... your opportunities for movie tie-ins are infrequent.  So you must use them when you can. Take a look at the second picture (closeup on the sound hole decoration) on this listing.

If that doesn't ring a bell, here's a movie poster  and here's the famous theme music.  I never knew the old Vienna before the war...

I have never watched ABC's Lost, but I thought, hey, it's the last season.  I'll watch the Season 6 premier.  That'll be fun.

Now before I go further with this, I need to take a moment to discuss Uncle John's Band. 

( Won't take but a minute... )

Memo to self: Resize photo to 100x100 pixels, THEN add text.

Finally got around to the inevitable.
Yes, that's Glamorous Glennis at NASM. Photo taken on my beloved old Sony Digital Mavica (with the floppy discs).

Pastrami, potato pancake. EMB has cherry pie. Palm TX is not an iPad but life is good.

I hadn't been able to put my finger on it, but now David Pogue in the New York Times has managed to articulate exactly the thing that bugs the hell out of me about the iPad: 

"It’s designed for consuming — books, newspapers, movies, photos, music, Web, e-mail — more than creating. There’s no physical keyboard and no camera."

That's it exactly.  I get the same nagging displeasure when I go to Fry's (oh how I love to go to Fry's...) and look for microphones, only to find three or four mics on display next to an entire aisle of earphones.  Or when I read specs for MP3 players trying to find out if they have a recording capacity and a line-in port.  Or all those netbook reviews and not a mention of whether you can type on the damn thing.  Are people really just sitting there with $500+ devices looking at them and not doing anything?  Still, if anyone wants to give me an iPad for free I'll take it. Ooh, shiny. 

Not like it matters, but...

From the Tribune's home page this morning:

"A winter storm watch has been canceled. Instead, expect sleet, light snow, freezing rain and flooding. "

Oh good, I'm glad that's settled.  And a Happy Festivus to all.

These are my people:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/dining/16cookies.html?em

Really. Pittsburgh is not far from my hometown of Cumberland, MD. I don't particularly recall cookie tables at weddings... I recall cookie tables at every event. I remember St. Paul's Lutheran Church when they held an after-service reception for a retiring pastor. Everyone apologized to me (the Daughter Visiting From Chicago) because it wasn't going to be a big spread like the potluck dinners, just punch and cookies. Now, picture a gymnasium. There is a 4-foot wide table running from under one basketball net to the mid-court line. There are a few punch bowls on this table, and some stacks of plates and cups. Every remaining square inch is covered with cookies. Tiered serving racks 3, 4 and 5 levels high. Your only clue as to the color of the tablecloth is to look at the sides hanging down because you cannot see the top of the table. Every shape, color and ingredient you can imagine in a cookie is here. Busy ladies replenish the platters with more cookies as others are taken away. And as you graze down this table, people keep apologizing because it's nothing much.

With this as my cultural heritage, I fall pathetically, miserably short but do my best. Here is a recipe for last night's experiment. My son proclaims these are ready to publish. Since "Oatmeal Cinnamon Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies Using Canola Oil Instead of Butter So You Can Eat More" is far too many adjectives, I will name these after a blended tea and call them "Chocolate Comments." Or, since e_m_b insists on calling the tea "Constant Complaint" perhaps these are "Chocolate Complaints."
( Beta test... )

You can hear Leon Redbone do it here.
You can do it (in a different key) like this:
( Ya doesn't have to have a ukulele but it helps )