Sassistas! Our dish on the social soup.

Pickleback

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, sassophere!  To ensure the road rises up to meet you and the wind is always at your back, the Sassistas! would like to share a special Shamrock cocktail sassgestion with you: a Pickleback. It's a shot of Irish whiskey followed by a shot of pickle juice.  According to Jason Wilson in the Washington Post:

A Pickleback is simply awesome.  Brine and whiskey make one of those mysteriously wonderful combinations, and it doesn't hurt that pickle juice is second to none in preventing dehydration (thus helping to stave off the post-St. Paddy's Day hangover).

If pickle juice works as a chaser with Irish whiskey, why not other juices and fluids?  For example, a shot of Irish Whiskey with a chaser of beet juice: a Beetback.  A shot of Irish Whiskey with a chaser of honey: a Bit O' Blarney.

Help the Sassistas! and Minho (beautifully attired for St. Paddy's below) celebrate by creating your own Shamrock cocktail featuring overlooked juices and fluids.  Don't forget to give it a special Irish name!

Be My Valentine

Last Valentine's Day, Flannista received the above homemade valentine.  On the left is the front of the card, and on the right is the inside of the card.  What is the card's message?  Who is it from?

To mark Valentine's Day last year, the Sassistas! asked the sassosphere to submit six-word love stories.  Here are some of them:

• From Huckleberry (our dog):  I love sleeping close to her.
• From dcsistah:  Almost fifty, I found my mate.
• From Westsista:  Valentine's Day?  Usually cynical, not today.
• From Chrysosistah:  Follow your heart, listen to love.
• From half-a-sista:  Love broke my heart too much.
• From frida: Our souls float to each other.
• From Jerseysista: Heart warmed by friends never seen.
• From Justista:  Job Gone. Still Here. Me, too.
• From PEACEsista:  Beautiful digital valentines warm my heart.

We want to continue the tradition this year and throw in another six-word love story option.  Feel free to post six-word love stories to your beloveds here, but also consider creating those stories for famous historical figures, cartoon figures, entertainers, etc.  For example, what would be Lassie and Flipper's six-word love story be if they had fallen in love?  Or the following couples?:

• ROMEO & JULIET:  To be or never to be.
• MORTICIA & GOMEZ ADDAMS:  Please speak French to me, Tish.
• ELLEN DEGENERES & ANNE HECHE: You so wack!  Then came Portia.

So choose any love story you want and reduce it to six words.  The wackier and more unlikely, the better! The 'sphere will be open through Sunday to spread the LOVE.

Estrofest 2010!

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN, SASSOSPHERE!  The Sixth Annual Estrofest -- Super Bowl for Women!  If we can get Flann's car dug out of the snow, and Jersey has a place to park it, ESTROFEST 2010 is on!

As in previous years, following are the "Best Of" Super Bowl commentary categories -- anything anyone says over the airwaves beginning about 5 pm EST -- that fits brilliantly into these categories:

• MOCK HEROIC

• PATRIOTIC

• BLATANTLY SEXUAL

• ACCIDENTALLY SEXUAL

• OBAMA IS A SOCIALIST (This category replaces last year's YES WE CAN!)

• WHAT WOULD JESUS SAY?

• JUST PLAIN STUPID

• THAT HURTS MY FEELINGS

• A POET AMONG US (best metaphor and/or alliterative riff)

And this year's SURPRISE commentary categories:

• YOU BETCHA! (or WHAT WOULD SARAH PALIN SAY?)

• I DREAMED A DREAM (or WHAT WOULD SUSAN BOYLE SING?)

And don't for forget to submit your vote for BEST COMMERCIAL!

The sassosphere will be open throughout the pre-game, game and post-game festivities for you to send in your entries.  Please be certain to specify the commentary category when you make your entry. 

ALSO, SEND IN YOUR DRINK ORDERS, PLEASE!  Click here for a photo of the Sassistas! getting food supplies

And the most important thing -- who are the Sassistas! rooting for?  We're with Suzanne on this:

GO SAINTS!  We're marching with ya!

How Long?

We cannot walk alone. As we walk, we must take the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. We're on the move now -- neither the burning of our church not the beating and killing of our clergymen will stop us. We're on the move now -- my people listen! The battle is in our hand -- I know some of your are asking, "How long will it take?" I come to say to you however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long because truth pressed to the earth will rise again. How long?  Not long because you will reap what you sow. How long? Not long because the arm of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. 

The Sassistas! were going to post on another topic today, but yesterday in church listened to the above excerpt from a sermon by Dr. King.  Our rector then challenged us to do one small thing to begin to press the truth to the ground. The Sassistas! decided to begin volunteering at our county food bank.  We also decided not to remain silent when we heard a racist, sexist or homophobic remark as we have in the past, particularly in corporate America. 

Small things, yes, but it is doing the small things right where we are that the arm of the moral universe begins to bend toward justice.  What small thing can you do? 

SAY WE.

New Year Deadbeats

HAPPY NEW YEAR, SASSOSPHERE!

The above image from Flannista's TV was snapped the moment the Times Square ball lit up "2010" (sponsored by Toshiba, apparently) marking the beginning of a new year and decade.  Without Matissta, Flann and Jerseysista would never have witnessed it.

Yep -- we had made festive plans: a lovely lobster and jumbo shrimp dinner with roasted red potatoes and broccoli spears; wonderful red wine; a movie -- "(500) Days of Summer" -- and then popping champagne and welcoming in the New Year!!!  However, by 8:30 pm, Jerseysista was laid out in Flann's bed, sick as a dawg (note to self: don't work out at the Fitness Center and then drink much red wine); and Flann?  Well, she fell asleep in her reading chair . . . it was, after all, her usual bedtime.  We vaguely remember calling a couple of beloveds, but have no idea what we said.

Poor Matiss stayed up by herself with Huckleberry and then poked us awake at about 11:52 pm.  We looked toward the television screen, saw the ball drop and well, that was it.  Champagne is still chilling in the frig.

What about you?

Dropping the Ball

There it is . . . the reason why most Americans stay up until at least midnight on New Year's Eve -- to watch a ball like this drop in New York City's Times Square.

The tradition of dropping a ball in Times Square began more than a century ago when Adolph S. Ochs, the publisher of the New York Times, hired the sign maker Art-kraft (a real name) Strauss to build -- then lower -- a 700-pound wood-and-iron ball, five feet in diameter and illuminated by 100 25-watt light bulbs, to mark the passage from 1907 to 1908.

But that's nothing compared to this year's ball, pictured here.  This thing weighs 11,875 pounds, is 12 feet in diameter, and is covered in more than 2,600 triangle-shaped crystals made in Ireland by Waterford artisans, most of them featuring the design of an angel with uplifted wings, the rest adorned with a starburst.  It also has 32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDs designed to create a multicolored kaleidoscopic effect which use only about the same energy per hour required to operate two ordinary home ovens.  Cost?  $2 million, twice as much as the last ball, built in 2007.

The Sassistas! think that's an awful lot of money to spend on a ball that drops only 77 feet in 60 seconds and then what?  Make it into a giant necklace?  We believe that there are things that are a lot cheaper that we can drop in Times Square tonight one minute before midnight.  For example, when talking about this post with Jerseysista yesterday, she suggested Dick Cheney's head.  Too obvious, but you get our point.

So what would you drop in Times Square on New Year's Eve to  mark the new year and decade . . . and why?

December 2009 Open Mic

Not only is it CHRISTMAS DAY, but it is also the last Friday of the month, the last Friday of the year and the last Friday of the DECADE!  The microphone will be open today and tomorrow.  Step up to share anything you like.  We're listening.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Santa's Zip Line

WHAT'S THE STORY HERE?

Holiday Cookie Exchange!

One of Flannista's happiest childhood memories are the holiday baked goods meticulously prepared by her mother every year.  Flann inherited none of her mother's cooking skills (though she did inherit one cooking pot -- the topic of a future post); nevertheless, Flann loves a great holiday culinary treat.

So today the Sassistas! are opening the sassosphere for our first annual cookie exchange!  What special holiday treats are a tradition in your family?  Please share any memories and/or recipes!  Merry appetit!

Holiday Storm

FLANNISTA'S FRONT YARD, 5:45 A.M. TODAY.

Six inches of snow already cover the ground.

PHOTO NEEDS A CAPTION!

FLANNISTA'S BACKYARD, 7:30 A.M. TODAY.

FLANNISTA'S DECK TABLE, 12:10 PM TODAY.

FLANNISTA'S BURNING BUSH, 6:00 PM TODAY.

(Photo taken by neighbor, Sassley)