Snow Days and Alvin Robinson/Old Crow Medicine Show

On Monday there was a vague hope of a snow day this week. There was a special weather statement and everything, suggest wind and rain and blizzard conditions.

Here in Alaska we never get snow days. The only way one will even be considered is if the buses can’t get around town or they can’t get the parking lots plowed in time for the start of school. Most of the time school is canceled because of ice, so I was excited when I saw rain and above freezing temperatures in the forecast.

The last time we had a snow day it looked like this. And school wasn't even canceled for snow. It was canceled because all the roads were like a hockey rink.

By Monday afternoon, however, the special weather statement was gone. The forecast was no longer reporting wind and rain (what’s up, global warming) and snow. There goes the hope for a snow day.

But this week is not about how disappointing it is to not get a snow day. It’s about how exciting it is when one actually happens.

Kids are not the only ones who hope for a snow day. It is just as exciting when you are a teacher. Who doesn’t want a day off in the middle of the week? Or even better a 3-(or 4!) day weekend! There is nothing quite like hearing, “All Anchorage public schools are closed today due to weather and road conditions” when your alarm goes off. I love going back to sleep knowing I don’t have a single thing to do that day. Don't get me wrong, I really like my job. I just like sleeping in more.

Bonus favorite thing!

For Thanksgiving I went down to Nashville and I got to meet this little guy for the first time!

His name is Barrett and he's my favorite (and only) nephew. Adorbs, right?

I had every intention of writing about Old Crow Medicine Show's version of Down Home Girl for this week's hot jam. It's the version I'm most familiar with and I love me some bluegrass. But while researching the song, I discovered that Down Home Girl has a long history. It was originally done by Alvin Robinson in 1964. It was later covered by The Rolling Stones in 1965, The Coasters in 1967, and most recently, Old Crow Medicine Show in 2006, just to name a few. It was apparently even adapted into a song called Forgive Me Jah by Super Cat.

Down Home Girl is sexy in a weird way. A lot of the lines sound like insults, but you can’t really be sure. “Every time I kiss you girl -”

“Oh,” you think, “ this could be good.”

Except the next line is, “You taste like pork and beans.” Weird, but maybe he’s into that?

Or “I’m going to take to you to the muddy river/And push you in…”

Hmm…that doesn’t sound very gentlemanly.

“So I can watch the water roll on down your velvet skin.” Oh, well I guess that isn’t so bad?

My favorite line is "Every time you move like that/I got to go to Sunday mass." So much better than the modern-day, "DAYUM girl, you's a good dancer!"

I'd never heard the original (being the B-side of a song I'd never heard of) and was pleasantly surprised to find it on YouTube. (Isn't the internet amazing?) Turns out I love the original. It's bluesy and awesome and sounds more...legitimate? then the covers. But I couldn't decide which version I liked better so you are getting both this week.

Teen Movies and Tupac

Most of the time Netflix thinks I'm a 60 year old gay man with small children. It suggests things like Columbo and Transamerican Love Story and Dora the Explorer. Yes, I realize the suggestions are based on what I watch, so maybe I'm a 60 year old gay man with small children on the inside, but that is totally beside the point.

Anyway, Netflix must have had a flash of genius the other day because I literally gasped with joy when I saw that Drive Me Crazy starring Melissa Joan Hart and Adrian Grenier was available for streaming (finally!)

This 1999 gem stars Melissa Joan Hart as a high school socialite and Adrian Grenier as her slacker-with-rebel-tendencies neighbor. They come up with a scam to get their respective love interests back, makeover ensues, and you can probably guess what happens in the end. (Spoiler: K-I-S-S-I-N-G)

I have a soft spot for teen comedies from the late 90's. They remind me of sleepovers and eating Warheads and giggling in somebody's basement. There is nothing quite like a middle school girls' slumber party.

This is actually from my going away party in 8th grade, not a sleepover, but it's what most of our sleepovers looked like too.

Teen movies have very few story lines: makeovers, modern-day Shakespeare remakes, prom, graduation. That about covers it. You know what to expect from teen movies, there are never plot twists.

You think, "Oh, I wonder if those two are going to get together?!" Are they the main characters? Is one a nerd and one in the popular crowd? Is the world trying to keep them apart? Then yes, yes they are. Cue the credits.

Teen movies are the cotton candy of the film world. Soft, airy, and fabulous. Sure, binges on teen movies would probably make you barf but a little never hurt anyone.

Keeping with the 90's theme, this week's hot jam is Changes by Tupac. Released posthumously in 1998, Changes is a Monster Ballad of the hip hop world; a little more radio-friendly, a little more accepted by the masses (and the Catholic church.), and a little less police violence. It address some serious issues and probably would have been used in some sort of Save the World celebrity fundraiser if it was released before Tupac was killed. Normally, I wouldn't consider any Save the World songs hot jams, but this one is by Tupac, and let's be honest, everything he did was a hot jam. Pour one out and turn it up.

Pumpkin and T.I.

Before I get into this week's favorite thing, I want to send a little message to the world. IT'S NOVEMBER.  It is NOT the Christmas season! Fall/Thanksgiving comes first! With that said, this week's favorite thing is everyone's favorite squash (gourd?), the pumpkin.

I promise not to go on a Bubba Gump-esque rant about the merits of pumpkin, but there are a lot of things you can do with them.

Here in Alaska we grow really big pumpkins.

I suspect a pumpkin that big wouldn't be good for eating, but a 1700 lbs pumpkin is impressive no matter what you do with it.

Pumpkins are so useful. I mean, they are decorative AND delicious. How many other foods can you say that about? Not many, that’s for sure.

Last night I made pumpkin ravioli. I meant to take a picture of it, but it was so delicious I ate it all before I remembered.

I used this recipe for the ravioli and this for the sauce if you are interested. It was super easy.

Let’s take a second to talk about pumpkin spice scented candles. How good do those smell, right? Pure olfactory heaven.

In conclusion, I love all things pumpkin and you should too.

Hip Hop/Rap videos fall into two categories: "Look how tough (maybe even tuff) I am! I have sooo many guns! I'm not even afraid to use them!" and "Look how hot I am! I have so much money! All these ladies loooooove me. Look how big their butts are!" T.I.'s Whatever You Like is the latter. It's classic hip hop royalty: expensive liquor, private jets, vacations in the tropics, 5 million dollar homes, etc. I'm not sure how or why that gives you street cred, but apparently it does. If T.I. told me I could have whatever I'd like, I'd probably ask for a crock pot.

Doctor Who and The Waitresses

I like a lot of nerdy stuff. I have two favorite scientists: Nikola Tesla and Niels Bohr, I’m looking for a good book about the Roanoke Island colony (if you know of any, please let me know), I want an SEM image for my kitchen wall, and I love Doctor Who.

For those who haven’t had the opportunity to watch this BBC show, it’s about a time traveling humanoid alien called The Doctor (no first or last name) who speeds around the time and space fighting aliens and saving civilization.

My favorite things about Doctor Who are:

1. David Tennant- the second incarnation of The Doctor (in the new series.) He’s adorable and he plays the bumbling Englishman perfectly. (Even though he is actually from Scotland, and in the show from the planet Gallifrey).

2. The effects- There are a lot of special effects in Doctor Who and none of them are particularly high tech. And that’s what I love about it. While I’ve never seen the original version of Doctor Who, I suspect it looks, effect-wise, exactly like the new one. The prosthetics are amazing, but they look like something out of sci-fi movie from the 70s. I like the effects for the same reason I prefer the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to the remake. I like that there is a TV studio somewhere with part of spaceship in it, and there is a room somewhere full of alien masks.CGI just isn't the same.

3. The TARDIS- The Doctor's means of time/space travel. It's made to look like a police phone box and it's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside (Who needs physics?). I love that he doesn't use a flying saucer or an invisible jet (I'm looking at you, Wonder Woman). It's completely unassuming, much like The Doctor himself. And thanks to the TARDIS The Doctor and his companions can speak and understand alien languages.

I've always liked I Know What Boys Like by The Waitresses. It's a  sort of New Wave girl-power song. But I didn't really know anything about the band. I expected a sort of Blondie meets Flock of Seagulls type thing: sexy with weird hair. So I was surprised to find that The Waitresses were not only not a girl band but also utterly unsexy. Not unsexy in an "oh man, the 80s were not a flattery time for fashion" but in just general unsexiness. I guess you learn something new everyday.

Cooking, Erik Larson, and Pure Prairie League

I'm adding a new feature to a few of my favorite things this week, but I'll get to that.

In general, if it's between the hours of 5pm and 7pm, you'll find me like this:

Sometimes without the beer, sometimes bundled up in pants and sweatshirt, sometimes wearing a full apron, but you get the idea. I love cooking, more specifically, I love the science of cooking. I like seeing 5 seemingly random ingredients turn into something delicious. I like watching soup thicken after adding corn starch. I like feeling like a mad scientist when I'm mixing stuff up.

My favorite part of cooking is figuring out how to make something I've eaten at a restaurant. There are a lot of restaurant hack websites around if you are looking for something specific, but I mostly just mess around until I get it right. There is a restaurant in Flagstaff, AZ called MartAnne's. It's the best Mexican breakfast food you can get.Whenever I go, I get enchiladas y huevos. I had a giant craving for them, but being 3000 miles from Flagstaff, I had to make them myself. I found a super easy and delicious enchilada sauce recipe online and went to work. (If you are interested, it's here. I don't use flour, because it always gets thick enough without it. I also add a little cocoa.) And they turned out delicious!

New Feature!
I read a lot of books. Like a lot. Last year I read 50. I read all sorts of stuff; fiction, non fiction, short stories, biographies, etc etc etc, so I decided to add book reviews to my favorite things. Here's how it's going to work: If I'm reading/have recently read a good book I think other people might like, I'm just going to write a little about it and then maybe you'll want to read it too. Fun and informative

Right now I'm about half way through a book called The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson and it's excellent (so far).

It's an extremely well written book that combines the story of the architects of the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago and America's first serial killer, H.H. Holmes.  The architects were using the fair to put the United States on the map, so to speak, and  H.H. Holmes was using the fair to lure young women to their death. In fact, it's so well written that I can only read it during the day because the parts about Holmes are so unsettling. Pardon the colloquialism, but H.H. Holmes was mad scary.

It's also full of interesting facts that I'm sure will come in handy if I'm ever on Jeopardy! For example, in the first 6 months of 1892, there were nearly 800 violent deaths in Chicago (e.g., deaths due to stabbings or shootings). That's about 4 per day! And that's not including deaths due carriage accidents, streetcar accidents, or any of the numerous maladies (typhoid, small pox, cholera) that plagued the city.

This week's hot jam is Amie by Pure Prairie League. A couple years ago I spent the summer in Jackson, WY. (Which is beautiful and amazing and one of my favorite places ever.) Every Tuesday at the Silver Dollar Bar in Jackson is bluegrass night and a band called One Ton Pig always plays.They play originals and covers and one cover that always seemed to come up was Amie. Which is fine with me because I love that song.



Sorry, I couldn't find a good live video.