The Photocopier

I have been photocopying for about seven years now. Of course I dabbled before then. A couple of pictures for a school project. A literary "magazine" in fifth grade. Nothing really serious though. I actually can't remember the specific circumstances surrounding my first serious copying job. But it was definitely at Latin. I am pretty sure I was a senior. And I was making lots of copies either as a detention or to get community service hours. Alternatively I might have been illegally copying scripts for the drama club. Whichever way, the circumstances were ridiculous. And because I was clearly not a teacher, teachers almost always felt entitled to cut in front of me.



I am pretty much in the situation now. Generally being a publicity intern is the very bottom of the pecking order. When an editorial assistant or someone from accounting needs to make a quick copy they are usually apologetic and ask nicely. But editors and other senior or important people just jump right in. I know making five copies of a two sentence blurb about an appearance Paul Krugman made in Chicago over a week ago is ultimately not the priority for ANY part of the company. But it's what I have to do.
So yeah I know it's not that important, but be a little bit nice when putting someone's menial job on hold.

Tasting Notes: Fruity Wines, also excuses

Fuck. Technically I did not post on November 13. But since it has been November 14 for exactly eleven minutes and since I have already demonstrated the blogosphere's (ugh... actually the worst word I will ever use on this site) bias against service professionals, I consider myself forgiven. And while I was considering making this post about excuses for not posting earlier, instead I am going to write about wine which I never do even though it's a pretty big part of my life between my job and all the time that I am not working. But briefly:

I didn't post on November 13 (technically) because...

-I had to make a super great impression at my internship today because everyone was out of the office and I was in charge of the phones and handling emergencies. I mean, no emergencies happened, but I talked to an art history professor at Penn State about how he could access information on a book that was never even published in 1943.

-My computer is hopelessly ill. I was going to have Mac geniuses suckle her to health today but I had to be at the work that pays me annoyingly early and the work that doesn't pay me annoyingly late (see below and above respectively).

-I worked tonight. And even though I was only there for six hours, I contend that those six hours 4:30 to 11:30 are really prime blogging time.

And by way of transition... While I was at work tonight I tried a few new wines. This is actually a pretty frequent occurrence since I work at a wine bar and we have a terrifically lax drinking policy for staff. But tonight we were doing this ridiculous tasting for a party (I mean, thirty people who were drunk before they started have six different wines while STANDING??? Fuck that), and they were having some pretty good wines. Of course when we do tastings we are pouring smaller glasses and they are priced according to the number of people not the number of bottles. So basically there was some really good stuff left over.

Anyhow, one of the bottles was a wine called Sulleria (which normally has an accent over the I but I don't know how to make my computer say that), which is a 2003 sangiovese/nero d'avola blend from Sicily. Actually I am not certain of the year which is bad. But this is like the Polaner All Fruit (the kind you can't call jelly) of wine. It's rich and deep with fruit, chocolate, some hazelnut elements. The shit is off the chain. And they were having it with these shortbread cookies topped with a hazelnut and chocolate panna cotta. Wow. It's packed with so much fruit but with these other elements, it balances. It's ridiculously rich, but it's so good.

So after the shift I was sitting at the bar having a snack or dinner, depending on your perspective, and I tried this cabernet that we are doing by the glass. It was also pretty fruit driven. But while in the Sicilian wine the fruit tasted like it was super ripe and still warm from the sun (Sicily is, like, hotter than most places in Italy), this cabernet from Alto Adige (which sort of snuggles up against Austria) has a bright cherry thing happening. And that probably has a lot to do with the climate. It finished almost spicy too, which somehow seemed off balance. That's pretty strange for me since I am into spicy wines and am maybe going through a particular phase with them (see the bottles of garancha in my recycling). But the thing that really made this wine just lose in my book was the damn new oak. Yuck. It is so bad.

Basically I haven't mentioned that the Sicilian wine is on our list for $80 a bottle and we sell the cabernet for $10 a glass ($36 a bottle). So that should be considered in the comparison. But I have never really tried to write about wine before and it's good. It makes me think about it more clearly and see where my biases are. And I'm sorry to subject you to my snobbery. But really, no one is making you read this.

*I don't know this guy. But he looks like an old professor of mine.

Reviewed: Torchwood

I have been living with crazy-fancy cable for three months now. But it was only two weeks ago when I was sick that I discovered BBC America On Demand. And with this discovery I also found Torchwood. How can I begin to explain? The show isn't particularly well produced. Special effects tend to come out of nowhere. Characters often remain undeveloped for countless episodes before taking center stage. Story lines almost always end completely cleanly at the end of each episode. But, but, but... I have always had such a soft spot for science fiction and they approach the subject soooo broadly. Fairies, aliens, time travel... everything. And they have that exuberant BBC approach to sexuality. Practically no one is straight. And there's basically no such thing as fidelity. And when they do finally get around to developing characters, they have a fairly subtle approach. What more do you want from television? I swear, watch a few episodes and you'll be hooked.

Sunday Cooking Diary: Magical Rainbow Curry!

So tonight is the first installment of the new Pot Luck Club I am joining. I am making a meat dish this month. Which is sort of surprisingly hard because I love the veg. So this morning I decided to make this herb stuffed, spice rubbed turkey breast that Rachel Ray made for her 60 minute Thanksgiving. On a side note, in an earlier time Rachel Ray's speed and skill with the yum-o factor would certainly engender accusations of witchcraft. Anywho, I printed the recipe and went to brunch with Arjun and Anthony thinking that I would stop by Whole Foods on the way home.

Apparently I didn't bring the recipe with me. Fortunately, the ever resourceful Anthony had a magical internet phone and found the recipe for me. Unfortunately, Whole Foods did not have any fresh thyme. Or cilantro. I mean, what kind of sham of a supermarket are they running? Frustrated and nervous about the time frame for the pot luck club, I desperately sought inspiration. Suddenly, a bright purple bulb caught my eye. And it was cauliflower! Purple cauliflower!

Arjun had the good idea to make it into curry (and not just because he's Indian, if that's what you're thinking). And so I quickly bought a yam, some carrots and some chicken legs. When I was chopping, I realized that all the colors were so bright and vibrant, I ought to call it rainbow curry. I also added some kale for green.
And for a while it was looking really lovely. Sort of liquid-y but really nice. This was not meant to be. The curry I just put into a tupperware is pretty much brown. I cooked it way too long and all of the cauliflower broke down and bleached out. It is easily the least appealing looking thing I have cooked in a long time. Boo-hoo.

So I have developed a back-up plan. I am going to wow everyone with 64 delicious oz. of Six Point Sweet Action beer. That's right, I bought bulk beer. And the bottle is refillable. Good plan, right?

Games!: Mystery Photo

So basically the name of the game is guess what the photo says about me today. Unfortunately I am off to work.

Hover Car Solutions: Brooklyn, north and south

Because I work on Saturdays, Friday nights are my only chance to do weekend things with my normie, day-jobbing friends. For me Fridays are more like Thursdays, since I work the next day, but generally I try to go out and do social things. Tonight I am confronting the common problem of where to go. Since I moved to Park Slope in July I have had to negotiate the divide between northern and southern Brooklyn. As manifest by my move, I prefer the south. But Josh and many of my friends still reside up north. And so, I am faced with a forty-five minute G train trip before even eating dinner. Times like this make me question what all of this technology in our lives is really for. I mean, maybe I am going to press the "publish post" button in a few minutes and you, my world-wide friends, will be able to instantly soak in my words, but I will still languish on a rickety subway car for near to an hour to travel only five miles. I mean, I might as well take a stagecoach. Actually that would be faster.

A List: Things I Have Cut with My Wine Key

Various types of sales labels out of clothing.

Limes for gin and tonics while sitting on a park bench.

Packing tape on boxes.

Badly tangled parts of my hair (gross).

My hands.

My coworkers (accidents!).

Word Association

Do you ever find yourself thinking about the Aztec god Xipe Totec when typing in the web address for my blog? Xipe Totec was worshipped mainly by flaying the skin of live human sacrifices. Something about the pieelsewhere or, more specifically the "pieel" portion of the url always makes me think of the this image of the god. I think it can mostly be attributed to my studies of spanish (piel= skin, right?) and the verb to peel. So if any of you have been similarly reminded of human sacrific by this website, I assure you this was not a conscious part of naming my blog. Sorry

Reviewed: Lunch Meetings

As an intern I am not afforded many opportunities to go to meetings. I am even less likely to be invited to meetings with a meal included. Happily today was rare occassion wherein my presence was requested, nay REQUIRED, at a lunch meeting. To be perfectly honest, the meeting was expressly designed to address the concerns of interns in the publicity department, so the circumstances were a little unusual. But the moral of the story is, I got free lunch. Which really makes me wonder about that recent New York Time article about how annoying it is to meet with people over a meal. I know the article mostly described breakfast, but it seems like a particularly upper-class position to take to me. A person in my economic position pretty much always benefits from a lunch meeting:

1) The lunch is paid for by some larger corporate entity which saves you money.
2) You are "working" during lunch and therefore logging hours, but still

3) getting to spend a good deal of time outside of the office in the middle of the day while the sun is still shining. And let's face it, the sun is not shining nearly enough these days.

4) It promotes a sort of conviviality so often missing normal office interactions. For example, maybe you hadn't seen your co-workers purse before and now you know that her mother is a handbag salesperson!

A person disinterested in these obvious benefits is most likely:

1) Unconcerned about the cost of lunch due to a high salary.

2) Unconcerned about how hard it seems she/he is working because her/his job is already secure.

3) Job security allows this person to take midday strolls or yoga classes or coffee breaks.

4) Heartless and uninterested in others (maybe a reach).

But screw the richies. I say lunch meetings are great. And they allowed me to have a delicious curry chicken sandwhich and and fluffy maccaroon rather than cold leftover kale (which I'll eat tomorrow, but still).

Lunch Meeting grade: A

Monday Cooking Diary, pt. 2: Glorious Kale!

So my kale recipe? Was fucking phenomenal! I mean, not to toot my own horn but, Jessica Seinfeld take note, this is how to make people eat vegetables. I did modify the recipe a little as per the very helpful message board. I used more curry and a combo of low sodium chicken broth and some very old apple cider that was languishing at the back of the fridge (apparently it's better for cooking that way!). Also the seven hours in the slow cooker makes for some crazy tender beef. I wish that the broth was thicker and the flavor of the parsnips had come through more, but other than that I felt pretty good about the meal.
So anyone have ideas for what I should try to cook next? I need an eggplant-free meat dish to bring to the Pot Luck Club (the name is an extremely subtly play on the title of the Amy Tan novel) on Sunday and then dinner for the boys on Monday. So let me know. What's delicious? I'm up for a challenge. Cause if I fail, you know I can just write a better blog entry about it.

Monday Cooking Diary, Pt. 1: Crock Pot, Talk Shows

Many of you may know that I am fairly new to eating mammal flesh. It's been about a year and a half now, and I have tried lots of things. But honestly I haven't cooked that many of them. So today I decided to take on beef stew. It's sort of perfect for the season, not just because it's getting chilly, but also because root vegetables are so delicious at this time of year. In a lot of ways stews are the perfect place for tubers because the other stew items lend the fleshy veggie chunks savory flavor. Reciprocally the starchiness of root veggies makes the stew thicker. My final inspiration was the fact that Josh has a crock pot (in the interest of full discourse, the crock pot belongs to his mother, he has been borrowing it since last winter).


Not to sound like a crazy TV advertisement but cooking with a crock pot is embarrassingly easy. Basically I bought a bunch of vegetables, some beef and a couple cans of Murphy's Irish Stout (I don't buy Irish stout in a bottle, it's not right). I chopped everything up and put it into the crock pot at two o'clock. It'll be ready around nine. I didn't even use a recipe!

This has left me with a lot of free time. I plan to make some kale (more on that later) but I don't need to start until eight-thirty or so. So I have basically spent the day in full domestic mode. I'm sure it would be ok to leave the crock pot a while, but it makes me nervous. An independent, heat-causing appliance left on while I leave the house??? Surely my father would climb through the phone lines from Boston to prevent such a mistake! So I have mopped, tidied, done dishes, done laundry and watched several daytime talk shows. Of course the hosts covered a variety of topics, but Ellen, through some bizarre cosmic synchronicity did a CROCK POT themed episode today! She was making some gross looking stuff like eight hour chicken breasts cooked in salsa. Which in turn makes me feel better about the delicious smells wafting from my kitchen. Yes, I think it will be alright. Look for an update later tonight!

*Did anyone catch the Tyra show today?? It was called "What's up down there?" and was awkwardly about gynecological health. I mean, has the Vagina Monologues done nothing in its eleven years of production? Does anyone want to learn about menstrual synchronicity and HPV from a woman so prone to dramatic facial expressions and self-involvement? It's embarrassing!

Worst Entry Ever

I wouldn't consider myself the neatest person around. My morning dressing routine is essentially trying on five or six bottoms and tops and depositing them all on the ground. So by the end of the week I am left with a room closely resembling the aftermath of a tornado. And so every Sunday or Monday I take on the sloth.


I think this might be my worst blog entry ever. Sorry. I'll do two tomorrow. I swear.

Quel scandaleux!

So I am back now from a very creamy croque madame and extremely cheesy music at Bellville Bistro. I wasn't intending to update again, but I was poking about the internet and noticed that my occupation on blogger was still listed as student. When trying to update it, I was SHOCKED to see that there is no option among the industry choices for restaurant work. Not food service or even service more generally. Not even culinary! What the hell? Are people who work in restaurants really so illiterate on the whole that blogger assumes they wouldn't be users? I will be sending an email to the powers that be about this. Until then, my industry is listed as "Maritime." Which is a perfectly reasonable profession for bloggers. What with all those mid-ocean Wi-Fi hot spots.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y!

The life of a waitress has little room for Saturday night fun. It's almost always Sunday morning when work gets out. And taking Saturdays off is financially risky. When faced with hanging out with friends or making a significant portion of a month's rent in a few hours, practicality almost always wins out. But not tonight. I took a chance and worked Friday instead. So here I am, faced with an expanse of time in which to relax. After four twelve-plus hour days it sure feels good. I stayed in bed till noon, had a nice long shower, made some tea. Josh and I will set out for a leisurely brunch soon. I feel like I'm one of those hardworking moms taking a "me day." It's ridiculous.

Elements of Publicity Style

It has been a little more than a month and half since I began my internship. Three days a week, four to five hours a day, I have been learning the craft of book publishing publicity. Slightly more than half of my work is boring office stuff like photocopying, filing, mass emailing, stuffing envelopes and making contact lists from a neon-colored data based (the screen literally brings tears to my eyes). The other portion is writing "snappy" emails and letters to writers, editors and producers of all ilks. Although this does require a certain level of grammatical skill, several of the tried and true rules of good writing are reversed in publicity writing. Most notably cliche and hyperbole are whole-heartedly embraced. In writing class leading off with a cliche may have aroused the scorn of instructors and peers alike, but in publishing it's a hook which will inevitably lead to high profile interviews and starred reviews in all the trades. Sort of disheartening. Vagueness is also highly valued. In the two paragraph pitch one can't be bothered with details to support claims. Adjectives run rampant. The most common edit to my emails has been the addition of the word "fantastic." And I am learning from this. I have made a concerted effort to describe the writing, story or reviews of each book as "fantastic" in my last several emails. And it's working!

And so it Begins!

Hello my loyal reader(s?)! The day you probably forgot to wait for is here. I am officially blogging every day for the whole month of November (mercifully one with thirty, not thirty-one). I have been racking my brain to come up with features and recurring themes to make this process easier on all of us. So far I have come up with the following:

1)Monday cooking recaps: Because I work at a restaurant and don't spend a lot of time at home, I really only cook dinner on Monday nights (and soon Sundays, Pot Luck Unlimited peeps!). So I am planning to recap each of these endeavors. You can expect recipes, hilarious tales of what I spilled or broke and my top comments from the Epicurious message board that inevitably inspired the meal.

2)Reviews: And not just the normal things! While I do intend to share my opinion of books, movies, restaurants and television programs, I'll also be undertaking reviews of clothing, food stuffs, beauty products.... really anything. I may even review people, so watch out!

3)Formatting Experiments: If I am going to become a for-serious-blogger, I will need to be consistent in matters of style and formatting. I could really use your help on this. Should I capitalize my titles (see above conundrum)? Should I change my layout? What about punctuation? Should I put commas before the "and" in lists of three or more items (I don't like to, but it's an interesting debate!)? Too many adverbs? Too many parentheticals? These are important issues!

And that's only the begining! Well I am excited. See you for more topical blogging tomorrow!

Not even a trick, let alone a treat.

For those of you who live elsewhere, it has been an unusually warm fall here in New York City. Until last week I barely had to wear a sweater, and I am always cold. But last Wednesday or Thursday the weather shifted dramatically and it was cold and wet for days. And lo and behold, I woke up Friday morning with a head cold. For some reason it seems I don't just get little colds. I get them in heaping doses. The kind that put my energy just at the level of being able to make tea and subsequently urinate. Though apparently I can also type a bit (though I just realized that I am going to have to take the Lysol to the keyboard after I use it today). I guess no one really wants to hear me whine about how sick I feel so I spare the details (no, I won't be sharing the color and consistency of my mucus in this entry). But this illness has prevented me from acting in full Halloween spirit this weekend. So right now I am planning to be better by Wednesday so I can do something ridiculous at work. Like tell people the cavatelli is maggots or the spaghetti squash is human liver put through a meat grinder. And maybe also wear a costume.

Really. Every day. Like flossing.

Hear yee! Hear Yee! I just filled out the registration for National Blog Posting Month. It's basically an agreement with a nebulous internet entity to write a blog post everyday during the month of November. And even though I am pretty busy right now, writing is important to me. And even if it's just a group of 2000 anonymous bloggers, I figure a little pressure is just what I need. So hopefully I will write at least one more entry before next Thursday when it becomes compulsory (or strongly recommended). And I am going to think of fun column ideas (like Friday Pie-day?). So hold on to your hats. You'll be giving thanks everyday this month for new blog posts on Eating Pie Elsewhere.

Your Offical Source for Free Lacan*

I am finally doing something besides waiting tables (and watching Top Chef! In an effort to curb the overwhelming listlessness that had come to dominate my days I got an internship with the publicity department at a publishing company. I am still working at Aroma in the evenings of course, but it's a little change!
In my three days of interning I have filed, copied, researched and done both paper and electronic mailings! Oh internships! Padding resumes since 1863.* Also, they pay me the staggering stipend of ten dollars a day! Which is taxed. But the perk of all this is the endless supply of free books. Of course only books published by the company, but there are some good ones in there. Lots of really great poetry. So if you're nice maybe I'll set you up with a spicy volume of Adrienne Rich.
I am sort of still figuring out the sleep thing with working nights and then the next morning as well. Also the business casual or "office casual" dress code. Are all non-denim pants acceptable? Are there any affordable business clothes that aren't made of that cheap, flammable polyester? What skirt length separates business from business?
Ok. It's time for work again. But really now that I am getting my life on track, this blog thing is totally gonna blow up. I have been thinking about making it a little more thematic. Perhaps the real reason that I never update is that the possibility of subjects is too broad. So please let me know which topics you, my loyal readership (probably consisting only of Devin at this point), are most interested in hearing about.


*actually there is no reliable information on the history of internships on the whole internet. I checked. One of my now marketable skills is research.

Not Close to an Update

I spilled coffee in my underwear drawer today. It seemed like a low point but since it's the only thing that really happened at all today I guess that's an overstatement. It is neither high nor low. Looks like I'll spend the next few days washing my delicates in the sink. I am in a rut.