Amazon Daily

"Andy Warhol, Children’s Illustrator." Educating Alice makes quite the auction find, some Andy Warhol children's book illustrations(!):

Neil Gaiman interview. The author of Odd and the Frost Giants talks to School Library Journal. This being Gaiman, it's great. (E.g.: "If you write well for kids, you may be changing lives, in a way you probably aren’t for adults. For adults you’re giving them a wonderful vacation, maybe educating them. But for children you’re giving them part of what made them.")

Who are current kids' movies really meant for? "Will 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' be too scary for youngsters? Too confusing? Maybe, for some." A.O. Scott muses on the recent crop of children's movies--mostly kid-lit inspired, including Where the Wild Things Are and Coraline.

Septimus Heap reviews. Jen Robinson just wrote up the two most recent books in the Septimus Heap series: Queste and Syren. ("The Septimus Heap books are a solid middle grade fantasy series, well-suited to kids who like the early Harry Potter books or Sarah Prineas' Magic Thief series.... Sage has a knack for capturing bad guys and characters of decidedly mixed motives.")

New Notes from the Horn Book. The November installment of the Horn Book's monthly newsletter is out. Highlights include a Q&A with Jim Murphy and four novels about war.

"Little Critter Comes to the iPhone." An iPhone adaptation of a Mac game adaptation of Mercer Mayer's Just Me and My Dad is coming to a phone near you....

Little Books boxed set. Twenty by Jenny reviews a great new boxed set of some classic board books. ("Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace's books are spot-on because they begin with the everyday routines that even youngest readers can recognize, and upend the logic. Little Pea hates sweets, Little Hoot loves bedtime, and Little Oink keeps his room spotless. It's the adults who break the rules.")

Heads up: more Snicket, incoming. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers just announced a five-book deal with Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, with the first Snicket book due out in 2012.

The Bad Beginning, free online. Speaking of Lemony Snicket: In case you hadn't heard, his first book is now available free online (feel free to read below). Not everybody is happy about it:

--Paul

I am sitting here with my mother's hand-written recipe card for vegetable soup. It is yellowed and stained. My mother died of breast cancer when I was 19, but when I cook her recipes, she comes back to me.

Men may still edge out women in big professional kitchens around the world, but go into any home kitchen, and there you will find women, mothers and daughters, grandmothers, aunts and sisters.

Look into a kitchen before any holiday meal, and there they will be--chopping, mixing, stirring, laughing. And if you look really hard, you'll also see the ghosts of great grandmothers and long-passed aunts, dancing to the rhythm of the kitchen.

My Mother's Vegetable Soup

Bring meat and bones to a boil, covered.

Add diced:
1 onion
3 carrots
2 celery
2 parsnips
1 can tomatoes
1/2 cup beans
1/4 cup barley
1 tablespoon salt
5 peppercorns

Tracy's notes: I bring 1-2 pounds of short ribs and about a pound of marrow bones to a boil in a large pot filled with 12-14 cups of water. Once the pot has come to a boil, I lower the heat to a simmer and cook the meat and bones for 1-1/2 hours, covered. I'll uncover the pot every so often to skim the foam off the top. Then I'll add the other ingredients and let the soup cook for another 2 hours or so.

Parsnips are sweet and I often leave them out. I use cannellini beans that have soaked in water the night before. I love barley, so I usually use 1/2 cup. If I can get fresh cherry tomatoes, I use them, 12-16 ounces, cut in half, instead of the canned tomatoes. I add them the last half hour. Then I season the soup to my own taste, adding salt and pepper as necessary.

I cool the soup and leave in the refrigerator overnight. This step is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY! In the morning I skim the fat off the soup. Marrow bones produce a huge amount of fat. If I want to eat the soup the same day I cook it, I omit the marrow bones.

I like to serve the soup as a first course, and the short ribs as a second course. Or I'll serve one short rib in each bowl of soup. I serve the marrow bones with fresh rye bread. I'll spread the marrow of one bone over the rye bread, sprinkle with salt, and I'm in heaven.

Serves 4-6

--Tracy Schneider

Mac machine cloner Psystar's battle with Apple over the right to produce and sell competing machines running OS X was dealt a fatal blow yesterday.  A California judge ruled in favor of Apple on the copyright infringement case, and while there are several cases still to be decided on such as trade dress and trademark infringements, it's safe to say that if you've been waiting around to get your hands on a Mac-capable machine for less than the (arguably) arm-and-leg cost of official Apple hardware, consider it to be off the table soon.  

Mad Men's January Jones hosted Saturday Night Live last night and also played Grace Kelly in a Rear Window spoof.  I guess it's sort of amusing to play off Kelly's reputation for elegance, but it's pretty much a very extended one-note potty-humor joke. (Jones can't keep herself from giggling.) Watch it below or on YouTube, but it really just makes me want to rewatch the original, one of my all-time favorite movies.  --David

I’m starting to gear up for the holidays at my house.  At this time of year, I stock up on cooking and baking staples and double check that my favorite cooking gear is in order and at the ready.  I have my usual tried and true holiday recipes that I’ll be making, but I’m seriously exploring how I can use my slow cooker more efficiently over the next few weeks.  It seems like such a sensible solution during the busiest time of year.

We had a birthday in the family recently, and I decided to make our celebration a little more festive by serving mulled apple cider.  Of course, the vessel for the job was my slow cooker.  I put the cider and the mulling spices in the slow cooker and turned it on to high around 2 pm. By the time we arrived home again at 5 pm, the cider was warm, aromatic, and ready to be ladled into mugs.

I had never done this before, but it worked out beautifully and everyone enjoyed a nice warm cup of all natural cider after a cold afternoon of walking and skateboarding at the park.  The kids had been pining for sodas, but no one grumbled when they discovered mulled cider was the beverage at hand.

This simple solution tweaked my curiosity and now has me wondering what else I can make in order to simplify my holiday preparations. Maybe I could cook my mashed potatoes and keep them in there on warm. Maybe I could make a warm crab dip and serve it right from the crock. Or, maybe I could do a mulled wine for the adults…

One good resource I’ve discovered is The Taste of Home Slow Cooker Classics Cookbook.  Boasting more than 300 pages, the book features recipes for appetizers, beverages, soups, sandwiches, side dishes, and meats.  All of the recipes have been carefully tested by the Taste of Home editors and originally hailed from busy home cooks!   Do you use your slow cooker over the holidays? If so, I'd love to hear about it...

--Melissa A. Trainer

As for what the iTablet really will be, Ars Technica parses RBC analyst Mike Abramsky's recent report of a sit-down with Apple execs about the tablet device, in which he found them more interested in the video possibilities than just a newfangled newspaper/magazine reader. But Ars sees the reality somewhere in the middle, where Apple would provide a platform for publishers to provide enhanced content from their periodicals (much along the lines of Apple's recently touted iTunes LP and iTunes Extras movies).

The iTablet is rumored for an early 2010 announcement and subsequent release, and Wired is holding a two-pronged contest for best mock-ups of the iTab in the categories of Most Realistic Mock-Up and Most Creative Mock-Up.

• Cult of Mac reminds us that the iTunes LP exists, that much ballyhooed feature of iTunes 9 when it debuted along with Apple's passel of 2009 iPod models. After getting into a kerfuffle over a rumor where Apple was charging high production fees and limiting entry into the iTunes LP club to just major labels, Apple vowed to open up the specs and promised many new upcoming titles. However, in that time, they've only released four more to bring the number of total releases to 17 (link opens in iTunes software).

• Electronista reports that the recently released 27-inch iMac with the Intel Core i5 quad-core processor is finally starting to ship previous orders with new orders delayed by 7 to 10 days. Electronista also puts it through its benchmarking paces, and it looks like it kicks some serious butt. AppleInsider also offers its own review of the 27-incher.

• You gotta be in it to win: Apple's got some strong competition for the iPhone with the Motorola DROID, which launched last week on Verizon and has been estimated to have sold between 100,000 and 250,000 units in its debut week. That's still just a fraction of the 1 million iPhone 3GS models that were sold during its first week, but better than the Palm Pre's 50K during its debut.

  Apple's Apple TV team should be looking over their shoulders now that Boxee announced that it will bring a hardware set-top box to market (partnering with an unnamed hardware manufacturer) that will enable users to more easily plug into the online video streams that the Boxee software can plug into. Up until now, you had to do some hacking of an Apple TV or install Boxee on your Mac or Windows PC to get its streaming goodness. More details will get unveiled at the December 7th event to introduce the official beta version of the software (it's still in alpha).

• Speaking of Boxee and hacking the Apple TV, the aTV Flash bundle of software add-ons for the Apple TV (which includes Boxee) has been updated to be compatible with the recent version 3.0.1 Apple TV software.

• My mother-in-law is visiting with her recently acquired iPhone 3GS and asked me to give her a tips and tricks session this weekend, which I'm looking forward to doing. But I'll also be purchasing the Take Control of Your iPhone Apps ebook for her to take home with her by my colleague Jeff Carlson. It's a good primer on the basics iPhone platform with handy screenshots to help you visualize Jeff's instruction. For advanced users looking for more detail, Ted Landau's Take Control of iPhone OS 3 also got released this week, and it covers loads of troubleshooting as well as setting up an ad-hoc, peer-to-peer Bluetooth network and syncing via Microsoft Exchange (you can get the lowdown on both ebooks at TidBITS).

• In the world of GPS iPhone apps, Navigon has a released an update to its navigation app (link opens in iTunes) with the addition of live traffic monitoring via a one-time, in-app payment of $19.99. Consumer Reports notes that the traffic data is aggregated from road sensors and traffic cameras and is further supplemented by "crowdsourced data from Navigon application users who choose to share their current speed and location." TUAW likes what it sees, but cautions it's probably best for larger metropolitan areas as that's where it's focusing its data gathering. And TomTom's iPhone app gets an update (free for current users), which provides text-to-speech capabilities and more clarity in its lane guidance.

• Macworld reports that Wallace and Gromit now have an iPhone app, but unfortunately it's just a fairly static comic book (with some static bonuses thrown in during the course of the story) that kinda drains the magic of the duo. But I suppose it might amuse some younger fans.

• If you're a fan of London's (boring, boring) Arsenal soccer club, there's now an iPhone app for you with match highlight videos, news, image galleries and more--but it will cost you $4.99 for the privilege of downloading (via IntoMobile).

• Owners of an Elgato EyeTV USB digital TV tuner stick can now access both live TV programming as well as saved recordings via an iPhone app (only over Wi-Fi, however), and Andrew Bednarz at The Apple Blog has a pretty detailed look at how it performs.

• And finally... I'm digging this Lego-themed custom vinyl stick for the MacBook, available at Etsy (via TUAW).

  
  

--Agen G.N. Schmitz

I haven't been doing as good a job as Largehearted Boy in tracking all the Best Books of 2009 lists that are coming out (although it's true that about half of his links at this early stage are to our own voluminous offerings), but I wanted to note one more list I ran across: The Atlantic's top 25 books of the year, which is, really, literary editor Benjamin Schwarz's top 25. Schwarz runs a pretty idiosyncratic books section, with an emphasis on strong voices like Caitlin Flanagan, Sandra Tsing Loh, and Christopher Hitchens, and with little obligation to talk about the same books everybody else is talking about. They don't cover much fiction, and you can tell from Schwarz's own reviews that he is a heavy history reader, which his list of favorites reflects. Compared to our own top 100, which is even more weighted toward fiction than in other years, his 25 includes just three novels and three story collections, and in his top five are both a 2,000-page biography of Lincoln (take that, Vollmann!) and a nearly 3,000-page trilogy on the Third Reich (and his second twenty manages to embrace both the Hundred Years War and the Thirty Years War!). The full list, which is dominated by histories and biographies and has a healthy representation of university presses, isn't much like any other you'll find from a major media outlet, and so worth checking out:

Top Five:

• Abraham Lincoln: A Life by Michael Burlingame
• The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt
• The Third Reich trilogy (The Coming of the Third Reich, The Third Reich in Power, The Third Reich at War) by Richard J. Evans
• It's Beginning to Hurt: Stories by James Lasdun
• Mrs. Woolf and the Servants: An Intimate History of Domestic Life in Bloomsbury by Alison Light

The rest:

• Too Much Happiness: Stories by Alice Munro
• Dominion from Sea to Sea: Pacific Ascendancy and American Power by Bruce Cumings
• The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution by Denis Dutton
• The Hundred Years War, Vol. 3 by Jonathan Sumption
• The Hindus: An Alternative History by Wendy Doniger
• Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic by Gordon S. Wood
• The New Old World by Perry Anderson
• The Thirty Years War by Peter H. Wilson
• This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly by Carmen M. Reinhart and Keneth Rogoff
• Florence Nightingale: The Making of an Icon by Mark Bostridge
• Flannery: A Life by Brad Gooch
• Samuel Johnson: A Biography by Peter Martin
• In the Kitchen by Monica Ali
• Reading Dance, edited by Robert Gottlieb
• Words in the Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell
• Charles Dickens by Michael Slater
• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
• The Arabs by Eugene Rogen
• Northern Arts: The Breakthrough of Scandinavian Literature and Art, from Ibsen to Bergman by Arnold Weinstein
• The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth: A Life by Frances Wilson
• Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire by Brendan Simms
• The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis

I think the reason it's taken me over two weeks to write about this year's Southern Foodways Symposium in Oxford, Mississippi, is because I'm still stuffed from three days of power eating: pork every which way imaginable, biscuits, fried chicken, and even Momofuku Milk Bar cookies and Crack Pie (TM). Hosted by the University of Mississippi's Center for the Study of Southern Culture, this year's symposium explored the cultural and culinary crossroads of Music and Food, and brought together a sold-out crowd of 300-plus like-minded chefs, food writers, academics, restaurateurs, and serious eaters. This was only my second year attending SFA, but I fell hard for Oxford. Its literary and culinary charms alone make it a town where the birthplace of William Faulkner and the local late-night guilty pleasure called chicken on a stick (sold at the Chevron station) are held with equal respect.

Fellow Al Dente contributor Leslie Kelly chronicled her time in Oxford in a previous post. Here are some of my favorite moments (and meals) from my time in Oxford.

• The Bottletree Bakery (whose sweets have been celebrated by Ms. Oprah Winfrey) was the setting for Thursday's supper, dubbed "Pig in a Bottle(tree)" with former Oxford chef Dan Latham, who studied all-things salumi with Mario Batali and is now with Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q, taking center stage. After flying cross-country all day and driving down from Memphis (with a quick stop for rib-tips at Neely's Interstate Barbecue) I had only an hour to spare before I was sitting down to a family-style dinner. Highlights included a passed plate of chicken liver toast along with thick slabs of smoked fresh ham and hunks of sharp cheese. An ethereal bowl of rigatoni with ricotta, onions, late-summer squash, and jalapeño peppers made the rounds along with local grits with smoked ham and kale with local field beans. Porchetta sandwiches with jalapeño pesto sealed the deal.

• One of my favorite memories of last year's visit to Oxford was multiple breakfasts at John Currence's Big Bad Breakfast. Esquire knew what they were talking about when they selected BBB as one of the top 50 breakfast spots in America. The menu celebrates Oxford's literary heritage with tips of the plate to Larry Brown (Big Bad Breakfast Plate), Donna Tartt (The Secret History), John Grisham (Pel-"Egg"-Can Brief), and Jonathan Miles (Dear American Airlines). Sadly, this year's trip permitted only one visit but I made the most of it, ordering The Cathead (a breakfast biscuit as big as a cat's head with an over-medium egg, cheese, and country ham) with a side of cheese grits and even more pork with a side of Currence's bacon. He rubs his pork bellies with a Tabasco mash from Louisiana's Avery Island creating a smoky and spicy bacon that's not to be missed. Currence's City Grocery and his new joint, Snackbar, also served as end-of-the-night gathering spots.

• One of the first presentations on Friday, "From the Field to Your Ear," by Ralph Ellison scholar Robert O'Meally, the Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, effortlessly wove together James Brown's "Make It Funky," Bessie Smith's "Gimmee a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer)," and the "I yam what I yam" section of Ellison's Invsible Man.

• Walking the few blocks from Oxford's Lyric Theater to the Powerhouse in a Biblical downpour. Even with an umbrella (not very Seattle of me, I know) I was soaked to my boxer shorts, but Susan Spicer's Tabasco Lunch helped get my pilot light burning once again. Conceived as a tribute to renowned New Orleans chef Buster Holmes (1905-1994), lunch featured Buster's red beans and rice with hot sausage, a mirliton slaw, and a fried chicken thigh. Sweets included strawberry chocolates spiked with Tabasco (which I wolfed down prior to the meal) and a slice of pecan pound cake with peach compote and a generous scoop of whipped cream.

• South Carolina musician Marshall Chapman, author of the memoir, Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller, was a crowd favorite as she bookended her "On the Road" talk with a playful acoustic set. She rattled off memories of meals eaten throughout her travels with her bandmates and her decision to only tour cities with the best opportunity for decent food: Texas, Louisiana, the Southern coastal cities, and New York City. After the applause died down, SFA director John T. Edge added, "One of the best parts of my job is asking an open-ended question of an intellectually curious individual."

• During the National Peanut Board book signing (picture Black Friday with cocktails as people were elbow to elbow with stacks of cookbooks for holiday gift-giving), I got to meet David Chang. I've exchanged e-mail with Dave a few times and had recently interviewed him, but it was a double-thrill that he was chatting with Allan Benton when I ran into him. I tried not to geek out too much, but it was like bumping into Superman and The Incredible Hulk. Benton, of Tennessee's Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams, immediately asked me to drop the "mister" when addressing him and then went on to praise Dave. "I wouldn't be anything without these chefs putting my product on their menus." (You can read Dave's recap of his time in Oxford on his GQ blog.) At some point in that evening I had a cocktail incorporating boiled peanuts. I think it involved boiled peanut "milk," whiskey, amaretto, and toasted marshmallow syrup. Put that in a punch bowl and you've got yourself a holiday party.

• An SFA tradition is loading up on several double-decker buses for the tree-branch-scraping Mr. Toad's Wild Ride to Taylor, Mississippi, home of the must-visit Taylor Grocery.It was pouring out and muddy--the wellies and Barbour jackets were out in full force--but Lynn Hewlett and his crew put out an unforgettable fried catfish feast. I spent too much time hanging out on the front porch eating hush puppies and talking barbecue, bourbon, and bitters with Hill Country's Elizabeth Karmel and missed the Sweet Potato brew that Durham's Fullsteam Brewery team had brought down with them. But I did get a sample of their Sparkling Scuppernong Ale.

• Do yourself a favor and watch the documentary Smokes & Ears, about Jackson, Mississippi's Big Apple Inn, home of two historic sandwiches: the pig ear and smoked sausage ("smokes").

• Another musical highlight was the Saturday morning invocation. Legendary Otis Clay and His Band made an early morning (very early, by musicians' standards) appearance and played a full-force, hour-plus set of shake-the-roof soul. Born in Waxhaw, Mississippi, Clay ("Chicago's deep soul king") had rolled in from the Windy City overnight, catching a few winks at a roadside reststop before our Saturday morning wake-up call. Looking around at the crowd he said, concerned: "This is a food symposium. But where's the food? I don't see any of you with any plates." John T. quickly appeared on stage carrying six sack breakfasts (filled with amazing cornmeal donuts and livermush sandwiches) for Otis and the band. Clay gave them the once over: "Those bags aren't greasy. I like my bags greasy."

• Saturday's lunch was cooked by Virginia native David Chang, who brought a little bit of Momofuku to Oxford (along with his insanely talented pastry chef Christina Tosi) with a killer "Rock and Pork" lunch that featured a baby lettuce salad with Benton's ham and a coffee vinaigrette, Bo Ssäm (slow-roasted pork shoulder with kimchi and bibb lettuce) and kimchi Brussels sprouts with peanuts. Slices of Crack Pie (TM) (think an intense pecan pie without the pecans) and a buffet of assorted Milk Bar cookies had us bouncing back for afternoon sessions with a wicked sugar buzz. Later that day, Roy Blount, Jr. took the podium, paused, looked around, and said: "I've got a piece of that pork from David Chang in my teeth. The thing is, I don't want to let it go.I want it to stick around with me all the way home."

• Finally, I know water is water is water, but I'm completely smitten with Arkansas' Mountain Valley Spring Water. Those bottle have such a retro charm. They're not available in Seattle but you can buy them online. I'm trying to talk myself out of ordering a case or two.

--BTP

Until this fall.

I hope this publishing trend continues, but if you're a roundball addict or rookie fan looking to fill out a holiday wishlist, you owe it to yourself to check out these books.  They won't help your mid-range game, but you'll definitely satisfy your basketball jones.

Our friends over at Armchair Commentary posted this awesome video of actor Christopher Walken performing Lady Gaga's "Poker Face."  I'm a Lady Gaga fan, but I have to say--nobody does it like Christopher Walken.  Check out both Walken's version and the original Gaga music video below.

--Bri Nguyen

As we reflect on the films of 2009, I have the distinct honor of highlighting those DVD or Blu-ray films that are slightly quirky as well as dig into our vast product selection to identify the packaging and collector editions that are not just unique, but often a bit…odd. Enjoy a sampling of this year’s best quirky films and unusual packaging.

Top Five Most Unusual Packaged DVDs and Blu-rays, 2009:

Star Trek Limited Edition Replica Gift Set (Three-Disc + Digital Copy) (Amazon Exclusive) [Blu-ray]

• Model directly from the digital effects files used in Star Trek (2009)

• Made of solid metal with chrome, textured stell and pewter finishes
• 8.5 inches long and weighing over a pound
• Limited Edition of 5,000
• Comes with Certificate of Authenticity

Watchmen (Director's Cut) (Amazon Exclusive Nite Owl Ship + Digital Copy and BD-Live) [Blu-ray]

• Owl Ship packaging: Lights and sounds included

• Disc 1 (BD-50): Director's cut of the film (186 minutes), Interactive "Ultimate Watchmen Experience," BD-Live
• Disc 2 (BD-25): The Phenomenon: The Comic that Changed Comics (30 min.), Real Super Heroes, Real Vigilantes (27 min.), Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World (27 min.), Webisodes (38 min.), Music Video: My Chemical Romance Desolation Row (3 min.)
• Disc 3 (DVD): Digital Copy - Theatrical version (download code expires 7/21/2010)

Ghostbusters 1 & 2 (Limited Edition Gift Set)

• Collectible Stay Puft Marshmallow Man
• Ghoulish Trading Cards
• Gooey Slime

Limited Edition T2 Complete Collector's Set Endoskull [Blu-ray]

• 14” collectible T-800 Endoskull bust – plays sound effects from the film while its eyes glow

• Skynet Edition Blu-ray
• Extreme Edition and Ultimate Edition DVDs
• All T2 special feature ever released on DVD
• Digital copy of the film

Twilight Ultimate Collector's Gift Set + Limited Edition

• Twilight (Special Edition) Blu-ray Disc

• Twilight Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD
• Jewelry Box: individually numbered
• Exclusive Watch
• Limited Edition Charm Bracelet
• 6 Glossy Photo Cards
• Bookmark
• Certificate of Authenticity

See all of the Best of 2009: Unique Packaging DVDs and Blu-rays

Top Five Most Quirky Concept Films, 2009:

The IT Crowd: The Complete Season One

Whether you appreciate British humor or not, this show about an IT Help Desk is for all audiences. With oddball characters, an over dramatic “boss man,” anyone can relate to the odd world of the corporate help desk.

Xavier: Renegade Angel, Seasons 1 and 2

Aired on Adult Swim and now available on DVD, Xavier: Renegade Angel takes you on a crazy ride as the main character sets out to discover his origins. The off-the-wall dialog and story lines are too unusual to attempt to explain so I suggest you check out the clip on the detail page.

Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy

Ever wonder if any pop-culture icon is safe from the humor of Seth MacFarlane? The wait is over! With his typical no-holds-barred approach, MacFarlane tackles such favorites as Wile E Coyote, Super Mario, Bob Dylan, Barney Rubble, and much more.

The State: The Complete Series

Before Crank Yankers and the deluge of “reality TV” on MTV, there was The State. A sketch comedy show with edge, this show gave us early previews of the comedic talents of future Reno 911! alums Robert Ben Garant, Kerri Kenney, Thomas Lennon, Joe Lo Truglio, and Michael Ian Black as well as a personal favorite, Ken Marino (Veronica Mars, Party Down, Reaper).

The Guild - Season One

An internet sleeper hit, The Guild delves into the deep, dark world of online gaming and roll-playing. Starring Felicia Day, known from another online phenom, Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, this show explores what happens when people you meet online invade your “real” world, and how they can become true friends.

See all of the Best of 2009: Quirky Concept Films

About four years ago at this time of year, my husband and I moved from Seattle to Anchorage, Alaska. Indeed, I landed in America's Last Frontier at the coldest darkest time of year. Of course our kids embraced the novelty of sledding, ice skating, and cross country skiing, but there were many bitterly cold nights when I retreated to the fireplace with a good cookbook and a hot toddy in hand.

One of my favorite books purchased shortly after I moved there was The Winterlake Lodge Cookbook by Kirsten Dixon. Dixon and her husband, Carl, have built Winterlake Lodge from the ground up. Located in a remote area, this Alaskan wilderness lodge has no road access and is an official checkpoint on the historic Iditarod Trail. The Dixons purchased the land from a homesteader in 1993 and have lived there since 1994.

I was particularly fascinated by Dixon's stories of life in the Alaskan Bush and with her recipes. Everything about Alaska was new to me then, and I was anxious to learn more. The photographs throughout the book were taken by Fred Hirschmann and are simply spectacular. They capture much of the inspiring beauty that can be found there--the luminiscent skies, the perfect untouched snow, the wildlife, and glacial peaks.  

The book is organized by season, and Dixon artfully demonstrates how she manages to cook for her adventurous guests yearround, using everything from local halibut and salmon to wild blueberries and reindeer.  She peppers the book with anecdotal stories about homeschooling her two daughters and living life among some beautiful bears. Without a doubt, Dixon's book inspired me to get out and see Alaska first hand and to cook with the local fare, such as halibut, salmon, moose, and rhubarb.

I've made many of Dixon's recipes and one of my favorites is her recipe for Blueberry Bars. If you are hunting for a good book on Alaskan cooking, this is the one. I know, because I cooked from it when I lived in Anchorage and I continue to do so now that I am back in the Emerald City.

Checkout their official website where you can see the photos of Lodge and read about their Winter Wilderness Adventures.

Photo by Fred Hirschmann and sent courtesy of  Carl Dixon of Within The Wild.

--Melissa A. Trainer

The automobile is many things to many people, but it's fair to say that for most of us, it is a source of personal mobility above all else. Having access to a car gives us the capability to go where we need or want to, when it suits us to do so.

Probably no one appreciates that gift of mobility more than those whose personal mobility is limited to begin with. I'm talking here about people who don't have the use of their legs, or only limited use, due to injury or illness. They might need braces and crutches or a wheelchair to get around--but they can still drive a car or van with the help of an ingenious aftermarket accessory known as the hand control.

I first encountered the hand control in college in the fall of 1980. A friend of mine who used a wheelchair had one in her brand new X-body Buick Skylark. It was a double-acting lever clamped to the steering column, made out of welded tubing and bar stock. As mounted in my friend's car, the lever stuck out straight to the right. Two pushrods connected it to the accelerator and brake pedals. The linkages were attached so that you could still operate the pedals in the conventional manner without your feet getting hung up on them. Pushing the lever in toward the firewall worked the brake pedal; pivoting it toward your lap worked the gas. It was spring-loaded to return to its "neutral" position, and the spring rates were such that it was easier to apply the brakes than to open the throttle. If I remember correctly the springs and linkages were also rigged so that it automatically let off the gas if you applied the brakes.

Hand controls for the brake and throttle are often combined with special steering grips, low-effort power steering, power seats, lift systems and power-operated doors, and other specialized equipment. There are even robotic arm systems to stow your wheelchair in the trunk for you. All this ingenuity makes it possible even for those with very limited physical abilities to drive themselves wherever they need to go.

What kind of vehicles can be fitted with these systems? If you didn't know any better, you might think only of a van with a wheelchair lift--but the correct answer is, "What've you got?" Hand controls and associated devices can be used in any car, truck, or van, and I do mean any. One can find them in more than a few hot rods and classics. I once did some work for a man who had modded his Harley-Davidson with adaptive controls and a sidecar to carry his wheelchair. There are portable hand controls for use in rental cars, and even (I was pleasantly surprised to learn) adaptive clutch systems for cars with manual transmissions..

I like a good subwoofer or a well-executed engine swap as much as the next guy, but I think adaptive hand control systems and other mobility aids are the neatest mods of all. They don't make the car louder or flashier or faster through the cones at the autocross course. Their purpose is far more important: to make personal mobility available to those who need it most.

If you know someone who might need adaptive controls in their vehicle, or just want to learn more about the subject, the website of the National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association is a good place to start. Another good resource is New Mobility magazine, which has dozens of articles on adaptive vehicles and their drivers.

The illustrations in this article are from the websites of Mobility Works and Drive Master, two businesses which customize vehicles by adding hand controls and other mobility aids.

--Cookie the Dog's Owner

McCarthy Converses:  Although author Cormac McCarthy apparently avoids interviews like the plague, he did sit down for an extended and extensive "conversation" with John Jurgensen of the Wall Street Journal.  He revealed, among other things, that he's not a reader of his own work: "I tell people I've never read one of my books, and that's true. They think I'm pulling their leg."  The film adaptation of The Road opens in theaters November 25. [WSJ]

Esther Hautzig (1930-2009):  Writer, poet, and translator Esther Hautzig died November 1 in New York City at the age of 79.  Hautzig is best known for her critically acclaimed children's books, most notably,  The Endless Steppe, an account of her childhood spent on the Siberian steppe after the Soviet communists deported her family there in 1941. The book is considered a classic of children's literature and frequently compared to Anne Frank's, The Diary of a Young Girl.  [LA Times]

Moving & shaking:  Sam Stephenson's The Jazz Loft Project hits a high note in our top 10 Movers & Shakers following his interview on this morning's Today Show.

--Lauren

I was in a brick and mortar store last night, one of the big box stores that I just love to go to late at night without the kids, and just walk around in the peace and quiet.  Honestly, as a full-time working mother of two, this is about as much quiet time as I get and I try and savor it.  So anyway, I was walking around, enjoying some quiet time and *bam!* here come the Christmas tunes.  Now I am no Scrooge, but the amount of Christmas that seems to be seeping into the stores before it is even Thanksgiving is a little over whelming. 

In the interest of getting the shopping over with so  you can enjoy the better things about the holiday- such as playing in the snow, making hot chocolate, decorating the tree, and enjoying the wonder in your children's eyes,  I have a few suggestions of toys under $20 that you can buy now, stuff in a closet to hide until wrapping time comes, and then not think about shopping for toys again until the next birthday rolls around. 

1. Easy Bake Oven & Snack Center by Hasbro (Includes 3 Mixes) - Currently 40%, this little wonder will have your children baking up a storm!  The little cakes are perfect for a tea party.

2. Speaking of tea parties, the Green Toys Tea Set is a must for pretending.  It is also made of recycled milk cartons, and a great value at over 30% off.

3. For older girls, the Paperoni Deluxe Studio is a great value at 50% off.  This tested really well with our toy testers in our Days of Play event.  It was easy and fun for tween girls.

4. A great family game, Sorry! Sliders is an update of an old favorite.  Right now it is marked down 40% and is a great addition to your family game night. 

5. Tween boys will love the Tech Deck Build a Park with Board Pack. This set lets them live their skating dreams indoors and on a smaller scale.

6. A great toy for preschoolers is the GloDoodle.  Great for long car rides at night, and also as a wind-down toy before bed, this is a fun and creative way to encourage some quiet play. 

7. Have a Hot Wheels fan?  The Color Shifters Blaster lets your little racer change the color of the car with ice cold water.

8. Need an activity for preschoolers? The Wild Planet Crayola Crayon Town Zoo Set will entertain multiple kids with it's cross-over playset and arts and crafts activities.

9. Bop It is a great game for teens and families.  It also makes a great party game, you could even take it to a holiday party as a hostess gift that everyone could enjoy while at the party.

10. Another great family games is Farkle. Right now you can get it for under $10.

11. Have a LEGO fan on your list?  How about the LEGO City Camper? For under $20 your little builder can go on a camping adventure with their mini-figs.

12. A very popular preschool learning toy this season is the LeapFrog Scribble and Write.  It's never too early to get a little education included with their play time.

13.  A very hot new doll line this year are the Moxie Girlz.  This Best Friends 2 pack is under $20 and would be great for two sisters or two best pals to share.

14. If you have a future fashion designer on your list, the Project Runway Design Projector kit is a great value and a great way to get her started on her future career.

15. A classic that was updated a bit for the movie Toy Story, The green Toy Soldiers set makes a great traveling toys and a great gift.

16. Another classic game that every child should play is Operation.  Right now, it is also a great value at $10. 

17. The GI Joe Movie Ninja Snake Eyes Figure would make a great gift for any of your action figure fans.  He is also just the right size to fit in a stocking.

18. Combining computer play and dinosaurs, the Xtractaurs Starter Kit, is creative fun that knows no bounds.

19. Another hot line of fashion dolls this year at the Liv Dolls.  They have a unique style and each come with a code that lets girls play online.  They also come with a long and short wig to let girls change the hair style of the dolls.

20. If you have a girl who likes to build, how about trying the Best-Lock Girls' Container Twinpack?  It comes with castle pieces and horses and is under $15.

Happy shopping and have a great weekend!

--Laura M.

Having grown up outside of D.C., I've always read Edward P. Jones's stories with a particular hunger, both for their endless literary qualities, and for the way they insistently map parts of the city I've long known on the map but never from the inside, the way he tells them. It's thrilling to have the best fiction writer in the city's long history (it was his face I put on our DC quarter in the last entry of our Books of the States series last year) working and writing in our lifetimes, so of course I am eager to hear what he's been working on since his last book, All Aunt Hagar's Children, came out in 2006. The initial, deflating answer, according to Neely Tucker's profile coming out in Sunday's Washington Post Magazine, is that he hasn't written a thing. But, it turns out, not writing anything down doesn't mean Jones hasn't been writing:

So when he swirled the wine around in his glass, looked up and asked if I'd like to hear the opening and closing lines of the first short story he's worked on in nearly half a decade, "The Waiting Room," a story that won't be published for who knows how long, I was startled.

Jones dictated the opener:

"In late May 1956 -- a little more than a year after my mother bought the Fifth Street NW house that was the beginning of her small empire -- she heard a rumor that my father was dying."

Here's how it ends:

"And it would have been a great church had it not been for the dead man and all his flowers way down in front."

When I scribbled it in my notebook, Jones told me that this was the first time it had been written down anywhere. Jones spent 10 years creating nearly all of his Pulitzer-winning, antebellum-era novel, "The Known World," in his head, until he finally set it all down on paper in a three-month rush in 2001 after being laid off from his job at a tax publication. "The Waiting Room" is still locked up tight in his mind, though he dictates the opening and closing three times in a row, down to the dashes and commas, without so much as blinking.

"I write a lot in my head," he says. "I've never been driven to write things down."

Go and read the whole thing. Jones is a one-of-a-kind figure, a humble, eccentric, driven man who lives in near anonymity while being recognized as one of the great writers of our day, and Tucker's piece is one of the best author profiles I've read in a very long time. --Tom

P.S. Also see the video tribute to Jones that another great DC writer, George Pelecanos, recorded for us at BEA this year:

For my money, this dubious honor belongs to Five For Fighting for the first song on their new album Slice (also called "Slice"). Behold:

"Have you ready my blog today/300 million little USAs"

Honestly, I've never really liked this band, but, BARF! Really? Really?? You're going there?

Everything about this lyric makes me cringe. I dare you to tell me I'm wrong--I'd love to hear what you think is the worst lyric of 2009. Please share the not-so-poetic lines that made you hate music this year in the comments.

--Alan Wiley

This holiday season, are you looking for that perfect gift to give to the comics fan in your life? You have my sympathies. We are an admittedly obsessive, persnickety bunch. Our interests are byzantine, but there is a great equalizer in Alan Moore.  No matter the distance he has put between himself and mainstream comics of late, Moore's catalog is still unrivaled in its scope, reach, and influence. That said, when a body of work is as vast as his, even Alan Moore fans can play favorites. It's with this in mind that DC Comics wisely peppered the 2009 holiday season with a feast for all Moore fans.

If your favorite comics fan prefers the dystopian Alan Moore, a la Watchmen , then look no further than Absolute V for Vendetta, Alan Moore and artist David Lloyd's bleak depiction of a totalitarian United Kingdom in need of a revolution.

The Absolute V for Vendetta boasts over 100 more pages than the trade paperback, including an expanded sketchbook section, Lloyd's "silent" pages (collected here for the first time), as well as a slipcase, a new dust-jacket, and all the supplemental goodies (intros by Moore and Lloyd, and an long afterward by Moore) collected elsewhere. Plenty of ink went into the enlarged artwork here, featuring some of the best coloring I've seen of this story, and it's all presented on thick, durable pages.

If that favorite comics fan prefers his or her stories with a touch of magic, then you can't go wrong with Absolute Promethea: Volume 1. In an earlier Omni post, I recounted my love for this series in (embarrassing) detail, but I never thought I'd see this underrated story in the Absolute format. This is Moore's most personal and most ambitious work, and it all starts within this volume, which collects the first 12 issues on an oversized canvas. Artist J.H. Williams III's artwork can only be fully appreciated in such a package.

This edition, while slimmer than V, comes housed in a stunning slipcover (featured at left), and, in possibly a first for the Absolute line, without a dust-jacket. To be honest, I'm always worried about tearing the jacket every time I put them back into the slipcase. Plus, J.H. Williams III has crafted an all-new wraparound image for the hardcover, complete with a complex spot varnish, so who needs a dust-jacket? Bestselling author Brad Meltzer provides an afterword, but that's it for extras. Since this is only the first in a promised three-volume set, I have to believe that DC is saving the extras to pad the final two volumes.

[Note: In a conversation with DC, they confirmed that not only will Volume 3 feature the most extras, including the "Little Margie" stories and a section on the making of issue #32, but that Volume 2 will have approximately 25-30 pages devoted to an art gallery, plus pages of sketches, pinups, commissions, and more.  The breakup of extras across the latter two volumes was due to storytelling purposes.  So be good for goodness' sake.]

Let's say you are on a tighter budget, and your special someone has a flair for adventure--then allow me introduce you to Promethea's sister (or is that brother?) book, Tom Strong. Along with Promethea, Alan Moore created Tom Strong in a fit of creativity, where he devised an entire universe of linked characters and worlds (see also the Omni spotlight on the series). Tom Strong boasts a hefty cast, and this Deluxe Edition, Vol. 1 features put-'em-up! action and artwork by co-creator Chris Sprouse. The first 12 issues are rip-roaring and cheery, and Sprouse turns over the reins for flashback sequences by Art Adams, Dave Gibbons, Rick Veitch, Jerry Ordway, and more. Aside from the slightly oversized format, there is a light sketchbook section here as well, mostly notable for the teaser image of Sprouse's forthcoming 2010 continuation of the series.

There's a very select but vocal corner of fans who wickedly call Moore's run on Swamp Thing their favorite work. Be advised that this is adult material, not to mention Horror comics at their finest. As a child, I was mistakenly given one of these issues, and I think it’s the basis for some of the worst nightmares I still have (it involves a creature with its hand sewn into his back). Initially collected across six paperbacks, Moore's (very) graphic epic is getting the hardcover treatment from DC's Vertigo imprint. Now on Book 2, these hardcovers collect over 200 pages each, with art by series staples Stephen Bissette and John Totleben. To be released in early December, Book 2 features a newly-restored forward by Neil Gaiman, plus the famous, bizarre, Mature Readers-labeled "Rite of Spring" chapter. Book 1 is a must-have precursor to this second collection, and it features the never-before-collected first issue of Moore's run.

There isn't another comics creator who has a spectrum so fully covered this holiday, and for the Alan Moore fan who has everything, 'tis the season.

It's Friday again! Here are a few desserts that we think will make your Thanksgiving super sweet:

• Try a Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake for a sweet twist on the standard Thanksgiving pie. (Canela and Comino)
• How do you make apple muffins better? Add sour cream. (Blue Jean Gourmet)
• A combination of two of my favorite things--whiskey and pecan pie. (Ezra Pound Cake)
• What's worse--tofurkey or Jones Tofurkey & Gravy Soda? (Jones Soda)
• Dutch apple pie is like the Chicago-style pizza of apple pie. (Steadfast Cooking)
• Everything tastes better with chocolate chips--even pumpkin bread. (The Naptime Chef)
• Add a new depth of flavor to your sweet potato pie by smoking the potatoes. (Patio Daddio BBQ)

Photo courtesy of Patio Daddio BBQ

--Spanno