Lucy Jane Wasserstein, your mom loved you very very very much. Even if she described your conception as “a surreal cross between PBS’s ‘Nature’ and the Food Channel.” Or maybe especially because she did.

Playwright and author Wendy Wasserstein died on Monday. She was fifty-five. Here is my favorite monologue from her play “An American Daughter” wherein the Jewish African-American Doctor Judith Kaufman remembers some advice during Tashlikh.

When I started reading the cover article in the Seattle Times’ Sunday magazine “A Man, A Fence, An Empire“, I was expecting a boring “entrepreneur IPO’d, bought a mansion, blah blah” story. But the details in the breadth of coverage are fascinating. First there’s the atmosphere of the main character’s empire’s headquarters: a shack on a pier with two outhouses. And said character, Rick Preble, is from Maine so I imagined his “beguiling accent” as he told the story of how a little pile of wood outside a New Hampshire doorway led him to a niche market in fence postcaps that provided $15 million in sales last year. Along the way I found out that Lowe’s store design and marketing are more attractive to women, who typically hold the postcap buying power as it’s a decorative item. And I learned how Preble coped with making the hard choice to move his manufacturing to China, and that, contrary to what you may believe, he is getting high quality, detail oriented work that he would not have obtained from the ultimate mechanization of his production in the U.S. Preble and his partner (owner of that little pile of wood) sold the company for $8.5 million, but Preble has stayed on in his shack on the pier and travels the world evangelizing his postcaps.

When my friend Pavel moved from the SF Bay area to the Seattle area he was unable to find Republic of Tea’s Cardamon Cinnamon in local stores. I kept an eye out whenever I saw Republic of Tea displays and happened across it at Whole Foods in Seattle (this was before the Bellevue store opened) but they only had it loose, not in bags. He decided this was acceptable, but since then has been trying various methods of infusing loose tea in his mug at work. For reasons best left to psychoanalysts specializing in some odd cross-section of typical female behavior and Chinese culture, I felt responsible for achieving closure on his tea enjoyment. Thus when I came across the Teastick (and found out they take Paypal) I had to get it for him. Here’s his Teastick review. And here’s a photo I took of all the packaging it arrived in. (As for me, I just dump loose tea in the bottom of a teapot or mug. That way I can read my fortune.)

My father used to read me Dr. Seuss’ “Hop on Pop” and it’s the book I first remember recognizing words in. Thus, it’s the first book I ever read! I hadn’t looked at it since I was a kid but I bought a board book version for our son so I could read it to him. He loves it and actually asks for it in baby babble: “hob bob pob?”. In the book there’s a drawing of “Red, Ned, Ted and Ed in Bed.” I’ve decided that “Ted” is actually a self portrait of the author, Theodor Seuss Geisel. I’m sure I’m right because he looks like an actual human instead of a typical Seuss character and, well, his name was “Ted”, so of course it’s him. Perhaps this is common knowledge amongst Seuss fans. Now that I’ve noticed this neat self reference, the book is even more fun.

“Everything’s under control in there.” “He’s not happy, but he’s doing fine.” “It’s all good.” These were among the comments I heard from men exiting the restroom at a museum while my husband was inside with our crying (he hates diaper changes) toddler on the (thank you progressive culture) changing table. I was sitting contentedly outside on a bench, but all the “I’ve been there too” dads felt that a report from the interior was necessary for my sanity. And since I started laughing hysterically every time I received an unsolicited update, they must’ve thought I was pretty far gone.

California police officer attacked by pack of angry Chihuahuas. It’s not good to laugh at a police officer or anyone who is attacked by dogs but…I did anyway. That’s five little Chihuahuas. Minor injuries. He was back at work two hours later after a trip to the hospital. And when I noticed the webpage had been named “webankles30.html” I started laughing all over again. Then I recovered and did my usual weblog posting research (thinking, there’s no way I’m really going to write about this) and found the headline “Cop Attacked By Angry Dogs — Itty-Bitty Angry Dogs” and completely lost it. More wassail anyone?

Update on the ring lost by a See’s employee: Thea Sawyer found the glittering diamond ring in her See’s bag last Wednesday and returned it to the happy owner the next day. Friday she went to pick up her reward ring at the contributing jewelry store and announced she would be donating it to charity. Nice.

See’s Candies employee, Wanda Estrada, must be happy that parent company Berkshire Hathaway also happens to own Helzberg Diamonds. Estrada believes she lost her diamond ring while bagging sweets for a customer. Sister company Helzberg has offered up a reward ring valued at $2,500 to encourage the return of the misplaced one.

On Thanksgiving Day a local toddler (from Redmond, WA) died soon after his parents rushed him to the hospital with severe flu-like symptoms. The autopsy uncovered two tiny magnets in his small intestines. One magnet was at the top of the intestines, the other at the bottom. The attached magnets twisted his small intestines together, closing them off. He died from septic shock. The magnets had fallen out of the plastic pieces from his older brother’s Magnetix set. Of course this toy is not intended for toddlers to play with, but older kids and parents may not notice if the tiny magnets come out of the pieces and are subsequently ingested. Fred Meyer, where that set was purchased, removed Magnetix from their shelves. The manufacturer has not taken any public action yet.

The Dry Soda Co, based in Tacoma, WA, is rather new and I spotted their minimalist clear bottles at QFC in the cold soda section. Their flavors, lavendar, kumquat, lemongrass, and rhubarb are designed to be paired with fine foods. Thus, they are also available at local (and perhaps soon farther afield) fine restaurants such as Brasa, Canlis, and the Herbfarm. I can’t stomach much alcohol so I’m all for more options in teetotaler drink pairings.