Time flies

Him: Hard to believe we've been back in Boston for almost 8 months already.
Me: Time flies when you're regaining your sanity.

Monks

Me: Have you tried this jam that the monks made?
Him: No, have you? Does it taste like Jesus?
Me: It's good. It tastes like blueberries and silence.

Me: I should've been a monk. I like to read. I look good in brown. I would've been really good at it.
Him: You would've been awesome.
Me: They have to get up really early, though...

Mad Men: Ben's Take

Maggie was disgusted by the first episode of Mad Men, and I fully agree it will turn your stomach. I thought it was great.

What I think the writers were trying to do is to depict 1960 in such as way as to make it as shockingly alien as possible. To make it seem like a different universe. The sexism in the first episode was indeed over-the-top, but I don't think the show or the writers are sexist -- the viewer is encouraged to be appalled. When it's so bold as to show one secretary telling another, "Men made this typewriter so simple that even a woman can use it!," you gasp.

But you also gasp when the children, playing spaceman, are allowed to run around with plastic bags over their heads. And you gasp when the same children bounce around in the car with no thought given to seat-belt usage.

You gasp over the way the characters talk about race. You gasp when the doctor sparks up a cigarette while examining the patient (you gasp at how everyone, everywhere smokes). You're amazed by how the neighborhood divorcee is treated like an exotic bird (so rare to see someone divorced!) and that the closeted-but-flaming homosexual can keep his secret intact simply by making an occasional lascivious comment about a woman.

You gasp because you feel sure that that's how it probably was back then.

We're accustomed to period pieces doing nothing more than putting costumes on modern-type characters with modern-type values -- it's refreshing when a show goes to such lengths to re-create reality, warts and all. If nothing else, it's a good reminder of how far, how fast, we've come.

And that's all in the first and second episodes. Having established the alienness early, the subsequent episodes are less appalling.

Worst Men's Hair of 2008

In a piece of very hard-hitting journalism, the Boston Globe offers a group of nominees for worst male haircut of the year. Some we can't dispute -- Blagojevich's cut does make him look like a lifesize Lego man). But other nominees are downright puzzling, including everyone's favorite vampire, Robert Pattinson.

I know Maggie didn't particularly go for his 'do, but I think it's hardly one of the worst of the year.

Also, dreads are an easy target, and I'm not a fan of them myself, but Jason Castro's are among the least offensive you'll find. He doesn't belong on the list either.

Gov. Bill Richardson deserves his nomination, for shaving off his beard. He was the last, best chance for facial hair in the Obama administration...

Pooh is Huge

Me: So this guy has a 4-year-old kid, but he didn't know who Winnie the Pooh is.
Him: Things are different today. There is no Pooh.
Me: What are you talking about? Pooh is huge.
Him: He's not on TV. No movies lately.
Me: He needs a better PR team.
Him: Without Tigger he would have vanished 10 years ago. It's Pixar or bust now.

Me: Mike says that I say every little boy I see looks like Christopher Robin. The other day we passed this 4-year-old boy and I said, 'Aw, look at how cute that kid is. He looks like -' and Mike said, 'Christopher Robin? I know. You never shut up about Christopher Robin.'
Him: I hated that guy. He did nothing to advance the story. At least Timmy fell down a well.

Worst Best Man Ever

This was devastating for the bride, I'm sure, but you can't help but laugh.

Lesson: Avoid standing on the edge of something when saying your vows.

Also, a special thank you to the Internet, for bringing these horrible and/or humiliating personal moments to millions of people.