Leap Day Cocktail

Any One Have Any Good Leap Day Cocktails?
This one was created at London's Savoy Hotel for a Leap Day party in 1928:
2 ounces gin,
1/2 ounce Grand Marnier
1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
1/4 ounce
fresh lemon juice
1 lemon twist for garnish

Via Coudal

Awesome nerd with a flipchart

Thanks to Celebrating the Absurd for making my evening.

Wanna sell something?

Click on the image below for some great marketing ideas:


Big Fat Whale

American and British TV put-downs

TV's top 25 put-downs
I enjoy the British ones - like these- the most:

Arnold Rimmer - Red Dwarf. "Look, we all have something to bring to this discussion. But I think from now on the thing you should bring is silence."

Patsy Stone - Absolutely Fabulous. "One more facelift on this one and she'll have a beard."

Edmund Blackadder - Blackadder II. To Lord Percy: "The eyes are open, the mouth moves, but Mr Brain has long since departed, hasn't he, Percy?

Via Beancounters

In 10 Years

Looks good now; how will it seem in 10 years?


via Blame It On The Voices

Never Too Young for That First Pedicure ???

Never Too Young for That First Pedicure
I disagree but what do I know? I've never had a pedicure or a manicure or had my eyebrows waxed. I forget to shave my legs and put off getting my hair cut until I look like a homeless person. I don't behave like this for political reasons. I just know that the people I want to care about me don't obsess about superficial things like body hair or finger and toenails. They love me for what's inside: my shrunken heart and dessicated liver.

Visiting forgotten places

One of these places is Whitby Psychiatric Hospital (below) where I worked long ago:
Ghost Towns of Ontario Abandoned Places of Ontario
Via Plep

R.I.P. William F. Buckley Jr., Cavalier lover

William F. Buckley Jr. Is Dead at 82

William F. Buckley Jr., who marshaled polysyllabic exuberance, famously arched eyebrows and a refined, perspicacious mind to elevate conservatism to the center of American political discourse, died Wednesday at his home in Stamford, Conn. He was 82.

At first it would seem that the Nag would have little in common with Mr. Buckley. Little, that is, other than our insane love of Cavalier King Charles spaniels. Ronald Reagan also had Cavaliers. Are these canines for Conservatives? Maybe there's a tiny, right-wing Nag lurking just under the surface. Who knew?

Free-floating Graffiti

DAIM // Tagged in motion

Figures Walking Through a Parkland

Carmontelle's Transparency (Getty Center Exhibitions)
“Figures Walking in a Parkland” is a 12-foot-long transparent drawing by Louis Carrogis, known as Carmontelle who brought motion to his images.

Read more about it here.

Via MeFi

Bollywood loves Obama, too

Seen at 3quarksdaily

ON THIS DAY

Keith Richards' heroin bust - Feb 28, 1977
Found in possession of 22 grams of heroin, Keith could have done 7 years but Toronto judge ordered him to perform a concert for the blind instead.

The Peoples Mario

A video game for the proletariat.
the peoples mario

Message to Ralph Nader

Message to Ralph Nader
Via Blort

The Revenge of Jimmy Kimmel

Jimmy's hysterical response to his wife's public infidelity.

Bitch Is The New Black

Spanish red wine review

This clip came along just in time. I'm going to Barcelona in April and will fit right in now that I'm familiar with Spanish drinking customs (hic).


Via Grow a Brain

Excuse me, do you speak parrot?

Learn greetings in 12 languages-- from a parrot

I do love a good dog story

The story of Silverton Bobbie is definitely a good one, sad but with a happy ending.

Your cocktail says something about you - make sure it's something nice.

When you sidle up to the bar and place your order, you open a window onto your very soul, revealing not only who you are, but also who you long to be.
(and Modern Drunkard should know)

I don't drink fancy alcoholic concoctions very often. In fact I view them as a recipe for disaster or perhaps I don't want people looking too deeply into my cold black soul. I get my buzz from red wine almost exclusively but can occasionally be convinced to try a Martini in the summertime or a Manhattan when the weather gets nippy. Apparently that makes me a witty sophisticate who enjoys the finer things in life. Yeah right.

Via Coudal

On This Day

The Greatest Canadian died on this day in 1986.

Remembering Tommy Douglas

The well-known founder of both medicare and Canada's social democratic movement died today in Ottawa at the age of 81. But Tommy Clement Douglas was lesser-known as a Baptist preacher in Saskatchewan. It was the pulpit that prepared him as one of the nation's most eloquent orators: a talent that helped him get his medicare message across. As premier of Saskatchewan in 1961, Douglas introduced the first hospital insurance program.

Slow news week in Niagara

There's a second page as well, complete with a photo of my mother. Hey, wait a minute. That's not my mother - that's me! If you want to see it you'll have to email me.

The article refers to me as an Old Town blogger because I live in the Old Town. Mr. Nag refers to me as "that old, town blogger", illustrating the importance of punctuation.

Red-Figure Chucks

I saw these custom Chucks at eternallycool.net and am now doing some serious coveting. Don't you love them?

What do our dreams tell us about ourselves?

I'm hoping not too much. Last night I dreamed I was placing a new bar of soap in the chrome soap dish in our clawfoot bathtub. The old sliver of soap slipped into the water in the tub and I scrambled to fish it out before it turned to mush and created a scummy ring in the tub. Don't wait for the exciting denouement - that was it!
Other folks tell me that they dream about winning a lottery, being abducted by aliens, being licked by wolves or dating Brad Pitt.
Alas no George Clooney, nor even George Bush for me. Just a sliver of gooey soap to keep me company at night. Once, in my early teen years, I had a rather pleasant dream about Peter Tork and it moved him ahead of Davey Jones in the oh-so-important Nag's Favourite Monkee ratings. I still have fond memories of that one...

It's Fabulicious!

We took advantage of this great offer along with some friends last night:

From Thursday, February 21st through Sunday, February 24th, a renowned and envied collection of Niagara-on-the-Lake’s finest dining establishments will be serving spectacular lunch and dinner fare at reined-in, mouth-watering, pre-set pricing never before seen in wine country.

We chose the Peller Winery Restaurant. Here's what the menu looked like:

Calling All Font Freaks

Some cool ones at Autobahn FreshFonts. I like gelvetica (below).


Via Design Observer

Hey, they left out the Big Mac!

Seven of the Deadliest Delicacies: Come Dine With Death!
Toxic or not I think I'd pass on these.

Via Dark Roasted Blend

Canis Major

Canis Major: Andy Warhol’s Dogs and Cats (and other party animals)

This is a show I'd like to see and, since Pittsburg's not so far away, I just might take a road trip.
Thanks Dog Art Today!

Red Hot Chili Pipers

Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away, when Mr. Nag and I were first dating, we were hanging at his crib and he put a bagpipes record on the turntable. Why would he play such awful music? I was convinced that he was trying to drive me out of his apartment. Guess what? It worked! However, I returned once I'd exacted a promise from him to lay off the bagpipes and we lived happily ever after. The end.

Via Optical Poptitude

Celebrating the Semicolon in a Most Unlikely Location

I'm dubbed a semi-colon and all of a sudden everyone wants a piece of it.

Celebrating the Semicolon

It was nearly hidden on a New York City Transit public service placard exhorting subway riders not to leave their newspaper behind when they get off the train.

“Please put it in a trash can,” riders are reminded. After which Neil Neches, an erudite writer in the transit agency’s marketing and service information department, inserted a semicolon. The rest of the sentence reads, “that’s good news for everyone.”

I am a semi-colon!

I am deeply honoured to be dubbed a semi-colon. I hold a deep respect for those who routinely use this punctuation mark. Me, I only use it when I'm trying to impress. Unfortunately the illiterate louts to whom I write remain generally unimpressed by my punctuational gymnastics.

You Are a Semi-Colon

You are elegant, understated, and subtle in your communication. You're very smart (and you know it), but you don't often showcase your brilliance. Instead, you carefully construct your arguments, ideas, and theories – until they are bulletproof. You see your words as an expression of yourself, and you are careful not to waste them. You friends see you as enlightened, logical, and shrewd. (But what you're saying often goes right over their heads.) You excel in: The Arts You get along best with: The Colon

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Stolen from Raincoaster who is a dash. I once had a dog named Dash. Don't you think it would be the height of hilarity if Raincoaster had a dog named Semi-Colon?

Silent Nests at LensCulture

Lens culture is one of my favourite websites. There's always something interesting for photography fans to look at. I really liked Silent Nests, a series of photographs of 4th - 18th century Pigeon Houses in France by American photographer Vicki Topaz.

Now signed, limited-edition photographs by emerging photographers are being offered for sale on the site. I'm salivating over them. Luckily I'm only exposed to the photos on the web as Nag saliva is a toxic substance and would destroy the whole lot.

LOLbama

I'm not sure who's responsible for this... but it's hilarious!
Seen on Reddit

Beautiful Italy at Been-Seen

The Talented Mr. Ripley is this week's feature on Been-Seen.com's Movie Atlas. (I gave a shout out to the Movie Atlas a little while ago.) Seeing the beautiful stills of the Bay of Naples, Rome, and Venice makes me want to be there and watching the movie again might be a temporary fix. This is a young Matt Damon pre- Sarah Silverman.

In search of a true "people's art"

Komar and Melamid: The Artists and the Project:

In an age where opinion polls and market research invade almost every aspect of our 'democratic/consumer' society (with the notable exception of art), Komar and Melamid's project poses relevant questions that an art-interested public, and society in general often fail to ask: What would art look like if it were to please the greatest number of people? Or conversely: What kind of culture is produced by a society that lives and governs itself by opinion polls?

The American ideal (above) is a traditional landscape incorporating historical figures

The Dutch were alone in this survey in favouring abstract art (above).

Via Bad Banana

I told you I wasn't evil

How evil are you?

Via Presurfer who, according to this quiz, is insane.

Stylish Campaign Posters

These posters are memorable because they reject bland tropes while making novel graphic statements that reflect the times in which their candidates are running.

Read more at Beyond Red, White and Blue

My kind of dinner party

Feeder of the Pack | Futility Closet
The conversation would, no doubt, be more scintillating than that I've been subjected to at many recent dinner parties and I like the idea of being able to pet an attractive guest should I feel so inclined.

Corrie and vodka

Mr. Nag's all time favourite entertainment combo is downing a couple of hits of vodka while watching Coronation Street. Until now he had to limit this activity to our TV room but today I discovered a bar in Toronto that caters to his very particular predilection. There'll be no keeping him home now.
Read all about it

Man offers $15,000 for missing dog

I've devised a new money making scheme. Blogging may be a little light until I've found Huckleberry.

Man offers $15,000 for missing dog

(I don't mean to make light of this - I know what it's like to worry about a missing dog and I hope Huckleberry makes it home safely.)

Snow In Toronto!

Via Squandrous

The New York Celebrity Death Map

The Gridskipper New York Celebrity Death Map:

Famous people die just like regular folk, it turns out. And quite a few have shuffled off this mortal coil right here in New York City. Here's a few of my favorite locales for notorious expiration, based on a shifting selection criteria that considers fame, status, variety, and the sordid or macabre nature of the particular demise.

Now Jack has a jacket just like Paul's..

Warning:This post is only for political junkies.
Federal NDP leader Jack Layton was at a sold out fundraiser in St. Catharines last night. He's wearing the CAW jacket Local 199 President, Wayne Gates, presented to him. Nag Hag, Uncorrected Proofs, talks about the jacket's political significance on his blog.





Here's Welland NDP candidate, Malcolm Allen, in a clinch with Layton. Hard to tell whether it's Jack or Jack's jacket that appeals to him. Allen is a solid candidate with a good team behind him and he seems poised to snatch Welland riding away from the Liberals.

My Screen is Now Squeaky Clean

I used this super screencleaner.

Via Plime

An Anthem For Vertically Challenged Dudes

I wonder if they have a ladies' auxiliary? At 5'1" I am definitely on the short side. When I was in elementary school the other girls called me Peanut and liked to pick me up and carry me around. That doesn't happen as much now.


Via Squandrous

New York Subway Art Guide

Some of this stuff is really easy on the eyes


Subway Art Guide via Plep

Pamie's 10th Annual Valentine's Day Poems

I enjoyed these poems and I hope you will too. They appeal to my innate ambivalence about this Hallmark holiday.

Love is a choice.
I fully believe that.
Also, I think it's controlled by the same part of the brain that makes you actively choose to pretend you don't know how the stove works.
Choose wisely.

More of Pamie's Valentine's Day Poems

I must be on fire

Newspaper readers are hot, Canadians say. That's not why I read 5 newspapers every day but I guess it doesn't hurt.

"Seems that reading newspapers is a prime turn-on for those picking the great Canadian mate, a new Ipsos Reid survey found."

Who commissioned this study? The Canadian Newspaper Association. Quel surprise!

World's Most Romantic Restaurants

"This year, we'll help you reclaim romance, one mesmerizing meal at a time. Our 12 restaurant picks from around the world have all the right elements—a seductive view, an unhurried atmosphere, terrific food—but never veer into sentimentality."

See all of them on Concierge.com

Sacred undergarments?

I hope the Mormons don't place a fatwa on me for posting this.

via Blame It On the Voices

Need some help in the romance department?

50 Very Simple Ways to Be Romantic just in time for Valentines Day. Love doesn't have to be complicated.

If you only steal one masterpiece this year...

Jonathan Jones on art theft

The art thieves' top 10, based on information on stolen works compiled by the London-based Art Loss Register, is an exclusive selection, running from Picasso at No 1 to Matisse at 10, via Miro at 2, Chagall at 3, Dalí at 4, Renoir at 5, Dürer at 6, Rembrandt at 7, Warhol at 8 and Rubens at 9. None of the French masters whose works were stolen at gunpoint from a Swiss museum this week makes it: Dégas is at 15, Cézanne at 25.

Chocolate Hotel Room

"Godiva and The Bryant Park Hotel in New York are teaming up to create a chocolate hotel room, available only to one (very lucky) couple for an Ultimate Chocolate Fantasy weekend."

Details at Intelligent Travel

Canadian Health Care - the Facts

Mythbusting Canadian Health Care
It's ok - really it is.
Via Metafilter

Uno Super Dog

Uno the Beagle Wins Best in Show
For the first time in the 100-year history of the Westminster Dog Show a beagle has won top prize.

Non Traditional Valentines

See more at Big Fat Whale

Couldn't Care Less

When Will My Show Be Back?
I watch "The Office" occasionally but none of the other shows on this list so, in short, I couldn't care less. If I watched some of these shows I probably would have said "I could care less". If that sounds condescending it was meant to be.

Six-Word Memoirs

See more Six-Word Memoirs
Via SwissMiss

My Brainy Valentine

See more Scientist Valentines at Ironic Sans

Grill one of these babies and they'll lock you up and throw away the key.

You can smell one from blocks away. The grilled bacon, twisted around a wiener, is topped with grilled onions and a mountaintop of diced tomatoes, ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise. Then one whole grilled green poblano chile is plopped impossibly on top.

I'm jonesin' for one of these Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dogs. Sounds so good I'd almost consider moving to L.A. They're illegal? That figures.

Thanks to Information Junk for whetting my appetite.

Database of beautiful old Japanese photographs

Japanese photographs in Bakumatsu-Meiji Period

"A woman is carrying a baby on her back, and she has a hand towel on her head. She is holding a 'denden daiko' to pacify the baby. She is wearing 'komachi geta' clogs."

Via Wood's Lot

Now this is what I call an art film

Via Grow a Brain

A Debate You’d Watch

Via YesButNoButYes

Delicious photo set of Paris food

tednmiki's slideshow on Flickr
Escargots, Berthillon ice cream, macarons, frog's legs (below) and more...

Who's been sleeping in Baby Nag's bed?

Max, get off that bed right now! But first let me grab some hard evidence...

I’m Not There

I’m Not There - 20m Featurette

I’m Not There is an unconventional journey into the life and times of Bob Dylan. Six actors portray Dylan as a series of shifting personae — from the public to the private to the fantastical — weaving together a rich and colorful portrait of this ever-elusive American icon.

Old and New Paris Juxtaposed

One of my favourite posts on this blog was Rephotographing Atget. Christopher Rauschenberg's recent photos of Atget's sites intrigued me and it's worth a visit.


Today I discovered the ParisAvant site (via Polly Vous Francais) and have spent way too much of this Sunday morning checking out the juxtaposition of old and new views of Paris - like the images of the Fontaine Medicis above. I wish recent photos of the Nag compared as favourably to pictures of 20 years ago.

Alexander Rodchenko retrospective

Russian avant-gardist Alexander Rodchenko gained an international reputation as a pioneering photographer, painter, sculptor and graphic artist in the years after the Russian revolution. Half a century after his death, the Hayward Gallery in London is showing the first major retrospective of his work in the UK.

See the slideshow

Most Hideous Looks of Fall 2008

Even svelte fashion plates like Mr.Nag and myself would look like hideous trolls in these designs!



See the slideshow

Help, I'm about to fall into a diabetic coma!

I suspect Blort of trying to kill me with sweetness.


A cloyingly sweet collection of postcards of Animaux habilles

Nag In the News

Resident's blog used to share thoughts, tidbits of culture (from Niagara This Week)
I was hoping the reporter could make me sound like I possessed the teensiest smidgen of intelligence. Talk about dreaming the impossible dream... after all, this wasn't meant to be fiction.

Lobby Cards Slideshow

Lobby Cards: The Leonard Schrader Collection- Fabulous
via Design Observer

Is this great or what?

Random Fact Generator »

Back In The Trenches

For a while life chez Nag has been pretty relaxed. I wasn't working and I could hang out in my pjs til noon if I felt like it, blogging to my heart's content. Two weeks ago I received a call that has cut into my retirement lifestyle and I'm back at work for two months or so. This means I now have to get dressed in the morning (if I want to keep the job) and can't devote as much time to my silly, introverted little hobby. Cut me some slack for the next little while, okay?

Year Of The Rat

Happy Chinese New Year! Welcome to the year of the rat. Let's celebrate it with links.

A rat quiz
Chinese zodiac
A collection of rat facts
Chinese New Year recipes
Decorate your home

I've left the best til last:
Eat a Rat

Free Things to Do in Paris

Free Things to Do in Paris @ National Geographic Traveler

I love that "F" word. Some great activities here. I've done most of these at one time or another but I'm adding a few to my "to do list":

Fragonard Museum
Memorial du Marechal Leclerc de Hauteclocque–Musée Jean Moulin
Le Fooding
La Fête de la Musique
7 Lézards

One of the free things I enjoy doing in Paris is checking out the M. Chat graffiti like the one below:

Thermal-imaging zoo pictures

Pictures reveal animals' hot and cold secrets
Penguins are hot heads, pelicans are cold hearted and the nose of a healthy sloth is cold and damp.

I love these thermal images. They're very arty.
Via Plime