How to: fix a bad day during a recession

1. Cheap red wine, like Yellow Tail, $7 a bottle

2. CVS brand lavender epsom salt, $3

3. Johnson's lavender bath, $4

4. Delicious homemade mac and cheese, which cost me a total of $4.

5. Whole Foods strawberry shortcake, $3

5. Clean, matching Garnet Hill pjs, gift.

It doesn't exactly fix everything, but it's not bad.

To err is to pun

Puns are the feeblest species of humor because they are ephemeral: whatever comic force they possess never outlasts the split second it takes to resolve the semantic confusion. Most resemble mathematical formulas: clever, perhaps, but hardly occasion for knee-slapping. The worst smack of tawdriness, even indecency, which is why puns, like off-color jokes, are often followed by apologies. Odds are that a restaurant with a punning name — Snacks Fifth Avenue, General Custard’s Last Stand — hasn’t acquired its first Michelin star.

A crime of fashion

Boston's finest apprehended a woman yesterday after she allegedly robbed a bank in Chelsea.

The robber's mistake? Wearing easily-identified burnt orange nail polish, apparently.

Full story on Boston.com.

I don't blame you, I'd do the same thing, I get lonely, too

Here's the thing about me:  I really, really love Jenny Lewis. Like, passionately.

She's funny and smart and pretty and makes pretty fucking fantastic music. And despite meh reviews of "Acid Tongue," I think it's a great record with some pretty sweet tunes that embody Jenny's solo sound:  late 60's California alt-country, ah la Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris.

So it's with a very heavy heart that I saw the listings for Jenny's summer tour - not one stop will be anywhere near my scatter plot summer destinations.

Get the listings here.

So I'm sorry, I suck

Readers,

Sorry I've been totally MIA (pirate skulls and bones) the last week - I've hit the exact point in the semester when everything is due at once.

I do have some great things to post (cupcakes and indie mimosas, anyone?), and will do as soon as I get a minute.

In the meantime, I STRONGLY urge everyone to check out M.Ward's new album "Hold Time."  Of She & Him fame (?), M.Ward hits the ground running with sweet, melodic sounds that jive perfectly with a spring spent prancing through seas of daffodils. 

He does Jenny and Zooey proud.

You and I know ...

Yet another reason why my deep-seated obsession with emulating Zooey Deschanel is 100 percent justified.

Cher Horowitz loves the Counting Crows

"Ghost in You" appeared on the original "Clueless" soundtrack - well before the Crows first made it with "Mr. Jones." Now it looks like they're playing it again. Happiness ensues.

Ooo oo oo, Fashion!

This is awesome.

Oh, happy day

BE HAPPY!

Ch-ch-check it out.

This girl has a really, really sweet blog.

Arg

So I have been feeling a little blue lately - just like a super bad rut that I can't seem to work my way out of. 

It seems like everybody has their own solutions - Holly Golightly, for instance, warded off the mean reds with a trip to Tiffany's. 

For me, it's usually the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla, Calif. The canoes at left are just one of the awesome permanent exhibits they have there (note: the red one on top is actually my grandparent's canoe! They donated it for the exhibit).

So now I'm trying to find my own emotional safe-haven here in Boston. I guess I'll let you know how it goes.

Divine enlightenment

So in slightly less than six weeks, I'm going to be heading to China.

The PRC is one of my greatest obsessions, so I'm preeeetty pumped about it.

This extra large dude to my right is one reason why. It's the Leshan giant buddha in Chendu and he's, well, giant. He was carved into a cliff face in 713 by the Tang Dynasty. 

I wonder how, exactly, you rub his belly for luck?

Daily Quote

From Anne to Neil

All the news that's fit to print

Maggie Cassidy is a Boston Globe rock star, tearing it up at City Weekly today here and here.

I'm terribly excited that she's my buddy.