Month: December 2011

– The Higgs boson. Like a lot of other people, I’m waiting to hear the news from the CERN press conference this morning about whether or not they have found evidence for the Higgs boson. I don’t think anyone expects they have definitive evidence, but they must have something … interesting.

Update: Two experiments at the LHC (large hadron collider) found hints of the Higgs, everyone is very excited, but they need another year of data before they can yell “eureka!”

– Grimm vs Once Upon a Time. I was wrong. Once Upon a Time is the superior show. It kept getting better while Grimm kept going nowhere. I’m sorry Grimm. By the way, the sidekick guy (the Blutbaden) should be the star.

– The Christmas Spirit from a Jew during the depression. I read this story of kindness on the Smithsonian’s website (and it’s also a book).

– Lowe’s pulling ads from the TLC reality show All-American Muslim. For the love of God. Either they’re a racist company or they’re like politicians who will switch positions, sacrifice their morals and integrity and say whatever they need to say to get elected. (I’m looking at you, John McCain.) Either ways, Lowe’s sucks, as do the people and groups that put pressure on them.

Yes, another cat picture. Except for swimming, I was home most of the day yesterday working on my book. Here is my little hoverer.

Not that I need any. I know I’m the last to post about this, but a recent study showed that rats would free a trapped cage mate, even when tempted away with chocolate, which apparently they love. On the page for the NPR story there’s a video, and you can see that the rat is clearly distressed that his friend is trapped and desperate to help.

SPOILER ALERT: he successfully frees his friend. I put that in because I got upset watching the video. The poor rat was so frantic, but he succeeds!

Of course now I’m reminded of all the experimentation we’ve done and are doing on these creatures, which just like us, are capable of love and caring and heroism.

More giant Christmas bulbs—WHICH COULD ATTACK AT ANY SECOND—up at Radio City. I have to get out and take a lot more Christmas pictures. I want to get up to the Met and the Frick. Maybe I’ll take a day off and walk uptown, taking pictures of Christmas sights along the way. Sigh. That sounds really nice.

I love New York City. I love that there is a line around the block for a Messiah Sing and that so many came it filled up to standing-room-only proportions! We sang the entire thing, it was great. Usually they skip choruses. Of course, I stumbled through a number of them, having only sung some of them once or twice. But it was great! Thank you, West Village Chorale!

Remember how I was asking why isn’t there a show about people like me? Here’s one in development that kind of is. Kinda. The main character is one generation older, though. I read this on TV Tattle:

HBO close to ordering “Viagra Diaries” with Goldie Hawn
The project from “Beverly Hills 90210″/”Sex and the City” creator Darren Star is expected to shoot in New York City. Hawn will star as a 65-year-old woman who struggles to be single when her husband leaves her.

It’s enough of an age difference though, to make it a different show. If you think it’s not, think about the difference between a show about people in their 20’s and one about people in their 30’s. Certain differences shrink as we get older, it’s true, but 65 is just not the same as 55, although you have to be these ages to see them. 65 is still interesting though, and I’m fast on my way there anyway, so I am very very very excited about this show. HIRE ME, DARREN STAR.

I took this home walking home from the Loser’s Lounge last night. (A truly great one, by the way. Go tonight if you’re in NYC.)

Among the many errands I have to run today, is heading over to the Strand to pick up a copy of Gareth Malone’s book Music for the People. Does everyone know who this guy is? He’s a choir conductor and the star of the BBC show The Choir. If you haven’t seen it, you must to give it a try. You’ll be sobbing by the end of every season. He always takes the least likely groups of people and turns them into choirs, it’s incredibly moving. I’m trying to get an interview with him and that’s actually what I want to focus on, his ability to get people who think they can’t sing to sing.

This season he’s working with military wives, and he even got composer Paul Mealor (who did the astounding Ubi Caritas for Kate and William’s wedding that floored us) to write the music for one of the pieces they sing.

A deli in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I particularly like the hand-painted “New York Deli” part of the sign.