John Singer Sargent

Here is Sargent's El Jaleo which hangs in the wonderful Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

The lovely Madame X hangs in Susan's tip top supreme all star favorite place in the world, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Chupa Chups

Susan's got a favorite lollipop; Chupa Chups.

She can't always find them, so she stocks up when she does. 

Susan favors the slow release of sugar that hard candy provides & keeps a stash of suckables in the bottom of her bag, in her car, on her desk and in a back up bag locked in her drawer. She's happy to share, so come on by & maybe you'll score some little espresso candies, or Werther's hard caramels (nothing sticky for Susan's delicate dental situation) or mints with chocolate in the middle.

She doesn't generally share the Chupa Chups.

Walking Dead

The last zombie killed on Sunday night looked eerily like Susan's daughter.

Chipotle Peppers

Behold the object of Susan's undying adoration!

Tiger Lily Cafe

Susan and the daughter like this little vegetarian cafe so much that they willingly overlook the unfriendly counter help whenever they eat there.

Footnote: Earlier this year Wild Bill's daughter declared Susan's carrot-ginger soup "better than Tiger Lily's".

Milk!

SUSAN LOVES MILK but didn't appreciate when her mother would mix it with powdered milk, warm it on the stove & dump it over her cereal.
OMG, yuk mom.

HAPPY Thanksgiving

Scary Sounds Machine

Susan loves her scary sounds machine, press a button and you might hear a woman screaming, a bloke being strangled, a creaky casket lid, crashing thunder, a laughing lunatic, the psycho knife, a howling ghost...

Fresca

Susan's heart leaps for joy whenever she sees this in a vending machine.
Grapefruit soda is muy fresca!

Slaughterhouse Five

'Welcome aboard, Mr. Pilgrim,' said the loudspeaker.
'Any questions?'

Billy licked his lips, thought a while, inquired at last:
'Why me?'

'That is a very Earthling question to ask, Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?'

'Yes.' Billy, in fact, had a paperweight in his office which was a blob of polished amber with three lady-bugs embedded in it.

'Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.'

Stonehenge

Stonehenge is Susan's favorite surprisingly anticlimactic neolithic monument.

Twenty five years ago Susan and her little sister took a lovely side trip from London to visit Stonehenge.

They learned two interesting things that day; Stonehenge is set in the middle of rolling farmland and surrounded by sheep blueberries.

Thanks for coming and have a safe drive home!

Red Sweetie

Susan's palate leans toward cartoon penguins and twist off tops.

Unobstructed View of the Water

It's a real treat anytime Susan gets to go over the Robert Moses Bridge because for 2 miles she gets a clear view of the Great South Bay through every window.

There's also a set of black tire marks that she likes to look for which go from the left lane over to the right and bounce off the guard rail.

Stargazer

The Stargazer is Susan's favorite accessible six story sculpture which she's lucky enough to pass every time she goes out to visit Cousins Andy & Melissa.

Chili Cheese Dogs

Susan has no fear of eating a chili cheese dog purchased from a truck on the side of the road or from a carnival although hers never look this good.

Blood On The Tracks

Susan's been listening to this moody record since 1976.

This is Susan's newly discovered favorite silly painting by Roy Lichtenstein that was just auctioned for $43,202,500.

Isn't it fabulous?

Susan could absolutely imagine this hanging on her living room wall, making her smile every time she saw it. She'd set a line of chairs before it and invite friends over to sit and look. 

However, she thinks forty three million dollars is a bit much for a silly painting.

Susan would like to take a day off from her Nablopomo inspired favorites and catch up with her bloggy pals because she misses them, and she misses keeping them informed of the mundane minutiae of her life.

First, she'd like to send all her animal lovers over to Maggie's blog to read this post.

Next, she feels like she's on an ice floe floating toward the Department of Labor website. It appears that Susan's best is not cutting it at Acme Sweatshop.

Of late she has fantasized about being unemployed; greeting her medium-large sized children when they get home in the afternoon, working through all the recipes in her binder, throwing sticks in the yard for Lucy to fetch, reading a book, keeping the bathroom clean.

Anyway, she'll keep on keepin' on and see what happens.

Islip Art Museum

The Islip Art Museum is Susan's favorite little local, imaginative, always at the edge of being broke, hundred plus year old house which used to be an orphanage and is now a four room art museum.

Santa Clara Pottery

Susan fell in love with Santa Clara pottery while on her honeymoon.

The pottery is made from one long coil of clay which is wound into shape then smoothed over and carved. The designs are specific to the potter's family and reach back for generations. If Susan remembers correctly the clay starts out as red and turns black during the firing when the pot is placed in a pit and covered with dung.

Susan and the husband went to the Santa Clara pueblo in New Mexico and bought a pot from the person who made it. Afterwards they drove over to Abiquiu to see where Georgia O'Keeffe used to live but her house was surrounded by an adobe wall too high to even peek over. Instead, Susan settled for admiring the view that Miss O'Keeffe used to paint then left.

The BIG Duck

The Big Duck is Susan's favorite local example of novelty architecture.

Doctors Without Borders

One of Susan's favorite charities is Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). It provides independent, impartial assistance in more than 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters. These folks go out to help the neediest of the needy and sometimes get kidnapped or killed.

Please consider sending Doctors Without Borders some cash because they'll send you a BIG map of the world so you can finally see where everything is.

The Onion

The Onion is Susan's fave fake newspaper, but she doesn't like to read it online, she prefers to fold one up and put in her bag for later. Susan tries to score it anytime she's in NYC, sometimes that means giving a homeless guy five bucks for his.

Burberry Rain Boots

Susan favorite utilitarian footwear are her Burberry rain boots. They may start the day as part of a stylish outfit and end up slogging through the backyard while Susan picks up dog sh*t.
And when they are left out on the front steps all summer Susan just hoses out the spiders and beetles and sets them upside down to dry.

Livingetc

Susan has already received the December issue of her favorite magazine. It's BIG, glossy, colorful and filled with all sorts of ideas that Susan can replicate on the cheap.
The magazine is so much better than the website & she never has to hunt down her magazine then chase away whichever family member is using it.

Cousin Lisa

Susan's current favorite picture of Cousin Lisa and the husband.

The Old North Church

Susan's family loves Boston and Susan really loves the Old North Church.

Euphoria

Susan is a BIG fan of Calvin Klein fragrances, this is the one she's been wearing for almost two years.
She's very loyal to her smells.
Don't think that sniffing it at the perfume counter is going to be enough to pick up the smoky undertones. Give it a spritz and smell like Susan for the afternoon.

The Endurance

Do you know this story? OMG, it's fantastic and unbelievable and comes with pictures!

Read about the book here.

The Menaced Assassin

This is one of Susan's favorite paintings, you can see it at the MoMA, which is not really one of Susan's favorite museums although lots of people seem to love it.

Susan is going to fulfill the obligation to provide a post a day by revealing thirty of her favorite things. She's not quite sure of what they all will be, and they may be as simple as oatmeal, but she'll weed 'em out.

Day one is done.