The Snowman - 1982

I was going to save this post for the first snow of the season, but I decided I couldn't wait. I want to kick of my month of Christmas themed childhood classics with one of my favorite Christmas films of all time is "The Snowman".



My grandma had a copy of this on VHS, which she had taped off the TV. It's a movie that I associate a lot with being at her house in the winter time. I think that this movie was what cemented my love of narratives without words. I'm always amazed how much can be conveyed without dialogue. The music in this short is great, and sometimes makes me get a little emotional!

1:47: I was always bothered by this kid not wearing underwear.

The snowman party is def my favorite part, and the kilted jigging snowman is my favorite part of that!

I think this movie qualifies as pure, concentrated holiday nostalgia. Yeah!

EDIT: since this video seems to be permanently out of order, here's the show on youtube. This version even starts with a weird introduction with David Bowie. Knowing that this was what happened to him as a child explains a lot, actually.

Her heart grew 3 sizes today!

Some of you may have heard me talking about a fairly infamous volunteer at a certain site I go to to distribute groceries. She's a rather old, fragile looking lady named Trudy, who (to quote a seasoned volunteer) "ain't happy if she ain't bitchin'."

Last month, Trudy gave me the business, so to speak, when I attempted to take a finished bag off the assembly line and put it on the table for the completed bags. She blustered over in her signature purple wind pants and got in my face, screaming that I "had to put the bag right back where it was this instant". Basically, Trudy was/is so controlling, that they had to give her one thing to have complete control over, or she'd try to make herself queen of the brown bag. That thing is the monthly newsletters, and when she caught me putting a newsletter in a bag for her, It was like I tried to steal her livelihood.

I found out later that she thought I was a stupid high school-er who didn't know anything, which fueled her lashing out. Weird!

So needless to say, we didn't get off on the best foot. Getting screeched at in the face will do that to a first impression. I also noticed that the other volunteers give Trudy and her newsletters a good 5 foot berth while she works on folding them.

Then today, almost everybody was surprised and impressed when Trudy asked for help with her precious paper work. It turns out that they were putting Christmas cards in with each newsletter, and she needed help folding the cards into the creased "Brown Bag Beats."

The cards were really nice, each one different, blank inside with matching envelopes. It was the gift of being able to wish somebody else a Merry Christmas. I mentioned to the site coordinator how nice I thought it was that they were giving out these cards.

"Oh, you know that was all Trudy's idea. We had been doing it the last five years or so, and I only just found last month that she had been buying all the cards for the Brown Bag out of her own pocket."

I suddenly became aware that the reason Trudy wears those purple wind pants every month wasn't just because they were her signature look, it was also because they were her only pair of pants.

It really made me see another side of this cantankerous old biddie. She bought everybody in town who needed these free groceries a Christmas card. In my eyes, it was like she went through the Grinch's heart x-ray machine.

I guess it was a lesson on open-mindedness and the duality of nature. No doubt Trudy will be back to her newsletter dictatorship in January, but it was nice to see her caring side and Christmas cheer.

I meet such weird people doing this job....

Surely you're fine, Mr. Jokeman

Paul and I like to take turns sometimes reading to each other before bed. Right now, Paul's been reading to me from "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character)", an autobiography (of sorts) from the famous physicist. I say "of sorts" because this book is more like a loose collection of anecdotes strung together without much of an overall narrative. The effect is really stunningly similar to hearing your grandpa tell you stories from the good old days for hours and hours.

Feynman is kind of a rock star of the physics world, known for womanizing and playing the bongos.

Reading this book gives you a weird insight into his strange personality, and his self-centered point of view in social interactions. Right now we're at the part of his life where he works at Los Alamos, and constantly breaks into top secret govt. safes to prove that their secrets are not secure.

My favorite story so far is this one about his attempts to enlist in the Army, only to be declared 4F for mental deficiency. The chapter is called "Uncle Sam Doesn't need you!" and you can read it in this handy little e-book here, starting on page 60. The story made me laugh so much, I was too excited to go to sleep! It's a very typical Feynman story, where he's the only one who seems normal and everybody else is kind of painted like idiots. Even though he's being found mentally unstable by army psychiatrists, he comes out looking like the sanest one in the room.

This book has definitely made me wish that we had more scientists like Mr. Feynman, a rock star hipster sort of genius who inspires a sort of iconic legend. Like Einstein. I guess our modern equivalent is Stephen Hawking, who was WAY handsome back in the day.


Having more cool, sexy scientists might help the public mindset that discourages intellect in favor of social popularity. I'm totally down with getting more bad-asses in the lab.

Of All Time?

Yes.

I had the privilege of hearing this song play on two different radio stations, about 10 minutes apart while driving home Thanksgiving night. It reminded me that this is one of my most favorite songs.

I have really good memories of my 2-year-old brother singing the chorus and rolling his rs in the awesomest way.

Wrapping it Up

So I'm gonna try to wrap up the vacation recap in this post. Get back to posting fun stuff like recipes and music videos and stop living in the past!

The second day we were in Dover, we decided to venture out of the warm swaddling of the casino and see Dover proper. We headed into the heart of the town, away from the strip mall and into the residential area/civic center. (You may already know that) Dover was the first state in the Union, so the center of town was positively brimming with old historical buildings, including the first State House. Most of the buildings were done in a style very similar to the dorms at UMass in Central, so I got the eerie feeling I was looking up at a transplanted Butterfield Hall. The square really felt like we had wandered into Old Sturbridge Village, except that all the old houses were actually still being used as homes and businesses. It was pretty neat to see.

Strangely, the businesses that filled the old buildings seemed to be of two sorts and two sorts only. Lawyers Offices and Bail Bondsmen. Dentists : Baltimore as Bail Bondsmen and Lawyers: Dover.

From here, we decided to drive about an hour down the coast to Rehoboth Beach, a touristy boardwalk town, to worship at a beer Mecca - The original Dogfish Head Brewery and Restaurant. It was well worth the voyage, as it supplied us with the best meal we had on the trip (OMG Turkey Lentil Soup!!!). Plus: (duh) Dogfish Head Beer(!) and a brewery tour. It was neat to see that the company started out brewing in batches not much larger than the ones we make home-brewing.

It was nice to get out there too, because it gave us the chance to walk on the beach. It's amazing how calming the ocean can be. Looking out on the horizon at sunset was when I think I finally really felt relaxed on this vacation.

The next day, after swinging back by the terminal to pick up our vacationing luggage, we headed to our final destination, Washington DC. We ended up staying in an awesome, beautiful suite at the Capital Hilton, just two blocks from the White House, which made getting to any landmark was no sweat.

I think that being in DC was both Paul and my favorite part of the whole trip. We spent the first night walking around and seeing all the monuments. Paul's favorite was the Washington Monument, Mine was the new WWII memorial. Ihad never seen it before, but it's really cool, I love how it incorporate lots of water/ fountains. After chilling in the Lincoln Memorial, we went out to an absolutely ridic beer bar called The Churchkey, which had over 50 great beers on tap. They had 2 big refrigerated rooms in a loft that they kept their kegs in, and an elaborate pipe system to pump the beer down, along the ceiling, into the tap.

The next day we went to the Smithsonian museums. We managed to see The American History Museum, Asian Art Gallery, Air and Space Museum, and Botanic Gardens. The botanic gardens were nice to do last, because you could just sit down and chill in a beautiful tropic environment and smell the orchids after a long day of walking and seeing.

5 Favorite Things I Learned/Saw at the Smithsonian

1. That the original technology for our birth control pills was developed in Worcester MA.
2. The DARPA Car.
3. That coal tar was the key to the development of chemistry, and those that understood it lead in the print industry, and causally, weapon making.
4. Apollo Anton Ohno is also a ballroom dancer.
5. The Wright Brothers Plane.

The next day, we went home. So overall, it was a pretty cool trip. We did a lot of neat stuff we wouldn't have otherwise, and had a lot of fun. I think next time we'll be a little bit more neurotic about planning our trips though. Or at least I will be.

Next destination, Bermuda by plane?

Dover Downs

Like I said, we were flying by the seat of our pants on this vacation, trying to plan without the aid of the internet or anything. So when we found a brochure in our hotels tourism kiosk about a super room deal at the Dover Downs Hotel and Casino, we decided that Delaware would be the next stop on our tour. One of the main points of the brochure that convinced us, other than the low low prices, was that this hizzy had a pool.

It's kind of funny that we ended up going to Dover. Months ago, we were joking about taking a vacation to one of those weird state capitals that nobody ever thinks about. Dover was one of the ones we laughed about particularly mirthfully, right up there with Indianapolis and Boise. So it was kind of a surreal moment when we were like, "whoa, we're actually going to Delaware right now."

Though it was tucked in the cosmopolitan strip mall that is downtown Dover, Dover Downs was actually really really nice. It had a really clean, cheerful vibe that is conspicuously absent from the casinos that we've visited in Connecticut. We narrowed down why this place felt so much nicer as we whiled away the hours playing marco polo in the pool and soaking in the hot tub.

1. DD is a non-smoking casino. This makes everything smell and feel a lot cleaner. You don't have to worry about reeking when you leave the building at the end of the day.
2. Possibly because of this, they can afford to have lots of bright, open lighting, which makes the atmosphere a lot cheerier.
3. Instead of weird ambient mood music, this casino pumps in upbeat oldies hits 24/7. I can't remember the last time I heard "Splish Splash" playing in a public place.



(PS, not what I thought the guy who sang this song looked like at all)

4. Beyond Being just a casino, DD is also an all seasons race track. In the summer, they host NASCAR races, and in the winter, while we were there, they have live harness horse racing. Having this racetrack here gives the building a purpose, and makes it feel like more than just a slot machine warehouse.

Seeing the live horse racing was actually really cool. I've mentioned before how much I enjoyed watching the Kentucky Derby on TV as a kid. This was the first time I got to watch horses competing right in front of me, in real time. It was also fun to do a little gambling on them, but we never picked the right horse to win. Still fun!

It was the part of the vacation that (Paul and I both agreed) should have come first. Mindless gambling, eating delicious food, and lots of time relaxing in the pool. I found a new favorite slot machine too: Kitty Glitter. I mostly just like it because of the really judgmental kitty on the logo:

mrow, yes I see you there throwing away your life savings, mrow

Pssst...Baltimore Sucks

On our second day in Baltimore, we had a whole handful of interesting things we thought we could do. There was an exhibition of Andy Warhol paintings at the gallery up the street, a pop art/toy museum, The Baltimore Basilica (Americas First Cathedral), IMax movies at the Science center, Various Baseball museums at Camden Yard. We were pretty excited.

That is until we realized that ALL of the above choices, except the Basilica, were closed on Mondays. Pretty much everything fun was closed on Mondays. It was frustrating and bizarre, but it made sense. We were November tourists in a town that really only got visitors in the Summer.


But, in the true spirit of the trip, we made the most of it and decided to go on the tour of the Basilica. It was really neat, a monument to the true development of freedom of religion in America. It has a neo-classical look that was totally unheard of in catholic buildings, specifically designed to make it a distinctly American church. Our tour guide was this really irreverent quintessential New Yorker who seemed really "so over" the religious propriety of working in a Cathedral. In fact, the Cathedral itself in some ways, seemed tired of maintaining pomp and circumstance. The Sacristy had the usual holy cabinet dead center, but if you looked to either side, somebody was totally using it as an office, computers and all.

A few of my favorite quotes from our guide:

"This is a painting of the Baby Jesus. They say, he's blessing you, but I think he's just waving hi."
"This Bell is one of the official artifacts that make this building a Basilica. They're only allowed to ring it when the Pope is coming. Last time he was here was 50 years ago, so they're still waiting on that."
"Here's a picture of the Pope praying at this alter. He was probably thinking 'Boy this place is a dump, I can't wait to get out of here'"

She even let us touch the old vestments they had on display, which every museum worker knows is a huge no no. But an awesome no no for the inquisitive visitor.

It was a really cool building though, and it had lots of neat artifacts in it's museum, like letters from George Washington and Jewel encrusted talismans from Constantinople. My favorite part was the crypt, it was recently redone and totally architecturally awesome. Spooky!


After our cool historical tour, we were at a loss for things to do. We wandered around the city a bit, and noticed that the not-so-nice part of town creeps up surprisingly close to the nice part. It was clear that the recession had been really really unkind to this city. We also noticed that there was at a subway restaurant and at least 2 dentists offices on every block. No doctors, Baltimore only has dentists. They even have a Dentistry Museum, which was naturally closed on Mondays. Wandering around, I couldn't help but lean over and whisper to Paul "hey, Baltimore sucks."

So by 2:30, we found ourselves chillin' back in our hotel room, drinking Yuengling and watching high school kids smoke weed on the roof across the street from us.


It's so strange that you can't get Yuengling in MA. I remember the first time my New Jersey Roomate heard I didn't know Yuengling, she nearly exploded with disbelief. The next time she went home on break, she brought me a bottle. It was a nice gesture. It's a nice beer too. Pretty average!