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6. The Secret Life of Pronouns

Title: The Secret Life of Pronouns (book 6 of 100 on the year)

Author: James Pennebaker

Cover:

Description: …Pennebaker uses his groundbreaking research in computational linguistics-in essence, counting the frequency of words we use-to show that our language carries secrets about our feelings, self-concept, and our social intelligence. Our most forgettable words, such as pronouns and prepositions, can be the most revealing: Their patterns are as distinctive as fingerprints.

My Read: Amazon does this great thing where they recommend things to you based on past purchases and your Wish List. Since my wish list is almost entirely books, most of my recommendations are as well. This book was recommended to me and I happily bought it. I was very intrigued about what my use of pronouns and other “stealth” words might mean about me. And I learned a ton. This book was great. But, as John so accurately pointed out when I told him about it, “there are probably only 6 people in the world who would want to read this book and you are one of them. You should find the others and form a club”. Erica is the only person I can think of off the top of my head who would also like to read this book and I gave it to her yesterday. I won’t tell you all the interesting things I learned but will share one that I experience a lot. There is something called LSM or language style matching. We all do it subconsciously. If we are speaking to someone who speaks formally, we speak more formally. If we’re around people who speak slowly, we will do that as well without thinking about it. Pennebaker asks us to think of a time when we have watched a movie or read a book and found ourselves talking like the characters afterwards. As I have mentioned before, this happens to me in a major way when I read Jane Austen or any other novel set in Britain around the same time (Dickens, the Bronte’s, etc.). I always find myself speaking more formally and using old words and even British pronunciations and spellings of things. It’s interesting, no?

Quotes:

1. “Language is a powerful reflection of a person but does not change the person on it’s own”.

2. (This is not a quote from the author but is what Sigmund Freud wrote to Karl Jung when severing their friendship. I found it so wonderful that I wrote it down to share with you all and can only hope to be able to end a friendship with such words one day!) “I shall lose nothing by it, for my only emotional tie with you has long been a thin thread-the lingering effect of past disappointments”.  Come on! How great is that!

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Julia Strikes Again

This week I watched my second episode of The French Chef with Julia Child. And discovered that for some reason I watched episode 7 of the first season instead of the pilot. I’m not sure why I did this, but corrected my mistake quickly. The first episode is her classic Boeuf Bourguinon. I learned some really great things involving butter that I didn’t know before:

1. When butter is foaming in the pan, it’s not hot enough to cook in. You should wait until the foam goes down.

2. You can make a quick thickener by adding one tbsp of flour per cup of sauce to a tbsp of butter and making a paste which you then add to the sauce. You whisk it in off the heat then bring it to a boil and it’s perfectly thick.

Again, Julia brought some wonderfully funny phrases into my life:

1. She called simmering, “The Simmer” just like “The Boil”. I love it!

2. She pronounces saute (normally saw-tay) as soh-tay. Which I also enjoyed.

Quote of the episode: ” The treasure of cooking is the brown bits left in a pan before deglazing with wine”.

I love her so and can’t wait for next week when I watch the French Onion Soup episode!

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Fahrenheit 451

Title: Fahrenheit 451

Author: Ray Bradbury

Cover:

Description: Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires. And he enjoyed his job. He had been a fireman for ten years, and he never questioned the pleasure of the midnight runs or the joy of watching pages consumed by flames, never questioned anything until he met a seventeen-year-old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid. Then Guy met a professor who told him of a future in which people could think. And Guy Montag suddenly realized whathe ahd to do.

My Read: In 10th grade honors English, we spent an entire 9 weeks reading this book. I’m not sure how one can read a book of only 160 pages over 9 weeks but we did it. And talked it to death. Some of us loved this book and the experience of the read (me) and some of us hated it (Amber). However, since I spent so much of my life reading it that first time, I haven’t read it since. I recently saw it on sale and realized that I didn’t own a copy and that it might be time for a re-read 15 years later. And so last Thursday I read it. All in one day. Mrs. Robbins would probably crap her pants to hear that. And again I liked it a lot. I was also interested to see that there was very little that I didn’t understand the first time. Although I certainly understood the perspective of Montag and even his wife, Mildred in a way that I did not the first time. It’s so easy to identify with the 17 year old when you’re 15 yourself. And much easier to understand how your life can get away from you without you noticing when you’re 30. I’m so glad I re-read this. Maybe I’ll re-read some other high school highlights.

Quotes:

1. “We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while”.

2. “Lord, there were a lot of lovely books once, before we let them go”.

3. “The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies”.

4. “That’s the good part of dying; when you’ve nothing to lose, you run any risk you want”.

5. “If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you’ll never learn”.

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The French Chef

After college football season ends, I find that my Saturdays are rather more open than normal. This is an odd feeling but has given me the time to see Erica on two consecutive Saturdays (awesome!). Being awake on a Saturday before noon and not having a day of football viewing ahead has led to some interesting Saturdays this January.

The first Saturday I met Erica for brunch and then found myself at home with little to do but feeling rather industrious. So, I cleaned out the files in which I keep my important papers, organized and labeled the sections and threw out the old stuff. I took down my Christmas tree, cleaned like a mad woman and did a nice bit of reading. Lucky for me there was NFL playoff football later in the day to ease my spirit.

The next Saturday I met Erica for a movie and lunch and again headed home feeling rather energized but with very little that actually needed to be done. After some light cleaning and 30 minutes before more NFL playoffs, I decided to see what’s on TV on Saturday afternoons when there’s no football. Since I wasn’t thrilled with any of the college hoops choices I felt a little lost. What does one watch on a weekend if not sports? And in the middle of the day no less? So I’m looking through the viewing guide and come upon The Cooking Channel. I didn’t know I had this channel though I’ve heard Maren say she wishes they got it in Canada. So, I tune in for a moment and discover that they are playing an old episode of The French Chef with Julia Child. It was the most wonderful thing I have ever accidentally watched. She was making home made pizza and bread and she was so funny. At one point she spilled something and more than once she dropped something. And she just laughed and moved on with the show. It was spectacular. She’s so funny! So I made a note (literally on paper) to try to watch more of The French Chef.

Fast forward to this past Saturday and I’m on Amazon adding books to my wishlist. (This is how I keep track of the books I want to read. There are way too many for me to ever remember.) I see on Amazon that Prime members (which I am) get free unlimited Prime Instant Videos. I have seen that notice on the site for quite some time but have never checked out my free video options. So, on a whim I search Julia Child and discover that there are 10 volumes of The French Chef with about 20 episodes each for my free viewing pleasure! I watched the first episode of volume one from 1963 “fruit tarts” and loved every minute. It was 28 minutes long and passed in the blink of an eye. I learned how to make a simple yet lovely custard for my tarts and also some rather funny things about Julia:

1. She calls a wire whisk a wire “whip”

2. She calls boiling “the boil” as in “wait until it comes to the boil”. It made me feel like it should be capitalized, The Boil.

3. Quote of the episode: “The fresh strawberry tart is the great tart of all time”.

It took all of my strength to only watch the one episode. I yearned to watch more but feared that I would lose the entire day. So I’m going to watch them slowly but surely and will probably have several more posts about them. Oh how I love Julia Child!

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Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Title: Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy

Author: John le Carre

Cover:

 

Description: The man known as Control is dead, and the young Turk who forced him out now runs the Circus. But George Smiley isn’t quite ready for retirement-especially when a pretty would-be defector surfaces with a shocking accusation: A Soviet mole has penetrated the highest level of British intelligence. Relying only on his wits and a small, loyal cadre, Smiley traces the breach back to Karla-his Moscow Centre nemesis-and sets a trap to catch the traitor.

My Read: This is the second in my three book series I am currently doing of books that are currently to be seen as movies in theatres. First was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Next is War Horse. It’s a lovely little theme. And I like the option of seeing the movie immediately upon completion of the book should I so choose. I’m not sure I’ll be doing that, but it’s a nice option to have.

I liked this book. But I’m not sure how many others would. First, it’s very dry. And complicated. And several people have more than one name. So it’s a little confusing. However, it was a pretty quick read. I kept thinking that I hadn’t read very much in a sitting and would have read 100 pages. Also I was worried that I wasn’t getting everything I was supposed to be but I knew who the traitor was before I was told. So I guess some part of my brain was on the ball. I liked this book a lot but was saddened to learn that’s it’s the first in a trilogy about Karla. I’m not sure when I’ll get to the other two. I love books in series, but hate it when I don’t know that what I’m reading is in a series. I feel like I’m being tricked some how. But that’s my only complaint about this book. Which is hardly the book’s fault. Oh, it would have served me to have a more intimate knowledge of the British intelligence services, but again, not the book’ fault.

Quotes: As is often the case in thrillers and action books, no quotable quotes for us today. Alas.

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Restaurant Week

Twice a year we have Restaurant Week. It’s week (usually longer but they still call it “week”) where restaurants have cheap 3-course lunches and dinners so we can all try the more expensive restaurants at a reasonable price. I love this week. Zak and I decided to start restaurant week off with a splash by eating at City Lobster. We started with oysters (which I had never had and quite enjoyed), lobster ravioli and calamari. Our entree was a 2 pound “drunken” lobster and a grab bag of clams, mussels, crab, shrimp and other fish. For dessert we had key lime pie and chocolate pecan pie.

Zak and I enjoy our fancy dining to the fullest. We discuss the menu together and choose 6 different things. No repeats. Then we put the plates in the middle and share each delicious offering. When Kyle was with us last year, we worked on a rotation system so that each person had each plate in front of them for a short time. We also have a rule of “no salads”. We don’t like to waste the cheap goodness on lettuce.

We spent 2.5 hours at City Lobster. We dined like kings. We slowly ate and enjoyed every last morsel. Also, since it had been one month exactly since our last meeting, we had a lot to catch up on. Please enjoy these photos of our entrees.

1. the cornucopia of sea food

2. the “drunken” lobster. we’re not sure what made it drunk-there was no description of that, but it was delicious.

 

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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close-the movie

After reading the book last Wednesday, Erica and I decided to see the movie version of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close on Saturday. Before I tell you about the actual movie I’m going to take a minute to tell you about the previews. Usually when seeing a movie, the previews are tailored both to the type of movie you are about to see and to the audience seeing the movie. That system seemed to fail the person who put together the previews for this film. This is a movie based on a very intense and somewhat dark book. The people who see this movie are older and educated and have likely read the book. When Zak and I were offered tickets to a free screening a few months ago (we both had to work, alas) the requirement to get the tickets was that everyone seeing the movie had to have a college degree. Imagine the type of preview that this audience might respond to. Now imagine Nicholas Sparks movies. Yes, there were previews for one actual Sparks movie and one that sure looks like one but is not. Although it does star people who have appeared in Sparks movies in the past. The previews were so odd that Erica and I found ourselves (along with the rest of our audience) laughing at the nonsensical preview choices.

And then the movie started. This movie was a nice story. It was dramatic and sweet. And it all tied together quite nicely. It was a nice movie. I’m not sorry that I saw it. It made me cry and laugh and was $6 well spent. However, it was another one of those movies that I like to call “loosely based on the title”. The characters names were correct and the general outline of some of the story lines were correct. But major characters and plot points get left out. The makers of this movie took the book and gave it a nice soapy rinse and then made it. I’m not saying that they made a bad movie, they just turned a really great book into a decent movie. The book was so so much better. And it didn’t get all tied up neatly. There are questions and bummer in the book. And that’s the whole point. When someone dies suddenly in a way that no one understands there are questions. It’s not shiny and neatly packaged. The moral of the book was along the lines of sometimes fucked up things happen to regular people and they never fully recover. The moral of the movie was sometimes fucked up things happen to regular people and they’ll be just fine. That’s quite a difference if you ask me.

This may all look like I’m giving this movie a bad review. As a movie version of a book I was disappointed. As a movie in and of itself, it was not bad. If you’ve not read the book or not read the book in a long time, I think you can see it and enjoy it. How’s that for a confusing take on things?

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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Title: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Author: Jonathon Safran Foer

Cover:

Description: The book’s narrator is a nine-year-old boy named Oskar Schell. In the story, Oskar discovers a key in a vase that belonged to his father that inspires him to search all around New York for information about the key.

My Read:I somehow managed to miss reading this book when it came out in 2005. I’m not sure why, I just missed it. Anyway, it’s always been on my list of things to read since then but just never happened. When I realized that they made a movie of it I knew the time had come. Last Wednesday I was supposed to work but then my shift got cancelled. So I told myself I’d sit down and start the book and read about 100 pages and then do other things. I kept telling myself I’d read for 20 more minutes. Then one more hour. And then I was nearly done with the thing and was crying for the last 50 pages. Crying to the point that I had to stop reading to blow my nose. That’s serious crying. And then it was one in the morning and I had just read the entire thing.

I love reading a book in one day and one sitting. I really feel like I get immersed in a book that way. No interruptions to sleep or eat or talk to other humans. Just you and the book. It’s so great! This book was a very powerful book. My reading of it was certainly an experience and I’m so glad it happened just the way it did on just the day it did. It was wonderful.

Quotes:

1. “It’s not a horrible world but it’s filled with a lot of horrible people”.

2. “You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness”.

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Tuesday Part Two

As I mentioned yesterday, Meghan and I saw the Broadway Musical Porgy and Bess on Tuesday. Our seats were fantastic. Since there was no line at the TKTS booth, our seats were orchestra seats, right in the middle of the orchestra, right in the middle of the row. It was discounted ticket brilliance!

Meghan and I were especially excited to see this show since it starred 4-time Tony winner, Audra McDonald. She’s been in LA doing the TV show Private Practice for the last four years and we were happy to have her back in NYC doing theatre.

The story of Porgy and Bess centers around a small Black community including members Porgy, a crippled man and Bess, a woman who is taken care of by one man after another, if you get my meaning. There is murder, a hurricane, high drama, lots of emotion and it’s an opera. It’s not exactly happy and snappy. There are no jazz hands in this show. Meghan and I liked it a lot, but won’t be running to see it a second time. The second best part of our show was that our audience kept whooping when clapping after songs. That kind of thing happens in shows starring younger people that are targeted at younger audiences but not so often at shows like Porgy and Bess. Meghan and I kept cracking up at the whooping.

The actual best part of  our show was the crotchety older woman sitting right in front of us who had this to say at intermission, “I don’t think Audra McDonald is sexy enough to play Bess”. Meghan and I were shocked at this. I mean, scroll back up and take a look at that beautiful woman. This theatre-goer was clearly nuts. She so hated that Audra McDonald was Bess that not only did she not stand for the standing ovation, she never clapped. Not once. She checked her e-mail during the curtain call. I seriously thought about hitting her. I hate theatre snobs like that. Grrr…

Luckily I was able to find that funny as well and therefore her idiocy only added to my enjoyment of the performance. Meghan and I are going to make a concerted effort to take advantage of the lull in tourism that inevitably happens in Jan/Feb to see more shows. I have so missed them and didn’t even realize it until I went back.

P.S. To Dad: Pandora is free internet radio. You type in an artist that you like, for example, Phil Collins, and Pandora creates a radio station of other people with similar sounds and music types to the artist you selected. You can stream it free on your computer and many other devices. It’s pretty great. You can make as many channels as you want. And you can say whether or not you like the songs they choose for you which helps them tailor the channel to what you like. It’s fun to play around with but I have more than once lost several hours to rating my music. Beware.