Viva la Postcard!

A dear friend of mine is currently traveling round Europe and the UK for a few months. Before she left we were talking about postcards and how it's such a shame that people don't really send them as often as in years past. So we made a deal. It's quite simple, really. We're just going to send each other postcards from wherever we are (even if that doesn't happen to be a vacation spot). After all postcards are cheap, postcard stamps are even cheaper and can be bought in mass quantities, you don't really have to say much, and they range in design from something you can send your kid sister or grandmother to something you should probably be embarrassed not to be putting into an envelope.

True that they usually arrive at their intended destination a week or so after the person who sent them has returned from their trip, but who cares? In this age of "all mail is either a bill or junk" isn't it nice to get something that's nothing but fun?

My answer to this question is yes.

Album Currently on Repeat: Kings of Leon, Aha Shake Heartbreak

We Recommend....

Sometimes you have to be super discriminatory when it comes to recommending something. Thankfully, a friend was wise enough to recommended this part of the McSweeney's site. One thing I can confidently recommend: do not read this at work unless you're really good at laughing silently (I am not).

Here are a few of the recommendations that made me laugh when I probably should've been working. And yes, the Steve Martin book they mention really is that good (and also makes you laugh out loud on airplanes and/or in other inappropriate situations).

*Fifteen-month calendars
Who doesn't like a little overlap?

*Duff from Ace of Cakes
This guy Duff has a cake bakery in Baltimore and a show on the Food Network. Maybe you know the show. Our sense is that if everyone were like this guy, and if every show had this joy, we'd be all good.

*The Remington ShortCut
If you cut your own hair and like it really short, this is the Jesus Christ of hair clippers.

*Fastpasses for rides at Disney's Magic Kingdoms
We wish there were Fastpasses for other things in life, like grocery shopping and graduate school.

*Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
The story of the genesis, apex, and end of Mr. Martin's standup career. This book has been justifiably praised.

*Microwaving cake for 20 seconds before eating
Doesn't matter how powerful your microwave is—you put the cake in there for 20 seconds. Remove. Add a dollop of vanilla ice cream (chocolate generally doesn't work in these cases, probably because of some kind of microwave-induced molecular rearrangement). Use a spoon. Do that mmm-mmm-wow moan-noise thing. Thank us later.

*Bacon of the Month Club
You haven't known pleasure until a full rasher of applewood smoked bacon shows up in the arms of the UPS man just as you're prepared to give in to the forces of healthy living and eat yogurt, or some crap like that.

*Sticky roller lint pickups
We remember the older lint pickups, the ones with the semi-velvety surface stretched across an oval head. Those didn't pick up shit. These do. (If by "shit" you mean sweater fuzz and dog hair and the like.)

*Baseball on the radio
A rich experience exceeded only by baseball at the park, in which case, we also recommend listening to the radio broadcast with an earpiece in the left ear as you watch from mid-lower level, left field. Funny, too, that the rise of radio and the rise of baseball were concurrent. Timely then, timeless thereafter.