I like pumpkin. Having lived in countries where it was one if the few veggies you could purchase consistently this is a lucky coincidence. I like roasted pumpkin, pumpkin pizza, pumpkin in risotto, even the odd pumpkin scone (which is a birth right being a QLDer). What I don't understand is what the North Americans have done to this tasty, and versatile vegetable. Pumpkin ale at the pub? Wrong. Pumpkin spiced latte at Starbucks? Wrong. Pumpkin spiced Hershey's kisses?
Wrong.
Pumpkin cheesecake croissants?
Wrong.
Plain old pumpkin cheesecake?
Wrong, wrong, wrong. What is even more wrong is that everything I have tried that is "pumpkin spiced" - tastes like cinnamon! It is cinnamon cheesecake with orange food colouring people! And the Hershey's kisses are just orange coloured white chocolate with cinnamon (and sickly sweet - I actually tried one).
I'll let you have the McDonalds pumpkin pie, but then I draw the line.
Okay, pumpkin vent over. Have been to a few more shows at the theater. There was the awesome Kinky Boots (though my shoes left me feeling thoroughly under dressed next to the fabulous drag queens gracing the stage), the amusing Matilda and the fairly ordinary Motown the musical (though it is worth the price of admission for nothing else than to hear the kid that plays a young Michael Jackson sing - people were crying at the sounds of this kids voice, it was astounding). There was also Pippin. Whilst brilliant, it gave me the same panic that cirque shows do - I am terrified the stunts will go wrong (thankfully they were spot on).
Today however was a highlight. I was up early to catch a bus to Stamford, CT, to be an audience member at The Maury Show. For those who have not seen Maury Povich in action, it is a Jerry Springer-esque show that primarily does paternity tests. He is most known for the phase "(insert name), you ARE/ARE NOT the father" and the crowd goes wild. There are sometimes fights, yelling, tears, swearing, interfering family members, the whole shebang. He does some other shows (lie detector tests, setting bad kids on the straight and narrow and the transvestite shows) but everyone on the bus (me included) was hoping for a paternity show, and we were not disappointed.
Once we got into the studio (which by the way is the exact same set for three other shows, including Jerry Springer) the warm up guy came out to make sure we stayed on message. He wanted to rehearse our reactions. What do we do when we see a pic of a cute baby in the monitors? Ahhhhhhhhhhh. What we do when we hear something shocking (eg. I am also sleeping with your mama) - cue gasps and shocked expressions. What do we do when we hear the woman say the baby daddy hasn't even bought a diaper? BOOOOOOO!!!!! (With the thumbs down signal). When the dead beat Dad has his paternity confirmed by the DNA test? Scream and yell and jump to your feet and scream a chant of "man up, man up". I had lost my voice by the end if the warm up.
They recorded a whole heap of reactions in advance to cut into the show later, but we were told to react to EVERYTHING. Be loud. Get involved. If you don't, we will show you the door. Participate or perish in the foyer.
The best of the day was the couple (both white) where the guy was denying the baby (also white) because "he knew his girlfriends best friend was hooking her up with black gigolos". When she pointed out the baby was white his response was "I watch Maury all the time, that means nuthin!". Oh dear. He was the father. He got booed off the stage. I heard the words "black gigolo" more today than in my 35 years combined. Even Maury was shocked. He came back out and looked at us and was laughing and asking if we could believe that guy.
The final couple was actually horribly sad. The wife cheated, she confessed, and the poor husband found out the daughter the raised for the last four years was not his. He was devastated. Thankfully the audience were respectful. At that point though you do question how much these shows mess with people's lives for the entertainment of the rest of us. Then they gave us pizza. Pizza makes it better.
I will leave you with two happy food thoughts. I finally braved the line at Shake Shack and it was totally worth it.
This was dessert - and no truer words have been spoken. They make me happy at least.
Tomorrow, I have to be up at some stupid hour that is still technically tonight to head south to Florida and it's 30 degree days!
Wrong.
Pumpkin cheesecake croissants?
Wrong.
Plain old pumpkin cheesecake?
Wrong, wrong, wrong. What is even more wrong is that everything I have tried that is "pumpkin spiced" - tastes like cinnamon! It is cinnamon cheesecake with orange food colouring people! And the Hershey's kisses are just orange coloured white chocolate with cinnamon (and sickly sweet - I actually tried one).
I'll let you have the McDonalds pumpkin pie, but then I draw the line.
Okay, pumpkin vent over. Have been to a few more shows at the theater. There was the awesome Kinky Boots (though my shoes left me feeling thoroughly under dressed next to the fabulous drag queens gracing the stage), the amusing Matilda and the fairly ordinary Motown the musical (though it is worth the price of admission for nothing else than to hear the kid that plays a young Michael Jackson sing - people were crying at the sounds of this kids voice, it was astounding). There was also Pippin. Whilst brilliant, it gave me the same panic that cirque shows do - I am terrified the stunts will go wrong (thankfully they were spot on).
Today however was a highlight. I was up early to catch a bus to Stamford, CT, to be an audience member at The Maury Show. For those who have not seen Maury Povich in action, it is a Jerry Springer-esque show that primarily does paternity tests. He is most known for the phase "(insert name), you ARE/ARE NOT the father" and the crowd goes wild. There are sometimes fights, yelling, tears, swearing, interfering family members, the whole shebang. He does some other shows (lie detector tests, setting bad kids on the straight and narrow and the transvestite shows) but everyone on the bus (me included) was hoping for a paternity show, and we were not disappointed.
Once we got into the studio (which by the way is the exact same set for three other shows, including Jerry Springer) the warm up guy came out to make sure we stayed on message. He wanted to rehearse our reactions. What do we do when we see a pic of a cute baby in the monitors? Ahhhhhhhhhhh. What we do when we hear something shocking (eg. I am also sleeping with your mama) - cue gasps and shocked expressions. What do we do when we hear the woman say the baby daddy hasn't even bought a diaper? BOOOOOOO!!!!! (With the thumbs down signal). When the dead beat Dad has his paternity confirmed by the DNA test? Scream and yell and jump to your feet and scream a chant of "man up, man up". I had lost my voice by the end if the warm up.
They recorded a whole heap of reactions in advance to cut into the show later, but we were told to react to EVERYTHING. Be loud. Get involved. If you don't, we will show you the door. Participate or perish in the foyer.
The best of the day was the couple (both white) where the guy was denying the baby (also white) because "he knew his girlfriends best friend was hooking her up with black gigolos". When she pointed out the baby was white his response was "I watch Maury all the time, that means nuthin!". Oh dear. He was the father. He got booed off the stage. I heard the words "black gigolo" more today than in my 35 years combined. Even Maury was shocked. He came back out and looked at us and was laughing and asking if we could believe that guy.
The final couple was actually horribly sad. The wife cheated, she confessed, and the poor husband found out the daughter the raised for the last four years was not his. He was devastated. Thankfully the audience were respectful. At that point though you do question how much these shows mess with people's lives for the entertainment of the rest of us. Then they gave us pizza. Pizza makes it better.
I will leave you with two happy food thoughts. I finally braved the line at Shake Shack and it was totally worth it.
This was dessert - and no truer words have been spoken. They make me happy at least.
Tomorrow, I have to be up at some stupid hour that is still technically tonight to head south to Florida and it's 30 degree days!
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