Gifts

Kansas: Wayward Son

Yes

Long Distance Runaround

Neil Young

Heart of Gold

I have a serious catalog and magazine addiction. I love looking at the catalogs and consistently, with a few exceptions, never actually buy anything form them. I just like to contemplate a life in which things match, the home is designed with clean lines, everybody dresses with that annoying casual style that is actually really, really expensive. I am not convinced I want that life, it is just fun to wonder.

Thus I subscribe to Vanity fair as a sort of exercise in anthropology. Vanity Fair really likes rich people and dissecting the lives of rich people and talking to rich people about the stuff they own, why they own it, and what else they want to own.

I used to read the comics in the newspaper all the time but now they are all so mind numbingly boring I don’t bother. Does anybody read Dercity? If you don’t check it out he is a gem. I like this one but he is rarely “off.”

I like to read Cary Tennis over atsalon because sometimes the problems people write in about make me realize that I am not nearly as screwed up and shallow as I thought I was. This one tells the sad tale of a 43 year old woman who is beautiful but terrified she is aging. I wasn’t that cute when I was young, so now that I am 43, the whole losing my beauty thing doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. My grandmother, who is 86, says the being old part doesn’t concern her much it is the whole her body is falling apart and she worries she won’t be able to live independently for much longer thing that irks her.

Cartoon fun… I relate to this cartoon, I could see me having a bad day like this… and I love his crappy attitude…

I am thematically challenged today. Those who know me well would say that is nothing new. Sometimes I turn floundering into an art form.

I have to thank Ek for putting excerpts of Cyrano in Hollow Stars Gazette. It has reminded that it is time to re-read Anna Karenina. Every few years I crack it open and the interesting part is that at different points in my life I have either identified or embraced certain characters in the book. After that I will crack open the Brothers Karamazov. I seriously regret not taking a Russian lit course in college.

So, what are you doing today?

working?  shopping?  spending time with your family?

I’ve had a hectic week…and we’ve got an early appointment today…but I hope YOU are all sleeping in, so I don’t expect to see too many of you here today….which is as it should be…  😉

Ponies don’t accept recommends…

~73v

Happy Thanksgiving

There’s very little that will make you more thankful for what you have than spending a few hours in your local emergency room.  Human drama…no wonder so many television programs draw on the hospital theme.  Within a few minutes and a few feet of each other you have birth, death, recovery, injury, pain….people who are generally healthy who are moaning or screaming in pain…people who are much worse off, who lack the ability to express it…

….sigh….

A while back, our fearless leader suggested that we have some sort of Top Comments-ish diary series. I was thinking that the Monday afternoon open thread could serve as a forum where people link to their favorite comments and essays over the past week. For instance, I really enjoyed Nightprowlkitty’s essay this past Friday – a must-read, in opinion of this humble pickle.

So, is this a good idea? Should it be more formal? If so, will you help out?

What are your favorite dharmatic moments of the past week?

Cross-posted from Top Comments in Orange.

Though I love the festive nature of the holiday season, I’ve come to lament the never-ending frenzy of consumerism that begins the day after Thanksgiving and ends on New Year’s Day. In years past, we’ve given gifts that were made locally or obtained through fair trade practices (at least, to the best of our knowledge). Not surprisingly, these were typically hand-made gifts, rather than the mass-produced melts of plastic available in stores geared toward the masses. This year, rather than get caught up in the consumerism/consumption game, Mr Pickle and I have decided that all of our gifts – given and received – will be charitable donations.

Follow me on the flip for more.