Another Great Week: ‘Mad Men,’ Buttermilk Pie and More


Another Great Week / Saturday, June 29th, 2013
Cherry ice cream soda from Bobbie's Dairy Dip (Nashville)
Cherry ice cream soda from Bobbie’s Dairy Dip (Nashville)

Since summer can be long and hot, I’m starting a weekly list of the stories, TV shows, books, food, movies, music, etc., that have made me happy over the last seven days. Feel free to share yours, too!

In no particular order …

1. This story about a free gym that runs on random acts of kindness. Because people are awesome.

2. The Mad Men season finale. This season wasn’t the most fun to watch – I wish they’d skipped the whole “Bob Benson mystery” and just let us see Joan win the Avon account – but Don’s gut-wrenching pitch to Hershey’s (and everything that happened afterwards) brought the entire season together. Maybe next year, Peggy will have better taste in men. Girlfriend needs to aim higher.

3. Buttermilk Pie with Peaches and Cream. With most fruit pies, the fruit is in the filling, but at Husk Nashville, they have this sweet, creamy buttermilk pie with paper-thin peach slices piled on top. So good and summery.

4. Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” (feat. Pharrell). This track’s been out since April, but it just made it to my kitchen dance floor. “Let’s raise the bar and our cups to the stars.”

5. “17 Tiny Pigs with Unrealistic Life Goals.” Sometimes I look into the heart of the Internet, and it gives me exactly what I need.

6. Stephen King’s Under the Dome: A Novel. At 1,072 pages, this might be my summer reading list, but it’s way more fun than The Scarlet Letter.

7. Dave Chappelle. Did you laugh yourself sick watching Chappelle’s Show? Then you get why I was so psyched about seeing him at the Ryman. His comedy is a little more family- and relationship-oriented now, but he’s still got the goods.    

8. Continuum. I just finished this sci-fi series about Kiera Cameron, a police officer from 2077 who accidentally gets transported to 2012 with a group of escaping terrorists. It’s so much better than it should be. Season one is available on Netflix, so cue it up for a good old-fashioned binge-watch.

9. Hollywood Prospectus. Every time I listen to this entertainment podcast, I wish I could hang out with Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald. They’re funny, insightful and not too cool to get exited about things. Their June 18 show about Kanye West’s new album and “Mad Men” was epic.

10. Dogsters. Yep, I finally bought a box of these ice cream-style treats for Henry the Wonderdog, and they own him. Perfect for pups who pant like freight trains when the temp’s over 72 degrees F.

11. MAJOR SPOILERS: Game of Thrones’ “Red Wedding” (Storybook Edition). What if the narrator/grandpa from “The Princess Bride” started reading the bloody, ultra-violent story of the Red Wedding from GOTs? It’d look something like this:

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