Maybe I should change the name of the blog to “posts only on the last day of the month”

This is what’s happened since my last post: work, work, a week of travel for work, work, Thanksgiving, recover from food coma, and blam, it’s the end of the month.
* * * * * * * * * *
I wonder if people who learn English As A Second Language from some snotty American recent college grad end up with terrible American accents.
This thought came to me as I watched a documentary about the Eurovision Junior song contest, which is broadcast in English, and all the contestants spoke great English, some with British accents and some with odd American accents. (And nice job, Sundance channel, with your constant ads for some program that airs next Tuesday taking up the right side of the screen and blocking part of the subtitles).
In a Where Are They Now wrap-up at the end of the film it was noted that the contest winner and her family had to flee their home during the Georgian-Russian conflict and hoped to someday safely move to Tbilisi. Now there’s a story you just don’t hear on American Idol.
* * * * * * * * * *
I miss Lost. And Mad Men. I’ve been watching The Walking Dead and I do like it but I confess I have to watch HGTV afterward to help stave off the nightmares. I don’t “do” horror movies. The last one I watched was The Ring and I was so creeped out (and it was 3 in the afternoon with the sun out) that I could not watch the last two minutes. The last two minutes! I’ve been told they were key. Oh well.
* * * * * * * * * *
I hate those mascara ads that feature models who are clearly wearing fake eyelashes and promise that their product will give you those kind of lashes. False advertising! (pun intended)
And speaking of cosmetic companies, why is it so hard for them to make a nice shade of dark red nail polish that matches the one in my head?
* * * * * * * * * *
For Thanksgiving I made this kick-ass pecan pie recipe, except I doubled the nuts, and I toasted them in the oven first. Make it. Even if you think you don’t like pecan pie, make it. Your people will love you.
* * * * * * * * * *
More random Tuesday here. Ciao blog babies.

Ten little pumpkins, sitting on a stair...

 

The above jack-o-lantern peanut gallery is on the street behind me. They look even better at night all lit up, but of course every time I’ve seen them lit I didn’t have my camera on me.

I had a quiet Halloween, no costume parties this year, very low-key, but after a crazy month at work (including a week – while suffering a horrible cold – in my home-away-from-home Chicago), a night with bad movies and laundry folding is a welcome respite.

In related Halloween news, one of my neighbors is again secretly leaving candy in a bowl by the elevator on my floor. Yum!

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween, with only good goblins and lots of candy from the upper hierarchy.

Teach your children well

Another example of how the Europeans get it right and we don’t. If you teach children to appreciate good food and nutrition, they grow up to be adults who appreciate good food and nutrition.

Jamie Oliver (the Naked Chef) managed to get the British schools to change their school food policy and is trying to get American schools to do the same. It is sad that someone from another country has to rescue us from our chicken-finger-eating ways. More here.

Holding on to summer

(photo taken by me, at Misquamicut State Beach, Rhode Island)

Dear, dear summer, why must you go? I am not ready! I need another trip to the beach, more melty ice cream cones, a long bike ride in the dappled shade, garden tomatoes, damp bathing suits drying in the sun, new sandals and a fresh pedicure…

More summer lovin’ here and here. And here.

No corsets. No hatpins. And no crying.

The first rule of Fight Club is always the same, no matter what century it is.

with thanks to Mrs. SOC for first posting it on The Book of Face.