hard-knock life, 1.20.04

I think I got more mail about meatloaf yesterday than I’ve gotten all month about anything I’ve written here, which is alternately flattering (“…you like me….you really like me!”) and funny, because if I’d have known how much response it got, I would have started a whole page on handling ground beef years ago. Or abusing Martha Stewart. Our friend Linda brought up a related point:

…as for Martha Stewart, I’m pretty confident she’s not a very nice person, but not for one second do I think a MAN in her position would be as scorned or persecuted.

I’m not too sure. I think any media celebrity in her place would have been just as crucified; I think she’s a convenient placeholder for people like Ken Lay of Enron, who, by most accounts, is going to be impossible to prosecute. (I searched for a relevant article on this subject that ran a few months back in the New Yorker, but they’re not providing past articles for deep linking. Essentially, the author argued that no jury will ever be able to understand months of boring testimony about numbers.)

Heather wrote:

…the recipe sounds wonky to me- People who suggest carrots and celery in meatloaf have their heads up their asses.

I think we’d agree with you there, girl.

Renie wrote to tell us she almost made meatloaf at Christmas for us. Which would have been nice, but I should probably explain a bit further: It’s not that Jen hates meatloaf, per se, but that she hates the idea of meatloaf: generally it makes her think of a blackened, tasteless pile of carbon scraped from a pan and covered with ketchup. Yum!

How F**king Dangerous Is That Dept.: the iTunes Music Store now has something called “iTunes Essentials” which are compilations of songs, like Hair Bands or 70’s AM Radio Classics, programmed much like Greatest Hits or AOR radio playlists, and priced as singles or as group purchases. Keep my credit card away from my computer, please. (On a related note, I need to look at Zero 7 and Verve Remixed when I get some money together.)

Random Fun Links. Holy Mary, Mother of God, what I would give to have this calendar.