List 71

Love:  Richard Harrow on Boardwalk Empire. It's been a stellar second season for the show overall, and one of the big reasons is this fascinating, poignant character, a World War I vet who's as wounded inside as he is outside. 

Like: Parmesan Walnut Salad in Endive Spears - the hors d'ourvres I brought for Thanksgiving.  It was able to walk that line of being refreshing and light, yet rich and a bit decadent at the same time. 
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Parmesan-Walnut-Salad-in-Endive-Leaves-13042

Discovery:  Barrel-aged cocktails. At home!  Our friends made up a batch of Negronis and aged them in a small barrel for a month. They were delicious - a bit mellower than the usual Negroni - and are a perfect winter-month house project.  This is a link to Clyde Common bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler's blog with more information, including a good source for barrels.

http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2010/barrel-aged-cocktails

Obsession: I've already written about mine with World War II in a past list.  Now I'm happy to find that Alwyn Collinson has taken it to an epic new level with his RealTimeWWII's "live" tweeting of World War II events as they would have unfolded, day by day, starting with the German invasion of Poland in 1939. I hope he manages to keep it up for the next six years, going through the bombing of Britain to D-Day to V-J Day and everything in between.

Complaint:  Why didn't we have sing-a-long movies when I was young?  I took Stella to Sing-A-Long Sound of Music at The Castro Theater and it was truly The Rocky Horror Picture Show for kids (at the matinee at least - no doubt it gets way raunchier in the evening).  They passed out prop bags (a bit of edelweiss,etc.) and instructed the crowd on things to shout.  It's playing through this coming weekend.

List 70

Love:  Areaware's Alarm Dock. You lay your iPhone down on the ledge (the power chord threads through the back so it can recharge at night) and with the Flip Clock app you have a readable clock during the night which will wake you in the morning. It's a beautifully simple design that's beyond genius.(I got mine at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Store.)

Like:  A twist on the classic panzanella salad. Oakland's Pasta Shop is now featuring an Autumn Panzenella, with shallots, butternut squash and brussels sprouts and shaved parmesan.  It's so lovely, I could have it for lunch every single day.

Discovery: I still remember clearly the first time I saw Blue Velvet and how strange and amazing it was. The newly issued 25th Anniversary BluRay DVD, with its 50 minutes of found extra footage, will surely be on my Christmas list.

Obsession: Downton Abbey, the PBS Masterpiece Classics series, which will start its second season in January. I'm watching the first season now and can't get enough. It can get me through 30 minutes on the treadmill with nary a glance at the clock.  Gosford Park intertwined the perspectives and stories of those residing both upstairs and downstairs in a grand English estate, and this show, also written by Julian Fellowes, picks up where that left off, with the drama of a family whose estate will be entailed away from its daughters to a distant male cousin, and everything that subsequently ensues. The house and the period clothes could not be more stunning.

Complaint: Working on Haagen-Dazs' advertising is starting to get dangerous, what with all the free ice cream tastings. During a meeting today I was forced to try the Caramel Cone flavor. With its crunchy bits of chocolate-covered cone and burnt caramel chunks, it's ridiculously good. Which is bad.

List 69

Love: My new winter coat.  Now if only Indian Summer would give way to Fall and Winter. 

 Like: The Charlie Brown holiday specials - from Halloween and Thanksgiving to Christmas to Easter. I forgot what a cool cat Snoopy is and am glad to be rewatching these (over and over again) via Stella. The Mayflower Voyages bonus feature on the Thanksgiving DVD is a nice Cliff Notes on the story behind turkey day.

Discovery: Zombies are giving vampires a run for their money as the monster du jour, and I really enjoyed Isaac Marion's smart, breezy book Warm Bodies.  It imagines a zombie named R who has a rich inner life, longs for more than an existence of shuffling around and brain-eating, and lives in an old Boeing 747, listening to Frank Sinatra records.  It's being made into a movie right now, with John Malkovich, Nicholas Hoult (from About a Boy and A Single Man) and Rob Corddry.

Obsession:  Making meatballs at home that are as tasty and amazing as Pizzaiolo's.  The Williams-Sonoma Catalog and Esquire magazine both recently published meatball recipes that look, at least, like they are in the ballpark.

Complaint: Why is it that framing a poster costs 2-3 times the poster itself?

List 68

Love: This chalkboard map of the United States, which I got for Stella's birthday from etsy seller "shopdirtsa". I'm working to pass onto my girl my love of maps and geography (see List 37).

http://www.etsy.com/listing/67747744/chalkboard-united-states-map

Like: SFO's art exhibits. As much as Virgin America and Terminal 2 are the way to go, I always enjoy the long hallway to the United gates and the ever-changing exhibits there, like the current one featuring vintage televisions and TV show artifacts.

Discovery: Cotogana makes a non-alcoholic version of a Negroni, the, wait for it, n/a-groni. It is really lovely and perfect for lunch, since I work at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in 2011, not at Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce in 1965.

Obsession:  Brussels Sprouts.  While many people are haters, I adore them, and look forward to their coming into season every Fall. I usually roast them in the oven (sometimes with pancetta and thinly sliced lemon) at least once a week, but also look forward to having them out, like at Berkeley's Cesar or even stir-fried in place of the usual green beans at Kirin, our neighborhood Chinese joint.

Complaint: Why, exactly, did it take me 4 years to get around to watching David Fincher's Zodiac?  No good answer to that, but I really dug this taut, gritty 1970s-set, 1970s-style film.  Plus it was cool to see a representation of San Francisco in that era. (The freeway along the Embarcadero! Yowza.)

List 67

Love: That the Milwaukee Brewers have won the NL Central - their first division win since 1982.  Aside from the Brewers being the team I grew up with, it's hard to not love a team whose home stands feature a "sausage race" in the bottom of the sixth inning - a bratwurst, a kielbasa, an Italian sausage, a chorizo and a hot dog, racing around the field.

Like: Tavern League, a book of artful photographs of old school Wisconsin taverns, many of which are cooler than any big city bar could ever try to be.

Discovery: This portrait of Milwaukee artist Jack Madsen and his wife from 1955, found at Milwaukee's Riverview Antiques store a few years ago. They look super chic and timeless.  

Obsession: The Thorn Miniatures at the Chicago Art Institute.  Whenever I'm in town (as I was for business these past few days), I make a stop here to see these little rooms. The level of detail at this tiny scale is pretty amazing.

Complaint: That Top Shop has yet to open in San Francisco.  I went through their flagship U.S. store in Chicago and there was the potential to need to buy an extra suitcase. I know you can shop online, but I prefer to wander a store.

List 66

Love: Having a garden, again.  Now that all the work we've been doing on the house and yard is done, we finally have planting boxes and have put in a passle of herbs, lettuces and winter crops like kale, broccoli and carrots.

Like: Philodendruns.  We have a fairly horrible track record with house plants, and the cats like to shred the leaves, but I just love the exotic vibe of these plants, and the lush hit of green they add to interiors.

Discovery: I Am Love, which was sitting in its Netflix envelope gathering dust for half a year until I finally chose it for treadmill viewing a few days ago.  Set in a beautifully photographed Milan, it stars the always amazing Tilda Swinton as a Russian woman who married into a wealthy Italian family decades ago and who, after one fateful night, is shaken from her passive, luxe life.  

Obsession:  Pinterest (again). Back in List 3, I was into stalking a few people whose style I admired on Pinterest, but not pinning myself.  Now, I am developing a pinning problem (though not as much as certain friends and co-workers), snapping up images for my many boards. 

Complaint:  The tease of Fall cooking magazines in my mailbox.  The recipes and photographs of dishes like braised short ribs, chicken pot pies, savory stuffed pumpkins, butternut squash soup and rustic apple tarts make me ache for for cooler, cozy weather and a fire in the fireplace.  But it's only just now getting warm in the Bay Area.