On beauty

Most people who've known me will know that one of my great guilty pleasures in life is the Pottery Barn aesthetic. The stuff's nice enough, and when I go to PB stores, I always enjoy poking around, but in the end, it's the catalogs that really send me. The whole of the catalog is infinitely more than the sum of its parts: the tidy, color-coordinated rooms carefully strewn with thematic knickknacks, the "quirky" mass-produced odds and ends, everything mix-and-match, everything pretty and put together. When I look at the catalogs, I have to admit, it's not the sofa or the behooked magnetic board I want--I want to take the whole room, including the floors and windows, and transplant it. I gather, from a little informal research over the years, that this is all anyone wants from Pottery Barn.

( Take this, for example. )

Another guilty pleasure

Of the many things I was introduced to last week on vacation--among them "Making the Band" and "Laguna Beach"--by far the most addictive was "Lost." I saw it once, rapid-fired questions at leestone and J-who-inexplicably-has-no-livejournal during the commercial breaks, and by the time the show was over, I was ready to catch up in earnest.

I know some people on my friendslist watch, but I can't remember who, so I have created a little quiz for you below. Obviously, if your answer to the first question is No or a permutation thereof, you need not answer any of the others.

[Poll #594216]

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Also, I did post a few of my favorite pictures from vacation. They're here.