don't think it's surreal, just amusing. someone left out a pile of "healthy living" mags on the hall table in my building with a "please take me" note. I added a People magazine to the pile. 10 hours later the People magazine was gone but the healthy living mags were still there. They haven't been touched in 3 days.

This isn't surreal, or is it?

Halloween night; my sister and I are out looking at the parade which passes by one block from my apartment and the overflow passes by in front of my building; on my corner stand four NYC cops chatting;

I'm feeling jolly what with all the funny, spooky, scary or other inventive costumes passing in front of my eyes and so in the spirit of the night I engage the cops in a little conversation about where they usually work and how they like working the parade, etc. But then a thought crosses my mind: with everyone looking so unusual, what if a group of wrong-doers (read terrorists) decided to capitalize on this environment and put on a costume and do something evil? And so I ask them that question. Their totally serious immediate answer in unison: "We would shoot and kill them".

A couple of years ago some LAPD officers responded to some noise complaints regarding a costume party. One officer sees a guy dressed in police gear thru a window. The party goer spins around pointing his plastic gun in the direction of the officer. Blammo! One dead party goer.

Too scary. Have you read Malcolm Gladwell's Blink? (We recommended it to my husband's step-brother when he became a police officer.)

Fly

I encounter members of many different security forces in our neighborhood (near the UN.) Mainly because of the dog, they are mostly very friendly and willing to chat. But the one subject that is deadly serious and pretty much out of bounds is terrorists.

In the Mouthfulsfood.com member validation queue:

"Mr-Sex-Cams"

edit: "I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. Demille"

Email from Amazon.

"You might like to know that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's newest book, The Last Galley Impressions and Tales Impressions and Tales, is now available in Paperback."

I saw about 5 minutes of a Barbara Walters special last night and then this afternoon saw her in person on the street. I said "Hi Barbara" as I walked by her and she said "hello" back to me. I didn't tell her that I thought what I saw was insipid.

My firm's server has excellent spam filters, for which I am grateful. But apparently even the best filter slips up. I just got an e-mail with the subject line: All-You-Can-Drink Thanksgiving Eve Keg Party @ Calico Jack's Cantina.

And where might this fine establishment be? Not that I'm that desperate, of course of course.

Yesterday I went to pick up eggs at a local farm and was chatting with the “farmer's wife” (*) about raising animals with kindness, and I mentioned a brief snippet I'd seen of a grotesque PETA video (which showed the deplorable treatment of animals in factory farms). The farmer's wife said “oh, I don't need to watch that. I read Animal Farm in high school.”

* The “farmer” happens to be a diasporic hedge fund manager.

Oh Calico Jack's - yes, it's over on Third Avenue in the forties.

I can see how Thanksgiving with the family, or as we call it, "The Festival of Awkwardness," could lead to yearning for jello wrestling.

In a move certain to confuse anti-gentrification activists, "The CBGB Store" is set to open in the space formerly housing Quizno's on St. Mark's.

Maybe she was a trophy farmer's wife.

I have a serious desire to organize jello wrestling on the law school quad just before finals. It's a not-dangerous way to work out my very real aggression towards certain people I have to deal with on a daily basis.

For those with holiday decorating ennui: Upside-down Christmas trees.

Oh honestly.

Wait until they're at the other table in the courtroom.

Ahh, the best revenge.

As we on a food thread should know, it is a dish best served cold.

Someone told me there are jello wrestling nights at Arlene's Grocery on the Lower East Side. Of no interest to me, of course - just passing it on.

Edit: Heh, smart pricing: "21+, Admission - Free if you wrestle $3 for girls who choose not to wrestle $7 boys who come with girls $15 for single guy..."

My grandmother seems to have a cylindrical vision of the space time continuum. If I leave here 6 hours later than planned on the 20th, I should therefore arrive on midnight of the 20th, right? The phone calls started around 6am.

After a day in Philadelphia that began by watching the start of the Philadelphia marathon from a balcony 13 stories above the street, and continued with a self-guided tour of the Loew's Hotel in the landmarked PSFS building, designed by William Lescaze and which, in 1932 was the first building in the International Style constructed in the US, a long visit to the Philadelphia Academy of Art, both the Victorian Gothic Frank Furness building and its recently opened annex in a converted office building that also houses its art school, now affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, we walked back to the hotel and passed a tiny street that simply beckoned us to walk its length. The street, N. Mole, is a block long and lined with red brick three-story houses, some of which were built in the 1920s, but most of which are nearly a century older than that. A man approached a doorway. I asked him if he lived in one of these adorable houses. He replied, with a French accent, that he did and it was the smallest house he's ever lived in. He invited us in to see for ourselves! I've seen some small apartments in NYC, and the first floor of the house (which is all we saw, but hey...) could compete in the contest for dollhouse proportions.

Turns out he is John Lohac, one of the principals in Green Valley Dairy, producers of cheese in Amish country. He gave us a sample, a prewrapped block of a cheddar-like cheese called Pennsylvnia Noble that we took home and had with some apples last night. It is, in fact, a very good cheese, much better than one would expect from the packaging and label. Perusal of the linked article reveals that the dairy's original consultant was Jonathan White of Bobolink, who gave advice on cave aging.

We told John about MF and gave him the website address, so maybe he'll take a look.

He said he's trying to produce the first raw-milk brie in the country.

When I was a little girl, I always wanted to knock on the doors of interesting houses and ask if I could see the inside. Now that I'm a big girl, ye gods, it's happening!

The bad news first, a past consulting colleague who I worked with for years died up in Boston over the weekend from brain cancer. My old firm sent an email announcing the news and included him on the email list.

Bad form. They should have just cc'd him.

A little more than two years ago, on a thread called "Confession--Forgive, me, Mouthfuls," Liza wrote, "I contemplated telling an evil telemarketer that 'Liza' had reached an unfortunate end (sob sob) and her repeated calls to this number (snurffle) were causing grief and sadness."

You may not have thought of this yourself, but here's a worthy three-and-a-half minutes of audio. Click here.

Did he have an auto-reply email set up?

I watched about 3 minutes of Shock TV on cable. A woman who sculpts muffs* was on. I can't remember which country she was from, maybe some Northern European country. I suppose everyone needs a hobby. But her muffs reminded me of these The hair colors were bizarre, fluffy and long.

*That's what she called them. They were done on blocks of cheap wood.

At least five people have asked me in the past two weeks which Korea is the bad one, North or South.

I guess it *could* be worse - they could be asking if it is East or West Korea...

Fly

In the past week both the wife and I have been asked multiple times by other customers at Duane-Reade if we work there. Me in a downtown location, she in one in Jamaica, Queens.

eG seems to have some sort of soft porn thread going on right now. Photos and everything. Check it out

Oh sorry. It's only scantily clothed women hitting each other with pillows.

I asked if this was the same website that banned off-topic chat.

I wonder how long your post will last.

It's pretty bizarre especially when I think of the heavy hand of the moderators.

Pretty close, actually, "It is North and South, right, right? Which one are you from?"

I tell them I'm from Iran.

Marlene is reading the thread now...

Marlene Rumsfeld?

Oh lordie, I am SO dying to post something smart-ass...

Not only is my comment still up, there are two follow-up comments, both quoting my post:
Me: Is this the same website that eliminated off-topic chat?

Oh, I see. It's the eGullet Literary Review, not the forums.


maggiethecat, manager, Editorial Director, Daily Gullet, replied, "Exactly so, Sandra."


Then, Pan quoted both posts and added: "Besides, if I may say so, the meals of any group of people are on-topic."

His title is eGullet Society staff emeritus.

The title-bloat at eg reminds me of the Stones song, "Under Assistant West Coast Promo Man."

I can't even believe that's a true story. WTF????

I saw this name in our membership queue.

Fly

Time to stop shopping while wearing dark blue smocks.

Maybe they moderate with only one heavy hand.

I spotted a dachshund walking out of the theatre following The Coast of Utopia. It turns out she attended the performance in a tote bag.

bought a pair of jeans in the juniors section at Nordstrom (by far the cheapest section- I regularly get great jeans there between $25-$70) and I was assured by no less than 2 salesgirls that the jeans I was buying are Jessica Simpson's favorite jeans.

I look smarter in them.

Smarter than Jessica Simpson or smarter than when you're not wearing them?

I thought she endorsed one line of jeans but was caught wearing another.