Notes on wandering around Georgetown

1. Found in a wedding magazine: a recommendation to play Cake's "Love You Madly" during the cake cutting part of one's ceremony. Note that the first lines are "I don't want to wonder/If this is a blunder/I don't want to worry if we're going to stay together 'til we die. It's a decent song about ambivalence in relationships. But it's no play territory, not cake cutting music.

I immediately e-mailed Clarissa Dalloway to share. "That's like playing "Born To Run" at political rallies," she said.

"No, 'Love You Madly' is worse. With 'Born to Run,' the chorus sounds patriotic, and the tempo is actually upbeat. It's only from the verses that you know that the chorus is supposed to be ironic. And Springsteen mutters, so it's hard to make out all of the verses."

Still, opinions welcome.

2. I don't understand the "Real Weddings" article sub-genre that many wedding magazines have. The subtext seems to be, "Look! Real people actually have weddings! There are people who do not throw up their hands in despair and elope!" I am happy about these people's not succumbing to despair, but, like, pulling off having a nice wedding seems like not that remarkable an achievement.

The sub-genre is often heavy on annoying political correctness. The selection of real couples must be racially balanced. Apparently no area of American life -- not even bridal magazines -- can remain untouched by quota mania. There are also sometimes SWPL anecdotes -- "It was really important to Emily and Jacob that all of their invitations and programs be printed on recycled paper" or "DeShawn and Tomoko seamlessly blended African-American and Japanese culinary traditions with an innovative, unique catering menu." The whole exercise seems designed to guilt trip me into feeling badly that I am not sitting at my laptop doing work.

Often as not, I just get distracted and start judging the couple based on their resumes. I should try to focus and just focus on whether or not I'm getting any useful ideas about flowers.

3. While on the same Barnes and Noble excursion, I took a look at a certain much maligned book on the case for settling. It's more insipid than I expected. I might say more about that in a separate post, except for the little matter of the private right of action I created that's enforceable against me.

4. I'm surprisingly unmoved by everything that's in clothing stores. This is the problem with the ridiculousness of the retail calendar; I just can't get excited about trying on sundresses when it's forty-two degrees and raining. Except for cheap ballet flats which are excellent.

5. I wanted to think that trendy cupcakes were overrated, merely another annoying affectation of the Uggs and North-Face clad undergrad masses. I was wrong. My Irish Creme cupcake was as fresh and delicious as the best cupcakes I've made myself. Maybe this experience will be enough to convince me to stop being so darn judgmental, though I doubt it.

Related wild idea: start a business that would sell nothing but specialty cupcakes, fancy French fries, and beverages (mostly hot chocolate and coffee.) Fancy French fries = involving sweet potatoes. another version involving garlic, and also others involving customized blends of spices. Perhaps these things do not go together, some will say, and this whole idea is deeply wrong. Perhaps. But if it's wrong, I don't want to be right.