Tag: Australia

Seven Things I Love (2-28-2022)

  1. 1. This Candle CompanyHarlem Candle Company creates luxury candles, diffusers, and room sprays using famous people and places in black history as inspiration. I haven’t received my order yet but I wanted to include this while it was still Black History Month.

I ordered a “Savoy” candle which has the following description:

The Savoy Ballroom was the soul of Harlem, and kept Lenox Avenue jumping for decades. It was a block long, dripping with glittering crystal chandeliers and an elegant marble staircase, and is known for having birthed the Lindy Hop.   The glamour and excitement of nights on that iconic dance floor are beautifully reflected with a luscious overture of blackcurrant, tart mandarin, crisp green apple and juicy pear evolving into a flirtatious floral heart of Lily of the Valley and jasmine petals. Sensual sandalwood and sheer musk bring warmth to perfectly balance this intoxicating blend.

Is that not heavenly? I’m hoping I’ll get the candle, light it, get into my comfy chair, close my eyes, and be transported back to the Savoy Ballroom of the ’20s. I hope I haven’t set my expectations too high for a scented candle (ha ha ha.)

Plus they’re beautiful.

2. This Custom LibraryJim Cardon, built this library as a gift for his brother! I mean, if this doesn’t warrant a ‘Brother of the Year‘ award I don’t know what would. He modeled it after the library in the movie ‘The Illusionist‘ (on of my favorites, the entire film is available for free on YouTube.)

Talk about book porn!

[Found on Core77]

3. This Lagoon in Australia – PINK! It’s my “signature color”. Is this not amazing? It’s called Hutt Lagoon and the color is from “the caroteinoid-producing algae, dunaliella salina – which is a source of beta-carotene; a food-colouring agent and a great source of Vitamin A.”

The photographer is from Russia and her name is Kristina Makeeva. She’s EXTREMELY talented. If click on her name ⬅ it’ll take you to her Instagram and you can see all her photos. They’ll blow you away.

[Found on My Modern Met]

4. These Knitters or “Yarn Bombers” – I love it if someone yarn bombed my mailbox. I know it doesn’t last forever but while it doesn’t last, it’s so wonderful!

5. This Wall – photo was taken at MOD GEN: a Modern General Store, in the Third Ward near downtown Milwaukee, one of my favorite shops. They have a wonderful selection of unique books, games, puzzles, stationary products, kitchen items, and well, things you won’t find anywhere else. Most importantly they have a fabulous selection of plants and succulents at the back of the store. If you haven’t been I’d suggest you check it out!

6. This Interview with Judi Dench, Graham Norton, Elton John, and John Bishop – I’m fairly certain I don’t need to explain who any of these people are except maybe the last. John Bishop is one of THE most popular comedians in Britain but if you are a Doctor Who fan you will recognize him from the current series as Dan Lewis.

Anyway, got this video from a friend (thanks Stasie!) and it is so wonderful, mostly because this is ME to a tee.

It actually reminds me of, I think it was my 15th high school reunion? I got there and ran into a friend of mine. I would have bet everything I had that she went to one of the other two high schools in Dubuque (where I grew up). I said to her, “Oh my god, what are you doing here!” I mean, I was glad to see her, just surprised. And she replied (obviously a little perplexed and miffed), “what do you mean, what am I doing here.?” She actually got pretty pissed at me because she thought I was joking around but the truth is, I couldn’t remember. I can’t remember much of anything from the past 55+ years except for little snippets here and there. And a lot of what I can remember is due to photos and mementoes I have.

Recently I found a treasure trove of documents – all sorts of certificates and papers from my youth. Going through them was truly a walk down memory lane but there were a few things that I absolutely did NOT remember doing.

For example, in 1978 and 1979 I was in the Annual Metropolitan Speech Contest In 1978 my category was “Choral Reading.” I do remember that. In 1979 my categories were “Prose” and “Pantomime.” I don’t remember ever doing pantomime, not once in my entire life. But here’s evidence in print.

7. These Ukranians – Honestly, I can’t imagine Americans fighting like this. Well, actually, the way I see it going in America if there was ever an attack like this – all the super wealthy would leave to wherever they needed to go to be safe and comfortable, the lower upper-class and upper-middle class would most likely die (except possibly for those who are POC and LGBTQ), and the lower middle class and lower class would be like the Ukrainians – we ain’t puttin’ up with no shit.

What do you think?

Anyway, these Ukrainians are KICKASS.

Okay, first this guy, who picked up a god-damned landmine and moved it off a road all the while continuing to hold his cigarette in his mouth – DAYUM!

Then there is this UNARMED woman, who told a Russian soldier to fill his pockets with the sunflower seeds she offered him so that when he died his body would grow flowers (at least then he’d be doing something good for the world).

Next is this Ukrainian man, who may be a little nuts but who single-handedly attempted to stop a convoy of Russian tanks.

And last but not least, the 13 extremely brave Ukrainians whose job it was to secure Snake Island (also called Zmiinyi Island) – when approached by a Russian battleship told them to “go fuck yourself” IN RUSSIAN before being blown up. They were initially all reported dead because there was no radio contact.

The good news is that the Ukrainians discovered they didn’t die. Hallelujah! The bad news is that after being able to repel two attacks by the Russians they eventually had to surrender due to a lack of ammunition. The Ukrainian soldiers are now being held Sevastopol, Crimea, which was documented on Russian State television.

Also, SNL did a cold opening with the Ukrainian Chorus of New York singing “A Prayer for Ukraine” and I get overwhelmed with emotion every time I watch it.


[EXTRA] ICYMI, John Mahoney was the guest host on SNL on Saturday. He joined the Five Timer’s Club and there’s a new epic musical sketch to go along with Diner Lobster (2018), Bodega Bathroom (2019), Airport Sushi (2020), and New York Musical (2020).

Word of the Week


Quote of the Week

Seven Things I Love (10-5-2020): Gastronomical Edition

Okay guys, so I was collecting thing for my upcoming blog post and not only did I have WAY too many but a lot of them seemed to be food related so this week I’m posting two blogs simultaneously. Don’t worry, I don’t think this will be a regular thing.

1. This video showing How they make croissants at the Le Marais Bakery in San Francisco. Mesmerizing. And man, they look so good. Dammit, how much longer until we can freaking travel. Or at least leave our homes? My state unfortunately is becoming a new hotspot. Some hospitals not too far north of where I live have had to start wait-listing or transferring patients. I’m going to go watch this video again….

2. This Black Forest Piecaken – my friend Kathy made this! You’ve probably heard of a turducken, which is a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck, further stuffed into a deboned turkey. Well a piecaken is a pie baked inside a cake. You can make it with pretty much any kind of pie and any kind of cake but this is a cherry pie baked into a fudgy chocolate cake. Only in America!

I’m not sure if this is the same recipe my friend used but the photo is mighty close to the end result so it could be. OR if you don’t want to put as much work into it, you can use this boxed cake recipe but that’s not going to be as good.

3. This pizzeria – Vinnie’s Pizzeria, that has added “Comforting Words” to its menu at the low cost of $1! 2020 has a silver linings here and there.

4. This Australian tradition – “Democracy Sausage” or another reason why the rest of the world is superior to America. Oh em gee, why aren’t we doing this???? Because most countries don’t try to discourage voting/making it difficult to vote and actually try to lure people to the polls, in Australia at many elections they grill these sausages, called “snags” and offer them either for free or to raise money for local causes. I realize during a global pandemic this may not be a good time to start this (and I’m sure they won’t be doing it in Australia for the next year or so either) but we really need to try harder.

5. This Snow Globe Gin from Harvey Nichols – two of my favorite things in one package. Pinch me. They’ve used edible gold flakes for the snow. It’s times like this that I ask myself yet again, why the hell am I not living in the UK? (You can’t see it on their website until November, not that they can ship it to the U.S. Trust me, I’ve tried to have gin shipped here.)

6. These Tips for tidying up your kitchen — I’m obsessed with Food52 and this article had some amazing tips on how to clean up your kitchen quickly and easily. I particularly liked the part for keeping an “orderly fridge.” Genius.

(bonus – before and after (mostly after) photos of junk drawer makeovers…)

7. This article about how the Irish Supreme Court ruled that Subway Bread is too sweet to be bread. Yes, it’s official, Subway bread is not bread. FINALLY!

After all, we all know that we should all be eating bread like this on a daily basis. Mmmmmm, Irish Brown Bread. There’s nothing better. This photo is from the website Hungry Enough to Eat Six and they have a dandy recipe for Irish Brown Bread here.


Have a WONDERFUl week!

Five Things I Love (1/13/2020)

So this week, life happened, and I didn’t get this done on Monday as I had planned.

1. Perimenopausal Bingo by Beth Kanter (definitely can be used by menopausal and postmenopausal broads) from McSweeney’s:

2. Mockumentaries – plural of mockumentary [ mok-yuhmen-tuh-ree, ‐tree ] noun 1. a motion picture or television program that takes the form of a serious documentary in order to satirize its subject.

I’ve loved mockumentaries ever since I saw my first Christopher Guest mockumentary “Waiting for Guffman.” Guest is the king of the genre, having five under his belt (in order of preference):

  1. Best in Show – the “truth” about competitive dog shows
  2. Mascots – the competitive world of professional sports-team mascots
  3. Waiting for Guffman – small town theater people with big aspirations
  4. A Mighty Wind – behind the scenes of American folk music
  5. For Your Consideration – what goes into getting those award nominations

One of the thing I love about Guest’s mockumentaries is that he has created essentially an old-school acting troupe and a lot of the same people star in most of his films.

There are mockumentaries by other directors:

Rob Reiner’s ‘This is Spinal Tap’ is probably the most famous. Christopher Guest starred in the film along with Harry Shearer and Michael McKean. McKean became one of Guest’s acting ‘troupe.’

Drop Dead Gorgeous is one of my all time favorites –

What we do in the Shadows (again everything Taika Waititi does is golden!)

Both Woody Allen (Zelig) and Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) have done mockumentaries. I’m not a fan of either of them so their movies won’t appear on my list but if you enjoy their work you may want to watch those as well.

Here’s a pretty good listicle from Buzzfeed, though only up to 2010 (they are missing the past decade but there’s a lot on here that I need to see myself!)

3. Kitchen Ruler and Oven Rack Push-Puller. Where has this been all my (adult) life??? No more scorched arms. Wunderbar! Picked this up for less than $3 at Mod Gen: a Modern General Store (in Milwaukee.) I also see they are available for a wee bit more at Sur La Table. Or there is a silicon one (also a tad more) available at Amazon (it doesn’t have the ruler but would be able to be tossed in the dishwasher if you accidentally spilled something on it).

4. AJ and the Queen – got hooked on this last night and finished it in two days. There damn well better be a season two. RuPaul is, not surprisingly, FAB-U-LOUS.

5 Last, and most definitely not least, the amazing and brave and valiant efforts being made in Australia to save not only people but rare floral & fauna.

There are so many!

  • This 6-year old boy, who raised nearly $100K for the effort by selling clay koalas he made by hand
  • This border collie (named Patsy), who led 900 sheep to safety
  • This operation (Operation Rock Wallaby) carried out by the government of NSW (New South Wales), which dropped 2000 pounds of carrots to try to help save starving wildlife
  • These Aussie Firefighters, who saved the world’s ONLY grove of prehistoric Wollemi Pines
  • This woman, who took off her shirt to save a koala who was on fire!
  • And of course the Irwin Family!

If you can handle it (get a box of kleenex) this will really show you how many people (and other animals too!) have gone to great lengths to save the koalas and kangaroos and other animals at risk in Australia. Incredible, heart-breaking, but also it will lift your spirits knowing that people are so selfless.

(Side note, apparently it’s gone viral that wombats are helping to save animals by inviting them into their burrows. As wonderful as this sounds, it is not true.) Not sure why people make shit like this up.

Greg Page, the Yellow Wiggle (second from right), with other members of the group in 2012. (From CNN)

I was going to end up on a relatively happy note which is that the fire actually succeeded in getting the original members of the Wiggles to reunite for a fund-raising concert. That is AMAZING! Unfortunately though, Greg Page, collapsed toward the end of the concert and was rushed to the hospital. The most recent report is that he is receiving treatment. Let’s pray he is okay. The last thing Australia needs right now is to lose one of their National heroes.