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Someone on The Knot has posted her wedding cake components, asking for opinions. According to her, the cake will be:
"Cake: Chocolate chip
Filling: White chocolate mouse with layer of raspberry
Frosting: Buttercream"
Mmmm. I wonder if that's whipped mouse.
From our criminally minded friends, two lessons in why spelling matters.
1.) Because bad spelling sometimes counts as evidence.
2.) If you're a bad speller and a bank "rober," you might end up with a incredibly wussy nickname like "The Misspelling Bandit." It's not one you want to take to prison.
The Chicago River is iced over, and this poem keeps coming into my head.
Ask Me, by William Stafford
Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.
I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.
My name is ChgoRed, and yesterday I was a bargain vulture.
This article from today's New York Times, about misspellings in eBay listings. Hee!
From Gandhi's autobiography, a whole new way to look at the law business.
He was called in to consult on a civil case involving two businessmen. Gandhi convinced both sides to agree to arbitration, and then persuaded the winner to take his payments in installments, thus saving the losing side from bankruptcy.
"[Both sides] were happy over the result, and both rose in the public estimation. My joy was boundless. I had learnt the true practice of law. I had learnt to find out the better side of human nature and to enter men's hearts. I realized that the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder. The lesson was so indelibly burnt into me that a large part of my time during the twenty years of my practice as a lawyer was occupied in bringing about private compromises of hundreds of cases. I lost nothing thereby--not even money, certainly not my soul."
I wish.
I was wishing it a lot this morning. And not just because I forgot to set my alarm, woke up five minutes before I was supposed to leave, and gave myself an adrenaline rush that took about 25 minutes to wear off.
On my mind this week, a quote from Gandhi. OK, not Gandhi; Nishkulanand Swami, quoted in Gandhi's autobiography. Still, on my mind.
"Renunciation of objects, without the renunciation of desires, is shortlived, however you may try."
Simple, but it fits right into aspects of my life--trying to eat better, trying to spend less money, etc. You can give up the Krispy Kreme, but until you give up the desire for Krispy Kreme, you're doomed to go get one eventually.
Too freaking cold. "Mary, Mother of God, please don't let me freeze on my way to the train" cold. Hat, gloves, socks, pants, long coat, extra socks, and a scarf cold. "What did we do to deserve this?" cold.
If you had any questions about how Chicago works, this should answer them.
Mobsters! Trucks! Nepotism!
Bribes in Christmas cards!
And $40 million for trucks that do nothing.
Whatta town, I tell ya.
