doodledee

Here's my end of year best of. Libby was saying that one year I should go all Oprah and give out one of each thing that wins an award. I thought that was a good idea. Maybe next year.

• Clothing Item of the Year - The cardigan. Or as I like to call it, The Office Cardigan. This would be a trend that I tried - and admittedly failed - to kick off last winter. I'm thinking maybe people are confused as to how it works, so allow me to explain: you come to work, you take off your jacket, and you put on your cardigan. Shazam! Instant professorial credibility. Am I missing something about what's not to love? Because it seems pretty straightforward to me. Here's hoping it catches on in Winter07.
• Unexpected Like of the Year - Can we talk about Tina Fey on 30 Rock? Because here's the deal: I honestly never understood why anyone liked her. She was always so smarmy and smug and stuff on SNL. Boo. When 30 Rock started I'm sure I wasn't the only one secretely hoping it would bomb, just to teach her a lesson. Then BAM! the show turns out to be frickin' awesome. And it works because a) it's actually funny and b) Fey is the vulnerable, likeable everychick instead of the cocky, know it all everyprick. And BAM! AGAIN!, now I'm a huge Fey Fan. BAM! What the hell just happened?
• Takeout of the Year - A couple years ago – more like 5, actually – I swore off delivered and/or frozen pizza. Best decision I ever made. I spent the next few years perfecting my homemade crust recipe, which I'm not too proud to admit is pretty effing mint. Then, yeah, kids and stuff, and suddenly knead, rise, knead, rise isn't as schedule friendly as it used to be. Enter Broder's deli, where for $3, you get a perfectly made dough ball, bagged and ready to take home and pizza party up. I usually get two smalls and 20 slices of their spicy pep. Fire up the oven, assemble with the family, bake for a few minutes, and devour. You're welcome.
• Overhype of the Year - Dylan's new album, 'Modern Times'. Don't get me wrong, it's a good - probably even great - album, but all these rubes comparing it to 'Blood on the Tracks' or 'Blonde on Blonde' or 'Highway 61' are just beyond absurd. An album like 'Blood on the Tracks' is arguably the greatest record ever made. Anyone who doesn't have it on their desert island list can look forward to spending day after day throwing sand in their own faces as punishment for forgetting it. (It's ok, when the rescue chopper shows up and you ask for water, a junior bacon cheeseburger and a copy of Blood on the Tracks, they'll totally understand.) And now I'm supposed to believe that 'Modern Times' is going to have that type of impact or staying power? Come on. (Runner-up: Trader Joe's opening in SLP.)
• Doof of the Year (Local) - Remember that story about the meerkats at the zoo that had to be killed to test for rabies after one of them bit a girl? Of course you do, you couldn't avoid it. Ok, now raise your hand if you posted on the internet and/or called into a talk radio program to tell the world how you felt about it. Hi, you're a doof. (A special shout-out goes to King Doof Don Shelby, whose soliloquy on the 'murdered' and 'butchered' meerkats set a new record for local tv douchebaggery.) In related news, I bet if you talked to the right people, you'd find out that the most-commented articles on the PiPress website last year were this meerkat story and the Barbara Streisand article after her concert here. It's too bad Babs didn't bite the head off a meerkat during her show... the internet would literally have exploded all over your keyboard. Yuck.
• Mancrush of the Year - Right up until the headbutt that rocked the word, Zinedine Zidane had this thing locked up tight. Then, yeah, the headbutt. One minute you're shopping for a 2T Zidane jersey for your kid, the next your explaining to yourself that it never would have worked, he was old and bald, and you don't really speak French. Thank god for Ozzy on Survivor. Sigh.
• Music Stuff of the Year - I didn't buy many 'new' records this year. Certainly not enough to list my top 100 - which bizarrely seems to have replaced the traditional 'top 10' in many of this year's 'best of' lists. I did, however, download a ton of stuff. So much so that – I shit you not - Verizon cancelled my "unlimited" broadband card due to overuse. Sometime soon I'll put together a list of my top 5 downloads or something. It'll be 2007 by then, but thankfully this blog isn't constrained by the boundaries of traditional end of year list protocol. And for the record, if I had to pick a best 'real' album, I'd probably go with Built to Spill's 'You in Reverse'. I also enjoyed local boy Mason Jenning's 'Boneclouds', but that's kind of a sissy pick for album of the year, so pretend I didn't say it. And yes, I liked the Dylan album, dammit.
• Appliance of the Year - The dishwasher. Our old house didn't have one. Our new house does. The level of peace and harmony it ushered into my life is hard to put into words. Let's just say it got the Wally out of my Wolves locker room. I love you, man. (Runner-up: the ice maker.)
• Salad Dressing of the Year - Smith & Wollensky's 'Dijon Mustard Vinaigrette'. Runner up was perennial favorite Jimmy's Blue Cheese French, but to be honest, it wasn't even close.
• Concert of the Year - I didn't go to a ton of shows last year, but I certainly went to enough to justify listing a favorite. And the no-contest winner was Justin Roberts at the Cedar. I took my kid. And it was so, so awesome.
• Failed Radio Experiment of the Year - Doy, it's the show I was on. I still don't know how or why we made the final 4, but it sure was fun while it lasted. In other news, I think this is the first repeat winner in the history of doodlelists.
• Graffiti of the Year - Don't get me wrong, I'm far from being one of those urban trendbots who pretends to know and/or appreciate graffiti, but I'll be the first to admit that I got repeated smiles this summer after a bunch of the white stick figure 'men' on the walking path around Lake Harriet were retouched with white paint so that they looked like they were wearing long skirts. The 'artist' basically just painted their legs closed all the way down to the ground. Genius.

My best to all the winners.

I've been doing some work around the house this week. Mostly painting, but also some general maintenance, repair, and unpacking/moving-in. That's what we in the business like to call "a good use of your vacation time when you vacation time is categorized as 'use it or lose it' and you would rather not 'lose it'".

Anyway, this afternoon I was doing some handyman work on the top top tippy top shelf of the linen closet and I noticed what looked to be a baseball card or something way in the back. I stretched and picked it up and realized it was, in fact, a baseball card. And it looked to be old. "Here it is", I thought, "a hidden treasure, right here in the house...Honey, cash out the college savings accounts and go buy some jetskis, we won't be saving any more money!".

I held my breath and flipped it over and while it wasn't a Honus Wagner, it was a 1969 Frank Baker (Topps 704), which I assumed had to be worth at least a couple of thousand dollrs, though I obviously know nothing of baseball cards, but seriously, why would all those people obsess and collect these things if after 35 years they weren't worth at least a couple of thousand bucks? Dorks.

I raced down off the ladder and ran to the computer. Knowing nothing of baseball cards, I naturally checked the final arbitrator of record for the value of all things: eBay. First the good news: it's appears that it's not a forgery. Now the bad news: it's worth somewhere between $3 and $10. Not thousand. Just three. Or, if I'm lucky, ten. Remind me again why people fill their closets with these things for 35 years if they're only worth $3? (The first person to mention the 1200 Grateful Dead cassettes I'm still sitting on loses their free pin privileges.)

Bummer.

In other news, when I was tearing down the walls of my kitchen in my old house I found some really old newspaper. It was all wadded up for what I assumed was for insulation purposes. It's fun to find old stuff in houses. I think KC found some crazy old picture or something in his house one time. KC?

The holidays are here and I ordered up some little pin button badges with the doodlelogo on them. (Crude rendition shown.) If you want one, send me your address and I'll mail one to you. With luck, someone on the street will see it pinned to your messenger bag and you'll get to stop and share your fondness for mediocre twin cities blogs. Think of it as 50% badge of honor, 50% mark of shame.

Christmas delivery most certainly not guaranteed. And supplies are most certainly limited.

Ho ho ho.

Sure it's only 15% done, but that's totally enough for me to breakdown the first working model of the new Twins stadium unveiled to the public. Click on the picture above for a full size version. I made it myself.

A couple of talking points:

• It doesn't look like there's much outfield seating. As near as I can tell, there's maybe just one small section between the batter's eye and those giant billboard/scoreboard things. And I'm not even sure that that's really seats.
• The 'Wall of Suites' in left is freakish. It's more like condos than it is baseball suites. Straight up in the air like that. It kind of reminds me of that little 3 story hotel in turn one at Indy. I can't wait to see the suite people throwing beads down to the people in the seats.
• I love the extension of 6th street over 394. Sixth is currently a one way going into downtown (away from the stadium), so the extension will be a pedestrian only pavilion. I'm not sure I get how it just crashes into right field, though. Can people stand and watch from up there? Will I need a ticket?
• Speaking of standing and watching the game, if the city were smart, they'd install a couple of bathrooms, a tent, and a few kegs and make a giant patio on the roof of City Ramp B for baseball viewing. Trust me, nobody ever parks up there. Though now they will, I suppose. Curses.
• I don't like the color scheme. Too much white.

Also of note in the Strib article - which I already alluded to - is the fact that they've cut 2000 seats from the original estimated size, making it the 3rd smallest stadium in baseball. Cozy.

I'm excited to mooch tickets off one of my nutjob baseball buddies and go to a game.

Vision of Twins stadium takes the field [strib]