Valentine’s Day and Other Stuff

Mmm…! Chocolate…! Apparently there’s more to milk chocolate than we realize.

As a follow up, Facebook has become more user friendly, having indeed making it easier to leave it, in case one would be so inclined. (and, no, I’m not there yet).

“Pride and Prejudice” on Channel 13 – Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy!… [drool]…

Not that long ago, FC visited the new 2nd Avenue Deli. NY Times’ Frank Bruni went to the 2nd Avenue Deli with Ed Koch, former NYC mayor; Nora Ephron, writer and film director; and Laura Shapiro, culinary history writer. Bruni notes that there will always the diversity of opinion on what is authentic Jewish food, but:

And I realized that we weren’t so much eating in a specific restaurant as passing through a communal storehouse of memories, on a bridge of babkas from the past to the future.

Ed, the most deeply rooted New Yorker among us, said that at the Second Avenue Deli, “I feel very much at home.”

“I walk out,” he said, “and I feel warm, no matter how cold it is.”

Watching some Conan O’Brien late Wednesday/Thursday night – his first show with the writers back. Matt Lauer’s a guest, and some laryngitis is preventing him from talking – so Conan’s letting Matt mime (good Lord…). I thought writer-less Conan during the writers’ strike was hilarious, so hopefully he’ll continue to do well with his writers back.

Yeah, we’ve living in interesting times; kind of dangerous to talk about politics at work, but it’s kind of like a sport half the time. You go to the watercooler after the primaries and analyze the results, as the linked article notes – kind of like how people become Monday night quarterbacks after the football games – and the chitchat either detracts from work or makes us bond and be happier at work (umm, or not).

And, in time for Valentine’s Day: Time’s art critic Richard Lacayo on the color of red, re-posting a post he did from last Valentine’s Day (since he’s on vacation). I liked his selection of various paintings that has such strong red.

Plus – romance in the Metropolitan Museum of Art or other museums, Lily Koppel observes for this NY Times article:

Andrea Bayer, a curator in the department of European paintings, where she has worked for 17 years, is planning an exhibition, “Love and Marriage in Italian Renaissance Art.”

“The museum experience is very relaxing — it’s about wandering, taking it in, allowing for an expansiveness of time,” she said. “Couples tend to gravitate toward art depicting domestic scenes. They connect with them in a way that is easier and less detached than looking at a religious painting of the same period.

“People try to get married here all the time. They come here with a minister or justice of the peace, but security has to dissuade them.”

For singles, it appears to be about the hunt. Museums allow people to explore, looking for something, or someone, that moves them.

“Is there anything hotter than seducing your potential next lover in the European sculpture garden of the Met in N.Y.?” is the way a Facebook group called “Museums Are Sexy” describes itself to potential members. “Or telling your paramour how you feel in front of Venus herself. If nudity, eroticism and nymphs remind you of how much you love museums, tell us about it here.”