*bellies up to the keyboard for more of the same*

[constance]

Remember those halcyon days when I would make a post about one thing at a time? I do, barely, and maybe one day I will get back to the custom of posting frequently and not in this once-a-week magpie fashion, but alas, you must endure it for tonight, anyway.

1. I awoke this morning, after a weekend full of delightful food, with a fully-developed craving for Cream of Wheat. Does anyone remember Cream of Wheat? Oh, man, I loved this goo with a devoted passion when I was a kid. Some people love oatmeal and some save themselves for grits, but me, I was a Cream of Wheat girl. And I will probably dream of the stuff, with lots of milk and just a little butter and sugar, until I manage to hie myself to the Kroger down the street and grab a box, if they still sell it. Do they still sell it?



2. Another thing I did this weekend, besides gorge on hummus and baba ganoujh and chicken shwarma, was view my parents' newest purchase with some trepidation; they bought an RV, and I thought they'd given up on the idea after they rented one last year as a trial and ended up crashing it into stationary objects, twice in one weekend. But apparently they were just steeling themselves for a second go, and so. New RV, which is at least smaller than the aircraft carrier they rented last year.
   
   They are going on their first trip in March, after they figure out what they're going to do with it and then take some lessons on how to get about in it. As I said to Audrey this morning, about the lessons, Better late than never, I guess; and as I said to my parents yesterday afternoon, about the purchase, Congratulations: you are now officially old.



3. I have been playing around with redesigning my old fandom website lately, and may I say that web design is so much fucking fun? I am like Hannibal, in that I love it when a plan comes together, and programming is so rewarding in that respect, a few commands on a computer screen and everything is so pretty and organized.
   
   I have decided that for my next career, I will become a web designer. Now I just need to find a client. Anybody want a website?



4. My god, lately I have to pee almost all the time. Like, every two hours or so. It drives me crazy, not only because I don't like not even being able to sit through a movie all the way through without having to go, but also because washing my hands fifteen times a day is giving me dishpan hands, or should I call them something else if I'm not washing dishes? I mentioned this problem to my mother in a fit a frustration, and she remarked that she used to be that way too, from the time she had children until the time she had a hysterectomy a few years ago. And now I am thinking: well, it's not as though I'm actually using my ovaries...
   
   Nah, just kidding. About the ovaries, I mean.



5. I've stopped talking about New Orleans lately, but I've never really stopped obsessing over my ex-city over the past few months. I am now in the stage of grief where you can hear the most awful reminders and remain stoically intact but then one stupid human interest story on the radio about a man who makes pralines makes you burst into tears, and maybe I'll be here for a while, because I've found that that is how these things work for me.
   
   Just lately I am remembering my blithe assurance just after Katrina, that New Orleans would rebuild, with or without assistance from the rest of us benumbed short-term-memory-impaired Americans. And now I wonder if it's really going to happen. Because I think my ex-city, far from being bloody-but-unbowed, or even bloody-and-bowed-but-determined-to-recover, has become unmoored altogether. Not from the post-Katrina diaspora, or from the constant and humiliating struggle for money to get started in earnest, but just from the sheer nightmare of it all.
   
   I've been listening to reports of the Memorial Hospital staff being indicted for conspiring to euthanize their life patients when it became clear that they weren't going to be able to evacuate them, and thinking, how do you recover from that? How can you go back and start where you left off? How can you get back to the point that you feel as though there's something worth salvaging in that stew?
   
   I wonder.



6. Speaking of New Orleans, I was reminded also, this week, of my neighborhood library. I used to go in regularly and check out their pretty satisfying DVD collection, and they had part of the Hornblower series but not all of it, and I could never bring myself to check it out because as a fan of historical drama and also of the Age of Sail, I knew I was going to get hooked but then would not be able to watch the rest of the series and IT WOULD KILL ME. Same with the books: enough people have recced them to me over the years that they are always on my list of one-day-when-I-have-lots-of-time-and-can-get-through-the-entire-series-in-order books, but never quite make it to the top. But now! Thanks to a friend! I can watch the series! I am so very very excited! I fully expect to be seduced into The Wonderful World of Hornblower by next month at this time. I'll keep you posted, because I'm sure you'll be dying to know what I think of it all.

Comments

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Cream of Wheat is indeed still for sale--with the same guy on the box who looks like Pembleton's friendlier big brother.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

I couldn't quite believe that Kraft was still using Rastus to sell Cream of Wheat, so I checked their website, and my God, it's true. What on earth, I ask you.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

I suspect it's probably the same as with Aunt Jemima--they really want to keep the image because it's so universally identified with the product, but they're hoping people will go, "Look, Aunt Jemima doesn't have a kerchief! Rastus isn't feeding little white kids! We swear it's not racist anymore!"

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing, and I expect with anyone who doesn't remember the kerchief and the little white kids wouldn't feel it was especially noteworthy. But just thinking back on some of those ads, from really not so long ago...ouch.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

I remember Aunt Jemima when she still had the mammy getup (and Mrs. Butterworth--do they still sell that?), but my only Rastus association is, "Hey, a handsome black guy in a chef's hat." And it is an image that immediately makes me go "Cream of Wheat," just like the Dunkin' Donuts time-to-make-the-doughnuts guy, so I know they rarely get rid of icons with that kind of instant product association. In fact, they kill for that kind of thing. Have I mentioned I find ad psychology fascinating? Especially when I feel myself falling right into the traps.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

This (http://cgi.ebay.com/1921-Cream-of-Wheat-ad-Rastus-message_W0QQitemZ7219735323QQcategoryZ1322QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem) is the very Rastus ad I was thinking of. It seems to be an old image, though, which makes me wonder where I first saw it--since 1921 is a little before my time.

They do still sell Mrs. Butterworth's! At least, I think they do.

And I'm fascinated by ad psychology as well, and it's astonishing how well it works at times--even when you know you're being manipulated, it's still effective.