The Cultured Girl

If you’re looking for some light reading for the approaching Labor Day weekend, you guys should enter the contest we’re having over at Fabsugar, where four winners will get a free copy of Laura Dave’s much buzzed-about novel, London Is the Best City in America. Just send an email to bookcontest@sugarpublishing.com and tell us about what you think the most fabulous city in America is. We will be accepting entries until 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time TODAY, August 25th. We will pick four lucky winners over the weekend, and winners should have their new books just in time for Labor Day Weekend.

First off, let me apologize for the much slower pace of Cultured Girl postings lately. There is a good explanation, which is that I have been in the process of switching jobs. Tomorrow, I start my very exciting NEW job as the Associate Managing Editor of Sugar Publishing, a San Francisco startup that is building a network of blogs for young women, which so far includes popsugar.com (celebrity gossip), fabsugar.com (fashion/beauty), and dearsugar.com (advice). Initially, I will be the blogger/editor of Fabsugar.com, and I am really excited about the opportunity, because I think what the company is doing is very cool.

However, Sugar is trying to do much the same thing as Cultured Girl, but with multiple sites instead of just one. So while I will keep updating CulturedGirl.com, I won’t be able to post new content as often. I also hope you will follow me to Fabsugar.com (or whatever site I end up working on) and bring your always insightful and entertaining comments.

Old favorites: The Ronettes, Sleater-Kinney
Upgrade: The Pipettes, We Are the Pipettes

Just watching the Pipettes’s music video for “Pull Shapes”—without sound, no less—convinced my roommate to buy this album. I’m glad he did, because the quirky, carousing songs live up to the hilarious Russ Meyer visual collage. Like the music video, the summertime songs on We Are the Pipettes conjure up a hodgepodge of eras: Swingy strings call to mind teen dances fraught with flip-hairdos, while the edgy British-accented vocal harmonies lean more toward 1990s riot-grrl rock. This may not be an album you hand down as a family heirloom, but it will be the perfect thing to take you through the end of summer.

I love the recipes on Epicurious.com, which posts the archives from Bon Appetit and Gourmet, but the web site is anything but hip. With blogs like the Kitchen devoted to burgeoning cooks, there is still room for a great web destination for hip young foodies. That’s why I was delighted to read in the New York Times that the fledging indie print magazine Chow is making a comeback, transforming into an online property owned by CNET, which also acquired Chowhound, a user-generated restaurant review site that has always been full of great content but hard to navigate.

I like the double-play, as it sets up the Chow network as a place for people who are passionate about both dining out and eating in, but who may not have the money or expertise typically associated with fine diners. According to the NYT, you’ll be able to sample Chow.com’s content starting next week, while Chowhound is already up and running.

Slate today tackles the “trend” among American newlyweds wherein a couple blends their two surnames to create an entirely new last name (i.e. Smith + Miles = Smiles, though I don’t think anyone has actually done that one). Apparently, the U.K.’s Observer newspaper breathlessly addressed the topic last month but only managed to find two examples of the supposedly fast-gaining trend. Writes Slate:

One, at least, is recent: New York Times correspondent Jodi Wilgoren got married last year to Gary Ruderman, an architect and playwright, and they changed their surnames to Rudoren. The only other case of “meshing” the articles mention is that of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who used to be Tony Villar before marrying Corina Raigosa … in 1988. Some trend!

The Slate story takes a more responsible and interesting route, uncovering numerous examples of blended last names over the years. While the practice may not be gaining momentum among American couples, an examination of news stories and wedding announcements shows that it is far more common than you might think. I like the idea in theory, since it forces both parties—as opposed to just the wife—to adjust to life with an entirely new name. With most last names, however, the results sound pretty silly or horribly awkward, though it’s fun to think up the various concoctions enabled by your friends’ unions.

Glamour magazine this month has a sort of interesting, sort of obvious feature story about why Americans eat too much. (The basic message: Portions are huge, nutrition information is misleading, and we are surrounded by food ads.) To me, what hit home the most was the sidebar about how you can change your personal eating habits so you’ll no longer crave those huge portions. It doesn’t seem to be online, but here are some excerpts from the basic tips:

• “Try the 20 percent trick. Whatever you plan on eating, with the exception of fruits and vegetables, put 20 percent less on your plate—odds are you’ll feel just as satisfied.”
• “Make your meals appear bigger. … Pad your hamburger or sandwich with lettuce and tomato so it looks thicker … or serve your meal on a smaller plate or in a smaller bowl.”
• “Eat more slowly. Simple biological fact: It takes time for your stomach to signal to your brain that it’s full. What’s more, when you eat quickly, you spend much less time tasting your food—which make leave you feeling unsatisfied … “

Lately, I’ve really been focusing on point No. 3, watching the clock to make sure I don’t scarf down my food and instead savor it over half an hour or so. Other good strategies including drinking a glass of milk before a meal and trying to leave a few bites of food on the plate. Like the 20 percent trick, you’ll probably be just as satiated without eating the last few bites.

I had these glasses growing up, and so—it seemed—did every single one of my friends. That’s why I appreciate Apartment Therapy’s ode to the classic and ubiquitous Duralex Picardie glass. My family had tons of these glass tumblers in various sizes, and they remain some of the most durable glasses I have ever come across. More than once, I have dropped one on the floor and watched it practically bounce and come up unscathed. A bit of history from AT:

“First made by Duralex almost 80 years ago, Picardie glasses are classic French bistro glasses. They were also used in the dining halls of British schools for many years. They’re simple, durable, versatile. They’re stackable, comfortable to hold, and the perfect weight. And, amazingly, they’re inexpensive.”

You can buy them at Crate & Barrel for $2 to $3 each, depending on the size.

Pick just a few paragraphs out of the Los Angeles Times’s five-part “Altered Oceans” series, and you’ll never want to drop so much as a bottle cap on the beach again. Hardly just another tirade about litter, the extensive investigative package traces the life cycle of trash from the world’s cities and into its oceans. Each article focuses on a different but harsh side effect, from how altered ocean chemistries are radically changing natural habitats to gruesome stories of dead albatross birds whose bellies have been stuffed with non-biodegradable garbage. But the most startling fact by involves the masses of flotsam converging in the ocean where cold and warm water systems meet:

Trash “gets trapped for decades in swirling waters called gyres, but known informally as garbage patches. The one off the western U.S. is about twice the size of Texas. A smaller gyre is south of Japan.”

Wow. Plastic bags never sounded so scary.

I know I already raved about Target’s GO International collection, which features exclusive lines by designers such as Tara Jarmon. But I would be remiss in not mentioning that today marks the debut of the Target fashions by ultra-hip French label Paul + Joe. The designs range from very simple staples to cutting-edge items that you’d never know came from a discount store. Better yet, the collection is very of the moment, so it’s a great way to pay low prices for must-have fall trends like plaid button downs, miniskirts, and skinny jeans. I particularly like the wool roll-up shorts for $30. (After all, who wants to pay a lot for a trend as silly and fleeting as wool shorts?)

I’ve been wearing Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars since seventh grade, but I never dreamed I’d get to dress my iPod in them too. Now, you can have a laptop case that looks like a wine tote and an iPod case that looks like a sneaker (Thanks, Shiny Shiny). Plus, this Speck accessory looks like it would provide great rugged protection if you drop or otherwise imperil your gadget.