With only 2 weeks to go 'til St. Hallmark-tine's Day, here are some Gift Ideas, care of The Morning News. For such a hipster rag, I must say I expected something less generic...boxers? flowers? jewelry? Ho-hum. OK, the porn-o-gami book is kinda fun, in an Urban Outfitters way. I think Nat has expressed his love and devotion for all of 2005 by setting up the TiVo, frankly...of course, a little something-something is always nice. ;P

LEGO wedding cake -- mmmm, crunchy. It's been a while since I posted a good LEGO Genius link...enjoy.

"The Mystery of A Feminist Icon" -- Salon's Priya Jain examines Nancy Drew, girl sleuth and symbol of spunkiness to six decades of young (female) readers. But Nancy's latest incarnation is a little less steely teenage perfection, a little more "Does this make me look fat?" Hmmmm...I always liked reading the mysteries, they seemed so retro and the plots were satisfying, sort of a precursor to my current L&O obsession, I guess. Bring back the titian-haired ice princess!

I got a spam email from Voldemort today -- the end is near! Oddly, he was offering me a free copy of his nemesis' sixth book, in exchange for participation in a marketing survey. This explains a lot about his villainy...

I spent a weekend out in bucolic Berkshire County (actually referred to as "the Shire" by some locals) with my mom and sisters, and I recommend it if you're in the area. We stayed at the Red Lion Inn, which was sort of like sleep-away camp in an antiques store, and took in some crazy contemporary art at MassMoCA, the coolest place by far in Massachusetts. There was a deep quilt of snow everywhere, and we spent two long afternoons peoplewatching in front of the inn fireplace...spoiled only a little by some obnoxious yuppies from NYC, swigging apres-ski Bloody Marys and yammering loudly about themselves ("We went to Telluride at Christmas on our friend's chartered plane...," "I blew out my knee playing volleyball at Brown...," "I love Caller ID, I just love it!," "That new Mexican place on 96th has the best margaritas, with really cheap tequila...," blah blah blah blah blah ad infinitum). If you can avoid this, so much the better.