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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Terry Karney's LiveJournal:
| Saturday, December 19th, 2009 | |
| 8:48 am | Food Porn, on the way to work Hannukah is just wrapping up. Les asked if I was going to make any fried food goodness, I said sure. But Les is a Type II diabetic, and doesn't do things with a high glycemic index, so latkes were right out. But I am a clever monkey (when I am not being a silly booby), and figured I could work around it. Take some zucchini (I used 2 1/2 6"x1 1/4"), grate fine: Lightly salt them and set to drain. Chop small about 1/5th of a medium onion (I used a bermuda) Mix one egg, some pepper and enough flour (I used a white whole wheat) to make a thick batter. [for larger amounts of zucchini, add more eggs, and keep aiming for thick batter). Squeeze the shredded zucchini (the water will be a vivid, almost flourescent green, you can save it to make zucchini bread if you are possessed of enough zucchini, then again, if you are possessed of that many zucchini, you probably don't need to save the water; add it to some stock in instead). Get about 1/4 inch of oil hot in a skillet Add the squeezed zucchini to the battter. It will still be pretty wet, so add a bit more flour until it acts about like pancake battter. Ladle a about 1/3rd (if you make a larger batch, one good ladle full is about right). The oil should sizzle, but not spatter. Let it sit until the edge at the top of the oil is a bit brown, turn. When the other side is done, remove to a plate. Serve with sour cream, applesauce, madras lentil (which is what we had on the side, as well as tomato/roasted pepper soup and an indian dish with chickpeas, of which I forget the name. The not-latkes were the only things which didn't come from a packet. Tj's is my friend). We tried some with a kalmata purée, and that was good too. |
| Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 | |
| 9:54 pm | willysnout more than just an asshole, he's an idiot too. First, he wasn't paying attention when I said, "don't try to tell me he must have, "provoked them," in my post about Peter Watt's arrest Nope, willysnout (possessed of a blank Lj, and a link to non-existent "political blog" had the temerity to say, “ Watts is an asshole. He had it coming. He's lucky they didn't break his arm. I would have. He was stopped at the border for a screening. He decided to be a pissant about it. Tough shit, Peter." Which is so wrong, on so many levels. 1: Unsupported we are treated to willy's idea that Peter Watts is an asshole. Me, I don't know them man, but a lot of people I do know have said he's not. That he's a decent guy. willy has no standing with me, and offers no support for his position. 2: No one, "had it coming" in that way. Cops are supposed to be better than that. We spend a lot of money, putatively, training them to deal with just the sort of thing willy is saying causes one to deserve to be beaten, arrested, deprived of property (what relevance as evidence in a charge of "resisting arrest/assaulting an officer" does the entire contents of the car have?) and kicked out into a winter storm in the dark of night; in one's shirtsleeves. In willy's world, a "pissant" deserves a royal beatdown. Why? I don't know; I suppose to keep other people from questioning authority. Ok, so we have seen willy to be an asshole. Why do I say he's an idiot as well? Because I looked at his profile. Someone made the observation that I'm a liberal. Here's my answer. "Liberal" and "conservative" are relative terms. I really don't think my own political views have changed very much. I considered myself "moderate" after college and up through the 1990s, but then Bush and the Republicans took a hard right turn so now I'd have to say I put myself in the "liberal" category. When I was younger, even the Republicans were pro-choice and in favor of equality for women, and you didn't have this religious wacko wing that went after homos and abortion the way they do now. So he's a liberal, because the folks who elected Bush, and the things Bush did, mean he's not a moderate anymore. The next paragraph shows he doesn't really understand the history of the party he's saying, "took a hard right turn." The Republicans of my youth wouldn't have dared to try and steal Social Security or bust labor unions the way they do now, and the level of outright corporate theft these days is amazing. I don't know what he's smoking, but I'm torn between wanting him to share, and thinking it needs to be banned. The Republicans of his youth wouldn't have busted labor unions? They wouldn't have gone after Social Security? They wouldn't have connived (even with a bit of willful blindness) at the levels of corporate theft? How old is he? Because I remember when air-traffic controllers had a union. I remember when the Savings and Loan industry went belly-up (and how McCain managed to avoid being put to pasture by leaving the House for the Senate). Then we have this little gem: What bothers me more than any of that, are the following two things:... Second, the officially-sanctioned use of torture. I am aware that bad things happen in war, but I think the U.S. lost the Iraq War the day the leaders ordered torture. When they did that, they broke faith not only with everything we stand for, but with the military past, present and future. Which is it willy? Torture is bad, or pissants deserve to have their arms broken? Is it only military abuses of people you dislike, and border guards doing such things is fine? Enquiring minds want to know the difference between the tortures you hate, and the ones you think are ok. I admit, I think people who self-identify as, "libertarian" are confused, but the last line in his profile seems to sum him up pretty well, "If you add up my politics, I think I'd be better classified as one-third populist, one-third progressive, one-third traditional "mind-your-own-fucking-business" libertarian and entirely one vindictive son of a bitch. There are a lot of people who need to be slapped down hard,... And we can see just who it is he thinks really needs that, what sort of person deserves his vindictiveness; the sort who asks cops why they are intruding into our business. Idiot, and asshole. |
| Saturday, December 12th, 2009 | |
| 12:11 am | Auld Lang Syne My second stepfather died this week. If I am doing the math right he was 57. There's no need to offer me condolence. I'll take it as read. Sadly the news wasn't a surprise, though it was a shock. He had diabetes, and had the misfortune to have chosen a good field; for the late '70s. Problem was, by the mid-nineties, there weren't so many mainframe computer systems for him to operate. So he was unemployed. Had to move in with his sister for a few years. I don't want to make this political, but part of the reason he's dead at 53 is that being black isn't the best thing for one's health in the US. I lived with him from 11 to 15. Formative years. Some of who I am, how I look at things, are things he taught me. He thought I was too quiet, a bit too meek. We lived in a less than swell part of town. He thought I moved like a target. I don't know how much of the way I am not seen as a target is because of his telling me I had to keep my eyes up, and my head on a swivel. I do know that when I was in college, and a black kid tried to intimdate me at a party it didn't go the way he expected it to. Yeah, it was a white part of town, and I am a slightly built guy, but his being black didn't matter to me. That I wasn't scared of him hung him up, and the fight he wanted to start didn't happen; which caused him to leave the party. On a lark Ken and another friend decided to go get steak tartare one evening. So they got dressed up enough to be let into the sorts of place which serve it. They would ask the maître d' if the place served steak tartare. They then asked if they could get it well done. It wasn't until something like the eighth one that the maître d' looked at them and said, "If Messieurs desire their steak well done, they shall have it well done." They said it was the best burger they'd ever had, and worth not justevery penny, but the trouble they spent on it. I saw him last about a year ago. We had a good catching up. He was, in a quiet way, proud of me; I could list worse accomplishments. Current Mood: reflective |
| Friday, December 11th, 2009 | |
| 10:16 am | Root and branch Someone asked me why, since Bush is out of office, I'm still riding the torture hobby-horse. I'm doing it because it still needs doing, because evil practices don't just wither away, they have to be torn out, root and branch; and the best time to get that done is when you have someone sympathetic to your desires in office (that's how the peple who like torture, and all the other trappings of police state the Bush Administration installed did it). Which is why shit like the US Border Agents pulling someone out of a car and, by all reports, beating him, pepper spraying him, arresting him and then charging him with assualting a federal officer. This is the report that went out: Peter, a Canadian citizen, was on his way back to Canada after helping a friend move house to Nebraska over the weekend. He was stopped at the border crossing at Port Huron, Michigan by U.S. border police for a search of his rental vehicle. When Peter got out of the car and questioned the nature of the search, the gang of border guards subjected him to a beating, restrained him and pepper sprayed him. At the end of it, local police laid a felony charge of assault against a federal officer against Peter. On Wednesday, he posted bond and walked across the border to Canada in shirtsleeves (he was released by Port Huron officials with his car and possessions locked in impound, into a winter storm that evening). He's home safe. For now. But he has to go back to Michigan to face the charge brought against him. That's the DHS, in all its twisted glory. Why were they searching a vehicle going out of the country? What probable cause did they have? Why the overreaction (and don't try to tell me he must have, "provoked them." Contempt of cop is often less than smart; not because it's illegal, but because cops have the power to do shit like this, and then file CYA charges like these). Read the last bit again, describing his release, On Wednesday, he posted bond and walked across the border to Canada in shirtsleeves. Weds, the 8th of December, walked, in his fucking shirtsleeves. I don't care if he did do it (which, from people I trust seems damned unlikely, to the point of non-credible), that's criminal behavior. The weather there today (1300, warmest part of the day) is 18F/-8C. He was released in the middle of the night. What did he do? I don't know. I'd guess he asked them what they were doing. He may not have been adequately deferential. He's tall. That's probably all it took. The cop felt nervous, and went off. No, I don't have all the "facts". Rather what I have is a good understanding of cops, and a serious lack of faith in the honesty of DHS, and the organisations it swallowed. This one is getting a fair bit of play. That's good for Peter, but what of all the other people, the one's who don't have a lot of people (and friends of those people, like me) willing, or able, to make a stink? If we assume, arguendo, that (irrespective of how it ended) what started this was an honest query about the legitimacy of the search, then this is a time to stand up and be counted; because Peter Watts did. Someone has to have the courage to look authority in the eye and challenge it. To force the powers that are to justify themselves. We like ot say we have a system where the people who are in charge are answerable to the people they are governing. That only works when the governed refuse to act like sheep. He has a legal defense fund. If you were considering buying a calendar, want to buy a photo, or even just thinking of sending me a little lagniappe (and I know a lot more of that sort of thing is thought about then done), don't, send the money Peter's way. There's a donaton link on his website to The Niblets Memorial Fund, for the moment that's the working method to get money to him (because coming back to the states to defend himself isn't going to be cheap). For other links (with more detail) Dr. Peter Watts Arrested (Boing Boing) Please, Please Help (Emma Bull) Peter Watts, distinguished Canadian SF writer, arrested by US border police while trying to re-enter Canada (Making Light) (UPDATE: I do have his version of events: In an alternate universe Along some other timeline, I did not get out of the car to ask what was going on. I did not repeat that question when refused an answer and told to get back into the vehicle. In that other timeline I was not punched in the face, pepper-sprayed, shit-kicked, handcuffed, thrown wet and half-naked into a holding cell for three fucking hours, thrown into an even colder jail cell overnight, arraigned, and charged with assaulting a federal officer, all without access to legal representation (although they did try to get me to waive my Miranda rights. Twice.). Nor was I finally dumped across the border in shirtsleeves: computer seized, flash drive confiscated, even my fucking paper notepad withheld until they could find someone among their number literate enough to distinguish between handwritten notes on story ideas and, I suppose, nefarious terrorist plots. I was not left without my jacket in the face of Ontario’s first winter storm, after all buses and intercity shuttles had shut down for the night. In some other universe I am warm and content and not looking at spending two years in jail for the crime of having been punched in the face. Current Mood: Furious Current Music: La Marseillaise, Don't get fooled again |
| Friday, December 4th, 2009 | |
| 4:02 pm | It's her birthday and ![[info - personal]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small} commodorified asked me to give her a post. Since she's wonderful, and I like making her happy, I am doing so.Because she encouraged me to play with B&W treatments of the jellyfish, and I woke up in the middle of the night to work on some more of them, I'm going to post about them. This is the first version I did of this shot (I've done four to date). Lacework  It's a pretty straightforward job. I didn't do anthing but adjust the exposure a bit (it was a little dark, and slightly buddy) and sharpen it. It was ok, but from looking at the prints I pulled from Three Musketeers and, Trailing Jelly I knew this wasn't going to look as good as it could on paper. [I took a 10.5 x 16 print of Three Musketeers with me today, matted and in a thin white frame is lookes really good. Since I did about as well as I expected {if not as well as I hoped}, i.e. I came home with everything I brought to the show, I can offer it to anyone who is interested, at a swell price. A one off printing, as I didn't save the file as printed. Trailing Jelly also printed well enough, but it's not got quite the "pop", and is unframed] So I fiddled with it. Lacework II  It's a lot better, and will be much better on paper. I upped the saturation, and luminosity on the flesh, and sharpened it a bit more, so the frills are more defined. But playing with the previous photos, and looking at this: Three Musketeers B&W GF M  I thought I could get some really nice things out of the details in the body of this one. Lacework II IR  It's really nice. As to the arts and crafts fair today, it was interesting, if it had its depressing moments. I had four framed prints, six mounted prints, two calendars, and about fifty unmounted prints. The framed prints were priced fairly (and two of them at the low end). The matted prints were priced low (from 50-95 dollars) and the unmounted prints were forty dollars (8x10) and 75 (11 x 17). I suspect the folk shopping just weren't planning to spend that. I, mostly, got a quick pass with the eyes, and then they moved on. A few people said they were pretty; a number asked if I'd taken them (the mind boggles. It was an arts and crafts fair. Yes, there were people there who weren't actually selling things they'd made, but photos?). One woman was desisive of the price, "I take it 75 means 75 dollars (as she was holding a print, about 5x8, of a Lava Gull, taken in Galapagos, double matted (color) and sleeved. Archival, and ready to frame). I said yes, and she sort of twitched her wrist and said, "For this?" before puttig it down and looking at nothing else. The other artists were nice folks. The lady selling her mother's handbags (handmade, and well constructed; good sizes and interesting fabrics), the potter; who also does a lot of bugs and flowers, the woman with the book she did of all 17 species of penguin. It took her to four continents, and a couple of years, but she got them all; they were great to talk to. And, as one of the jewelers said, "If nothing sells, the tables were free, and we got lunch." I've spent worse days, and there were some lessons learned for the next time I do such a thing. It was time well spent, and I didn't leave empty handed. |
| Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 | |
| 9:11 pm | Announcements, mostly for locals First, for those who are able to make it, I'll be taking part in the Arts and Crafts Fair at Fenwick and West in Mountain View this coming Friday, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. I'll have framed prints, matted prints, unframed prints, and portfolios to look at. I'd be happy just to have people show up, but I can also take orders for prints (plain, mounted, or mounted and framed), and cards. I'll have samples of three of the calendars. For anyone interested in taking a knife skills class from/with me, I'll be teaching on in Palo Alto on the 27th (the Sunday after Christmas). The class starts at noon. As an incentive, you get a 15 percent discount in the store, that day, and a 10 percent discount for the week thereafter; on everything except electronics. If you want, I'll be glad to let you fondle the knives in the display case afterwards. The class is hands on, and (though it seems hard to credit) comes with snacks (cheese plate and wine before; chips and (very) freshly made salsa afterwards. It's $59, and will last 1 1/2 to two hours. I'll cover care and feeding of your knives, proper grip (of knife and food), and how to work vegetables (some of which applies to meats too), so you can have curried veggies, not curried fingertips. If you can't make it to that one, I expect to be teaching another one on the 24th of January. |
| 7:24 pm | Some food A few days ago CG said she wanted sardines, but the weather has been such the sardine boats haven't been going out. So I punted. Last night I tried it again, it's a pilaf. Saffron rice (take some saffron, grind it to powder, and add it to the water. Add a bit more salt than you usually would, because the saffron masks it). About 1/3rd as much wild rice. A goodly quantity of chives, cut to about 1/3rd of an inch (or a smaller cut of scallion tops). Some chanterelle, trumpet, or other firm fleshed, mildly nutty mushroom, chopped small; sauteéed in truffle oil (again, use more than you think. The mushroom is carrying the truffle oil, which will be semi-discreet, as a flavor. Large scallops. (about 1/4 lb, per person). Prepare the rices (the wild rice will take about twice the time of the white: I used basmati, jasmine will work too, you want a fluffy rice for this). While the wild rice is starting, sauteée the mushrooms (if you don't have, or don't like, truffle oil, butter works well too, let it brown, just a bit, and then do the mushrooms), until they are slightly soft. In a heavy pan/skillet (I use a 10", cast iron, griddle), sauteée the scallops. A bit of oil, a hot pan and some patience. Let them brown, they may start to contract and threaten to shred, turn them and get a nice color on all sides. Let them rest, as you stir the chives, the rices, and the mushrooms together. Cut the scallops into small bites, they should have three colors. Brown on the edges, a ring of white inside that, and the rest a semi-translucent pinkish-whitish color. Serve with pepper. It goes well with a gewurtz, a sauvignon blanc, or a moderately hoppy beer (the Sierra Nevada Wet Hopped is very good with it). The contrasting textures (smooth rice, chewy wild rice), and counterpointing flavors (the mushrooms, will contrast either the rice [if you use truffle oil), or the scallops (if you use a bit of brown butter) and the chives give a bit of bite), make it a really impressive dish. And it's pretty, as only a pilaf, or biryani can be. |
| Monday, November 30th, 2009 | |
| 11:41 am | A couple of captives One of the things I failed to do while I was stationed at DLI (learning Russsian) was to visit the aquarium. It was so close, and there was going to be time, and... the time ran out and it stopped being so close. I wish, having seen it now, that I had memories to compare. But I do have some photos (though the light was poor that day; so the fish shots are, at best, sort of flabby). The first was, mostly, easy. The shutter speeds are a bit slow, and a tripod would have helped, but one makes do. Three Musketeers  The second was, as with so many interesting shots, a matter of happenstance (no, that's not a good setup, luck favors the prepared mind. I was having damn all luck closer to the tank, and tried it a bit further back. Twenty years ago, I probably wouldn't have made the attempt). The happenstance is how the hand and the eye are in just the right place. I really like the sense of interaction. Different Worlds  There are a few more up, and more to come. Perhaps I will, in the class break, make some time to get caught up. |
| Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 | |
| 7:25 pm | Back in the saddle again Today I taught my first class in more than a year (unless one counts my presentations on interrogation as classes). Two people got a demo on how to carve fowl, and a quick touch on how to maintain/use knives. They didn't get to do any hands on; and there was damn all for publicity, but it was a class. It was also a chance for me to look good, because it was without planning, and I did it on really short notice (I got an e-mail on Monday, saying corporate wanted to have such a thing; could I do it). It was fun, even if it meant my week got even more hectic than it already is. |
| Monday, November 23rd, 2009 | |
| 10:18 pm | Me, on the radio For any of you who want to hear me in a radio interview (which I thought was decent, but not great... I had to do a lot of making sure his assumptions/ideas didn't end up appearing to be mine), can download a zipfile of it here Terry Karney on KRXA AM540 |
| Saturday, November 21st, 2009 | |
| 9:37 pm | |
| Monday, November 16th, 2009 | |
| 11:03 am | On playing a role I was invited to a "mystery party". The sort where someone gets murdered and one of the guests did it. The theme was English country life, between the wars (think Christie, Sayers, and Wodehouse). The hosts didn't know me, and I was cast in a "moderate" role; the family chef; a french cook. I borrowed a whites jacket from the head of culinary, rolled my knives up, grabbed a waterstone, packed some spices and CG and I bought the needed ingredients for some vegetable dishes, and a veggie stock. When we got there I asked how free I could make myself with the kitchen (appointed with a 6-burner Viking range, with some workspace to the sides; the "galley way" between the wraparound sink/cabinitry. The ovens (dual full-sheets) were opposite the island. Not the best production arrangement; good for baking, but a lot of walking around to get to the ovens if one is making roasts/cassoulets/custards/puddings, etc. and and doing stovetop work; this would be obivated somewhat if one had a staff). I was told to make as free as I wanted. So I pulled out a stock pot and set to work. It was great. The veggies made the place smell as though it were a working kitchen, the knife sharpening (mostly of the host's knives. They were in good shape, but almost no one maintains as well as they might, and very few people [even those who hone regularly] get knives sharpened) got people's eye (I didn't know if the murder was going to be by knife; all I knew, about the killing, was I didn't do it), and filled the time when I wasn't sticking my nose in the pot, slicing veggies, or pounding spices. Because I also figured I could make a pot of chocolate to close the evening with. So I brought a about 3 cups of cream to make ganache. I was well into that (I'd put a pint in, had sherried and sugared it, was pounding pepper and allspice when I realised there was no milk. I'd not bought any... d'oh. Someone ran out for some). So I make some cucumber slices, with black pepper and a balsalmic drizzle. Sliced a multicolored plate of tomatoes (yellow, red, green) and minced some shallots (needed salt), dipped a couple of strawberries in the ganache to share with the rest of the "below stairs" staff, ranted about the low diet the lord of the manor's doctor prescribed (la nouritture des l'apins... he would not have a man die of old age, but kill him with malaise!," etc.), and dropped in snide asides about various people bragging up England or the States. Praised some British Cooking (the meat pies, the steamed puddings), mocked the Americans (they have boiled dinners, and fried meats, everything else they borrow (I wanted a copy of Fer de Lance to lay on a counter, but the copy I have wasn't quite the thing for a prop), and generally played it semi-straight. At the very last I decided to toss a splash of Guinness into the cocoa. It worked. The sherry and vanilla carried the allspice to the pepper (mild, the pot never gt hot enough to make the pepper bitter and I didn't use much more than 3/4 tbsp), which had a nice hint of bite. The Guinness gave it an earthy, sort of mushroom note. I don't think, however it would work a pot of less than a half gallon of chocolate. I used about an oz. It was a very good evening, and I was able to leave a kitchen in good order; clean pots (I used two; one for the stock, and then the cocoa, one for the ganache), and all the mugs in the dishwasher. Counters wiped, and everything packed away, with about a half gallon of vegetable stock left behind in the fridge. |
| Sunday, November 15th, 2009 | |
| 11:17 pm | The more things change Much of what I did in the Army was teach. If it wasn't formal classes (MOS acquisition, etc.) it was, "hip-pocket training", or things at the local level. A lot of what I do online is teach. The seminars I've been speaking at (which includes the one in Monterey this next Saturday) is teaching. And, it seems, I'm about to start teaching at work. Sur la Table is two companies, one is retail sales of cookware, one is hands on classes. I am scheduled to teach a basic knife skills class on 29 Nov. (The November Calendar shows the sorts of things we teach). That's the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It's just what it says, basic. How to hold a knife, how to perform basic maintenance on it; perhaps some of the differences between styles. It will also be basic cuts; vegetables, no meats; that's intermediate. How to julienne, how to dice; the difference between mirepoix and bruinoise. How to cut onions (which will touch on some of the other things onions are goood for). How to most easily do bell peppers (and how to deal with hot peppers). We'll start a stock, and make a salsa cruda. It's the cheapest course we have ($59), and you get a discount on anything you buy (IIRC it's 20 percent on most things, and 10 percent on electronics), which includes cutlery. There are seats available. Right now there is one person in the class, and two people (Les, and CG) planning to enroll. Which, sadly, isn't enough to (quite) guarantee the class will go on. If it's not filled by Weds (because of the holiday), it will be cancelled. So, if you have any interest; and are going to be in the Bay Area, this would be a good time to take a class, you can even enroll on line. |
| Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 | |
| 11:39 am | And now for something not so very different. A small retrospective, in pictures. I'll post a few, and cut the rest. None of these are new, but I don't think I've posted all of them.  Guys I was in Scotland with, Brits, and Canadians.  Humping the hills.  Per-Eric Estjes, talking shop in Ukraine. His last hurrah.  Far, far from home. ( The ) |
| 11:00 am | 11.11.09 It's been 91 years since 11 Nov. became a date of fame. It's been 95 since the start of the reason that date became so known, to so much of the world. In the States we've made it into, "Veterans' Day", which appalls me. We have a tradition of that. Memorial Day was originally to recall the dead of the US Civil War. Which is what so galls me about the change in this day. It wasn't about us. It's not about the veterans, not the living, not the dead. Not the famous ones, like Roger Young, nor the lesser known like Michael Vega or even the mytholgised, like Willie McBride. It's about life, and death and the birth of hope. War, I suspect, like poverty will be always with us, but for a brief chunk of time a huge part of the world thought they might manage to keep alive the horror of this war, to prevent the horror of another one. Go to Google Canada and be reminded that this isn't a US holiday. Sunday in Britain they had two minutes of silence, broadcast from The Cenotaph; in Canada they do much the same today. Yes, they have incorporated all the dead, of all their wars, but the poppies on the field, and in the lapels, and on Google.ca today all point to that moment, the moment in 1918 when the guns fell silent, when men could again rise up from the mud of their giant living grave and look to each other as people, not targets. My campus, where I am writing this, has lots of hummocks, where the spoil from flattening the hill to put classrooms has been heaped. I can look from the first one I come to when I am done mounting the steps to the top, and see to the one before the library buiding I am in now. It's about 200 yards; which is about the furthest the front lines were. It's the space across, "no man's land". The gap which millions of men failed to cross, in more than 4 years of killing and dying, 200 bloody yards. The little hillocks make it more real than any attempt I've tried in the past. Seeing it as rolling ground, limited in sight by buildings, and isolated from expanse by virtue of no more land than the 1/2 mile of the hilltop keeps the far distance from making the battlefields of Verdun, the Somme, Belleau Wood, Passchendaele, Gallipoli, and all the lesser names, known but to those who lived in them, unreal. 600,000 men died in the fight to get across the Somme battlefield. I look across 200 yards and I can't imagine 20,000, much less that 20,000; British, died in the first day. And we've lost that. We make it about, "veterans", which perverts it twice. Not only does it lose the sense of hope and remembrance which was meant when we declared a holiday to remember the Armistice, it also shifts the focus to living people. I can go to Applebee's and get a free lunch, or to Knott's Berry Farm and get in for free. Big Whoop. It's not about me. It's about not needing to sing this again. |
| Monday, November 9th, 2009 | |
| 8:51 pm | Work So, I have been remiss. Until Wednsday there is a "friends and family" sale for my work (Sur la Table). There is an online code. I don't know if it requires my name to use. If you are interested, let me know. I'll be at work (Embarcadero and El Camino Real) from 0900-1400 tomorrow, and (if you get word to me before I leave, or call the shop) I can probably be persuaded to stay. |
| Saturday, November 7th, 2009 | |
| 10:07 pm | Writer's Block: Forgive and forget? Situational. The longest grudge I'm presently holding is about 10 years old, and barring the other person's death not likely to go away. But that's because it takes a lot to get me to have a grudge; once it's in place, it takes work to remove (and since that person thinks I am evil incarnate on the face of the earth, I suspect it's not going to happen). Lesser grudges attentuate, but the end result depends on the nature of the relationship as to whether it was a serious one. If it was a serious one (ideally of some time) I'll probably get over it, but it may take time. I won't be nasty, or rude, but I won't be very trusting, and am likely to be a bit distant. |
| Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 | |
| 9:57 pm | Ye gods and little fishes A couple of weeks ago CG decided she wanted fish for supper. Specifically she wanted something high in Omega 3 fatty acids. Salmon is top of the mark, but I don’t care for it cooked (link to old post). Doing some research we found sardines are pretty good too. Like mushrooms I’ve always thought I should like more of them then I do. Reading accounts of people eating (say Preserved Killick frying up pan after pan of fresh flying fish, or mackerels, etc.) makes me drool, but the real thing, not so much). We decided to be adventurous and began to call around for fresh sardines. Sardines because I like mackerel, and because I’ve used them (and more generic kippers) in the making of (insert post about sandwich) No place had them. The only recommendations we got were for places in San Francisco. Feh. In the course of a rainy day we decided the hell with it (because the mackerel we found in various parts of the search, was all frozen), and swung by Whole Foods to get a steak. Lo, and Behold, they had fresh sardines. The fishmonger was amused at our description of the search, telling us they get 20 lbs of them everyday from Monterey (which fishery the proximity of had caused me to think finding fresh sardines would be almost trivial). When she found we’d never had one, she gave us the one we’d asked for as a lagniappe. I took it to her house, taught her how to gut/clean/butterfly them and tossed it in a pan, with a bit of olive oil. The three of us thought it was a swell idea. The meat was firm, with a bit of the tooth one gets from good canned tuna. The browned bits (esp. near the tail, where the flesh was more done) were sweet, and crunchy. But one wasn’t enough. So CG found a Moroccan recipe, basically a condiment (parsley, onions, garlic, cumin, lemon juice, paprika) which was to be used as the filling in a “sandwich”. We headed back to Whole Foods, and thanked the fishmonger for the sardine. She and I talked about gutting/filleting. Because of the issues of time/volume (it’s about 6 sardines to a lb) they will gut, and remove the heads and tails, but boning is left to the buyer. I told her it was easy, remove the head, and tail, flop the cleaned fish open, and place the heel of a knife beneath the spine (at the tail end), slide a bit toward the head (so at least one, two is better, vertebra is on the blade), pinch the spine to the knife, and lift. Me, I do it with my fingers, pinching the spine and then lifting. The dorsal spines will want to be peeled out, which may give you two fillets, or they can be ignored; providing a small bit of crunch. She seemed to be taking a long time to clean 6 fish (I was being lazy, which is how we got to the conversation on filleting sardines), and brought out 6 butterflied fish. She said she had the time, so she’d felt like trying it. She agreed, it is easy. They were a bit of a disappointment. The garnish was too pungent for the fish. I reduced the cumin, and the paprika, and it was still very forward. Sardines, contrary to general expectation/understanding, are not really strongly flavored, poorly canned ones are as strong as they get, and they are still pleasant spread on toast with a bit of butter. Tonight we try it again. This time closer to the first time. Butterflied fish, pan-fried in olive oil, and dressed with caper butter. A side salad (romaine, tomatoes, english cucumbers and minced shallots, asparagus; pan fried in bacon fat), Rice and a gewürtzraminer. For everyone else I tossed the asparagus with the crispy bacon from rendering fresh fat for the asparagus. Me, I was feeling the need for different variety, and used the bacon in the rice. The verdict is... cook them more than you think is ideal; they are oily, and can take it. Get them crispy brown on the flesh side, and then flip them for a moment to crisp the skins a bit et voila |
| 9:50 am | The Torture Tour Continues I'll be speaking on the topic again, at the 4th Quit Torture Teach-In & Vigil, in Monterey. I am the keynote speaker; Nov. 21, at the Irving Auditorium, Monterey Institute of International Studies, just down the road from DLI. It's going to be an interesting homecoming. I've not been to Monterey in about eight years. I wonder if the St. John's Episcopal has the same pastor. I wonder if Peter will still remember when I come in for supper. I wonder who might come down from the Presidio to see the presentation. I wonder how well I'll hold the crowd for 2 hours (and if I ought to try making a more formal presentation, instead of my usual off the cuff structuring). I don't wonder what I intend to say. I'll be saying the same things. The problems it causes to the information stream, that any system which uses it is hopelessly corrputed, that it debases those who use it. That the ticking bomb is a forced falsh choice; which is, like the Lernean Hydra, almost impossible to kill because it resides in the part of the psyche where lives story, and narrative. It so strongly taps into those aspects of the mind that it seems it has to work, and that we (as members of a state with a tradition rooted in liberalism, and based on the idea of the stalwart individual) are easily seduced by the implicit corrolaries to the aspects of the story which go unstated. Everything else will be elaboration, explanation and giving a face to the abstractions which are interrogation. If you can make it, I'd be glad to see you. |
| Monday, November 2nd, 2009 | |
| 11:27 am | Some cooking stuff I’ve been cooking lately. Picking up a knife case from the discount bin at work helps. A knife case is more than just a handy way to store/transport knives (and it’s a very handy way to transport them. People on the train/bus think I’m carrying an instrument case. They are right, but not in the way they think). It’s also a sort of portable kitchen. The primary purpose is to keep knives, and at least one steel, in a handy package. A compact package. But aside from the knife pocket, there are, usually, pouches and pockets suitable for other gadgets and spices. Which means one can have the saffron, or nutmegs, or cloves, or nigella, etc., which the kitchen to which one is going might not, as well as one’s preferred whisk, etc. I’ve been spending a couple of nights a week at CG's. It happens that another friend of theirs has been wanting to reduce her commute, and is staying over every so often on nights I am going to be there. So I’ve been cooking, and it’s been fun cooking, because she has a number of allergies. Last week we made butternut soup. Dead simple. Take a couple of medium squash (when I grew them at home they were much larger, and I could have done with just one). When selecting a butternut look for one which is more squat. Those tend to have more meat in them, esp. if you are going to be lazy and just slice of the shell. Cut the squash into chunks. Steam until a fork slides easily into the pieces. If you left the rind on, use a paring knife, or vegetable peeler (though a grapefruit spoon will work), to remove the skin. You’ll need to let them cool a bit. While the squash is steaming cut some onions fine, and sweat them (olive oil, or butter are fine; we used bacon fat because of dairy allergies), and toss with a moderate amount of curry. Drain the pan, and return the squash, with a can of coconut milk, and the curried onions. Bring back to a low boil, and serve. |