<p>So glad somebody mentioned the time change or I would have been an hour early to an appointment I have today.</p>
<p>Yay, what a gift!</p>
<p>
Well, then, that one’s out for me. I watch all our netflix while scrolling through Sinner’s Alley :p.</p>
<p>Alu, 'fess up about Real Simple. Do they have an Aha use for peanut shells swept up from the SA floor?</p>
<p>Go back to bed, SB. It’s not even 8 am where you are.</p>
<p>Since we had the extra hour, H and I went to see a community theater production of Much Ado About Nothing. One of the featured actors was a teacher who taught my twins during middle school, but my boys couldn’t bear to be dragged to another Shakespeare production by this group. They didn’t believe us that this was a comedy of sorts. It was excellent. And, I had Reese’s peanut butter cups at intermission, just to carry forward the candy theme. One of my favorite things when I went trick or treating while growing up was to go to the neighbor who hand made peanut brittle and then wrapped it in wax paper. Alas, I don’t think that any parent would allow their child to accept such a treat today. :(</p>
<p>We watched the best movie ever made over the last two nights - Gone With the Wind. My younger son escaped a few times, not being interested enough to watch the whole thing. I advertised it to my all-male household as a “war movie.” Since they all love WWII documentaries, this got them sitting in front of the TV. Once it started, they were (mostly) hooked. </p>
<p>One thing that always strikes me about this film - at the end, Scarlett is a few days away from having lost her child and a few hours away from having lost her best friend, and all she can think about is getting Rhett back.</p>
<p>Necco wafers - the factory is, or used to be, right near MIT. The whole neighborhood reeked of that distinctive scent every afternoon. I’m not sure whether it’s still there.</p>
<p>I always liked Necco wafers.</p>
<p>The Necco factory is still there.
My parents wouldn’t let me accept them in the early '60s either. If it didn’t come in a sealed not-homemade package, I had to throw it out as soon as I got home unless I could remember which known neighbor gave it out, and my mom could call them that evening and verify that they’d made the homemade treats. Those precious few, I could keep.</p>
<p>^^^^ Yes, sad that these times have changed. I used to love the sticky, gooey homemade caramel apples that one neighbor gave out. Now I wonder if that person was a dentist?? ■■■■■■■■ for customers? :D</p>
<p>mootmom,
This homemade peanut brittle may have pre-dated the early '60’s. It’s so hard to remember back that far. 
But I do remember how delicious it tasted. <sigh></sigh></p>
<p>Real Simple. Aha Uses for olive oil.</p>
<p>…When you are finished making your homemade wreath for your harvest door decorations AND you find sap on your hands TAKE your olive oil and use it to get the sap off…</p>
<p>They lost me at harvest door.</p>
<p>My Aha Use for olive oil was when I realized I could use it to saute instead of better. Occasionally.</p>
<p>I don’t have the issue with me here. But next time I get my hands on it, more Aha Uses will be forthcoming.</p>
<p>Let us say that I do not think the Alley has old issues of Real Simple hanging around.</p>
<p>Nor does the Alley have anything resembling a Harvest Door.</p>
<p>I kinda doubt there’s any olive oil either. Unless we count the signed photo of Ms. Olive Oyl, herself. I think it’s right next to Perry Como’s.</p>
<p>If we really <em>need</em> some olive oil for aha purposes, I think we could squeeze some out of our cheez doodles… What’s that you say? They don’t use olive oil in the making of cheez doodles?! Who knew?!?</p>
<p>I can think of more Aha! uses of Real Simple (rabbit cage liner, paper airplane construction, door stop) than I can Aha! uses of olive oil. </p>
<p>I’d rather know about Thank God! uses of stuff than Aha! uses of stuff. Aha! uses already implies the inanity of the use, no? Whereas Thank God! uses? One could really get excited about those!</p>
<p>I think olive oil stinks and I don’t like the taste. I think I have a bottle that is about 10 years old that I bought one time when I decided to try being a gourmet Italian chef. (a short-lived whim). And I never liked Olive Oyl, either. She was way too ditzy. OK, I’ll go over to the ripped-up booth saved for the Gerty Grumpsters of SA.</p>
<p>Thank god uses for Xanax.</p>
<p>Making airplane flights possible for Alumother.</p>
<p>Thank god uses for IM.</p>
<p>Making a continued relationship with a far away daughter possible.</p>
<p>Yes. I agree. Thank god uses are much better than Aha! Uses.</p>
<p>Real Simple also has an entire article on how to host a wine tasting.</p>
<p>Here is how Alumother has a wine tasting. Opens bottle. Sits on sofa. Tastes wine. Maybe I should add Cheetohs to the menu…</p>
<p>I’m feeling alienated - I go through a bottle of olive oil a month. I cook almost everything in it, and mix it with butter for things like grilled sandwiches and eggs. </p>
<p>I once tortured myself by subscribing to Martha Stewart Living for a year. I got to read about how to turn one’s garage into a showplace (I’d settle for my living room not looking like two boys abused it) and how to artistically stack one’s woodpile.</p>
<p>Does anyone else remember the comic strip “Sylvia” and her character The Woman who Does Everything More Beautifully Than You?</p>
<p>That’s what I think of with Real Simple and Martha. It’s like house-porn, and it ticks me off.</p>
<p>Imagine the bonfire we could have with all the Real Simples and the Livings and the rancid olive oil. We could have a rockin’ Viking funeral for “trying”/“caring” etc.</p>
<p>(PS NYMof2-- I use olive oil too, but not ten year old oil…)</p>
<p>Well we may not have wreaths or olive oil, but I’m pretty sure we have many jars of olives here in SA.</p>
<p>I met Martha Stewart right in my own little town. I kind of wish I hadn’t. It was not a nice experience. And it was raining. I had on my Paddington bear yellow rainslicker. Not my finest moment.</p>
<p>The thing about Real Simple is that it kind of pretends to be earth motherish but it is really just a way to make us all feel inadequate.</p>
<p>At least Martha is CLEAR that she wants to make us feel inadequate:).</p>
<p>Exactly: Real Simple should be renamed “Complicated, Expensive BS.”</p>