An Incomplete Digest Of Programs That Will Be On TV This Weekend, In Alphabetical Order

by Laura Griffin

• “20/20: Remembrance and Renewal: 10 Years after the 9/11 Attacks” (ABC)
• “102 Minutes That Changed America” (History Channel)
• “9/11: 10 Years Later” (CBS)
• “9/11: America Remembers Ten Years Later: A Special Edition of Good Morning America” (ABC)
• “9/11: Day That Changed the World” (Smithsonian Channel)
• “9/11: Heroes of the 88th Floor” (TLC)
• “9/11: In Our Own Words” (MSNBC)
• “9/11: Rising Above” (NBC)
• “9/11: State of Emergency” (History Channel)
• “9/11: Stories in Fragment” (Smithsonian Channel)
• “9/11: Ten Years Later” (ReelzChannel)
• “9/11: The Days After” (History Channel)
• “9/11: Timeline of Terror” (Fox News)
• “9/11: Where Were You?” (National Geographic Channel)
• “A Nation Remembers: The Story of the Pentagon Memorial” (ABC)
• “America Remembers” (CBS)
• “America Remembers” (NBC)
• “American Greed: 9/11 Fraud” (CNBC)
• “Angels Among Us” (CMT)
• “Beyond 9/11: Portraits of Resilience” (CNN)
• “Beyond Bravery: The Women of 9/11” (CNN)
• “Beyond: Messages from 9/11” (BIO)
• “Children of 9/11” (NBC)
• “CIA Confidential: 9/11 Mastermind” (National Geographic Channel)
• “Clash of Civilizations” (Al Jazeera English)
• “Countdown to Ground Zero” (History Channel)
• “Day of Destruction — Decade of War” (MSNBC)
• “Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports: Terror in the Dust” (CNN)
• “Engineering Ground Zero” (PBS)
• “Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero” (PBS)
• “Flight 175: As the World Watched” (TLC)
• “Fox News Reporting: Freedom Rising” (Fox News)
• “Footnotes of 9/11” (CNN)
• “From the Ground Up” (OWN)
• “George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview” (National Geographic Channel)
• “Giuliani’s 9/11” (National Geographic Channel)
• “Hotel Ground Zero” (History Channel)
• “I Survived … 9/11” (BIO)
• “ID Investigates: 9/11 Crime Scene Investigations” (Investigation Discovery Channel)
• “In Memoriam: New York City, 9/11/01” (HBO)
• “Inside 9/11: War on America” (National Geographic Channel)
• “Inside 9/11: Zero Hour” (National Geographic Channel)
• “Justice in a Time of Terror” (CBS)
• “Making the 9/11 Memorial” (History Channel)
• “Miracle Detectives: Miracles of 9/11” (OWN)
• “Nine Innings from Ground Zero” (HBO)
• “Objects and Memory” (PBS)
• “On Native Soil” (MSNBC)
• “Portraits from Ground Zero” (A&E;)
• “Rebirth” (Showtime)
• “Reflections on 9/11: New York Mets Remember” (SportsNet NY)
• “Return to Shanksville” (WQED)
• “Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero” (Science Channel)
• “Targeting bin Laden” (History Channel)
• “The Concert for New York City: Ten Years Later” (VH1)
• “The Day the Towers Fell” (History Channel)
• “The Image War” (Al Jazeera English)
• “The Intelligence War” (Al Jazeera English)
• “The Liquid Bomb Plot” (National Geographic Channel)
• “The Love We Make” (Showtime)
• “The Man Who Knew” (PBS)
• “The Man Who Predicted 9/11” (History Channel)
• “The Miracle of Stairway B” (History Channel)
• “The Suze Orman Show: Money Lessons from 9/11” (CNBC)
• “The World Trade Center: Rise and Fall of an American Icon” (History Channel)
• “Top Secret America” (PBS)
• “Twins of the Twin Towers” (OWN)
• “Voices from Inside the Towers” (History Channel)
• “Voices of 9/11” (National Geographic Channel)
• “When Pop Culture Saved America” (BIO)
• “Witness: DC 9/11” (National Geographic Channel)

Laura Griffin works at Vanity Fair and produces Seven Second Delay on WFMU. You can follow her here, if you are so inclined: @lgriffin.

Your new sports-predicting animal is a sheep named Sonny Wool. [Previously]

The new-style-old-style chanteuse Lana Del Rey, who I think is really on to something but other people do not, has another video out.

I think this might be the most upbeat chat with Maurice Sendak that I’ve ever read.

Cheap, Cheerful Flowers For Your Next Party

by Emerson Beyer

Autumn is here. It’s time to finish that Campari and buy a bottle of Calvados for a new round of cocktails. Cookout weather is ending, and dinner-party season beginning — now is when cut flowers become most needed! But what if you only have time (or budget) to pick up a bouquet from the grocery store? You’ve surely stood in front of those refrigerator cases, sarcophagi of pastel tissue paper, baby’s breath and disappointment, your Martha Stewart fantasy shattered.

Steel yourself, dreamer! From this unpromising sight, you are going to make floral alchemy happen. For less than $20 — maybe even less than $10 — along with patience, some advice and the contents of your crisper drawer, you will be able to craft a centerpiece that makes guests feel so welcome that they will radically improve the quality of wine they bring over. In time for your weekend dinner party, here’s your step-by-step guide to making flower magic.

Step 1: Tidy up your home. If your space is in disarray, flowers will add to and not detract from the mess. Before you go flower shopping, throw away all the junk mail that has piled up. Clear everything from your table except linens and candles. Do the dishes, because you’re going to need an empty sink and some counter space.

Step 2: Shop frugally and conscientiously. Naturally, shopping at the farmer’s market is great, but it’s not convenient or affordable for everybody, and I’d love for you to make flowers an ongoing part of your life. On the other hand, shopping at the supermarket or bodega means you’re likely to find environmentally terrible flowers grown far away with loads of fertilizer and pesticide.

The simplest thing you can do to reduce your environmental impact (not just from flowers!) is to buy less. You don’t need a Volkswagen-sized arrangement in your cozy apartment. The bouquet in your hands may not look big, but that’s because you’re standing in Costco. Plus: these flowers are not going to hang around forever — this is not the place to make an investment.

The other important thing you can do — and this will benefit the environment, your wallet and the longevity of your arrangement — is to choose flower varieties carefully. At this time of year, lilies, mums, zinnias and sunflowers are low-impact, in season, and grown domestically. (Peonies and dahlias are easy on the environment but tend to be expensive.) Carnations are always in season, always cheap, environmentally okay, and can be very pretty if arranged thoughtfully. (In the spring, choose daffodils over tulips.)

I strongly advise against certain flowers. Cheap roses never last, because they are handled too roughly and not “hardened” properly. I can never make hydrangeas look good nor last more than a few days. Gladiolas signal death. Lilies actually cause death to household pets.

Step 3: Pick your palette. This is perhaps the key to pulling off cheap flowers: choose a single variety (a bright panoply of zinnias would look great) or a single color (yellow Peruvian lilies, button mums and anemones).

Here are the two palettes I chose to demonstrate. Total cost: $13.

Some flower snobs will say that you must never buy a bouquet already arranged. Listen, you are not going to plop this bouquet into a vase. You are going to take it apart and use its components. A bouquet can give you several varieties in reasonable quantities for the price of an overabundance of one thing; daisies, for example, always seem to come in regrettable bulk. A bouquet will also provide some greenery that may come in handy. Choose a bouquet that sticks to a narrow spectrum, and avoid any that feature “glamour” flowers like roses, because those may be disguising expired specimens.

Step 4: Accessorize! While shopping for flowers, you are probably surrounded by produce; grab some durable fruits or vegetables that coordinate with your flowers. Citrus fruits, hard squashes, apples, avocados, eggplants and Borlotti beans can complement your blossoms at minimal cost — and, unlike flowers, don’t have to go to waste. Coordinate colors or just add green. Avoid heavy-handed seasonal “themes” like sunflowers with pumpkins. Bright green poms (a kind of chrysanthemum) with Granny Smith apples may be a less clichéd vision of autumn. For this demonstration, I spent $6 on pears, onions and nuts.

Step 5: Containment. Think small. Think narrow. These qualities will help you keep your flower arrangement under control. Many floral containers are seductive when empty but devilishly hard to use: anything shaped like a trumpet or bucket, say. A jar with “shoulders” (think applesauce or pickles) is perfect. A straight-sided or bubble-shaped bud vase can hold a handful of flowers, not only a single, forlorn blossom. Instead of fitting all your flowers into one container, use a few small, mismatched items as containers.

Fill the container(s) 3/4 of the way with cool water. Use half of the little flower-food packet that came with the flowers, and save the other half for later.

Step 6: Cutting. You’ve probably heard it stated that flower stems must be cut at an angle with a sharp knife under water. In my experience, there is no harm in cutting the stems with ordinary scissors under a running faucet. Indeed, there is one enormous advantage to this technique, which is that it is easy, and this ease will encourage you to have more flowers in your life.

The easier way. The “correct” way.

Before cutting anything, pluck most of the leaves from the stem — all but those nearest to the flower. Leaves make the vase water icky and the arrangement noisome. Ultimately, you want no leaves below the water level. Be thorough, but be careful not to brutalize the stem in the process.

As a general rule, you want only the blossom and an inch or so of stem to reach above the lip of the container. If it’s too tall, keep snipping. Test and snip, test and snip. Don’t be timid! If your trimming results in leaves below the water line, pluck those leaves. Most people are too cautious about cutting, and as a result their flower arrangements look sparse and weedy. Next time you see a shabby centerpiece at a party, take note of the stem length; chances are this is a store-bought bouquet that has not been aggressively trimmed.

Don’t do this.

Step 7: Presentation and maintenance. Now comes the easy part, just put everything together on your table. Having a tray like this one wouldn’t hurt, but it’s not necessary. If you have a small, healthy houseplant, add it to the scene. Every few days when you see the water get cloudy, remove the flowers, thoroughly clean the containers, rinse the stems and trim another 1/4 inch.

If several flowers have wilted, consolidate the survivors to one smaller container. Most arrangements can be made to last two weeks or longer.

Final Reminders
Important:
• No leaves below the water line.
• Use a clean container.
• No lilies if you have pets.
• Shorten stems aggressively.

Unimportant:
• Cutting stems at an angle with a sharp knife.
• Making the cut underwater.

K. Emerson Beyer, environmentalist and gadabout, lives in Durham, N.C. and tweets as @patebrisee.

by Awl Sponsors

This post is sponsored by NBC’s “The Playboy Club”.

As we reach the close of T.V.’s summer dry spell, we see a (red) light: Brian Grazer and Chad Hodge’s The Playboy Club, premiering Monday, September 19 on NBC.

Certainly there’ll be lots to see right up front every Monday at 10/9c, thanks to the tight-fitting, bosom-enhancing bunny costumes. But prudes shouldn’t judge the entire series based on costume design alone. Set in the legendary 1960s Chicago club against a backdrop of the sexual revolution, civil rights, women’s lib and some of the biggest names in mobster history, the TV drama offers more than meets the eye (candy), although show stars Amber Heard and Eddie Cibrian are certainly sweet.

Dark secrets. Dubious pasts. Grandiose ambitions. Murder, sex, power, and scandal: viewers will get all of this and more, as the provocative new show pushes boundaries like the iconic establishment for which it’s named. You might even find yourself identifying with the bunnies on a deep human level, understanding their motivations as more than just the superficial stashing of cash or the snagging of a rich boyfriend, husband or playmate.

The American cultural landscape was forever changed by Hugh Hefner’s empire, and the show gives us just a glimpse (though a totally satisfying one, to be sure) into an era when the sexy bunny outfit didn’t represent smut — when it was the most sought-after status symbol of its time.

Grab a sneak peak of The Playboy Club trailer at http://www.nbc.com/the-playboy-club/.

“The Playboy Club” premieres Monday September 19 at 10/9c on NBC.

Awl pal Paige Ferrari takes a look at Japanese divorce ceremonies.

OMG this is so adorable! Ann Curry thinks she’s people!

From the Dept. of Half Measures: “British health officials said Thursday that they would lift a ban on gay men donating blood, as long as their last sexual contact with another man was more than a year earlier.” Who would want your sad blood anyway, homo that can’t get any? I bet the line’s out the door at the blood bank. “Oh yeah, hi everyone, no one will get gay with me, but at least I can help some hemophiliac children.”

by Abe Sauer