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-yuh–men-tuh-ree, โ€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.