McSWEENEYS RECOMMENDATIONS

RECOMMENDATIONS

Listening to that CD you haven't heard in a while straight through
It seems like, in the era of digitized music, you never listen to a whole album straight through. Try it with something you haven't heard in the last three years, like, say, Automatic for the People or Achtung Baby or... Sounds fresh, doesn't it?

A basil plant
When you're making spaghetti or pizza, you just grab some leaves from your back-deck plant. Or we could put it this way: Fresh basil is to a jar of crushed, store-bought basil as ketchup is to catsup.

Fred Kaplan's "War Stories" column at Slate
Brilliant at cutting through the latest B.S. spewing from whatever side of the political spectrum. He's our choice for the Defense Secretary if Rumsfeld ever does the right thing and resigns.

Pinot Grigio
For years, there was no drinking of white wine, because we were only familiar with Chardonnay, but ultimately red-wine hangovers drove us to new varieties, and this one appears to be working out pretty well.

The grocery-store scene in Nine Lives
As she pushes her cart past the Cap'n Crunch, Robin Wright Penn spots an old boyfriend, and over the course of the next several minutes we watch her world unravel. Shot in just one long take. We believe this is what is known as virtuoso acting.

Ground turkey
Not a 100-percent-reliable substitute for ground beef, but, truthfully, we like our chili better with this stuff.

What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller
Funny, tense, sneaky.

30 Days
Television show created and hosted by Morgan Spurlock, the Super Size Me guy. People spend 30 days in an atmosphere they either don't understand or think they loathe, e.g., a Minuteman spends a month with a family of illegal aliens. Consistently demonstrates that understanding, empathy, and grace are possible between human beings.