Amazon Daily

It's the season of giving, and I've been thinking a lot about presents, particularly for my sister, Jennifer. This past summer she got married. What could she possibly need after four bridal showers and wedding? I've finally decided to give her a collection of family recipes.

I've learned from experience that a project like this can be overwhelming. It's best to start simple. A full-on cookbook is more than I could handle. If I had to assemble several dozen recipes, this project would never get finished.

My plan then is to to put together a small collection of Thanksgiving recipes. Jennifer loves Thanksgiving dinner, and my Aunt Flossie has been cooking it for the last 30 years. The collection I envision will have all those family recipes: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes (yes, she needs a recipe for this), gravy and cranberry relish.

There are lots of companies that will help you publish a cookbook of your own, but I'm not that ambitious. I'd like to make a small book of five to ten recipes with photos.

I'm particularly excited about this project because I've heard so many sad stories about family recipes disappearing. I don't want that happen to ours. If you've done a similar project, maybe you'd like to share your tip. If you haven't, maybe you'd like to do this with me. Wish you had a recipe collection of your family's Thanksgiving meal? How about a collection of Christmas cookies? Or all dishes you enjoy over Christmas? Won't you join me?

--Tracy  Schneider

I recently had the chance to interview Pejman Hafezi, one of the engineers at Philips, about their new Wireless HDTV Link--a device that allows you to wirelessly transmit full 1080p HD video to your HDTV.  Although there's been a lot of talk about wireless HDMI, Philips has been one of the first to hit the market with a fully functional device that allows you to move your home theater equipment out of the living room in order to get a clean, less cluttered home theater.  Today Hafezi talks to End User about some of the challenges and benefits of transmitting a true HD signal without wires.

End User:  A lot of companies have been trying to crack the nut of wireless HDMI, and a lot of companies have failed.  What makes wireless hi-def so difficult?

Pejman Hafezi: In one word: quality. To deliver quality wireless hi-def video three main challenges have to be met: picture quality, link robustness and cable like control behaviour. Many technologies that have tried to achieve wireless high-definition video streaming have approached it from one angle only. The technology deployed in Philips’ wireless HDTV Link takes the approach from a dedicated wireless video modem perspective. It combines picture quality and wireless robustness at the core of its design.

EU:   What is “Ultra Wideband”?  How does it compare to the capabilities of a conventional 802.11x signal?

PH:  Philips’s SWW1800 wireless HDTV Link is not based on either of these technologies. It is based on a proprietary radio technology operating at 5GHz. The only common factor with the 802.11a/n systems is that it uses the same frequency band and radio channelization. The difference is that it uses a dedicated video modem. This has the advantage that quality of service can be achieved for the supported distance. In this respect the quality of service is what sets this approach apart from the existing video streaming solutions offered over the 802.11a/b/g/n radios (which are data modems by design) and the range and robustness is significantly superior to that which can be achieved using available ultra wideband based solutions.

EU:   What are the benefits of wireless HDMI to the consumer?  Will the products need to be in the same room, or can you hide all your gear in the basement? 

PH:  In short, freedom of placement and ease of use.

We know that the trend in TVs is moving towards thinner and lighter with larger screen sizes. This makes the option of hanging the TV on the wall both attractive and a real possibility for many users. However cable clutter will still be a major obstacle in doing so without having to go through significant cost and effort to hide those cables connecting the TV to all sorts of source devices. Philips’ wireless HDTV Link allows the user to do just that: to offer the user freedom of placement of the TV and the source devices anywhere in the living room. At present there are no guarantees that the signal coverage can be extended to a different room or floor. However within the same room there are no requirements for the transmitter and the receiver to be within the line of sight of each other. The receiver can be completely hidden behind the TV and the transmitter unit can be placed in a non-metallic cupboard.

Another significant advantage of the SWW1800 wireless HDTV Link is that it’s really simple to experience. It is ready to use out of the box without any complex installation procedures to be followed. More notably, it is fully compliant with the HDMI-CEC specification. This is where simplicity is truly experienced by the user: CEC (consumer electronic control) is a feature that allows HDMI devices connected to the TV to be controlled by a TV's remote and using its user interface (one touch play, one touch standby of the whole system, switching between HDMI devices are examples of this simplified control behaviour without the need for multiple remotes). Of course, the HDMI source devices and the TV need to support the HDMI-CEC feature for this to work (just like the wired equivalent). HDMI-CEC is supported by all major CE brands under various marketing names such as Bravia link, Easy Link, Anynet, etc.

Philips’ SWW1800 wireless HDTV Link is one of the first products of its kind that supports HDMI-CEC features.

EU:   I’ve tried a number of wireless solutions for music, and some were better than others but most all of them had problems—the signal would intermittently drop, it would randomly unmount remote drives, etc.  What keeps that from happening in this product, especially since there’s so much more information in the signal?

PH:  Most commercially available wireless solutions for the applications you mentioned currently operate around the 2.4GHz frequency band and as there are not many non-overlapping frequency channels available at 2.4GHz for these devices to operate. This frequency band has become very congested. Philips’ wireless HDMI switch operates at 5GHz band which is much less polluted and also has many more non-overlapping frequency channels available for various devices to operate in without interfering with each other. The system also employs an intelligent frequency selection mechanism that ensures selection of the best frequency channel at any time.

Also,  practically all wireless systems experience fluctuations in the bandwidth available to them depending on the environment in which they operate and the quality of the radios communicating (like the quality of AP and the client solution used in case of WiFi operation). The SWW1800 wireless link has a stand-alone transmitter and receiver architecture and also is designed with such variations in the wireless medium already taken into account. This enables the wireless video modem to be responsive to these changes and avoid interruptions to the video streaming within the supported distance.

EU: What’s the potential for signal interference?  What can disrupt the signal?  Is there a best way to position your equipment to optimize the wireless connection?

PH:  Any wireless device is potentially subject to interference. There are no exceptions to this. However, the SWW1800 has a number of advantages in this respect. By operating at the 5GHz frequency and using the same channel bandwidth as those used in WiFi devices it is ensured that a large number of radio channels are available for the operation of the wireless switch. Furthermore, by deploying an automatic frequency selection technique, the device is capable of monitoring other devices activities in each of the available channels and selecting the cleanest channel to establish the link. Even during active operation, the device is capable of regularly monitoring the channel and if there are interfering devices detected, it will switch seamlessly to a “quieter channel”. All this is done in real time and without any visible effects to the user. 

The Philips Wireless HDTV Link has an MSRP of $799.99 and is available now.

--Aric A.

I just couldn't wait another day to start celebrating the holidays, so I pulled out my recipe for salty, sweet, and spicy pecans. It's one of my favorite recipes for nuts, with a flavor combination that is truly addictive.

I thought they'd be perfect to bring to a brunch we're invited to on Sunday and to serve to guests for dinner that same night. But who am I kidding? I really made them for me! Let's get this party started!

Spicy Pecans

Ingredients:
1/2 pound (2-1/2 cups) pecan halves
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. In a medium bowl, combine pecan halves, sugar, vanilla, salt black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Toss together until pecans are well coated.

2. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and cook stirring occasionally, until sugar starts to caramelize and pecans are toasted, 8 minutes. Remove tray from oven, and continue stirring occasionally while nuts are cooling. Set aside.

Tracy's notes: It's best to check the pecans every few minutes. Don't step away from the oven when your pecans are cooking. I've burned a bunch that way. Otherwise, this recipe couldn't be easier.

Martha Stewart Living, November 1999

--Tracy Schneider

In celebration of New Moon's opening, we're exploring your favorite movie & TV vampires and putting them head-to-head (or fang to fang). Feel free to chime in with your thoughts as we match up two different bloodsuckers every day this week. This is the last of our pairings, but feel free to dream up your own cage matches: Dakota Fanning’s Jane (New Moon) vs. Kirsten Dunst’s Claudia (Interview with a Vampire)? Kiefer Sutherland's David (The Lost Boys) vs. James Marster’s Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)? Aaliyah's Queen Akasah (Queen of the Damned) vs. Catherine Deneuve's Miriam (The Hunger)? Sesame Street’s The Count vs. Count Chocula?

ROUND FIVE: COUNT DRACULA (BELA LUGOSI) VS. COUNT ORLOK (MAX SCHRECK)

Two old-time scarers who find black-and-white blood just as tasty as the red stuff. 

WHO?:  This might be our most evenly matched fight yet because it's basically the same character.  Bela Lugosi is the classic Count Dracula, starring in the 1931 Universal movie that launched not only his career but a huge wave of monster and horror-theme movies during the decade.  Max Schreck is not the big green ogre--he plays Count Orlok in F.W. Murnau's 1922 movie Nosferatu, which is Bram Stoker's story but with the characters renamed for legal reasons.

UN-UNDEAD SOULMATE: Mina Harker nee Seward (played by Helen Chandler) for Lugosi; Ellen Hutter (Greta Schroeder) for Schreck

INSTEAD OF HUMANS, THEY DRINK FROM: These guys wrote the book on human sustenance, as in, using humans for sustenance.

PHYSICAL STRENGTHS: Dracula hypnotizes people and transforms into a bat. Interestingly, Orlok kills his victims outright instead of creating undead companions.

PHYSICAL WEAKNESSES: Both guys avoid wooden stakes and sunlight, surely resulting in Vitamin D deficiencies.

WOOING: Dracula bites Mina, but ultimately loses her.  Orlok wins Ellen, but at a high cost.

Which vampire would win this bout? --David

As anyone in the business of selling books knows, sometimes we really do judge books by their covers. (I know I've bought books because of their covers, and not bought others for the same reason.) We've blogged casually but enthusiastically about our favorite book covers in previous years (and it's a constant topic of conversation on our book team here and just about anywhere book people get together, as far as I can tell), but this year, as they say in the reality shows, we've taken it to the next level. Thanks to our Magazines team, which built a sleek and fun voting widget to help them choose the best magazine covers of the year (here's their landing page--the widget itself lives no more now that the voting is over), we were able to do the same to open up customer voting for the best book covers of 2009. And so we narrowed down our favorite covers of the year to 60 nominees in ten categories, and now the rest is up to you.

You can find a link to the best covers voting on our Best Books of 2009 page, but if you're in a hurry, you can go straight to the voting page. The first round of voting, in which you choose your favorite in each of the ten categories, goes through December 7, and then they'll be a second round through December 17 to choose the Best Cover of 2009 from the 10 category champs.

We'll be posting plenty more about covers here over the next few weeks (including interviews with designers and more), but let's just start off with our nominees. You can see larger versions of all these images on our voting page or on this page, but here's a quick thumbnail gallery of each category after the jump. I know which ones I love the best (here are a few), but I'm looking forward to seeing what the top choices will turn out to be from this lovely array. And if there are favorites of yours that have been left off the ballot (some of my personal favorites didn't make the cut either), please shout them out in the comments, and we can feature some of them on Omni later. (We're not the only ones doing this, by the way: I know that the excellent Book Design Review is going to hold their annual favorite covers poll, with a little twist this year, by asking three booksellers to make their own selections.)

This one of the most fun things we've put together on the site recently, and we hope you'll enjoy it too.

Fiction:

Nonfiction:

Childrens & Teens:

Arts & Comics:

Cooking, Food & Wine:

Famous Faces:

One of a Kind Covers:

Classics Reimagined:

Paperbacks:

From a Series:

--Tom

With Thanksgiving nearly here, are you wondering exactly how much turkey you need to feed 11 people, four of whom are teenagers? Are you worried about timing and internal temperatures?  Are you thinking of brining your bird this year?  Would you like recipe ideas for holiday dishes that incorporate many of the basic pantry items you already have on hand? Are you hunting around for ideas on how to avoid waste and use all those leftovers?

If the answer is yes to any of the above, you might consider calling The Butterball Turkey Talk Line at 1-800-BUTTERBALL (1-800-288-8372). This all-American seasonal call center has been serving harried holiday cooks for 29 years now. In addition to “live” help from home economists, Butterball has expanded its website and now offers many online features, such as serving calculators, new recipes, bilingual features, and email queries. All of the recipes on the site have been developed and tested in the Butterball kitchen by specialists.  There’s also a special section called “New Cook Know-How.”

For more information, see the website or call the All-Star Turkey Talkers directly!  The phone lines are open on Thanksgiving, but call ahead, if possible, because the phones are ringing already!

Photo courtesy of Butterball.

--Melissa A. Trainer
 

Oprah's Movin' On:  Today Oprah Winfrey announced that the "The Oprah Winfrey Show"--the biggest daytime show in television history-- will come to a close during its 25th season. The last show will air on September 9, 2011. The multimedia icon and mogul is expected to launch a new talk show on her eponymous cable network.  [Yahoo News via AP and The New York Times]

Martin Amis' New Novel: In an interview in today's Guardian, Martin Amis talks about the genesis of his forthcoming novel The Pregnant Widow (coming May 2010), and counters claims that the story--which follows the lives a group of young people during the sexual revolution of the 1970's and the negative consequences of promiscuity for women--might be interpreted as anti-feminist. Amis "insisted that it was actually 'a very feminist book'." [The Guardian]

Open and Shut Case:   David Davis of the LA Times reviews Andre Agassi's just released autobiography, Open, and finds it an "inspiring acheivement."  Don't miss Agassi's candid and touching video introduction to the book. [LA Times]

Moving & shaking:  Sportscaster Len Berman's The Greatest Moments in Sports lands in our top 10 Movers & Shakers following his discussion of history-making games on this morning's Today Show. 

--Lauren

However, monster Apple stock analyst Gene Munster from Piper Jaffray discounts the high pricing of the OLED panel model and believes that the tablet device will ultimately retail for between $500 and $700 in order to place it in pricing context between the iPod touch at $199 and MacBook at $999 (via AppleInsider). He also added that timing is irrelevant from an investor standpoint, as expectation for sales in 2010 are low--with the focus being on "whether the tablet is real."

In other phantom iTablet news, Conde Nast says it is preparing a digital version of Wired Magazine that tailored to the tablet device for a mid-2010 launch, and it plans to create similar digital versions of its complete lineup of magazines (which includes The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Lucky).

• Speaking of wished-for tech phantoms, Mac Life asked five prominent members of the gadgetosphere to come up with the next Apple game changer, and Tekzilla video podcast host Veronica Belmont came up with her take on an Apple e-reader/iTablet (seen at right). Others include a bunny-eared iPhone (for improved reception) from Gizmodo's Brian Lam and a 3D rapid prototyping machine from Make editor-in-chief Mark Frauenfelder.

• The latest competing updates to the two biggest Windows virtual machine titles are out--Parallels Desktop 5 and VMware Fusion 3. Ars Technica provides a very detailed review of VMware, while Chris Pirillo posts an excellent screencast overview/review by Bwana, a moderator of one of his chat rooms.

• Last spring, a goodly chunk of my iTunes library got corrupted and I lost about 100 CDs that I'd digitized into my library during the period when this corruption happened. Luckily, I was able to recover some of those digital files by grabbing them from my iPod using The Little App Factory’s iPod Rip software (as you can't just drag files from an iPod to your iTunes client). Kirk McElhearn at Macworld also offers some happy iPod file hunting advice for those comfortable using the Terminal.

• While we're on the subject of iPod Rip, The Little App Factory has been in a legal dispute with Apple over the name (Apple doesn't like the use of one of its products). The CEO of the software company pleaded directly to Steve Jobs to help them with their problem, and Jobs replied with a very zen answer (via Gizmodo):

  Change your apps name. Not that big of a deal.

  Steve

  Sent from my iPhone

  And thusly, it's been renamed to iRip.

• If you're having trouble deciding which of the new crop of iPods to give this holiday season, check out Macworld's iPod Buying Guide for some tips.

• Liam Cassidy of The Apple Blog notes a recent class action lawsuit against Apple over its delay of the MMS picture/video messaging functionality--which is now in full effect on the iPhone--and wonders who really uses it since images sent via email seem to suffice for him. I wondered the same thing until recently, when I was at Ikea and faced with procuring a few new lamps without my wife at my side. But wait, I had MMS now! And through the magic of picture messaging I was able to secure the go-ahead on my proposed purchases (and thus avoid a trip back to Ikea for a return).

• The 1Password utility (which, as the name suggests, keeps track of your web passwords as well as credit card information for online shopping and secure notes) has been officially updated to version 3.0. This has become one of the most important and oft-used pieces of software in my arsenal, and is well worth the purchase (via Macworld).

• I use Yojimbo from Bare Bones Software as my main repository of hoovered links, digital scraps and such, but Web Worker Daily makes a good case for Shovebox (included in the recent MacHeist nanoBundle) as a suitable competitor to Yojimbo--especially as you can extend your saved data to your iPhone with an app (something that Yojimbo doesn't provide).

  

• Add Magellen to the list of iPhone navigation apps with its RoadMate 2010 North America app--currently available at a special introductory price of $79.99. Magellan is also releasing a car kit that will work with the original iPhone and iPod touch (due to a built-in GPS receiver (via Electronista). With the competition hotting up, TUAW notes that Navigon has dropped the price of its MobileNavigator North America app by $20 to $69.99 through November 30.

• And if you're not sure which iPhone GPS navigation app might be right for you, check out this handy overview at Art of iPhone (via Textually).

• Steven Sande at TUAW shares his experience setting up a Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server and warns that while basic services such as basic file and print services and Time Machine backups are pretty easy for neophytes to configure, the Server part of this product really does require some advanced experience.

• Here's another good tip from Steve at TUAW--using the the Dropbox file synchronization service to host an iWeb-created web site for those who don't have a MobileMe account (though, it should be noted, that this isn't a solution for large-scale hosting--mainly for testing or creating pages for family).

• Out here in Seattle--a city long associated with Microsoft (though its campus is in the eastern suburb of Redmond)--we've got a new mayor who was elected to shake things up as far as policy and priorities. But he's also shaking things up in the realm of office PC politics by announcing that he's looking into the possibility of the mayor's office using Macs instead of the ubiquitous Windows-based PC (via The Slog). The new mayor, Mike McGinn, is also already an iPhone user and has requested iPhones for his staff instead of the usual CrackBerries.

• And finally... the evolution of the mobile phone--from the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to the iPhone--in Russian matryoshka doll style by artist Kyle Bean (via PopGadget).

  
  

--Agen G.N. Schmitz

Rolling in like a slow, fuzzed-out guitar line from an Orange-brand amp, The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book lives up to the good vibes promised in its title.

Artist and writer Joe Daly's full-color graphic novel collects two stories starring best buds Dave and Paul, as they wander about Cape Town while fully under the influence. Dave has a genetic disorder he calls "monkey feet," where his feet have what appear to be opposable digits. Throughout the book, Dave tries to overcome insecurities stemming from this oddity, and Paul tries his best to compliment his friend's feet ("You're a lucky dude, Dave…I guess."). In the first story, Paul drops in on Dave, sheepishly asking to borrow money, but Dave's internal monologue betrays a bit of resentment from past experience. No clichéd flashbacks or expository dialogue break the moment, though, and it passes sharply. The duo share a friendship so realized that I wondered if I hadn't somehow missed an earlier volume or two. 

This may sound like a strange compliment, but the color separation in The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book is a highlight. It's clean, crisp, and exact. In one panel, Dave is in an apartment surrounded by frogs, each with individually-colored patterns and pigmentation. One leaps from a pool of water, giving off a splash that sends droplets of blue about the room and onto Dave. Daly is careful to separate this blue from the tint in the sky that lies behind Dave through an open window. The attention to detail only deepens as Dave and Paul cruise the city in Dave's "cool old car," past a shipyard, into a rainforest, and more. Cape Town feels and looks like Cape Town, so much that it is easy to take for granted as the story opens wide.

Having recently finished Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice and Jonathan Lethem's Chronic City, I couldn't help but consider The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book as a distant third-cousin to those titles. Daly's work includes the psychedelic mystery elements from Inherent Vice (the aforementioned apartment full of hallucinogenic amphibians and a quest to locate a capybara named "John Wesley Harding"--yes, named after the Bob Dylan album), and all the spacey dialogue from Chronic City ("That was a really great moment when Kermit the Frog and Ray Charles sang together on The Muppet Show, hey, dude?").

The bad news is that I could not find more Dave and Paul stories, but the good news is that I wanted to. In my search, I found that Joe Daly has an earlier book, Scrublands, and a new title arriving later in 2010 called Dungeon Quest: Book One (all of his books are from Fantagraphics). While waiting for the latter, The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book is a weekend read, best consumed with your feet propped up, opposable digits or not.

--Alex

It's Friday again! Here are a few Thanksgiving preparation tips that we think will make the best day of the year even better:

• Mark Bittman dishes out 101 head starts. (The New York Times)
• How to match up beer with each course. (Foodista)
• Reduce your stress by making the gravy ahead of time. (Noble Pig)
• Add more flavor to your turkey by brining. (Serious Eats)
• What do celebrity chefs make for Thanksgiving? (Foodista)
• Make a simple and amazing cranberry sauce. (Savory Sweet Life)

Photo courtesy of Noble Pig

--Spanno

enough said.

1.  The Chemistry Set - Nothing better than a chemistry set to inspire the next generation of cancer fighters and inventors of just about everything. Here are a few good ones.

Thames and Kosmos The Dangerous Book for Boys Chemistry Set

Scientific Explorer's My 1st Science Kit - The Science of Color

2. Robots- Every geek needs a robot, a friend, a compadre, someone to bring them another Jolt cola...  Here are a couple we like.

Pleo Dinosaur - A UGOBE Life Form

3. A building set - It is well known that nerds love to build stuff.  Future engineers need the tools to get started.  Here are a few sets we love.

Eitech Deluxe Solar Powered Metal Building Kit

Toobeez 57-Piece Building Kit

4. Stuffed Creatures- Even nerds need something to hug.  Correct?

Giant Microbes

Bunk Bots

5. Math Games - Playing is the best way for children to learn so why not play with numbers?  Math games can be fun, educational, geeky-goodness.

Sum Swamp Addition and Subtraction Game

Learning Resources Totally Tut Math Operations Game

Learning Mates Monkey Math

Mythmatical Battles Norse/Egyptian Double Deck Set

6. Electric Circuit Toys - These toys are great for safely exploring electricity (and keeping young explorers from tearing up the walls to explore your home's electrical network).

Snap Circuits SC-300

Snap Circuits RC Rover

I hope this list helps my fellow nerds to buy some awesome presents this year.  I am sure I forgot some nerd-o-rific gifts, so help me out and leave me a comment with suggestions.  Also, don't forget to check out our Holiday Toy List for all kinds of great gift ideas.

Happy Holidays!

--Laura M.

There are cars we could have bought. Cars we would have bought. But this is the car I should have bought back in high school. My well-meaning parents helped me get a 1972 Vega in 1973, before the self-destructive properties of that model became so awfully and costly apparent.

They were thinking "small and economical" for my first car, but looking back in hindsight (as we all do), the long-term costs of a Chevy Nova would have been far less. And it wasn't much larger than the Vega.

The Chevy II/Nova line started in 1962 and went to 1979, and again from 1985 to 1988. But I'd like to focus on what I would have had in my high school years, the ones made from 1968-1974, which are now known as the 3rd Generation Nova. Those other cars have their own followers, and deserve separate posts.

So what's so unique about a Nova? Well, really, practically nothing at all. Recirculating ball steering, drum brakes (discs were optional), blah sedan styling (window frames remained after the glass was rolled down), and spartan interiors and gauge clusters made up this car for the most part.

Maybe that's what makes the Nova so special. GM took their best, proven build ideas at the time and made them work, skipping on some of the frills. And the test of time has proven that they still work. These cars were built during the heyday of muscle cars, and the Nova undoubtedly benefitted from some of that technology.

This foundation made it possible to build a Nova as anything from a nurse's car to a dragster and anything in between. I would not call them luxury cars during these years, but you could opt out of the vinyl floor and flat front bench seat with the LN Package in 1973. Of course, bucket seats were available all along.

These Novas were sold as coupes or 4-doors. There were no wagons or convertibles during this time.

One thing that was especially well-designed about the Nova was that it had a subframe up front, but was unibody from, say, the bulkhead/firewall on back. This large piece continued under the floor somewhat, as it had to be bolted to the main body. It added immense support for a large engine, but made the overall car much lighter than a full body-on-frame design. The F-Body Camaro and Firebird had a similar unit.

Where many unibody-car front-ends would have been beyond repair in an accident, this allowed the possibility of unbolting the subframe and replacing it, along with the front clip (that's the fenders, hood, and radiator support assembly to some of us). I have seen it done, and this kept many Novas out of the scrapyard prematurely.

The Nova offered Strato seats, Astro ventilation, and an optional Turbo-Hydromatic transmission ... GM sure went wild with space-age marketing names back then!

A bud had a Nova, circa-1969 model, that was plain and stripped to the bone, and I got to drive it on several occasions. Seems it had power steering, manual brakes, an automatic, 6 cylinders, and moon hubcaps--remember them? His car, in that form, was about as exciting as watching paint dry, but it got the job done. It was a solid car, until a battery turned over in the trunk. We all know what happened after that.

The Nova was reskinned for 1973. Though style is always subjective, I think the new looks took the car out of the 1960s and was a pleasant update. The front vent windows disappeared for a sleek, more modern look, and 5-mph bumpers were fitted as pleasantly as possible. A potentially hot hatchback was offered for the first time, and I remember a cool snap-on camping tent option for the hatchback. Well, at least I think it was for camping.

A Nova SS (Super Sport) was and is known by some as "The Hot Set-Up." Imagine putting a 396-cubic-inch (6.5-liter) V-8 with 375 horsepower into a 3,300-lb. car (A 2001 Miata with 144 horses weighs 2500 pounds). Install a 4-speed, add disc brakes, and tighten the suspension. Don't forget a sporty trim package. Better yet, let the factory do all of this for you and give you a warranty. The model years of power availability vary, but is there any wonder why folks love these cars?

This Nova has a claim to fame with Cadillac. With a little frame stretching and an all-new body, the first Seville sprang from the Nova. The altering of the Nova's backbone and new coachwork earned the Seville the K-Body designation over the Nova's then-X-Body. At $12,479, the Seville was the highest-priced Caddy of 1975.

Buick/Olds/Pontiac also had their versions, namely the Buick Apollo, Oldsmobile Omega (shown here), and Pontiac Ventura (later the Phoenix, years before the front-wheel-drive X-Car with the same name). Yes, they were virtual clones of the Nova, but at least each had a different face, with styling cues resembling other cars from each respective GM division, such as the "Pontiac Point." 

But, unlike the Nova, those cars are now almost forgotten. They were offered only as a small car alternative in those divisions, like the Chevy Cruze and upcoming Buick clone. Will GM ever learn that badge-swapping may not be the best idea?

Maybe the Nova was a bridge between a large GM car and a sub-compact--tidy dimensions, but tons of power and a solid feel. The doors sounded like a big car when you shut them, and there were no complaints of claustrophobic proportions once inside.

If I had owned a Nova in high school, I'm sure I'd have one now for reflection. I think this is one of the best cars GM ever built, as there are many still around. Their owners are fiercely faithful, and with good reasons. This is the best small car Chevrolet ever built, and I wish that they had stopped here--most everything that followed has been a total disaster.

--That Car Guy (Chuck)

The first image is from MuscleCarClub.com. The dash image is from Hemmings.com. The body/frame image is from ahwagner.blogspot.com. The red Nova SS is from Wikipedia. The Olds Omega photo is from www.NorCalOlds.com.

I was getting my holiday recipes in order when my husband suggested we do a practice run on his sister-in-law Nita's eggnog recipe. Funny, he never thinks to do that for our other holiday dishes. I guess he's just getting into the spirit of the season!

Nita's Homemade Eggnog

Ingredients:
6 large eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 cups whole milk
1-1/4 cups bourbon
1 cup brandy or cognac
3 tablespoons dark rum
Ground nutmeg, for dusting

Directions:
1. Beat the egg yolks in a large bowl with an electric mixer, gradually adding the sugar until the mixture is pale yellow. Set aside.

2. Place the cream in another bowl and beat until it holds soft peaks.

3. Stir the milk into reserved egg-yolk mixture. Then using a large rubber spatula, fold in the whipped cream.

4. Shortly before serving, GENTLY stir in the bourbon and brandy. Transfer to a punch bowl.

5. Beat the egg whites in a bowl with an electric mixer until they hold soft peaks; carefully fold into the eggnog.  Drizzle the top with the rum; sprinkle with the nutmeg. Serve immediately. 

Makes about 10 cups 

--Tracy Schneider

 
(The crowd lining up to get into the National Book Awards, the amazing Cipriani ceiling inside)

The National Book Awards for first-time attendees like my wife Ann and me constituted a kind of blur of sharp-dressed men and women, most of them graying a bit but still elegant, mixed with a few twenty-somethings running around on the fringes like the kids at a bar mitzvah. The location, with its high ceilings and spectacular dome, perfectly lit, conveyed a sense more of publishing’s memory palace than of its harsh reality right now. At the same time, you could hardly blame editors and writers, publishers and agents, for wanting to engage in a high-end collective sigh of relief that, despite many grim indicators, the whole thing hasn’t yet gone bust.

Zadie Smith is not only one of my favorite novelists to read, but one of my favorite novelists to hear talk about being a novelist (she's like Jonathan Lethem that way). As I wrote in my Best of November review of her new collection of "occasional essays," Changing My Mind, it's been clear that she is a novelist from the moment she broke through with White Teeth in her early twenties, but what kind of novelist she is (or will become) seems open to change. I was always fascinated with her response to James Wood's sometimes harsh criticisms of her early work: without being either defensive or defenseless, she seemed to take his critique back home for consideration, and to look at her own work as something outside herself, something that doesn't define her and that she expects to move beyond.

She seems wonderfully open to absorbing influence, while retaining her core intelligence, warmth, and wit--that's clear from her novels, but also from her critical essays, which are not distant pronouncements or summaries, but almost physical engagements with her reading (or watching, as in the case of her movie reviews or her excellent pieces on Katherine Hepburn and the love of a particular kind of British comedy she shared with her father). When she writes a piece comparing two recent novels (Joseph O'Neill's Netherland and Tom McCarthy's Remainder), it's as if she's trying both their styles of fiction on for herself (and one imagines part of her rougher treatment of Netherland is that it's closer to the kind of writing she's done in the past and wants to outgrow).

Her only essay in the collection that's directly about her own writing, "That Crafty Feeling," is one of my favorites, especially for the way she talks about her openness to influence. She acknowledges that some writers can't read other writers at all while they are working on their own books, but (also like Lethem) she's the opposite: "My writing desk is covered in open novels. I read lines to swim in a certain sensibility, to strike a particular note, to encourage rigor when I'm too sentimental, to bring verbal ease when I'm syntactically uptight." And the influences extend from book to book:

Other people's words are so important. And then without warning they stop being important, along with all those words of yours that their words prompted you to write. Much of the excitement of a new novel lies in the repudiation of the one written before. Other people's words are the bridge you use to cross from where you were to wherever you were going.

There's an ease to all of this river-crossing, it seems, just as there appears to be in her unfailing graceful sentences. But one of her further charms is that she's always looking to turn a story like that against itself, and so in her brilliant piece on Barack Obama and Pygmalion, she acknowledges the costs of such transformations through the words of others. She discusses her own hard-earned speaking voice, "the rounded vowels and consonants in more or less the right place," which was not the voice she grew up with. Thinking that she was adding a voice through her education, she has since found that she lost the other:

Recently my double voice has deserted me for a single one, reflecting the smaller world into which my work has led me. Willesden was a big, colorful, working-class sea; Cambridge was a smaller, posher pond, and almost univocal; the literary world is a puddle. This voice I picked up along the way is no longer an exotic garment I put on like a college gown whenever I choose--now it is my only voice, whether I want it or not. I regret it; I should have kept both voices alive in my mouth.

Regrets or not, you get the feeling that her voice, along with her mind, will continue to change, in her novels as well as in these lovely, brilliant essays that are their equal. --Tom

For your New Moonparty consider these activities for loads of fun:

• Play Twilight Jeopardy
• Read favorite excerpts from the book
• Edward can run fast. As dusk falls, provide flashlights and have races to see who can keep up with Edward’s speed. Set up races or a game of flashlight tag for fun.
• Make Twilight bracelets using glow in the dark string and charms.
• Alice Cullen is super hyper … how does she get this way? See who can become Alice Cullen by holding a food-eating contest. Serve candy bars and ice cream. How much will it take for you to get hyped?
• Have a vampire taste-test. Put out all sorts of red foods and see if your guests can guess what they are. Ideas include red hots, red icing, ketchup, chilis (these are hot … watch out!), red bell peppers, French salad dressing, etc. Make sure to blindfold your guests to make it more difficult.
• Vampires are (often) ice cold. Have your guests go bobbing for apples in ice-cold water. See who captures an apple!
• Play a game of baseball with apples
• Act out a favorite scene from the book. Make sure all of the Twilight characters are covered, but instead of playing the scene out as the book does, create your own ending—it will be a surprise as it unfolds! The only rule: it can’t turn out as it does in the book.
• How about Jacob the werewolf? How about a howling contest! Who can do it best? Give out prizes for most original, loudest, and oddest howl.
• A great prize would be a copy of one of the books. It would be a splurge, but great fun!

Make fabulous swag bags with items that represent each character. Have your guests guess which character goes with what as they head out into the New Moon night:

•     Cake mix (fudge marble)
•     Jaw breakers
•     Eclipse gum
•     Red finger nail polish
•     Vampire teeth
•     Tennis ball

--Lisa Kothari
Peppers and Pollywogs, Inc.
www.pepperspollywogs

In celebration of New Moon's opening we are going to explore your favorite movie & TV vampires and put them head-to-head (or fang to fang). Feel free to chime in with your thoughts as we match up two different bloodsuckers every day this week.

ROUND FOUR: DRACULA VS. LESTAT

Two old-school, control freak vampires with attitude problems and horrible luck in love.

Qualifier: There are many versions of both of these characters. This cage match is between the Lestat from the movie Interview with the Vampire, and not the book version. The Dracula character is from Gary Oldman’s portrayal in the 1992 film, Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

WHO?: Dracula (Gary Oldman), is the most famous of the vampires, and also known as the first vampire.  He is forever searching for the reincarnation of his lost love. People usually just get in the way of his goal, and when they do, he kills or eats them. Lestat (Tom Cruise) is a 6-foot tall, blond vampire with a flair for fashion. He is bold, defiant and conflicted.  He tends toward selfish introspection without much concern for the feelings of others. 

 
UN-UNDEAD SOULMATE:  Mina (for Dracula); Himself? (Lestat)

INSTEAD OF HUMANS, THEY DRINK FROM: Both actually drink from people.

PHYSICAL STRENGTHS: Dracula, once known as Vlad the Impaler, has major battle training. He also puts little to no value on any life, sometimes including his own. That sort of ambivalence could give him an advantage. Lestat’s resourcefulness and resilience lead him to survive fire and dead blood (which apparently can kill him). He’s selfish enough to turn anyone into a vampire in order to keep them as his companions, who on-screen are a Who’s Who of vampire hotness: (Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas).

 
PHYSICAL WEAKNESSES: These two are pretty well-matched physically, but their mental issues could make all the difference. Dracula is so confident in his ability to triumph, he runs the risk of underestimating his opponent. Lestat is extremely self-centered and might worry about getting his clothes dirty.

 
WOOING:  Dracula is only concerned with his Mina. He loves to the point of obsession, even though the original Mina has been dead for many years. Lestat is a charmer. He has well-honed seduction skills, but has no ability to keep a long-term relationship.

Which vampire would win this bout? --Shauna

My 11-year old son is a tough nut to crack when it comes to vegetable consumption. I am constantly reminding him to eat his veggies. If the veggies are raw, he will heed my advice and eat them. But, more often than not, if they've been cooked, he will simply nudge them around on his plate. 

Yesterday, Will was home feeling rather under the weather.   I decided to push the parameters a bit and made the Sweet Potato & Lentil Soup from the November, 2009 issue of BBC Good Food. My son loves ethnic food and happily scarfs fare from Mexico, India, China, Thailand, and the Middle East.

The soup called for curry powder, fresh gingerroot, and fresh coriander in addition to sweet potatoes and  red lentils. The nutritional information indicated that one serving counted as 3 of one’s  5-a-day! Wow!  I thought this might be my chance to inadvertently work some cooked veggies into him. 

The recipe called for grated sweet potatoes, apple, and onion, so I decided to do that tedious task in my Cuisinart food processor rather than by hand.  When the soup was simmering for the suggested 20 minutes,  I knew I was on the right track. Will came into the kitchen and asked what I was making. He sniffed and said it reminded him of the Indian food we had enjoyed in England. Aha!  I was really getting somewhere. 

When I served the pureed aromatic soup for lunch, Will enthusiastically grabbed some gyro bread as an accompaniment and positively swooned over the whole bowl.  Curious, I later checked the recipe reviews online. There were eight positive reviews and a solid five-star rating!   Now that’s good food!

Photo by Melissa A. Trainer

--Melissa A. Trainer

Garmin nüvifone G60

But Garmin's holding fast to offering its own GPS-centric device, and the nüvifone G60 offers most of the trappings of a late Oughts smartphone, including touchscreen interface (based on Linux), Wi-Fi networking and HSDPA 3G cellular connectivity (for both U.S. and foreign networks). But at its heart it's really a Garmin nüvi GPS device, and that's not such a bad thing. While some reviewers have dinged the device for its underpowered web browser, lack of third-party apps and shorter-than-expected battery life, others have also noted that the nüvifone G60 offers the "best navigation experience you'll find on a phone" (so says Engadget). And MobileBurn notes:

Just as the original Apple iPhone was considered by many to have been a great iPod with a phone tossed in it, the Garmin nuvifone G60 is something along those lines. It is a great GPS navigation device, and an OK phone. It does most of the things a modern phone needs to be able to do, and well enough to matter.

The nüvifone G60 is currently available at the AmazonWireless store for just $99 for new customers (current AT&T customers can also upgrade to the G60 at a pretty good price as well).

--Agen G.N. Schmitz