A couple years ago, The Girlfriend and I thought it would be fun to build a gingerbread house together. Yes, I do know what a disturbingly sappy mental picture that forms, redolent of the nostalgic nonsense parents like to tell their children about the simple pleasures of their ancient youth. But it really was fun, and the project actually turned out fairly well. Our walls stood, our frosting icicles were properly proportioned to the house and appropriately delicate-looking, and our gumdrop bushes were delicious, er, that is, they looked nice. The only thing that didn’t quite work as we’d hoped was our frosting snowman, which refused to stand upright and ended up slumped over and rather tired-looking, like it was the end of the season and he was just about to succumb to the warming sun. (We dubbed him Melty and, oddly enough, grew so attached to his pathetic, blobby little form that we saved him after the house itself was gone; he now sits on a little shelf in Anne’s kitchen.)

As proud as we were of our one-room gingerbread shack, however, it was nothing compared to the amazing exhibition of baked-good architecture that was recently chronicled by a Seattle blogger named Jeff Barr. The exhibition was a benefit for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation; I think my favorite among these gingerbread landscapes is the recreation of London’s Tower Bridge. Go check it out!

It was only about 19 degrees this morning when I left for work. As I stood on the TRAX platform, shivering and waiting for my train to arrive, I reflected that this must be what it feels like to be a TV dinner that’s been in the freezer since 1998, the kind that has a thick fur of ice crystals covering the salisbury steak. I couldn’t wait to hit the coffee machine when I reached the office. Naturally, I was only interested in its warming properties — well, okay, the caffeine hit was calling to me as well — but according to an interesting article I just ran across, there are other good reasons to have a nice cup o’ joe on a cold morning:

Researchers at the University of Scranton found that a cup of coffee is the number one source of antioxidants in the U.S. diet. “Nothing else comes close,” said study leader and chemist Joe Vinson. “One to two cups a day appear to be beneficial.”

 

Beer came in second. Potatoes were a strong third.

And for those of you who don’t like coffee, the same article contains good news for you, too:

Research led by Cornell University’s Chang Yong Lee found that hot cocoa, on a per-serving basis, has four to five times more antioxidants than black tea, two to three times more than green tea, and almost two times more than red wine.

 

“A cup or two of hot cocoa every once in a while can provide a delicious, warm and healthy way to obtain more antioxidants,” Lee said.

So much for the local culture’s prohibition against hot beverages…

If you’ve been reading carefully over the past few days, you probably caught my reference to The Girlfriend’s dog in my Gary Coleman entry. He’s a toy poodle — Anne’s dog, that is, not Gary Coleman — which means he’s about the size of your average toaster. Small by my standards of doghood, but not so tiny as to render him a useless ornament that needs to be carried about in some vapid young heirress’s expensive handbag. Oddly enough, this particular poodle — whose name is Rusty — worships the very ground I walk on, despite the fact that I tease him mercilessly about how girly he looks. (To Anne’s credit, she has his fur cut in a “kennel clip,” i.e., the same length all over, rather than one of those ridiculously froofy show-dog cuts. But he still looks pretty unmasculine when we first pick him up from the groomer, with all his curl blow-dried into fluffy submission and little bows stuck in his ears or topknot.)

I think it must be in the nature of the poodle breed to put up with a basic lack of dignity. Unlike other dogs of my acquaintance, who’ve been known to pout like a scolded child at the slightest hint of mockery, Rusty seems to be entirely without ego. Why else would he allow the humans in his life to do something like this to him?

So, just in case nothing on my Amazon.com wish list calls to you as something you’d really like to get ol’ Jas for Christmas this year, here’s another idea:

Play all your favorite classic games with the Ultimate Arcade by the Chicago Gaming Company. Made by a real coin-op game company, the Ultimate Arcade has all your favorite games from Atari, Capcom, Midway, Golden Tee Golf, and Universal. It even has a deactivated coin door so you play for free!
Features legendary arcade games, authentic in every detail, including Asteroids, Battlezone, Berzerk, Centipede, Millipede, Missile Command, Mortal Kombat, Mr. Do!, Street Fighter ll, Tempest, Mega Man, Super Breakout, 1942, and more.

You can read a complete list of the games included in this nifty toy by clicking the link. I could bore you all with specific memories relating to many of them and nostalgic recountings of the early, wonderfully simple days of videogamery, but for now let’s just say that a significant chunk of my middle-school experience is represented here. (Although two of my favorite vintage arcade games, Q-Bert and Zaxxon, are glaringly absent. And so, I see, is Donkey Kong. How the hell can you do a classic game retrospective without Donkey Kong? That’s just wrong…)

About a year ago, I started a wish list on Amazon.com so I could keep track of titles that piqued my interest. I never intended to make the list public; it’s been purely for my own notekeeping up until now. The fact is, I’ve never been comfortable with the idea of posting a list here on my blog or sending it to everyone in my e-mail address book, because it seemed presumptuous or even arrogant to assume that anyone would want to buy me a gift for no particular reason. (Not to mention the potential embarassment factor once people have proof of how low my tastes actually run.)

However, as Anne pointed out to me recently, Christmas is fast approaching and I’m not the easiest guy in the world to buy for. So, for the benefit of my friends who read this and never know what I might like (as well as, I suppose, any strangers who might feel the need to send me stuff), I have re-evaluated my thinking about wish lists and decided to go ahead and post a link to mine. If you live here in the valley, I urge you to use this list as a source of ideas only. Write down the title and go buy the book locally — Sam Weller’s and The King’s English need your support. As for my friends who live out of state or otherwise don’t wish to see me in person this holiday season, feel free to use the Amazon system.

And now, without further lame preamble, I give you:

Bennion’s Amazon.com wishlist.

Happy shopping…

Interesting…

You may recall that the death of Hunter S. Thompson last spring inspired me to reminisce about a colorful character I once knew — or knew of, to be more accurate — a writer by the name of John Pecorelli. You may further recall that I was subsequently contacted by some acquaintances of Pecorelli’s (see this entry and this one if you want to refresh your memory).

Well, it’s happened again. Earlier this afternoon, someone calling themself CAY stumbled across my little corner of the InterWeb and left a comment about the legendary Pecorelli in the previous entry. I’ve decided not to let the comment publish there, since it has nothing to do with the entry’s actual topic, but I’ve reproduced it in its entirety here, along with my response:

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That South Park-ifier I found the other day is turning out to be a lot of fun. Two of my three loyal readers, The Girlfriend and Cranky Robert, have submitted their visions of themselves to the proprietor of this blog, and I’ve also cobbled together my own version of Anne. I am frankly amazed at how accurate these things are, if you know who they’re supposed to be. To illustrate, I’m going to post these new examples here with links to photos from my gallery for comparison. And because all the images I’ve posted lately are probably making download times miserable for the poor schmucks like me that are still running on dial-up connections, I’ll put them below the fold, for your convenience. Click through if you dare!

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