Don Quixote
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In anticipation of a trip to Spain that never materialized, I recently took in all 1,000-plus pages of Don Quixote, an absolute delight from start to finish. Connoisseurs of public art in Philadelphia will be familiar with Mr. Quixote as the subject of a delightful little statue at Second and Girard. And connoisseurs of comedy will remember Don Quixote as one of the most laugh-out-loud funny pieces of literature to come down the pike since The Canterbury Tales. The famous episode with the windmills happens very early on, initially leading me to wonder whether subsequent pages would play out as one long anti-climax; happily, Cervantes proceeds to explore an astonishing array of literary themes and scenarios with such gusto that I didn't want this marathon of a novel to end.
Playing Chess on My Cell Phone While Riding SEPTA
It's actually a guilty pleasure for me. The computer on my Samsung cellie is not that bright. I almost always win or stalemate in every game. It always makes the same moves, so I always know what moves to counter with. I get this false sense of superiority that I can never experience when playing against my human friends who whip my butt nine out of every 10 games. (Damn their unpredictable imaginations!) But, ah, my predictably dim-witted cell phone. I just know that if I move this pawn first — yup! — checkmate by 19th Street, baby!
NewsRadio
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I'll never forgive channel 48 for selling out to the Bible-thumpers. I proudly belong to the low-budget, non-cable-having demographic, so WGTW was my only outlet for such classics as Hawaii 5-0, Streets of San Francisco, In The Heat of the Night and, most importantly, NewsRadio. With an all-star cast including Phil Hartman, Andy Dick and Dave Foley, NewsRadio (NBC, '95-'99) was largely overlooked, but still, the off-the-wall plots and stellar cast won it a core fanbase. Tragically, Phil Hartman was killed by his psychobitch wife in 1998. The show sputtered on, replacing him with his pal Jon Lovitz. It wasn't the same without Phil. One by one the seasons have been released on DVD, including some great gag reels.
Korean Pickled Products
I sing the song of Korean pickling. My relatives are dill pickle-lovers and especially enjoy hot spicy pickled cauliflower. Most of us have accepted the dare to drink pickle brine — and enjoyed it. My boyfriend is Korean and augmented my life of pickled delights. Kimchi is our de facto spaghetti complement. We enjoy a simple meal of rice with pickled sesame leaf (move over, stuffed grape leaves, for you cannot compare). Making appearances in yellow, pink and white is the crisp, pickled daikon. Let me not forget pickled ginger with sushi, almost dessertlike in contrast to the wasabi. Because my blood pressure is so low that I may be dead, I anticipate many years of salty, delicious Korean pickles.