Secondly, I’m listening to The Splendid Table and she just had on Russian Anya Von Bremzen, to discuss blini, which are (I believe) a traditional Russian pancake, made from a sponge (no, not THAT type of sponge). What caught my fancy was something about traditional Russian blini made for Shrove Tuesday, and how Russian grandmothers would sneak their sponges out to the woods, to absorb th powers of the full moon.
Firstly, I was listening to the State of the State speech, followed by the Republican response. Can ANY West Virginian politicians speak normally? Everyone who spoke seemed to mumble or lisp or have some weird extra-strong accent.
Happy Year of the Rooster!
Although some believe the year of the Rooster may be bloody, I hope for a happy, prosperous year, with lots of good luck for everyone.
ADDENDUM the First: I before E, except after C, or when sounding like A as in neighbor and weigh.
(sigh)
Happy Mardi Gras!
(Or Happy Fat Tuesday as it would be translated. For obvious reasons, Mardi Gras sounds better.)
A rather ecclectic collection of books that I’ve finished recently, but hadn’t gotten around to posting.
The Ethics of Star Trek Judith Barad with Ed Robertson
This book was definitely a disappointment. I’ve read The Physics of Star Trek and The Metaphysics of Star Trek both of which I found interesting. Perhaps because of this I had high hopes for this book. I was, unfortunately, disappointed.
Read More about The Ethics of Star Trek
Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis
I realized that I’d actually finished this book several months ago, but managed to forget that I had done so. Take that as you will.
Mere Christianity puts forth some interesting arguments, but I find that although they may have been convincing at the time C.C. Lewis wrote them, I found them less so, in the 21st century.
Read More about Mere Christianity
An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life The Dalai Lama
Unlike the previous book I read by the Dalai Lama, this book only took me about nine months to read. They’re not long books, I just tend to set them aside for something else, and then have to go back an re-read portions to get caught up again.
Read More about An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life
I read this story with wonder and awe. Not because of the amazing medical technology necessary to cure the condition, but because it’s a folktale come to life. Mermaids–one of the wonders of the ancient seas. Looking at that picture I have to wonder if I’m looking at the source of those tales.
Of course the implication for those involved when the first baby was born were probably not very good. A superstitious people would see not a medical flaw, but a sign. A punishment from the gods, perhaps. Or more likely a sign that the mother, despite denials, had been unfaithful, and with some sort of sea creature no less.
Reading the story I feel as if I’ve found the tiny nugget of truth in the story. The truth that may be embedded in every folk tale.
From such a birth the tale would expand. Each storyteller would elaborate a little more, until the original story was unrecognizable. And then tales would branch off from there, until we end up with Hans Christian Andersen.
However, before you laugh at our superstitious ancestors, and take pride in how much science and education have allowed us to progress. Take a quick look at Snopes and ask yourself if we’re really that different.
Sometimes I feel like an indificul, but I don’t think that’s what they meant here.
I’m having a bad day. Anyone got any good jokes?
(PS. Anyone that tries to tell the piccolo joke will be summarily taken out and shot.)
SPENCER (AP) – A woman faces up to a year in jail for attempting to extort money from a man who was having a sexual relationship with her 12-year-old daughter.
Marsha Kay Nichols, 31, of Elkview pleaded no contest to attempted extortion, a misdemeanor, on Jan. 21 in Roane County Circuit Court. She also faces a fine of up to $500 when sentenced March 21.
After Nichols discovered her daughter’s relationship with Bruce Stover, 42, she threatened to tell police unless Stover paid her money, state police officer J.E. Elmore had said.
Nichols went to Stover’s residence in the Walton area and collected money three times. During one of the visits, Nichols watched Stover and her daughter kiss and hug several times, Elmore had said.
Stover, who lives in the Walton area, pleaded guilty to three counts of third-degree sexual assault, a felony, in August. In November, Roane County Circuit Judge David Nibert suspended a one- to five-year jail sentence, ordered Stover to serve 90 days in jail and placed him on five years probation.
Stover also is required to register for life as a sex offender, participate in counseling and perform 100 hours of community service. He is banned from being in the presence of any female under 18 without adult supervision.
How could someone prostitute their pre-teen child? How?
Kim is the best!
She gave me the newest album by the “Falling Run Bluegrass Band,” ‘going back’.
I’m very excited about it, and was going to listen to it at work, but people came in, so I couldn’t.
For Jeremy.
Harvey had been a dissolute youth. He’d always thought it came from being born during the Roaring Twenties, and having to grow up during the Great Depression. Maybe his mother was a little too fond of the bathtub gin that was so popular in Chicago. Maybe it was the poverty that sent him out on the road at such a young age, riding the rails. Lots of kids did it at the time. Seemed the only thing to do, given the circumstances.
(more…)
I’m verbal/linguistic. Now there’s a shocker.
(more…)
Really Truly Wrong
(Although this apparently appeared in Seventeen, it may not be safe for all workplaces.)
For years, I thought that good soup came out of a can. I mean, my mother made soup, but… Let’s just say that my mother’s favorite soup involved meatballs and cheeze whiz.
Yuck.
So I grew up thinking that soup was difficult, and, to be honest, I wasn’t too fond of it either, except of course for tomato soup, served with the obligatory grilled cheese (which I still love), and the Deviled soup that my Dad makes. That’s delicious. But that was about it. Then a couple of years ago I started ordering soups at restaurants, and was surprised at how good they were. I mean really good. Of course I presumed this was something that you could only do in restaurants, but then I started to think about it, and realized that it probably wasn’t.
And so I’ve started making soups.
And they’re not that hard at all.
The potato soup I made a couple weeks ago was okay, but rather plain. A problem that was easily amended with cheddar cheese.
This weekend I decided to venture further afield, and made broccoli cheddar soup, which shockingly, Michael liked. (When we got married, the only vegetables Michael would eat were corn and iceburg lettuce. His repoitoire has since expanded.) And then just for Michael, I made cream of mushroom soup.
Both took under an hour, and were quite good.
Because there’s really nothing like soup when it’s cold and you’re feeling under the weather.
