Nelly Arcan, Bubble Butts and other Random Shit

Nelly Arcan Has Died at 35

This I saw this morning on the RDI scroll while watching a bit of news, gobbling down some oatmeal, before leaving for work. My first reaction is who is Nelly Arcan? (Followed by “Woe she was kinda hot”) And then I get a few more details and I’m certain it’s suicide because writers worth their salt often off themselves in their prime (See David Foster Wallace) and it was. But I had no clue who she was. Turns out she’s one of those rare writers that could actually make a living from her writing in Québec and she used to be an escort (hooker) and wrote a book about it called Putain (Whore) which I now want to read for a myriad reasons having to do with feminism, empowerment and the sex trade. She ended her life shortly after finishing her final book, about suicide of all subjects. Will the book be the suicide letter?

Moms and the SUV like Strollers

One of my biggest pet peeves is SUV like strollers for babies. Babies don’t need an armored vehicle to be pushed around but what really irks me about these oversized strollers are urbanites who think it’s perfectly ok to ram them inside a bus or the subway train and blocking all the access to every other transit user. And even more annoying is that these moms rely on folks to help them carry these huge heavy strollers up the stairs in the subway which I’ll do because I was programmed that way.

This morning this happened again, as I was about to offer my assistance, despite my bad knee, to a mother pushing this TANK. If this tiny mom weighed more than 1 buck 15 I would have been surprised. She proceeds to lift the Monster Stroller in her arms and climb the stairs. The funny part is that she didn’t stumble up the stairs or walk, she RAN up the stairs with the stroller like it was a feather. Alright, she doesn’t need anyone’s help in life I guess.

Refined Elevating Discussion about Butts

Today was a boring day at work, with nothing falling apart we had very little to do. A colleague was sent this video on his Facebook. Now I know it’s in French but the witty repartee wont matter once the video gets to the meat of the matter:

You’ve made it pass the video, good on ya.

And of course a long discussion about ass ensued. Some prefer the sporty tight ass while other prefer a nice round rump. Discussing the comfy cussions kept us busy for a good while. I mean come on look at that ass.

When Push comes to Shove.

Again in the subway, this time on my way home another incident of people who just don’t give a shit about other people. Now I’m a big man but I could still manage to walk by a person of equal size in the escalators without even touching him. So when little shrimps just ram right in me I get offended. Now I know the normals don’t see the abnormals, they are blind to them because they don’t fit in their concept of real people. Freakishly tall people ridiculed, fat people are harshly judged and mostly they are ignored, like ghosts. But if you can’t see a 6 foot tall bear in front of you, you are just stupid. This evening was no different but what’s more asinine is that it was a little lady in her late 50s that was too stupid to understand that a slow moving object bumping into a larger stationary object twice its size and weight will cause the smaller to recoil off the bigger one. Simple logic and physics.

Going up the escalator, about to step off, I put my foot forward and the lady bumps into me pushing off balance and sends me sideways right into her. But I regain my footing and attempt to continue my step-off and again she pushes into me and again I love my balance, I just glance at her as she retakes her own footing in time for her third futile attempt… yes really, she tried again and this time I just yelled at her “Heille Tabanark” (For Fuck’s Sake – my closest translation for the feeling of anger) and this time the old bat backed the fuck off. Some people are too stupid, I just can’t understand how they can remember to breathe.

My New Cooking Show Hero

Anyone else catch Anne Burrell and her cooking show Secrets of a Restaurant Chef? I can’t get enough of this show. Finally a cooking show where the female Chef doesn’t entertain you with her knockers. Most female chef shows, for example any show with Giada De Laurentis – it’s all about her spice rack and has little to do with cuisine. You can watch the show on mute and it’s still watchable. Actually it’s better that way.

Anne Burrell is Mario Batali’s sous-chef on Iron Chef America but she stars in her own show where she cooks food home-style but with restaurant chef tricks. What makes her show so much fun is that she’s a complete dork and makes no apologies for it. Completely unpretentious and laid-back, her approach to cooking is about making some snappy, tasty food while teaching the viewer some really neat tricks anyone can apply in their own kitchen and makes me feel like firing up the stove. And it’s always fun to see geeks geeking out about what they love. Some folks don’t like her expressive voice, but screw’em.

And I’m so gonna try that rub on some steak…