Happiness is a book-stacked bedside table.

For my day job Reader, I am a literary publicist, and one of my clients this past year was the witty, wonderful Ruth Pennebaker.  During a reading at BookPeople, she told the audience: "I can go a day or so without writing.  Sure.  But I can't go a single day without reading.  If forced, I will read labels on the backs of shampoo bottles and tubes of toothpaste."

Preach sister friend! I thought.  Because I am the exact same way.  I'm one of those people who feels totally rudderless without a book.  To put it in more desperate terms: I have been known to read at stoplights.  To the horror of my fellow motorists.

Anyway, I'm reading five right now that I'm particularly jazzed about.  Two of them were gifts, one is on loan, and two of them were Merry Christmas presents to me. 

Big World // I met author Mary Miller at a bar, and we got to talking.  She's a student right now at the super-prestigious Michener Center, and after our initial chat, we kept up through email.  Mary was incredibly kind to me, and offered to read and give me feedback on a nonfiction piece I was writing.  This is her collection of short stories, which she generously sent me in the mail.  Each one is startling and dark, moving through roadside motels and cramped trailers and Tennessee bars.  The characters, and they're mostly girls and women, are frank about their loneliness but funny about it, too.  People have been comparing her to Mary Gaitskill and I think I agree.

Just Kids // Patti Smith's memoir, which won the National Book Award last year.  I haven't started it yet, but two friends of mine, Lauren and Megan (the Megan who writes music reviews here) each had quasi-life-altering experiences reading it.  I remember hearing Patti being interviewed on Fresh Air shortly after the book came out, and the perfectly lovely way she described seeing Robert Mapplethorpe for the second time in her life: "There he was, walking down the street, looking just like the summer of 1967."

The Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things and How to Do Them // My friend Gretchen and I trade books sometimes, and recently, she lent me this memoir by "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me" host Peter Sagal, he of the Harvard degree, the starched bow-ties, and one may assume up-to-date dental records and tax returns.  This is his story of visiting swinger clubs, strip joints, and other dens of sin.  I can hardly wait.

Love is a Mix Tape // My sister-in-law gave Ross and I this book for Christmas, and first of all, are you listening Rob Sheffield?  Because your book should be turned into a movie.  Really!  I am floored it hasn't been yet!  This is the true story of two kids in love in the 90s, young, foolish, broke, obsessed with music, written by the widowed husband.  (Which is announced on the jacket so I'm not giving anything away here.)  Rob is a longtime music writer and contributing editor at Rolling Stone, and this book is basically his love letter to Renee, structured in time by mix tapes they made for each other.  This is such a treat for any music fan of the 90s, and not just grunge, but also that weird, wonderful pop that I know you secretly loved: "How Bizarre!" by OMC, "Nasty Girl" by Vanity 6, etc. etc.  Plus lots of Prince and early Pavement.  This book is sweet and funny and sad and exactly the way I want to write.

A Homemade Life // I'm such a fan of Molly Wizenberg and her food blog, Orangette.  She's another writing inspiration for me, and even though we don't know each other, I've always felt such a kindred spirit sense of connection to her: Both grad school dropouts, both close to our fathers, both having shared a profound few days in Paris with those fathers.  (I also find it so endearing that she's still on Blogspot).  This is her story of getting over her father's passing by getting into the kitchen, peppered with homemade recipes.  I have a feeling this one will be warm and cozy.

* * *

So there you have it!  My nightstand.  And Reader, I don't know about you, but I just can't get behind the Kindle (or, any e-reader).  I am proud in this way.  Prejudiced.  I like paper and cover art and bookmarks too much, and if I ever got a Kindle that would mean no more trips to Half-Price Books or BookPeople!  And that would make me sad.  It's the one area of life I'm a little Luddite about.

4 books that changed the way I look at things.

So what does one do when it is unbearably hot?

Here in Austin, temperatures are quickly reaching clothing-optional levels.  Our outfits are shrinking.  Our robust Texas constitutions are fainting.  Bars don't have enough Mexican Martinis in the world to quench our thirst, and it is now acceptable to take your lunch break at Barton Springs, a watery 68 degree respite from the Hades-like conditions.

I'll tell you what I do.

I read like a fiend.

See, to me -- both a hot (literally) Austinite, and a manic-doer of tasks -- summer is the one time of the year where I feel it's ok to get a little bit lazy.  To loosen the grip on that unhealthy Puritan work ethic.  So I indulge on books, and read morning and night.  I take books to lunch and don't feel a bit ashamed for being antisocial, reading them while fellow patrons mill about.  It's so hot we can barely form sentences, and I must rely on those more eloquent to do the job for me.

So, inspired by a blog I randomly happened upon last weekend, I decided to make a list of the four books that altered my worldview or perspective in some way.

(Speaking of which, did you know that at one time, I wanted to be an English professor?   Oh yes.  I, Blogger of Incessant Typos, used to teach composition while student-teaching in grad school.  Once, I made the class write a compare-and-contrast essay on Will & Grace and The L-Word, which I thought was spectacular lesson, until I got the papers back.  Did you know that it's difficult for young men to stare at beautiful lesbians and simultaneously write a coherent paper?  Shocking I know!  Our next paper was on rhetoric and Martin Luther King, Jr.).

Anyhoo, enough rambling.  Here are the four books that shaped Tolly indelibly.  I'd love to hear what yours are, too.

1. Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)

Yawn.  I know.  It's on everybody's top four.  Or three.  Or one.

But in the ninth grade, Catcher in the Rye changed the way I viewed literature.  I couldn't believe it was a classic.  I mean, it had ... cussing!  Not old-timey British cussing either, "bloody hell!" and all that, but the f-word.  To my sheltered, 14 year-old eyes, this just boggled the mind (and was secretly, deliciously, delightful).

Also, here was a book whose narrator seemed like a real person, and not an idealized hero or heroine who, despite subtle flaws, were obviously noble.  Not Holden Caulfield.  He could be an asshole.  Even though you end up loving him:  "Where do the ducks go?" he asks, wandering around Central Park.  Oh, Holden!  Of course you would think about that, or your little sister's knees when she's roller-skating, you sensitive soul you.

I adored this book, because of the way it tore down precious notions of fine literaure.  And of the neurotic narrator at its center.  One gets the sense Holden is too disturbed my modern life to dwell on large issues for very long -- teenage prostitution, for example -- so he distracts himself with questions of ducks and knees.  If you love this book as much as I do, I recommend Jessica Shattuck's excellent article that she wrote last year for NPR about Holden.

2. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (Anne Lammott) 

On the surface, this book is a writing guide.  But deep inside its warm, funny heart,  Bird by Bird is oh so much more than a writing guide.  More like a spiritual guide.

I pick up and read this book whenever I can, just to stretch out my writerly muscles.  While Anne has enjoyed commercial success in her long novel-writing career, I think her real gift is making visible what the writing process is like, and also, making you feel like YOU CAN DO IT too.  Write, I mean.

The first time I read this book was in the early days of the Internet, like, dial-up/running yellow man on AOL/"you've got mail!" Internet, and I remember taking up her now old-fashioned advice.  Like, carrying a notepad with you to write down interesting bits of dialogue you hear on the street.  Taking Polaroids (or in my case, a FunSaver).  That kind of thing.

Anne is just so darn generous with her writing, too.  She spoonfeeds you vivid descriptions and witty asides that you want to steal.  A few weeks ago, I read a passage of hers that said something like: "When I sit down to write, at first, I am very quiet.  I stare into space, look around, and then, I start rocking back and forth.  And humming.  Like a giant, autistic child."

Heh.  Me too, Anne.

3. Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise (by Ruth Reichl)

When I moved back to Austin in 2007 after graduate school, one of my first freelance writing gigs was doing restaurant reviews for The Onion: AV Club Austin.  It paid a tiny amount, and I was just one of several local reviewers, but I was SO proud of this accomplishment.  Look!!!! I said to Ross, when my new editor wrote me with my first assignment.  I am a PAID WRITER.

Ross told one of his teacher friends about it, and to indulge me, that friend lent me a copy of Garlic and Sapphires, Ruth Reichl's memoir about reviewing restaurants for The New York Times.  Every time she visited a restaurant, she went both in normal, everyday clothing, as "Ruth," and then again in a costume. Not, like, a bear costume: She dressed up as other people.  Early in her tenure at The Times, she caused a scandal when she awarded Le Cirque one star.  She wrote two side-by-side reviews, comparing the service and food she received as Ruth Reichl, and the service and food she received as "Molly," a plain, frumpy character she invented from the Midwest.  Ruth got seated before the King of Spain did.  Molly got seated by the bathroom.

Garlic and Sapphires was the book that showed me that restaurant reviews, and food writing in general, could be written in a literary way -- like little short stories, as Ruth puts it in her other memoir, Comfort Me With Apples.  This spoke to me, since even though I was no culinary expert (see: Tuesday's ruined pancakes for proof), I was a story-teller.  Like Ruth.

But I have yet to visit any restaurant here in Austin or elsewhere in disguise.  That's some ballsiness.

4. Special Topics in Calamity Physics (by Marisha Pessl)

I read this book just last year, as a result of this post.  My friend Katherine recommended it to me in the comments section, and like her, I stayed up until all hours of the night finishing it.

Oh my God.  Where to start with Special Topics?  First of all -- this is Pessl's debut novel.  Which might make you hate her, if you are also a writer.  Some people do, and insist that the prose is terrible, because it's so densely layered with the narrator's incessant scientific, historical, and literary references.

But I didn't feel that way.  Once I got past the narrator's "thinking" style, and also past my latent feelings of inadequacy, I dove headlong into Pessl's creepy, dark world of secret societies, murder mystery and anarchist networks.  And then realized how singularly brilliant this young writer is.

Anyway, those are all big, superlative brush strokes; here's the plot: A teenage prodigy named Blue, the book's narrator, begins the story by staring up at the bloated face of her dead teacher, who hangs from a cord in a tree.  This woman's name is Hannah Schneider, and for the duration of this book, while Blue rewinds back and gets you up to this point, you'll be asking yourself: "Who killed Hannah Schneider?"  In fact, chances are, you will ask yourself this nagging, burning question for the rest of your life and join online discussion boards and Amazon groups the moment you turn the last page to get everyone else's consensus ... or at least if you will if you are like (i.e. oddly and selectively obsessive).

Since she was a young girl, Blue has been entirely raised -- some would say isolated -- by her academic father.  He is her best friend, her confidante, and despite his egotistical posturing, can't help but being a ladies' man.  They travel all over the country together on his guest lectures, leaving when his teaching post is up, or when some poor, besotted woman starts stalking him.

On their last stop, in Stockton, North Carolina, Blue enters her senior year in high school.  Never cool and always a social outcast, because she is simply so damn smart, Blue is surprised -- and excited -- when she's immediately inducted into what appears to be a small secret society.  It's comprised of five students, all who seem to have a very interesting relationship with their film teacher ... Hannah Schneider.

If you read any book this summer, please, please read this one (especially so I can bug you to death about who killed Hannah Schneider).  This is the book that, more than any other I've read recently, reminded what a good, immaculately-spun yarn looks like.  How to lay out clues.  How to store away hints.  How to paint larger-than-life characters, and how to move those characters in such a chess-like way through the plot.  And the end!  I'm still recovering from the end!  I'm just dying for you to read it.

***
So, those are my four gems.  Now it is your turn, because I'd like to hear which books shaped you.  I think people's favorites say so much about them.

which four changed things for you?

New York Noir.

The past week I've been walking around New York, snapping shots like a shameless tourist.  

We come here every year for work, but still.  The wide-eyed wonder never wears off!

There are two things in New York that delight me to no end.  People's enthusiasm over books, and people's enthusiasm over food.  

When it comes to the latter, I've instituted a Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy -- don't ask me how many times (or in what amounts) I've eaten cheese, chocolate, and truffle oil, and I won't tell you. 

However, at Bryant Park Grill, I have something exciting to report.  With my meal, I thought I was reaching for black beans with my fork, then realized it was rice coated in black cream.  Or to be more specific, squid ink risotto.

I think my culinary sophistication levels multiplied by approximately 1,000.

Those are my friends and colleagues, Elaine and Stephanie, on the subway with me, as well as me displaying my special CBS News badge.  We pitched them a  few authors this morning, and fortunately, I managed not to tuck my dress into the front of my tights for this meeting (like I did for yesterday's TV meeting).  That's called progress.

Eavesdropper Interview: Kate Payne.

When it comes to kindness, and more specifically random acts of, I usually perform very well.

But when it comes to domesticity, my acts in that department are not random at all.   In fact they are rare.  And very, very deliberate.

When I make dinner for Ross, it is not just a Tuesday, but a formal event. Typically prompted by a birthday or anniversary. I announce to the checker at the grocery store or farmer's market that I am making ANNIVERSARY SPAGHETTI! and pause for someone to clap.  For some people, cooking meals, real, proper meals, is a nightly way of life, but for me it is an exotic novelty.  And the thing is, I actually do enjoy cooking.  It's just that I never make time for it.

Ditto for other home ec pursuits, like knitting, kombucha brewing, canning, pickling, salt infusing, sewing, crafting of every manner.  I've dipped a toe in countless domestic waters.  So why haven't I become a modern day Martha?  

Does the bluish tint of the computer screen coax me away from sunlight-dappled gardens? 

Would I always prefer to type, rather than can?

These questions are what drew me to Austinite, author, and hip homemaker Kate Payne.

When I first started rounding up folks for this Eavesdropper Interview series, Kate was one of the first people I thought of. Ross and I just moved you see, and our goals for this new house include: Keeping chickens (for eggs), building a music studio (for Ross's music lessons), and -- gasp -- eschewing cable TV!   To free us up for activities like cooking, gardening, and doing laundry on more than a monthly basis!

But Kate, author of The Hip Girls Guide to Homemaking (Harper Design, April 2011), represents a sturdier, get-your-hands-dirty DIY spirit. Her expertise extends far beyond laundry: She cans, she preserves, she lives on the cheap.  She hosts wildly popular food swaps here in Austin, that have caught on all over the country.  We met, as the modern story goes, through Twitter, and I have followed her blog and book tour ever since.

Kate joins us today to talk about her book and her exceptionally hand-crafted life.  I hope you enjoy our talk! 

1. Can you tell us a little about yourself, Kate?

I haven't always been a natural on the home-keeping scene. My mom probably would've voted me least likely to get excited about this stuff throughout my college years and immediately following. I fall somewhere between my two grandmas now, one is a real spitfire un-domestic and my other grandma irons all the time and made homemade bread for my dad and uncle weekly. My parents are from Minnesota, but we moved around quite a bit when I was younger. I went to four different high schools. If writing doesn't work out, I'd like to be a physicist.

2. I am in awe of DIY folk. And, you are the queen! How did you get into canning, swapping, gardening, and the like?

I worked on a farm a year after I got out of college and that instigated this internal movement. I was doing really hard work every day, I was thinking more about what I put into my body and I caught the urban gardening bug after my farm job ended. Since building my first 4' x 4' garden bed and growing my first cabbage, I've progressively expanded my horizons in food preparation and preservation.

Becoming gluten-free five years ago has also impacted my kitchen capacities; with the high cost of gluten-free goods in stores (plus the often marginal quality) I reluctantly learned to bake.

 I surprised myself by really enjoying making homemade goodies; sharing them and swapping them with friends is the next logical step when you're empowered by delicious success!

3. In the kitchen department, you and Jo Ann seem to compliment each other well: She, the thoughtful meal-planner; you, the toss a bunch of ingredients in and cross your fingers type. (PS, I'm definitely the latter). What are some of your favorite meals to eat together?

We just pulled the backyard grill out of storage (thank goodness!) and love to piece together meals from combinations of what grain staples we have on hand, seasonal veggies and choices of proteins for the week. We are still very budget-conscious so sustainably-raised meats appear on our table only a couple times per week, the rest of the time we're enjoying fish and vegetable proteins. I'm in charge of dessert, and she is particularly fond of my plum crumble and salted caramel ice cream.

4. You are about to launch your book in just a few days! 

That's so exciting! 

Can you tell us about the book publishing process? How you embarked on the journey, and what it was like to actually write / compile all your wisdom?

I started this project as a blog in June 2009 in order to keep myself accountable. Posting stuff on the Internet is a great way to not give up on things. I always knew I wanted to write a book so I talked with published friends and continued to work on the idea steadily by giving myself deadlines periodically.

My agent found me via the blog in the fall of 2009. She helped me craft the proposal and she even drew pictures to help prospective editors see our vision. We sold it in February 2010 and I wrote the remaining 8 chapters of the book by the end of June. We finished final edits to the manuscript by December. My agent ended up illustrating the entire book (since my editor loved her drawings in the proposal) and my good friend hand-penned the calligraphy.

I couldn't have made this book nearly as informative nor as beautiful without the collaborative efforts of so many people, from compiling research leads to the strangers (now friends) who welcomed me into their homes.

5. You and Jo Ann recently moved into a brand new house. I'm a total sucker for home decor. What's your home style? 

I'm a vintage decor, found-object hound. I love to hunt and scavenge through old things, sometimes making them new, sometimes dusting them off and just sticking them on the shelf.

To me, signature vintage pieces are a way to honor the past and the past lives these things have seen, an if-these-objects-could-talk kind of thing.

6. What's the tastiest thing you've ever canned?

Concord grape jelly, hands down. I might need to do an East Coast trip in September to get my hands on more of those gorgeous, lip-smacking grapes.

7. What is the key to living a creative life?

Improvisation and flexibility. It's important to take a can-do attitude into everything you do, whether it's finishing a manuscript or installing a curtain rod. I always say to myself when I encounter a road block in any sort of plans "I'm a smart person, I can figure this out." This may seem silly or simplistic, but it helps me remember to keep on and some sort of solution will shake itself out.

8. And finally, Miss Kate: Who is your home making icon?

My mother. She worked full-time as we were growing up, yet there was always homemade food on the table, clean laundry (even though I was forced to learn to do my own at age 12 when I repeatedly failed to put away clean laundry before dirty stuff ended up piled on top), a well-kept house and she never missed a swim-meet!

see kate at:

sweet charity gifts

26 doors shopping center / 1206 w. 38th st. 

austin texas 

thursday, may 12

10am - 12pm & 1pm-3pm

Many thanks to Kate Payne, Megan Myers, and JoAnn Santangelo for photography.

A cry for help, in so many ways.

                       
Man. This is one dorky post.

I just finished it, read back through it, and carefully considered whether or not to hit "publish." This post has little (i.e., nothing) to do with Austin.

It has everything to do with being a book nerd.

But -- publish we shall, comrades. Because this is an earnest appeal.  Hopefully I won't bore you to tears here, and hopefully, you are an unapologetic book lover like me.  So I ask you, readers of Austin, readers of the world: To help me.

See, I am in a dysfunctional relationship with my current book stack.  I read every night before I go to bed, and just feel like something is missing from my evening ritual.  The contenders:

Kitchen Confidential (Anthony Bourdain) 

The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry (Kathleen Flinn)

Fever Pitch (Nick Hornby)

The status:

Kitchen Confidential -- FINISHED. Bourdain's brash behind-the-scenes look at culinary culture. The book that made him famous. He wrote it 10 years ago, and with each shocking revelation he shares (like the fact that brunch, our most fetishized meal, is made out of a kitchen's old, old leftovers), you can tell he wants the reader to think, "why, that's just appalling!  I just -- just -- had no idea!"  And I didn't.  But the point is, I don't like feeling manipulated while I'm reading a memoir.  I just want you to be smart, and relateable, and funny without trying too hard (... and, wow. This sounds like I'm talking to a boyfriend, rather than a book, non?).

An older, wiser Bourdain admits in the second edition preface that the text may be just a bit too macho, so ok, he gets it.


The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry -- 3/4 FINISHED. Oh, how I want to love this one. Listen to the set-up, ladies: Girl gets sacked from Microsoft, girl has lifelong dream of going to Le Cordon Bleu cooking school, but girl is practical, girl throws caution to the wind anyway and cashes out her life savings to attend Le Cordon Bleu, IN PARIS.  Everything estrogeny in me says, goodie! for a book like that. And yet ...

Kathleen Flinn, the author, is the type of woman I could see myself being friends with in real life. She's professionally driven, but has a romantic heart. The only thing is, her storytelling feels too much like the former quality.  By which I mean, professional.  It's very thorough reporting, her description of each Le Cordon Bleu class.  But you and me, we're not going to attend Le Cordon Bleu in Paris anytime soon, are we?  No. Likely not. We want life lessons.  Humor.  Subtleties of wit and observation.  At least, I do.

When it comes right down to it, I think I just want this book to be funnier. I want Kathleen to be a little more bumbling in the kitchen, when in fact, she's very good. I want her to cry big, snotty tears when she fails her Le Cordon Bleu dishes, but she has a supportive boyfriend the entire time!  Le sigh.

To be fair, I also didn't finish Eat, Pray, Love, a similar sort of tale, and whose writing style I loved. I tend to not give these books -- meaning, unlucky-woman-takes-off-on-travel-fantasy books -- a fair shake. I don't know why.  Probably because I am bitter and jealous, at the outset, of their adventure.


Fever Pitch -- JUST STARTED. This one I'll probably stick with. Nick Hornby (A Long Way Down, High Fidelity, How to be Good) never lets me down. This is his memoir about being an obsessive soccer (or his British "football") fan, and while the tears of laughter aren't exactly rolling down my face, as they do early and often in Hornby's novels, I have faith.  I suspect Fever Pitch is especially appealing to the reader who can relate to the culture of spectator sports, and who really understands what it means to be a sports fan, the type who tailgates and takes team losses personally and shares this emotional swell of pride when his or her team does well, as if they themselves were personally responsible for the UT Longhorns (or New Orleans Saints, or Texas Rangers, or whatever your team)' success on the field.

Which is not, admittedly, me.

Still: It's Hornby's sense of humor that gets me. In the chapter I read last night, he described being a boy from the suburbs, and going through a stage where he adopted a working class cockney accent. This, while his sister suddenly started speaking as if she were Princess-In-Waiting to the English throne.  When friends of the family met the two together, no could figure out which one had been adopted?  Giggle.  Thank you, Nick Hornby.

*  *  *

As you can see, I love my memoirs.

But I want to know, what was the last book that made you positively sad when you came to the end, because you wanted to go on reading? Memoir, fiction, non-fiction, etcetera?

I tend to buy all of my books at Half-Price Books on North Lamar, and perhaps that is the problem. I'm not giving new literary talent a chance. Like the freaking girl who wears hornet tattoos and kicked the dragon's nest and blabity-blah -- I feel like I should read those.  Because there has been so much hype. Have any of you gotten into the series?  Is it good?

I read about this freaky, awesome sounding book in O, The Oprah Magazine (another dorky obsession of mine: O), called Room, by Emma Donoghue.  Listen to the description:

In many ways, Jack is a typical 5-year-old. He likes to read books, watch TV, and play games with his Ma. But Jack is different in a big way--he has lived his entire life in a single room, sharing the tiny space with only his mother and an unnerving nighttime visitor known as Old Nick. For Jack, Room is the only world he knows, but for Ma, it is a prison in which she has tried to craft a normal life for her son. When their insular world suddenly expands beyond the confines of their four walls, the consequences are piercing and extraordinary. Despite its profoundly disturbing premise, Emma Donoghue's Room is rife with moments of hope and beauty, and the dogged determination to live, even in the most desolate circumstances.

HOLY SHIT. Right?

This one might have to be the next on my reading list.

But. Before I rush out and order it, tell me:

what books do you love? have you loved? have made you sad when you reached the end?

The last ones that made me clap my hands in delight were Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl, Born Round, by Frank Bruni, and Spoon Fed, by Kim Severson. All food memoirs. All by New York Times food critics. I know. I think there may be an unhealthy obsession at work here, one that runs far deeper than memoirs.
                       

We are BACK! Also: What books are you reading?

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HOORAY!  Kiss kiss Austin, I am back home and ready to smother you with love, like an overbearing Italian mother. Hugs for Mama!

Reader, we will resume  regular posting here on Austin Eavesdropper this week. I've got too much fun stuff to share with you, both from my adventures in San Fran, and upcoming awesomeness here in town. But first, a question.

what books are you reading right now?

I wrote an intensely personal piece on the airplane that I considered posting on this blog, but decided in the end that some things are best kept personal. However, the bottom line was this: I miss reading. Good reading. When I read less, I am a less effective writer, which has certainly been the case for me lately. Plus I just miss it, the act of holding a book in my hands, and spending some time with the people who animate its pages. You know?

So I am open to your valuable book suggestions. Memoirs have been calling to me recently, as have anything about food politics. However, I'd love to dig into some fiction, too: my tastes trend toward Ann Patchett and Zadie Smith, both contemporary writers, but trust me, my own list of unread fiction classics is impressive. (Someday, I tell myself, someday I'll read you Moby Dick!)

What are you reading, friends?

TONIGHT: The Icing on the Cupcake at BookPeople.

Good morning, do you like cupcakes? Of course you like cupcakes. Silly question.

Tonight, 7pm at BookPeople, author, former Wall Street Journal reporter and fabulous Austinite Jennifer Ross will host a party for her new novel, The Icing on the Cupcake.  Did any of you ever see the movie Waitress, with Keri Russell? (I LOVED THAT MOVIE). The plot premise for Icing reminds me of that one, especially the parts where the main character mixes up pies for various stress-relief situations, i.e. "I Don't Want Earl's Baby Pie."  Teehee.

Anyway, because Icing follows the model of food-centered story plots, like Waitress with pie, and Sideways with wine, Ross spent over a year testing cupcake recipes, interviewing bakery owners and collaborating with a professional baker to help write this book. At the BookPeople party, there will be a live cupcake contest, and complimentary cupcake-inspired cocktails by Tito's Vodka and ModMix.

Jennifer stopped by to do an interview with Eavesdropper, and give us the scoop on her new book!  Check it out below, then tell us what your favorite cupcake is.

My fave? Chocolate. Naturally.

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Hey Jennifer! Welcome to Austin Eavesdropper. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I've written in some form professionally for ten years. I worked for the student newspaper in college (and got paid!), the Dallas Morning News, and the Wall Street Journal. Then I started writing books. This is my first novel.

I have three children -- 3, 2 and 1 years old. It's an insane but fun home.

I'm attending acupuncture school and some day I will graduate. I do a little at a time.

Why cupcakes? They are such an alluring, almost iconic piece of culinary culture right now - but what inspired you to write a book?

The book started with my grandmother. She was mean, for good reason. Her mother was a brothel owner in Denver and sent my grandmother to boarding school in New York. My grandmother was Jewish and the school was Catholic. Anyway she wouldn't teach me how to knit because I was left-handed but she would teach me to bake. That was how we connected.

After I had my own children I kept going back to the idea of baking as a way to tie family together. What it means when you make a meal for someone. How it shows love. Cupcakes evoke memories of childhood and love for all of us so choosing them was a great way to heighten the feelings I was tapping into.

Give us a teensy synopsis of the story.

This is the publisher's synopsis. It might be a little cutesy but they do a good job.

In Ansley Waller's world of Southern belles and gentlemen, getting a diamond ring isn't just important--it's the ultimate goal. So when her fiance, Parish, unceremoniously kicks her to the curb and cancels their upcoming wedding, Ansley is so ashamed that she decides to leave Dallas and make a fresh start. In a surprise move, she heads to New York City to live with her recently widowed grandmother, Vivian, whom she's never met. In turn, Vivian gives Ansley a no-nonsense ultimatum: Rather than wallow in misery, either get a job or go home.

The Waller women have a tradition of baking their way out of sorrow. So Ansley mixes batch after batch of creative cupcakes--Black Bottom Heartache, Moving Blues Banana Caramel, Tres Leches Made Small. Before long, she's opening up her own cupcake shop and even trying her hand at dating. But the ways of Manhattan's eligible bachelors are altogether different from their Southern counterparts, and Ansley's nearly fail-safe tactics fall flat. And worse, someone's got a half-baked scheme to sabotage Ansley's new life. It'll take a cup of courage and a dash of Southern charm, plus a few secret ingredients, if Ansley hopes to pull off her recipe for success.

That sounds like a dishy, delicious read. We just have one more question, Jennifer. What is your favorite cupcake? 

Chocolate cupcakes with orange frosting.

All photos (save the book cover) credited to the amazing Cory Ryan at Eye Candy Austin.

Interview: Sascha Rothchild.

It is sort of like Mortified Week around here at Austin Eavesdropper.

Not only is TONIGHT the first of two performances for Mortified: Austin that I will partcipate in, both at the Alamo Drafthouse - Nervous! Excited! Back to nervous! - but today, Sascha Rothchild, my fellow Mortified alum, joins the bloggy to discuss her brand new memoir, How to Get Divorced by 30: My Misguided Attempt at a Starter Marriage (Plume / Penguin Books).

Back when GARY! posted on Mortified and Sascha specifically a few months ago, we were both so pumped when she left a comment. Since then, Sascha and I have traded emails, and she is quite lovely. Sascha is based in LA, where she is a television producer, freelance writer, and now author, in the middle of a big fancy book publicity campaign.

Now I'll be honest. Friends, as a young, nubile wife myself with high hopes for my marriage, I had a little bit of trepidation opening up Sascha's memoir. But I was pleasantly surprised to find How to Get Divorced by 30 as kind, funny and insightful as it was. Not bitter. Not even a little. Sascha's story focuses on the dissolution of her marriage, it's true, but it also uncovers a fraught relationship with her body, an episode where she was (literally) dragged underneath a train, and a lovable, quirky set of parents. These were story elements I was not expecting, and I enjoyed the time I spent with How to Get Divorced by 30.

Without further blahbitty-blah from me then, here is Sascha talking to Austin Eavesdropper about her new book!:

First of all, tell us a bit about yourself Sascha. In addition to being an author, you are also a television producer and a (fellow!) Mortified performer, yes?

I was raised in Miami Beach in the eighties which meant lots of drugs, drag queens and neon. I began writing in a dairy when I was very young and never stopped, which has proven to be very helpful throughout my life. After high school I went to Boston College, where I concentrated in play writing and tried my best to offend the uber-conservative white baseball cap wearing students. A week after graduation I moved to Los Angeles to begin my writing career. A year later I met a brilliant guy, Dave Nadelberg, who found an old letter he had written to a girl in high school. Thankfully he never gave said girl the letter and still had it locked away in a drawer. When he read it aloud to hysterically laughing friends, he realized he had discovered the bad writing of our youth could be turned into great entertainment. He started the show MORTIFIED and I was lucky to be a performer in that very first show and have been performing ever since. Because I have hundreds of diaries I have a lot of material from which to cull. My 13-year old "coke whore" piece is in the Mortified's first book and was featured on "This American Life." Once I moved to LA I began working in television, mostly writing game show questions and creating illustrious reality shows. I recently sold a teen drama to ABC Family but sadly it will not be seeing the light of day this season. I am currently a producer on VH1's show Tough Love.

One of the chapters in How to Get Divorced opens with: "From day one Jeff and I clearly saw each other's differences, but we reveled in our opposites." It was eventually these differences, though, that unraveled your union. Why do you think that is?

Opposites might attract but if they are needed to even the other person out, eventually both people will resent constantly being forced up or down, which is what happened with us. In my twenties I loved Jeff's super laid-back attitude since I was so hyper. But as I matured and chilled out a bit on my own, his laid-back-ness just seemed lame. And to him my chronic type-A personality got extremely annoying. Also, once we felt secure in the marriage (which is a good thing) we gave up on trying to even be a part of each other's very different lives (which is a bad thing.) I no longer pretended to care about the Cubs and would not watch games with him. He no longer pretended to like my friends and would not go to parties with me. So we lived opposite lives under one roof while being constantly frustrated with one another.

You talk about your marriage, its problems, and the divorce in this book - but one slightly tangential thing I found equally compelling was "Sausage," the nickname for your heavier self. Tell us how your self-image played into this story, and also, how it seeped its way into your marriage.

As a child my nickname was Sausage and it has haunted me, to quote the book, "like a phantom double chin." Jeff was a bigger guy so when I was in his arms I felt tiny, which made me feel pretty, which made me feel good. My previous boyfriend took ever opportunity to let me know I was getting fat (the usual prods to do more cardio, the comments about me eating froyo from the container in the freezer, the disdainful stares when I was in a bikini) so when I met Jeff, and found he was not judgmental about my body at all, I reveled in being with someone who didn't think I was a sausage. But with major post divorce therapy I have come to realize I shouldn't rely on any guy to make me feel good or bad about my weight. I can do that all on my own!

There's a line in your book that goes, "While I was dating Jeff I would vehemently denied all this timetable stuff because I despised girls who wanted to get married just for the sake of marriage. But, as with all the other established goals in my life, I was pursuing this one as well." Why?

I was always the girl who never thought about wedding dresses, cared about carat size, or my future kid's names, but I secretly still wanted to be married. I wanted someone to love me so much they would commit to me for life. I wanted to feel secure and done. Like I got the marriage out of the way and would therefore feel happy and settled. I bought into the Prince Charming myth even though I never expected my Prince to be rich, or handsome, or have a white horse, or even be all that charming. So I wanted the myth to come true, but then made fun of the trappings of the myth, thinking it protected me from falling prey to the myth in the first place. It wasn't until I was married and divorced and really dissected the whole thing I realized my plan had failed. I was as indoctrinated as all the girls I hated, the only difference being I didn't even demand a nice ring.

My favorite part in your book is the episode in 1996, when you jump too soon for a closing train door, are dragged underneath the train, and are very nearly killed. I liked how you tied that episode in again at the end of the book, saying something like, "had I not jumped so impulsively, I would have made the next train, but would also have never felt the calm and nirvana that comes with almost dying. Had I not married Jeff so impulsively, I may not have gotten divorced, but I would also have never learned to look at myself so closely, or figure out how to build a healthy marriage." --It goes something like that. After your experience, why do you still believe in the institution of marriage?

I believe in marriage because I have seen it work first hand. My parents are happily married, totally in love, and have been together for 36 years. But they are both each other's second spouse. So I also believe some people need to make a wrong choice to get to the right choice.

I always wonder how relations are between the author and their subject when a book like this comes out. So, uh, how's Jeff? 

HAAAA! I don't know how Jeff is at this very moment but last I saw him, which was a few months before the book came out, he was doing well living exactly where he wants to live and exactly the way he wants to live, with no nagging wife in sight.

Thank you for swinging by Austin Eavesdropper, Sascha!

Zine throwback: Austin Makes A Book

So a few months ago at my day job, we heard about this cool thing that a handful of New Yorkers did called New York Makes a Book. It was, in fact, the world's first crowd-funded book, and being in the book industry ourselves, we thought this idea was pretty genius. Not to mention ballsy. 100 people. 100 pages. Submissions open to absolutely whatever.

I loved the idea because it reminded me of zine culture, and the cut/paste/copy zines of pictures, letters, and (eep) poetry we did at my all-girls camp in Wimberley. (A camp, I might add, that gave Austin Eavesdropper one of her first stage roles....The Little Mermaid....starring as - are you ready? - Scuttle).

So we got to thinking. Wouldn't Austinites dig this? It seemed like something offbeat and Austin-appropriate. I mean, look at us. We love Flash Mobs. We are downright OBSESSED with Twitter. We like doing strange things in crowd format. So, why not a book?

If you have been following this blog for any length of time, you probably know I'm a little cagey about endorsing things directly sponsored by my company - but I am really excited this. It's called Austin Makes a Book, and just like NYMAB, it is crowd-funded (meaning you fund your own page: in this case, $30) and is open to anything. Stories. Photography. One of those outlines of your hand that doubles as a Thanksgiving turkey (speaking of GENIUS!). As long as you live in Austin, your submission fits onto a 7x7" page and isn't, like, a picture of a newborn baby with a swastika tattooed on its forehead, it is accepted. All of the funding pays for the books to be printed by this lovely place, and anything we get over that amount will go to Room to Read.

Then, we will all take over a bar somewhere with our shiny new books, and have a party for our 100 authors!

Austin bloggers, I am especially curious to see what you guys submit. As for me - oh, I've got a few ideas, friends. A few ideas indeed.

Austin Eavesdropper comes from a family who believes in the "novelty Christmas card" tradition, and has photographic evidence of all three members, father included, dressed up as Carmen Miranda for Christmas 1995. Dad has the best legs. You think I am making this up, but you won't when I publish it.*

So Austin, what say you? Wanna make a book?

*Which reminds me: I really need to do a blog post sometime devoted solely to my family's Christmas cards.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Austin photogs, if you are going to ACL this week, hang onto those pics. Because we'd love to include them in our fabulous little book thingy.

Friday: A time for reading, dancing (but not simultaneously)

That's dangerous!

Tonight, American Short Fiction is coming to ATX:

They're releasing their Summer issue! Which is good, because let's be honest: in between Transformers and neon-colored frozen drinks and tanning so hard your eyeball retinas feel it, frankly, you need all the reading you can get. Preserve your brain for God's sake.

From the release:

"Come for an evening of music, fiction, and drinks! Christie Hodgen is flying in from Kansas City to read from her brilliant story featured in the current issue, actress Kelli Bland will be performing from Patrick Somerville's "The Universe in Miniature in Miniature," and poet (and new Austinite) Laurie Capps will also read. Emceed by ASF favorite, Owen Egerton! Refreshments will be provided by Live Oak Brewing Company."

deets:

friday, june 26 (that's tonight!), 7-9pm
cafe caffeine
909 west mary street

Later on that night, there will also be the last - LAST! - performance of Car Stereo (Wars) before Chris Rose moves to New York! Nooo!!

Chris, what will we do without your ACL mash-ups? Tonight, your turntables will be awash with my tears.

Speaking of tears - guys. I cannot BELIEVE we live in a post-Michael Jackson world now. In a an article this morning on MJ's autopsy, Washington Post summed up his legacy quite well. "In the end there were two sides to the record that will stand as Jackson's life: the tabloid caricature and the provocative, genre-changing musical genius that his fans will always treasure."

I prefer the latter.


Have a wonderful weekend, everybody.

Broken Word Mutant Jazz

An edgy, incredibly cool author, Kris Saknussemm, comes to Beerland tomorrow night for a reading and musical performance. Wanna go? Let me know: We'll add you to the list.

Attention, Austin Literati: Benjamin Reed and Billy Cope at Cafe Mundi

Confession: I was going to start out this post by saying something to the effect of, "I'm kind of a nerd and love books...." or, "sorry to indulge my dorky side...." but forget all the self-deprecating qualifiers about being a book dork. I admire reading material of all kinds. And I think that those of us who like to read are a rather cool crowd, actually. At one point, I even desired nothing more than to teach the masses Victorian literature...realize now it's kind of strange!....and that's when I wholly embraced the loud-and-proud book thing. The written word is just awesome, or else why would you be sitting here reading this very post?

ANYWAY. It is with great pleasure that I tell you about this reading going on tomorrow night at Cafe Mundi. Ben Reed has not only been twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize - a really big deal!! - but he was the genius behind The Accidental Gentrifist at Austinist. When I asked about Billy Copa, here is what Ben told me:

"When I met Bill, he was publishing "Welfare Books"- little, matchbook-sized books with 1 short story each. He sold them for a quarter at Star Seeds."

Don't these sound like people you want to meet? You can:

If any other local writers want to publicize their readings, I'm putting the call out now to hit me up. Holler at your girl. Because I would love nothing more than for live readings to become big in this town.

...I am, after all, a book dork.

Trade your booty-shakin' for some book-learnin': Perfumes - The Guide

Ok, so here's a yummy little book I read recently. As much as we would all like to be creatures of the night, dance-dance-dancing 'til morn-morn-morning, it's just not always possible.

Henceforth, I give you:


Do you guys like perfume as much as I do? I don't wear it all the time, but I do like to wear it when I go out. It's such a silly, frivolous pleasure.

Anyway, here's an excerpt from my book review of Perfumes: The Guide by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez. (And you can read the full review at Lit Mob.) Enjoy!

Perfumes: The Guide is a dishy little affair. Over a number of years, biophysicist Luca Turin and perfume aficionado Tania Sanchez smelled nearly fifteen hundred fragrances, and the two have recorded their findings in this alphabetical catalog. Sound girly? It sort of is. But even men (well, the men I like most) will discover bits of advice worth holding onto, and pleasures rugged enough (such as Himalayan musk deer, civet cats, and ambergris, a substance that great big sperm whales cough up into the ocean—all providers of fragrance you may be wearing right now, gentlemen). Ladies, if you want to drive men wild, you are advised to rub yourselves with bacon. When you are ready to discuss the more sophisticated and finer points of fragrance, Perfumes is ready.

The book starts out with a collection of essays from Turin and Sanchez designed to get our heads in the game, sketching out the first criticism of perfume that I think I’ve ever seen. Of the perfume industry itself, they are witty and illuminating: perfume companies “change formulas without telling customers,” “lie about contents,” and “shill shameless copies of great ideas and hope no one notices.” Scandal. Also, they dismiss the idea that perfume is a “science” supported by pheromone mumbo jumbo: “Tocade is not a better fragrance than Dior Addict because it better approximates the mix of odors released by a fertile female. Tocade is better than Dior Addict because it’s more beautiful.” Turin and Sanchez make it clear that perfume is an aesthetic form and should be treated as such, and the first forty-nine pages reveal to us the tools by which we should evaluate the art, with words like “drydown” and “top note.” Finally, oenophiles don’t have a monopoly on connoisseur lingo.

What follows is Turin and Sanchez’ staggering list of fragrance reviews, of which there are two broad highlights: a) colorful raves of their favorite, five-star picks (of Gucci’s “Rush:” “Announces its sloppy good mood for miles about, and woe to anyone in the vicinity who planned on using his sense of smell for anything else”) and b) the oh-no-you-didn’t damning of the un-worthiest scents (of Escada’s “Sentiment pour Homme:” “To choose this as your personal fragrance could only be a cry for help.”)

Speaking of perfume....would you like to do a poll on favorite scents to smell on people??

Perfume for the people

This has nothing to do with Austin, but I'm reading a delicious book right now I want everyone to know about:



It's so rich and gossipy - and it's about perfumes! The authors are not afraid to put some scents right in their place, and I love all the declarative, oh-no-you-didn't damning of the unworthiest scents. Here are Luca Turin's thoughts, for example, on men's sport fragrances:

"This is stuff for the generic guy wishing to meet a generic girl to have generic offspring. It has nothing to do with any other pleasure than that of merging with the crowd. My fondest hope is everyone will stop buying them and the genre will perish. Just say no."

Isn't that a tongue-lashing? Sit down, sport frangrances: Luca just called you out.

Here's one more, from Luca's wife (I think?) Tania Sanchez, advising us on how to go against type when selecting a personal fragrance:

"Some mischief and surprise are needed to keep life fresh, for you to smell your perfume anew. Therefore, I urge you, if you are a floral gal, to set prejudice aside and wear a thing without flowers. If you are a luxury goods kind of gal, with a Kelly bag on your arm and Manolos on your feet, I urge you to try on something that you believe to be beneath you. If you are ultrafeminine, wear a man's scent. And if you are butch, doll it up for once. Live a little. Try it on. It's only perfume."

Isn't is glorious? Don't you want to be friends with these people?

I at least want to wear some perfume to work tomorrow.

I have always been attracted to either spicy, Asian scents myself, or edible-smelling things that Bath & Body loves to create. I own a lotion called "Cinnamon Rolls" or something ridiculous like that, and it smells wonderful. Like you could eat my arm.

Austinites, do you favor a scent?

I heart Sarah Dean

So, I just interviewed Sarah Dean for Rare about 15 minutes ago. Sarah is a vintage stylist, and girlfriend does some kickass work. I was so enchanted by her company that I had to come tell you guys about her.







Pretty rad, right? I have to save the nitty gritty for the actual story in Rare's fashion issue (November), but I can tell you this: not only is Sarah a talented stylist with bang pow clothing taste, she shared an awesome idea while we were talking.  An idea I really hope materializes: wearing no new clothes for an entire year.

It's more than just wearing her old, pre-existing duds.  Like, I have to save money, so I won't go shopping for a year and I'll keep doggedly wearing these 2006 skinny jeans the whole time dammit. It's much cooler than that, because actually, she can still go shopping - however, all purchased items must have previously belonged to different owners. So for one twelve-month period, her body shall don only second-hand, be it vintage Dior or Salvation Army girl scout uniforms.

Isn't that a cool idea? She wants to document it too, through a blog or website. In addition to being a "vintage" effort, it's a green one too, which just makes the whole thing that much more Austin-fabulous.  So Sarah: do it, lady!

Switching subjects - sort of, since this actually ties into Sarah too - have you guys ever heard of this book?



Garlic and Sapphires was probably the best book I read last year. It's written by Ruth Reichl, former food critic for the New York Times, who documents the way she conducted her restaurant reviews - in disguise.  

See, clever Ruth knew that every restaurant she visited would put on this big production if the Food Critic for the New. York. Times was in attendance, so she visited each restaurant one time as herself, and one time dressed up as somebody completely different.

Anyway, one of Ruth's favorite disguises for herself was a character she invented named Brenda. "Brenda" had bright red hair, dressed in loud, colorful clothes, wore a big smile and laughed at everything.  Ruth describes her as the "best possible version" of herself.  And you know, that's exactly who Sarah reminded me of: Brenda.  Right down to the red hair.  

If you guys met Sarah, I think you would agree that she's the best possible version of somebody, too: funny and self-deprecating, open and kind.  I wrote down everything she said, because she was so effortlessly quotable (a rare luxury, truthfully, in any interview.  Instead of having to tease clever, quippy sentences out, I couldn't keep up with the great stuff she said.  "The first time I saw a vintage Barbie as a kid, I knew I wanted to dress like a cupcake every day."  "I never met a floral pattern I didn't like." - Love?) 

Anyway, when I told Sarah she reminded me of Brenda, Brenda who was Ruth's favorite disguise, outgoing in her personality and clothes, Sarah had a great response.  "Well, why didn't she dress like that every day?"

Putting eggs in the Ann Patchett basket, and bees on Bear Grylls's face

Work-wise, Monday was so severely a Monday today.

You know when work gets so ludicrously insane that you must, out of necessity, go immerse yourself in something else? And then, it's usually to ambition-less effect - magazines, Mad Men, browsing Wikipedia, or whatever?

But on occasion, this happens.



Ann Patchett is one of my favorite writers. I read Bel Canto in India a few years ago, and Truth and Beauty during college. So far, I'm enchanted with Run. I'll tell you all about it as I get further in.

I'll tell you what's not enchanting, though.



Sorry to not give you any warning there. Guys, that is BEAR GRYLLS from "Man Vs. Wild!" Stung on the face by a bee in Baja!

I mean...are there words for this?

Also, remember the Daily Mail's expose last year calling Bear a hack? What say you now, Daily Mail?

The eminent wisdom of Nick Hornby on e-books, also, Jesse Jackson is going to cut your nuts off

Hi guys.

So, when faced with the task of telling you about either:

A) Last Saturday night, in which I drunkenly gave a "shout-out" live on Hot 93.3 FM to R., Kim, several other people standing around me at Sky Lounge, and lastly to myself (as in, a shout-out from Tolly, to Tolly, all on the radio, and yes I've always wanted to get a "shout-out," never have, so I took matters into my own hands, thank you very much and thank you, DJ Boogie!), OR,

B) The state of the electronic book industry,

I decided I'd skip both and make a compromise: I'll let Nick Hornby tell you about the state of the electronic book industry! Oh just sit back down. I'll also include a brief aside into Jesse Jackson cutting people's nuts off. Happy?

Alright, so I work with books for a living. That being said, I have been vaguely curious about Amazon's dogged commitment to their new invention, the Kindle, which is sort of like an iPod for books. Here's what it looks like:



There are other models from other companies, too - but it's all the same idea. An electronic device you can download e-books, newspapers, magazines, etc. onto. Would you ever buy this? (Those of you who read, I mean?) Well, Nick Hornby decidedly will not:

"There is currently much consternation in the book industry about the future of the conventional book, but my suspicion is that it will prove to be more tenacious than the CD, for the following reasons:
1) Readers of books like books, whereas music fans never had much affection for CDs. Vinyl yes, CDs no. They are too small for interesting cover art and legible lyrics, the cases break easily, and despite all promises to the contrary, they are extremely easy to break and scratch. Books have remained consistently lovable for several hundred years now. For readers, a wall lined with books is as attractive as any art we could afford to put up there.
2) Ebook readers have a couple of disadvantages when compared to MP3 players. The first is that, when we bought our iPods, we already owned the music to put on it; none of us owns ebooks, however. The second is that so far, Apple is uninterested in designing an ebook reader, which means that they don’t look very cool.
3) We don’t buy many books – seven per person per year, a couple of which, we must assume, are presents for other people.
4) Book lovers are always late adaptors, and generally suspicious of new technology."

Read the rest here.

Gospel, right?

Nick makes strong points especially about books being lovable - an old, beat-up copy of Catcher in the Rye is 50 times more magical than a PDF file of the same, no?- and book lovers being late adaptors. Think about it: how many of you (again, those who read) own both a tall, fully-stocked bookcase, as well as a Wii Fit? Exactly. Two different demographics. Book lovers pride ourselves on the appearance of having classic tastes of which cutting-edge gadgets tend to not be a part. We are also lazier.

Switching subjects violently - you know who's not lazy? Jesse Jackson, damn!

I saw the clip like you did, guys - Jesse whispering about Barack talking down to black voters - but I caught on late and just now TODAY saw/heard the cutting off nuts part. Reverend, sir! Jesus would hardly condone that behavior. What would, in fact, he do? Spare Barack's nuts!

I'm sorry...I'm still laughing about this. Mostly because R. just asked, "You think he'll actually do it?"