Nero fiddled, Larry naps.

As though the fright over the Conficker virus and swine flu wasn't enough, several of Shopgirlove's friends were laid off yesterday from a rather large and important vendor on the West Coast. Not that New England has a great deal to crow about. But, what to make of this poor man in Belgrade who actually removed the pinky from his left hand with a hacksaw to keep his union deputy from cutting off her own: "I could not allow her to do that." Talk about taking one for the team! The saddest news is the link between unemployment and suicide. Add to this the likely spread of civil unrest, and the picture gets grim indeed! 

Not to fret, my lovelies! Uncle Larry  is on the case! In the meantime, there's always gin!

21 Gun salute

The sport of kings and 21 dead in Florida.  Shopgirlove has always wondered why the public is so eager to condemn the sport of the worker but allows the rich to ride off into the sunset without one word of condemnation.  She has already made her case against racing the immature horse, and not without reason.  More to the point, doesn't it seem as though the wealthy incur such minimal penalties for their sins as compared to the the poor?

Mischa Barton, tarred and feathered

Shopgirlove was well-chastised by the brilliant Mr. Craig Ferguson on why making fun of celebrities is cheap and beyond the pale...BUT SHE CAN'T HELP IT!!!!!!  What, what was Mischa thinking?????????  Shopgirlove had just finished the fascinating article in Vanity Fair about TR's conservation efforts (the first being a bird sanctuary in Florida to protect the native species from becoming feathers in ladies' caps. Irony upon irony.)

And then, she saw this...

Oh, help us, Baby Jesus!

Ah, Mother Russia!

Things are decidedly weird in the motherland lately.  People are leaping from tall buildings.  They are Killing their neighbors over lice. Alcoholism has always been a bit of a problem for the strapping men; now some would like to see equality for women. Medvedev has vowed to fight corruption. But we've heard that before, no? In the meantime, things are getting worse.  Shopgirlovelove has no idea how to fix this mess, but she would like to propose that American consumers develop a certain wariness surrounding Russian goods. After all, we might have saved the sturgeon.

Eye candy

Do you remember the Brothers Quay?  Or, if you are old enough, those wonderful short animated films that rained down on us from Canada in the 70s as though that were a nation of artistic giants and enlightened government funding for the arts?  Animation has always captivated Shopgirlove and she is thrilled to discover Patrick Boivin.  Enjoy my lovelies.

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

Happy Good Friday!

A new dish

Tagine de Baccalà aux amis:

Serves 4

1 head of garlic

1/4 cup chopped green olives (preferably cured with lemons)

1/2 cup preserved lemon cut into large pieces

1 1/2 lbs salt cod (baccalà) soaked in milk or water overnight, drained and rinsed

1 cup cleaned and chopped mustard greens

2 tblspns chopped pistachios

1 (tiny) pinch each of cumin, mace, and asepheotida

Fresh thyme to finish

3 tblspns young, peppery olive oil

2 cups couscous plus salt to taste

Start a large pot of water on the boil for the couscous, add salt

Roast the garlic in foil or a clay garlic pot until soft and nicely browned

Slice the top off the head of garlic and add to a cold pan along with the oil and spices; heat very slowly over a low flame. As the pan begins to heat (when you can smell the spices) add the fish, mustard greens, and pistachios

Cook the couscous

Drain the couscous and arrange in the bottom of the tagines

Stir the thyme into the fish and take off the heat. Pour over the couscous. Cover and serve

Rain delay

Sorry, kid.

Shopgirlove got a raise!

Shopgirlove is on the dole.  As of last week each check is $25 larger!  She promises not to spend it all in one place...(thank you, Mr. President!)  Not a single Republican in the House voted yes on the stimulus package.  Only 3 Senate Republicans did.  Do they hate recovery?  Of course, she wasn't the only one to get more.  But Shopgirlove cannot help but wonder; who, in good conscience, could accept such tremendous rewards for such terrible performance.  It must be nice to be at the top.  While Shopgirlove got a 15% increase, Patricia Woertz at Archer Daniels Midland got a whopping 397% raise.  Oh, the shopping Shopgirlove could do...it seems, though, that certain persons would rather just say no.  Despite the evidence.

Update 4/6/09 (what, no comment? Thanks for stopping by!):

 12.43.88.121 (Archer Daniels Midland) [Label IP Address]

Illinois, Decatur, United States, 0 returning visit

Date	Time	WebPage
April 6th 2009	09:12:00	No referring link shopgirlove.blogspot.com/
April 6th 2009	09:12:58	shopgirlove.blogspot.com/ shopgirlove.blogspot.com/2009/04/shopgirlove-got-raise.html

Shopgirlove is all aTwitter

Demi Moore and Twitter stopped a woman from killing herself, Twitter killed the John Mayer/Jennifer Aniston affair, and Colbert killed the Google/Twitter take-over.  What now tweets?

Seen any good movies lately?

Shopgirlove is on a real loosing streak...Duplicity was sheer agony; she, her mam, and several of the other tortured souls in the theater were actually groaning. If you can't tell your cinematic tale in ninety minutes, do us all a favor and go back to theater!  Flashbacks!  Split screens!  Gimmick after gimmick!  And WHAT is wrong with Julia Roberts?  Shopgirlove doesn't always expect good choices from Clive Owen, but the American beauty can usually pick a good script...Thank goodness for DVDs!  Shopgirlove got War, Inc and loved it!  It's a strange sort of modern Dr. Strangelove-esque damnation of American foreign policy.  Or the lack thereof.  Ben Kingsly is a truly creepy man-behind-the-curtain and Hilary Duff was a revelation with an edgy, almost dangerous performance.  The Cusacks never fail, of course.  Oddly, Marisa Tomei struggled a little.  (In her defense, she has the burden of playing the only straight character in a film full of twitchy maniacs.  No wonder her role dampens things a tad.)

In other news, Shopgirlove has been trying out Chrome.  Google does it again!  It's fast, elegant, and versatile...a product Shopgirlove is happy to endorse!