Melyssa-with-a-Y

It's so nice to have friends with little kids, so I can tag along when they go to the circus! I think I was more excited to take Giana to the circus on Saturday than Rebeka was. I've always loooved the Circus. When The Greatest Show on Earth would come to DC when we were little, mom would take us down to see them unload the train cars and walk the elephants over to the Armory. I used to love Gunther Goebel Williams - he was flashy and fun, and was an expert at making the tigers do exactly what he wanted! We even skipped class one day, senior year in high school, to go down to the DC Armory to see the circus - we got hopelessly lost along the way, but made it in time to see Gunther. It was his farewell tour -- here's the program that I had kept *forever* -- I think I might have gotten rid of it when I moved to TX. (Drat! might have been worth something!) Summer of '87, we went to Milwaukee, WI for the APIC National Convention (see previous post about APIC). Mom pile...

I missed the APIC National Convention in Las Vegas two weeks ago, but my friend Adam is expert at the PR thing (it's his job, natch), so he corralled a good number of media outlets to come and report on the event. He got everyone from the New York Times to UPI photographers to the Las Vegas Review Journal to come and interview folks and record the event for posterity. A reporter from the Las Vegas Sun spent some time talking to Dad -- I could recite the stories he tells about small buttons on lapel pins, and people's habits changing because of air-conditioning... in my sleep! ;) (love ya, Dad!) It's nice to see that the hobby is getting good press. Now if only we could find somebody other than old white guys to join! We're forming an Obama collectors chapter, so maybe we'll drum up some more members in the next few months. Election years are good for that.

The rules of the meme: bold those you have tried, strikethrough those you wouldn't eat on a bet. The Omnivore's Hundred is a list of foods the gastronomic Andrew Wheeler thinks everyone should try at least once in their lives. 1. Venison 2. Nettle tea 3. Huevos rancheros 4. Steak tartare 5. Crocodile 6. Black pudding (aka blood pudding or blood sausage) 7. Cheese fondue 8. Carp 9. Borscht 10. Baba ghanoush 11. Calamari 12. Pho 13. PB&J sandwich 14. Aloo gobi 15. Hot dog from a street cart 16. Epoisses [ahem. lactose intolerant] 17. Black truffle 18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes 19. Steamed pork buns 20. Pistachio ice cream 21. Heirloom tomatoes 22. Fresh wild berries 23. Foie gras 24. Rice and beans 25. Brawn, or head cheese 26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper 27. Dulce de leche 28. Oysters 29. Baklava 30. Bagna cauda [never had it, but it sounds good !] 31. Wasabi peas 32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl 33. Salted lassi (is that a different version of ...

All in one night! Ah, the contrasts of Austin. :) Saturday was "get your groove on" night. While we do absolutely loooove seeing Skyrocket or the Spazmatics at Cedar Street, sometimes it's nice to go hear music someplace where you won't sweat to death within 60 seconds (i.e. indoors). So on Saturday we decided to go to the famous Broken Spoke . Cowboy boots required! (well, not officially, but strongly encouraged!) We had to have dinner first, of course, so El Sol y La Luna was destination #1. Yummmm. A carpool of four turned into dinner for five - no, six! - and then a table for seven at the Spoke. The singer -- Dale Watson -- looked a good deal like Billy Bob Thornton, though with more hair (and a little more meat on his bones). The dance floor was packed most of the night. The people-watching was amazing - everyone from long-time-practically-pro-dancer couples, to little kids being held up by their (grand)parents as they spun around the room, to a sudden ...

"...And even if the book itself isn't that sexy, the title helps: 'Sex, Science and Stem Cells.'" The Washington Post notes that Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), a chief architect of the stem cell research bill that was vetoed twice by President Bush, writes about the Bush administration's politicization of science and sex and warns that if the country elects John McCain president in November, "we'd be signing on for four more years of more of the same - the same blind faith that dogma and ideology ought to stand ahead of science and reason." ... And more government invasion of women's bodies: Ahem. The pill is not equivalent to abortion! The Bush Administration has ignited a furor with a proposed definition of pregnancy that has the effect of classifying some of the most widely used methods of contraception as abortion. A draft regulation, still being revised and debated, treats most birth-control pills and intrauterine devices as abortion bec...