more than the sum of its parts

while this phrase can be used to describe any number of things, when describing the pizookie it finally achieves the full intended effect. obviously there is nothing bad about a warm chocolate chip cookie the size of your pillow or ice cream or hot fudge or caramel sauce, but take that same cookie and cover it with a full on ice-cream sundae immediately upon removal from the oven and you've got yourself a winner. grab a couple of spoons, a handful of friends, and new year's eve tv countdown, and start the year off oh-so-wrong.

you can use the chocolate chip cookie recipe here. oh, and thanks to heddy, my best college roommate for introducing me to this midwestern bastardization of dessert. without you, my life would never be so good.

parroting

i can't help but re-post this very dear story of a lost japanese parrot who found his way home by telling local authorities his name and address. it's every pet owner's dream to have a lost pet return, and by such a cheap and foolproof method no less! additionally, it was very touching and hilarious to hear that the parrot refers to himself as "mr. yosuke nakamura". i definitely spent a couple of minutes imagining my cats having surnames- would francie be a "miss" or a "ms."? (okay, i'm officially crazy now)

it seems like there is some cosmic force drawing me to parrot-related things: a feature article in the new yorker about alex, the african gray who just died, and who was also a pretty prolific communicator; the wild parrots of telegraph hill, a heartbreaking movie about wild parrots in san fransisco (apparently there are wild parrots in nyc too!) and this article- all in a pretty short period of time, despite having basically ignored all parrot existence for 25 years.

now i realize how amazing parrots are: smart, emotional, funny. hopefully soon the taunt "birdbrain" will mean something totally different.