This Week in Janice: Music Tastes

these people probably touched

Mom: Are you listening to Otis Redding?
Me: Yep!
Mom: He’s boring. You know he was considered frat boy music when I was in school. Boys would put his music on at parties because it gave them an excuse to squeeze a girl tightly when they danced.

Mom: I was more into Jimi Hendrix when I was young. I was a hippie, when we danced we raised our hands to the sky and just sort of wiggled around. There was no touching involved.
Me: What about free love? That involved touching.
Mom: That was just in California. In the South, all the hippies were still virgins.

Captain’s Log: Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene swept through much of the east coast this weekend, flooding low-lying areas from North Carolina to Massachusetts and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power. New York City was hit hard. Well, pretty hard. Sort of. I mean, it was really windy and it rained a lot. Here is my harrowing tale of survival.

This Week in Janice: Learning to Text

This is my mom’s first attempt at texting:

This Week in Janice: Drinking Tips and the Stock Market

the market doesn't feel well

Subj: stock market has “Tha Vapors”

Oh, I had a day like this in college—having the Vapors, I dropped like a stone and was unconscious, just like the Market today. In my case, it was internal bleeding, and the case could be made that that is what is wrong with us today—internal bleeding for the US Economy.

‘Cept the Market, unlike moi, is populated by a bunch of “Multinationals,” so I am gonna agree with Rick Santelli, who I just heard on the radio. You know, the youngish Chicago trader who threw a hissy fit that got recorded and started the Tea Party Movement. (He’s Famous enough to get himself in Wikipeia. Atta boy, Chicago boy!!!)  Well, on the radio today he said “It is 2008 in Europe today.” Which I thought was really cute. Remember 2008 here, when we all thought the economic world as we knew it was going to end? Europe’s politicos just tried to bail out Greece with a paltry amount of cash, and the Market is afraid that it’s not gonna work. Especially  with Spain and Italy which are definitely “too big to fail.”  There just ain’t enuf Euros to bail those 2 out if they turn turtle too. So you can sleep well tonight. Like in 1914 and 1939, it’s not Our Fault, it’s just those darn Europeans…

When Three Become Two

Why would you write "Moving Day" on a box?

Molly is moving out. She’s obtained access to a completely furnished luxury apartment on the Upper East Side and has decided to go live there for free. Personally, I don’t know why you’d want to live in a Park Avenue building with a doorman rent free when you can pay thousands of dollars a year to live in Harlem with two roommates and a dog, especially when said apartment sometimes doesn’t have any gas for months. To each her own, I guess.

This means that Mazall and I need to find a replacement roommate. But living with someone is a big decision. Are they friendly? Do they keep the apartment clean? Will they murder you in your sleep? Maz and I have been reaching out to friends and coworkers to see if they know anyone who needs a place to stay, but we may have to (gulp) seek a stranger on Craigslist. To facilitate the process, I have come up with a list of qualities that our new roommate should possess:

Clean

Friendly

Organized

Likes dogs

Is funny

Is pretty

But not so pretty that we feel ugly

Likes Anchorman

Owns Mad Men on DVD

Can teach me how to do the Single Ladies dance

Either has really nice furniture that’s better than ours so we can upgrade OR

Has no furniture so we don’t have to make room for anything tacky

Is currently or has been a professional chef

Also a make-up artist

And masseuse

Owns a yacht

Owns one of those miniature horses that are the size of dogs

(The miniature horse cannot be named Molly)

Belongs to a Wine of the Month club

Has a large wardrobe of stylish clothes that fit me (preferably designer)

Has free airline tickets to Paris and no one to use them

Is friends with Kanye

Optional:

Is of an interesting religion or ethnicity so that we can sound cool when we say things like “Oh, my roommate the Zoroastrian?”

Is Banksy

LET US BE GREAT!

So, Facebook has this “feature” that, apparently, I’m the last to discover.  When you’re stalking someone on someone’s page, you can click a link and get taken to an e-summary of your relationship.  This summary is based solely on Facebook activity between the two of you.

According to Mr. Zuckerberg, Claire and I have been friends since August of 2007, although I didn’t like her until May 2008.  I know this because I still have the ballot from when we voted on it (inside joke!).

Regardless, you can tell a lot about us from this little page. 

If you have to be at work for 24 hours….

…you might as well be working on a piece about this concert?

I think George Harrison is my favorite Beatle.  Even though he’s the “quiet one” and I’m not.

Today in Journalism…

Co-worker: Are you shooting in Columbus Circle today?

Me:  I was planning on it, why?

Co-worker: Gigantic smurf in the middle!  You will be able to shoot around it.

Today in Journalism

Every now and then, reporters need help rounding out their stories, especially on deadline.    Maybe you are doing a story on Harry Potter, and you need some sort of  anthropologist to talk about the generation of kids who grew up with the franchise.  So, you’d send out a request to a bunch of PR people, and hope that someone out there knows someone else who can help.  Or, maybe this happens:

Antelope v. Reindeer

Some people mix them up, okay?  They both frolic, they both have horn things, they both think the caribou totally sold out…  I’m sure I can’t be the only person in the world to get them confused when requesting their likeness on a cake pop.  Sigh.  If only there was a scientist or something to explain the difference….  Wait, is it…Friday?

Molly:  hi.  do you have anyone at your institution who could explain what the difference between a reindeer and an antelope is?