When there's smoke...
I woke up to the sound of helicopters. I kept waiting for them to fly away but they stayed and hovered. I figured they must be doing a traffic report or something. But as I walked a few blocks to the subway, smoke was everywhere and down the road near Chelsea were tons of firetrucks and more smoke.

It burned my eyes, I could barely see as I made my way to 14th Street subway. I did manage to spot Julianne Moore again strolling her daughter, same outfit but she had on a baseball cap this time. I only saw her because she literally crossed my path with the stroller.

My hair now smells like I spent the evening at a cozy ski lodge (I wish!) since it smells like a fireplace. I had a few coworkers actually take a sniff, lol.


News stories:
NY Daily News Chelsea Fire Sends Smoke onto nearby Subway Tracks
CBS News Four-Alarm Fire Rips Through Chelsea Garage

My Halloween
For Halloween our office dressed up, there were Harry Potters (yes plural) a Dr. Evil and more. I went as a Lady Maverick, IE Jodie Foster in Maverick. For extra accessories I stapled a deck of cards together, revealing a hand with a straight. Also put a King in my guarder belt. Yes, it was interesting riding the subway that morning. I thought there would be more people in costume on their way to work, but no. Luckily I didn't have my feather cap on until I got to the office. But it was worth it since I came in second place in our costume competition. I lost to Jamie who was a pregnant Britney Spears, which as you can see was pretty creative and funny.

That evening I helped host the live TED-TV coverage of the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade again. However, unlike last year where I marched in the crazy parade and interviewed the different people in costume, this time I had two other co-hosts and a script. The script called for one of the hosts to mysteriously disappear so we could act out a murder mystery within the spooky parade. It was a lot of fun but a lot of walking. I'm interested to see it all edited together, hopefully my "acting" is not embarrassing. It airs Nov. 13 on Manhattan Cable TV at 7:30 p.m. channel 56 with Time Warner and ch. 108/111 on RCN.

DVD Review: My latest review of one of my favorite TV shows is up at DVD Fanatic, Alias, Season Four. Thank you Drea for your input and Alias expetise.

PS: I saw Julianne Moore in a black jump suit strolling her daughter in the West Village area. She had sunglasses on but her porcelain skin and bright red hair gave her away. She was speaking to a couple and their little girl.

I'm addicted
to the candy corn bowl on my mantle. I look forward to them being released in supermarkets every year and I'm already on sugar overload. They are just so colorful, small and yummy. I'm popping them like, well candy. The trick is you have to go for the good kind, Brachs, not the waxy immitations.

Did You Know? Candy Corn Facts:
• October 30th is National Candy Corn Day

• One serving of candy corn contains only about 140 calories, 3.57 calories per kernel. Yikes, that's like 15 mins on the eliptical bike at the gym.

• Candy corn has been around for more than 100 years.

• Halloween accounts for 75% of the annual candy corn production.

• In its early days, candy corn was revolutionary because it was tricolored. The Wunderle Candy Co. of Philadelphia is believed to have been the first to make the little kernels, in the 1880s.

• America was primarily agricultural in those days, thus the idea of candy corn was a novelty to the public.

• Candy corn is made of sugar, corn syrup, water, marshmallow, confectioners glaze, flavorings, food coloring and preservatives. The recipe has stayed the same since 1898.

For more nuggets of trivia go to: The History of Candy Corn

Found this at incogblogo

My Scrabble? Score is: 16.
What is your score?

Today, I'm off curing my hangover from last night's cupcakes and coctails party by chilling and doing a Godfather marathon at Cindy's apt uptown. We're ordering pizza. It's an offer I couldn't refuse ;)

Attack of the Maple Syrup
So last night I'm sitting at my desk in my apt, my window is open, but all I can smell is maple syrup. The Aunt Jemima sugary kind. I figure maybe I spilled some on my desk or something, but I couldn't think of the last time I had pancakes or anything that would require syrup, but the smell was definitely there. My window overlooks the building's garbage bins, but that would mean someone must have thrown out a ton of syrup in order for me to smell it through the garbage lids and up to my window, one flight up. So, I figure I'm just nuts and forget all about it.

Until in the morning while I'm getting ready, I hear the anchor on NY1 say "Last night, hundreds of New Yorkers reported a strange smell." I was not really listening figuring he was just talking about some sewage problem in the city, but then he says "people called authorities saying they could smell maple syrup. The source has not yet been identified."

How weird is that? The sweet smell apparently filled the Midtown area and apparently even downtown by me. I'm glad I am not crazy or my senses are out of whack, but I do not know why no one is worried about this? Where did the smell come from? What was it?

When I arrived at work, my coworker said her clothes reeked of syrup last night but changing her clothes couldn't rid her of the smell. But like me she also thought it was just her and not something widespread.

For the real news story about it go to:
Strong, Sweet Smell Reported in Manhattan

Relationships and Text Messaging
Today another reporter sent out a request looking for people who use text messaging to flirt with someone who they are romantically interested in; to ask someone out on a date via text message; to accept a marriage proposal via text message (are they still married?); to break up with someone via text message.

Now, I know friends who were dumped over the phone and heard that others had it happen in a voicemail, which I think is pretty low, but a text message? That's just spineless.

Although, when I was living in London I was asked out on a date via a text message, which I thought was pretty cute, and have sent flirty messages to people too. Have you experienced any of the reporters criteria? Come on, dish!

I wrote a similar post before called TXT Messaging the New Love Letter.

PS: The new movie Prime with Uma Thurman and Meryl Streep filmed on my block at the begining of the year.