Must List by Pen

Taking a page out of Entertainment Weekly, I'd like to present my own Must List, a list of everything I love this week, and that you, of course, should seek out, know, and love, too.

1. TV show crossovers. Lauren Graham on Studio 60? Logan on ANTM? Gilmore is everywhere! And even though the show is still on my shit list, this week wasn't so bad, and in my heart of hearts, I will always feel warm and fuzzy about Gilmore. Ooo, and next week, Lauren Graham will be on Studio 60 again, and Matthew Perry's character gives her his number and says to pass it along to the girl who plays her daughter as well. Hee.

2. Prep, by Curtis Sittenfeld. Two and a half years out of school--hopefully for good, and I mean that down to my very tippy toes--I'm rediscovering the joy of reading. It's like, who I am, to read and love books. It's Pen's roots. And prep, which I am almost done with (I read slow, except for Harry Potter), will soon go on my list of favorites. I can't explain all the ways I relate to the main character. And I picked this book because I always judge a book by its cover, and this one, as you can see, looks quite cute, fluffy, and mindless. It's not. It's written by an Iowa workshop grad, and she manages to turn a character, who is seemingly average in every way, into the most readable of voices--just read it. It's really good.

3. The grossly fantastic, or the fantastically gross. Either way, I am drawn, I am compelled. This week on Nip/Tuck, Rosie O'Donnell's character, who by the way I also love, got earjacked and had to have her ear replaced. Her character recently won the Powerball and just buys to buy; for her first set of cosmetic surgeries, she paid four times what she needed to sheerly for the hell of it. Anyway, the ear. Rosie opts for the most expensive ear replacement option, which involves growing a human ear on a host rat using your own cell sample. The rat on the show, whose name was Vincent (ha), was completely bald, and the ear was just there on its back. I shudder, yet cannot look away.

4. EW magazine itself. I am now, again, a subscriber. I was for a year or two, but let the subscription run out last year, not wanting to fork over the $59.99 it would cost to renew. But last month's Labor Day Weekend mod podge session with Kim and Ashley inspired me to later buy EW magazine for a few more timely picture additions, and that issue just happened to be the Fall TV issue, just happened to include not only a cover but several other fine pictures of Patrick Dempsey, i.e. Dr. McDreamy. Sigh. What can I say. EW, I missed you. And this year, it only costs $19.95 for a whole year, and I asked my mommy to buy it for me for Christmas, which she did. Yay.

5. Intensely creepy documentation relating to the Evangelical Christian movement in America. For example, Jesus Camp. Or the book I've checked out to read after prep, called Kingdom Coming. I've said before and I'll say it again that I generally don't like to *go there* when it comes to politics or religion, in life or on the blog. But dude, I look at these, and I'm scared. Real scared. Watch the documentary trailer yourself and see.

6. BravoTV reality shows. Jeffrey won Project Runway! That's cool--any one of the four finalists winning, to me, would have been cool. They certainly all deserved to be there, and I have to say, I haven't been weepy at a television show in quite some time. But the support of all their families, so sweet. Uli's parents, Jeffrey's girlfriend and son and parents, Michael's parents, Laura's husband and parents, all smiling and proud. And Tim Gunn! I think I may be hormonal, but pass me the Kleenex, please.

And then Top Chef! There's no rift between the end of one Bravo show and the beginning of the next! It's just right there, boom. And even though I accidentally saw who was ousted while grabbing this picture, I plan to watch the ep this afternon.

7. 100 Calorie Packs. These have been around for a little bit, I realize, and normally I am not a big fan of diet food, much less diet snack food. But hellllloooo portion control. It's fantastic. And they don't taste like cardboard, there's just less. Also, it seems lately to be the New Wave in snack food, which means that the options are no less than thrilling. Cheetos, cool ranch Doritos, even a Hershey's snack mix. And more! Now, if you happen to eat 12 in a day, that is perhaps a different story, but at least good options are available.

8. Melrose on America's Next Top Model. Yes, I mean it. I don't really like her character, and I kind of hate this picture, but I sort of do like her character a whole lot. I like the twins more, and CariDee, and Anchal, and even that Reese Witherspoon lookalike. More than anything I don't see how Melrose can look around dumbly and say, These girls aren't supporting me, when she blatantly admits that she doesn't care about any of them, either. Like, so why wouldn't they return the non-favor? Also, I kind of found it fascinating, the way they were all heckling her during the red carpet reporter practice session--did they just take it to that level because they know her skin is thick? Or maybe it was just retaliation, maybe in the house she's just that bad that she deserves to be called Smelrose in front of Mark Steines? I don't know. But the fact is, she's confident but not in a hideous, evil way, and she's also quite funny. The Donald Trump picture? Genius. In fact, let me direct you there instead.

P.S. Can we get rid of Jaeda already, put the girl out of her misery? I agree AJ was totally dead this week and deserved to go, but shouldn't there be a limit on how many times in a row you can be Bottom Two and still remain? Four seems a bit much.