The Week in Favorites

1. The Red Sox: I have come to hate sports.  I hate professional sports most of all because I think of it as a validation for the worst of human behaviors.  There are noble moments, it's true, when that ball get improbably caught or some unfortunate child with terminal something gets to meet their sports idol, but mostly, those are accidents in a general war culture of us versus them and corporate sponsored brawling.  But I am a small person in a great sea of vicarious gladiators, so I am resigned to the parade of games and small children wearing faux uniforms (Hallowe'en is particularly grating).   It is my great relief that if the Boston Red Sox have to be in the World Series, that they just get it over with, sweep the Rockies, and get that crap off my television (just in time for the Bruins). Go Sox!

2. Fall.  I just love fall.  Both because it is the most colourful time of year, the seasons turning confirm that we have not yet messed up the planet enough to stop it from turning at all, and because it is the return to wool. And you know how I feel about the wool.

3. Buffalo Tom.  Local heros coming home between tours supporting their new album, I saw them at the Somerville Theatre the other night.  It was a good time.  They started out with a mellow acoustic set, then built up to raucous good guitar banging fun.  All that with 40-something jokes, decent beer, and all out in time to relieve the baby-sitter.  I love those guys.

4. Robert Mash's How to Keep Dinosaurs.  The Boy is in full bore Dino mode.  He is absorbing the sweep of natural history like money at an alarming rate.  He cries himself to sleep at night because he will never get to see a real ornithocheirus. We discuss the chronology of the Mesozoic over breakfast.  We clock land speed rates of various theropods as we drive in the car.  We speculate on how long the Shaw's produce section would last should a hungry diplotocus happen across the bounty.   In the blizzard of books and Discovery channel programming, Mash's book is a dark, absurd, and bone dry owners manual for this Holocene adult trapped in a relationship with the Jurassic.  Have I mentioned that it is dead funny?

5. Vong Thai Kitchen.  When I was in Chicago last week, Brooke suggested this place for dinner.  Chicago is a forest of good places to eat, so it was no surprise that this was one of the best Thai-style meals I have ever had in my life.  I have even been to Thailand, eaten in fancy restaurants and regular roadside joints there.  I have standards. . . and I wish Vong's delivered to Boston. This week, I am dreaming of lemongrass mojitos, portobello satay, and panang curry.  Yum.

6. My boots.

The 15 year old begged asked for these in black for Christmas last year, and she got them. They are a little racy on her, I have to admit.  Where she walks, she leaves  boot-shaped patches of smoking earth behind her. I thought maybe they might do the same for me.  So I got them in brown, and they do, sort of.  I don't have the legs I used to, which is really necessary to smoke the sidewalk, but even at my middle age, the pavement does wince a little.

Comments

[susan]

I agree with you on Fall and the boots (awesome) but I respectfully disagree about the Red Sox. Then again, it's not a way of life here. Just a short-lived digression.

[Jeannine]

I've been a fan of Buffalo Tom for about 16 or 17 years now. I've seen them a few times in small cozy venues. They are a great band, and they put on a great show.

[Rachael]

Those are GREAT boots. Wow.

[Meghann]

Ahhhh, fall. I love it too. The crisp air, the cooling weather, the gorgeous colors. The Sox....not usually a huge fan of watching, but when they are doing this well, we do try and at least keep up!

Hmmm...I might need some of those boots. I could use a little smokin' hotness myself!

[Beverly]

I have those same boots, and I love them beyond reason. I am a badass in those boots instead of a lowly composition teacher.

[Bethe]

I'm coveting those boots...they're fabulous!

[Suzanne V. (Yarnhog)]

What are the boots?! Must have them!

[Wanda]

Hmm, everyone is against our Rockies! Not that they are performing very well. I just want the baseball season to be over, is that too much to ask?

[benedetta]

I am with you 100% on Red Sox and professional sports, and on boots, 75% on fall (I just hate the cold that is to come) and I am to ignorant about the rest to comment.
But I am so very glad to find another voice on "general war culture of us versus them and corporate sponsored brawling" that goes on thinly disguised as sport. Thank you!!!

[Danielle]

Those are some sassy boots! Where did you find them?

[Mary K. IN Rockport]

Norma pictured her new boots this weekend, too. I found a black, modified-motorcycle-mama pair at Marshall's a year ago, and I love them. I also love that my 22 year old daughter is shocked, shocked I say, that I wear them proudly (and comfortably) with jeans.

[Sarah]

Great boots! I'm with you on the sports thing. I am so happy to have a husband who watched part of one game with a friend just because they wanted to check out the quality of the HD. Geek culture, not war culture! ;)

[julia fc]

The boots are Frye's Harness model. Available everywhere!

[Kathy]

Those are some smokin' boots for sure.

[liz]

Oh man, I love my Frye's. I have a very similar pair of boots as well as the belted harness clogs, which I was a little hestitant about and have come to realize are my favorite pair of fall shoes. Well, them and the red leopard pony Dansko's!

[norma]

I swear I am not related to that little blond kid, and I did not teach him that.

Love your boots. I'm all about the boots.

[Christina]

Wow, I couldn't possibly agree with you more about sports. That was fun to read :)

[Colleen Humphreys]

I HATE professional sports. DH and I have a pre-nup about football (none on TV when I am hope. Period). My kids was harassed at school last week (in Mass) because he's not a baseball fan.

I want it OVER.

Why do they pay grown men who can't seem to control themselves off the field so much money to play a children's game?????

[Laurie]

What a picture..smoking earth.

I hate the spitting, even though I love the Sox. The rest of 'em? Eh. And it's over.

[mandy]

Love the smokin' boots.

[Erin]

Now I know what to do with the bundle of lemon grass on my counter.

I'm jealous you made it too the Buffalo Tom show- Bill Janowitz showed us a condo a few weeks ago and I was instantly 16 again going to see them play with the Lemonheads!

[Tonia]

Not a sports fan, so I really don't keep up with all of it. We have Directv so there are many other chanels that I watch that the games aren't on. ;)

Love the boots!! Maybe you need the black to do the serious smoking. ;)

[Kim]

Looks like the parents of that kid need to (a) practice some self restraint, aka Not In Front Of The Children, (b) teach said tot "that's not something we do in public", (c) prepare to receive LOTS of calls from his kindergarten teacher and the principal, and (d) sign him up for some anger management classes right now! Jeez, and to think I cringed when my then toddler said "dammit".

And the boots - we need details! Where can they be acquired?!

[Sarah-Hope]

I'm not sure where you live, but you might want to check if Walking with Dinosaurs Live is coming to your area

http://www.dinosaurlive.com/

Melissa bought tickets for us as a Christmas present. Whee!

BTW, the books rock!

[KarenJoSeattle]

So Frye's are still in. Hmm.

For those looking and not finding them locally, check Zappos.com, with free shipping both ways.