For some reason, I really want to play Trivial Pursuit, any kind, not just the Book Lovers’ Trivial Pursuit, which I play with the Picky Vegetarian and now with Shoulder Guy (Goedi, for those of you keeping track at home).

But the one flaw, as I see it, here in Minnesota with my relatives is that there is a decided anti-intellectual bent, so I don’t even dare to suggest we play a game that requires knowledge of things. First off, my uncle doesn’t have that kind of knowledge; dyslexic, he focused on dealing with his disability, not in knowing all kinds of trivia that doesn’t mean anything in the real world. And who can blame him?

My aunt reads a lot, but has already accused me–quite a few times–of being an intellectual snob. It could be she is right, although I think she might just be protesting too much, and that she’s biased against people who may know things she doesn’t.

So I will keep my wants to myself.

Not to get all Barbie Dreamhouse here, but if I had a different bathroom, and a different husband, wouldn’t this be neat on my toilet?

Toilet Tattoos has some cool designs.

Meanwhile, still packing . . .

Am I obsessed with Osi Umenyiora because he is a New York Giant, and apparently there is some sort of big game this Sunday? Because I saw him on the Bob Costas show, and he was way charming (not my choice of program, btw, which you probably figured out. The Spouse does an admirable job of making sports more Megan-friendly by pointing out guys who love their moms, or are really hawt, or have interesting lineage)? No. I am obsessed with Mr. Umenyiora because he has ALL THE VOWELS IN HIS LAST NAME ONCE AND ONLY ONCE, and HE’S EVEN GOT A ‘Y!’

Love that. And I know I’ve mentioned it before, but the Picky Vegetarian has a similar deal, she’s got all the vowels in her full name. Like Julia Roberts. Or sequoia. Or education, cautioned and auctioned (which are, of course, anagrams of each other).

Good luck, Mr. U. I’m rooting for you.

Today’s entries at the Devil’s Food Dictionary:

deep-fried turkey
A common form of insurance fraud disguising itself as holiday dining. Perpetrators of the deep-fried turkey scam typically erect a homemadedeep fryer, capacious enough to accommodate a large turkey, within six feet of their home. When extraction of the cooked bird inevitably results in the tipping-over of the apparatus, the furiously boiling oil spills onto the heat source and catches fire. The flames spread rapidly and consume the entire structure in minutes. The average American’s well-known fondness for Thanksgiving turkey makes arsonous intent nearly impossible to prove.

macaroni
A small, tubular pasta whose bent shape earned it the additional name “elbow macaroni.” Curiously, the word’s final syllable
is pronounced “knee.”

shellfish
A range of aquatic creatures that are divided into two categories, crustaceans and mollusks.

Tip for the Home Cook:
To determine a given animal’s classification,try to picture where it might wear epaulettes, if it suddenly got the urge to do so. If such an image does not readily come to mind, the creature is probably a mollusk.

I have been listening to the Alice Smith CD, For Lovers, Dreamers & Me ever since the Freelancing Spouse wrote a review of it for Marie Claire.

IT IS SO AMAZING, I CANNOT STOP LISTENING TO IT.

And now it is available for less than ten dollars at Amazon!

She’s got great lyrics, an incredible voice, and super-catchy melodies. She reminds me a lot of Fiona Apple, Des*ree and Alicia Keys. Also a lot like Angie Stone, come to think of it.
You can go hear a sample at Amazon: click here.

Gush, gush, gush. This is going to be one of my favorite albums of all time, I already know.

If you listen to it, let me know what you think. Or what your favorite albums of all time are.

Have you ever been completely obsessed by something for YEARS and never had your obsession satisfied? And no, for once I am not talking about Clive; it’s the fancy frilled toothpick.

See, more than twenty years ago, I learned a word that meant ‘fancy frilled toothpick,’ you know, the kind that’s speared through Reubens or turkey clubs or something. I put it in the drawer that held “aglet” (plastic tip of a shoelace), “punt” (the punched-up bottom of a wine bottle) and “zarf” (cup with no bottom, the kind found in offices that you place a plastic cup of hot beverage into).

And then I forgot the word. And have been on a two-decade quest to rediscover it.

And then? The Loves Me Even Though He Never Says It Spouse brought this book home:
A book about the history of the toothpick. I am so excited! I flipped through it, and didn’t find the word, but I will read it, and find out all about the slim wooden, or plastic, item that has beleaguered me for so long. Bliss.

(With apologies to Animotion)

Things I am obsessed with:

Rufus Wainwright
Black nail polish
How long I plan on letting my hair grow
My husband’s iPod
Rosebud salve
The Story of Jamaican Music
My weight*
Liberal politics
Writing time
Richard Sharpe
A Certain Ratio
Cousteau (the band, not the underwater guy–lead singer pictured above)
HGTV

Rome
paint cats
Global Warming
Polar bears
the Birthday Party (the band, not the celebration)

What is your latest obsession?

Megan
*Yeah, okay, so what else is new?