nomadreader

Episode two begins with me wondering when the arrest record and mug shot of one of the ladies will appear online. Andy starts us off with "Operation: Soulmate is about to begin" and one large grin. Someone is channeling Maverick, which makes me remember when Tom Cruise was endearing. "I guess I thought it would be funny to fake an injury and get Andy's attention." - Tessa, after falling off the mechanical bull. She did open with the muffin joke, but surprisingly, I like her. Andy - "I'm really excited to see what Stephanie pulls our. She's a gymnast. She has lots of talents." Such as? Seriously, my girl from Kansas stayed on the bull, and she was the only one. Kansas is regaining credibility after crazy Lindsay's departure. "This is the kind of place where I think something magical could happen and possibly I could fall in love." - Amanda, about Los Angeles, reminding the world she is from Texas. "I heard that you were h...

Shear Genius is so bad it's good. The highlights: Jaclyn Smith seemed to be sporting her oh-so-hip Kmart clothing line throughout the episode. "I love hair. I love everything about hair. There is nothing better in the world than what I do." - Evangelin, mother of two, crying by the end. Later she reveals, "I'm an emotional person. I'm not going to lie." "My comb and my shears feel like an extension of my own body." - Anthony, who clearly grew up watching Edward Scissorhands too many times. "Of COURSE I was nervous! You know it's like going in the shower and you pull the shower curtain back and you look in the mirror and you're stark-ass naked and you look horrible and you scream?" - Jim. Perhaps I'm not old enough or gay enough to understand this comparison. Or perhaps I'm not odd enough, as Jim later uses the descriptive phrase "pickle in the middle". The lovely Jaclyn Smith hosts this show, but to g...

It's mid-April, and I finally finished book number eight. It's time to step up the pace. Bad Blood by Linda Fairstein 3 stars - loved it Bad Blood is Fairstein's best book yet. It's an intelligent and riveting mystery as well as intriguing look into the history and present of New York City. Fairstein takes much of the story underground, way underground, and explores the generations of men known as sandhogs, who built the subway system and build the water tunnels beneath the subway lines. It's a world I never thought of, but one that is extremely fascinating. Both the mystery and the history are intricate, but Fairstein deftly weaves the two together to bring even more depth to both. For those who haven't read any of the Alexandra Cooper mysteries, I do recommend beginning with Final Jeopardy , the first one, and reading them in order. The novels do keep improving, but the characters are strong from the beginning, and readers will miss the joy and pain of...

I started watching Pussycat Dolls: The Search for the Next Doll expecting it to be bad. Surprisingly, it's not. Executive producer McG and creator Ken Mok have delivered a gem. It's not a reality show I watch for the bad quotes; it's actually incredibly intriguing. I admit to being emotionally attached and involved (Go Melissa S. - remember her from Making the Band 3 ?) Similarly, if Asia wins, I might rage at the television. In fact, every time she speaks or appears on camera, my blood pressure raises a little bit. I will not start following the Pussycat Dolls after this show, but I do hope this series continues again each year. It's endlessly entertaining, and after seeing close-ups of some of the current PCDs, I think the group could stand to gradually add new members each year. Let's make them a modern day Menudo for the reality television generation! As a careful reality television watcher, it is a recurring pet peeve of the cast wearing the same outfi...

During this week's episode of The Amazing Race: All-Stars , Dustin and Kandice chose to yield Eric and Danielle. Eric repeatedly referred to D&K as hookers throughout the rest of the episode. He called them hookers to the camera, to Danielle, and he called them hookers as he recounted the tale to other teams. I find it rather timely that this episode aired in the midst of the Imus brouhaha over his "nappy headed hos" comment. I do not condone the remarks Imus made, but I hear a clear distinction between the joking delivery of Imus and the hate-filled voice of Eric. Eric's comments hit my gut and made me nauseous, while Imus's merely made me cringe a little. Imus made an error in comedy in passing; Eric intended to defame. I do believe the Imus controversy is a little out of hand. When the story first broke, NPR began each segment with a warning that there was graphic language that could offend listeners. This morning during the top of the hour news rec...

I am not an animal person. I do admit that some animals may sometimes be cute. Nomadreaderboy loves critters, and this is for him . My favorite freelance writer, a new animal lover, blogged the ten cutest internet animal videos. My only question is where is panda sneezes on this list?

Nomadreaderboy and I made the drive from Atlanta to Kansas City and back this week. As always, it's a lovely drive until one hits St. Louis. From there, it's all nerve-wracking and horrific until the Kansas state line comes. I admit to being rather partial with my love of Kansas and detest of Missoui, but my impartial Northeastern-raised nomadreaderboy agrees: Missouri is an awful place to drive. Imagine my delight as I'm catching up on five days worth of reading to discover Mike Hendricks' column from Monday, "Just Consider Us Skillful Drivers." It begins: A leading men’s magazine (not the one you’re thinking of) recently put out this year’s list of the cities with the nation’s worst drivers. Naturally, St. Louis came in second. If you’ve been through there on the interstate, then you know those maniacs missed getting first place only by virtue of a statistical fluke. Or a payoff. But clearly there was some kind of mistake for Kansas City to come in sixth pla...