Happy Birthday, Red!

You may recall a lot of hubub around here this time a year ago, as our dear co-founder Red approached a certain birthday milestone. She's been a little more low-key about the blessed date this time around, but it doesn't change the fact that today is her day!

That's right, its Nov. 30, Red's birthday, the day we celebrate all things Red. Here are some of my favorite things about her:

- Her never-ending slew of crushes.

- Her great taste in television (well, ignoring the reality shows). Red turned me onto such fab programs as The Wire, True Blood and Friday Night Lights. Team Saracen 4-eva!

- Her generosity of spirit, or something.

- Her gorgeous singing voice, on which I plan to coast to the top. To the top, I tells ya!

- And of course, her gingerness.

So, everyone be sure to wish Red a happy birthday in the comments, and tell us some of your favorite things about her.

Me and Red. Saturday night.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Gingers is the Watchword.

God, Words Words Words' family is SO lame.

This year, may your gravy be smooth, your mashed potatoes buttery and your turkey stuffed with various other poultry. Its 2009 folks, time to get on the turducken train. Woo woo!

We are thankful for all 9 of our loyal readers. And Jon Hamm. We're also really thankful for Jon Hamm.

Have a good one guys!
The cast and crew of GitW

Prejudice strikes again!

A bunch of terrible, racist middle schoolers held a "Kick a Ginger Day" last week! There were 5 victims.

This agression will not stand! If you prick a Ginger, does he not bleed? Keep your eyes on the prize kids, we shall overcome! Remember, "First they came for the Gingers, and I said nothing ..."

OK, I'll stop compairing this to the Holocaust and the Civil Rights movement. For now!

Meet the Putties

I don't really get this (because, as Liz and I discussed, we were too old for Power Rangers...though, oddly, I do remember the song. Go, Go Power Rangers!), but I'm posting it because it features my friend Megan! (she's the blond, fyi.) Yay for friends who are actors!

The List: Vol. 5

I know things have been rather pathetic around these parts lately. I can't guarantee they'll improve, but you should totally keep visiting anyway (I am a terrible salesperson). Here, though, are 5 things I'm digging at the moment:

Movie: An Education - While perhaps not as great as some critics would have you believe, this Nick Hornby penned film is a nice evening at the (movie) theater. Carey Mulligan IS as good as the critics say, but Peter Sarsgaard's accent is atrocious (I really don't understand why they didn't cast an actual Brit). Also, it's set in the 60's which is so hot right now. See it now if you are one of those people who like to see all the Oscar nominated films (buzz has it Mulligan will be nominated) or wait for DVD if you have an actual life.

TV: Parks and Recreation - The Amy Poehler vehicle kicked it up a notch this season and people are finally on board. I'd just like to point out I liked this show last season...when everyone else said it wasn't funny. I'm a trendsetter people. Ya better recognize!

Book: Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut - A posthumously published collection of his stories of WWII. Funny, touching, scary...classic Vonnegut.

Music: It's Not Me, It's You by Lily Allen - I didn't much care for Lily's first breakthrough album, but this follow up is awesome. Still listening to it like crazy, what? Nearly a year after it's release? Good stuff.

Sports: San Diego Chargers - Not that I'm biased or anything, but we do have the best team song ever.

Peace Out, Oprah.

What will we all watch at 4pm after September 9, 2011?

Mostly for BeckEye

This is amazing. Jason Segal singin' a song to the ladies at The Swell Season concert in LA. Read all about it here and watch below. You won't be sorry.

2-2-2010

The Final season has a start date

This (mostly) Just In...

Hiya. Sorry I've been MIA from these parts. I have lots of excuses/reasons, but I'll spare you the not very dirty or interesting details. Let's just get to some stuff you may or may not care about:

The AV Club's 30 Best TV Shows of the '00s - I don't have many arguments with this list. I especially appreciate the inclusion of Veronica Mars (RIP!). I am trying to decide if I'm excited for or preemptively annoyed with all the End of the Decade Best of Lists to come...probably annoyed.

RIP Ken Ober - I loved Remote Control, even if it is possibly the reason MTV sucks so hard now, and Ken was a big part of it's awesomeness. On to a better place, sir.

"Unfriend" added to the New OED - Does anyone actually say "unfriend"? It's "defriend," right? That's not just me?

Nine Trailers Make Me Happy - This is actually my least favorite of the bunch (because it features Kate Hudson), but every trailer I see for this movie musical makes my heart leap for joy! I can even somehow over look the fact that Fergie is in it. Can. Not. Wait!

I Tried Dogfish Head (and I liked it) - On my trip last week, several people said I could find Dogfish Head at one of the locals, but they lied. Ruby Tuesdays in the Knoxville airport listed it on their menu, but, again, all lies. When I returned home, a friend told me, "My favorite beer right now is Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA." UGH! This beer was straight up taunting me! So I went to BevMo and grabbed a 4 pack and drank one straight away...and you are all right. It's delicious. It's a bit too sweet for me and my bitter taste buds, but the ridiculously high alcohol content makes up for that. So, thanks for the tip, bloggy friends. You are all the best. No you are!

Monday Morning Musings

Here's what's on my mind on this lame Monday.

Why the face?

- Maybe the ridonkulus play call in last night's Patriots/Colts game was just Bill Belichick thinking long-term. This way, if/when the Patriots meet the Colts in the playoffs, the Colts will be caught off guard when the Pats manage to actually hold a 17 point lead against them late in a game. It's possible. Right? RIGHT?!?!?!



- I’m mad at Microsoft right now, in a things-that-turn-me-into-a-feminazi kind of way. They’ve got these new ads where PC users talk about how great it is that they can write into Micrsoft with improvement ideas, and Bill Gates’ Minions actually use their suggestions. The first commercial was kind of funny because it had a slightly doughy, pasty guy remembering coming up with his idea in the shower, but in his “memory” he’s a much better looking guy. So they did this with a girl, except in this case – of course – it’s a super cute girl, “remembering” herself as an even more super cute girl. God, how hard is it to just put an average looking girl on TV?!?! We need love too, you know.


- Can someone explain to me what the large hadron collider does? In 50 words or less, without boring me to tears? No, probably not.


- One of the big arguments against a national healthcare system is that it takes forever to see a specialist and get treatment. Seeing as its going to be about 5 weeks from when I got a sinus infection to when I can actually see a damn doctor, I’m not really seeing how that would be any different.


- Cold pizza on a Monday morning is awesome. Never let anyone tell you differently.

Raves (Nov. 2009)

Sherpas – Target has this sweatshirt right now called the Sherpa. Its basically just a hooded sweatshirt, but with extra-fuzzy lining. It's like, crazy comfortable. I bought two. They are getting me through these harsh days of San Diego autumn, where the temperature has been know to drop below 60°!

Mad Men finale – [[[Spoiler Alert]]] Sterling, Cooper, Draper & Pryce!?!?! Great finale. I read a news story about a year ago where some guys who actually worked on Madison Ave. in the ‘60s said that Sterling Cooper, the ad agency on Mad Men, was kind of behind the times – the anti-Semitism, sexism, that was all on its way out by then. Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner said that’s the point: Sterling Coop is supposed to be a dinosaur. And now, two weeks after the Kennedy Assassination, it’s all changing. Just like America! Can’t wait for ’64.

Hot Chocolate at Twiggs – I’ve lived in my neighborhood for about 3 years now, and I just last night discovered that a coffee shop in the corner makes AMAZING hot chocolate. I highly recommend everyone in San Diego give it a try.

Scott Pilgrim – I’m not hip at all when it comes to comics (or anything, really) so I might be waaaaay behind the times on this, but a friend of mine introduced me to the Scott Pilgrim books recently and I love them. They’re this quirky little story about a guy from Toronto whose life is pretty mundane, except when it’s occasionally like a video game. You need to read it to understand. They're making a movie out of it though, so you can be cool and know things before other people!

Weddings I’m not in – I’ve been a bridesmaid 4 times in 3 years. I’m always honored, but I’m also always out like $700 bucks. (Airfare, dawg. Airfare). So it was lovely to just be a guest at a friend’s (local) wedding Saturday night. Everyone should get married and let me just come!

Andrew Bird – Singer/songwriter Andrew Bird doesn’t have anything new out (unless you count his album "Noble Beast," which arrived in January) but I’ve been listening to him a lot lately. I’ve been sick, and something about his dulcet tenor and pitch-perfect whistling has made the hurting stop, just a little bit. Bless you, Mr. Bird.

Note: Red is on vaca until later this week. I’ll try to get you guys through the next few days. Tell her how much you miss her in the comments.

Item: New version of iTunes actually worth downloading!

Every few weeks or so, iTunes alerts me that it has a new version that I simply MUST download. I usually put this off until my iTunes crashes, at which point I bite the bullet and wait 15 minutes for this "new" version - that's exactly like the old one -to start taking up space on my hardrive.

The latest version actually looked a little different, and I noticed that when I plug in my iPod it doesn't immediately go to my iPod, which was a pleasant change, but other than that, I wasn't too impressed.

Until!

Not my iTunes library, though New Order is kinda cool, I guess, as far as "Band's that Started Because the Original Band's Lead Singer Died" go

Until last night when the boyfriend asked me a question about a Lemonheads CD he'd just uploaded. He said he had to fill in all the info for it, because the program didn't recognize the album. It just listed the songs as "Track 01," "Track 02," etc., he typed in the names, but it didn't appear to have uploaded.


But honestly, I stopped listening after he said he'd filled in "all" the information. See, as you may know, when iTunes doesn't recognize an album, and only lists the songs by track number, you usually couldn't put all the information in yourself. You could fill in the song title under the "Name" column, but you couldn't put the artist in under the "Artist" column. It wouldn't let you. A little while back, they started allowing you to put the album name in its appropriate column, but the "Artist" column remained inpenetrable. But there, right in front of me, in the "Artist" column, it said Lemonheads right on down the line, reportedly by the boyfriend's own hand.


This was a revelation! I started going back and properly naming all my albums that had been labeled with all their info (song title, artist and album) in the space reserved for the song name. Suddenly, there was no more confining unrecognized albums to playlists on my iPod to make them easier to find! My copy of Born to Run can live amongst the other Bruce Springsteens albums! Merriweather Post Pavilion can be with the other Animal Collectives! Oh, glorious day!


Now, there is a slight chance that you've been able label a song's title, artist and album for a while now, and I'm just an idiot. In which case ... leave me alone, I might have sinus polyps!


But if I'm right, you've gotta get this new version of iTunes for all your illegal pirate CDs ... I mean, er, all your older CDs that iTunes doesn't recognize. A new day is upon us!!!

You take it out, Donaghy!

Next year, everyone's favorite Raging Liberal Who Makes a Living Portraying a Raging Conservative is hosting everyone's favorite Public Relations Exercise Disguised As An Art Showcase.

You guess it - Alec Baldwin is hosting the Oscars!

Well, co-hosting, along with hosting veteran and all around funny guy Steve Martin. Should make for a fun show.

Fun with Google

As I've whined about a million times before, I have really bad allergies. The kind of allergies that give you nasty headaches, nauseau, and the inability to eat avocados. They've been so bad for the last few weeks that I've decided its finally time to listen to my doctor and get a CT scan of my sinuses to check for polyps.

So, like any hip young female of the 21st Century who has minor claustrophia, I started typing "How long does a CT scan last" into my Google toolbar. But I got distracted by the suggestions Google started giving me once I'd typed in "How long ..." They were, in order:

- How long does weed stay in your system?
- How long does alcohol to stay in your system?
- How long does it take to get a passport?
- How long does it take to get pregant?
- How long to boil corn on the cob?
- How long to boil and egg?
- How long does sperm live?

Anyone who doesn't think we need serious education reform in this country clearly doesn't have allergies.

My Terrible Pumpkin

Hope you all had a lovely Halloween. The cast of Mad Men were a hit in my 'hood and were joined by a Pirate, Cougar Hunter, Beer Wench, Walter from The Big Lebowski, Norv Turner and Mrs. Mia Wallace, among others. A rousing good time was had by all. And here now, as promised, is the ugliest pumpkin in history. It was so bad, people used it as an ashtray. Thanks a lot friends and people I just met!

I guess it's not THAT bad, but the nose is just retarded.