Who's your celebrity crush?

I'm probably too old to write about celebrity crushes, but I'm going for it anyway! My new crush is...Read More >

Have you ever said "I love you" first?

When I started dating Alex, I knew I loved him early on. I'm usually pretty guarded, but since I was so enamored, those three words lingered dangerously on the tip of my tongue. So, after just a couple weeks, as we were falling asleep, I couldn't help nervously whispering, "I think I'm falling in love with you." His reply? "I think I'm already there."

HURRAY AND THANK GOD.

Obviously, however, it doesn't always go so smoothly. In past relationships, I've said "I love you," and the other person just said, "Thank you"—or vice versa. Ouch. Then you have to just sit there with a big I-love-you elephant in the room for the rest of the night.

It's nerve wracking because, as Seinfeld says, "if you don't get that return, that's a pretty big Matzo ball hanging out there."
Have you ever been the first to say I love you, or do you prefer to wait?

(Top photo of us by Max Wanger, back when we were newly engaged and just babies!)

Bachelor gossip

Want to hear something hilarious? Read on...
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TV marathons

The New York Times recently wrote an interesting story about people "binge-viewing" TV shows—or watching all the episodes of a season in one burst—and how it's changing the way executives think about programming. It made me laugh to think how many times I've done that. Back in my single days, I went on crazy jags with Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Gray's Anatomy. Alex and I have done it with Mad Men and Homeland. We tried to do it with Breaking Bad, but I started having nightmares and couldn't handle it.

The funny thing about watching TV shows all in a row is that they get in your head. You start thinking like the characters with the same slang and intonation, and you almost forget it's not real life. At least, that's happened to me:)

Which TV shows have you watched like this? Reveal below...

Who's your celebrity crush?

My current celebrity crush is Dr. Danny Castellano from The Mindy Project. There's just something about him (and his cute mouth)! I rarely have celebrity crushes, but I just love him. His fraught relationship with Mindy is pitch-perfect.

Two funny clips:



And a conversation about Mindy's love life:
Danny: Was he a man?
Mindy: What do you mean? Yeah, of course he was a man.
Danny: No, I mean, like, was he a man?
Mindy: Danny, don’t just repeat it and expect me to understand what you’re saying.
Danny: Was this the kinda guy who, if he heard glass breaking in the middle of the night, is he gonna jump out of bed, say, “stay here,” and look through the house naked with a baseball bat, or is he gonna hide under the covers with you? Is this the kinda guy who is gonna get grossed out when you give birth, or is he gonna dry your forehead and tell you you look beautiful while all that disgusting stuff is coming out of you? Is this the kinda guy that’s not afraid to get into a fistfight at a Springsteen show because someone really disrespects him? And he’ll just put it out… And he’ll take ‘em down right there, right now?
Mindy: You’re just talking about yourself.

P.S. By the way, am I the only woman in the world who doesn’t find George Clooney attractive? He feels like my sleazy uncle.
P.P.S. Mindy's mom's great advice, and Mindy as a child.

Girls: Q&A with the costume designer

On the HBO show Girls—the second season premieres this Sunday!—the characters wear gorgeous, crazy and awkward clothes, depending on the day. Costume designer Jenn Rogien is the mastermind behind it all, so I was thrilled to ask her my 9 most pressing questions. Her answers were eye-opening...Read More >

Jerry Seinfeld: How to write a joke

Did you guys read the recent New York Times Magazine interview with Jerry Seinfeld? What surprised me was how obsessive Seinfeld is when writing his jokes. His stand-up feels effortless, but actually "Seinfeld will nurse a single joke for years, amending, abridging and reworking it incrementally, to get the thing just so," writes Jonah Weiner in the article. Seinfeld looks for funny words ("chimps," "dirt, "playing" and "sticks" are all funny, he explains). The joke can't be too long or too short; he'll go so far as to shave off letters or syllables from a sentence to pare it down. Seinfeld also avoids four-letter words, which he thinks are a crutch: "Guys that can use any word they want—if I had that weapon, I’ll give you a new hour in a week," he says.

Here, Seinfeld dissects a Pop Tarts joke he's been working on for two years...It reminds you just how hard it is to make something look easy.

P.S. Have you heard of Seinfeld's online series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee? Including Alec Baldwin!

Do you sign emails xoxo?

For the past eight or so years, I've signed almost every email with an xoxo—to female and male friends, to strangers, to colleagues, to accountants, to lawyers, to people who are more or less my bosses. I can't even help myself anymore; it has become totally automatic.

"I’m always afraid that I’m being unprofessional, yet I continue to sign all my e-mails 'xoxo,' " Lena Dunham joked to the New York Times Magazine earlier this year.

A recent Atlantic article examined the phenomenon, which they say is feminizing the workplace: "'I feel like xo has taken on its own kind of life,' says Karli Kasonik, a Washington-based consultant. 'I do it, most women I know do it,' says Asie Mohtarez, a writer and social-media editor, noting that she prefers a single x to the full xo. 'In my field, you almost have to use it,' says Kristin Esposito, a yoga instructor in New York."

Funnily enough, xoxo-ing has become such a habit that I feel kind of mean when I don't include it. "There’s the matter of women’s tonal antennae, which pick up on even the smallest shifts," continues the Atlantic article. "'In e‑mail, ending a command with a period can feel brusque,' says Anne Trubek, a professor of rhetoric at Oberlin College...In Diane Sawyer’s newsroom, staffers say, the anchor uses xo so frequently that its omission can spark panic."

And it's not just for women. My deep-voiced, bearded husband has started picking it up, and my dad's classic sign-off is now a bold "xxOOO." (I think those are bear hugs.)

After all, xoxo doesn't actually mean "kiss" anymore (at least, I'm not planning to kiss my accountant, sweet as he is). It's similar to "how the epistolary greeting Dear changed over time, originally just for addressing loved ones but eventually becoming neutral," says Ben Zimmer, a linguist and lexicologist, in the article.

So, is xoxo unprofessional or a new industry standard? "I refuse to feel any shame for this widespread woman-trait,” Caitlin Moran, the British feminist and author of How to Be a Woman, told the Atlantic. “Statistics show we’re slowly taking over the world, and I’m happy for us to do it one xxx e‑mail at a time.”

What do you think? I'd love to hear... xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
(Thanks, Courtney)

Girls Season 2: Trailer

Yes! Can't wait until January 13th. (Also, I have the biggest girl crush on Marnie.)

Homeland

Have you guys been watching Homeland? Alex and I are obsessed. The show follows a bipolar CIA agent (Claire Danes), who suspects that a rescued prisoner of war (Damian Lewis), who has just returned to the United States, has actually become a terrorist. It is SO TENSE. You're on the edge of your seat for the whole show.

We got the first season on DVD and have been glued to it every night for the past week. It’s funny when you have the dvds and can watch all the shows in a row, because it gets in your head. Usually when we go to bed, we talk about Toby or life or whatever, but now we get in bed and we’re like, "Oh my gosh! What do you think her deal is?!!! Who do you think was on the call?!!"

P.S. Claire Dane's cryface.

Yada, yada, yada

Our friend Nora stopped by last night, and Toby fell madly in love with her. They both wore plastic red fire hats, naturally, and Nora also pretended to fall down, which is always a hit around here. But the piece de résistance was when Nora was telling me a story and said, "Yada, yada, yada." Toby burst into hysterical laughter. What wit! What timing! What funny sounding words! He couldn't get over it.

The whole scene reminded me of this classic Seinfeld clip:)

Mindy Kaling on friendship

Did you guys watch The Mindy Project this week? I was laughing out loud through the entire episode. If you haven't yet seen it, sneak away from your desk and watch it right now.

New York Magazine wrote a profile on Mindy a while back, and this paragraph has stuck with me: "My relationship with my mom is really the single most profound relationship that I’ve ever had in my life," Mindy tells me...But her voice breaks when she starts talking about how she sat down with a pen and paper and asked her mother to give her all the advice she could possibly give her before she died, and Kaling realized she’d never be able to ask her mother for advice again. “I said to her, ‘Mom, I’m going to be so lonely without you.’” She’s crying now but keeps going. “And she just said, ‘You have to be your own best friend. If you always remember that, you will always have someone there with you.’”

P.S. Did you know that Mindy Kaling's real name is Vera Chokalingam?
P.P.S. Who's secretly in love with Danny Castellano?

Simpsons with real actors

Were you guys Simpsons fans? I never watched it growing up, but nowadays I'll see an random episode and it is totally hilarious. Well, here's the title sequence of the Simpsons, but done with real actors. Super clever, and the Bart actor is a great skateboarder!

(Via Kottke)

The Mindy Project: Sneak peek

Mindy Kaling's new sitcom—about a quirky doctor who's trying to figure out her messy dating life—premieres on September 25th. But, if you're impatient like we are, here's a tip: My sister just told me that you can watch the full first episode on Hulu! Right now! We both watched it and agreed it was hilarious.

P.S. Mindy Kaling as a child, and her thoughts on romantic comedies.

Seinfeld posters

Rinee Shah created nine Seinfeld posters, featuring the food eaten on the show. Do you remember all the episodes these prints reference?

P.S. The ocean called. They're running out of shrimp.
P.P.S. The zoo called. You're due back at six.
P.P.P.S. Your cranium called. It's renting out space.
P.P.P.P.S. The jerk store called. They're running out of you!

(Via VSL)