Stuff I bought yesterday! (8/4/09)

1. A half-pound hamburger. I met one of my girls for dinner, and we ate at The Coffee Shop, which has fab hamburgers and crispily awesome herb fries. And I ate the whole thing. Result = I was stuffed like haggis. (Which is apparently "bloody delicious.")


2. He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope
   I just loathe the New York Public Library system. There's no central lending collection! No browsing! No big, beautiful courtyard for lunching whilst studying! *pines for Boston* Anywho, I've been dying to read HKHWR; as I mentioned before, Trollope is awesome. So I caved and bought it, and I've only read the first two sentences, but I'm already hooked. Such is the wonder of Trollope. And now, a mere 800 pages to go…such is the loquaciousness that is Trollope. Oh, you Victorians and your epic novels.


3. The July issue of British GQ. Megan Fox is on the cover, which was a deterrent, but the articles about polo, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Manchester were too intriguing to resist, so there you go.


4. On the opposite end of the magazine spectrum, I snagged the August/September issue of Bust, the cover of which advertises a fall preview of "the best in girl-friendly movies, music, fashion, books, and television." Also, they're holding a summer craftacular at York Hall in Bethnal Green, London, on August 22! If you're in the UK and you like amazing handmade goods, you should go. I dropped a lot of cash at the Brooklyn event last spring and scored some gorgeous jewelry and clothes, plus a compass to prevent me from getting lost in Central Park. (Really!)

Today, there will be no shopping. But there WILL be Doctor Who. Oh, yes!

This, that, and the other (7/30/09)

Three things you need to know about:

1) Cross-Atlantic civil rights FAIL.
I'll admit it: I felt a smidgen of relief when I saw that the UK's mother branch of the Episcopalian church was mad at the US branch (or part of it) for supporting civil unions/gay marriages (rather than the other way around, as I would have expected). Whew! I thought. At last, the US has the moral upper hand on gay rights over someone in Europe!

Right. So...pride goeth before a fall, doesn't it? This week, I saw that the British military has a non-Neanderthalic position on gays in the military. Basically, their position is: Do ask. Do tell. Now let's go kick some ass.

Probably NOT what's it's like to be gay in the military.

Meanwhile, gay American soldiers WHO KNOW ARABIC keep getting thrown out of the Army of One on account of no one here seems to remember that the Spartan militia were a bunch of flaming badasses. Exhibit A: Dan Choi.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Dan Choi Is Gay
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Joke of the Day

2) British GQ best men's mag ever?
I'm totally digging British GQ! It costs about one million US dollars, but it is jam-packed with lots of clever information (and tipped me off about both the ejaculating cake and the Invisibility Cloak). It is a magazine for magazine-lovers. And also language- and information- and cool design–lovers.

Simon Pegg goes Trekkie in British GQ. Oh, yes.

Also, fun culture twist:

• Ladies with bared nipples: 3 (one of whom was basically a bikini-bottom–wearing centerfold)


• Curse words: censored...because Brits don't want to f**k with using words like c**k in their magazines?

Honestly, I think I've probably seen the word "fuck" in Foreign Policy. No nipples, though.

And if you're interested in one Londoner's sex-and-dating escapades, check Jezebel's diary over at the GQ site. It's written with conversative usage of the personal pronoun, making it sound very urgent and diary-like, much like our girl Bridget Jones's diary is.

3) My Mac's thesaurus is devilishly old-fashioned.
Check this list of synonyms for the word "extremely." It's very 1850s. On both sides of the pond. (Click on the image for a full-size view!)