November 2024

Is it better for the environment: 

to buy an electric kettle that breaks and has to be thrown away, or

to use a less-efficient stovetop kettle?

Would anyone who sews want to buy a "raw-hemmed" garment?

Given that the Electoral College and popular vote were not in conflict this past election, would this be a good year to get started on a Constitutional Amendment to replace the Electoral College with the popular vote? (reminder to email my congressman.)

"The Salt Mines of Mars" - Salineras de Maras: Peru's Ancient Salt Pans - IncaRail Blog

Tiny bit of fresh ginger grated onto maple walnut ice cream - not bad.

Who were the pallbearers at Superman's funeral? (Superman's Song)

Yes, you can hand-wash that dry-clean-only dress. If not, you've got plenty of time before the next event to buy a new dress.

In the category of compulsive phone habits

 I keep clicking on the "Play Store" icon though I don't want anything from there. I guess my brain sees the word "Play" and thinks "Fun" so tells me to click it.

I understand why he had to go, but I still miss him

Woke too early this morning. Gave up on trying to go back to sleep. Boiled water. Got out the blue bowl to make Cream of Wheat. (Blue, vs. white, is important for detecting the difference between the Cream of Wheat and the bowl.) 

We buy the store-brand generic cream of wheat when it's available, but when it's not we get the original brand. Generic comes in a bag. Today it was the box, thus the brand-name version. On which I expected to see the black chef in the puffy hat but of course he's gone. 

The Cream of Wheat man and the Quaker Oats man who reminded me of Captain Kangaroo were the companions of my childhood breakfasts. Along with my dad, who cooked the cereal and served it to me.

As an adult, now, I understand the historical reasons why the black chef was problematic--though if he were introduced now, when chefs are idolized, wouldn't he just be a Betty Crocker type of personification of the brand? It seems less trustworthy now that no one is on the box to vouch for it.

Acorns are nuts, therefore...

It's amazing how many of the sites telling you how to make acorns edible first give complex instructions involving hammers or advising caution in the use of serrated knives. Such clever and resourceful people, apparently ignorant of the existence of a nutcracker--in spite of the very famous eponymous ballet that is well-publicized every Christmas season.

coda: I found that tannin leached out effectively from the broken acorns that I threw into the still-warm leftover pasta water. Was it the starch? The salt?

Ground some up with flax seeds in the blender and added it to bread-machine bread this morning. Though honestly, I don't think I had enough acorn to affect the taste.

Spurred on by success, I have extracted perhaps a dozen more acorns into pieces. They are now soaking in cold water, awaiting the next time we cook pasta.

I did make acorn flour a few years ago, enough to add a quarter cup at a time to whole-wheat bread. It did add a nice flavor to the bread.

Different years yield different quantities of acorns. This fall is a mega-acorn season. We joked about needing to wear hard hats while walking to avoid being bonked.

Acorns are all over the place.

Starting to dwindle with approaching winter though.

 

fast yogurt dip

One last carrot remained in the fridge. I sliced it into long ovals then looked for humus. No dice. So, poured some yogurt into a ramekin and added:

• onion powder
• garlic powder
• cumin
• chopped chives (since they were in the garden and it's not winter)
• salt
• DILL

With a small amount of:

• smoked paprika
• crushed dried lemon balm
• tiny bit mustard powder
• splash of tabasco (may not have been enough of a splash to be noticed.)

Not bad.

The kid says it tastes like Ranch. 

Possibly. 

Cerulean Sweater

Our house is a hand-me-down sinkhole; our hand-me-downs go back decades, and swirl around in bags and the back of closets. This vintage sweater turned up on one of my daughters a few months ago. It looks like the cerulean sweater Andy wore in "The Devil Wears Prada". 

I'd previously assumed the famous* cerulean sweater monologue was just a well-written illustration of how fashion works. Now I wonder if this hand-me-down is evidence of an actual Cerulean episode in fashion history. 

Even though the label says 'Lands End' not 'Casual Corner'.

*Just search for "cerulean sweater devil wears Prada" and you get results like 

https://youtu.be/vL-KQij0I8I?si=TEd8rpEaxvvubRFA   

I had less luck finding whether the monologue was based on any actual example.

October 2024

•  Do you ever find yourself thinking, if I eat that banana, I won't have to make banana bread?
• I know one other person who's taking vacation time after the election just in case of dire outcome resulting in stress and sorrow. Is this widespread?
• Why have Krispy Klondike Bars become so stingy with the krispies?
• The problem with investing in a nice pin or brooch (don't ask me what the difference is) is that if you're dressed up enough to be wearing special jewelry, you don't want a hole on the nice shirt/blouse/dress/sweater that you're wearing. Is the solution to convert all pins to pendants? It can't be done just by hanging a pin from a chain. It doesn't hang right.
• (in spite of this, I have been unable to resist ordering some pretty pins from Poshmark.)
• We often see birds in rhododendron growing outside the kitchen window. This morning I wondered at what a tiny bird was that? It was a mouse.
• More people should know that they can use the net bags that wrap grocery-store produce as really good scrubbies for dishes and bathtubs. Just take the empty onion/orange/whatever bag and scrunch it up and knot it a few times.

plangent plucks of shamisen strings

from this month's AAA Magazine AAA Explorer, "A Tale of Two Cities" by Don George:

"On a dusky April evening in Kyoto..down a cobbled alleyway framed by weathered wooden buildings. The plangent plucks of shamisen strings floated from a screened second-floor room..."

My spouse said "plangent" was an unusual & not modern word, likely confined to the Oxbridge crowd or equivalent.

I was willing to accept it was just a word I didn't know the meaning of until I looked it up.

 

CPAP parts pricing

 Bookmark here for rant on the outrageous pricing of CPAP replacement parts and the annoying method required to order them.

Why must bathing suits make us miserable?

Rebel against the oppression of stupid bathing suits!

Women over 60 years old or over 150 pounds do not want to wear the current standard woman's bathing suit. 

Forget the tiny skirts with which they try to appease us. Not good enough. I want more dignity, and sunburn protection.

From now on, I'll be wearing men's swim trunks and a nylon t-shirt* to the beach. Mens' swim trunks are longer than the ones I've found for women, and they have lots of pockets.

 

stray thoughts September 2024

• Who does all the sewing for that seamstress in Bridgerton? In the fictional world that is. We don't see anyone else in the back of the shop, but no way one person can sew all those dresses and still have time for a love affair.
• Had I known, I'd have saved the "Intel Inside" sticker when it fell off. For nostalgia.
• "Pull yourself together" worked for a hundred years, didn't it? Could I make it my mantra? Would it help?
• Grout for mosaic from flat rocks picked up on beach. I suppose the clay already in the house won't work?
• FISH IN THE MICROWAVE! No problem - I'm working from home.
• Really, what is wrong with the word "stuff"? Why the present near-universal substitution of an expletive for what is already a reasonably fun word?
• I gathered a flower pot full of acorns. Left them outside. Will the local squirrels find and take them? It remains to be seen.
• OK, a few years ago I made acorn flour. It was not worth the effort. But, it did add a nice flavor when 1/4 cup or so added to bread-machine bread. 
• Maybe if the squirrels don't grab all the acorns I'll try it again. There are mistakes I won't repeat in the process. There's some advantage to experience. It wouldn't be quite as bad the second time.
• Jasper Fforde will be the Guest of Honor at Boskone, which is at the cold forbidding Waterfront Westin where I had not wanted to return, but, I've read all his books. I don't expect to ever get to his Ffiesta, so..
• If I do bother to go, he had better be entertaining. Hear that, Mr Fforde?
• I want something like Instagram that ONLY has pretty pictures to look at-- no videos, minimal words.
• The Amica Insurance ad on music.youtube.com, the one that starts with the black and white subway scene--it's entitled "More Human", it's a good mini-movie. I bet it wins an award somewhere. 
• The Voce Viva perfume bottle deserves to win a design award, perhaps related to its usability for the vision impaired.
• Dark Star : Scary Beachball
• I never wanted to *be* a writer. I wanted to do justice to the people who were living in my brain.
• 
  

Now Nigerian Prince Peddles Puppies?

Puppies make even scam letters more charming:

From: Bill <noreply@agssl.co.in>
To:

Hello,

My name is Bill Wood, I am a Doctor and work for different prominent hospital, I came across your email address through an email surfing Affiliated with the US chamber of Commerce and My late Grandma was a puppy breeder, She died about 4 months ago and she left 1 Female English Bulldog,1  Male Chihuahua,1 Maltese and 1 Female Yorkshire Terrier before she pass a way one of the Female puppy recently had a litter 3 puppies, They are so adorable,Due to my job as a Oncologist will not allow me to take good care of these babies. I would have love to take care of them myself but due to the nature of my job i do hardly have time for my self, So i want to find them caring & loving parent who will take good care of them and willing to adopt,if you interested in having one of them Please contact me as soon as possible and be specified with the puppy you want English Bulldog, Maltese,Chihuahua and Yorkshire Terrier) and I will email you with the full details on how to go about adopting them.

Looking forward to your prompt e-mail

Bill 

 (This showed up in my office email on Saturday.)

Late July Tweets to be collected here

 I did reinstall X on my cellphone a few months back, then read and wrote some tweets. The place is definitely less fun.
After Musk pledged $45 millions to Trump, I pulled X off the cellphone again. And I added "Not Tesla" to my todo list entry of getting a battery backup for the house.

So today:

2024-07-23: thinking of designing stationary that says

on the envelope (or at the top):

Just a Letter! Not a birthday card! Not a thank you note! Not a bill! Not a check! (sorry).

and somewhere in the margin of the writing space: 

Let's be retro: I've got a new pen!

[which led to:]

2024-07-23: I miss aerograms.

My Book of Poems, by Rachel

"My Book of Poems" is a poem by the poet Rachel. I remembered learning it decades ago in Hebrew College's Prozdor. The Israeli teacher copied it out for us.

From סֵפֶר שִׁירַי / רחל בלובשטיין - פרויקט בן־יהודה (benyehuda.org)

סֵפֶר שִׁירַי

רחל בלובשטיין

צְרִיחוֹת שֶׁצָּרַחְתִּי נוֹאֶשֶׁת, כּוֹאֶבֶת

בִּשְׁעוֹת מְצוּקָה וְאָבְדָן,

הָיוּ לְמַחֲרֹזֶת מִלִּים מְלַבֶּבֶת,

לְסֵפֶר שִׁירַי הַלָּבָן.

נִגְלוּ חֶבְיוֹנוֹת לֹא גִלִּיתִי לְרֵעַ,

נֶחְשַׂף הֶחָתוּם בִּי בְּאֵשׁ,

וְאֶת תּוּגָתוֹ שֶׁל הַלֵּב הַכּוֹרֵעַ

יַד כֹּל בִּמְנוּחָה תְּמַשֵּׁשׁ.

We learned the Hebrew verb תְּמַשֵּׁשׁ as in

 יַד כֹּל בִּמְנוּחָה תְּמַשֵּׁשׁ

I don't think there's a single English word for that. It means that thing you do when you're testing fabric between your thumb and index finger.

So here is my rough translation of the poem.

My book of Poems

Screams that I screamed of pain and despair
In hours of sorrow and loss,
Became phrases to warm the heart
In my book of poems bleached white.

I revealed what I'd never told to a friend,
My heart's secret yearnings, buried, sealed with flame,
It's all now cloth for casual shoppers
To twist between their fingers.

-- Rachel Bluwstein, 1890-1931

À chacun ses goats

Whatever floats your goats

Whatever suits your boots

Whatever weights your plates

Whatever plants your pants

Whatever lands your plans.

Buddy Films

If Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were made today, fans would insist on a love scene between them.

OK, a love scene between Robert Redford and Paul Newman would not be anything I'd object to. (Had it actually taken place. Please don't AI it, that would be icky.)

My point is, we enjoy watching buddy films whether or not the buddies are lovers.

Tumblr fans insisted that the Good Omens Angel and Demon be romantically in love, instead of grudgingly good buddies after Millenia of being thrown together. Angels don't have sex. My Renaissance Art History professor taught us that. Angels are too beautiful to be gendered. There's nothing under their robes. 

A storyline doesn't need an erotic connection for a buddy to risk his life or venture into Hell to save his friend. Buddies stay together for years through the ups and downs of each other's love affairs.

Buddies banter. Buddies have fun. 

Don't delete them.

Flag Day

Growing up, we always put out the flag for U.S. holidays, so long as it wasn't raining. (Flag etiquette is against leaving a flag in the rain. [Especially when your flag is cotton and its flagpole wood.])

I've continued that custom, with the same U.S. flag from my childhood.

Flag day is special, because it is only about the flag. Nothing else. 

Elegant in its simplicity.

trying to remember 'croutons'

 but my brain keeps presenting 'coupons'

may doggerel

Roses are rose-colored.

Zebras are violet.

These verses won't rhyme -

No, I won't even try it.

YIL

Yesterday I learned that all cars have a built-in alarm to let your neighbors know when you have sat on your keys.