November 2007 Archives

Why settle for old-fashioned taxidermy?

You can get some good squirrel pieces. (Looking around this website was kind of giving me the creeps, but then I read her artists statement and realized she's just recycling dead animals, so I feel better.) Anyway, that's cool and all, but since cute is the new goth*, I think that googly eyes on taxidermy should be happening more. There are some interesting things going on in the world of taxidermy, but I don't much cute taxidermy. I sewed some eyes on this coyote pelt that Erin gave me -- her dad made it.

Also, given how babies respond ethically to toys with googly eyes, maybe we should be putting googly eyes on more things? Like, googly eyes on cars, for instance. I think that could better communicate "friendliness" than a tail on a car, and a nice, wide-eyed car would be so much better for world peace than a snarling grill. A Wall Street Journal article on, "Why Cars Got Angry" quotes designers: "I'm not saying we promote rudeness on the road," says Eric Stoddard, senior creative designer for Hyundai. But he adds that a mean-looking car may make drivers feel they can keep others at bay. "It projects a message that a driver may be too shy or afraid to express," he says. "An aggressively styled car says, 'Get out of my way.'" Yuck!

Anyway, more cute things, fewer angry creepy ones, please.

*("Cute is the New Black" was a slogan that I wanted to TM for Gadget Cozies, but someone had it for something else, and now it seems to have disseminated itself)

"Jordon, Jess, GO!" pointed me me to Phone Call to the 14th Century: "Impart as much useful knowledge as you can to a resident of the 14th century, in one minute -- GO!"

Kasper Hauser: Phone Call to the 14th Century

It occurred to me that you could use the same concept in a history classroom, and I hope one of my history-teaching friends will give it a try. Since most of you teach German history, you could do something like, "Phone Call to 1938 Germany." Play them the podcast, first, so they get the idea. I think it would be way better than "Historical Jepordy." Jordan S. -- try it with your high school students! Let me know how it goes!

Speaking of games, today I was thinking about the difference between people who play games for mastery (of rules, content, other players) versus those who play for engagement (with rules, content, other players) -- I know that's a little simplistic, and lots of people play for both, and there's probably other reasons to play, but anyway, that's just the kind of simplistic observation that strikes me on my dog walks. I should get Nat to recommend some books on game design theory.

Continuing on with conversational icebreakers, a question that seems particularly relevent here in this season of consumption is What would your last meal be?

I've asked this question a bunch of times with no real background on the issue. For instance, we have wondered, you have to eat what's in the prison cafeteria? According to Wikipedia, in Texas, you do. It looks like most places don't go to a whole huge amount of trouble on your behalf, according to this account of cooking last meals in prison.

There have been a couple of books on the subject, including, recently, My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals / Portraits, Interviews, and Recipes, Last Suppers: If the World Ended Tomorrow, What Would Be Your Last Meal? and Last Suppers: Famous Final Meals from Death Row.

The first two books illustrate that this is a topic of conversation people really enjoy. It's a little more finite and less personal than, "what would you do if you learned you only had 24 hours to live?" but just as compelling.

(I have to say, even though I'm no Titanic buff, but Last Dinner On the Titanic Menus and Recipes From the Great Liner: Menus and Recipes from the Great Liner sounds like an interesting basis for a theme party.)

So far, the best answer was cousin Shane's scheme, which was to cook his last meal himself a la the last meal in The Omnivore's Dilemma - one in which he prepared everything himself by hand, growing the veggies, killing the pig, etc.

My answer? I'd basically eat everything on the last page of the menu at Holmans -- deep friend mac 'n' cheese, jalapeno poppers, chicken strips, tater tots. This meal is perfect because after eating it, I'd feel like dying. My other choise would be antipasti and bruschetta and lasagne at Fratelli, but that might give me too much reason to live.

p.s. get ready for lots of blogging because I discovered the "scheduled" posting function in Moveable Type!

This Halloween I had a pretty fabulous candy bowl. Among other things, I offered full-sized Milky Ways and cashews. I make the kids choose their own stuff out of the bowl and the amazing thing was, a lot of kids took the cashews. And it wasn't that they didn't notice the full-sized Milky Ways. One kid audibly vacillated between them: "Oh, man! full size Milky Ways! ... Cashews! Full size Milky Way? Cashews? Full size Milky Way? Cashews?" before he took the cashews!! Anyway, it's cool to know that kidz love nutz and next year I'll be sure to have plenty on hand.

I finally took Chris Higgins's advice and started regularly listening to the podcast of The Sound of Young America. (I feel compelled to point out that I think I sent Higgins in that direction by way of the Coyle and Sharpe podcast.) Anyway, I've been enjoying it a lot -- Jesse Thorn's interview with Ira Glass brought up an interesting and challenging question about the dangers of loving narrative too much. Ira Glass's response reminded me of when Jon Steward complains about people asking him why he doesn't do a better job of covering the news and he says, "because I'm a comedian!" And you get where he's coming from but it doesn't solves the problem of people getting all their news from him.

I've also been enjoying Jordon, Jesse, GO! a lot -- it's like hanging out with guy friends who are funnier than you and probably wouldn't let you get a word in edgewise, but you don't need to worry about feeling awkward and left out because it's a podcast and no one expects you to say anything.

btw, I'm aware that I'm weakening the franchise with meandering entries like this, but it's better than no entry at all, I'm guessing. I've been super busy.