"Two Large Cod and a Chainsaw.” If that sounds like a Monty Python still life, then welcome to the slightly surreal world of Episode 5, which featured, among other oddities, bodies swinging over a fjord, fish dragged up a hill, a medieval knight straight out of “The Seventh Seal” and, for good measure, a decapitated farm animal.
This last item formed a kind of Satan’s Passover for doctor Kat, whose attempts to eat a sheep’s head (as part of what the Land of the Midnight Sun likes to call “a traditional Christmas ritual”) ran up against three serious obstacles. 1) Kat hasn’t eaten meat in 22 years. 2) Her meal was staring at her the entire time. 3) The ghost of Bernard Herrmann was cranking up the accompanying music to “Psycho”-like distress levels. But Kat stayed cool. “Crunchy romaine lettuce,” she murmured in a trance of denial. “Calamari. Cucumbers.” Until at last she hit on the winning formula: “It tastes like money!”
Or at least victory. By dint of their gustatory valor, Kat and fellow doc Nat vaulted straight to the finish line, where presumably some vomit bucket was waiting just offscreen. Not so lucky were the beach-volleyball Amazons, who were eliminated just as I was beginning to tell them apart. While undeniably lovely, Katie and Rachel have remained stubbornly undeveloped as characters, and in this final outing they were reduced to uttering Lombardi-isms like “We don’t lose” and “This is not ‘Amazing Friend,’ it’s ‘Amazing Race,’ ” which served to only underscore how amazingly far behind they were.
You won’t find this, probably, in any contestant briefing, but “The Amazing Race” is really two races: one for bucks, one for hearts and minds. And it’s the latter competition that is most definitely heating up. Michael’s nutcracker mouth and fractured English grow more winning with each passing week. (When informed that one challenge would require “strength, stamina and guts,” he proudly cackled: “I don’t have none!”) Brook, with her verve and gumption, has accomplished the extraordinary feat of making me revisit my feelings about the Home Shopping Network. I didn’t even mind when she invoked dead relations to get Claire up that rope of doom. “Pray to your grandma!” shouted Brook. “She’ll get you through this. Just think of your grandma and how strong she was. She’d be encouraging you the whole way.” Personally, I think Grandma would be saying, “Why the hell are you dangling hundreds of feet over a Norwegian fjord?” but then again, the only thing my grandmother ever got dirty was her martini.
And now, please, a moment of celebration for Vicki the Tattooed Lady, who is quietly exposing boyfriend Nick for the sack of bluster he is. Despite “riding dirt bikes competitively” since he was 12, Nick was left gasping in Vicki’s wake as she pedaled toward the next clue. And this was just after she’d hoisted herself up and down a rappelling line with nary a whine or grimace. As Vicki herself explained: “I’m the one who has the guts in this relationship.” Testify, sister. And if you ever end up in a women’s penitentiary — as occasionally seems possible — the queenship of Cell Block H is yours for the taking.
— Louis Bayard
Photo: Nat and Kat faced with the Norwegian delicacy of a sheep's head. Credit: CBS.
In yesterday's Go Home Already, I linked to a story which talked about the results of a report conducted by Wider Opportunities for Women. The report discussed the amount of money that people under certain conditions in different areas around the Washington metro area need to make in order to feel financially "secure." Of course, there's serious wiggle room in that phrase, and plenty of commenters argued the validity of the numbers cited -- for instance, a single person without children to support in the District was deemed to need a yearly income of $32,000 per year to be "stable."
I finally got a chance to peruse the report, titled "The Basic Economic Security Tables for the Washington, DC Metro Area," this morning, and thought that I'd share some of the information inside of its pages for you to squabble over. Specifically, the data on single people and what they need to get by.
One failure of the study is that it never comes out and explicitly states what its definition of "economic security" is. Based on the literature out there, the term appears to mean having enough money coming in every month to build a stable future. (I know, we're defining relative terms with yet more relative terms. Best I could do, though. If there are any economists in the audience, please feel free to define the concept to me in concrete terms.)
That said, what does the study consider basic budget items for workers? "The core BEST Index contains basic budget items essential to all workers’ health and safety: housing, utilities, food and essential personal and house-hold items such as clothing, household products and a landline telephone," says the report, which also notes that the Index also assumes that all work occurs outside of the home (incurring transportation costs) and that everyone pays their taxes. Aside from the fact that most single people I know carry a cell instead of a landline, that seems somewhat fair. The Index includes a provision for their progeny's higher education (obviously null for those without children) and homeownership saving. The chart to the above right represents the amount that those with "employment-based benefits" (read: health insurance) need to make call themselves financially secure.
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bench craft company complaints
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Well, print media, you were warned. A 30 year old news report from NBC news, archived by Vortex Technology, discusses the future of television in a segment creatively entitled Telefuture. In it, they spend a lof of time examining the ...
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"Two Large Cod and a Chainsaw.” If that sounds like a Monty Python still life, then welcome to the slightly surreal world of Episode 5, which featured, among other oddities, bodies swinging over a fjord, fish dragged up a hill, a medieval knight straight out of “The Seventh Seal” and, for good measure, a decapitated farm animal.
This last item formed a kind of Satan’s Passover for doctor Kat, whose attempts to eat a sheep’s head (as part of what the Land of the Midnight Sun likes to call “a traditional Christmas ritual”) ran up against three serious obstacles. 1) Kat hasn’t eaten meat in 22 years. 2) Her meal was staring at her the entire time. 3) The ghost of Bernard Herrmann was cranking up the accompanying music to “Psycho”-like distress levels. But Kat stayed cool. “Crunchy romaine lettuce,” she murmured in a trance of denial. “Calamari. Cucumbers.” Until at last she hit on the winning formula: “It tastes like money!”
Or at least victory. By dint of their gustatory valor, Kat and fellow doc Nat vaulted straight to the finish line, where presumably some vomit bucket was waiting just offscreen. Not so lucky were the beach-volleyball Amazons, who were eliminated just as I was beginning to tell them apart. While undeniably lovely, Katie and Rachel have remained stubbornly undeveloped as characters, and in this final outing they were reduced to uttering Lombardi-isms like “We don’t lose” and “This is not ‘Amazing Friend,’ it’s ‘Amazing Race,’ ” which served to only underscore how amazingly far behind they were.
You won’t find this, probably, in any contestant briefing, but “The Amazing Race” is really two races: one for bucks, one for hearts and minds. And it’s the latter competition that is most definitely heating up. Michael’s nutcracker mouth and fractured English grow more winning with each passing week. (When informed that one challenge would require “strength, stamina and guts,” he proudly cackled: “I don’t have none!”) Brook, with her verve and gumption, has accomplished the extraordinary feat of making me revisit my feelings about the Home Shopping Network. I didn’t even mind when she invoked dead relations to get Claire up that rope of doom. “Pray to your grandma!” shouted Brook. “She’ll get you through this. Just think of your grandma and how strong she was. She’d be encouraging you the whole way.” Personally, I think Grandma would be saying, “Why the hell are you dangling hundreds of feet over a Norwegian fjord?” but then again, the only thing my grandmother ever got dirty was her martini.
And now, please, a moment of celebration for Vicki the Tattooed Lady, who is quietly exposing boyfriend Nick for the sack of bluster he is. Despite “riding dirt bikes competitively” since he was 12, Nick was left gasping in Vicki’s wake as she pedaled toward the next clue. And this was just after she’d hoisted herself up and down a rappelling line with nary a whine or grimace. As Vicki herself explained: “I’m the one who has the guts in this relationship.” Testify, sister. And if you ever end up in a women’s penitentiary — as occasionally seems possible — the queenship of Cell Block H is yours for the taking.
— Louis Bayard
Photo: Nat and Kat faced with the Norwegian delicacy of a sheep's head. Credit: CBS.
In yesterday's Go Home Already, I linked to a story which talked about the results of a report conducted by Wider Opportunities for Women. The report discussed the amount of money that people under certain conditions in different areas around the Washington metro area need to make in order to feel financially "secure." Of course, there's serious wiggle room in that phrase, and plenty of commenters argued the validity of the numbers cited -- for instance, a single person without children to support in the District was deemed to need a yearly income of $32,000 per year to be "stable."
I finally got a chance to peruse the report, titled "The Basic Economic Security Tables for the Washington, DC Metro Area," this morning, and thought that I'd share some of the information inside of its pages for you to squabble over. Specifically, the data on single people and what they need to get by.
One failure of the study is that it never comes out and explicitly states what its definition of "economic security" is. Based on the literature out there, the term appears to mean having enough money coming in every month to build a stable future. (I know, we're defining relative terms with yet more relative terms. Best I could do, though. If there are any economists in the audience, please feel free to define the concept to me in concrete terms.)
That said, what does the study consider basic budget items for workers? "The core BEST Index contains basic budget items essential to all workers’ health and safety: housing, utilities, food and essential personal and house-hold items such as clothing, household products and a landline telephone," says the report, which also notes that the Index also assumes that all work occurs outside of the home (incurring transportation costs) and that everyone pays their taxes. Aside from the fact that most single people I know carry a cell instead of a landline, that seems somewhat fair. The Index includes a provision for their progeny's higher education (obviously null for those without children) and homeownership saving. The chart to the above right represents the amount that those with "employment-based benefits" (read: health insurance) need to make call themselves financially secure.
bench craft company complaints
Juan Williams: Fox <b>News</b> Lets 'Black Guy With A Hispanic Name' Host <b>...</b>
Juan Williams said Tuesday that he's still upset about his firing from NPR, and added that NPR does not understand the Fox News culture or audience. In an interview with Baltimore Sun columnist David Zurawik, Williams said he remains ...
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ABC News investigates BMW fuel pump problems – Click above to watch video after the jump ABC News has cottoned on to the story that BMW.
Telefuture | Old <b>News</b> Report | TVs Merging with Computers | Mediaite
Well, print media, you were warned. A 30 year old news report from NBC news, archived by Vortex Technology, discusses the future of television in a segment creatively entitled Telefuture. In it, they spend a lof of time examining the ...
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Juan Williams: Fox <b>News</b> Lets 'Black Guy With A Hispanic Name' Host <b>...</b>
Juan Williams said Tuesday that he's still upset about his firing from NPR, and added that NPR does not understand the Fox News culture or audience. In an interview with Baltimore Sun columnist David Zurawik, Williams said he remains ...
ABC <b>News</b> airs big exposé on BMW N54 engine problems, lawsuits [w <b>...</b>
ABC News investigates BMW fuel pump problems – Click above to watch video after the jump ABC News has cottoned on to the story that BMW.
Telefuture | Old <b>News</b> Report | TVs Merging with Computers | Mediaite
Well, print media, you were warned. A 30 year old news report from NBC news, archived by Vortex Technology, discusses the future of television in a segment creatively entitled Telefuture. In it, they spend a lof of time examining the ...
bench craft company complaints bench craft company complaints
Juan Williams: Fox <b>News</b> Lets 'Black Guy With A Hispanic Name' Host <b>...</b>
Juan Williams said Tuesday that he's still upset about his firing from NPR, and added that NPR does not understand the Fox News culture or audience. In an interview with Baltimore Sun columnist David Zurawik, Williams said he remains ...
ABC <b>News</b> airs big exposé on BMW N54 engine problems, lawsuits [w <b>...</b>
ABC News investigates BMW fuel pump problems – Click above to watch video after the jump ABC News has cottoned on to the story that BMW.
Telefuture | Old <b>News</b> Report | TVs Merging with Computers | Mediaite
Well, print media, you were warned. A 30 year old news report from NBC news, archived by Vortex Technology, discusses the future of television in a segment creatively entitled Telefuture. In it, they spend a lof of time examining the ...
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