The Closet Extrovert

I’m at a holiday dinner and The Devil Wears Prada is playing in the background. I’ve never seen the movie, and am intentionally avoiding paying much attention to it in case I ever do decide to see it (unlikely, but possible). However, I can’t help glancing over at the screen periodically, and I’ve decided that Anne Hathaway is not a real, living person. She’s too perky, too perfect. No, I declared, Anne Hathaway is not human, she must be computer generated. One of my assembled friends agreed, envisioning the male lead walking along in Central Park during the filming of the movie, talking to a stand-in broomstick wearing flirty little heels and swinging a purse.

A little grey mouse has been hanging around the apartment recently, getting bolder every day. Last night it wandered all the way into my bedroom (which happens to be the farthest area in the apartment from the kitchen, where I am pretty sure it lives). I even saw it in my bed, TWICE — along with my sleeping dog!

The first time Kerby didn’t even wake up. After that I did a thorough check of the room and barricaded the gap under the door. Of course, mice are really fast and good at hiding, and all I did was trap it in the room with me.

The second time I saw our little buddy up on the bed, it seemed to run right over Kerby, who jumped up with quite a startled look on his face. I can’t imagine why my bed is so attractive to this critter… it’s not like I eat in bed, and it smells a bit doggy. Maybe it has a crush on Kerby and wants to cuddle. Or, maybe it’s just mocking me. Needless to say, I couldn’t go to sleep for worrying about it returning to the bed.

Continue reading ‘WANTED: Rent-a-Cat’

Bliss is a constant state of mind, undisturbed by gain or loss.

Just having a little ‘zen moment’ over a cup of Raspberry Ginger tea…

“The con man’s game is always the same: sensing what the gull most wants to be true.”
- Stephen Metcalf, in his Slate article The Death of Literary Theory (via Ann Althouse)

Disclaimer: Please don’t misconstrue the following as an attack on natural remedies or alternative medicine treatments, or an attempt to dispute conspiracy theories about the big pharmaceutical companies. It is an editorial rant about ethics and reflects an admittedly biased opinion based on available research. I have not read the book being referenced, but only because I refuse to give money to someone I believe to be a charlatan. I’m aware that I can probably borrow a copy from the local library, but in truth I don’t have the the time or desire to spend dissecting the specific contents of the book itself, especially after reading this synopsis.

I got hooked a while back by a discussion thread on an alternative medicine blog that I stumbled across one day which mentioned Kevin Trudeau’s book, Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You To Know About. I decided to do a little research about him and was disturbed by what I discovered. I had seen snippets of Trudeau’s infomercial promoting the book on television occasionally but never paid much attention to them due to an intrinsic distrust of anyone going to too much effort to sell me something. In this case, I believe that distrust is not misplaced.

I also believe that Kevin Trudeau is not the anti-”big pharm” activist with special knowledge to impart that he claims to be. He’s just an opportunistic con artist using his mastery of persuasion techniques and people’s increasing distrust of pharmaceutical companies to prey upon them. His primary goal isn’t altruism, it’s making as much money possible without regard for how he does it. His past activities reveal that he is willing to sell just about anything that he can create a good sales pitch for. According to what I’ve read, he has been willing to lie, cheat and steal to line his pockets and appears to have no sense of ethics whatsoever. This guy should go into politics.

Continue reading ‘Snake Oil Charmer: What “He” Doesn’t Want You to Know’

We’re talking trash over at Down With Absolutes. To be more specific, we’ve been discussing RecycleBank, the pilot “recycling for incentives” program going on in Wilmington that I posted about recently. According to Mike’s post, some people are upset about having of their weekly trash collection days replaced with recycling collection, but dropping regular trash pickup to once a week hasn’t been a problem at my own residence and doesn’t seem to be a problem on our block.

I’m glad someone is writing about the bad and ugly of the program, but I do think the good should be mentioned as well. For example, since the the start of the pilot program in July, my household has received the sweet total of $38.00 from RecycleBank.

It would be nice if there was a Delaware community related message board that could devote an area to discussion about RecycleBank to get a wider range of resident (as opposed to press) opinions, but I haven’t found one so far (if you know of one, let me know!). The Recycle Bank website has a testimonials section, but of course they aren’t going to include anything negative there.

Anyway, it will be interesting to eventually find out whether enough items are diverted from the trash bin to the recycling bin to compensate for only having one regular trash pickup per week instead of two. If not, maybe they can use the savings that RecycleBank claims the city will get from the program to add the second regular trash day back!

I made this dish for the first time last night and let it marinate, by lunchtime today it was even more delicious than I had anticipated.

Garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas) are have a wonderful nut-like flavor and are found in a wide variety of dishes, from soups and salads to Middle Eastern classics like hummus and falafel. They are a good source of folate, molybdenum, potassium, iron, manganese, copper, zinc, calcium, vitamins E an B6, and fiber. Combined with whole grains such as rice, garbanzos provide a low fat, high quality protein meal.

Greek Garbanzo Bean Salad

This high protein, fresh tasting, vegetarian salad is very quick and easy to prepare. It can be kept for a few days in the refrigerator, getting more flavorful the longer it marinates. Using fresh herbs and a small amount extra virgin olive oil makes this a healthier salad than many of those with high fat dressings without losing flavor.

Continue reading ‘Greek Garbanzo Bean Salad’

It’s not just women. According to an article in Men’s Health, Wilmington, Delaware is the 6th most angry city in the United States:

Our search for evidence of urban anger began with the percentage of men with high blood pressure, from the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (as calculated by Sperling’s BestPlaces). We then factored in FBI rates of aggravated assaults and Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers on workplace deaths from assaults and other violence. And because rage and the road often go hand in hand, we also included traffic-congestion data from the Texas Transportation Institute, as well as speeding citations per state from the Governors Highway Safety Association.

Well, that just makes me feel so much better about living being stuck here.

Ironically, Orlando takes the top spot on the list. I thought Disneyworld was supposed to be the Happiest Place on Earth, not the angriest! I guess the Magic Kingdom sucks all the happy out of the surrounding city. According to BBC News, Denmark is actually the happiest place on earth.

Marginally related: I love Christoph Frei’s drawing of Mickey Mouse.