Rachel Profiling

Yeah.

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:55:04 -0500

Yeah.

There’s nothing I like better than a supercut, and this...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:26:00 -0500

There’s nothing I like better than a supercut, and this new one from Videogum is truly accomplished.

[So what’s driving sales of these garments? “It’s like this competitive thing we...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:04:00 -0500

[So what’s driving sales of these garments? “It’s like this competitive thing we have with other women,” says Mary Pantier, a 40-year-old yoga instructor in Erie, Colo., who accidentally flashed her Spanx, worn under her workout ensemble, while in a downward-dog pose in class.]

Ms. Pantier’s husband, Hank, 35, doesn’t get it. “If you stuff five pounds into a two-pound container, it doesn’t make the five pounds smaller. It just makes it stranger-looking and uncomfortable,” says Mr. Pantier, who has told his wife she feels “like a tire” in Spanx.

First of all, thanks, Wall Street Journal writer Rachel Dodes for finding someone named “Ms. Pantier” to speak on the subject of Spanx. Secondly, Mary, you need to sun salute that guy out of your life maybe.

Game of Cat-Stick, 1898. C/O the MCNY.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:39:00 -0500

Game of Cat-Stick, 1898. C/O the MCNY.

Been more than a bit interested in 29-year-old White House...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:27:00 -0500

Been more than a bit interested in 29-year-old White House assistant chef Sam Kass since seeing his mug around (yes, I fell for all the pin-up bait), but this new profile in the NYT cements it.

Part chef and part policy wonk, he is reinventing the role of official gastronome in the Executive Mansion. Indeed, Obama administration officials describe him as a vital conduit to the first family. “How do I get to the first lady, how do I try to transmit ideas and messages to her? Sam Kass,” said Kathleen Merrigan, the deputy agriculture secretary. “He’s been a real ally when we talk about farm to school.”

…While he is steeped in all matters locavore and was a moving force behind the White House garden, Mr. Kass has no formal culinary training and has never run a restaurant or hotel kitchen. (He graduated with a history degree from the University of Chicago and honed his culinary skills at Avec, a Chicago restaurant, before becoming a private chef.)

In recent months, Mr. Kass has emerged as one of the most high-profile promoters of Michelle Obama’s healthy living agenda. He has baked Swiss chard frittatas for students on the White House lawn, prepared chicken salad with red onions and toasted almonds at the Department of Agriculture’s cafeteria and sprinkled crab meal and ladybugs — instead of chemical fertilizers and pesticides — on the first lady’s garden.

There are few things I like on the Internet better than...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:22:00 -0500

There are few things I like on the Internet better than Luxirare’s food/cooking/science posts, always unexpected combinations of art and culinary technique and photography. I am awed by every one and this person is a mad genius.

Some places to start: Black Truffles, Pie Pops, Potato Crisps, Parfait

I know this makes me solidly entrenched in an elderly and...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:15:00 -0500

I know this makes me solidly entrenched in an elderly and caucasian foxhole from which there is limited escape, but I heart them. Maybe it just makes me Irish.

Will Cotton, 2008.

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:01:04 -0500

Will Cotton, 2008.

A new song from a new band. And on and on and on. But I do like...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:57:39 -0500

A new song from a new band. And on and on and on. But I do like this—it sounds like being young a long, but not too long time ago. So what I’m trying to say is, I get it.

meltzer: Sometimes I like to fantasize that someone hires me to create Marisa magazine or, while...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:36:24 -0500

meltzer:

Sometimes I like to fantasize that someone hires me to create Marisa magazine or, while we’re firmly in fantasy territory, Sassy 2.0 and I start putting together my dream team of writers and editors. (Does anyone else do this?) I think Joon would get the back page.

Um, I have that fantasy constantly. Also, if you ever start this—which you totally should, I would read the shit out of Marisa Mag—I’d kill to handle the updated version of Traumarama, involving texts and e-mails you never meant to send. That, or accessories.

Really liking Kevin DeMaria’s shots of the last day of...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:44:35 -0500

Really liking Kevin DeMaria’s shots of the last day of Gourmet magazine—it’s necessary to collect artifacts from print media’s steady implosion.

I interviewed Hilary Knight, the illustrator/basically creator...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:06:27 -0500

I interviewed Hilary Knight, the illustrator/basically creator of Eloise, here. His 83rd birthday was yesterday, and he is great.

[Really, New York Times? A tossed-off remark about Jeff Dunham fans’ weight? This is seriously...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:58:00 -0500

[Really, New York Times? A tossed-off remark about Jeff Dunham fans’ weight? This is seriously why middle America hates the New York Times, and why Rush Limbaugh and pals win. What a lazy, poorly thought out comment! Did all the editors get fired last week and this article just got rushed straight to print? No one thought “hey, let’s not call all of Jeff Dunham’s millions of fans, who often view the New York Times as antagonistic, Communist propaganda, fat for no reason since it has absolutely nothing to do with any of the genuine problems that Jeff Dunham’s popularity poses, such as the resurgence of a self-congratulatory type of bigotry that wears its hatred as a badge of honor. Just a bunch of silly fatsos? Perfect. This is going to be a long, protracted culture war!]

—Gabe’s close-reading of the NYTMag piece on Jeff Dunham is an excellent thing that exists on the Internet today.

I’ll take the one in pink.

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:33:35 -0400

I’ll take the one in pink.

"This is the magical thing about babies on the subway. They carry the antidote to adulthood. The..."

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:19:22 -0400

“This is the magical thing about babies on the subway. They carry the antidote to adulthood. The careful decorum we construct for ourselves — grown-up civilian riders of the underground train — simply dissolves. Very few people are immune to the power, the openness of a baby’s unconstructed glance. It stares without rudeness, smiles without solicitation, and somehow it reaches the unconstructed human that remains inside most of us. We get to step outside all the workaday rules of human contact. We get to make faces in public.”

- Print media is trying to save itself article by article, and I think the NYTimes made some valiant strides with this all-important editorial on BABYFACES (thanks KatieBakes).

Your new favorite pumpin mask dancer on public access, courtesy...

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:58:19 -0400

Your new favorite pumpin mask dancer on public access, courtesy of M.

Happy Halloween, almost!

James Gulliver Hancock

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:18:21 -0400

James Gulliver Hancock

Mindy Kaling and Ellie Kemper are Subtle Sexuality.

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:04:00 -0400

Mindy Kaling and Ellie Kemper are Subtle Sexuality.

Is it blasphemy that I sort of enjoy “Josie Sings...

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:25:00 -0400

Is it blasphemy that I sort of enjoy “Josie Sings Joni,” in which a girl on YouTube makes a valiant attempt at the voice? It could be seen as an exercise in being-barely-but-not-enough, or, glass full, an exercise in enough-but-just-barely. And I’m feeling optimistic today!

Plus, Josie ALSO fronts a Kate Bush cover band called Hounds of Love. Maybe she’s my hero?

Places I Would Have Liked To Have Been, Recently-in-London Edition

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:12:00 -0400

[Inter-city competition aside, the ultimate goal was to impress one’s host, the impeccably groomed “agitator of the absurd” and cad-about-town, David Piper. Those who brought the most bizarre bits were invited to a dinner party held inside a fully restored late-19th century railway carriage, an intimate space stacked with curio and unfathomable steam-powered devices. Drinks were served by a delightfully named gin-master, Louis Xavier Lewis-Smith, and the banquet was created by Bombas and Parr, famed jelly mongers, who say their next project will be the Architectural Punch Bowl, a punch bowl so large you can row a boat across it. Between courses Piper regaled guests with his sparkling innuendo, poetry (on roses and cucumbers), and his table-top tickle machine.Sugared rose petals, quails (and their eggs, with chilli and 24-carat gold) followed by cucumber and Bergamot ice cream (served with gin-jelly) made up the more restrained courses of the feast.]

Note to self: Befriend a “cad-about-town.” [via More Intelligent Life]