I was just thinking the other day that what the world really needed was for the people responsible for Taco Bell to do for Vietnamese cuisine what they've done for/to "Mexican" "food."
After, the One Direction erotic fan fic
with lines like "Just because I messed around with you doesn't mean I want anything to so with you, yet here you are leaving your boyfriend who can actually stand to be around you to come here and try to help me" (that's Harry talking, btw) has sold to Simon & Schuster's Gallery Books for a mid six figures. We're all thinking about quitting our jobs to write fan fiction now, right?
Very important news update: Thanks to the Internet, hedgehogs are officially on the verge of mainstream American popularity. We did it, Internet! Let's celebrate by spending an hour watching YouTube videos of hedgehogs.
A woman was beaten to death by a group of men at a McDonald's in Shangdong, China on Wednesday because she refused to give them her number. Six men have been arrested. According to reports, witnesses were either unable or unwilling to help.
Unconditional Love & Acceptance: ‘Ryland’s Story’ Is A Video You Must Watch
To show the journey their son Ryland lead them on, the Whittington family bravely shared their home movies and pictures with the world. This video was presented at the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast last week where Jeff and Hillary spoke about lending encouragement and support to those coming out, Jeff said,“One of the most inspiring things that Harvey Milk had done as far as our family is concerned, was to encourage people to come out; to let their voices be heard; break down the walls, break down the barriers and start allowing people to see them for their authentic selves and be true to themselves, and this is our coming out … this is us making our voices heard.”
Spectacular is about the only word to describe not only the view, but the house you get to stare at that view from. The Fall House, designed by Fougeron Architecture, curves down around the steep California bluff it sits on. The Pacific Ocean is a mere 250-foot drop down making the home a prime site for enjoying the stellar views.
The three bedroom home is situated into the land and contoured against the natural elements in its Big Sur coastal location. The house steps down and eventually cantilevers 12 feet back from the bluff so that it protects the cliff’s ecosystem and keeps the structure’s integrity solid.
Glass railings are used alongside the patio perimeter as not to disrupt the views.
Each floor-to-ceiling window frames sections of the picturesque ocean and landscape. Imagine living with that view!
The main structure of the house is made up of two rectangular boxes that are connected via an all-glass library/den. Subtle changes in the roofline unfold as you look down from the living room to the kitchen.
The public areas sit at the top of the property, while the private, bedroom areas are at the lower end.
What isn’t glass in the living room is covered in wood that wraps around onto the ceiling making the space feel warm.
The library/den is below the living room and kitchen and is enclosed in glass.
Keep going and you reach the lower volume, which features a double-cantinlevered master bedroom suite that feels like it’s floating above the ocean.
The master bath has a massive tub that has two glass sides. If I lived here, you’d find me right there. All. Day. Long.
Big news for devoted connoisseurs of Christian kitsch: The good lord above has finally blessed us with a full teaser trailer for the movie reboot of Left Behind. It stars Chad Michael Murray and Nicholas Cage.
Oftentimes tape dispensers are clunky and take up tons of space, so Dutch designer Derk Reilink decided to redesign the traditional tape dispenser and create a minimalist one that was based on the dimensions of a single roll of tape. The result is ClickTape.
The now portable device is easy to swap out rolls when it’s time for a fresh one. It almost looks like two rolls of tape looped together, doesn’t it?
It’s super simple in that the flexible plastic ring opens enough to allow a new roll to slide on. The device snugly keeps your roll in place while allowing it to rotate as you pull tape off. On the opposite end are the teeth to cut the tape.
A school in Utah photoshopped the images of female students in the yearbook to cover shoulders and other parts of their upper bodies. Because as we all know the bare flesh of a young girl's upper arm and/or shoulder is nothing but a path to filthy sin and the ultimate destruction of humanity.
Well, the wedding might be delayed because of the unrest in Ukraine but Hayden Panettiere is pregnant with her boyfriend, Wladimir Klitschko's baby. I'm not really sure why the couple can't get married. Yes, I know Wladimir's brother is big in politics in Ukraine and that a destination wedding in the country is probably not ideal, but it seems to me that if the unrest is not stopping you from having a baby, then it probably shouldn't stop you from getting married. There are other places to get married. Of course this could have been a trade. He doesn't want to get married yet, but is willing to have a baby. Or, maybe it was just an accident. US Weekly doesn't give a due date, but a friend of Hayden's told the magazine that she is "totally pregnant." Yeah, that definitely sounds like a friend of Hayden.
Marilyn Manson has been cast in a recurring role on Sons of Anarchy, FX announced today. He'll play Ron Tully, a powerful white supremacist with ties to the prison world whom Jax uses to expand his sphere of influence. SoA returns for its seventh and final season in the fall, which will make it sort of inconvenient to do Game of Thrones/"House Tully" stuff about Manson's character, though it's safe to assume some among us will at least try, not just because of the Tully-Tully connection, but also because of the shows' shared fascination with creative violence.
Next week is the annual Candy and Snack Expo in Chicago. It’s the even of the year for candy companies, as they introduce their new products. Here are a few new items that caught my eye with some already hitting shelves. There’s lots more in store, so I’ll be posting a few over the next two weeks.
Name: PEEPS Minis
Brand: Just Born
Description: This brand new item is available in flavors of Sour Watermelon, Strawberry Creme and Chocolate Creme. PEEPS® Mini’s available in 3.4 oz. Stand-Up Bags and Trial Size Packages.
Introduction Date: 05/15/14
Notes: Some folks are seeing these in stores already. It will be interesting to see how well they stand up to being tossed in a bag together. Peeps are generally more moist and easily squished than Campfire. A Christmas version featuring the Despicable Me Minions will also be on shelves in November.
Name: Ferrero Golden Gallery
Brand: Ferrero
Description: A refined gallery of confectionery masterpieces expertly crafted by Ferrero. An assortment of exclusive recipes, a series of unique and irresistible flavors. The gift that makes every occasion feel special. Flavor Descriptions: • Manderly: A crunchy specialty with a velvety hazelnut cream filling, a sweet prelude to the unmistakeable taste of almond. • Cappuccino: A creamy, luscious filling combining the intense flavor of coffee and the delicate taste of milk. A surprising delight encased within a crunchy shell. • Rocher: ROCHER® chocolates are a tempting combination of luscious, creamy, chocolaty filling surrounding a whole hazelnut, within a delicate crisp wafer… all enveloped in milk chocolate and finely chopped hazelnuts. • Rondnoir: Rondnoir® fine dark chocolates are a unique combination of a creamy dark chocolate surrounding a hazelnut within a delicate, crisp wafer…topped with crunchy dark chocolate morsels. • Tenderly Nougat: A creamy nougat filling with a hint of citrusy notes meets the intense crunchiness of a whole hazelnut encased in milk chocolate. • Tenderly White: The smoothness of white chocolate and a whole hazelnut combine to create a perfect harmony.
Introduction Date: November 2014
Notes: I enjoy Ferrero Rond Noir and I’m happy to see some more expansion of their items. Most of these are available in Europe, though under different names, so it’s nice to finally see them here.
Name: Queen Anne Cherry Cola - Cordial Black Cherries
Brand: World’s Finest Chocolate
Description: Traditional cola flavor with cherry essence along with a blend of citrus and spice with sweet, black cherry flavor.
Introduction Date: November 2014
Notes: This sounds completely odd, but I’m actually curious to see if it’s successful. In a market where everyone is putting in bacon or srirarcha, this actually sounds unique. Personally, I don’t think much of the quality of the Queen Anne line, but it still might work.
Name: Brach’s Apple Pie Candy Corn
Brand: Brach’s (Ferrara Candy Company)
Description: Apple pie flavored candy corn, made with real honey.
Introduction Date: September 2014
Notes: What’s as American as Apple Pie? Must be candy corn flavored like apple pie, but made in Mexico. My guess for new flavors: Root Beer Float, Creme Brulee and Peanut Butter Banana.
Name: Wonka Randoms
Brand: Wonka (Nestle)
Description: A mix of soft, jam-filled, and dual-layered gummies in delicious fruity flavors in a variety of random fun shapes and colors! Millions of possible combinations, so you will never get the same bag twice!
Introduction Date: April 2014
Notes: This is another extension of the morselization process, where everything can now be mixed together. Wonka Randoms are already available in the UK and come in gummi mixes as well as chocolate and gummi combos. Many of the Wonka gummi items are also made with natural colorings, but there’s no word whether that’s the case with these.
All images courtesy of the respective manufacturer
Next week is the annual Candy and Snack Expo in Chicago. It’s the even of the year for candy companies, as they introduce their new products. Here are a few new items that caught my eye
Drop everything: LeVar Burton wants to resurrect Reading Rainbow, and he wants it as universally available as possible. So this morning, he launched a Kickstarter, aiming to raise a million dollars to fund the development of a web version. That great swooshing sound you just heard was the entire Internet opening its wallets simultaneously.
A new study finds that users of classified ads discriminate against people perceived as black. Over a one year period, economists Jennifer Doleac and Luke Stein placed fake ads for used iPods in local online classified. They included photographs of the product held by a hand. Some hands were light-skinned, others dark, and they also included a second potentially stigmatized identity, men with tattoos. Otherwise the ads were all identical.
Doleac and Stein found that buyers were less likely to contact or make a deal with black sellers; they received 13% fewer responses and 17% fewer offers. When they did receive an offer, the price suggested was slightly lower than that offered to presumably white sellers.
Buyers also seemed to be significantly more suspicious of black sellers. When interacting with a seller with brown skin, Doleac and Stein write:
They are 17% less likely to include their name in e-mails, 44% less likely to accept delivery by mail, and 56% more likely to express concern about making a long-distance payment.
Black sellers did especially poorly in the Northeast, when there wasn’t very much competition, and in markets that were racially isolated or had high crime rates.
Notably, buyers discriminated against people with wrist tattoos at about the same rate, suggesting that both tattoos and brown skin inspire similar levels of distrust.
Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College and the co-author of Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
I went into Blended expecting nothing. Actually, I went into Blended expecting less than nothing. I didn't think about it at all before entering the theater. It's probably why I was caught so off-guard by the movie’s first scene. Jim (Adam Sandler) and Lauren (Drew Barrymore) are single parents on a terrible blind date at Hooters. After a series of unfortunate events, Lauren has enough and says something to the effect of, "I can see why your wife left you." And that’s when it hits me. There's a pause that lasts for hours. My throat goes dry. My chest hollows completely. I know that pause. I've never been married, but I am very familiar with the feeling of being on a date where someone assumes divorce when it was actually death. This is how the most moving movie experience of my life began.
It’s a hyperbolic statement, but it’s true. Believe me – I felt it, and I am telling you. None of that is to say that Blended is a good movie. It's not. Blended is a bad movie. It's a very bad, stupid, bad movie. Vulture’s David Edelstein was correct when he wrote, "It’s a good family movie the way Hooters is a good family restaurant." Yet I cried more while watching it than I had in any movie since Fruitvale Station. In spite of its awfulness, I found myself more emotionally invested in it than I had been with any movie in recent memory. Or, maybe not in spite of – maybe it was because of Blended's badness. Its unbridled stupidity shut my brain down, allowing direct access to my heart.
Let me back up and explain what Blended is about. Lauren is a divorced mom of two boys and Jim a widower dad to three girls. As a result of some shenanigans, they end up all going on an African vacation together that's aimed at blending families. That's why the movie is titled Blended. I should've known that, since I grew up in a blended family, but it's possible the term didn't exist 20 years ago or that I was too young to know that it did. Like Jim's wife, my mom passed away from cancer. I was 7. My 9-year-old brother and I were left with a father who, like Jim, found himself a single parent. Several years later he married my stepmom, who had a son my brother's age and, like Blended's Lauren, was divorced. Our two families spent years blending, on vacations and otherwise.
This is the point where I say that I've never connected to a movie character more than I did to a 6-year-old blonde girl in a shitty Adam Sandler movie. There are many terrible ideas in this movie surrounding the children – Lauren's youngest son needs a man to teach him baseball and Sandler's eldest daughter needs a woman to teach her how to be a dateable lady. (As Edelstein wrote, "The setup of Blended doesn’t feel old-fashioned. It feels antediluvian.") But I assure you the way in which Sandler's two younger daughters interact was not one of them. The middle daughter, Espn (yes, I know), talks to her mom as if she were a phantom limb or imaginary friend, leaving extra seats, beds, and plates of food for her. The youngest, Lou, wondersimplicitly,"When will I get a new mommy?" Blended, in its ham-fisted way, captures how a minor age difference can fundamentally affect how you process the death of a parent. I, like Lou, wanted a mom; my older brother, like Espn, wanted his mom. I was too young, my brain too rigid, to understand, like my brother might have, my mother's person-ness – a fact that to this day fills me with regret, sadness, jealousy, resentment, and, at times, anger. In turn, I, like Lou, took to blending much more easily than my sibling. As my co-workers who sat next to me at the screening can attest, I literally cried (and I literally mean “literally”) at every moment involving this charming yellow-haired little girl. There is a scene in which Lou asks if Lauren could tuck her in and Lauren proceeds to sing the song that Lou's birth mother used to sing to her – "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." It's clunky and predictable, and yet I'm tearing up right now as I remember the scene. The obviousness of the moment forced my adult self to check out, leaving only my inner-child to take the hit.
Eventually, the touching scene ends and Lauren leaves and Jim makes some stupid Adam Sandler comment. My co-workers joked throughout that at any moment a fart might interrupt any of the movie's sweet sentiments. Though Blended was surprisingly lacking in farts, they were on the right track. (Instead of farts, there was Terry Crews and his Ladysmith Black Mambazo—like background singers, whom I suspect were supposed to act like a Greek chorus, but instead acted as a vaguely racist reminder that you were watching a bad movie.) I’m thinking of one scene in particular. After spending a week being cute and nice to each other's kids, Jim sets up a romantic dinner for two. In the midst of flowers and candles, Jim and Lauren have a heartfelt conversation that felt wholly unique for a big studio movie, especially one this crass. Essentially, the two admit that they romantically fell for each other by falling for each other's good parenting. Lauren says something to the effect of, "You get that being a parent means putting your kids first 100 percent of the time." To which Jim responds, "No, it's 99 percent of the time. That last one percent, we get to do what we want."
At that moment, something flashed for me and, yes, I cried some more. See, I always understood on an intellectual level how hard my parents fought to make our blended family work and how important my brothers and I were to them. And I felt it as a kid, of course. But never once as an adult had I so completely gotten it. Jim and Lauren, my dad and mom, were people with their own wants and desires – wants and desires not so dissimilar from my own as a 28-year-old.
The scene continues and they lean in for a kiss – "Eeeeeee," I thought to myself, in excitement – but then, Jim stops and says he can't, he isn't ready. Before I could draw too many parallels to my own father, the director cuts to a shot of monkeys dressed like Hooters waitresses playing orchestral instruments. It was yet another example of the film being incapable of letting nice moments just be – and yet I was incredibly thankful.
I watch a lot of movies for work and, maybe more importantly, I watch all those movies as work. I might try to watch everything as a fan first, but in the background I'm always looking for things worth writing about, no matter how seemingly mundane. And it's not just me. Because of social media, I think that audiences are being trained to form shareable opinions. Bad movies – like truly bad movies, not the “so bad it's good” movies – force me to turn that impulse off. Within the first few minutes of Blended, about the moment when Barrymore spits/barfs out French onion soup, I resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t be able to get a Vulture piece out of it. My defenses were lowered completely and continually. Before I could process why I was crying so much, someone would say a joke so terrible that I'd forget. And I’m grateful for that. I couldn't have stayed in that headspace or that heartspace for an entire movie. It would've been too much. I very well might've walked out. And this is why the movie's utter badness was so important. Regardless of how much I hated its proclivity to end each scene with "punch lines," they brought me up for air and allowed me to distance myself. And then I was caught off-guard anew by every emotional beat.
I am fairly sure I'm not the only one. Maybe not necessarily at Blended, but others had to have had similar experiences at other Adam Sandler movies, as Adam Sandler movies are usually about something. I can imagine grown men and women being surprised at the fact that they were moved, even briefly, by That's My Boy (absent father), Grown Ups (the inevitable drifting apart of friendships), Big Daddy (being a new father), or Click (neglecting personal life; living for the future). I'm reminded of one of the few positive reviews of the rightfully panned I Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, in which Nathan Lee wrote for TheVillage Voice, "Tremendously savvy in its stupid way, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is as eloquent as Brokeback Mountain, and even more radical." Another way of saying Sandler makes dumb movies might be to say he makes extremely simple ones. It's not a habit that will earn you decent reviews, but, with the right audience member, it will be just what they need, as specificity has a way of impeding projection. Earlier this month, Bilge Ebiri, in his piece about why Sandler "might be the most important comedian of his generation," wrote, "Even in his later films, as Sandler has shed his exaggerated mannerisms and tackled more 'normal' roles, he has continued to stand at a distance. He can’t quite bring himself to act, almost like Jim Morrison couldn’t quite bring himself to sing." Like teenagers at a Catholic school dance making room for Jesus, Sandler's distance makes room for the viewer to put themselves and/or their history in. It won't happen for every movie for every person, but sometimes the combination works out.
Just like Blended did for me. I didn't know this going into Blended, but I learned I didn't want realism here. I have that. I, as I rarely do otherwise, wanted an escapist setting and physical comedy and a happy ending that was 100 percent trite. I didn't realize it beforehand, but I needed this movie to make me confront things that laid dormant, because I've failed to be able to on my own adult, overly intellectualized terms. I've tried to talk about my childhood with therapists, but I was too restrained, holding my history at a distance like it was a movie to be blogged about. Blended got at something base. Immaturity is needed when issues haven't necessarily matured since you were 7. And that's what Blended had in spades. It also gave me a reason to call my parents, partly to ask for their okay to publish this piece, and partly to say thank you.
Yes! Action Figures Designed To Empower Little Girls
Five years, ago designer Dawn Nadeau was on the hunt for a woman astronaut action figure for her little girl’s toy spaceship. But the selection of children’s toys was split between pretty, pretty princesses and burly action figures aimed at boys.
So she teamed up with Julie Kerwin to create something missing in the children’s toy market: a fierce female action figure.
“We discovered that the typical female action figure on the market isn’t actually designed for girls at all (or boys),” the team wrote on their web page. “Instead, most are created for the adult male collector, decidedly more Hooters than Heroine.”
Inspired by Joan of Arc, Kerwin and Nadeau envisioned IAmElemental, a line of women superheroes based on a play on the periodic table. Each figure has powers derived not from a radioactive accident, but from their character: bravery, honesty, persistence, enthusiasm, and industry, among other traits.
Notably, some of those traits are physical.
“We set out to design a series of figures with healthier breast, waist and hip ratios; fierce, strong females worthy of an active, save-the-world storyline that fosters creativity in kids,” they wrote.
The team posted their idea on Kickstarter, seeking $35,000 for production costs. With 19 days to go, the team has not only reached their funding goal, they’ve got close to triple the amount they originally asked for.
Kerwin and Nadeau plan to roll out their first line of super-heroines in December. But that’s just the beginning.
“We’re just getting started,” the team wrote, adding that they hope IAmElemental will “spark a movement for more choice in toys.” Time to move over, Barbie.
Disneyland, packed to the gills today with visitors from across the world, themed rides, and not nearly enough churro and frozen lemonade stands, is vastly different from the original plans show in these very rare vintage documents, as seen on BoingBoing. The first sketches and concepts for the theme park show a vision that called for a great deal of open, undeveloped space, to be populated with picnic grounds and room for live animals to roam. Over in Frontier Country, there were plans for "Granny's Farm, a practical working farm operated with real live miniature horses, cows, oxen and donkeys" and a vast "pasture" space near the pony rides (presumably also using real horses).
"Recreation Park", another large green space on the map, would be a reservation-only picnic space for large groups to hang out, play games, and even take in live music (in theory) from a bandstand in the rec area.
· Disneyland's original prospectus revealed! [BoingBoing]
My mom taught me the valuable lesson of never taking candy from a stranger. I’m pretty sure she never said anything about taking Jell-O shots from a stranger. Technicality?
I should preface this introduction by saying… don’t be like me.
A few weekends back I was celebrating Jazz Fest with some friends. There’s a certain spirit here in New Orleans that I’ve never encountered anywhere else. As we left the all day music festival… dusty, sun-tired, and thirsty, we found ourselves smack-dab in the center of an epic neighborhood block party. Backyard gates were open to reveal full bands playing to the street, people set up folding tables with steaming crock pots selling gumbo, grills racked with meats for sale or not sale, and…. in the midst of the happy chaos… a girl in a neon wig selling Jell-O shots off of a simple plastic tray.
I was like a moth to the flame. Again… don’t be like me.
It took a whole 2.2 seconds of deliberation before one of my fine friends offered up dollars for the little novelty shots… from a stranger… in the streets.
It was good. It was green. It was Jell-O. The moment felt exactly as it should, so right with a splash of reckless.
My block party Jell-O shot got me thinking about how I could fancy up Jell-O + vodka. Oh the possibilities!
Would it be too soon to say I’ve found my new calling? How about… I’ve found my Memorial Day Weekend calling: super couture Jell-O shots, sans jello, added cucumber and gin.
YES.
Notice that I’m calling these treats Shot Bites and not Jell-O Shots.
While they are small and jiggly and boozy, they are made from unflavored gelatin and not Jello-O brand stuffs. Using unflavored gelatin give us some breathing room to create flavor combinations that move beyond the Jell-O box. We really need to move beyond beyond beyond the Jell-O Box.
We’re talking about fresh cucumber juice, lots of lime juice, fresh ginger, strawberry puree from sweet strawberries… we’re going all out!
For these four recipes I used a few different ice cube trays:
You might also consider mini disposable cups, or a mini muffin tin. Choose your path.
Everything I learned about fancy Shot Bites I learned from The Kitchn.
Here are the basics:
Fresh Juice and Sweet Tea Shot Bite Math
1 cup liquor + 1 cup non-alcoholic liquid + 2 envelopes (5 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
Let’s talk about this math. This formula represents the maximum amount of alcohol we can use to create these shot bites. Any more alcohol will mess with the gelatin and our Shot Bites won’t set up properly. Heed the math. For each of these recipes, I used about 3/4 cup alcohol because I tend to like a less boozy bite (aka college was ten years ago). We can just replace any of the missing alcohol with whatever non-alcoholic liquid we’re using. On that note, you could leave out the alcohol completely to make these bites family-friendly. Remember, 2 cups total liquid meets 2 envelopes of gelatin. With that math, you can make so many delicious things!
First up!
Sweet Tea. Ginger Lemonade. Bourbon!
Sweet Tea and Ginger Lemonade Shot bites start with lightly sweetened tea.
This is a layered bite so it requires two juice mixtures and a bit more time. Totally worth it!
Powdered gelatin is added to the tea.
Softening the gelatin over the iced tea creates waves. I like this part.
With a bit of heat and a good dose of bourbon, we’ve got our bites!
Sweet Tea and Ginger Lemonade Shot Bites
makes 15 cubes
1 1/4 cup iced tea (sweetened to your preference)
2 envelopes (5 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
3/4 cup bourbon
1 prepared recipe of Ginger Lemonade
Lightly spray an ice cube tray with non-stick cooking spray. Wipe any excess collected spray from the ice cube tray. Place iced tea in a small saucepan. Sprinkle gelatin over the iced tea and allow to sit for 5 minutes. The iced tea will wrinkle and wave but still be loose. Heat over low heat for about 3 minutes until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Don’t allow the gelatin to boil. Remove from heat, stir in the bourbon and pour the iced tea and bourbon mixture into the prepared ice cube tray filling each cube halfway full.
Place in the refrigerator and allow to rest until set (at least an hour). In the meantime, make the Ginger Lemonade. When tea shots have set to mostly solid, remove from the refrigerator and top each tea gel with ginger lemonade. Allow to rest in the fridge overnight until set completely.
To remove the cubes, invert the ice rube tray and run over warm water. I also used a thin knife to slice around the edges and press out of the ice cube tray. Allow to rest in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
To make Ginger Lemonade, you can use store-bought or homemade lemonade.
I juiced a few lemons I had on hand and added a bit of fresh ginger and sugar to sweeten. Judging by the honeycomb inspired ice cube tray I used, I should have used honey instead of sugar.
Ginger spice! Not the Spice Girl… actual spice from ginger.
If you’re making this recipe for both Ginger Lemonade Shot Bites, and as a topping for the Sweet Tea Shot Bites, feel free to double this recipe.
Ginger Lemonade Shot Bites
makes 15 bites
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons granulated sugar (or more to your taste)
1 scant cup water
(you can also just use 1 1/4 cup store-bought lemonade)
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 envelopes (5 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
3/4 cup bourbon
Lightly spray an ice cube tray with non-stick cooking spray. Wipe any excess collected spray from the ice cube tray. Place lemon juice, sugar and water in a small saucepan. Sprinkle gelatin over the lemonade and let sit for 5 minutes. The lemonade will wrinkle and wave but still be loose. Heat over low heat for about 3 minutes until the gelatin and sugar are completely dissolved. Don’t allow the gelatin to boil. Remove from heat, stir in the bourbon.
Pour the lemonade and bourbon mixture into the prepared ice cube tray or over the chilled Sweet Tea Shot Bites to fill.
Place in the refrigerator and allow to rest until set (at least 4 hour) or better yet, overnight.
To remove the cubes, invert the ice rube tray and run over warm water. I also used a thin knife to slice around the edges and press out of the ice cube tray. Allow to rest in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Strawberry Margaritas just feel like they’re too good to be true. Make it into a Shot Bite and that’s it… I’m moving to the moon.
Strawberries are so lovely right now, we’re just blending them with a bit of sugar and water to create a pale pink strawberry puree. Add fresh lime juice and we’re in Margaritaville (sorry/not sorry).
Smooth strawberry puree with lime. Ready for the gelatin and a bit of heat.
Strawberry Margarita Shot Bites
makes 15 shot bites
1 heaping cup coarsely chopped fresh strawberries (I used about 8 strawberries)
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 envelopes (5 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
3/4 cup tequila
limes and sea salt for serving
Lightly spray an ice cube tray with non-stick cooking spray. Wipe any excess collected spray from the ice cube tray.
Place strawberry chunks, water, and sugar in a blender and blend until smooth. Measure out 1 cup of strawberry puree and stir in lime juice.
Place puree in a small saucepan. Sprinkle gelatin over the puree mixture and allow to sit for 5 minutes. The puree will wrinkle and wave but still be loose. Heat over low heat for about 3 minutes until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Whisk to combine. Don’t allow the gelatin to boil. Remove from heat, stir in the tequila. Pour mixture into the prepared ice cube tray.
Place in the refrigerator and allow to rest until set (at 4 hours) or better yet, overnight.
To remove the cubes, invert the ice rube tray and run over warm water. I also used a thin knife to slice around the edges and press out of the ice cube tray. This may not be entirely necessary if using a shallow heart-shaped ice mold… they may come out more easily. Allow to rest in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
I used my juicer to make a simple cucumber and green apple juice. Lime too!
If you don’t have a fancy juicer, you could totally grab a store-bought green juice and be just as happy!
Cucumber Green Apple Lime and Gin Shot Bites
makes 15 shot bites
1 1/4 cup cucumber green apple and lime juice (I made this from 1/2 cucumber, 1 green apple, and the juice of 2 limes using a juicer)
2 envelopes (5 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
3/4 cup gin
Lightly spray an ice cube tray with non-stick cooking spray. Wipe any excess collected spray from the ice cube tray. Place green juice in a small saucepan. Sprinkle gelatin over the juice and let sit for 5 minutes. The juice will wrinkle and wave but still be loose. Heat over low heat for about 3 minutes until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Whisk well. Don’t allow the gelatin to boil. Remove from heat, stir in the gin.
Pour the green gin mixture into the prepared ice cube tray.
Place in the refrigerator and allow to rest until set (at least 4 hours) or better yet, overnight..
To remove the cubes, invert the ice rube tray and run over warm water. I also used a thin knife to slice around the edges and press out of the ice cube tray. Allow to rest in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
In case the main thing you’ve been wondering throughout the Jill Abramson–Sulzberger fiasco is, “Did they base the family of Gilmore Girls’ Logan Huntzberger on the Sulzbergers?” the answer is, basically, yes. “Oh, absolutely,” the 2000–'07 show’s creator Amy Sherman-Palladino told Vulture during an interview this morning. “It wasn’t even veiled — the word ‘berger’ is in there. We weren't trying to be clever. We just figured that was the kind of family [Logan] would be part of.”
For those of you not still stuck in the early '00s, Logan (who was played by The Good Wife’s Matt Czuchry) was Rory Gilmore's super-rich, delightfully Waspy newspaper scion boyfriend/almost-fiancé. While Sherman-Palladino never met a real live Sulzberger and "can't attest to their personal qualities," she wanted the Huntzbergers to be "a family of newspaper royalty in that vein. And a little, you know, a lot of them were bon vivants in addition to being in the business. There was a lot of jumping out of airplanes and shit like that."
Though she declined to weigh in on Abramson's situation, Sherman-Palladino, who's bicoastal (though she mostly lives in Brooklyn now) does hold former L.A. Times–ian Dean Baquet in high regard. She and husband Daniel Palladino have "been mourning the L.A. Times for a long time. It used to be a great paper, and they totally killed it, and he was the guy who took a stand and refused to make those firings and cut and destroy the paper further," she says of Baquet. "So to me, he's kind of a hero." Not surprisingly for a writer who creates Über-charming TV worlds where everyone's hyperliterate, Sherman-Palladino remains a print devotee ("We don't read newspapers online. We like to hold them in our hands"), and, today, was on the way to the Times building for a tour, courtesy of Gail Collins:"We're kind of geeking out on that."
Public service announcement: Plan B One-Step emergency contraception is available for only $16.90 on Amazon right now. Often purchased with: pregnancy tests. Much cheaper than an unplanned kid, guys!
"I started doing this little girl voice when a producer of the show I was auditioning for really responded to it. It turns out he liked it better when we were in bed together. Since then I have kept it because guys seem to like it." (Almost A list celebrity/singer/actress talking about her big break when she was a minor from a man three times her age)
It's been 14 years since a baby Pygmy Hippopotamus was last born at Basel Zoo in Switzerland. Baby Lani came into the world on March 18, when it was still a little cold for her outside. Now, she joins her mother, nine year-old Ashaki, in the zoo's outdoor enclosure on warm, sunny days. Lani is one of about 135 Pygmy Hippopotamuses in the European Endangered Species Programme and is the seventy-fourth baby hippo to be born at Basel Zoo.
Lani was born early in the morning and the animal keepers were able to observe the quick, trouble-free birth. The bright-eyed youngster was nursing within an hour. When she was born, Lani was the size of a rabbit and weighed about 11.5 pounds (5.2 kg). Since then she has been put on the scales every day. Her weight gain offers information about whether she is nursing regularly. At the last measurement she weighed in at already more than 35 pounds (16 kg). Mother Ashaki currently weighs around 440 pounds (200 kg).
Photo credit: Zoo Basel
For the present, Ashaki and Lani can only be seen in the outdoor enclosure between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm on warm, sunny days, alternating with the males. The water is still very chilly and the little one should not be allowed to get cold. Lani likes to hide in the bushes, so zoo visitors currently need a little luck and patience if they wish to spot her.
Lani has been very active from the start and mother Ashaki provides her with exemplary care. The little one has now begun to show some interest in solid food and nibbles on leaves.
See and read more after the fold.
The birth of Lani was particularly happy news at Zoo Basel. Pygmy Hippos are endangered in the wild, and the last time offspring was born (in 2000) the baby sadly did not survive. The last Pygmy Hippo to grow up at Basel Zoo was born in 1997 and now lives at Cabarceno Zoo in Spain.
Before Ashaki became pregnant, the Pygmy Hippo enclosure was altered to be more like their wild habitat, with more wallowing areas and hiding places. Ashaki and Aldo, who previously displayed a mutual dislike, slowly get to know each other through a fence with the patient help of the animal keeper. This was followed by a few barrier-free meetings which soon ended in mating.
Mother Ashaki came to Basel Zoo from Singapore in 2008. She is descended from wild Pygmy Hippos which have no descendants in Europe, making her a genetically valuable asset for breeding. The baby’s father is seven year-old Aldo who also came to Basel in 2008. The pair continued to get on well after mating and could be seen using the outdoor and indoor enclosures together. However, following Lani’s birth, the zoo chose to err on the side of caution, as Pygmy Hippopotamuses are actually solitary creatures in the wild and the father is not involved in raising offspring.
Basel Zoo has been running the Pygmy Hippopotamus international stud book since 1975 and has coordinated the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) for Pygmy Hippos since 1992. An EEP is almost like a dating agency for zoo animals: zoos seeking Pygmy Hippos or who have them contact the EEP, and the EEP allocates available animals to the zoos. To prevent hereditary diseases, pairs are formed with unrelated animals. Familial relationships are recorded in the stud book.
Pygmy Hippos are severely endangered. They live in the rainforests of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Until very recently these countries were dominated by political unrest and instability, which is why only very few researchers and conservationists have become involved there. Basel Zoo donates around 17,000 Swiss francs per year to support a conservation project established by international nature conservation organizations in Sierra Leone.
"When all the 17-year-olds become 22-year-olds, he'll have faded, but right now, he's right now," replied NYC-based drag queen Meeka, when asked about Leonardo DiCaprio by Nancy Jo Sales for her 1998 New York Magazine article "Leo, Prince in the City."
Well, the wedding might be delayed because of the unrest in Ukraine but Hayden Panettiere is pregnant with her boyfriend, Wladimir Klitschko's baby. I'm not really sure why the couple can't get married. Yes, I know Wladimir's brother is big in politics in Ukraine and that a destination wedding in the country is probably not ideal, but it seems to me that if the unrest is not stopping you from having a baby, then it probably shouldn't stop you from getting married. There are other places to get married. Of course this could have been a trade. He doesn't want to get married yet, but is willing to have a baby. Or, maybe it was just an accident. US Weekly doesn't give a due date, but a friend of Hayden's told the magazine that she is "totally pregnant." Yeah, that definitely sounds like a friend of Hayden.
Name: PEEPS Minis
Name: Ferrero Golden Gallery
Name: Queen Anne Cherry Cola - Cordial Black Cherries
Name: Brach’s Apple Pie Candy Corn
Name: Wonka Randoms
