ESPN's Chris Broussard reminds me of Dave Chappelle playing a white anchor man.

(photo creds, top to bottom: ESPN screengrab from here, CharlieRose.com, and LMBAO.org)

warm thoughts

...was just daydreaming about this dress that I got on sale, after last summer's warm weather dwindled away:

(photo cred: Asos)

I had the chance to wear it twice so far: once on a random warm fall day, and falled it up the other time with knee socks, high-laced boots and a sweater one chilly evening on a trip to Pork Barrel. The problem with always buying clothes when they're off-season and on sale is that you naturally want to wear your new item right away, but instead have to wait months and months for the appropriate weather conditions. It's funny because I just realized that thus is not only the story of sale-shoppers, but I suppose of those in the high fashion world too...what with fashion weeks and collections being unveiled in the season and year proceeding its intended release dates.

As for this dress, I love it's uneven hemline, color blocks and crisscrossed straps. It feels great and cool in warm weather, but would be a clingy static nightmare in the dry, cold winter...but I like thinking of it nonetheless, especially when it provides a nice distraction from work (what I should be doing now) and horrific happenings in the world (what I actually was doing before writing this post - reading about the genocidal violence in South Sudan...another example of something not very likely to happen if women were in charge). Whoa - didn't see that downer coming from a fashion post! Sorry.

jason wu for target

 

(photo cred: Target by way of InStyle)

On Tuesday, the lookbook of Jason Wu's collection for Target was unveiled and bam! Too cute. I particularly like the dresses (including that red one above), the tops, scarves and the simple, unadorned tote. Even though many of the pieces aren't anything too new and unique, the collection has an overall timeless style and is perfect for spring. The fact that the collection is only available for a month starting February 5th, it's sure to reek havoc, as the Missoni collection did.

baby blue

Although it's dismaying to hear the birth of their child caused inconveniences to other new and expectant parents at Lenox Hill, congratulations to J + B on Blue Ivy (the name sounded better when it was Ivy Blue, as initially and incorrectly reported on WTOP). This posting about Jay-Z's tribute song to his child's birth is heartwarming and the song itself is even better!

(photo cred: here and Life+Times)

(...and that, my friends, is today's dose of super late news.)

shutterings

Recent news of some business closings in the U Street/14th Street neighborhood brings sadness to me. Both ACKC and Warren Brown's Love Cafe were establishments in the area before the huge business boom that's taken shape in the past couple of years. It's sad that these businesses saw the nabe's potential early on, yet are unable to stay longer to ride the current rave of popularity. 'tis the classic story of in with the new, out with the old... or maybe it's just rising rent. Who doesn't like good hot cocoa and a neighborhood cafe? (Though Love Cafe isn't exactly stellar, it occupies a great corner location.)

(photo cred: Art Works)

sister pie shops

Eater reports that a new pie shop run by sisters (biological, not religious) is opening up in Georgetown.  Makes me think of the Elsen sisters behind Four & Twenty Blackbirds in Brooklyn.

(photo cred: Four & Twenty Blackbirds)

uno momento...

...hold on...I'm still digesting the holiday season...

updated Christmas palette

(pic cred: here)

For this Friday fashion post, let's play with colors! Last Christmas, I tried to sport an updated Christmas palette that wasn't so 'cherry' and 'grass,' in reference to the 2 colors above. I can't remember what I wore, so I'm not sure if I succeeded. This year, I toyed around with shimmery rust and black, but my pieces just didn't fit right. After playing around with a handful of pieces, I came across a winning combination. So for this weekend's Christmas holiday, I will be wearing a 'citron' tank with a 'merlot' skirt, topped off with a black long-sleeve lace top - updated, with a Victorian touch (or so I like to think, even though I'm not so sure what that means). If I was celebrating Hanukkah, I'd love to pair 'Tiffany' blue with something. That dusty 'French' blue is nice, too.

I hope your Christmas is filled with lots of colors of happiness and cheer! (I'm thinking 'sunset' and 'lemon' - such happy colors!)

back again with a potpourri list

Due to a bad case of Lifemademelazyanduninspired-itis (inflammation of my lazy gland) last week, there was a dearth of posting. In the meantime, however, I learned a few new things and thanks to some lazy time and figuring out how to access Midnight Train from work, I'm feeling a sparkling of blogging energy. So now I share with you the things I've learned recently in the form of a much needed and overdue List (though some or all of you probably are already aware of some or all of these things).

=== THINGS I'VE LEARNED RECENTLY ===

• Applesauce is a great replacement for oil or eggs when baking!

• Cetaphil is the best, mildest yet effective lotion. I like to think it cured my scary goosebump rash on my face. (I'd like to use a more natural alternative, however. Anyone know of one that is comparable to Cetaphil?)

(photo cred: Cetaphil)

• Copying and pasting in Excel can be a tedious and hand-cramping task when you have many long columns of data to which to apply an input, format or formula. I recently accidentally found a shortcut that can eliminate all that clicking-and-dragging-down. Please see the figures below:

Let's say you want to apply the year 1999 to all the cells in column A. Instead of clicking on the little black box at the lower right corner of cell 2A and dragging all the way down column 2, you can simply double-click on that little black box and '1999' will be applied to all the cells down column 2. Excel miraculously knows to only apply the entered data (or formula) in the subsequent cells that are in rows with other data (and not in leftover blank rows, like in rows 12 and 13 and so on, as seen below).

• Concatenating in SAS is such a helpful function when you need to create a new variable created from smooshing 2 existing variables together, particularly when de-duping your data. The CATX function is something I learned a while ago, but never put to real use until recently. (Nothing beats relearning something in SAS and having it actually work!) The figure below shows the CATX function in the context of some code. Let's say some SAS-savvy pet hoarder wants to keep track of his/her cats and dogs in a nice spreadsheet and wants to consolidate some variables - pet name and age - into one variable. In the data step below, a new dataset named 'pets_ages' is being created out of the existing dataset 'hoarder.' Two variables - CatName and CatAge - are being combined by the CATX function. The result would be something like 'Bud, 2' for a cat named Bud that is 2 years old. The same is repeated for dog names and ages.

 

• I didn't know until this holiday season that Christmas tree lights come in LED varieties, including those that look just like traditional 'soft/warm white' lights. What a great and long overdue innovation! ...makes us feel less guilty about energy usage when leaving our tree lit in the evening.

• I can't remember where we got our Christmas trees growing up, but G and I recently got our cute tabletop tree from the Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad's tree lot. I suppose it depends on where you are, but now I know one way to support local groups in their holiday season fundraising efforts is through purchasing a tree from a sponsored lot. On a side note, I remember tree-shopping in the East Village involved checking bodegas, that one Rite Aid, and maybe a random lot. Good times!

• I'm sure much to a friend's dismay, we only recently discovered and experienced the wonderful food options in Wheaton, despite her urging us to visit Wheaton more regularly a long time ago (except for Ren's... I was on top of that like a cat on a yarn ball).

(photo cred: Just Up The Pike)

We enjoyed getting ensaymadas and pan de coco at the Filipino market, Italian sausage and meatball subs at Marchone's and chicken 'n' yuca fries from El Pollo Rico (just as good as the Arlington location), all within 20 minutes and .25 miles.

our tree is complete

(...special thanks to everyone who contributed to our tree's growing ornament collection)

crack pie, continued...

I baked a crack pie! (Actually, it was 2 pies, as indicated by the recipe. Please excuse the missing half.)

steelers christmas

Check out this tree topper, Yinzers.

photo cred (and where to click to have a closer look): Amazon

smaller, smaller...then bigger, bigger

(photo cred: PCWorld)

(photo cred: beatsbydre)

What's with the trend away from portability?  Remember when pagers (aka beepers) shrank?

           (both pager photo creds: Wikipedia; yes, that's a pager)                                             

Then cell phones followed suit...

        (photo cred: Wikipedia)                                                                             (photo cred: PCWorld)

...but now, big headphones are in and itty earphones are out and compact phone designs have made way for smart phones that can be seen as pocket-sized computers, secretaries, brains, libraries, banks etc etc (only they're so huge now, they don't even fit into pockets...pants pockets, at least). I've always been concerned about consolidating too many devices into one and still believe in functioning as I did ten years ago with a phone that's a phone, a paper calendar book, and an iPod, but look forward to the day when we can drive cars that have televisions built into them. Oh wait...those exist already.

piling it on

The raw milk bashing continues! As you can recall, this item of popular debate has been highlighted previously on Midnight Train. In case you needed yet another argument why it's unwise to consume raw milk, Food Safety News busted common raw milk myths that mislead people with false nutrition claims and understated safety concerns.

(figure cred: here, and not data and graph source above)

Landrum's Tantrum

(photo cred: Eater)

(The title of this post isn't really true, but I like how it rhymes.) In recent months, Michael Landrum of Ray's Hell fame, opened a new mysterious restaurant, closed another establishment (one of his most beloved), and turned it into a cheesesteak place.

Now let's rewind a couple months back when I expressed doubt about Michael Landrum's restauranteering style. Lo and behold, Eater reported (second-hand news from ARLnow) that Steak and Cheese has closed and has been restored as Ray's Hell Burger Too.  While 'order has been restored' on one side of Wilson Blvd, I wonder how Ray's to the Third is doing across the street (anyone try it yet?), and am still wondering if people are growing weary of this indecisive nonsense, particularly his employees.

...just sayin' and shruggin'...

for those in need...

...support a free dinner: SW Orlando Community Dinner - Fundly.com

Read more here: Fresh Off The Boat

coin slot

I didn't know they made football pants in a low rise variety. What's up with your ass crack, Vernon Davis?

(photo cred: here)

(photo cred: here)

(photo cred: here)

I've seen much more of that crack than shown in these photos while watching the game on tv. It's only a matter of time before he's tackled by the legs and pantsed on the field. It's okay, Vern - just keep making plays. Go Niners! (and go Steelers! ...oy I'm so conflicted...but I'm not...but I am...but...)

ritzy receptacles

(photo cred: the cans' owner, Chad Silver)

The Times reports that the owners of these garbage cans had trouble keeping their cans from getting stolen, that is, until one of them put these stickers on them.  This is completely trivial, but how would one explain this phenomenon? I would think the stickers make the cans especially attractive for kleptos, but in this case, the branding seems to have a reverse effect.  Aesthetically, the gold-on-green Prada can looks great.

(...yes, slow fashion day on Midnight Train...)

outstanding

thank you come again

(photo cred: TENOVERSIX)

I've had this picture saved in a draft post for months but never posted it. These are clever leather totes inscribed to look like plastic shopping bags that were available here, but I don't see them on the site anymore.

(...still worth posting because they're just so clever)

ack

I can no longer access Midnight Train from work!

thanksgiving chemistry

Last Thursday, I sat in on an American Chemical Society webinar on the chemistry of Thanksgiving cooking. It featured Harold McGee, a contributing columnist for the Times. It was one of the more interesting ACS webinars I've signed up for, and I thought I'd share with you some of the tips Dr. McGee mentioned:

• When cooking poultry, you're dealing with different types of muscle between the breast and leg meat, so you want a temperature differential between the two to achieve optimal results. For legs, you want an internal temperature of about 160-165, and for breast meat you want it not much higher than 150 degrees for it to be still moist (though food safety people would say 165 would be safest). Dismembering the bird and cooking the parts at different temperatures at different times would be the way to go to get the best results, but if you are intent on serving the bird in its entirety, then McGee recommends placing ice packs on the breast when defrosting the bird. This helps achieve an initial temperature differential. Clever! (do this several hours before cooking.)

• McGee mentioned that brining keeps the meat tender, but it tends to also make it overly salty. It's a matter of personal preference, though brining is especially good if you plan on deep frying the bird.

• As for defrosting the bird, he recommends defrosting it naked (i.e. no plastic wrap, foil, etc) in the fridge.

• To stuff or not to stuff? Epidemiologists would suggest not stuffing the bird for food safety reasons, and it turns out McGee's answer agrees, though he just says for optimal cooking of the meat, just don't stuff the bird.

• He recommends not getting a bird more than 12 pounds. 

• Why let the bird rest before carving? This is a no-brainer, but he provides an answer that elaborates on moisture loss and retainment on the micro level: when you cook meat, proteins are denatured. Moisture is squeezed out as the temperature rises, but can be reabsorbed when the temperature drops, so let the bird cool down a little, allowing some of the juices to be reabsorbed into the meat.

• Don't baste the turkey when it's done cooking. Basting the bird while it's resting just makes the skin less crispy.

• McGee recommends not using digital, 'instaread' thermometers, but rather, use those that have detachable, thin probes. The thinner the probe, the better.

• As for gravy, McGee discussed a little on the thickeners. Corn starch vs flour? Well corn starch is a pure starch that gives you a cloudy gravy, as opposed to the opaque gravy flour gives you (no mention on if the two taste different). If you're feeling techy, you can try using xanthan gum, which doesn't change the flavor of the juices and thickens more effectively, meaning you can use less of it to achieve the same viscosity. McGee mentions that he tends not to thicken meat juices because think gravies tend to just sit on top of the meat, whereas unadulterated juices seep into the meat.

...and in case you want to watch/listen to the entire webinar yourself, have at it:

:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:   H A P P Y    T H A N K S G I V I N G!!  :=:=:=:=:=:=:=:

news IQ

I'm proud to announce that I only missed one question on the Pew Research Center's news IQ quiz (the question about how many troops have been killed in Afghanistan). Take the quiz here and read about the results in this report. For my loyal readers, these questions may be no-brainers, which they should be, but as you'll see in the report, there's a large percentage of the public that can't answer the questions correctly. Since I express myself best using arrows and incomplete sentences, here are my thoughts regarding these findings:

bad economic situation -> people are pissed and tired -> people either have no work, working many low-paying jobs, working long hours to keep what job they have, or just have lots going on -> people have no time, interest, patience for what's going on outside of their personal lives, not a priority -> people become less informed -> people vote according to their anger, misinformation, frustration -> bad, corrupt people with their own agendas who exploited the frustration of their constituents are elected into office -> our country and world turn into poo