Pizza π, Murderers Reciting Hamlet, and Kobe Wagyu Beef

Another fine weekend (not counting tearing my hair out over work most all of Saturday and Sunday). Friday night we walked over to the 2008 Taste of St. Louis and had some great ice cream.  Saturday we had pizza at a place called π (pizza Pi, get it?) on the U City Loop.  This is seriously the best pizza I’ve had so far in St. Louis.  Can’t wait to go back and try the deep dish.

  

π

Pizza π

Ira Glass at the Pageant

After pizza, we went across the street to the Pageant where we had tickets to see Ira Glass (our second NPR personality in as many weeks).  Ira was there to support Prison Performing Arts, a literacy and performing arts program serving incarcerated adults and children.

It was a little unsettling to be in the audience while murderers and pedophiles were reciting bits of Shakespeare.  Ira was great.  He’s a consummate storyteller.  I think the Prison Performing Arts people are providing a helpful and much-needed service.  More power to them.  The murderers and pedophiles are what they are.  One can only hope they’re now having a positive impact on those around them.  But the audience was going into paroxysms of delight merely because they were watching actual murderers talking about murdering people in Elizabethan English.  (It’s all very insightful and profound, you see…)  I mean, all I would have needed to do to get a standing ovation from that audience was bellow some lines from Hamlet.  Oh, and murder somebody.

Sunday we had brunch at Mosaic.  (mmmm… Kobe wagyu burger…)

- Poppa

What have you changed your mind about? Why?

The Edge Annual Question — 2008

From About Edge at edge.org

“The mandate of Edge Foundation is to promote inquiry into and discussion of intellectual, philosophical, artistic, and literary issues, as well as to work for the intellectual and social achievement of society.”

Every year, the Edge Foundation asks its members a question.  This year, the question was, “What have you changed your mind about? Why?”  The responses are an interesting read.  (They start about halfway down the index page.)  There are 166 contributors, so reading them all is not a task you should undertake lightly, but you can skim the subject headings and pass on those that look obscure, such as

“I have changed my mind about cortical neurons and now think that they are far more capable than we ever imagined.” by Terrence Sejnowski, Computational Neuroscientist, Salk Institute, Coauthor, The Computational Brain

and just read those that pique your interest, such as

“Much of what I believed about human nature, and the nature of knowledge, has been upended by the Wikipedia.” by Kevin Kelly, Editor-At-Large, Wired; Author, New Rules for the New Economy

or

“Good Old Stuff Sucks” by Stewart Brand, Founder, Whole Earth Catalog, cofounder; The Well; cofounder, Global Business Network; Author, How Buildings Learn

So I’ve been thinking about this and have come up with two examples of my own.

Religion: Mitigated or Unmitigated Evil?

… and …

The Death Penalty: A Good Idea in Theory, but Difficult to Execute

More later.  Unless I change my mind again.

Oh, and I didn’t used to like oysters, until I discovered Oysters Bienville.

– Poppa

wonderful walking (mostly) weekend

It was the longest week ever – I don’t know why, but it just dragged on abysmally.

Finally Friday night arrived. We walked over to dinner at 10th Street Italian before motoring over to Touhill to see Second City. We recently saw Second City for the first time (huh?) and this second evening with Second City was just as much fun. The current program is called “Deface the Nation”.  I’m glad the political humor was funny without being mean-spirited. Not one word about Sarah Palin – but wait, I’m not gonna talk about her. Once again, the program included skits that had clearly been rehearsed and also some amazing feats of improvisation.

Saturday started with my usual hour-long river walk. Holy moly – Lewis and Clark (the Lewis and Clark statue, for folks unfamiliar with these parts) were both completely submerged. Lenore K Sullivan Boulevard was flooded – closed to all vehicle traffic. After a quick scoot out to Creve Coeur to visit my mom, I got stuck in our building’s passenger elevator a mere two floors from my destination – home. That was the second time this year. Yes, it’s true there were a number of other years with absolutely no painful elevator experiences. However, I think that twice should be my maximum lifetime achievement for getting stuck in an elevator. The feeling of abandonment and frustration was eased a little because John called 911 after the elevator repair guy failed to appear after 30 minutes. So it could have been worse. Then after a forgettable dinner salad, we strolled down the street – literally – to The OrpheumTheatre. We spent some delightful time with Garrison Keillor. See John’s posting about that and our fabulous late-night “snack”.

Sunday started with another usual hour-long river walk. Surprise, surpise- the river had fallen a lot since Saturday morning.  I could see Lewis’s arm and his hat (again, that’s the statue I’m talking about). Parks Department workers were busy with backhoes scraping mud from Lenore K Sullivan Boulevard so the street could be opened to vehicular traffic.  We walked to get a few groceries, I made some potato salad for lunch, we walked to the library to return some books, we stopped at the London Tea Room for caffeination, and then stopped by the Sushi Eating Contest at Wasabi. Seriously, today was the third annual Sushi Eating Contest.

I love living downtown.

–Nan

All the Men are Good-Looking

Garrison Keillor and John at the Orpheum

Garrison Keillor was at the Roberts Orpheum Theater tonight for a reading of sonnets and Lake Woebegon stories. The Orpheum is only a block from our place, so Nan and I partook and enjoyed ourselves.  Then, feeling peckish, we strolled over to Mosaic for a late-night snack and some boulevardiering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life is good…

Reunite Gondwanaland!

Sometimes you see a slogan that just begs to be repeated.

End of World Rescheduled for Late October, Early November

Turns out the REAL catastrophe won’t occur until the LHC is running in both directions and the particles actually collide.  That’s not scheduled to happen for about four weeks.

This warning is brought to you by Doomsayers INC., whose motto is,  “Sure, We’ve Been Wrong For Over Five Thousand Years, But We’re Right This Time, Really!”

World to End Wednesday

The Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest particle accelerator, is scheduled to be turned on full blast for the first time this Wednesday.  A tiny but vocal minority is concerned that the LHC will spawn mini-black holes that will sink to the center of the Earth and grow until they’ve swallowed the planet.  Either that, or all matter on the planet will be converted to strangelets.

Kinda reminds me of stories about the tiny but vocal minority who were concerned that the first atomic explosion might ignite the Earth’s atmosphere.  The latest tiny but vocal minority doesn’t appreciate being reminded of this and says the black hole engulfing or stranglet converting is much more likely than the atmosphere igniting.

You may want to wrap up any loose ends before Wednesday, just in case.  The tiny but vocal minority only has to be right once.

In the meantime, here’s an informational video brought to you by CERN, the good people who may be destroying the Earth the day after tomorrow.

Poppa

thinking about how I waste time

Thanks to Erin’s most recent post, I’ve been thinking about how I waste time. That part’s simple. I know I waste time on the Internet and watching TV.

What’s not so simple is devising the solutions. I know the solution for too much snacking is “stay out of the kitchen, that’s where the food is”.  The solution for too much shopping is likewise, “stay out of the stores”. But I can’t stay away from the Internet entirely, because the Internet is wonderful! That’s where my e-mail is, and Accuweather, and SparkPeople etc. But the puzzle is how to wean myself from reading celebrity news, shopping sites, and following endlessly entertaining links about amusing topics. The TV is also a tough one. I find myself watching whenever it’s on – even if I’m not the one who selected the program. If John is watching something, I can’t seem to keep my eyes off the pretty pictures. I need to find something I like more than the Internet and more than TV. I’m going to give myself journal-writing assingments and walking assignments.

–Nan

money challenge in September

I suggested a money challenge in September for John and me. Our goals are to pay double the car payment, pay double the mortgage payment, pay double our usual monthly savings. How are we gonna do this? On paper, we can do this if we spend only $400 on fun. When I say it out loud it sounds ridiculous – “only” $400 for fun in the month. And I am sort of cheating, because we already have tickets for some fun in September – Second City performance, Garrison Keillor performance/reading, Brad Garrett performance. But still, this will be a challenge for me to avoid impulse purchases from e-Bay, Amazon, Target, and Macy’s. No recreational shopping for me this month. It will be a challenge for John too.  His impulse spending is at Best Buy and Napster. And we both like to eat at restaurants – frequently.

For September, we’ll be adopting a Little House on the Prairie lifestyle, relatively speaking. Visualize us staying away from stores, restaurants, and online retailers.

–Nan