Potatoes in the Mist

So T and I went to see The Holiday today. We talked a bit about her boyfriend first. Things seem to be going really well. She did confide that she gets frustrated about the "little things." "When he blows his nose, it's more like a honk," she said, "and he always has his hand near his crotch." (This reminded me of D's college roommate (I'll call him Buffin), whom I never met because I met D after college. D and Buffin were randomly matched, since it was freshman year. Buffin was a football player who liked his drink a bit too much. Once his friends had to call the paramedics. When he came to, he was throwing punches at the paramedics. He had to have his stomach pumped. Finally he said, referring to himself in the third person: "A lesser man might stop drinking after something like this, but not Buffin!" Oy. When I studied for the bar, we were told to put up a picture of someone unlikely who had passed the bar, to boost our confidence;...

We had dinner with P last night. He's stopping in NYC between London and Ohio...he goes to film school in London. He came back looking thinner, more cosmopolitan and contact-lensed. The weight loss is apparently explained by the quality of convenience food...he says all the supermarkets are like Whole Foods, but cheaper. Not bad. The Londoners want everything organic and preservative-free and apparently the difference shows. (Which reminds me - on a plane we were served "real cheese" and crackers. I remember thinking the Europeans would never label anything that way...they'd be horrified if it wasn't real.) Anyway, P is always bursting with stories (he also explained what a dolly-grip is - someone who moves the camera around. Also, the director is seldom behind the camera; they just like to be photographed that way). He told us about a girl he is into, who has a boyfriend. The Boyfriend is very rich and invited her to live with him and his parents while she goes ...

D always told me how mature he was, even as a kid. So imagine my shock when he told me how he and Lobo used to make prank calls. "It was only one afternoon," he explained. "We'd call the parents of kids we didn't like too much." This is what they did to these poor answering machines. [in a thick Russian accent] "Hello, this is Yevgueny Kepushkev from American Communist Party. Your son, ___, expressed interest in Party. I call to deliver rap message to you." Then one of them did a breakbeat while the other one sang: "My name Yevgueny I am a Russian. I talk to you I no am moshin'. If you find yourself in pickle, You can count on hammer and sickle. I hope you give our party a try If you don't...you might just die." Then they said in unison: "Call 555-USSR" and hung up. I'm not sure what "moshin'" is, especially since these prank calls predated mosh pits. And the "might die" part is a bit much. Bu...