Category: Humor

Britain, Expat, Friday, Humor, Linkstorm, London, Travel, Weekend July 4, 2014July 4, 2014

Friday Links (Expats and Independence Day, Edition)

“I want to grill something!”
– Jeff

Happy Independence Day for Yank minions. I’m currently celebrating our freedom from Britain by eating the most British thing possible for summer, strawberries and cream, and admiring my view of the London skyline while I work. Hashtag traitor, or something.

In any event, it’s a gorgeous Friday with blue skies and bright sun. We’re hoping it stays fine since Jeff’s brother and sister-in-law are coming into town and we have great hopes of showing off our tiny flat and the big city. In the meantime, I’ve got about 10,000 projects to try and bang out before they get here. My freelance team has taken on new clients so we’re all terribly busy and important. Enjoy your links, add anything worth reading in the comments and let me know how you are spending the weekend. Stateside kittens eat barbeque for me, please.

But please, in your celebrations, remember dignity.

These would not typically be my art style at all, but I’m finding these pieces summery. I’m also wishing it were physically possible to hang paintings and photos in our concrete walls.

Also crushing on the gallery wall from this apartment tour. We’re acquiring a staggering collection of prints and papery goodness living in London that are going to need to be prominently displayed someday.

I’ve had marriage on the brain this week, so I really enjoyed this unexpected piece on an arranged one.

In the list of attributes I thought I would never really admire in a wedding getup, shorts rank pretty high. Olivia Palermo shatters my preconceived notions.

…everyone has a skill…

Holy cow, this should stock my links list for at least the rest of the summer!

Sherlock returns! …in 2016. I swear, that show feels more like the Olympics than anything else.

In other public broadcasting news, This American Life is taking a couple of gambles on their production. Their first one is the biggest, but I’m also excited about their show Serial. I’m a huge fan of the radio show, let’s bring it back!

This photographer is just 15. And what have you done with your life, lately?

Disney will be thrilled, children who actually read the original tales will be traumatazied. 500 new German fairy tales have been discovered!

Tomato Nation is doing the work of the righteous and ranking Wimbledon players by hotness on your behalf. You are welcome.

Lastly, some pretty for your weekend: films inspired by art.

Britain, Expat, Food, Humor, London, Travel July 3, 2014July 3, 2014

Sugar Sin in Covent Garden

“You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jellybeans. ”
― Ronald Reagan

Last week was clearly an eat-your-feelings sort of week for me, so in the spirit of (over)indulgence let me introduce you to nirvana for a sweet tooth. On Tuesday I was working hard on a project, answering a lot of emails, and doing my best to take in news in healthy, moderated chunks when Jeff insisted we grab a burrito for dinner and go for a wander in the West End when we both finished the business day.

Wandering up New Row, we were both seized with a sugar craving and darted over to Long Acre to get a grab bag of candy at Sugar Sin.

British sweet shops are legendary, there’s a reason Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was written by Roald Dahl. The most traditional still have rows and rows of glass jars like an apothecary shop, filled with strange and interesting candies in addition to the more typical ones. Think of the quirky candies from Harry Potter, some of those are based in traditional British sweets.

The British sweet tooth is also a thing apart because it relies so heavily on tradition. Flowers, herbs, and spices are usually to be found included in the older recipes, as well as modern day riffs on them. Rhubarb is a popular candy flavor here, for example, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it marketed elsewhere – at least certainly not in the local grocery store. But from funny names, to interesting shapes, to old-fashioned, British candy is where it’s at.

Sugar Sin has certainly modernized the idea, but don’t let the pink decor and flowery atmosphere fool you, at its heart it shares the cultural DNA of Golden Tickets and Chocolate Frogs. And best of all, it sells by weight. You can load up enough sweets for a month for a fraction of what you’d pay for equal amounts of branded, packaged candy.

Sometimes, after a hard week, small pleasures work wonders.

Humor, Husband, Marriage July 1, 2014

Five Years

“When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.”
― William Shakespeare

Five years ago, when I was barely 23, we got married.

Easily the best idea we’ve ever had though it was not at all what either of us had planned. Jeff didn’t want to get married until he was around 30, I was sure I didn’t want to marry at all. But as the months went by being together was simply right. It was a series of pieces clicking into place with each other. Marrying him was as easy as breathing and, whether in the midst of adventure or even argument, it still feels like that.

While still dating, I confessed to Jeff that I once joked my very idea of hell was marriage to an accountant, 2.5 children and a white picket fence. Jeff loves to tease me with this dire pronouncement still, although assures me he has no plans of inflicting a fence upon anyone. “I ruined every one of your plans,” he likes to gloat. He did. And I’m so glad. This is so much better than anything I ever came up with.

Humor June 30, 2014June 25, 2014

Emails with friends: WASPs and GoT

When one of you works in a major cultural heritage institution that commands a serious amount of old money, and somewhere in both your family trees you have some WASP. Somewhere. Way back. Way, way back.

“Actual donor nicknames I have had to use in formal correspondence: Dodo, Muffy, Tigger, Poohdie, Happy, Bunny. And I know I’m forgetting some. They’re all so unbelievably infantalizing.”

“We need WASP nicknames. Stat.”

“I feel like yours could be Kitty from Cat [my high school nickname] or Cake/Cakey/Cakes from Cadence Kirk… or literally anything because there’s no rhyme or reason to these things. Or Kittycakes.”

“Horror. One of Jeff’s nickames for me is ‘Kitty,’ largely because I hide things under the sofa and forget about them, but still.”

“I’m blanking on mine, but probably something like Tutu or Diva, which would probably come out something like Tutti or Divvy. And of course Jeff needs to start spelling his name ‘Geoffrey’ and adding a III or IV at the end of it.”

“Back in the days when I did blog aliases I referred to him as ‘Geoffrey’ once and he nearly broke up with me in revolt. How can you bear to be friends with such a plebe like me?”

“Better Jeffrey than Joffrey.”

– Katarina and C.

Freelance, Friday, Humor, Linkstorm, Religion, Weekend, Writing June 27, 2014June 26, 2014

Friday Links (slightly overwhelmed in a good way, edition)

“The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers & cities; but to know someone who thinks & feels with us, & who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

You people are wonderful, thank you for all the lovely comments and emails from my last post. I’ve really been blown away by how something that felt so personal and unique to one community has turned out to be a pretty universal emotion and feeling. Such is the way of all fear and trepidation, I suppose. Either way, reading through those was the most cheered I felt in a week.

In the meantime, while one aspect of life has been a pit of turmoil, others have been tripping quite merrily on without time to waste. The human experience is a strange, fractal thing… Currently I’m working on one project that might or might not have anything to do with the Miss America contest, another involves wrestling through multiple layers of online security which makes me feel much more advanced and technologically impressive than I am. Nifty things and amazing work happening over in freelance territory.

Also our five year (!) wedding anniversary is coming up Tuesday. Don’t ask me where the time went.

Here are your links for the week, add anything else worth reading about and let me know what you’re getting up to in the comments!

The tumblr find of the week reminds us that not all advice is helpful.

Interesting portraits of first year college students. We’re coming up on the 10th anniversary of me starting college (clutches self a bit to realize that) but I don’t have many photos from that time period still hanging around. I’ve never been a big picture taker until we moved to London, and even then very few of myself or Jeff. I wish I had more from my college days.

Everything about this story is pretty horrifying.

Really interesting TED talk on how we as a society are using people with disabilities as motivation, which on its face seems good but as the speaker points out, has a pretty bad side effect.

Longtime readers know I simply cannot resist a good art mystery!

This American Life did another live show (their last one was one of my favorite things of 2012, so I was too excited not to share).

I bear witness of the high heel insert, personally.

A source of some confusion to various friends and acquaintances, I have never been to Disney World/Land. I have been to Euro Disney, but those in the know tell me that this is Not At All the Same Thing. So, people who know better than I, tell me what you think of Disney Land’s original prospectus?

If you are suffering from an insufficiency of cuteness this Friday, may I offer this as a balm?

I would kill to get my hands on one of these 18th century pattern books on fabrics and textiles to sift through on a rainy afternoon.

A cover letter from Leonardo da Vinci.

I loved this piece on the world of incredibly valuable but often invisible work and how much we rely on it.

Summer sales are lovely, forbidden things. Some of you go and buy something fabulous from GiGi New York for my sake, please. Let me live vicariously.

Friends, History, Humor June 22, 2014June 22, 2014

Emails With Friends: Revolution and the Humblebrag

When you’re both cultural heritage employees and history types.

“Patrick Henry’s birthday is may 29…I am so bummed that I missed out on sharing a bday with the loudest, most out-of-control founding father by a mere TWO DAYS.”

“Have I ever casually mentioned that my family’s 40 acres contains the pathway that PH walked daily to get to his first law job…incidently located in the town where my parents now live? Which he was eventually elected to represent in the Virginia House of Burgesses at the start of his political career? Never? Not even casually? If so, a lapse on my part.”
– Katarina and C.

We need to talk about the spectacles atop his head in this etching. It’s either absent minded or avant garde for the times. I lean toward the latter.

Freelance, Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend, Work, Writing June 20, 2014

Friday Weeks (Making it after all, edition)

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”
― George Eliot

Big week! Huge existing projects, potential new projects, and scheduled meetups and meetings with people for even more potential new projects. Freelancing is an interesting business, there are some weeks that are very standard and uneventful but you get good work done, and others that just set you up for leaps and bounds of growth if you make smart decisions. Hopefully this has been the latter.

This weekend I’m meeting up with a bunch of academic friends (usually scattered from London to Cambridge, but convening in the capital for food and talk), editing and updating my recently expanded portfolio, and hopefully hitting up some new museum exhibitions with Jeff. We walk on the wild side, kittens. Here are your links, share anything else worth knowing in the comments, and let me know what your weekend plans are!

From my latest urban agriculture profile over on The Thrifty Homesteader.

The tumblr find of the week is a source of unending hilarity and delight to me. One feed, one singular purpose. (Also, he was all kinds of dishy back in the day, was he not? Insert a sort of humming, growl-y noise here.)

People. Fundamentally decent.

Even now I have Teddy, a well worn and well loved, formerly pink bear I got the day I was born. She was my best friend and partner in crime in childhood, and still beloved to this day. (When we were dating, Jeff once commented on the less than pristine state of her fur and had to spend a lot of time apologizing to make up for it. He may be my greatest, but she was my first love.)

An excellent piece on the importance of boredom, very thought provoking.

As of tomorrow it is officially summer. Would that I were not two feet too short to wear this dress in celebration.

This is my favorite headline to come out of the World Cup thus far.

One of my cousins recently got engaged in a spectacular fashion and a photographer was on hand to capture the moment. Unsurprisingly, since my cousin happens to be a model, the shots turned out gorgeous so you’ll forgive me if I shamelessly share them.

I already posted a PSA, but for those who missed it, online buddy Kim Curran’s fabulous new novel GLAZE is now available on Kindle for $.99! It’s only for two more days, though, so get cracking.

I am still supremely annoyed that we had to forgo Ascot this year, but the Fug Girls are providing the necessary hat commentary until next summer. When we WILL be going.

I sincerely love human beings seemingly innate desire to make functional things beautiful – though I doubt the wisdom of silver finger protectors to avoid harm coming from picking strawberries (possibly the world’s least dangerous summertime delicacy) out of a bowl.

Essie nail polishes are easily my favorite, but the story of the woman behind the company is just as good in my opinion.

Pretty pieces of custom embroidery.

Last week I shared a piece from the New York Times about Mormon activists facing church discipline. This week an exceptionally good post on one of the most famous stories of dissent from within the Mormon faith community, Nazis are involved.

Books, Freelance, Friends, Humor, London, Writing June 18, 2014

PSA: GLAZE

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”
― Jane Austen

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I made it to a book launch? Well, this is the book! Kim Curran is another freelancer and writer I met through Twitter (that and blogs, how else do 21st century friendships began?) and finally got to meet in person at her launch, along with a whole host of other London writers. Let me be blunt, she’s fabulous. So is her book and right now it’s available for a limited time on the US Amazon.com site for $.99. Run, don’t walk.

GLAZE takes place in a near future and tells the story of the powerful social media technology of the same name, a girl who finds herself cut off from it and therefore everything that matters, and the desperate lengths she’s willing to go to belong. As you might expect, that’s when things start to get complicated.

One of the posters from the launch.

More importantly, one of the hilarious pun posters some of her friends and supporters made up.

Britain, Expat, Food, Humor, London, Travel June 16, 2014June 17, 2014

Maltby Street Market

“It is the job of the market to turn the base material of our emotions into gold.”
― Andrei Codrescu, Zombification: Stories from National Public Radio

We discovered Maltby after Jeff went on a google hunt for nearby brownies after our previous favorite at Borough Market changed their recipe and we couldn’t cope with the development. Pathetic, yes, but also poetic for this is the sort of emotional cleaving that lead one to discovery, well beloved kittens. I was working away on a project when Jeff cryptically declared he’d be back in a while and returned with treasure: a box filled with Bad Brownies.

Whoa, golly.

The next weekend we both trucked to Maltby Street, the home of a small but truly impressive little cache of stalls and shops operating mostly from the archways beneath our nearby train tracks. Shops like this have always existed in Britain, anywhere you got an opening in a wall was usable space in previous centuries and utilized, so I love seeing something that could easily be forgotten or even turn shady become a thriving spot for food and trade. There are butchers, delis, patisseries, cheesemongers, fishmongers (all the mongers, really), tapas eateries, and specialty brewers all crammed in together in the loveliest way.

I only caught a few snaps because the weather was being…British…on our last trip, but I’m entirely positive you’ll be hearing more about Maltby over the summer. In the meantime, here’s something to whet your appetite!

Bad Brownie does amazing “normal” brownies, but take a pro-tip and go for their less usual flavours. You will thank me profusely.

I mean, just look at those…

London’s beverage is gin. It plagued the poor in the 18th century, well cataloged by Hogarth, and was tippled by the rich only slightly less sordidly. It’s socially acceptable version today is the G&T with cucumber and there are a lot of tasting bars, of which it must be said Little Bird looks the most charming to photograph to a girl who knows precisely nothing about such things. You can really get a sense of how the arches are decorated and turned into beautiful and unique shop spaces here. Maltby really goes for shabby, British chic and it works.

Farmhouse cheeses on English sourdough. It is impossible to properly demonstrate the portion sizes here except that one of these glories could conceivably give a fit person heart failure. Perfect!

I will have one of each by the end of summer, I vow it.

Finally, helping us class up the joint, that other British summer staple, smoked salmon.

Delicious!

Freelance, Friday, Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend, Work June 13, 2014June 14, 2014

Friday (the 13th!) Links

“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.”
– George Orwell

Happy Friday the 13th, kittens! Hope you’re celebrating and/or trembling in fear according to what brings you the most satisfaction.

It’s been a nicely un-frantic week in freelancing and I’ve been able to get caught up on a number of projects around the house, including a major reorganization of the flat which has given us a lot more space. Steady work with steady clients and just enough free time to start a new schedule after the Franklin House. Working from home is a constant juggling act but there are good reasons to do it…but I get ahead of the links!

13th or not, it’s still Friday so find your weekly dosage below. Add anything you think the minion coterie needs to know and let me know what you’re up to in the comments!

Celebrate this most superstitious of days with some new superstitions.

For the things you never knew you needed.

The World Cup is on, but there’s a pretty horrible underbelly to one of the world’s biggest sporting events. A Brazilian non-profit journalism group investigated the alleged rise in sex trafficking prior to the games, and turned their investigation into a powerful story along with Buzzfeed. Prologue, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.

Janssen over at Everyday Reading has released her summer reading list. Go forth and stock your Goodreads, minions!

Interesting read on the internet, brain chemistry, and motivation.

Seriously everyone, STOP with the “love locks!”

Friend and Friend of the Blog, the redoubtable Caitlin Kelly over at Broadside, has put together a fantastically good post on the pros and cons of freelancing. If you’re considering freelance work (and these days that’s up to 1/3 of American and British workers), you need to read this.

First issues of famous magazines.

Printed cartoons are near and dear to my heart, and I remember tearing through the massive Sunday papers to get at the “funny pages” as a kid. Well, if you’re still reading them, Stephan Pastis (who draws the strip Pearls Before Swine) has had a new looking going on lately…and the story behind it is amazing. I’ve written before of my love for Calvin and Hobbes, without exaggeration I consider it a major hallmark of my personal childhood and one of the best depictions of childhood ever created.

Stand back, kids, this might be the dish I try and conquer for #6 on my list!

This looks like the most delightful, summery dress.

Tavi Gevinson has grown up from the Style Rookie to be, well, a lot of other things. She’s the kind of young woman that makes you wonder what you’ve accomplished in comparison, but I admire a lot of what she’s done so far and think she has a long and interesting career ahead of her.

These Aled Lewis pillows are giving me life: horse speaking wisdom, woodland Agatha Christie realness, and…caption this one in the comments for me.

Having just got through a period of unusual exhaustion, I can openly confess to doing at least half of these and I can see that they’ve definitely contributed.

A development that, in my opinion signals the end of the so-called Mormon Moment: two Mormon activists are facing religious discipline for their involvement in communities and causes. Not everyone will be interested, but if you are at all intrigued or follow intersections of religion and feminism/gender issues particular, this is a story worth reading up on. (Here’s another primer on this history of excommunication in Mormon feminism, for the curious.)

Small Dog Syndrome