To Pluto or not to Pluto?

The American Dialect Society released the results of their “Word of the Year” vote on Friday. From the site:

“(The) Word of the Year is interpreted in its broader sense as “vocabulary item”—not just wordsbut phrases. The words or phrases do not have to be brand new, but they have to be newly prominent or notable in the past year, in the manner of Time magazine’s Person of the Year.”

And the winner is:

to pluto/be plutoed: to demote or devalue someone or something, as happened
to the former planet Pluto when the General Assembly of the International
Astronomical Union decided Pluto no longer met its definition of a planet.

The full press release is available on the site, which includes the complete list of nominations for categories such as Most Useful, Most Creative, Most Unnecessary and Most Outrageous. It’s definitely worth a read, as it is a hilarious display of tongue-in-cheek informal lexicography. For example:

  • sudden jihad syndrome: an outburst of violence from a seemingly stable and normal Muslim.
  • Fox lips: lips colored and lined with makeup to seem more prominent, said of female anchors on Fox News.
  • Cambodian accessory: Angelina Jolie’s adopted child who is Cambodian.

Wouldn’t it be great to be on the voting panel?

The Calgary Theatre Scene

I’ve been doing some virtual digging on Calgary attractions over the past few days in preparation for a short trip this coming weekend, and I’ve discovered that Cowtown has a more expansive theatre scene than I knew about. While not exactly surprising given their bursting population and opportunity for corporate sponsorship, the city has a fair variety of theatre offerings.

I don’t think I’ll have time on this trip to catch any shows, but there are a few companies I will be keeping my eye on:

  • Lunchbox Theatre: like a cross between Shadow Theatre and Teatro La Quindicina, they recently mounted a production written by Aaron Sorkin. Reason enough to visit.
  • Morpheus Theatre: produces Gilbert & Sullivan operettas (“It came from Penzance!”), and contemporary plays, such as the upcoming adaptation of Tuesdays with Morrie.
  • One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre: purveyor of edgy, experimental theatre, they organize the annual “High Performance Rodeo” festival, which this year featured a musical entitled Five Hole: Tales of Hockey Erotica. Enough said.
  • Theatre Calgary: collaborates often with its Edmonton-equivalent, The Citadel Theatre. But on second thought, it may be a better idea to watch a Citadel production first. Of the two though, Theatre Calgary has a slicker website.
  • Vertigo Theatre: now this, Edmonton doesn’t have – mystery theatre on a grand scale. At least, not without the song and dance Jubilations would infuse. Not only does Vertigo offer the opportunity to uncover the forensic realities of a show, but the upcoming Shear Madness even allows for audience input to solve the whodunit!

I will continue to be a cheerleader for Edmonton theatre, but perhaps it is time to take off my partisan blinders and open up to the exciting theatrical developments down south.

The Cooking Chronicles: Ricotta Pancakes

Armed with Bisquick, I set out to duplicate an Everyday Italian recipe of Ricotta Pancakes this morning.

The show had advertised them as a fluffier alternative to the usual result from pancake mix, and I did find that the case, but they definitely came out flatter than I was expecting. I should have substituted milk for water, and added about a quarter cup more frozen blueberries. But the best part was – they really weren’t any more difficult to make than regular pancakes, as long as you have the ingredients on hand to start with.

Anyway, pancakes are a great way to begin any day!

Ricotta Pancakes

Starbucks’s Cinammon Dolce Latte

I tried the “new” Cinnamon Dolce Latte at Starbucks on Friday. While nothing can replace my White Chocolate Mocha, the Dolce was very good – rich and creamy, and I couldn’t taste the cinnamon at all. Rather, it tasted to me like an even better version of the Gingerbread Latte.

I’m sad to say, however, that Starbucks has reached Hallmark-levels of holiday agenda pushing, with their Valentine’s merchandise display up already on January 3, when most people still have full-on new year’s denial. Why can’t we just order coffee without the distraction of seasonal gift items?

Pessimistically Honest

It’s ironic that I titled my blog “Optimistically Cautious,” because that’s probably just a hopeful state of mind for me – more people know me as a keen pessimist. It’s not something readily embraced, so it was refreshing for me to read Luke Foster’s column this week in Vue Weekly, which I thought accurately reflected my own thoughts on the start of a new year on paper:

“I don’t understand how the end of something—the end of the year—can be met with such optimism, every time it comes around. And how people believe over and over that this year, this year is going to be different. I’m going to become something that I’m not, do something new that I’ll hate, meet people that I won’t be able stand. What’s so wrong with you now? You’re probably kind of boring, but you’re still you.”

Spot on. There’s really nothing more I can, or want to add.

Charmingly Urban: Blue Plate Diner

I mention Blue Plate Diner (10145-104 Street) so often that you’d think I’d eat there more frequently, so I was more than happy to return on Friday night for dinner with Mack.

Just stepping into the restaurant makes me happy. Located in the warehouse district, the dining room retains some of the original brick, adorned with contemporary art, and accented with aged windows utilized as table dividers. I love the ambiance in the evenings, with swoony ’50s music, the natural buzz of conversation, and dim, candlelit tables.

The menu isn’t anything spectacular, but it’s like my favorite sweater – comfortable and good for all occasions. Something unique that they do offer is their Friday night dinner specials, with two featured dishes every week (and yes, it does remind me of dinner at the Gilmore residence). I ordered one of the two specials, a winter vegetable pie served with garlic mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables. Mack chose the beef burger and regular fries.

I forgot my camera (the photos below are from their website), so you’ll have to bear with text, but the pie was huge! Baked in a large dish and topped off with a puff pastry crust, it was teeming with carrots, mushrooms, and fennel root (to me, tasted like a cross between celery and onions). It was a satisfying dish that wasn’t too heavy, and a great choice on a cold night. Mack’s said his from-scratch fries were good, and polished off his burger in no time!

Needless to say, I’ll be back!

Ambiance
Table for two

“The O.C.”: Cancelled

And another one of my shows bites the dust.

News surfaced yesterday that after four seasons, the pop-culture phenomenon, The O.C., will be airing its final episode on February 22. Although I was more affected by the cancellations of Ed and Everwood in years past, I will be sad to see this show off.

After the creative black hole that was Oliver and, well, most other Marissa-centered crises, the producers worked hard to get the show back up to Season 1-par this year, despite the death of the princess herself. The storylines have been great – being able to watch Ryan and Julie overcome their grief, Ryan and Taylor’s relationship blossom, and Ryan’s continued maturation (okay, you’ve got me there…I’d be satisfied with Ben Mackenzie in any shape or form). Even the very soap opera-esque appearance of Ryan’s dad this season was handled exceptionally well.

I will miss the Cohens and their merry band of friends.

“High School Musical”

I had heard about High School Musical here and there – a cast member on Jay Leno, a clip on the Family Channel – and I was morbidly curious as to what the hype was all about. So I took the time finally to sit down and watch it yesterday, in full, courtesy of my sister’s DVD.

The storyline is fairly straightforward – a basketball star meets a science champion on summer vacation, connect magically over a forced duet, and à la Grease, discover themselves schoolmates come September. They both want to audition, as a pair, for the school mu-zi-kal, but can’t due to peer pressure, and allegiance to their original callings. And I’m sure you can see where this is leading…

The movie is predictable, overacted, driven by stereotypes and characterized by clichéd moments…but in the end, it won me over. High School Musical never pretends to be anything other than a made for television family movie, and it’s hard to dislike a movie with a good heart at its core and noble intentions.

One song in particular, “Status Quo,” was rather clever. It involved members of several cliques confessing their deepest secrets – a jock’s penchant for baking, a skater’s talent for the cello, a bookworm’s love of hip hop. It kind of made me wish my high school cafeteria broke out into sweeping song and dance numbers more often.

The penultimate performance, “Breaking Free,” the showstopper involving the two leads, is pure pop, and irresistible in its own right. I wish they had eliminated the last number, “We’re All in This Together”, and ended on the more memorable “Breaking Free” instead. It not only screamed of Grease‘s “We Go Together,” with everyone pairing off, but also unnecessarily hammered home the movie’s byline that individual differences should be celebrated. But I guess if I’m looking for subtlety, I shouldn’t be watching the Disney Channel.

Turns out, High School Musical 2: Sing It All or Nothing! is already in the works, to be released some time this year. I may have to watch it just to see if it lives up to the original.

Gift Cards: Highway Robbery

A recent article from The Boston Globe, reprinted in The Globe & Mail on Tuesday, answered exactly what I had wanted to know about the advent and growing popularity of gift cards.

Though paper credit notes and merchandise certificates may seem easier to misplace (or to be confused with store receipts), they are noticeably lighter and easier to carry in one’s wallet than a dense piece of plastic. Moreover, with their ease of use – swipe and go, without the need for a signature – it’s very easy to forget that the cards stand for cash. I would think it natural for many people to discard gift cards that lay unused and dormant in their wallets over time to lighten the load, or to simply let unused balances expire, instead of attempting the hassle of having to physically visit the store to inquire about surplus funds. I figured companies had to be making a fortune from a general public too lazy to use up their two cents, so to speak. But how much?

From Jenn Abelson’s article:

“About 23.3 million Americans have unused gift cards from last year’s holidays, according to an October study by Consumer Reports. Of the people who received gift cards in 2005, 19 percent of them have not used one or more of the cards nearly a year later. Tower Group estimates that the value of unredeemed gift cards has now grown to about $8 billion over several years…Retailers typically don’t count the cards as revenue until they are redeemed, but the growing number of unused cards has prompted some merchants to refine their bookkeeping. In June, Home Depot said it had sold more than $40 million in gift cards in recent years that it concluded were unlikely to be claimed. The home improvement chain recorded the money as income, making millions of dollars for selling nothing but cards of plastic.”

Unbelievable. Who knew that financial apathy (with a side of shrewd corporate design) came with a price tag of $8 billion?

The Bastardization of English

I find it fascinating when words from popular culture transcend everyday speech and are officially canonized onto the pages of a reference manual – the most memorable example being “Google” in recent years (I’ll follow the Oxford English Dictionary-acceptable capitalized version).

To my surprise, I read about the reverse today – an academic institution in the U.S. that releases an annual list of words and phrases they wish to ban from the English language. Since 1976, a committee based out of Lake Superior State University sorts through thousands of nominations every year and whittles it down to a handful of words that they believe should disappear from the lexicon all together.

My “favorites”: combined celebrity names (TomKat be gone!), “pwn” (which, until today, I did not know had its genesis in World of Warcraft, though I should have guessed), and “went missing” (from the article: “‘It makes ‘missing’ sound like a place you can visit, such as the Poconos. Is the person missing, or not?’ asked Robin Dennis of Texas.” Too true). I was, however, surprised to see Stephen Colbert’s “truthiness” on the list – perhaps the academics veer to the right?

Full article here.