Tuesday, March 03, 2009

It's Not Just Me, Right?

Now I'll admit I'd never heard of celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito before tonight's episode of The Biggest Loser.

But man, let me tell you, when I saw him a did a double take that verged on a spit-take. Why?

This is Chef Rocco:



...and this is one of the stars of Eurocreme, Philippe Delvaux:


They do resemble each other, right? I'm not crazy.

Anyway, I don't know where exactly you can see the Chef (I think he may be the eponym behind the Rocco's on 22nd Street), but thankfully, you can find Phillipe in PartyBoy*. And -- so I'm told and will certainly be going to check out -- Indie Boyz 5.

*For god's sake, stop what you're doing and go watch the first scene with him and Alex Stevens and somebody else...

Monday, March 02, 2009

In Your Senior Year Did You?

Ever since my grandmother's funeral, I've been sick as a dog. For several days, I was literally too sick to get out of bed, and when I did -- thanks to an ear infection -- it was like a bad day at sea. I'm still suffering from a bizarre lump on the side of my throat (someone seriously suggested Mumps, even though I was vaccinated for it) and even more bizarre fatigue. I /still/ can't make it through the day without a nap, and I've gotten by on four or five hours a sleep a night for weeks at a time before. It's got me more concerned than anything.

Anyway, this little meme was floating around Facebook, so I thought I'd yank it and use it here to ease me back into more regular posting.

Now apparently as far back ago as college, I was already artfully re-arranging my high school career with selective back-outs and misrememberances -- my best friend throughout all of high school and college would hit me on the back of the head and proceed to tell me how miserable I was then, since I only seem to recall being reasonably happy. So I can't swear to the total veracity of what you're about to see. But it all seems true. Possunt quia posse videntur and whatnot.

1. Did you date someone from your school?
No, the only person I could even begin to say I dated went to another high school.

2. Did you marry someone from your high school?
They don't let people like me get married. Nor would I want them to let me marry anyone from there.

3. Did you car pool to school?
God, no. My morning routine was timed out to the minute: I left home at 8.07 to make the tardy bell at 8.20. I couldn't depend on anyone else to be that combination of lazy and regular.

Although we did routinely race each other back home.

4. What kind of car did you have?
For the first few weeks, a 1990 Nissan Sentra L. It was replaced by my faithful 1996 Plymouth Neon.

Yes. Just like Sweet Dee's.

5. What kind of car do you have now?
None. It keeps me smug.

6. It's Friday night...where are you now?
In front of my computer, either editing copy of my thesis or working on my play.

7. It is Friday night...where were you then?
I seem to recall a lot of driving around (often to gawp at the local Car on a Stick) or to find a place that would sell beer to minors.

8. What kind of job did you have in high school?
None.

9. What kind of job do you do now?
Dramaturg. Playwright. Critic.

10. Were you a party animal?
Ha! No.

11. Were you considered a flirt?
Ha ha ha! No. I was only vaguely aware of sex then, and not even aware one could attempt to procure it.

12. Were you in band, orchestra or choir?
Nope. I would have been a drama geek, had there been any theatre classes at my school.

13. Were you a nerd?
I was Captain of the school Quiz Bowl Team and Hi-Q team.

So, yes. Yes I was.

14. Did you get suspended or expelled?
No, although one teacher dedicated herself to that proposition after I called her a bitch on state-wide TV. And there was residual flack from the Urinal Cap incident and the religion that sprung up around it. And around the heresy of the hated Burger King Idol and its ritual immolation.

15. Can you sing the fight song?
I don't think we had a fight song. If we did, it didn't matter -- at my senior year Homecoming football game, we lost 96-0 and were proud it wasn't worse.

We did have an alma mater that started out "Dear Old St. X High School, We..." but the local junior high had one to the same tune (and the chorus teacher there forced us to memorise it) and now I can't tell them apart.

That said, I know every word to "Hark the Sound of Tar Heel Voices".

16. Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)?
Beth Haunton, my English and journalism teacher. Poor woman had to teach me 6 classes in 4 years.

Mr Thomas, the mad US History teacher, was a distant second when he wasn't threatening me with bodily harm or threatening to shoot me with the loaded rifle he kept in his classroom.

Really.

17. Where did you sit during lunch?
There was a little balcony for the seniors in the lunchroom. We had three lunch periods -- I had the first -- but there were only a dozen or so seniors in that period. I sat with my friends Darren, Chris and Jonathan.

18. When did you graduate?
1996

20. What was your school mascot?
Uhhh. We were the St X Indians, I think. Or Red-Skins. The high school was one and the junior high the other, and I don't remember any more, if I ever cared.

21. If you could go back and do it again, would you?
Gods, no. The only things I could do differently is tell the teachers they were wrong, but I tended to do that anyway.

22. Did you have fun at prom?
At the prom, no. At the party afterward, yes.

23. Do you still talk to the person you went to Prom with?
I went to my junior and senior prom. The girl I went to the jr. prom with I haven't talked to since I asked her out to fraternity rush event my first year of college.

Yes, really.

The girl I went to my senior prom with I did see when I was at home for Christmas this year.


24. Are you planning on going to your next reunion?
No.

25. Do you still talk to people from school?
No one. Hence the above. They had a Ten Year Reunion a few years ago, and I did get invited but I refused even to respond back.