A Handful of Embarrassing Tidbits

- I am weirdly delighted that the ventriloquist won "America's Got Talent." I watched this show last year (I have already forgotten who won), but had to skip it this year due to a middle of the night wake-up on the couch which resulted in a hazy, unwanted, for some reason really horrifying viewing, on one of those Access Hollywood-type shows, of the footage of the blotto Hoff trying to eat the hamburger, which resulted further in me having a higher than normal case of the heebie jeebies when I see the guy on TV (which one does a lot when one indulges in "America's Got Talent"). I watched maybe forty-five minutes of the show altogether, in little channel flips, but still managed to catch the ventriloquist, and unlike so many of the contestants (my friend C. has offered that the name of the show should actually be "America's Got Skills"- dancing on stilts? Right, more of a skill...), he really does have talent. Also, so so out there that America's best new act, as they bill the winner of this thing, is a ventriloquist.
- I was flipping through the Pottery Barn catalog (because we need some specific drape-related hardware that is specific to these people, and it came in the mail, and whatever), and I couldn't help but notice that some bored catalog editor decided to sprinkle the pages of this direct-mail retail shop with inspirational quotes. The embarrassing part is not that I was reading the PB catalog, or that I just now used their own precious abbreviation for themselves, but that I really like the quotes. Which means I am going along too easily with the Pottery Barn ethos or whatever. The quote picker did a fine job. From Pab To the Lo Picasso: "Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working." And from Einstein: "Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift." These quotes do not make me want to shop, however. So in that sense, maybe, quote picker, back to the library with you.
- This isn't really embarrassing, but it is a tidbit- Naomi has suddenly turned a corner, or is conducting some kind of social experiment, wherein every stranger is just a friend she hasn't met yet. So everywhere we go, she yells out "Hi!" to whoever we see. Even people that are twenty yards away and looking in the other direction. This is great when we're on walks, because there are people going by who fully intended not to make eye contact and give the minimum acknowledgement due to a passerby (in my book), and they are surprised into social grace by my obnoxious little diplomat. Hee. I hope this phase or social experiment lasts. It's fun.