NOT NEW YEAR YET

I observed the solar new year last night, but over here on the yin (lunar, feminine, cranky) side, I will wait a month and a half for the Tiger to actually arrive on February 14, which is also Valentine's Day and the Sunday before Ash Wednesday.

Lao Hu Lurking

So not yet looking ahead here, I engaged in a bout of intense nostalgia, watching DVDs that, for  a change, required no subtitles or lip-sync studies to tell whether the actual spoken language was Cantonese  or Mandarin.  No, Mad Men is in English, and the best early '60s reminiscence I've ever seen.  They say if you remember the '60s you weren't there, but 1960-63 wasn't really the '60s, it was the last gasps of the '50s, and I do remember it.  To be sure, I was younger than the Madison Avenue folks in the series; I was probably one of their children who needed a psychiatrist.

Part "Man in the Grey Flannel Suit" and part "30-Something," the Mad Men episodes are like memories.  Evocative situations, not quite complete storylines (at least in the first two seasons), but...my dad wore a hat, my mom wore those poofy fluffy dresses and pointy bras, I remember where I was when JFK was elected and shot, to say nothing of the Cuban missile crisis. I come to realize, a lot of the people I work with now, quasi-peers, weren't even born yet then--9/11 is their most violent historical shock marker.  Even now, I love to look at old Life magazines (of which I have pretty much a complete run in storage), not necessarily for the editorial, but for the advertising.  Mad Men is like that.  I wonder how this show plays with those folks who don't actually remember Nov. 22, 1963, the day before my mother's 40th birthday. When I came home from school that day, she was watching the TV and crying. She had campaigned for Nixon. I was so confused.
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Since I'm talking about advertising, and its major god, materialism, I am also thinking about the element of Christmas that is gifts.  I am puzzled as to why I received, from more than a few acquaintances who may or may not remember the Kennedy assassination, an incredible amount of liquid hand and body soaps, hand sanitizers and lotions.  I might take it personally, but I don't think it's just me who is getting these gifts. H1N1 panic? (This has nothing on the Cuban missile crisis.)  I have enough liquid soap on hand to wash up everyone in my condo complex for a month...maybe a year.  For generic gifts, I'm more of a scented candle person (or if I know the person well, a book),  but what is this thing with all the soap?  I'm not a compulsive handwasher.  I am the opposite of OCD. I should probably be a little more OCD.  I don't usually use paper toilet seat covers either.  If everyone else does, why should I?

I got the Wizard a chair for Christmas.  He wanted a La-Z-Boy recliner, waxing enthusiastic about his 89-year-old father's, which says to me, despite the "boy"  part, "old man." I should also have gotten him some soap: he likes Irish Spring, but not all women like it too. (Mad Men, are you listening?)  I prefer  cuir de russie smells, and there is a leather-smelling Badedas soap we buy in Hong Kong I like a lot, but not easily available here.  Quel dommage.

I looked at the stock of La-Z-Boys (at the furniture store whose philanthropic arm financed the Wizard's extended teaching gig in Beijing in 1987) and they all looked like they should come with a free roll of duct tape, like Frasier's father's chair in the making. But lurking in the back, I found a La-Z-Boy I could live with,  a leather rocking (yeah, baby) recliner.  It smells really good. Only lacks nailheads. I think I should have bought two.

The Wizard loves the chair.  "Just like sitting in a big hand."  But he is a sweaty guy. The finish requires some terry cloth to be comfortable...toweling...(one of your first three words in Turkish: towel. )

My artist-astrologer friend gave me a fabulous Ed Hardy beach towel with a tiger on it.  I don't go to the beach too much.  I don't think she will mind that I use it on the Wizard's chair. Toweling beats duct tape!

Soon comes the Year of the Tiger.