Confessions of a Knitter

Time for true confessions: I watch a ton of TV. When I'm knitting, I need to have something on in the background to keep me occupied.  Generally, it's the television. I'll watch it all--sitcoms, dramas, reality TC, reruns of Law & Order, Dateline and 48 Hours (should I admit to the last two?). 

I try to break up my TV watching with audiobooks, movies (the real kind--like in a theater), and people watching (I love to knit in the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art).  But in the end, TV is the best and easiest.  Unfortunately, summer is something of a wasteland for good television programming (though I have appreciated the push for new shows in summer--hooray for USA's Political Animals!).  So I was DELIGHTED to get the EW Fall TV Preview in the mail last week.  I devoured it.  Here's what I'm most excited about for fall: 

--The return of "Glee"

--The next season of "The Amazing Race"

--The new show "Nashville" (LOVE Connie Britton)

--The new show "The New Normal"

--Election season on "Saturday Night Live" and the two "Weekend Update" specials

--The last season of "30 Rock"

What are you excited for?

The Glory Days of '80s TV

I've been feeling a little lazy lately, so I've been spending more time than I should watching TV.  On Saturday night, I ordered take out and spent the whole evening watching reruns.  I felt a little bit decadent, but it got me thinking about Saturday nights when I was a kid.

Back then, my parents went out almost every Saturday night, so my brother and I almost always had a baby sitter, which we LOVED.  (Sally, Susan, and Katie, if you're reading, thanks for all the good memories!)  We'd get to eat something *crazy* for dinner like frozen fish sticks and macaroni and cheese (my favorite) or Chef Boyardee and then we'd make popcorn (Jiffy Pop, of course--this was before microwave popcorn took off) and watch NBC's Saturday night line up, beginning with Solid Gold at 7.  We watched the Eastland girls grow up, sat on the front stoop on 227, "pictured it" in Sicily, and giggled at the twin antics of those Double Trouble sisters. 

How many of these friends do you remember? 

Evolutionary Experience

I'm not much of a wine drinker.  In fact it all pretty much tastes the same to me, so I rarely buy anything that isn't in the sale bin at Harris Teeter.  

But I do have one go-to wine for when I'm entertaining or otherwise feeling fancy: Evolution from the Sokol Blosser Vineyards in Oregon.  One review described it as "a blend of everything from chardonnay and pinot gris to Muller-Thurgau and sylvaner" and another calls it an"androgynous white."  My best friend, who grew up in Portland, introduced me to it, and I have to say it's pretty good. 

So I was particularly excited to see Angelo select it as his wine for the wine-pairing Quickfire challenge on Top Chef last night.  Maybe I am fancy after all.  Have you tried it?

Top Chef D.C.

I'm something of a TV-aholic.  If I posted about every inane television show that I'm currently obsessed with (I can't wait for new episodes of Undercover Boss!), this blog would quickly quickly spin out of control.  So I work really hard to limit my TV commentary.

That said, I can't resist telling you how excited I am about the new season of Top Chef, which is set in D.C.  I love Top Chef, no matter the City, and I really love going to the cheftestants' actual restaurants.  Zaytinya and Good Stuff Eatery, here in D.C., where you'll find Mike Isabella and Spike, are two of my favorites.  I also really like Perilla, in New York, which was opened by Harold Dieterle, the very first winner of Top Chef.  And I'm dying to try Volt, which is Bryan Voltaggio's restaurant in Frederick, but I haven't been able to get up there yet. 

But I digress.  I hope this season of Top Chef shows off D.C.'s great culinary scene.  And I hope viewers get a "flavor" for what a dynamic, beautiful city this is.  And I predict that Angelo will take home the win. 

I Heart Betty White

I am a huge Betty White fan, so I was really excited to see the feature on her in Entertainment Weekly this week.  The Mary Tyler Moore Show is--hands down--my favorite TV show, and Betty's Sue Ann Nivens frequently makes me laugh out loud.  And, I essentially grew up with The Golden Girls.  My brother and I watched religiously on Saturday nights.  I even love watching her on Password and Match Game.  She has such an easy--but sharp--sense of humor.

I think a real testament to her comic genius that she's still so in demand.  Her Catherine Piper was a great foil to James Spader's Alan Shore on Boston Legal.  She was hysterical in The Proposal, and I can't wait to see her on Saturday Night Live next weekend.  How great was that Snickers Super Bowl commercial??

It should come as no surprise that I find her devotion to animal welfare to be particularly admirable.

Betty has something of a timeless quality about her.  She's obviously gotten older since her Happy Homemaker days, but she's always looked more or less like Betty White.  So I was excited to find this picture of her hosting the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (with Lorne Greene from Bonanza) in 1965.  Doesn't she look absolutely beautiful?!

I Am Hooked

I missed it last week, but this week I finally remembered to Tivo Who Do You Think You Are? I had read the reviews that said the show was tedious and boring, but I thought it was truly fascinating.  I've always wished I had the time and patience for genealogy, and this show made me wish that much more.

In this particular episode, Emmitt Smith traced his ancestry back to his slave-owner great-something grandfather and then went to Africa and learned about the current practice of trafficking children, so I think it was probably a particularly moving episode (I cried!), but I think I would have been just as interested if it had been less dramatic.  I really don't think there's such a thing as an ordinary family history.

I know precious little about my ancestors, except that they were from small towns in Germany, Italy, and the Ukraine, and they all came to the United States relatively recently, which means that any genealogical research I would do would have to be done in Europe, so it would be fairly difficult without help.  My great-grandfather came over from Italy around the turn of the century by himself at the age of 14.  That's something I can't even fathom--he must have been terrified to leave his family behind and go off on his own to a country where he didn't speak the language.  And he was just a kid.  Wow.  He is exactly why I think any family history has the potential to be a really good story.

Looking forward to Lisa Kudrow's story next week.  It looks like it has a Holocaust angle, so I'm sure I'll be crying again.