Detroit Diva

All kinds of things

I know I haven’t posted in over a week so let me fill you in on what I’ve been doing and things I’m into right now.

Last week my Mom and I went to see k.d. lang with the Detroit Symphony. It turns out that my Mom loves k.d. (who knew?) and so I got her tickets for her birthday. K.d was great and I might even have to buy her soon-to-be-released album Hymns from the 49th Parallel which is k.d. covering songs by Canadian artists such as Neil Young (love him!) and Leonard Cohen. We had a good time and where else can you hear your Mom say things like “Are they lesbians?” and “Is that a man or a woman?” My Mom doesn’t get out of Northern Michigan very often.

I also went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 on Saturday night and although I am definitely a member of the choir, it was really quite shocking to see and hear some of the dumbass things that have come out of the mouth of El Presidente. Most stunning is to watch him, for 7 minutes, sit in the classroom on the morning of 9/11, after he’s been informed that two planes have flown into the World Trade towers. I’m sorry but is there a reason that you can’t tell the teacher that there has been a national emergency and you need to go? Instead you sit there with a blank look on your face? Somebody suggested to me that maybe they, being the secret service, kept him there for safety reasons. Um, ok, but what about the safety of the school full of children? C’mon, is that the only way the secret service can keep him safe. I should hope not.

One of the coolest shows is back on PBS. The History Detectives. I love this show. The premise is that people, usually 3-4 per show, present the hosts with an object they’ve had in the family and tell them the supposed story behind the object and the History Detectives do some digging and find out whether the story is true or not. For example, this week a guy had a handmade board game that had been designed by his great-grandmother. The family story was that this board game had been the basis for Monopoly and that basically his great-grandmother has invented Monopoly. Well, after the hosts (made up of historians, antiques specialists, archivists, etc) did some digging they found that it was indeed true. They even had the great-grandmother’s patent and the contract from Parker Brothers in which they bought the rights to the game. Parker Brothers paid grandma a whopping $500 (which was probably a lot of money in the day) for the rights. Way to go Gran! So, if you like history or are interested in antiques or are a geeky librarian like myself, who loves that the show visits libraries and archives and talks about how they research the history of an item, you’ll love this show.

I’m reading several things right now, but the one book I’m really liking is called CandyFreak by Steve Almond. It’s his memoir of his love for candy. Steve is a guy who has mass quantities of candy in his house at all times including something like $400 worth of a limited edition KitKat dark bar. This book is so funny and somewhat disturbing, especially when he talks about his 15lb hauls of candy at Halloween and his many cavities as a kid. Good grief, I like candy but I don’t have to have it on a daily or even weekly basis and this guy doesn’t think about anything else. He loves and eats it all and lives for the special editions. I have a thing for Snickers bars and don’t like when they mess with the original – like putting almonds instead of peanuts. Have to admit, though that the white chocolate Reese’s are out of this world. Must go eat banana now.

Pistons, Plants, and not much else

In case you don't know by now - the Pistons won the NBA championship. Woo Hoo!! Thank God it didn't last any longer - the lack of sleep from the late games knocked me out. So enough of basketball, let's move on until next season.

I don't have a green thumb but that doesn't stop me from trying to grow something every summer. This year it's oregano that Mary gave me. I've had it for a month and it's still going strong. And the Oriental Lily that I bought when my sister was here is actually starting to bloom. See a picture here.

Yeah, it sure is ugly!

Detroit 3, Lakers 1.

Lakers? We don't need no stinking Lakers!

Ass whomping Detroit 2, old & tired Lakers 1.

Boo, Hiss

Pistons 1, those damn Lakers 1.

Can I complain about the heat now?

Yes, I am one of those who complains when it's too cold and as soon as it gets hot, I complain about that as well. Like today - 90 hot, sticky humid degrees. Yuck! the weird thing is that it's not sunny out. It's overcast and we are having our first ozone action day of the summer, which just means try not to use too much energy or gas or anything else that will kill the ozone. Shouldn't every day be ozone action day?
Speaking of heat - how 'bout those Pistons? Is there anything sadder than seeing a bunch of celebrities all bummed out because their team is losing? Aaawww, get over it crybabies - it's about to be a feeling you're going to experience often over the next week. Pistons 1, Lakers 0.

Place your bets now

Yes, the queen of long-lasting relationships has apparently tied the knot again. Of course, I'm talking about Jennifer Lopez. Personally I give it about, oh, six months. I could be wrong, what with the long courtship and everything.

A Year in Reading

I've just finished the latest book in Laurie R. King's Kate Martinelli series. I really liked these books and am now thinking about giving her Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series another try. I really have to get my butt in gear and starting doing some heavy duty reading since I just realized that I'm about 6 weeks behind on the reading thing. I attempted to read 3 other books but didn't end up finishing them, including Anna Karenina which Oprah just picked as her classic book selection for the summer. I've decided to follow the Oprah schedule (follow the book club links -you have to register to access the Tolstoy stuff) and finish reading the book with her. I think it's a great book but it's big and time consuming and, like Oprah, I think it needs to be read in small pieces. Since, I'm already about 300 pages into Anna, I'm going to wait till the schedule moves past that point and start from there, which is about the end of June. Hopefully, I'll get a few more books in by that point, although I've been in more of a knitting mood, and with the Pistons on the telly, it makes more sense to knit.

Deeeetroooit!

Oh yeah, how about those Detroit Pistons!!!! We’re in the finals. Gonna beat the Lakers. Pistons rock. I am so excited about the Pistons, I can’t stand it. So, in other sports news – my sister Kris was here last week from Wednesday to Sunday and among other things, we went to the Detroit Shock game (that’s Women’s NBA basketball). The Shock were the WNBA champions last year and made history by literally going from last place in 2002 to first place in 2003. Saturday was the first home game of the season so they had the banner raising and gave the ladies their championship rings and all other sorts of hoopla. They led the game right up until the end when they lost by 3 points. Ouch. To round off the sports, I went to the Tiger Baseball game last night against the Kansas City Royals. I’m not a big baseball fan and the game last night was exceptionally boring. The Tigers were up 3-0 until the 5th inning at which point the Royals tied it up. In the 7th inning, the Tigers, in a desperate attempt to hold off KC, made 5 pitcher changes. Oh, yeah, nothing like watching 5 pitchers warm up. The 7th inning lasted about an hour. Add to that an idiotic 20-something girl behind us who kept talking about how awesome the wave is. I’m sorry but the wave quit being awesome about 20 years ago. We made it to the 9th inning somehow and finally went home. I like to go to a game about once a year because I love the Stadium. It has a great view of the city and last night there was a full moon. My favorite sports are hockey and basketball and the pace of baseball about kills me. I need more action.