given ...