Blogging Gatsby

After watching D'Angelo lead a group discussion about The Great Gatsby in prison on The Wire, I decided it was time to re-read it myself. It's been six years since I read it my junior English class in high school, and at the time I was studying for the SAT. Back then I used to highlight the words I didn't know or pencil them at the top of the pages so I could look them up later.

Some words I didn't know when I was 16:

supercilious
ectoplasm
erroneous
prodigality
vehemently
spectroscopic
ascertain
corpulent
jauntiness
asunder
indignant

I didn't take notes for the first 50 pages, but I'll have more on the actual book the next few days.

On an unrelated note, is it weird that I like the way my dog's breath smells? Rocko has really bad breath, but it's Rocko breath, and I used to miss it when I was in college. I don't like the way it smells when his mouth is in my face, but every so often after he yawns I get a whiff of it mixed in with his dog smell while I'm at the computer.

Question

If a company makes false claims on its website, is it false advertising?

Websites may advertise for companies, but since they do not sponsor editorial content are they considered ads in the legal sense of the word?

Pictures for Grandma

"I'm stylin in my new collar. Red is usually my color, but all they had was blue."

Adventures in Ethnic Grocery Stores Pt. 1

Tony's (my neighborhood convenience store) was out of limes, and I simply can't drink Tecate without limes. So I went to Fiesta because it's really close to my house and if there's one thing that a grocery store that mainly serves the Hispanic community is going to sell, it's limes.

I usually avoid the shopping area Fiesta is in because every time I'm out there I have Valley flashbacks of bad drivers from Mexico. Driving in Mexico is wayy different from driving in the US so consequently driving in the Valley is way different from driving in the US. In fact, when I go back home and I'm running an errand I find myself being a good, cautious driver then I remember that I'm in McAllen, and anything goes.

Another reason why I avoid Fiesta, and stores like it, is that it reminds me of being in Globe or M. Rivas, and all three stores smell like freshly-cut cow. When I was little I couldn't figure out why everyone called it 'eme' Rivas- all the signs said M. Rivas. It wasn't until I learned the Spanish alphabet in high school that I made the connection. H-E-B has since run M. Rivas out of business, but Globe is still around, despite being across the street from an H-E-B. I think it's because it's because of the bus stop that picks up and drops off the Mexicans that cross every day to work in McAllen.

Which leads me to believe that stores like Fiesta, Sack-N-Save and Globe only appeal to immigrants and first-generation Hispanics. If it were true that all Hispanics only liked to shop in stores that resemble stores in Mexico, H-E-B wouldn't be so popular in the Valley, Austin and San Antonio. Or pretty much anywhere where an H-E-B is. I think stores like Fiesta are so big in Dallas is because a majority of the Hispanics here immigrant and first generation. I know people in the Valley who can't even trace their family back to Mexico because their families have been living in Edinburg for so long. And all these people love H-E-B.

Anyway, I was pricing the produce when it came to me- dude, they must sell tamarindo here. When my dad and I would go to H-E-B after school I always used to take one from the produce bin and eat it in the store. After I didn't find it next to the hikama I began to get a little worried. But I did eventually find it- in individually wrapped quarter and half-pound bunches. And the bundles nearest to the ground, the ones most easily accessible to children, had little holes in the plastic where little fingers could take one out and eat it while their parents grocery shopped.
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Note: It occurred to me after I wrote this that not everyone who reads this may know what tamarindo is. Most Mexican candy (the good kind anyway) is tamarindo based. It's sweet but mostly sour, but not in the way a lemon is.

Dogs as Dogs vs. Dogs as People

I'm having a hard time trying to decide which is cuter- when dogs do cute things because that's what dogs do, or when they do cute things that make them more like people. For example, Rocko's schnauzer trot (sooo cute) is a cuteness that comes from him being a dog and walking on all fours. But when he opens a door with his paws it's super cute too because he's trying to be like people.