On my new immersion blender

Please join me in welcoming home my first immersion blender. It's a Kitchen Aid, the cadillac of immersion blenders, I think--and mine's an alarming fire-engine red. Though once assembled it looks slightly like an industrial-sized (possibly black market) model of something that's best hidden in a nightstand drawer, it is quite handy at doing what it is designed to do, as I discovered last night. That's right-- I made SOUP! My favorite food is now going to be a self-improvement challenge with the inauguration of SOUP'S ON SUNDAYS. This way, I have soup at the ready all through the week and I will become a soup-making genius in approximately six months. So I end up waiting until really late to make my soup because I'm not great at time management? So I'm wearing sunglasses while cutting onions to deter the tears? It gets done. My first attempt was White Cheddar Corn Chowder from Martha and it was swell enough. I had to put a lot of salt and pepper in it. But the recipe called for grated white cheddar on top and you could probably do that to a boiled boot and it would still taste okay. At least to me, because I love cheese! But I will not be getting a goat, sheep, cow anytime soon--Cut the Cheese Tuesday is a little more than I can handle at this juncture. Note to those new to immersion blenders: DO NOT lift the the blender to the surface of the soup in order to blend that area. This makes a mess. Not to mention the second-degree burns.

Next gadget on my wish list: Paper shredder. Though I wonder if my immersion blender might pull double-duty if placed inside a paper-filled wastebasket.

On Sailors

Today I watched a bit of Anchors Aweigh with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. In it, they're sailors on leave in "Mexico" where you can get "enchiladas with all the fixins'" (an indigenous phrase?) and there are painted backdrops of Mayan Ruins. They meet an enchanting waitress/folk singer and both fall in love with her. Tough choice for the senorita: Frank's the shy, skinny geek with a voice of gold; Gene's a "sea wolf"(after any lady at any port of call, all the confidence, all the right moves, and some serious dancing shoes). Which begged the ever-important question: given the choice, would I rather be wooed by a sailor who could dance or a sailor who could sing?

Dance, I decided. But the sailor would have to be Gene Kelly. (Though, if the sailor was the sailor-member of The Village People, I wouldn't have to choose one or the other. But that, I suppose, is an even longer pipe dream.)

I have been catching a lot of TCM. Christopher Walken did a short piece on why Gene Kelly is his favorite actor--of course, there was all the talk about the dancing, Singing in the Rain, rugged facial scar, etc...but he also mentioned some Old Hollywood adage that went along the lines of: "Start singing when you can't speak anymore; start dancing when you can't walk anymore." Which, at face value, sounds like something that might be scrawled on a watercolored, inspirational poster for women. But after I heard him say that, and later when I watched Gene Kelly dance in Anchors Aweigh--it really was true--he is better-than-walking. It's completely natural. When Frank starts singing, it's lovely, but it's "time for singing." Everything else stops for the message and the song about moonlight and clouds and her beautiful face--so I don't know if that's better-than-talking. But when Gene starts dancing--it's living, man. Birds are singing louder, the sun's shining brighter, everything moving and happy. My only hope is that I was able to endow the audiences of my early tap dancing recitals with the same sort of life-affirmation( murmurs of "That girl's just got to dance!" sweeping through the crowd, followed by "Do those girls just gotta dress like little sluts?").

***Shocking revelation***
After checking to make sure there is, in fact, a sailor-member of The Village People, I have discovered the following: The Village People change costumes! There isn't a standard line-up for their album covers or photo shoots (my previous understanding of it was as follows: sailor, cop, Native American, construction worker, biker...). In fact, sometimes there are two policemen (one with helmet, one with octagonal cap) and no sailor! Sometimes there is an army-man, no sailor. You'd think there would be a fight over the sailor costume, not that it would be cast aside. What about "In the Navy"?