A child is born

I miss blogging. I miss it as a creative outlet. I miss it as a historical record.

Mostly, I miss all the attention.

A lot has happened since my last post. A reality show host became president. Katy Perry got a pixie cut. I GAVE BIRTH to the delightful Martha Williamson. Anna got rhabdo from CrossFit. They called off the search for MH370. Max and Natalie had a baby! I gasped as a Nordstrom sales associate announced that my bra size is now a 34E.

So much to unpack. Let's start with the birth.

It sounds like I'm kidding when I say that I had no idea it would hurt so bad, but I genuinely had no idea it would hurt so bad. Somewhere in the back of my mind I faintly remembered hearing that labor was painful, but that didn't apply to me! I was going to get an epidural at the first whiff of a contraction. I would feel a bit crampy, b-line it for the hospital and order a milkshake as they stuck a giant, drug-filled needle into my back.

Lamaze classes? More like scaremongering propaganda sessions backed by Big Aromatherapy and their cronies in the natural childbirth lobby. No thanks! I didn't need to sit in a room with a bunch of other couples, fresh faced from their pregnancy photoshoots, and subject myself to their absurd anxieties.

Well. I get it now.

Sometimes, even if you meet the "criteria" (1-minute contractions, 5 minutes apart for more than an hour), you still can't get the epidural. Why? Your cervix is the size of a pea and won't budge. The hospital is full of other human mammals pushing out offspring. The hospital staff are assholes. Who knows? All I know is that I was turned away twice and in labor for two days. At one point I was splashing around in the bathtub like a wounded manatee, wailing like a banshee while Andy placed a slice of Freschetta atop my throbbing abdomen. But for the first time in my life, even pizza didn't help.

EXPECTATIONS

REALITY

Hollywood made me assume that pushing was the painful part of labor. It's not. At least not for me. The painful part is the CONTRACTIONS. "What do contractions feel like?" I've since Googled that on a few occasions and never found a satisfactory answer. The closest description I read was that it feels like bad cramps...except also with someone stabbing you repeatedly in the stomach.

Now too much time has passed to describe it accurately. I can't find the words. I can't access the memories. What everyone says is true: your body forces you to forget. It's a survival mechanism.

OK, that's probably good enough for now. I don't want to use up all my good material in the first blog post back.

Cheers,
Margaret


P.S. For the record, I stand by my decision to skip the childbirth classes. Nothing could have prepared me for the pain. And the other couples would have annoyed me. And the classes are long and would have cut into my last remaining childless weekends.

P.P.S. I did eventually get the epidural!

P.P.P.S. My reward for the pains of childbirth, your reward for having to look at the photo above of me in the bath:

From the Archives, Edition 11

An entry in the Seaside guestbook, written by my mom in 1985. That's before the Margaret years, if you can even imagine such a time. 

    *                      *                    *

4-15-85

Arrived this afternoon with my four munchkins! Wonderful travelers! (translation: they all slept) We celebrated with a chocolate/vanilla swirl soft ice cream cone at Astoria. 

Max Kay said, over and over again, from the moment we got here, "It's so strange without Grandma Martha here. It's so strange." 

It peaked right at bedtime, when he burst out crying. "It's just that it's my first time here without her. It's so strange."

He's homesick for Martha, his Seaside mama. They all love you so. Anna commented at every Pig 'n Pancake billboard along the route, "Now Grandma Martha just loves the Pig. She even might walk up there with me and we could have pancakes. I bet she has orange marmalade on hers."

Char and Francie are two years old now, the absolute sweetest gals in the town. They lay fast asleep now, together in the bottom bunk, all curled up, holding onto each other's pacifier. The very best of friends. 

It's great to be back. First time in years that I've been here without a crowd. The kids are great—I am enjoying them immensely. (They're all sleeeping! Aha!)

Nan

    *                      *                    *

Yours,
Margaret

Book chat

We went to a bookstore today. Andy's been reading a book called 'American Generalship — Character is Everything: The Art of Command' and he was in the market for something a little less dull. He ended up choosing a book on the history of salt.

Save the occasional classic novel (e.g. 'Jude the Obscure') Andy only reads nonfiction. My dad is a sucker for mysteries. My mom, sistahs and I love memoirs. Max seems to enjoy a blend of all three.

I've never read a self-help book, but today I had an idea for one I'd like to write. Along the lines of Brian Griffin's 'Wish it. Want it. Do it.'

Title: 
'Grow Up — How to stop whining and start winning' 

Introduction: 
It's commonly thought that those who go into psychology and/or write self-help books are the craziest people of all. I don't dispute that. Believe me, I'm right there with you. In the weeds. In fact, this probably isn't even allowed in the self-help section. I'm guessing you found it tucked away behind the clearance calendars. 

However, what I can offer are a few tricks that have helped me find peace in this bizarre experience we call life (Or have they helped me? Jury's still out). 

Middle bit:
TBD

Conclusion: 
Ignore 70% of the negative feelings you have. Most aren't valid. Remember to eat regularly. Spend time with toddlers and the elderly. Go to either a beach or a forest once a week. 

Image via Wikia.com

Don't you think people would appreciate the honesty and buy it?

Later,
Margaret

Cool, hipster or lazy?

I went hard on the tofu today. A big container of Steph's Tofu from PCC for lunch followed by a Vietnamese tofu bowl for dinner. It wasn't planned, but it happened. My stomach...bloat city.

Anyway, today's blog topic: this blog! How meta. (GAWD, I bet you knew I was going to say that. How meta? More like how predictable!)

Specifically, I'd like to respond to a common question I get: Margaret, why don't you make your blog look nice, buy a domain and get a proper URL? 

To which I respond, it's complicated.

Basically, there's something alluring about things that are slightly unpolished. It's why film photos still look so cool next to digital. It's why Reddit, compared to Buzzfeed, is a breath of fresh air. An extreme example is this email newsletter Andy gets every week. It's not fancy. It's not designed on MailChimp. It's actually not even a newsletter; it's just an email. All it has are about ten links to interesting articles, videos and images that have cropped up on the Internet over the previous seven days. It's so simple and so unrefined, that it feels...nice, accessible, unpretentious, personal, never overwhelming.

Everybody can have a blog—a really snazzy, professional, beautiful blog. My marketing career has taken me deep into the cringeworthy world of "blogger outreach" and I've seen my fair share of bright 'n shiny blogs. They're modern and colorful with brilliant custom graphics (like a background made to look like notebook paper!). They've long dropped their unseemly URL suffixes. No .blogspot.coms or .wordpress.coms to be seen. They're gorgeous! GAW-GEOUS!

But I don't go in for all that because I have a hunch that people—you—like a bit of rough. You like this outdated, no frills design. You LOVE it. It gives the illusion that the writing is good. And the free URL makes it feel kind of underground.

I explained all this to my brother Max last week.

"That's a very hipster argument," he says.

"Yeah, it is," I say.

"Yep."

<long pause>

"Or maybe I'm just lazy."

AND THE PENNY DROPS. That's a bingo. Lazy. The true reason, at least 80% of it, is that I'm lazy.

No comment.

Thanks for sticking with me through that. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post: I love Cracklin' Oat Bran so much, so why do I never buy it?

Love,
Margaret

P.S. I just realized what makes something "hipster". It's when the spectrum of unpretentiousness comes full circle. It's when unpretentious goes so far that it becomes pretentious. Kind of like how, in politics, if you go to the left enough, you wind up on the right.

Tennis elbow

Well, my brother Max and I did the impossible.

We followed through on plans to play tennis.

I said it couldn't be done, but I proved myself wrong. Today we actually got in a car, drove to a tennis court, physically held onto tennis rackets with our real-life hands and hit a blindingly bright, delicious-smelling green ball over a net.

It was fun, but dang if I didn't catch me some tennis elbow. Gots me the tennis elbow real bad.

Serena 

game face

On an unrelated note, I'm going to end tonight's post with some advice. Get ready. Here it goes.

Moods fluctuate. That's OK. It's absolutely fine to feel sad or bored or grumpy for no real reason at all. What's not ok? Acting on those moods.

Being in a 'bad mood' is not an excuse for bad behavior. If you find yourself in a funk, just ride it out. Know that it will pass. In the meantime, distract yourself. Drink a glass of water. Take a nap. Make a paper airplane. Whatever! Just don't think that being in a bad mood earns you additional rights.

Also, try not to cough or sneeze when eating carrots. Half-chewed carrot shards will get stuck in your nasal/throat passage. It's very uncomfortable.

Your wise pal,
Margaret

"You haven't even touched the water, FRANCIE!"

Not going to write tonight. Instead, watch this poor-quality, iPhone footage of poor-quality VHS camcorder footage of the sistahs and I jumping in a freezing cold pool in Wenatchee.

Witness:

Anna - being a typical button-pushing big sister.

Char - flaunting her model hair.

Francie - serving FACE FACE and more FACE after her icy plunge.

Me - wanting to join in the fun, but not wanting to be cold.



And because I don't want Max to feel left out, check out his cinematography and voiceover skills in this one:



 


Goodnight,
Margaret

2015 Seattle Mariners Season Preview

Welcome guest blogger Max Kay...

2015 Seattle Mariners Season Preview

Q: How will they do?

A: They should be pretty good.  Last year they won 87 games and were the best team not to make the playoffs (the Oakland A’s and Kansas City Royals went in ahead of them with 88 and 89 wins respectively, and the Royals made the World Series).

Q: Wait, what sport is this?

A: Baseball, the official sport of Madgespace*.

Q: Why do they call it the “World Series” when the whole league is in America?

A: It is not only in America – Canada has one team!  Actually, the championship for Major League Baseball was called the World Series over 100 years ago because the people in charge wanted it to sound like a big deal and it stuck.

Q: OK fine, who are the Mariners’ best players?

A: Their best player is “King” Felix Hernandez, one of the 2-3 best pitchers in the game.  Robinson Cano (second base) joined the team last year and is a perennial All-Star.  Kyle Seager (third base) made the All-Star team last year and is considered a really good young player.  Other notables: Fernando Rodney (closer, 2014 All-Star), Hisashi Iwakuma (starting pitcher).

King Felix, image via Wikimedia Commons

Q: What has changed since last year?

A: They signed Nelson Cruz to be a designated hitter.  Cruz hit 40 home runs last year for the Baltimore Orioles and is expected to be on that above list of best players for this season.  This is a big deal because in recent years the Mariners have been a good pitching/defense team but below average offensively.  Cruz is expected to change that.  They also signed a pitcher, J.A. Happ, but no one really knows what he will bring.  Perhaps their biggest offseason change was the introduction of retro uniforms featuring elements from the late-80s unis that I grew up with.  This made me happy.

Q: Why are there so many games in baseball?  Doesn’t that make each individual game sort of not matter?

A: Each team in Major League Baseball plays 162 regular season games.  Basically, baseball is designed to be played every day.  Consistency and staying healthy are rewarded, and it really does come down to 1-2 games at the end of the season for the good teams (see above for how close the Mariners got to the playoffs last year).  Plus, they can sell a lot of tickets.  American football is the most popular sport in the U.S. in terms of television audiences, but in-person attendance was *only* 17M for the comparatively short football season.  By comparison, last year’s English Premier League attendance was 14M and Major League Baseball attendance was 74M.

Q: What is the Mariner’s mascot?  Why?

A: A moose.  No idea.

Q: What is the best food to get at a Mariners’ game?

A:

BRONZE MEDAL: Garlic fries.  Pro: they smell absolutely terrific.  Con: eat too many and you will taste them for days. 

SILVER MEDAL: Pad thai at the “Intentional Wok” stand behind home plate.  Pro: restaurant-quality, great pun.  Con: the portion is too big.  The ballpark is better for several small snacks throughout the game, and this meal-sized serving is hard to share.

GOLD MEDAL: Brats from the small food cart just on the left side behind home plate. Pro: grilled rather than boiled, these are the perfect incarnation of that iconic ballpark hot dog.  I recommend them with little sauerkraut and spicy brown mustard. Con: None observed.

Q: When does the season start?

A: Beginning of April.  Remember your baseball gloves Margaret, Char, William, Andy, Freddie, Elsie!

* Pending.

You thought you'd heard everything re: the dress

But what do you suppose these identical twins see when they look at it? 

(I'm talking about Char and Francie, not the baby, which is the same baby in both photos)

Surely, they must see the same thing.




They have the same genes. 




The have the same eyes!




Read the email thread and find out.

Sibling survey
10 messages

Margaret Kay 

 Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 7:13 PM 
To: Max Kay, Anna Gorohoff, Francie Fitzpatrick, Charlene Kay

By now I assume you all have seen the dress. Which do you see?

White/Gold

Blue/Black (goldish black)


I saw Blue/Black from the beginning and can't see White/Gold despite trying different lighting and squinting.
I'm wondering if we'll all see the same thing because of genetics.

---

Max Kay 
To: Margaret Kay
Cc: Anna Gorohoff , Francie Fitzpatrick, Charlene Kay

Everyone sees white/gold. blue/black is a hoax ­ shame on you margaret for trying to put one over on us!

---

Margaret Kay
Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 7:38 PM 
To: Max Kay
Cc: Anna Gorohoff, Francie Fitzpatrick, Charlene Kay

OMG. Not surprised, you being male and prone to colour blindness. I'm holding out hope that mah sistahs back me up. #TeamBlueBlack

---

Charlene Kay
Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 7:41 PM 
To: Max Kay
Cc: Margaret Kay, Anna Gorohoff, Francie Fitzpatrick

White and gold!

---

Francie Fitzpatrick

Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 7:53 PM 
To: Charlene Kay
Cc: Max Kay , Margaret Kay, Anna Gorohoff

Blue/black, can't see white/gold at all. What the h!!!

---

Francie Fitzpatrick
Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 8:05 PM 
To: Charlene Kay 
Cc: Max Kay, Margaret Kay, Anna Gorohoff

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/science­one­agrees­color­dress/

---

Anna Gorohoff 
Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 8:45 PM
To: Francie Fitzpatrick
Cc: Charlene Kay, Max Kay, Margaret Kay

Blue and black! I see no gold at all 

---

Max Kay 
Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 9:28 PM
To: Anna Gorohoff 
Cc: Francie Fitzpatrick, Charlene Kay, Margaret Kay

Right guys. Sure. Here's another test ­ what do you see?

---

Margaret Kay 

Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 9:32 PM
To: Max Kay 
Cc: Anna Gorohoff, Francie Fitzpatrick, Charlene Kay

Good one!

Char and I are debating over this one...some say it's "salt" and others think it looks more like "snow"

---

Francie Fitzpatrick 

Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 9:35 PM 
To: Margaret Kay 
Cc: Max Kay, Anna Gorohoff, Charlene Kay

Hahaha what a bunch of comedians we have in the fam!

---

There you have it. Even twins see it differently.

This blue/black/white/gold dress is history-making. A dress hasn't been this controversial since JLo's green Versace, which, looking back now, wasn't flattering at all.

What will the Internet have us talking about tomorrow? Can't wait to find out!

Love,
Margaret

From the Archives, Edition 4

Time for another edition of 'From the Archives'! For all you new readers, this is when I 'repurpose' old content (emails, handwritten notes from high school, FB messages etc.) to use as a blog post. It's not lazy, it's upcycling!

Today, I'm featuring an email from 2011 in which I asked my immediate family plus in-laws their thoughts on vitamins.

---

I must know! 7 messages

---

Margaret Kay <margareteileenkay@gmail.com>	Mon, May 30, 2011 at 9:31 PM
To: Rich Kay, Nancy Padden, Anna Kay, Charlene Kay, Max Kay, Francie Kay, Alex Gorohoff, Bobby, William, Andy Williamson
Hi Everybody, I have been pondering this question for a while now and for the first time in my life, WebMD has not been very helpful. Should "we" (aka human beings) take vitamins? Or are they a scam? I don't want to waste my money if they are indeed a scam. However, I want to live a long, healthy life and have beautiful skin, nails and hair. Please weigh-in with any thoughts/knowledge!!!! Thanks, Margaret Alex Gorohoff  Tue, May 31, 2011 at 1:49 AM To: margareteileenkay@gmail.com I'm not sure, but next time I go in and get another Africa shot I will ask my doctor. Cheers, Alex Nancy Padden  Tue, May 31, 2011 at 7:29 AM To: Margaret Kay <margareteileenkay@gmail.com> Louis! Francie Kay  Tue, May 31, 2011 at 3:29 PM To: Margaret Kay <margareteileenkay@gmail.com> they've always been too pricey for my blood! Anna Kay  Tue, May 31, 2011 at 5:18 PM To: Margaret Kay <margareteileenkay@gmail.com> Its a mystery. I have heard both sides - but I would guess to cover your basis you should attempt to get all your vitamins/nutrients from real food rather then pills and if you can't take the vitamins.  Max Kay  Tue, May 31, 2011 at 5:35 PM To:  Margaret Kay <margareteileenkay@gmail.com> Who really knows.  I've heard that 90% is bogus and 10% is good... you just can't pick out the 10% (what and when your body needs it, if that makes sense).  I think a multivitamin can't hurt. Good tip Anna - getting vits from food is probably the best bet. Margaret Kay <margareteileenkay@gmail.com> Tue, May 31, 2011 at 5:41 PM To: Max Kay Cc: Anna Kay, Rich Kay, Nancy Padden, Charlene Kay, Francie Kay, Alex Gorohoff, Bobby, William, Andy Williamson Thanks, y'all. I appreciate it! I have an old bottle of multivitamins that I will start working my way through. If I feel different at the end of the bottle, I will amazon.co.uk myself some more! Alex, let me know what your shot doc says!

Well wasn't that fascinating!

Love,
Margaret

Countdown to Christmas: 3 days

Today's Christmas photo

Max and I taking the rope tow up to the top of the slope. Who needs skiing when you can inner tube instead?

Today's Christmas memory

OK, I'm running out of memories, so here's a video instead. This is from Christmas 2010.



Today's Christmas gift idea
Berenstain Bears' Christmas Tree! The best Christmas book of all time. OK, it's tied with The Polar Express. Rich Kay read this aloud to us every Christmas Eve. Papa Bear up his usual tricks, as always. And it has a brilliant twist ending!

 ---> US Shoppers

 ---> UK Shoppers

Joyeux Noël,
Margaret

Countdown to Christmas: 4 days

Today's Christmas photo

Max as Father Time and me as...Baby New Year? Is that a thing?

Today's Christmas memory

When I was in junior high my mom got herself, Char, Francie and I this great gig working on the Snow Train that ran from Seattle to Leavenworth, which, for all you non-Washingtonians, is a faux Bavarian town on the other side of the mountains.

It was the best deal ever. All we had to do was hand paper cups of hot cocoa and a box lunch to the passengers during the 1.5 hour journey. Maybe we led some carols. I don't really remember. I do remember it being really easy.

Then we would arrive in snowy Leavenworth, all lit up with twinkly lights and smelling of sizzling bratwurst. We'd walk around the neighbourhoods and wonder what it would be like to live there. Leavenworth's awesome at Christmas, but tacky and forgotten the rest of the year.

On the train ride back we didn't have to do anything at all. For a day's work, we would each earn 100 big bones. I don't think I was technically old enough to be working. Was the whole thing done under the table? Hmmm.

I remember thinking, "I can't believe I'm getting paid to do this! I should be paying them!" 

Now, although I look back on it fondly, I know I deserved my pay. That's just part of getting older—you realise that, even if you enjoy what you do, you don't work for free. It's called self-worth. And rent. And food. And a Yankee candle addiction.

Today's Christmas gift idea

Metal spider head scratcher! For the ultimate scalp sensation. Remember when I went and bought one mid blog post?

Andy and I apply the scratcher to each other while we watch TV and it never gets old. The other day I saw Khloe Kardashian using one on an episode of Kourtney and Khloe Take the Hamptons, so you know it must be good.

 ---> US shoppers

 ---> UK shoppers


Nollaig Shona Duit,

Margaret

Countdown to Christmas: 8 days

Today's Christmas photo

A contender for our family Christmas photo one year. Needless to say, it didn't make it past the cutting room floor.

Today's Christmas memory

I vividly remember lying in a sleeping bag next to the rest of my siblings on the floor of my parents' bedroom on Christmas Eve. Anna and Max told me that if I really really really wished for what I wanted, Santa would bring it. So, the whole night (or for the two minutes it took to fall asleep), I wished as hard as I could for one of those horse heads with the stick body. You know the ones...Googling it now...a hobby horse, that's it!

Lo and behold, the next morning a beautiful ebony-coated mare was waiting for me under the tree. I named her 'Black Beauty', because, duh.

I think this story prove that, unless the hobby horse idea was somehow planted in my head, Santa really is real.

Today's Christmas gift idea

Taylor Swift's new album. Let this one be a treat for yourself. Every song is good. Read my review for further information.

 ---> US shoppers

---> UK shoppers

Mele Kalikimaka,
Margaret

From the Archives: Edition 2

Welcome to the second edition of 'From the Archives'. This time I'm featuring some of my very first emails ever sent (at least from my old Yahoo account, that is). 

These are two emails I sent my brother (and Madgespace guest blogger) Max back when I was but a wee 15 years of age. 

OK, so they aren't that interesting. But they've given me the night off from blogging, which is a real treat. Instead, I've used my creativity to come up with a delicious snack using only the ingredients we have in the house. The result? Bits of tortilla toasted under the broiler, sprinkled with powdered parmesan cheese and dabbed with Tabasco sauce. Tastier than it sounds!

Love,
Margaret

Max Kay guest post: Late night TV update

Today is a special day on Madgespace. For the first time in the blog's seven year history, I'm featuring a guest post. It's from none other than Max Kay, my brother and fellow member of M&M (our a cappella whistling band).

Today's contributor, Max Kay. You can follow him on Twitter at @kay_max.

Without further ado...

---

As a belated birthday present to my baby sis, I offered to write a guest post to help ease the burden of her Every Day For a Year streak. Think of it like a sitcom that offers a new episode only for it to be a clip show – it is still technically a new episode! Hopefully this will be slightly less disappointing than that.

When trying to come up with a pop culture subject with plenty of links to match the vibe of this space, I started thinking about how I got into late night talk show TV in college. Like millions who have come before and after me, by sophomore year I had learned to carefully arrange my class schedule to be as late in the day as possible. My friends and I stayed up to hang out and do not much of anything, and that involved watching hundreds of hours of Letterman and even Craig Kilborn, who we thought was the new face of comedy (we were dumb). 

After I got a job that involved mornings (and Kilby fell off the face of the earth), I rarely watched any of the late night shows.  Years went by and the comedy scene evolved.. sort of. We got the rise of Stewart and Colbert and the fake news format, groundbreaking shows from Chappelle and Louis CK, a new golden age of SNL, and we could watch pretty much anything else on YouTube. But the late night guys – Leno, Letterman, Kimmel, Conan, Ferguson – remained in the same format that had been invented before Johnny Carson over 50 years ago. 

On the rare times when I did tune in, this always struck me as strange. Entertainment is always evolving to stay current and get ratings, and while networks continuously copy each other’s stuff they are at least changing formats every few years (see: rise of singing competitions, kitchen showdowns, CSI-type detective shows, and on and on). Late night talk shows have been the one constant – like baseball and saltine crackers, we can count on them to be what they have always been: curtain, monologue of seven jokes, introduce the band, desk, commercial, guest, commercial, musical guest, see you tomorrow night! It is basically the same show our grandparents watched.

So I was intrigued when I heard that Fallon’s 'Tonight Show' was bringing in more music elements in an effort to shake things up. Apparently it has been wildly successful, with the show pulling in almost as many viewers as Kimmel and Letterman combined. At the same time, 'Tonight' has smartly packaged many of its best segments to be re-watched on YouTube so millions more of us can catch the best bits. 

My favorite of these are the Lip Sync Battles. Supposedly conceived by Stephen Merchant, John Krasinski and Emily Blunt, a Lip Sync Battle is a goofy competition where three people, in this case two guests plus Fallon, each lip sync two songs and we find out who is the best.  

Why does this format work?  A) lip syncing is funny, and b) some celebrities are really good at it.  

Check out my favorite battle, which is Merchant + Fallon + Joseph Gordon Levitt (supposedly the first to be done on the show). 

Great things about it:

1.       Merchant coming out of nowhere. This originally aired in 2013 when most of us thought of him as a talented and witty guy that would always be in the shadow of Ricky Gervais. Writer, stand up, sitcom guy sure, but stage/dance?? He steps out and crushes his first number (to the point that Fallon seems genuinely surprised) and then beats it with his second number. 

2.       Fallon as host/performer. Fallon has to introduce/welcome both guys, perform himself (which he does well, just not as well as the other guys) and work the crowd all at once. Hard to think of anyone else who could pull this off.

3.       Levitt is absolutely amazing. Merchant is so good that you think he has to win, but Levitt shows he has another level in him as a performer. No wonder SNL loves him as a host. How can someone actually be great at something so dumb as lip syncing? 

This was over a year ago, and Fallon has done a few more since, like the latest with Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton. And there’s other good musical stuff, like sing-alongs with the Roots and the iPad app thing.  

To all of it I say kudos for getting guests to do something different that is live, funny, well-performed and entertaining.  Best of all, you don’t even need to stay up late to see it.

---

Wonderful! Thanks for the update, Max. I loved hearing about the late night gatherings in the dorm, around what I presume was a huge square TV with a curved screen and an ass the size of Coco. 

The TV Max and his dorm buddies watched Kilborn on. Look at the booty on that thing!

Photo by High Contrast via Wikimedia Commons

Cheers, 
Margaret

P.S. Yes, JGL is a pretty good lip syncer. But nothing compares to Dida Ritz lip syncing for her life in front of Ms. Natalie Cole herself on RuPaul's Drag Race.

P.P.S. In the UK, they call lip syncing "miming". 

Let There Be Lights!

HOLLERRRR. Well, in case you were wondering- Kathy was hilarious. We were up in the nosebleeds of the Paramount (who knew it went up so high??) and had to squint to see her, but it was definitely worth the future crowsfeet. 

Today my Dad and I are going to put up the outside Christmas lights. We may be jumping the gun a little, but it will be nice to come home from T-Giving and have the decor dunzo. For inspiration, I've google image searched the best light displays anyone ever uploaded to the internet. Hopefully our's will rival  some of the following- we'll see. 

Ahh, I've been indulging in the usual comforts of home (plus a few new ones...a new fridge, new carpet, loose leaf tea...). Today I MUST go on a run. It's been a while since I've broken a sweat...well besides yesterday when I overheated in Max & Anne's house because their heat was on and I had a hat on and a hooded sweatshirt...just too many layers in general. BUT the point is, I haven't exercised in eons, so I HAVE TO run today. Now that I've blogged about it there is no turning back. Ugggh.

Oh- I saw the new Bond movie yesterday. It was good. 

Best, 

Margaret