In one of those serendipitous moments, details of this original Raymond Loewy Associates 1951 "Look" Kitchen appeared on my desktop. The metal mid-century modern kitchen in good condition and is available from Little Paris Antiques in Los Angles, CA for $7800.
The "Look" kitchen is so iconic it's featured in the Library of Congress. How cool is that? Almost as cool as being responsible for this car or working for NASA.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Speaking of Raymond Loewy
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Defining a Brand
At last a house post, well house-related anyway.
Some of you will know that Andrew Geller the architect of The Cool House, was responsible for quite a few iconic designs for things other than unique summer homes. Geller worked for many years as the head of the Retail Store/Shopping Center Planning and Design departments for Raymond Loewy Associates in New York, where he designed buildings for department stores including this one at Garden City, NY for Lord & Taylor.
As Geller tells the story, in his early years with the firm there was a meeting with people from Lord & Taylor where they realized they did not have a design for the logo. Geller took a sheet of paper and wrote the name Lord & Taylor upside down and a legendary logo was born. If you look at the logo and compare it with Geller's signature on this sketch and you can see the similarity.
As part of the brand definition Lord & Taylor used a red rose as their symbol but it was phased out in the 90s. Now they are attempting the mother of all makeovers and the rose is making a comeback. Artists, photographers and graphic designers have submitted their entries and now they want YOU to help choose the design. Be aware that it's a little overwhelming, lots of designs to choose from. Too many I think, kind of like the dress selection in the Manhattan store. Still, it's a positive sign when business lets the consumer get involved in the process. As long as they don't mess with the logo itself!
Just like dial-up
I think I got the answer to what would happen when Mozilla attempted to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours: You can't get near their site. I've been trying for 33 minutes now, since the Official Start at 1 PM ET. It's just like the old days of dial-up and the internet, way back in the mid-90s.
While I'm waiting to get onto the download page for Firefox 3 I thought I'd post a photo. It must be all the orange in their logo that got me inspired. Enjoy!
Firefox 3 Download Day
If you're a Firefox user today, June 17 2008, is the day to upgrade to the shiny new Firefox 3. And if you are stuck with boring old IE you might want to make a change and try to set a record into the bargain. Haven't you always wanted to set a World Record?
The folks at Mozilla want to celebrate their 10th anniversary in style - by setting the Guinness World Record for the number of downloads in one day. Total pledges as I type? 1,383,867. Why don't YOU make it one more?
They want you to download to help spread Firefox. I want you to take part because I want to see what will happen. Will the internets grind to a halt? Will chunks of software be flung into cyberspace? Will my iMac explode? We'll know soon enough.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Cilantro: Harmless Herb or Instrument of Death?*
I had no idea that so many people disliked the fragrant green herb Coriandrum sativum until I stumbled upon I Hate Cilantro, a website dedicated to supporting the fight against the "most offensive food known to man": Cilantro.
Now, I love coriander, as it is known in Europe; I use it to flavour curries and Thai soups, and once I discovered it was known as cilantro in America, in ceviche and salsas. Hell, I've been known to sprinkle it over Boston (Bibb) lettuce before now.
To some people, though, it tastes like metal, soap, or rotting corpses (I hope that last person is imagining what a putrefying carcass tastes like and isn't writing from experience). I thought the two people I know who dislike it were just being dramatic when they told me it makes them vomit but I may have judged them too harshly. It may be strange, but I react the same way to tea!
Two thousand people are anti-cilantro enough to have joined the fight and several share their stories with the internets. They hate it so much they put it on a T-shirt and proclaim it proudly to the world. I feel only pity for them, cilantro is almost impossible to avoid and to them I say: Look away.
For those who love it as much as I do a quick salsa recipe:
Fresh Cilantro Salsa
1 bunch cilantro
1 tomato, finely chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, more to taste, very thinly sliced, seeded if desired
2 limes, freshly squeezed
Salt, Freshly ground black pepper and a little sugar to taste
Finely chop cilantro and mix in a bowl with tomato, onion, garlic, jalapeno and lime juice. Stir to combine. Add salt, pepper and sugar to taste. Serve with fish, chicken, tacos, or alongside guacamole.
*For John in NJ and Fliss in BXL and cilantro/coriander haters everywhere.
Uniquely modern wallpaper
Flying saucers, flat-head whales and bucking broncos on this fabulous and fantastic Barok'n'roll wallpaper from WallCollection. Designed by artist and skateboarder Emil Kozak in black on white, white on black or white on red, it's a neat twist on a classic Baroque wall covering. All the usual ornamental flourishes are, in fact, tiny details: here a diamond, there a skull, over there a heart. Once you start looking you'll spend hours examining the paper.
WallCollection are a Danish company but you can buy their products throughout Europe and the US, too. Their product differs from traditional wallpaper in that it is digitally printed allowing for a more flexibility in design, a larger color palette, no pattern repeat and no wastage. The added bonus for those of us who want something unique - you can upload your own photo to their website and they'll create your custom wallpaper. The feature also allows you to price the wallpaper out and see what it looks like before you decide to purchase. Just measure the height and width of the wall you want to decorate (in centimeters, please) and use the online calculator to do the hard work for you. As a rough guide n 8'high 10' long wall will run somewhere between $700 and $1500 depending whether you use on of their designs or one of your own.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Celebrate The Irony
To counteract the blues from this week's posts and to celebrate Friday evening let's pogo around a little to The Wombats a band from the UK (not to be confused with The Wombles a fictional band of ecologically savvy furry creatures).
I missed these guys when the played New York last week, mainly because I DIDN'T KNOW THEY WERE PLAYING. Memo to their tour manager/press agent: You might get more than 30 people at a gig if you ADVERTISE. But, hey, there's always youTube...
Totaled or Totally Repairable?
Turns out the car might not be totaled after all. On the twelfth day after the accident, 10 days after we had been notified that an assessor had been appointed and six days after the dealer had told us to pick up the plates because it was a write-off I got a call from a very determined assessor who hoped we hadn't bought a new car yet because as far as he could see it just needed two new doors.
The car is apparently at an unsecured car auction place somewhere in the Tri-state area and he needed our permission to tow it to a "very good car shop in Medford" which they "use all the time" so someone could make sure that's all it needed.
Hmm, I didn't used to be a suspicious gal (OK, that's a big, fat lie. I'm cynical by birthright and inclination.) but something changed over the past few years. Maybe it's the way the Administration plays fast and loose with the Constitution; maybe it's the lack of a democratic process in Albany or maybe it's just a reaction to that damn insurance bill but something doesn't seem quite right. It's a lease car and I'm not named on the lease so I couldn't help him and The Guy is in meetings in another part of the country and couldn't be reached but the assessor insisted he should call him back "any hour of the day or night".
Really? If you can be reached any hour of the day or night, shouldn't you have gone out to see the car before it was released by the dealer's shop? Just saying. Oh, and am I the only person who when faced by the "I've been doing this job for thirty years" comment wants to yell back: You should have got the hang of it by now OR You're only as good as your last job OR Tell it to Obama!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Pest Control Quadrupled
It's that time of the year when spring glides into summer; the days are long, the nights are warm and small furry creatures abound. In other words it's party-time for the cats. This is the first summer in a while that we have had four active, healthy adult cats and boy are we noticing it. Every morning and usually evening too, the doorstep looks like a butcher's slab. What would madam like today? A nice mouse head? Side of vole? Filleted chipmunk?
But today they outdid themselves. I don't know if it was individual offerings or team work but we have 1 (one) small grey mouse, 1 (one) vole, 2 (two) chipmunks on the kitchen terrace and lawn, plus 1 (one) black rat by the garage door and 1 (one) flattened squirrel by the front drive. I willing to concede even my cats couldn't have been responsible for the last corpse but they could have chased it to its demise under a truck.
How do I deal with this carnage? Denial that's how. The Guy is in Minnesota so the death will not exist until he returns home. I will enter and exit the house by uncontaminated paths. Hopefully I won't run out of unsullied methods of egress before then.
*No other pictures for the post. You all know what these animals look like and besides, let's respect the little corpses, OK?
Ooh! Aah! Yum!
Today's etsy pick: the stunningly gorgeous Windowpane Chair from sprucehome. Classic, modern, chic and cheerful; it'll fit in almost any decor. And how about that photo styling? Pairing it with a mid-century table and wellies? Genius.
Update 30 secs after I posted this IT WAS SOLD. They have other beautiful items, though, get 'em while you can.
Re-visualize real estate three ways
Trulia.com, the real estate search website, has come up with three really cool ways to view real estate.
The first Trulia Snapshot is straight porn. Search by town and state and refine by price point or listing time, then gawk to your heart's content. At the moment it only works really well in the big cities but that's what we all want to know isn't it: What do you get for $40,000,000, the most expensive listing in Manhattan? A 5 bedroom, 6 bath minimalist condo designed by Richard Meier overlooking the Hudson River baby, that's what.
The second tool, Trulia Hindsight, takes Visual Earth maps and digitally superimposes data on them, tracking the growth of towns and cities like Madison Wisconsin and Aspen, Colorado. Watch populations grow and decline, search by town or street. Waste a lot of time in a really fun way.
My favorite, though, is this fantastic awe-inspiring video that visualises where people are searching for real estate on Trulia. At the moment both its coverage and its usefulness are limited but plans are in the works for tools to help real estate agents more efficiently market homes. As it says on their blog: It’s sort of like Amazon Recommends for real estate.
The tools have been developed in partnership with the terrific design and technology firm stamen. Go over there to see more wondrous ways to display data, including Cabspotting which I marveled at in Design and the Elastic Mind at MoMA earlier this spring.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Allstate: Those hands are mighty expensive
I'm looking at the slightly bedraggled pink peonies I picked out of the yard today. The ones that were knocked to the ground by the 5 minute tempest that blew through last night. And I'm trying to stay calm because in front of them is this year's house insurance bill from Allstate.
The insurance firm's desire to get out of property insurance in certain states has been well-documented - see here, here and here and most damningly here, and they are not writing any new policies on Long Island. If you go online to get a quote from them this is the message you receive "We cannot currently provide an online property insurance quote in the county you have indicated. For more information please contact your local Allstate Agent".
But just refusing to take on new customers isn't enough for Allstate, if you want out there are ways. NYS law doesn't allow insurance providers to cancel more than 4% of their policies in any one year so I'm convinced that they are trying to get existing policy holders to switch to another provider by pricing them out.
Existing home owners would include us. We've been customers for 8 years. Our premiums rose a little for the first four years. Then the increases started to get really big. For the coming year the policy will go up by 30%. Not 3%, which would be in line with inflation, and in other countries where policies are index linked is mandated by law, but THREE ZERO PERCENT! This means that in the four years we have lived here the premium has increased 100%. It's gone from shocking to outrageous to unaffordable.
So what happens if you contact your Allstate agent to complain? He tells you that for the last two months almost every call has been from policyholders complaining about the increase in their premiums. He looks at your deductibles and informs you that there is nothing he can do: you have taken the maximum allowed. He suggests you shop around, because he knows no-one else will take you on as a customer.
So you sadly look at the peonies, feel grateful that this was the only damage sustained yesterday, work out ways you can decrease your outgoings to pay for the insurance and, should there ever be hurricane damage to your house, the $40,000 you will have to pay upfront before Allstate will cut you one check to start rebuilding.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
File it under Humor
In The Today Show's "What Were They Thinking?" segment "fashion icon" and "style guru" Isaac Mizrahi channels his inner Benny Hill to give advice to women on undergarments.
The segment is actually called Plastic Surgery without the Plastic Surgery, which must account for the bandana and stethoscope in his pocket.
Isn't it a little early in the morning for post-modern humor?
Monday, June 09, 2008
Dusk
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Win a Light
If you like modern lighting stroll over to 2modern Design Talk where they are currently running a competition to win this Meridian Table Lamp from Lights Up!.
All you have to do is visit the 2Modern lighting shop and then leave comments about it on on the contest page. Not too complicated is it? Competition ends June 30th.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Real Estate Round-Up
Another house has gone on the market in the incorporated village. In case you are counting that makes 30. There haven't been that many houses on the market in all the time we've lived here. Most of them are just houses, nice enough but not my style. Every now and then, however, a gem comes up and here it is.
I love everything about this Craftsman-style house, the ceilings, the moldings, the windows. Everything that is except the kitchen, which I hate, hate HATE. The cabinets just don't fit with the house in terms of style or color. I know I'm going to be in the minority here but I'll say it anyway: White is the new generic. Take the virtual tour and you'll see the original dark door next to the range - it's authentic and splendid. Beside it the new white cabinets look like off-the-shelf boxes. They may have cost a lot or they may be warehouse specials but they look wrong and they make the rest of the house look disoriented.
And as an aside, in case you think that the market is sliding downwards, this house just raised its asking price by $1,000,000 and change. Even though it has been on the market over a year at the lower price. While everyone else is dropping theirs. Now that takes balls.
Method Eco-friendly Cleaning
Tips on keeping the house clean in an eco-friendly manner.
I used to have to go to Target especially to buy Method cleaning supplies but I can get them at Ricky's drugstore in town now. I love their wipes, especially the grapefruit fragrance ones.
My favorite tip is in the bedroom: Not making the bed is more green than making in it. I've been right all these years......
Friday, June 06, 2008
So glad to be alive
We got hit by a truck last weekend.
OK, breathe. We're still here; the car, however, is totaled. We were lucky to have side impact bags and a car with enough steel to stop the hook on the front of the truck coming through the driver's door. If it had been my Jeep or the "caprice" I don't think I'd be writing this. We were actually dragged by the wingnuts on the front wheel of the truck. The impact buckled the frame and smashed the glass and cracked the windshield. We were doing maybe 5mph. We are very lucky.
There are no photos because I really didn't think of it until afterwards. A long time afterwards, after the police report had been taken, the EMS had left and the car had been towed.
I've never understood the benefit of those automatic emergency service phones in cars before but the second the airbag went off a voice was asking if we were alright and they phoned the Police and alerted a tow truck. They stayed on the line to speak to the Police and I didn't realise they were still on the line until half an hour or so later when they interrupted us to give us the ETA of the tow truck.
By the way, the accident happened right outside the drive, and the sound of the impact had neighbors running. Guess who arrived first? An attorney, an insurance agent and an off-duty police officer. The perfect trifecta.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Anthropomorphised Peonies
This peony looks like it's peeping out from a white bonnet, and giving me a come hither wink at the same time.
There was a fantastic short shower and I snapped this one with the drops still glistening. Does it look like it's weeping?
Sadly for the peony, but happily for me, one branch had been knocked down by the rain. I bought it inside and artistically arranged it in a bud vase. It looks like it's trying to attract my attention by jumping on one leg and waving. Possibly it would like to be shoved in a glass jar by someone who knows what they are doing.
I couldn't bear the way it looked so I chopped its head off and lovingly floated it in a bowl. Drastic, but I think its happier this way.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Why should effluence be prosaic?
Pretty much the most basic facility in the City - the Newton Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Brooklyn - is already an architectural masterpiece. Eight 145 ft stainless steel eggs hold millions of gallons of sewage and convert it into clean water and what will become fertilizer, all while looking like something from an episode of Flash Gordon. And now there is a bonus feature. They will be illuminated at night, from June 3, with a “diaphanous layer of blue light.” That's according to French designer Hervé Descottes whose firm L'Observatoire International is responsible for the lighting project. Poetic, no?
Surreal bath filler
I'm still looking for that inspiration piece that will kick-start the master bath into action. I don't think this Mimi Bath Filler from Gessi is it, though. Perhaps it's just me but I find it too Daliesque, too Magritte, too surreal. Like the side section of a male anatomy model sculpted by Picasso......
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Ant on a Peony
Or as I named this jpeg file: AntonPeony. Now doesn't that sound like a character from a novel? Anton Peony, debonair designer...
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Competition Sunday
And through to the end of the month Create My Event is having a Fourth of July Traditions Contest to win this Inhabit Grass Stretched Wall Art from 2Modern.com.
It's stunningly simple to enter, just click the link and post your favorite tradition in the comments box. Easy, no?
Obviously my tradition on the Fourth is to hide away until people stop mentioning how the English got their asses kicked but I'm sure you can do much better than that....
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Pinks
Friday, May 30, 2008
And on the home front
We haven't been ignoring the house this week. A couple of chores were crossed off the to do list. This guy came down. We haven't had a cover on it since the cabinets went on the wall because I didn't allow for the door opening when I went for the extra long boxes.
The ceiling was primed and we had just enough left-over paint to give it the three coats it needed to make it match seamlessly. Then the new fixture went up and we can now open the cabinet door. Ta da, another problem solved.
We took part in the annual slaughter of the carpenter bees. They only seem to be over the porch this year (so far, anyway) but they've already managed to drill two new holes that will be really difficult to fill unless we get a bigger stepladder.
Things we have to do this weekend: repaint the back door, sand and paint the bottom of the garage door, sand and stain the holes the woodpecker made, stain the new frame around the kitchen door.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Taxes or....
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Cold water
See that blue water? Pristine blue water? Do you want to know why it looks like that? I'll tell you. Because no one has put so much as a pinky-toe in there since we opened it a month ago. Why? Because it's a freakishly cold 62F, that's why.
This year was the first Memorial Day weekend we didn't jump in the pool since we moved here. Even though we are hardy Europeans, we need at least a week of temperatures in the 70s to get the water warm enough for us, and this year that just hasn't happened. We've had one day, or at the most two, of warm weather followed by a stream of dreary, chilly days.
A neighbor suggested we use solar balls to heat the water but I can't find any more information on them. Does anyone know if these things work? It says non-toxic, but what are they made of? Will they mangle the mechanics of my new pump? I'd really like to start swimming soon and I'd be willing to try these things if I knew they'd do no harm.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Cupcakes and family secrets
You know you're part of the family when...
Someone offers you the chance to feel the difference between saline and silicone breasts - saline today, silicone sometime later this summer
They trust you enough to tell you things secure in the knowledge it will not reach the internets the following day
Someone confesses that when they were small they liked to eat the paper that cupcakes are baked in. Bonus points if you admitted you preferred the casings to the cupcakes. Double bonus points if, while telling this story, you are actually chewing on the paper.
They eat all of your Strawberry-Thyme cupcakes but want to know why they are so tiny. That's because these are English fairy cakes (insert inappropriate joke here) adapted from the super-sized American version here. If you are a US reader, make the American version. If you're European and have access to the smaller paper cases the recipe is as follows:
Strawberry-Thyme Fairy Cakes
Take 3 sprigs of thyme and infuse in 5 tablespoons of milk. Set aside for 15 minutes. Discard the thyme. Cream together 100g butter and sugar. Add two eggs, one at a time, with a little self-raising flour, beating between each addition. Carefully fold in 100g sifted SR flour and a pinch of salt. In a separate bowl, mash a couple of strawberries, grate in the zest of half a lemon. Carefully stir this into cake batter with one or two tablespoons of the thyme-infused milk. Divide between 12 paper cases and bake in 180c oven for 12-15 minutes. Cool.
For the Glacé Icing
Mash another couple of strawberries with the rest of the milk and another teaspoon of lemon zest. Sift in enough icing sugar to make icing that coats the back of a spoon and pour it over those fairy cakes.
Enjoy!
Parade
Monday, May 26, 2008
Trickin' Out the Yard
When we moved her 47 months ago (I can't believe it's been that long, it seems like yesterday) we took a look at the property and pronounced it perfect "We don't have to do a thing here", The Guy said, "Except take down those trees a foot away from the window" I added. "Ha" the garden gods mocked us, and this weekend found us spending a few more dollars at the nursery,
We got a tray of Woolly Thyme to go between the bluestone pavers on the north path
And sedums to make the rockery next to the bridge look pretty. The two in the foreground I planted a couple of years ago and they are huge now so I hope the others grow in the same.
Unfortunately while planting we discovered that one post of the bridge has completely rotted and the only thing holding it up is the cross span. We'll need to replace that and six boards before anyone leans on it.
If the garden gods are reading this: we are not finished with the yard, we will never be finished with the yard. We are sorry for our hubris.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
The Start of Summer
I want to be rich so I can decorate my house with live lobsters.
via remodelista.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
To decorate my $230 million pad
I would so start with this gorgeous Hermes Espresso Cup and Saucer on sale at Bluefly.com, part of the Balcon Du Guadalquivir set. Available in red on white porcelain, 2 for only $171.00. It would work pretty well in my kitchen here, too. Except for that pesky price tag...
Friday, May 23, 2008
£8,000 per square foot
That's the price a London businessman will pay if the deal on this house in Kensington Gardens, London, England goes through. Britain's richest man, steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, can well afford the £117,000,000 ($230 million) price tag, I'm sure, and rumor has it the house isn't even for himself but his son Aditya because dad already owns a sizable house on the same street. But honestly $15,000 a square foot? With a declining housing market and a looming recession? I ask you is this a smart move?
via Huffington Post and The Times
Thursday, May 22, 2008
No-sew curtains
I took the porridge colored drapery panels back to Crate&Barrel and while I was in the store I had a look around to see what I could possibly buy to stop the sun shining through the windows at 5 AM.
I spied this greeny-silver from afar. It was pretty stiff and opaque so I wouldn't have to line it and it was already hemmed so there was no sewing involved. It's the right size and it doesn't matter to me that it's a Linden tablecloth. It's not the first time I've used a tablecloth as a drapery panel.
I bought two 60"x90" tablecloths at $39 each and spent $68 on hardware at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Not as cheap as chips but pretty close. The Guy attached the hardware and I attached the tablecloths to the rods with clips. Just one tiny design dilemma. That central support bracket meant we could only draw the curtains halfway. Oops.
I took the drapes down, cut each tablecloth in half and reattached them lengthwise, folding over the raw edge at the top. Luckily, there was still plenty of fabric. (Insert sigh of relief here).
They go fine with the checkered Pixel drapes on the other window, but eventually I will hem the top, making a pole pocket while I'm about it. I think it will look neater than the clips.
I just need to find the iron so I can stick the Stich Witchey to the fabric. I know we put the iron away when we demo'd the laundry room in December '06, I just can't remember where....
Spruce'd Up
New growth on the blue spruce on the north drive. (And yes, that is another azalea to the left in the photo in the link!)
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Nul points*
Even united by a made-up language Belgium can't win. Last night was the first semi-final of The Eurovision Song Contest and Belgium failed to qualify for Saturday's final. So sad, so cruel.
Don't despair, through the power of the internets I bring you Ishtar with O julisi na jalini, the official entry of my adopted country. It sounds like a mash-up of Steeleye Span (Gaudete, anyone?) and The Smurfs. No really.
Click if you dare and remember Belgium is the home of the surreal.
Special bonus video: Father Abraham and The Smurfs
I always thought he said "Fruit Smurf begins" now I realise it's "Flute Smurf". Oh the power of youtube!
*translation here
I Heart Showart
That's show-art, not sho-wart I guess, anyhow I love it. It's Italian and so is the website. but don't let that frighten you. Click either link under the name Showart, the left will open a new screen, the right will open the site in the existing screen, and the hit collezioni on the left and wonder at the beauty of the shower pans, especially the Linea Texture. Only available in Italy, of course, but all the same: Pretty, pretty, pretty.
via Trendir
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Who'd Stop the Rain?
Stuck on TuneGlue
I don't know how I've managed to live without the extremely cool TuneGlue all my life.
It's an interactive "relationship explorer" and with just a few clicks you can see how bands and artists relate to one another musically. Take for example the artist featured in my last post Grandmaster Flash. Enter his name in the search box, click expand and similar artists will appear, click on one of those to see more relationships or on releases to check out their discography.
I'm totally addicted to it, firstly because it is so beautifully designed, second you can point, click and purchase music (from amazon.co.uk, though) and thirdly it totally appeals to the geek in me. I can play six degrees of musical separation to my heart's content. Deeply sad but at the same time deeply satisfying.
via Very Short List
P.S. There's another set of relationships in the music player at the bottom of the page....
Hip Hop Message
Guess who will be signing copies of his memoir in Huntington next month?
Grandmaster Flash himself will be at the Book Revue at 7 PM on June 12.
Remind me is "memoir" code for fact or fiction these days?