Booze before noon? Hells Yeah

Massachusetts passed a law that allows for booze to be served before noon on Sundays! This is some of the most exciting news I have heard that would fall under the category of politics. I realize that makes me seem shallow and pathetic, but really, having to wait until noon to order a mimosa is quite taxing at times.

If you have ever gone to the Highland Kitchen for Sunday brunch you would know how quickly the bartenders need to react when noon hits and EVERYONE wants a drink. Everyone sitting at tables, at the bar and waiting for a table wants a Bloody Mary or Mimosa STAT.

I cannot wait to brunch. Let's check my calendar...any one free July 18th? If not, how about August 1st? If neither works, maybe we can go for sometime in September :)

Pretty Damn Cool

This is video showing how flights were affected by the ash from the volcano. You can see how as the ash settled more and more planes were able to take to the skies. I like that you can tell when it is daytime versus night.

Airspace Rebooted from ItoWorld on Vimeo.

*Video is from Buzzfeed.com

Alaska seems to think it doesn't need Speech Writers.

My friend found this link today. Vanity Fair's editor takes Sarah Palin's resignation speech and makes it publishable. It is HYSTERICAL. Read it. You'll love it. Even I know this thing is poorly written, and I was a math major.

Dear CA

It is a real shame what is going on over in CA. I haven't had much time to read CNN or any other "real" news source, but I did follow perezhilton.com's coverage of the rallies and Supreme Court Ruling.

I can't believe that CA upheld Prop 8 this week. I was really hoping the state would see the error in its ways of reversing legalizing same-sex marriages. Not only is it the decent thing to do, marriage should not be limited to the man and woman kind of couple, but there are bigger issues that should be placed in spot light.

Like the fact that we are in a recession.

And oh, wait, gay marriage would help stimulate the economy. Just killed two birds with one stone. Boston.com recently wrote an article which gave the statistic that since 2004 over 12,000 same sex couples have been married in Mass and pumped over $111 million into the state's economy!

The study that was used for the article also made mention that after the wedding many out of state couples will then opt to move into the state. Massachusetts is profiting off of other state's inability to evolve. Get with it! And yes, I am perfectly aware of the fact that RI has been dragging its feet far too long now.

Wise Words from the Donald

"if her beauty wasn't so great, nobody would really have cared"

Personally, I am not looking to give Miss CA any more press about what she said. What I do want to point out is what Donald Trump said in his press conference regarding her possible dethronement.

Is he for real? Does he think that the people are making a big deal about what she said because she's pretty? No. People are making a big deal because its a hot topic and she was on national television stating her opinion. Granted, there are very few inner-beauty pageants out there but I would hope that there would be just as much of an explosion of coverage if she was less pretty.

A friend of mine put up on her facebook status "hey perez, are people not allowed to have opinions?". While I am a big supporter of marriage for all, the status did stop and make me think. I wish she choose to answer the question the way she did, but I can't fault her for stating her thoughts. She was asked, its not like she took the mike and just let go.

I guess the big thing to take away from all of this is if you can get an unfortunate looking person to be a spokesperson, the product/idea would fall to the wayside. Maybe we need an ugly person to be the spokesperson for the Protection of Marriage Act -- then it would just disappear and weddings for all?

Biggest build up to 2 minutes of excitement

Yes, I am talking about the Kentucky Derby.

Yesterday, I went down to the South End to watch to race with some college friends. We were convinced the race started around 4 pm so we gathered around 2 so that we had time for some mint juleps and grilling. This also gave time to watch the end of the Penguin v Capitols Stanley Cup playoff game. Well 4 pm came and went and the horses were no closer to getting on the track than when I arrived to the house. We kept the pre-race coverage going on one of the two tvs (clearly based on this statement you know I was at a boy's place) and quickly realized that the Kentucky Derby, proportionally, has to have the most pre-event coverage to actual time of event. SIX HOURS of interviews and discussions of field conditions compared to TWO MINUTES of racing!

As we were getting close to the 5:30 point and the horses had yet to move we all got a little concerned that this race was not going to get off before the beginning of the Celtics game. And regardless to the fact that we had invested close to 4 hours of coverage watching at this point, we were all Boston sports fans -- we had our priorities. Fortunatly things finally started around 6:20. Everyone in the room was super excited - as we had all picked horses and agreed to who ever didn't place top three had to take a shot - and were yelling for our horse to "move his bloody arse". My horse had been looking so good up until the final turn and then Mine That Bird made his move and just sped past them all!

We were floored. He was the horse bought for $9,500. He had 50-1 odds that he would win which translates to a $2 bet to win on this horse would give a return of $103.20. This is the second highest return on a Derby horse based on records that go back to 1911! The biggest upset was in 1911 - horse was named Donerail and the return on him was $184.90

These kind of moments remind you that upsets can happen, and they tend to shock everyone. This was the first year that I have ever watched the race, I would totally watch it again and hopefully by then I can find myself a great hat. :)

Swine Flu cont....

I was lucky enough to watch CNN in the student lounge area during my lunch hour just as the afternoon female anchor interviewed the secretary of agriculture about the Swine Flu(!!!!!). The whole 7 minute segment consisted of her asking questions about "Swine Flu" and him politely requesting that she refrain from that term and used "N1H1" or whatever the sequence is, as it sends the wrong message. Swine Flu is not a food born illness, which means it is perfectly safe to eat pork products. Being the political genius he is, the secretary let the public know he ate bacon for breakfast and pork for dinner last night. The dumb brunette kept talking about Swine Flu, and he kept trying to get her to understand that the term should not be used as it could have a negative effect on pig farmers in the US. Once the interview was over she turned to the camera (probably read off a teleprompter) and continued to use the term Swine Flu.

The request had clearly fallen on deaf ears as she could not break from "swine flu" when speaking with a Sr Medical Expert in the next segment. This expert was another woman who seemed to only truly grasp the difference between a vaccine and an anti-viral (one is a shot, the other is a pill - she got this on good authority from a trained medical professional). Also, I learned that there is not a vaccine for this flu strand, but there are two anti-virals that should work, theoretically.

If you are concerned about havin caught Swine Flu, you may want to visit the following site:
http://doihaveswineflu.org/

The last segment I had the pleasure of watching was about President Obama's "Swagga". Yes, the "r" was left off intentionally, this is how CNN put it up in their graphic. It was one of the more ridiculous news segments I have seen. But, because of it, I learned that the African-American culture invented hugging, believe in inclusion and are extremely social - which is why Obama is so different from our previous white presidents. In fact, I learned that Bush went to bed by 10 pm on the night of his inauguration but Obama was up till 3 in the morning. Please tell me, how is this news?

I sadly had to miss the three hour block of grading our current president on his first 100 days as I was at trivia tonight. We probably came in 4th as we did not make top three, 1st place was 118 and we ended with 114.

Side note: My mother works at a middle school. The high school in her district has been closed for two days because one of the students went to Mexico recently and he is now sick. No lie.

Swine Flu

The last few days I have seen more articles, tweets, and statuses regarding the Swine Flu in the US. I realized I have been in such a news bubble lately and needed to find out exactly what was going on with pigs in the US. I found an article on news.com that was relatively useful in giving me the basics of this outbreak.

There was one segment in this article that particularly caught my attention...

Major diseases throughout history

Swine flu, 2009, has killed 86 people and affected possibly 1400 others in Mexico since April 13. There are 20 confirmed cases in five US states and suspected cases in Canada and France, and 10 people have tested positive for influenza A in New Zealand.

Avian flu, 1997, killed at least 200 people in Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Romania, China, Russia and Turkey and millions of poultry in Asia, Europe and Africa. The death of a Chinese woman from this virus was recorded earlier this year.

SARS, 2003, the World Health Organisation reported 8098 infected cases and 774 deaths from SARS, which was first reported in China then spread to more than two dozen countries in the US, Europe and Asia. There was one confirmed case in Australia.

Asian flu, 1957, killed one million people around the world and was thought to have started in China.

Spanish flu pandemic, 1918, led to the deaths of between 20 to 100 million people worldwide and was thought to have originated in the US, spreading as far as the remote Pacific Islands.

Black Death plague, 1340s, killed 75 million people worldwide and was thought to have begun in Asia, spreading to Europe and North Africa.

I am all for interesting facts about history, but I feel like this list is somewhat arbitrary and missing some centralization. At first I thought it was a list of diseases that cross-species but AIDS/HIV did not make the cut. Then I thought it was animal flus, as AIDS/HIV is not a flu, but the Spanish flu was listed. The number of deaths range from 87 to 75 million...I just wish this list was slightly more cohesive. I like statistics but I also like themes.

At least now after reading the FAQ article I feel like I know what is going on.

UPDATE: Totally just checked my work email...There is one in there letting me know of resources available to me if I think I have caught Swine Flu. Not even kidding.

Amazing 47 year old singer!

My coworker sent me this youtube link - sadly the embedding has been disabled.

This woman is an amazing singer. The video has had over 9 million hits and at 3 pm today it was around 5.7 million. I don't know if I've seen a video get so popular so quickly.

The nightly news here in Boston just made reference to it...the female anchors let us know that "she has never been kissed and is proving beauty is not just skin deep". Ouch ladies! You couldn't think of anything nicer to say! Really?

Seriously, watch the link and listen to the commentary both before and after. AMAZING

What was 4.4 lbs and had razor sharp claws?

That would be the smallest known North American dinosaur - Hesperonychus elizabethae. I was looking for more information regarding the ridiculous AIG bonuses that I got a CNN breaking news email about earlier.

I am sure you heard that 73 people received +$1 million bonuses - 11 of these people no longer work for AIG. I don't care if these bonuses were promised before shit hit the fan. I am pretty sure many Americans are thankful if they are still employed and are well awared of the fact that bonuses are no longer coming to them. Furthermore, I know of a few individuals who, along with their coworkers, opted to reduce their pay to 80% even though their hours did not change in the hopes to prevent layoffs. I mean really - how in the world do these AIG people believe they can rationalize the bonuses to the average American. ARG. I would love to kick one of these people.

But back to the dinosaur. "It's basically a predator of small things". I would think a dinosaur that only weighs 4.4 pounds would only eat small things, but I am no paleontologist

Late Night News...?

Last night I was watching the news.

Ok I was watching The Office, 30 Rock, switched it over to Private Practice and then the news came on and I was chatting on gchat so I chose not to turn it off.

But the news was on in the background and one of the local stories was about how Massachusetts grocery stores would be signing agreements to help reduce the number of paper and plastic bags are put into circulation. Stores are going to promote the use of reusable bags. There will be incentives to consumers to bring their own. There are a few places around here that I go to that offer either 5 or 10 cents off your purchase per bag. For more information check out the Globe's article.

The next segment was entitled "Hookers for Jesus". Annie Lobert, a former hooker, has started the group "Hookers for Jesus". She walks around Las Vegas giving out gift bags, that contain Bibles, to working women. The story was interesting, it hooked me in, but I don't know if I really needed it to be apart of my evening news report.

The Daily Show with John Stewart had a segment with Mad Money guy Jim Cramer. The full episode is on Daily Show website. Now this piece was way better than Hookers and Jesus... I was able to find the unedited interview in segments that I could embed. Couldn't get the html for it in one try.

Part 1

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 1

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

Part 2

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 2

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

Part 3

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 3

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

just saying

You Stupid Slut. You God Damn Bitch

Heathers is one of my all time favorite movies.

It is a cult classic. If you haven't seen it, go rent it. Or better yet, ask me to borrow it and I will deliver it to you and then subsequently park my ass on your couch and watch it with you.

It is a dark comedy that is not for everyone, but growing up it was for me and my friends. We could quote most of the movie at age 14. Why am I talking about this masterpiece? That would be because I have read in numerous places that it is being made into a MUSICAL.

Currently, I am having mixed emotions about the press releases. They say that it is expected to hit Broadway in 2010. I know I will have to go see it if the show really goes on. I just hope it doesn't ruin the movie for me... Below is a clip for you to get a taste. Not my favorite scene, but a good one nonetheless.

The City is Playing with My Emotions Here...

One of the major reasons for me hating driving so much has to do with potholes. I speed. A lot. The pot holes around here suck. I cringe constantly because trying to weave through some of the streets to avoid them can be extremely difficult and basically impossible unless you choose to crawl along so I bang my way through and pray that my car will forgive me. Add in the lack of lighting on some side streets and those awful people who think this is a city where biking is a perfectly acceptable option for transportation and well...yeah, I have already had to replace shocks and suspension on my car once and it has only been with me for a year. Driving here is not for the weak.


Now there are some crazy intense potholes in this area. You may recall the one down by JP that took out nine cars in one evening. Well you can be excited to know that the city is actually doing something! This morning on boston.com there was an article on how the city is working towards fewer potholes. The best part of the article is the interactive map that lets you mark up potholes that haunt you...don't even kid yourself, I have already marked at least 3.

I dream of a day that I can zip through the surrounding neighborhoods without fear of damaging yet another tire, because wait, I've patched 2 and busted one in the last year and half.

Defining Art

So the Shepard Fairey story keeps getting better. Yes, I reported on his arrest last week, and by reported I posted a link. But today's boston.com has an article addressing the ordeal all over again. Below is my favorite quote

"I'm sure a lot of people look at these charges and consider them kind of trivial, but this is not a trivial issue," said Anne Swanson, who cochairs the Graffiti NABBers for the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay. "Here we spend $1 million a year cleaning up the mess that thousands of people leave behind and we're supposed to pretend this is a higher level art form. . . . The stuff we're removing doesn't appear to be art. It's just pure vandalism."

Her argument regarding what is art kind of annoys me. Personally, I love the traditional stuff and will admit that often the modern stuff leaves me confused. But, I have come to terms with the fact that art is something that is truly hard to define. I'm sure you all remember the elephant dung ball art pieces of the early 2000s. Yeah...I really do have a ridiculous memory.

I like his style

Obama spoke at his first prime-time national press conference last night. If I am completely honest with myself, I would not have known about it if I wasn't such a big Gossip Girl fan. I put the CW on the tv, and saw that I was going to a repeat, which annoyed me to no end. So I flipped around and found that the press conference was on the three major stations. Lately, I have felt that I need to care more about politics, or at least try to care a bit more so I put it on.

Again, let me be completely honest, I had the broadcast on, but I was chatting with people online and with my roommate in person and missed a bulk of what was said. But I did make sure to review it all this morning. I read articles on boston.com and nytimes.com.

While it is small point to make, I found it the fact itself unnerving, but the concrete example helpful, when

the president pointed out that the country lost 598,000 jobs last month alone - approximately the total number of "every single job in the state of Maine," he said - and the jobless rate shows no signs of slowing

The state of Maine! Eeesh. This is a time that hold onto one's job as tightly as one can... Please let me stay away from the unemployment line!

Really, $500,000?

An article was written in the New York Times which expressed how the $500,000 salary cap for top executives of companies who receive bailout money is really just not enough for these families to survive. The reporter writes how these men (and he points out that the population about to be affected really is basically all men) have become accustomed to a certain lifestyle and that lifestyle defines their beings and we really need to be more sensitive about this.

Throughout the article he quotes prices as they relate the the individual's life. I understand that co-ops are very expensive to own and maintain. But really, I am supposed to feel sorry for the family that wants keep on a nanny for $45,000 and send their child to private school that costs $32,000/student? The article continues to say that in order for the child to stay competitive in the school, tutors are a must, and SAT prep tutors will be needed as well costing the family about $3,175 for 30 weeks. Maybe, the kid isn't smart enough to stay in the school he was bought into and should go to a less intense institution where he can actually survive on his own?

The article continues on with costs of maintaining the second home in Southampton (mortgage payments annualized to $240,000) and the necessary two family vacations for about $16,000. The costs of drivers, chauffeurs, and personal trainers all go into this huge equation that ends with the notion that in order to keep up this lifestyle the man of the house needs to be pulling in at least 1.6 million. Oh did I mention the reporter added in $35,000 for the wife's ball gowns because she will go to about 3-4 of them in a year and she couldn't bear to wear the same dress twice!

One interesting point is that:

a nonprofit research group in Manhattan, estimates it takes $123,322 to enjoy the same middle-class life as someone earning $50,000 in Houston.

I don't quite understand why the reporter threw that fact in there as he is not defending a middle-class lifestyle. Beyond that, he seems to be defending the idea that these individuals shouldn't have to cut back because their lifestyle has become their identity. Perhaps the current situation should make the exes look back and reevaluate their priorities? Or at least understand how the rest of live...

Oh the Irony

Shepard Fairey was arrested in Boston for graffiti. I hope you enjoy the irony as much as I did.


You should go see the exhibit in the ICA, it runs through the summer. I'll be making my way there soon. :)

$500,000 just isn't enough

Today's top story would have be regarding Obama wanting to impose a salary cap to top executives of companies who received significant money from the bail out. Personally, I think that this idea is awesome. The fact that there is concern that these men (let's face it most top executives are men - but fortunately Obama did sign a bill which will allow women fight pay-discrimination more effectively) will be having a hard time living on $500,000 after years of earning millions is ridiculous! But as previously stated here on High Heels Short Skirt, I will not participate in political rants even tho I have no problem pushing articles that I find interesting onto others.



see Sarah Palin pictures

Dirt, does a body good

A friend posted an article from the New York Times regarding how eating a little dirt helps a body build an immune system. I found the article extremely fascinating. The idea is something that I personally have believed as well. I mean I am a big hand-washer, especially during cold/flu epidemics, but overall I'm not always that careful about what I touch. In fact, I feel that it may be this reason that my immune system is so strong, in all reality I rarely get sick (knock on wood). In fact, I don't think I have even had a minor runny nose cold yet this winter. (hoping this post is not jinxing me...)

What I do know is that for the last two mornings I have been on my way to work or a coffee house with the intention of eating breakfast and both times there have been extremely adorable and excited puppies just begging for me to pet them. So I did, I stopped petted them, let them lick my hands, and continued on my way. Less than 30 minutes later I was using that same hand to hold my pop tart/scone. It wasn't until after the fact that I realized I never went into the bathroom to wash up. But this doesn't bother me. Just like leaning my head against a pole on the t when I am exhausted causes no concern. I know people that carry around the anti-bacterial sanitizers, I dread the thought of becoming one of those people. As much as I hate sickness, I surprisingly have no fear of germs (i realize this may not make sense to you but it does to me). When I eventually get to having a kid - eeek - I fully intend to expose him to as much as possible, my kid will be dirty but healthy.

High School Reunion via the newspaper

I went to high school with one of the ferry boat captains...how amazing is this??? Hudson River Plane Crash