secret of ancient manhood: how to carve a turkey

Before there was Martha Stewart, there was Martha Logan, a fictional expert a la Betty Crocker who "wrote" cookbooks for Swift & Company that were chock full of recipes encouraging meat consumption. She also starred in a few instructional videos, none so tantalizing as "Carving Magic" with Harvey Korman who challenges Bill Kerwin to a manly duel of knives. Of course, men in past generations didn't need to watch this, as they were born with the male carving gene, rare today as the sock garter. Happily, the film survives for our edification. Clueless knife-wielders of both sexes have a week to practice. (via Modern Retro Woman)

my job is a turkey, but i'm thankful for it

It's the day after the day after the day after Thanksgiving and like thousands of (younger) others in advertising, I already dread having to go back to the office. My kids are home from college (the one who was dropped on her head goes to Harvard) and I love waking up without an alarm and wonder (again) why I'm still in the business --but a glance at online tuition bills makes me remember. I've got a freelance gig that plenty of boomer colleagues would envy: I'm covering a maternity leave, so the job is certain to last for months. The sector is healthcare which is a creative ghetto for over-40's (ok, 50s) like me. But it's not really healthcare: the client I'm working for doesn't care about health, they care only about hawking their magic elixir. The unconscionable target is kids 18-29. I can't say more or I'll be in violation of agency confidentiality agreements. I'll only add that the client hopes the campaign I am working on will mean a bump in sales next year of at least $20 million. No wonder healthcare is the one category where ad spending isn't in downturn, the only category I work on where I still get my full dayrate.