Welcome

I should be doing ANYTHING other than writing this blog, let me tell you. For instance, right now I could be going to the grocery store, working out or writing a paper for a graduate class I’m taking. But no, I’ve decided to indulge myself by finally, finally, finally starting a blog.

I’ve wanted to blog for years now but have had serious concerns about sparing the time to do it. If I were to allow myself the opportunity, I could write and edit for hours, and in fact, have. I have fond memories of writing letters to friends, an activity that I let lapse when I first got "the conformists' internet provider," America Online version, um, 4.0 (?), eleven years ago.

Back in the early 90’s, in the pre-AOL days, when I was employed as a casting associate in New York City, I spent many a happy, indulgent hour writing long, funny (so I was told) letters to my actor friends who were on the road. One of them, Kevin, often told me how much he looked forward to getting my letters and that he would share the funnier parts with his cast mates. Sometimes he would make special requests that I write to him, even though he rarely wrote to me. Another friend, Debbie, would tell me that when one of my letters arrived in the mail, she wait to read it, preferring to snuggle up with it at bedtime. She didn't write to me either, but this collective stroking of my ego served to inspire me to write my best in these three-to-four page, single-spaced letters, so my friends would have something to look forward to reading on their various buses and/or trucks. Don't be fooled, though; I was writing for myself as much as I was writing to them.

I wrote these long letters also because I was lonely and I missed my friends. Unlike them, I was not surrounded by a touring company of crazy actors. The title of "Casting Associate" is not as prestigious as it sounds. Often if means, "second in command of a two person office." On days without interns or during weeks when the folks from the Williamstown Theater Festival office down the hall were actually at the Williamstown Theater Festival, or when my boss was out, which was often, I was the one casting associate in town who welcomed actor "pop-ins." This is how I became friends with Joanne Lessner, but I digress. I simply wanted to engage in conversations with people, and thus, my missing friends appeared to me when I wrote to them. I passed many a long hour writing and editing my letters, so that they would be as entertaining as possible. I couldn't have put more effort into them if I were Martha Stewart making and shipping each of my friends a box of homemade cupcakes. My letters served as little paper care packages - three-to-four pages, single spaced.

I've come to realize that I miss writing for fun. And so here we are.

Just for the record, you have no idea how many hours of thought and pre-writing, re-writing and ultimately deletion have already gone into this blog. It’s my intention to use this blog vent, persuade, be funny, create, commiserate, disagree and share. Recipes included.

At first I thought I’d use a letter-writing format for the blog, but I just couldn’t get that off the ground. Then I found the Yogi Berra quote online and the rest is history. It’s about smiling and salt, with the use of salt being my metaphor for not being sweet all the time. Plus Yogi Berra is a funny philosopher, which I, too, aspire to be.

So that’s my introduction, and here’s Summertime Recipe #1:

Tom Colicchio’s Avocado Toast for Breakfast

Take an avocado and mash it up with a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread it on toast. Serve it at brunch and people will be impressed with you, which is actually kind of sad when you think about it.