Peer Pressure List, Vol. 7

• Slings and Arrows: PiGuy always sings the praises of this Canadian series about a Shakespeare theatre company, but for some reason it took several months for me to take notice. Now, with the urging of The New Oregonian, we've been Netflixing the first season, and it is fantastic. It's laugh-out-loud funny, but it has some surprisingly poignant moments as well. I'm currently attempting to learn all the words to the opening theme, "Chin up, Hamlet." Oh, and I officially have a crush on Paul Gross.


• The New Best Recipe: Each recipe in this cookbook comes with an extensive explanation of exactly why every ingredient and step have been chosen by the authors. It's fascinating. On New Year's Day, we made their recipes for French toast, chocolate mousse, and a yummy pasta dish with asparagus, arugula, walnuts, and blue cheese. All were amazing. If it didn't weigh 10 pounds, I probably would have brought it to New York with me.


• Rachel Maddow: I don't generally have access to cable news (although that has changed now that I'm in New York), so I was really excited that full episodes of The Rachel Maddow Show are now available as a free podcast through iTunes. She's smart, funny, and a brilliant interviewer. Not a bad way to get the news.


• Brookstone n-a-p socks: The Best Friend just sent these to me for Christmas, and they are the softest things my feet have ever touched. I know she gave them to me for cold nights in the Bronx, but I've been wearing them around the house in Houston despite the 80° weather. That's how awesome they are.


• My 365 project: I am attempting to take a picture every day this year, and I'm posting them all in a set on Flickr. Probably about once a week or so I'll share my favorites here on the blog, but if you want to keep up with the project on a more regular basis, you can do so here. You can even subscribe to its RSS feed if you're so inclined. So far I'm only 4 days in, and I'm really enjoying it, but I'm giving myself permission to fail and try again some other time. Because 365 days is a really long time, and I might not last that long.