Daily Readings: It's Botox for you, Dear Bridesmaids

This article is disgusting. Why does it matter if bridesmaids have small boobs or wrinkles? I really don't understand how a walk down the aisle could elicit so much money and cosmetic treatment--they're just bridesmaids for goodness sake!

Daily Readings: The Weird, Wild and, Ultimately, Sublime

Spaghetti to go in an ice cream cone

If I could choose three words to describe myself or the way I see life, I would choose the ones in this title. Here's a nice little crash course on the wonders of eating in Seoul.

I think I've eaten here before.

I've definitely eaten this french fried encrusted deep fried corn dog.

These carts full of hot fresh fast food are everywhere.

I am salivating. Slideshow here.

Daily Readings: Lessons in Love, by Way of Economics

A nice twist to the familiar essay on finding true love, written by an economist, appropriately referred to me by friend B., an investment banker. Finding new language to talk about a mystery as old and complex as love is a good thing.

Correction:  B. is not an investment banker.  He's in finance though, and he's an analytic genius.

Daily Readings: 101 Picnic Dishes

What a stellar summer picnic resource from Mark Bittman. Enjoy. I'll be using some of these ideas for the Hollywood Bowl.

Daily Readings: Food Writers and Former Fat Girls

I have ALWAYS wondered how food writers do not get fat or how some are ok getting fat on the job. This article talks about how they keep the weight off.

And on another note, I discovered this book Secrets of a Former Fat Girl. I kind of want to read it.

Update: I skimmed the book at lunch on Friday and it's not worth buying. The most interesting thing about that whole book was how exercising and having healthy body image helped her move up the career ladder to become senior editor of top health and fitness magazines in the country. And helped her meet her husband :)

Daily Readings: Pure Tyranny

I am really liking Judith Warner at the Times lately. She wrote this in response to the hymen restoration article and goes further to explore manifestations of patriarchy and sick attitudes toward sexuality in the U.S. The Purity Ball makes me shudder. Ugh. Especially since I'm reading Lolita, and I can see a resemblance of Humbert's possessive views surrounding Lolita's sexuality that is not unlike these evangelical dads and their emotional control of their daughter's "purity." Granted, I think it's wonderful for dads to affirm their daughters but to see them as the gatekeeper to their priceless virginity? I think this ball just reeks of taking it too far. And the pictures in themselves are disturbing with the cross and all that flowing white fabric and girls in prom dresses with their dads. Yes, Humbert raped Lolita repeatedly and physical force is different from emotional control. But both are still destructive, and if men can't stop emotionally demanding possession of a woman's body, whether for purity or sex, women will still be oppressed.

Daily Readings: Monaco and Night Owls

Have you been following The Frugal Traveler as he does "the grand tour" of europe? He's a great writer and has good tips. He also gives nice perspectives on traveling alone.

Favorite line: "I walked back uphill to the Beausoleil, taking every diversionary alley I could find, loving every heavy step and wishing Monaco could always be like this: dark and cool, the knotty streets the province of night owls like myself, who don’t need a prince’s ransom to live like kings."

Daily Readings: Every Day Sex

This article will make your eyes pop. My favorite part: she made him have sex even when he had vertigo.

Daily Readings: Saved

Weird. Very weird. The 2004 movie Saved is now a musical. NY Times review here.

Daily Readings: India Arie and Tiger Woods

I love this line from today's NY Times article, "It's Good to Be Immortal," about Tiger Woods.

"That a self-described control freak would devote his life to a game where so much is beyond a player’s control implies a certain degree of masochism."

A friend reintroduced this song to me today. I'm sure you've heard it. But I'm hearing the words for the first time. These words stand out to me: How I lost me and you lost you.