Read More: The Great Gatsby

I am sorry I have been away for so long! Work has been crazy, so not much time for blogging. Megan berates me every night!

I did find time to re-read the Great Gatsby. Now I know I read this book in high school. I even remember writing a review of it in my high school newspaper. Why I would have written about that book, I have no idea. I don't even think that the newspaper usually had book reviews, and it's not like this is some big favorite among high school kids. I think most of them are forced to read it, aren't they? But anyway, I do remember I read it, because I wrote this review, which I think focused mostly on the fashion. Turns out I remembered very little about the actual plot or characters, possibly because I was too bedazzled by the clothes for anything else to make an impression. So, to sum up, if I had been a character in the book, I would have been one of the shallow morons attending Gatsby's parties.

Anyway, I reread the book, and it is truly great--and about so much more than parties and clothes, of course! It kind of reminds me of a cross between The Lorax and The Sneetches. I wonder if it was a great source of inspiration for Dr. Seuss. The narrator, like the storyteller in the Lorax, recounts a series of events in which he participated--a confused jumble that ended in tragedy in Paradise. But of course, instead of the poor Barbaloots dying at the hands of the mean old factory makers, it was poor Gatsby dying at the hands of a couple of snobs. Those bad old richies, living like the star-bellied sneetches on East Egg, looking down on the new richies of West Egg.

Even without the Dr Seuss parallels, though, this is a beautiful book. It's such an easy read, but at the same time it's so lyrical it's like reading poetry. It's pretty near perfection, I think. I love you, F. Scott Fitzgerald!

Did you hear that a new Baz Luhrmann version of the Great Gatsby is coming out? Starring Leonardo di Caprio! Think it will be any good?

Also, for some reason I think about that P. Diddy quote a lot. "Have I read the Great Gatsby? I am the Great Gatsby!" It's given me all this sympathy for the guy, even though I know he takes pride in being a Gatsby-esque guy. But be careful, man. Don't let those flakes come to your white party! Don't let them play croquet on your lawn and splash around drunkenly in your fountain! They don't care about you. Stick with your real friends! Also, I wonder if he, like Gatsby, has a tragic, all-consuming love. Does he stare across the water at the blinking light on J Lo's dock every night? What a tragic figure he is!

-Kristin

One New Thing: Junior's

Saturday Cat and I went to an old diner-looking restaurant in Downtown Brooklyn called Junior's. We walk past it almost every weekend, but never go in. I'm always amazed at the amount of seating they have. This weekend we finally ventured in... and there was even more seating than I could have dreamed of!

I ordered the meat loaf with mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. Cat got a reuben. The meat loaf wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't terrible either. More along the lines of so-so. The corn, on the other hand, got two thumbs up. And dipping a potato chip into mashed potatoes was sadly exciting. I think Cat felt the same way towards her reuben as I felt towards my meat loaf.

Although evidently famous for their cheesecake, we could not stuff any more into our full bellies. As it was we would suffer from indigestion for hours to come. One especially gnarly burp Cat blew in my direction. It was awful, so I don't believe I'll be returning to Junior's... at least with that unruly eating partner. Cat will read this and say "Megan, why would you write that!?" All I have to say is don't blow burps in my face if you don't want the whole world to know. It's only fair.

- Megan Leigh 

Read More: IQ84

I am finally done with IQ84, the newest novel by Haruki Murakami. This was a monster of a book. It took FOREVER. I felt like I only had fifty pages left for weeks. Usually if it takes me a long time to finish a book it's because I'm just not that interested in doing so, but that wasn't the case with this one. I think it had something more to do with the magical, 'fantastical' if you will, powers that it possesses.

The story is about two main characters, Aomame and Tengo, who find themselves pulled into an alternate reality - from 1984 to IQ84. Q for 'question mark of the big fat variety'. They must find each other and escape before the baddies find them.

First, I'll say that this will be put towards the top on my Murakami list. Although nothing will probably ever beat The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, I enjoyed this story. It didn't go too far with the fantasy element, which has been a major put off with some of his other books.

A big downside to the book was that the dialogue was just awful. All of the characters spoke like robots and kept insisting on how logical they are. I get the point - logical beings brought into an illogical world, blah blah blah. 900+ pages of this style of dialogue was overkill. If it were any other author I probably would be tearing him down, but since it's Murakami I was able to overlook it. I don't remember any of his other books having this problem?

And back to another thing I liked so I can leave this review on a good note. Like in Wind-Up Bird, Murakami left a number of things unanswered. Sometimes it's better not to wrap things up too nicely and Murakami is great at this.

- Megan Leigh

Read More: The Telephone Gambit

The Telephone Gambit by Seth Shulman is another book I heard about through NPR (Woo Woo Science Friday!). Basically it's the story of a researcher who starts out with the aim to write a book about Alexander Graham Bell, because he's pretty awesome, right? What would our world be like had he not invented the telephone?? Let us celebrate him! Err....

During his research Shulman stumbles across a bit of evidence that seems to indicate that Bell may have not been the inventor after all. That he perhaps stole a fellow engineer's idea (Elisha Gray's to name names). Shulman digs deeper and uncovers more and more evidence that has been overlooked and covered up for this reason and that over the years.

Does Shulman prove his theory? I think so. Unfortunately it's definitely not unusual for a scientist to be a sneaky, rotten, lying, idea thief - so I didn't need a whole lot of convincing to begin with. The real mystery for me was how in the world someone's mind could come up with how to invent a telephone in the first place. I don't care if it was Gray or Bell -- It's so amazing that people's minds can work like that! Thank goodness there are people like that out there! What if the world depended on someone like me? I think my best invention idea over the years was to replace missing toes with toothpicks and grapes.

As for the quality of writing in this book, I wasn't too impressed. I found it pretty dry and although the subject is interesting I don't believe there was enough pertinent information to base a whole book on. To fill space Shulman continually wrote about his research process, which I found more than a little annoying, especially as it exposed him as a bungling researcher. 

- Megan Leigh

Goodbye St. Louis Tour

This past week I've been home in St. Louis house/dog sitting and sifting through all of my junk to try and make the move to Tennessee a bit easier. I had a lot of things planned this week for my 'Goodbye St. Louis Tour', but accomplished remarkably little (at least towards that particular goal). As if I didn't know it before this tour began, I now fully appreciate the role food plays in my life.

- Megan Leigh

Goodbye Hacienda. I could eat buckets and buckets of your rice.

Goodbye slinger

Goodbye most beautiful cherry tree in Webster

Goodbye toasted ravioli and Fazio Sicilian Style Sauce

Goodbye Steak n' Shake burger and fries, the way you were meant to be

Goodbye Pasta House. Sorry I took such an awful picture

Goodbye bedroom view

One New Thing: Ithaca

We just got back from a mini-road trip to Ithaca. Only four hours from New York, but it felt like another world! It was full of waterfalls and gorges and greenery... and I think it was spring break for the college kids, so it also felt nice and calm and empty. Plus, compared to NYC, all of the people seem astonishingly nice. It was a little like being released from prison. I kept looking for secret killers along the peaceful trails.

Ithaca is the home of world-famous Cornell University, shown here. See the little sign on the empty strip mall that says Cornell? That's how you know! This was actually the first thing we saw as we pulled into town.

We were only there for a couple days, but they were packed with adventure. We got to eat at the Moosewood restaurant... which was really and truly great. Elliot said he thinks it is the best restaurant in the world. Why? They have this special thing on the kid's menu, peanut butter mixed with maple syrup and nuts and tahini, with fruit to dip in it. And ice cream for dessert... kid heaven. The adult food made us just as happy.

We got to see two really impressive waterfalls... Buttermilk Falls and Taughannock Falls (taller than Niagara Falls!). There was lots of hiking. Ben got to visit the Cornell Ornithology Lab (it's this beautiful site surrounded by wetland paths great for bird-gazing) and geek out with other birdos. Over the course of the trip, we saw wild snakes, alligator snapping turtles, a box turtle, a beaver, and lots of birds. At Cayuga Nature Center, we got to climb around in a six-story treehouse.

So to sum it all up: Ithaca, two thumbs up!

-Kristin

One New Thing: Sweetie Pie's

Back when I was working at the Garden one of my co-workers told me there was a great soul food restaurant nearby called Sweetie Pie's. Our plan was to hop over for lunch one day, but it never happened. It sounded so busy we were afraid we'd never make it back in our allotted 30 min break. Now, six years later, I've got no time restrictions on my dining experiences so I've finally been able to mark it off my to-do list.

For some reason I thought Sweetie Pie's was going to be tiny. Maybe because I'm not used to living in a city where everything is tiny. So I was amazed to walk into this restaurant with such a vast seating area with full size tables. Incredible!

Then we headed over to the cafeteria line. The special was gizzards or something gross, so I went with a vegetable plate: mashed potatoes, macaroni, green beans, and a square of cornbread. There was a new lady working the veggie section. A veteran worker came over and gave her a hard time. She slapped her hands, changed all of her spoons around, and yelled at her to hurry up. It was an awful thing to have to witness. I'm thinking of starting a change.org petition to correct the workplace mistreatment of this lady. And she was old, which made it that much worse! Then I got yelled at by another lady to lay my soda bottle down flat on the tray. I thought it was a really weird request, but in the end I decided it was a pretty good idea.

I headed back to the gigantic seating area where I had my pick of tables and chairs. We got a prime window seat and began to eat, eat, eat. The macaroni was good (although probably on par with our recipe from Andrew). I like my dad's mashed potatoes better and the green beans were nothing special. After all the hype I thought it was going to be so amazing! But I guess you're bound to be disappointed when you build things up too much and for too long. So the result? I'm still on the hunt for the perfect soul food restaurant, although Sweetie Pie's was a nice, somewhat terrifying experience.

- Megan Leigh