What Would Jane Austen Do?

Something I needed to hear today, at church:

2024-11-10T19:04:00.001-06:00

"Save us from weak resignation

to the evils we deplore..."

We didn't fix everything, but I feel a little better

2024-11-08T20:44:00.000-06:00

Dinner with Christina and Carly at Pondicheri.

Reading/ Watching/ Listening

2023-06-02T15:07:00.004-05:00

Reading: The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. I didn't like it nearly as much as A Gentleman in Moscow. In fact, I liked it only barely enough to keep reading.

Watching: Poker Face, on Peacock. Papi and I have enjoyed watching this, one episode at a time, and not every day. It's a little formulaic, but the sets and the guest stars are fun. I like that it changes scenery every episode.

Listening to: The Beatles Channel, Sirius XM. Ever since watching Get Back, the Beatles documentary, I've enjoyed listening to them with new ears.

Dear Florida,

2023-03-10T10:51:00.002-06:00

Dear Florida,

You are a lovely state full of outstanding people. But your governor is a piece of shit, and you can tell him I said so.

Yours,

Mamacita

Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts at the MFAH

2023-02-17T22:25:00.004-06:00

Tonight I visited the MFAH to watch the Oscar-nominated animated short films. These were my two favorites:

An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It from Olof Palme on Vimeo.

My Year Of Dicks (2022) from Sara Gunnarsdottir on Vimeo.

Collage Cards and the Midlife Crisis Art School

2023-02-06T13:47:00.001-06:00

One night I went to bed while my children were safely in their beds; when I woke up they had been replaced by adults. This vexed me because I had made so very many plans to do fun children's art projects with them. My Pinterest boards are still full of ideas. But these

nocturnal goblins who supplanted my babies have their own inscrutable hobbies, and not much interest in playing Kindergarten with me.

In school I avoided art classes, watching with envy as my friends developed their skills. At the time I was too focused on making sure I never did anything wrong, ever. That's not only antithetical to art; it turns out to be a miserable way to live. So I'm assigning myself some of the art projects I pinned for those children who vanished in the night. It involves full permission to waste time and money on terrible iterations of useless endeavors. It involves finding some mentors who dig imperfect art, too, and glomming onto their style. It involves a new mantra: the process is the purpose. And as ever in my crafting life, every piece must be as stupid as possible.

Today I made collage cards for birthdays. It was pretty simple: I cut out strips of patterned scrapbooking paper to make candles. I applied these with glue sticks to blank foldover cards from Michaels. I also cut out flames from patterned and plain papers; those were easier to assemble with school glue.

Difficulty: dead easy

Materials: cheap--and you don't need much of them

Usefulness of product: actually useful!

Other notes: the ruler wasn't necessary--the candles are better if they're a little imperfect.

The School for Scandal at Classical Theatre Company

2023-01-26T20:47:00.001-06:00

Robert Baddeley as Moses
(painting by Johann Zoffany, c.1781)

via Wikipedia

I almost walked out. To be honest, I always have reservations about sitting down to five-act plays, because I've ruined my attention span with the internet. However, a friend was particularly keen to see The School for Scandal at Classical Theatre Company, so I got tickets. When we arrived at our seats Saturday night, open curtains revealed an assemblage of random theater arts flotsam. Then the actors started playing with Barbie dolls.

To be fair, the theater company's press hinted at the need for lowered expectations. "This particular adaptation is going to involve a decidedly creative take on the play, utilizing only six actors to fill out a cast of 16 characters," they said. But I was not prepared for two of the characters to be a Barbie and a Ken doll, puppeteered by other characters. I was distracted, even outraged, by the lack of scenery. There were no costumes to speak of, either--the actors just wore (bad) contemporary clothing. I paid real American money for my tickets, and felt like I'd been had.

But that real American money only amounted to $25/ ticket--clearly not enough for a full 18th-century period production with costumes for sixteen characters. So I unclenched my jaw and settled in for whatever the company was offering.

I was glad I did. Even without a set to speak of, the actors had some unpainted plywood boxes and frames to interact with. The costume choices remain a mystery to me, though I suppose that the, um, affordable clothing helped make the production possible.

The chief joy of the production was hearing Sheridan's words from capable actors. Two of the actors in particular, John Johnston and actor-director Philip Lehl, far outclassed $25 tickets. I was also tickled when I thought of Lindsay Ehrhardt's Mrs. Sneerwell as being channeled directly from Candace of Phineas and Ferb.

This was my second visit to Classical Theatre Company, and I enjoyed it even more than the first (The Marriage of Figaro). Their next production, The Circle, is another language-centric comedy of manners, which seems to be perfectly in their wheelhouse. I look forward to seeing it.

Houston Marathon 2023

2023-01-17T15:14:00.005-06:00

I love making signs and cheering for the marathoners. I held this sign in Mile 6. It was crowded at that point, and people may have been going too fast to read it all.

This is the sign I held in Mile 11 of the Half Marathon. I got there late-ish, and those folks were on the struggle bus. But lots of people liked the sign and ran by to slap "Believe." It was very gratifying.

Philip Guston at MFAH

2023-01-13T17:39:00.001-06:00

I wanted to see the exhibition for a pretty shallow reason. David Sedaris mentioned Philip Guston in his last book, in the context of owning some of Guston's work and wishing he had bought more. That was enough to pique my interest in seeing the MFAH show.

An image of the painting, The Ladder (above), was on the MFAH website, and my initial thought was, "cartoonish." Like all honest people, I never trust my instincts about art, and I wondered what I was really 'supposed' to see. To my relief, "cartoonish" was a word that came up a lot during the docent-led tour.

The show was a comprehensive review of Guston's career. He changed styles dramatically over time. The earliest works shown were in the Mexican muralist style of Diego Rivera; then there were some paintings that were modern takes on Renaissance forms and themes. His depiction of the Guernica massacre (Bombardment, above) was especially intriguing.

I was left a little cold by his abstract expressionist work. [FWIW Guston supposedly preferred the term "New York School."] The paintings, which were the best sellers of his career, seemed like the epitome of the anxious question on every gallery-goer's mind: "Is that art?" I think it's important to be honest when we're perplexed by art--as long as you're keeping an open mind, it's the beginning of a real dialogue. Unfortunately, those paintings just didn't reach me. But I could see that he was starting to use the same palette that came through in his next phase: a vivid blue that takes the foreground instead of the background; a pink that suggests both living flesh and vulnerability.

The latter part of his career was when he returned to figurative painting, in that "cartoonish" style. He stayed locked into heavy themes--racism, disability, and the approach of death. But there is still some playfulness about them that makes them enjoyable. Skinny legs, shoes, and cigarettes are motifs run amok.

Still, just when you think you've happened on something light, like Untitled (Cherries) (above), you've been deceived. Cherries last a hot minute once they're picked, and here, he's showing the stems as nails or thorns. It's a pop sensibility with a fatalist edge. I can't believe this guy wasn't more popular--he was just way ahead of his time.

RIP Medical Debt?

2023-01-05T23:40:00.001-06:00

I got a letter in the mail today telling me that some of our medical debt had been canceled, through the offices of a group called RIP Medical Debt. The debt was $64.25, arising from an ER visit Becca made in 2015. The debt belonged to Matt, specifically, as he was the guarantor.

I vaguely remember the bills from that ER visit. We were making a lot of ER visits in those days, but that one happened while we were out of town, at the Medical Center of SE Texas in Port Arthur. I remember getting bills from them that didn’t match anything we were getting from our insurance company. I tried for a little while to figure out what the issue was, but eventually I gave up and just let it go. In my defense, I had (I have) a chronically ill child to worry about.

Last fall, I read that our church had “generously and with compassion” given $29,000 to RIP Medical Debt, joining their cause to settle medical debts for pennies on the dollar. I thought the generosity was misguided. Did Jesus pay a ransom to the money changers at the Temple? Was that the lesson we were supposed to get from that story?

I have no idea whether our debt cancellation arose from our church’s medical debt purchase. If so, I believe it was coincidental. As far as I know, they did not ask to target relief to anyone in particular.

In any case, the debt had no impact on our lives. It was more than seven years old, so it had fallen off of credit reports. It wasn’t much money, in any case. It certainly didn’t weigh on me–I’ve got bigger things to worry about than some corporation getting its billing straight. According to my calculations, we didn’t even owe the money.

The letter we received yesterday acknowledged that “almost 30% of people report being contacted about bills they don’t owe.” So 100% of the money spent on our debt was a waste, because the money wasn’t owed. Worse, this money did nothing to improve the hospital’s billing practices–the next people who go there will likely encounter the same problems we did.

In a similar case, a medical debt charity wrote a huge check to cover the debt of patients who never owed the debt in the first place. [WSJ--paywall] The patients were low-income, and should have qualified for free care in that hospital system. Again, the billing was the problem, not the debt. The article describes how some hospitals are thriving by abusive billing practices, and by ignoring rules about transparency in pricing.

There is a growing number of charities devoted to medical debt relief, according to Chronicle of Philanthropy. But the money they throw at hospitals doesn’t necessarily produce actual healthcare. Some chronically ill people avoid getting care because their bills are mounting. Medical debt relief for their bills would be helpful to them, but hospitals aren’t willing to settle recent debts for pennies on the dollar.

Some of the charities seem to be doing marketing work in explaining to poor people how to access care. That’s also a more worthy endeavor than paying off hospitals. Focusing on patients instead of hospitals should be the foundation of any medical charity.

Watching: British Arrows

2023-01-02T22:54:00.013-06:00

One thing I like to do over Christmas is watch the British Arrows advertising awards. You can watch them all through the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis ($20 online). There were a lot of ads for period products this year, which was sort of interesting. Some of our favorites, which weren't about periods:

Rustlers (Kepak Food) "Dance Fight"

Danish Road Safety Council, "Helmet has always been a good idea"

CALM "The Invisible Opponent"

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

2013-09-14T01:17:00.000-05:00

Did you hear about this? In addition to the annual appearance of Count Chocula, Boo Berry and Frankenberry, this year General Mills brought back Fruity Yummy-Mummy and Frute Brute! I don't remember either of them from their original run, but you bet your sweet ass I bought them as soon as they appeared at Kroger.

Frute Brute is "cherry" flavored; if you like artificial cherry, you will probably like it. Fruity Yummy Mummy is supposedly the only orange-cream flavored cereal. It's pretty good, too. You should give it a shot.

I still hate the marshmallows in all the Monster cereals and I considered whether I could pay somebody on Fiverr to remove them for me. But it's not too cumbersome--if you're eating this, it's not likely you have places to be, amirite?

Finding New Movies for the Fam

2013-06-04T07:11:00.000-05:00

Asha had a good post up the other day, reminding us to flex our library cards this summer when looking for DVDs. I'm having some luck finding titles at the library that were mentioned on GKids.

GKids is the site of the New York International Children's Film Festival. They feature foreign movies made for children that didn't get a wide release in the US. They're big on Hayao Miyazaki/ Studio Ghibli movies, like Ponyo and Kiki's Delivery Service, of course. I think this might be where I first heard about A Town Called Panic, which is funny and quirky and beloved in this house, yet absolutely not something I would have known about without GKids.

Now, if Letitia were here to keep me honest, I would have to admit that the kids aren't always enthusiastic about the movies I pull up from that site. Chiefly they are resistant to any movie without a Happy Meal tie-in, or not titled Shrek 4: Yet More Booger Jokes. That's why we had to institute a 10-minute rule: you watch it for 10 minutes, and if you still hate it, you can opt out. [Why yes, I have found a way to make movie time a chore; did you doubt that I had it in me?]

Also, I am probably the last person to know about this, but I've recently started using Commonsense Media's site to figure out if a movie is appropriate for my kids. For example, I was sure E&B would love Moonrise Kingdom, because I loved it so much--and there was really only one (potentially) objectionable scene, in my memory. But looking over their review, I realized that they will probably enjoy it much more in a couple of years, so why not save it?

I resisted Commonsense Media for a while, because I thought it might be run by insane fundies, but it turns out that's not the case. The site has also been helpful in pointing me toward some iPad apps that I didn't know were out there.

Finally, yes, we're seeing movies at the megaplex, too. I'm not trying to be this guy. Last week Papi took one for the team and escorted E&B to see Epic. This was poor planning on my part--it means I'm on the hook for Smurfs 2.

Kari's Skeleton Swimsuit

2013-05-23T17:37:00.001-05:00

We are watching last week's Mythbusters. Kari is wearing an amazing swimsuit for some kind of sauna test (not to worry about exploitation, of course: Grant and Tory are naked). Anyway, Becca and I are in love with the suit. Somebody asked her about it on Twitter--it's from an Australian company called Black Milk.

They have lots of goth suits. I guess Becca's set for her teens.

N.B. to Sara--There's a Steampunk version, too:

Catholic Cuisine

2013-05-22T05:38:00.000-05:00

This was a very exciting discovery. I am not Catholic, but I have long admired their dedication to celebrating the saints of the church through pastry and fried foods. Of course I had heard of King Cake for Epiphany, but how about:

Pentecost Pie

Probably less tasty, but visually way impressive, FLAMING Pentecost cupcakes

Or these Pentecost brunch ideas. All red food!

And the Cocoa Krispie Treat grotto for Our Lady of Guadalupe? Oh yeah.

FWIW, the Feast of St. Nacho is on July 12.

Secret Menu Items

2013-02-27T09:48:00.000-06:00

There was a great thread on Reddit last week: "Fast food employees: what is the best thing on your restaurant's menu that no one ever orders?"

Now I ask you, is that most-Reddit question ever? Anyway, it pointed me to my new favorite thing: Pineapple Dr. Pepper from Sonic. There is REAL pineapple in it! I mean, it's life-changing. [The Pineapple Diet Dr. Pepper, fortunately, is also good.]

Sonic wants you to use this as your wallpaper.

Vinegar Valentines

2013-02-14T12:14:00.001-06:00

I don't know if this is the same one.

Over at Collector's Weekly there is a post today about Vinegar Valentines. I never heard of them before today, but I think that must be what my Grandmother received one year as a kid. She told me that her maternal grandmother gave her a Valentine that said something about being an Old Maid. It broke her little heart so much that she remembered it decades later. Can you even imagine doing such a thing to a little girl? And listen, my Grandmother was no pansy, either.

Just in case you ever thought that the Internet invented rudeness.

HT: Sarah Pavis @ Kottke

Houston Mini Maker Faire

2013-02-06T00:51:00.000-06:00

We went to the Houston Mini Maker Faire last month. The kids had fun. Papi and I were SO excited about it. We planned everything in advance--maps and tickets loaded on our phones; clothes and backpacks laid out the night before. I was expecting there to be a massive crowd, because it was going to be full of fun and educational stuff, but it was definitely not overwhelming. Their loss!

Personally, I was mostly interested in the food trucks: Monster PBJ, Coreanos, Waffle Bus, Bernie's Burger Bus.

Monster PBJ has, hands down, the best graphics. Becca requested a Classic PB + strawberry jam on white with sliced strawberries and Nutella, cut into FOURTHS thankyouverymuch. She would not so much as let me look at it until she got bored with eating it. I can confirm that the crust was tasty.

I was really looking forward to trying Coreanos, but I was a little disappointed in what I got. It turned out to be one of those humongous burritos that can't even fit in your mouth, and it wasn't anything special.

Waffle Bus made great waffles. I got a single bite of Emmet's. Bernie's Burger Bus I've had before, and it's really good. Great buns.

So anyway, the Maker Faire/ Aspie Convention:

I was mentally keeping track of entries in the Nerdiest T-shirt Contest.

This guy was an early favorite.

But I finally had to go with this one.

There was a booth featuring souped-up Nerf guns and a firing range.

Which gun do you want to try, Rebecca?

The biggest one, of course.

This one is a little more manageable.

Emmet liked the robotics. These kids were in a competition to build a robot that could shoot a basketball.

The Sashimi Tabernacle Choir art car made an appearance. "What can be more annoying than an animated singing fish? Try 250 of them bolted to a Volvo and singing opera." All the kids LOVED this.

I'm so glad we went, even though I wasn't really in my element. If your little nerdlets need to find their people, get them to a Maker Faire near you.

What are we making for the Super Bowl? Part II

2013-01-31T11:36:00.004-06:00

photo via

I emailed my pal Emily for some advice about San Francisco food. Here's what she said:

How fun is this! Let's think...hot crab dip with sourdough? Anything Chinese, pot stickers? Shrimp cocktail, artichokes, oysters. We are also the home of green goddess dressing, red vines, Irish coffee and the mai tai. Rice a Roni :) And garlic fries!

I also found recipes for cream of artichoke soup and cream of Anaheim pepper soup, which are sometimes combined at this restaurant outside SF. I think I can get on board with that.

So we will have:

Cheetos with Old Bay (B)
Cream of Artichoke / Anaheim pepper soup (SF)
Ricearoni (for Emmet) (SF)
Crab cakes (B)
Garlic fries (SF)
Berger cookies (B)

I think I can scare up an Anchor Steam beer, but Natty Boh might be a little more difficult.

What are we making for the Super Bowl? Part I

2013-01-27T13:30:00.000-06:00

So, we have San Francisco vs. Baltimore in the Super Bowl. I asked my friend Meg of Pigtown*Design for advice about what they eat in Charm City.

Mamacita:

I was disappointed to discover just how much love your fair city has for mayonnaise. It's in everything! I have a whole Pinterest board devoted to this subject of Super Bowl food. The Pit Beef recipe looked intriguing (until I saw the Tiger Sauce recipe with m-a-y-o). The crab pretzels also looked good up until the m---- part. One time I made Berger cookies, but I was a little disappointed with how they turned out. Maybe it was a bad recipe?

Meg:

First, looking at your Pinterest board, no one knows anything about Smearcase. To me, it sounds like some ghastly OB/GYN sort of problem.

Second, what's the matter with mayo?! Food of the gods - especially Duke's or Hellmans.

photo via Roopa's twitter feed

Third. Here's the secret recipe: CHEETOS + OLD BAY! Yep, that's it. I've given you the secret of the known universe and now you can entertain with abandon. Everyone here puts Old Bay on everything, and many years ago, we discovered the secret of happiness: Old Bay on Cheetos.

You'd probably hate hot crab dip, given that it's about 1/3 mayonaise, but it is at every.single.bloody.party I've ever been to.

The Cheetos + Old Bay actually sounds good. And I forgot all about Southsides, which I heard about from you and loved. Thanks, Hon!

Latest Kitchen Hijinks

2013-01-25T22:53:00.003-06:00

On Monday I wanted to make Hawaiian food in honor of the President's inauguration. After rejecting spam masubi and macaroni salad (hurl), I decided that I had everything on hand to make chicken katsu.

It's essentially a breaded, pan-fried chicken cutlet. Nothing too extraordinary, although I had never used panko before. Every recipe for the sauce said to mix ketchup with soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce, but those instructions were a bit of a let-down. Also, I couldn't see just pouring ketchup all over the chicken like gravy, and that's what the pictures were showing. So I finally decided to try and make Japanese tonakatsu sauce, which involves applesauce, grated carrots, grated onions, tomato paste, garlic, ginger and soy sauce. And which ultimately tasted like grainy ketchup. Ugh.

More successful was dessert, which I didn't get a picture of. This is chocolate haupia pie. Haupia is a flan-like coconut dessert popular in Hawaii; some GENIUS had the idea to layer it on top of a regular chocolate pie. It was pretty good.

It's worth noting that my friend Cayce, who lived in Hawaii during middle school, suggested Huli Huli Chicken. She says that they sold it there for school fundraisers, the way we would sell barbecue here. Huli Huli Chicken looks way better than what I made. I didn't have the ingredients on hand Monday for the inauguration, but maybe on Sunday for the Pro Bowl...

It's colder than a welder's ass here

2013-01-16T10:25:00.002-06:00

I made this stew and now I'm telling everybody about it. You HAVE to make it. This is Ruth Reichl's Pork-Tomatillo-and-Dark-Beer stew. Now, let's all feel a little sorry for Ruth, because she has some labor-intensive stovetop method of making it. She doesn't realize that you can just put all the ingredients in a slow cooker and call it a day in the kitchen. Here's the lowdown (seriously make it SOON).

Pork, Tomatillo and Dark Beer Stew

1 pound of tomatillos, husked and cut into quarters
1 bottle of dark beer
12 ounces of fresh orange juice
28 ounce can of diced tomatoes, drained
2 pounds of pork shoulder, cut into hefty cubes
salt and pepper for the pork
10 cloves of whole peeled garlic (I used less—maybe 5 cloves)
2 large onions, chopped
2 whole jalapenos (take them out before serving)
1.5 cups cooked (or canned) black beans

Put all of this into the slow cooker and cook it until it’s done. Serve over rice, and if you like, cilantro, a squeeze of lime and a dollop of sour cream.

Let's start with this

2013-01-09T16:07:00.001-06:00

I was on the Weather Underground site this morning (flash floods in Houston) and it turns out they have t-shirts for sale. Is this not the cutest thing ever?

Spotted at the Houston Garden Club Bulb Sale on Friday

2012-10-15T10:10:00.000-05:00

Every now and then I get to leave the house.

2012-10-04T12:23:00.001-05:00

When I was a kid, my mom made special efforts to get us all cultured and stuff. We went to any and every play that was put on in the Golden Triangle, and often when we went to Austin we would see something at Southwestern or at St. Edward's. Among the ones that stand out:

My first concert, Billy Ocean at the Beaumont Civic Center. Lots of fainting black ladies. I was saucer-eyed. I think I was 10.

The Wizard of Oz at the Port Arthur Civic Center, where mom says we watched the special effects guy much more than the play.

Some retelling of Hamlet featuring a flatulent Claudius, at some theater in Austin. There were maybe 20 people in the audience, and we were 6 of them, but we walked out during Act I.

And now, even though I have to remind myself to do it, I like getting out there to see what Houston has going on.

Rossini's Otello, presented by Opera in the Heights

So it turns out that Rossini's opera gutted the character of Iago, which is kind of a disappointment. In this case, it made the opera strain even more than operas normally do to make sense. Why does Othello believe Iago? Why is Iago such a meany? Why don't these people just talk things out like normal humans? But plotholes are a feature of opera, not a bug, I guess.

My biggest beef with the production was the director's choice of setting. She decided to "update" the story by setting it among mafiosi in 1985 Venice. I didn't think this added anything to the production, and it certainly had a deletrious effect on the costumer, who interpreted the setting with clothes from 1995 New Jersey. [Most distracting to me were Desdemona's d'Orsay pumps. How can you stomp around onstage for 3 hours in d'Orsays?] Lackluster sets, always a problem at Lambert Hall, did nothing to redeem the setting or the costumes.

In spite of this, I have to tell you that Opera in the Heights is almost a miracle. The singing is absolutely first rate, especially Elmiro, sung by bass-baritone Joseph Rawley; he was enthralling. I was also amazed at what they were able to pull off in such a tiny space. The 27-piece orchestra was crammed, cheek-by-jowl, at the side of the stage, and in order to get to the bathroom you had to walk between the harp and the piano. But all of the musicians played beautifully.

To be honest, I didn't even think I liked opera--I went along with someone out of a sense of obligation, and when I saw that the piece would run 3 full hours, I nearly bailed. But I enjoyed it immensely, and I will absolutely go back for Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opening in November.

David Mamet's November, presented by the Alley Theatre (sic)

David Mamet is known for being hilarious and profane. I heartily endorse this, of course. November is about a lame-duck US President on the eve of an election, trying to hustle money for himself and his campaign. There are only five members of the cast, and the Alley produced the play in the round, on the Neuhaus Stage. The dialogue was very funny. Some bits were groaners, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. One peeve: the audience felt like they had to titter every time an actor dropped an f-bomb. Grow up, people. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.

I'm skipping Death of a Salesman at the Alley, mostly because it's such a bummer, and the hoary old Christmas Carol they do every year. I've also seen Santaland Diaries (and it wasn't half as fun as rereading the book), so the next thing I'll see at the Alley will be Clybourne Park.

Agatha Christie's Black Coffee, presented by the Alley Theatre (sic)

I saw this one in August. I thought that production was a little sloppy, and it definitely wasn't peak-form Agatha Christie, but it's always fun to see something in the Summer Chills series. And truthfully, the theater was glacial that night.