Happy Oscars Day! It rained overnight here, so if you’re playing Red Carpet Bingo I hope you have a square about the weather. I’m sure the sprinkle of rain will be mentioned 1,000 times as a sort of pre-show catastrophe.

photo by Davidlohr Bueso

Way back when I was a Freshman in college, I had a ticket to sit in the grandstands at the 70th Academy Awards. It was filmed right across the street from campus at the Shrine Auditorium, so my brother, a bunch of our friends, and I thought it would be a great idea to watch the movie stars arrive. This was the year of Titanic, L.A. Confidential, As Good As It Gets, and Good Will Hunting, so we saw a lot of really cool celebs. We also had to be in the bleachers 36 hours in advance and we couldn’t leave (unless we didn’t want to come back). I remember trying to sleep while sitting in freaking bleachers, and even at age 18 I thought, “I am too old for this crap.” So tonight, I am excited to watch the red carpet arrivals (and show) on my comfy couch and I will, of course, be tweeting about it.

Around the ‘Net

~Why Doctors Die Differently

~Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers Brag About the Insane SNL 40 After-Party

~Boston’s Winter From Hell This looks awful.

~The Presidents of the United States: In Order of Hotness This list is everything my life was missing.

~Man Posts Pictures To Sell His Never-Been-Used 1956 Kitchen This kitchen is awesome, but I need to know more.

~Interview: Adam-Michael James, Author of Fun, Information-Packed ‘The Bewitched Continuum’ I was soooo obsessed with Bewitched when I was a kid.

~An Oral History On The Evolution Of The Upright Citizens Brigade And Its Influence On Improv

~Oliver Sacks on Learning He Has Terminal Cancer Ooof.

~A Photo Booth with a 240MPH Leaf Blower Pointed At People’s Faces I need to do this.

~Stop telling working mothers they aren’t raising their kids Preach.

Doing Good

~I love the mission behind Super Healos, and they are currently in fundraising mode. Definitely check them out!

~Do you all know about Amazon Smile? It’s just like shopping on regular Amazon.com, except Amazon donates a portion of the purchase price to your favorite charitable organization. You can choose from nearly one million organizations to support (I know a couple good ones if you need any suggestions…). It’s a fantastic way to give money to charity!

Under Pressure

~I’ve been reading more and more about pressure cookers, and I’m intrigued. I’ve been reading reviews on Amazon and they seem really great, but I haven’t been able to pull the trigger. Do any of you use them? Do you like yours? What do you make in it, etc etc?

Mockingbird Mysteries

~To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite books of all time. I’ve read it countless times – I still have the original paperback book my high school English teacher assigned me (sorry, NPHS). When I heard that a “new” Harper Lee book was being released, I was excited but confused – I’ve read so much about her and I’ve seen her say countless times that as long as she was alive, she’d never be involved in a book release. Several articles have been written since the announcement of Go Set A Watchman that confirm my confusion. Mystery in Monroeville and To shill a mockingbird: How a manuscript’s discovery became Harper Lee’s ‘new’ novel investigate the fear that something isn’t right with this book’s release. I don’t know…it doesn’t look good. I hope the book is amazing but I fear it’s going to be a cannibalized first draft of TKaM.

Happy Sunday, everyone!