Guitars, and sharps and flats

RIP, Josie DeCarlo, the inspiration for Josie, of the Pussycats.

Seattle has best burger joint in nation?

This is ridiculous. Dick's Drive-In has grown on me (really disliked it when we first arrived), but no way is it the best burger joint in the U.S., topping Five Guys and In N Out. The fries are practically liquid and I don't get the fascination with tartar sauce.

Still, Esquire proclaims it the best. Dudes, it's like Ringo and drumming, it's not even the best burger joint in Seattle.

Lip Lickers designer heard from!

If you're retro-minded like me, you probably knew and loved the Lip Lickers lip balm cases, the little tins decorated with old-fashioned flowers and fruits, that came with sliding lids. (Some offered two flavors per tin.)

I posted about them in 2006, and just this week, one of the people who designed those beloved tins posted on PCJM! I'm quoting his comment here so it will be seen by more people.

Thank you, Joel! What a great peek inside the history of one of my favorite retro products!

"I was one of the two graphic designers who worked on the tin designs. Sadly, I left them for what seemed at the time a better opportunity. They were a great company in their diversity of products. When we changed our name to Minnetonka, Inc. is was to look like a much more diversified company as we gained product lines. One was Calvin Klein Cosmetics we purchased from him. He retained creative overview, but one product that became real famous that i designed the logo for was Obsession. Too bad I wasn't a freelancer at the time. I could have retired by the early 90's. I designed the logo in 1979 after Bob Taylor (President) came to me to see if I could come up with logo ideas for the brand, because Calvin wasn't excited about the New York effort he had been getting. It really didn't mean anything at the time, because it was at the product's inception without any correlating advertising. Yes I sure miss those days. 3 of us over lunch went to a local flower shop in Chaska, MN and just after we walked in the door the owner asked us if we worked at Minnetonka, Inc. We asked how he knew, and he said the smells from our clothes were so strong, he just knew. As time went by our art department grew with a plethora of great talent, who eventually all had to go our separate ways. It was a private company which eventually went public. Thanks for bringing back the great memories.


Joel LeGrande

Ashland, OR "

Girl Scout Cookie Nestle Crunch

I bought five boxes of Girl Scout cookies to support the scout on our street, and brought them all to work so I wouldn't be tempted by them. So of course I have to share this -- a limited edition Nestle Crunch bar incorporating Thin Mints.

Wash it down with a Mint Sprite from China!

Mint Sprite

Wow. I am imagining Mint Sprite (Asia only) tasting like liquid toothpaste.

Bring a pencil to rewind!

I love this so, so much that I cross-posted it to GenXtinct (remember our book blog? yeah, I started posting there again). An iPhone cover that looks JUST like a cassette tape.

Torgo's baaaack!

Rifftrax, one of two awesome Mystery Science Theater 3000 off-shoot groups (this one consisting of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett), will be revisiting perhaps the worst movie ever, "Manos: The Hands of Fate."

MST3K's version is infamous, but looks like the Riffers will be giving it a whole new go! Seems like a tough job as any MSTie worth his or her "Rowsdower!" bumper sticker will know if they repeat any jokes. Will be a fun one to watch for sure.

Book I can't put down

I've been addicted to reading only books I can get on my iPhone Kindle app these days, but here's a 1300-page book that I bought as a used paperback and cannot put down, and stayed up till 2 a.m. reading last night. Highest recommendation I'm handing out these days, plus it's cheap and easy to find at your local library or thrift store.

I adored Anton Myrer's "Last Convertible" years ago -- it's a beautiful tale of young friends in a lost time. But now I'm deep into Myrer's "Once an Eagle," a breathtaking book about, of all things, a professional soldier, who gets his start before WW 1 and is exactly the kind of military man you want every single military man (or woman) to be. Brilliant. A fevered student of history. Willing to look at warfare as a chess game, seeing many moves ahead. Brave. Loyal. No fan of fighting for fighting's sake, but willing to do the tough things in order to bring an end to the war he's in.

One of the critics calls this book "America's War and Peace." It's required reading for many West Pointers. The New York Times wrote that "for the military, it was not just a book, but a revelation."

There's also a miniseries, apparently, with Sam Eliot as the hero, Sam Damon. And a fan page that has clips from it.

Read it. Then read "Last Convertible." Between them, they may take months, but you'll love having books that you can't wait to get back to. They're old-fashioned, none of this post-modernist style or artsy writing, but you'll keep compulsively turning pages till you've turned them all.

Where's Gael?

I've been swamped lately with the new book and everything else, but wanted to point out the other ways to follow me online, in case PCJM falls into another slow streak.

• I'm on Twitter as GaelFC
• And Pinterest as GaelFC
• Co-author Brian Bellmont and I have a Facebook page for GenXtinct, our 70s-80s memories
• Gen Xtinct also has a blog (infrequently updated these days)
• Gen Xtinct has its own Twitter account
• And you can follow my MSNBC journalism via my work blog
• Which also has a Twitter account
• And a Facebook page
• And of course, you've bought the book, right?

Downton, things will be great when we're Downton...

A writer at Newsweek is ALL TICKED OFF that Americans DARE to enjoy "Downton Abbey." Dude, do you even KNOW what's on other channels? Would you prefer we melt our brains with more Kardashian shows?

Staff of life

Rare snow day here in Seattle, so I finally got out my Sassafras clay bread pan (I have the baguette-shaped one) and am baking some bread. Using the New York Times' no-knead recipe, with some extras added.