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[JoseSPiano]

...And, yes! Darlene Love... WOW!  -And Annie Golden was sining back-up for her too!

Annie Golden was doing ASL for the hard-of-hearing?  That's a talent I didn't know she had!  Good for her!

Actually, I believe Annie Golden does know ASL. 

[JoseSPiano]

PAGE 12 DAVID LETTERMAN/ED SULLIVAN THEATRE/DR GINNY'S NYC DIGS DANCE!!!!

[George]

After taking my cat to the vet, I should've gone to work, today!  Here's my very, very long story:

I decided to go to the local Dairy Queen for a bite to eat (I hadn't had anything to eat yet...and it was almost 2:00 pm!) and I got stuck right at the entrance to the parking lot!! I couldn't move forward or backward!  I went into the DQ to ask for a phone book to call for a tow-truck but the guy behind the counter asked if I needed a push (and that's NOT a euphemism...sadly ) and he and one of the guys from the kitchen came out and tried to push the car.  A guy just walking along came to help...then another guy.  Nothing worked!  Then, two guys in jeep with four-wheel-drive stopped to help and tried to drive around my car and their jeep got stuck!  All the guys are trying to push the car and dig out some of the snow and I'm feeling very embarrassed about it all, but they were all very, very, very nice about it.  The two guys from the jeep eventually got their jack and lifted the front end of their jeep and were able to get unstuck.  By this time, ANOTHER guy came and tried to help.  (If you're keeping count, I'm now surrounded by seven fairly attractive men and I'm just trying not to stare )  Anyway, the DQ guy from the kitchen says that he has a rope in his pick-up truck and he'll try to pull my car up into the parking lot (he couldn't think of this sooner?).  The guys in the jeep say that they have a heavy chain and got that out.  The DQ kitchen guy's truck wasn't strong enough to pull my car, but the seventh guy had a larger SUV and that worked!  FINALLY!!!  My car was free!!  The whole car-removal incident took almost 45 minutes!  I thanked all the guys profusely and frequently but before I could offer to buy anyone lunch or something, they all just took off.  I was able to park (the rest of the parking lot was covered in compact snow and ice, but it was very easy to drive on and not get stuck again).  I parked and went in to DQ because I still hadn't had anything to eat.  I thanked the guy behind the counter yet again, had my lunch, thanked the guy AGAIN (mainly because he's pretty darned cute...much too young, but very cute) and left.  I got out of the parking lot through the other exit without and problem and came home.

And I forgot to mention that right next to the DQ is a daycare center and the little kids were watching the whole thing.  We all waved at them every once in a while and they applauded when my car was freed.

And that is my story about getting very stuck in the snow, today.  I hope to NEVER experience that again.

[JoseSPiano]

Sedaris's "Naked " and "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" were recommendations by an Anglican Priest (Minister) who has been kind enough to pay some visits to my father over the past few months.
The visits are on my behalf - not the Church's. 

And as DR PennyO mentioned, his audiobook versions are great listens too.  -Especially when he breaks into his Billie Holiday impression - which is pretty spot-on!

Here's a link to his now classic Christmas "horror" story from his "Santaland Diaries". 

[JoseSPiano]

DR George -

*And that sounds like it could be a set-up for a scene from one of DR elmore's VCR tapes. 

[George]

DR George -

*And that sounds like it could be a set-up for a scene from one of DR elmore's VCR tapes. 

I should be so lucky!

 

[JoseSPiano]

I'm having a fudge emergency.

So I gather all my stuff to take to my niece's to make 2 kinds of fudge (she got bored after the first one). I think the maple one will be fine (it's hardening in the fridge).

But my white chocolate one is a disaster.

It won't harden. I just put in the freezer to see if that will help.

I wish i had more experience with fudge to know what to do.

I accidently did something wrong with one of the ingredients. It said to make 7 oz of marshmellow cream to put part of bag of marshmellows and 1/4 cup of milk. It made a really nice cream. But then i think i was supposed to measure 7 oz. Or i think that is what i should have done (although it did say to make 7 oz of marxhmellow cream do X). So i started pouring most of it in my fudge. ANd it was quite a few cups.

It's weird because the leftover "fudge" that i put in a bowl seemed to get much harder than the same stuff in the fridge.

Not sure what to do.

DR Jennifer - First of all, real fudge is not made from marshmallows.  It may contain marshmallows, but it's not made with or from marshmallows. 

-Sorry, that was the food snob in me getting out.    -Have you ever tried the Velveeta Fudge?  It's actually quite tasty.  In any case...

If you did put that many marshmallows into the mixture, there's really no way it will harden since marshmallows are basically just whipped gelatin.  The mixture may set up, but it won't harden.  However, you could also try just heating it over very low heat for a while to see if it thickens up a bit, and then let it cool.

As for the "leftover fudge" - sometimes fast-cooling fudge-type mixtures can make them not set up. They have to cool slowly in order for the sugar and fat molecules "gel" properly.

[Dan (the Man)]

DR Dan (the Man) - How long has Christmasvillagetown been in existence? under construction? when was it founded?  -And does Christmasvillagetown continue to grow from year to year?

DR Jose, Christmasvillagetown has been around, in one form or another, ever since before I was born.  The lionel trains were bought for my older sister the year she was born in 1946.  My dad wasn't a complete train hobbiest, but over the years he bought different Plasticville buildings and created a nice display every year (I'll have to dig those pictures out sometime.)

And then I was born and, as I'm repeatedly told, I was the destroyer of worlds.  I don't know what I did, but evidently it warrented my dad putting up a picket fence around the perimeter of the platform.  But by then, a lot of the damage had been done.

But the tradition continued with the few buildings and houses that were intact.  When I was eleven or twelve, my dad let me put up "the platform" (which is what my family pretty much always called the display) by myself.  I've been doing it ever since, even coming home to do it when I moved away.   Now that I'm minding my mom's house, I'm still doing it.  It's a tradition that I love and cherish.

[Dan (the Man)]

DR George--what a nightmare!  But at least you had some hunky help, which never hurts.

[JoseSPiano]

They were told if they hadn't gone back to look in the car, the woman would almost certainly died as well.   So, it's pretty miraculous for her that they decided to clean out their car at 1:00 AM

WOW!  That's quite a story!

[JoseSPiano]

Unless something happens to top it in the next eight days, the highlight of 2008 for me is getting a lovely email from Paul Williams, who wrote the lyric for "You and Me Against the World," telling me how much he enjoyed my parody of his song in the youtube video.

[JoseSPiano]

DP has discovered Facebook - I'll never see him again.  At least I can chat with him when he's on, even if he is sitting next to me!

Ah, the Joys of CrackBook!

[Dan (the Man)]

I've been making my gift labels on Avery.com.  I usually write out my gift tags, but this year I have so many to write out that I just bought a pack of Avery labels and used the on-line print and design pages to make them.  They are not exactly aesthetically pleasing, but they were fun to make and they will be a snap to slap on the packages.

And now to bed...

[bk]

I've finished with my viewing for the evening and feel very ahead of the game, Do-wise.

[JoseSPiano]

Most of our grocery stores have had self-checkout lanes for several years.  But this is new:

The "Scan-IT" system.  As you enter the store, you scan your discount card at a little kiosk and pick up a small hand-held scanner and some bags.  As you shop, you scan each item as you put it into your bags.  Then, at the checkout, you scan your card again, return the scanner, and pay - your order is already totaled. 

Interesting, and if everyone adapts to it, a real time-saver at the checkout line!!!

Upper management has foisted this on our store.  It's not as great an idea as it seems.

It actually takes longer for the customer to locate the bar code on the item being purchased, scan them one at a time, bag them, and then proceed to where the next item they want to purchase is located in the store, as opposed to having a cashier do most of this work.  This is a simple case of efficiency in performing a task - the cashier is capable of scanning the items quickly, because it's what they do as a job.  At our store, we also do the bagging for the customer, something we can do very quickly because we are both practiced at the job, and because the bags are held up on a frame, rather than loose and unsupported in the cart.  These uninteresting things are what we do for a living.  The customer should only have to do the fun part - the shopping.

It's interesting that they're testing these new systems in "slower" markets.  I remember when Ukrop's started testing the Self-Checkout lanes in their stores in Richmond - which is a "slow" town - they were a bit surprised at how many people preferred to have a real live person - a cashier - ring up their groceries for them - even when it meant standing in a longer line.  Ukrop's built their reputation on excellent, personal customer service, so why were they taking one of the "people" out of the equation?  I know in the location that I frequented, they had originally planned to have six self-checkout lanes, but that got cut back to four.

*Heck, there were times when I just had one or two items, but wanted to say Hello to one of my favorite cashiers during my visit.

**And I'm also one of those customers who tends to help out other shoppers in the self-checkout and self-bag lanes. 

[JoseSPiano]

I'm back from Gelson's and how have everything I need for the Do, and thank goodness I don't have to leave the house at all tomorrow.  The driving by idiots this Christmas season is at an all-time low, with people acting like they've never been behind the wheel of a car.  It's really shocking sometimes. 

*Of course, now all I have in my mind's eye is a vision of being one of the people driving behind bk... observing the coat caught in the door... the left tail light constantly blinking... and wishing he was driving faster than 18mph. 

[George]

DR George--what a nightmare!  But at least you had some hunky help, which never hurts.

No, it doesn't.

[George]

Dan (the Man), I loved the Christmasvillagetown pictures.

[JoseSPiano]

And as for the Topic of Yesterday... At least I think it was yesterday....

Bests:
"Slumdog Millionaire"
"Milk"
"Wall-E"
"Frost/Nixon"
"Un Conte de Noel"
"The Reader"
"Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day"
"Doubt" (even though I'm not raving about it like everyone else seems to be doing)
"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" - even though it had to be the most depressing, heart-crushing movie I've ever seen
"Forgetting Sarah Marshall" - Yes, it could have been cut down by about 15 minutes, but I enjoyed it.
"Vicky Cristina Barcelona" - It was great to see Woody Allen making a Woody Allen film again.
"Man On Wire" - A great documentary about one man's dream, as well as a "quiet" tribute to the World Trade Center Twin Towers.

Worsts:
1408 - Oh, nevermind, that came out in 2007, but I guess it stuck with me. 
"The Happening" - It was so bad, that I'm not even tempted to watch it on DVD just to confirm how much is sucked.

Disappointment:
"Quantum of Solace" - A good Bond movie, but even though it seemed to be harkening back to the classic Bond formulas, there was something too slick and too brooding to make it a truly great movie.

[JoseSPiano]

As for Today's Topic of the Day...

Debussy: Completes Works for Piano, Vols. 2, 3 and 4 - Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, pianist. (Volume 1 was released last summer) - Truly my favorite Debussy cycle on disc, and I never thought anyone could beat out the classic Walter Gieseking recordings.
"The Berlin Concert" - Simone Dinnerstein, pianist - A great follow-up to her "Goldberg Variations".
"Revolutionary" - Cameron Carpenter, organ (yes, organ!) - Truly something that has to be heard to be believed. Even his foot-pedal work is jaw-dropping.

"Holly Cole" - Holly Cole
"Hope for the Hopeless" - Brent Dennen
"The Way I See It" - Raphael Saadiq

In the Heights - OCR
South Pacific - Lincoln Center Revival OCR
Gypsy - LuPone Revival OCR
"Evening Primrose" - Original Soundtrack
"When the Wind Blows South" - Philip Chaffin's latest CD, quite lovely.

[JoseSPiano]

OK - I really should get to bed.  I think I'm going to spend a good chunk of my day back at MoMA - get one last(?) viewing in of the Van Gogh before it closes next weekend.

Goodnight.

[bk]

And as for the Topic of Yesterday... At least I think it was yesterday....

Bests:
"Slumdog Millionaire"
"Milk"
"Wall-E"
"Frost/Nixon"
"Un Conte de Noel"
"The Reader"
"Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day"
"Doubt" (even though I'm not raving about it like everyone else seems to be doing)
"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" - even though it had to be the most depressing, heart-crushing movie I've ever seen
"Forgetting Sarah Marshall" - Yes, it could have been cut down by about 15 minutes, but I enjoyed it.
"Vicky Cristina Barcelona" - It was great to see Woody Allen making a Woody Allen film again.
"Man On Wire" - A great documentary about one man's dream, as well as a "quiet" tribute to the World Trade Center Twin Towers.

Worsts:
1408 - Oh, nevermind, that came out in 2007, but I guess it stuck with me. 
"The Happening" - It was so bad, that I'm not even tempted to watch it on DVD just to confirm how much is sucked.

Disappointment:
"Quantum of Solace" - A good Bond movie, but even though it seemed to be harkening back to the classic Bond formulas, there was something too slick and too brooding to make it a truly great movie.

Actually, I don't think we've done films yet, have we?