california, here we come!

i'm sad to admit it, but i've finally become a hopeless fan of teen tv drama. one of my lovely roommates happens to own fox's hit show 'the o.c.' on dvd. the other roommate (who is equally fantastic) started watching the third season in our living room, and i happened to occupy the other half of the room...now i can't stop watching. we've made it all the way through the first season, and are now working on the second. throughout high school and the beginning of college, i was thoroughly convinced that it was a mindless show completely focused on clothes, sex, and money.

(for all you nay-sayers, it definitely is still about clothes, sex, and money).

even after just watching the pilot, however, i noticed something remarkable about the sassy little teen soap opera. the idealistic public defender, sandy cohen, living in newport beach, california, with his epic-rich wife (and epic-proportioned eyebrows), takes in a troubled teenager from chino (from the epic-wrong side of the tracks), ryan atwood. it doesn't make sense...sandy cohen is just a 'good person.'

i had a conversation today about the roots of good and evil. we talked for a while about theological theories, etc., but we got to a core issue. 'good' action happens when someone doesn't hesitate to serve others, at their own inconvenience. 'evil' action happens when someone pays no mind to the needs of others (i.e., julie cooper-nichol). of course, this leaves a big neutral space, one that could be the genesis of both 'good' and 'evil' action. discuss.

to end my philosophical musings for this week, i leave you with a snippet of woodie guthrie's "christ for president:"

every year we waste enough//to feed the ones who starve
we build our civilization up//and we shoot it down with wars

on a completely different note, mrs. t's pierogies are incredible. add a little salsa and sour cream, and they get even better.