For anyone not on my mailing list, I post my most recent update letter, which was quite overdue. Because of that, it is long, just so you know. “Should I give up, or should I keep on chasing pavements, even if it leads nowhere?” Adele, “Chasing Pavements,” 19 “We sometimes have to feel...
15 years ago, Kevin Kelly (Editor of Wired magazine) and Brian Eno (ambient music guru and super-producer) published a list of “unthinkable futures” - probabilities we tend to dismiss without thinking - in the Summer, 1993 issue of Whole Earth Review. Their intent was less to correctly predict...
Yep, it's that time again, folks. Finals are upon us, and I am pert near frazzled to death! I actually have been doing some interesting cooking and baking along the way to keep me sane; being in the kitchen is a great stress reliever for me, and an opportunity to to re-energize and get my creative...
There were quite a few hotels to choose from for my night in Osaka. As I was meeting Chohei, an old friend, in the Osaka New Otani hotel, that was an obvious choice. Also, the Tokyo New Otani`s Garden Lounge, with views over the hotel's own Japanese garden, had been our favourite place to brunch wit...
Do I prefer adulthood or childhood? I don't know! I know I like reading about other people's childhoods, which is why I've got a zillion copies of And There Was Light and have a crazy fascination with all the books I read and wanted to read as a child. It's why I buy Chalet School books (but Jesus,...
We arrived in San Francisco after a long drive from Ventura (about 7 hours), with a brief stop in Santa Barbara and Pismo Beach. Yes, the same Pismo Beach mentioned in Clueless and Bug's Bunny, famous for clams and for the earthquake that all but wiped out the town. We drove through San Jose and the...
Hello, dear readers! I am throwing myself at your mercy to beg for your forgiveness for being incommunicado for so long. Here's my story (and I'm sticking to it). Last Friday evening, something suddenly came up (as Marcia and her nose said to Doug Simpson), and I made last-minute travel arrangements...
In my last post, I referenced both my friend, June, and an amazing cherry pie. And I promised to tell the tale and follow through with the recipe, so I mean to make good on my promise (redemption seems a worthy aim during the Lenten season). First, let me tell you about June. Now, by all outward...
"SUNDAY BRUNCH MEME" BLOGGING-EVENT & ROUND-UP Tous ces memes (meme= jeu où on se copie) qui circulent m'ont beaucoup inspiré. J'ai toujours du plaisir à y répondre et à faire un sorte que d'autres bloggers y participent... C'est pour cette raison que j'ai décidé de créer un nouveau meme en...
Here are three poems mourning fallen trees by three different English poets -- William Cowper (1731-1800), John Clare (1793-1864), and Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89). To me, the rise in concern over the environment provides an example of how poetry will come in and out of fashion depending on...
Disclaimer: My vagina is not happy. I'm stoned. Lets use some deductive reasoning to figure out that because of these two things, combined with the fact that I am blogging means there's going to be probably some details you don't wanna hear about. Unless you're a sick, nosey muthah fucka. But hey......
You may have noticed a maple theme running through my blog, as spring is sugaring time here in the North Country. And once all that magical golden amber liquid is is distilled and bottled, what DO we do with it all? Well, I have two suggestions. The first is my favorite granola recipe which I baked...
It seems as though every food—almonds to zabaglione, frumpy to fancy—has its fifteen minutes of fame. Yesterday’s coffee is today’s tea; sushi cedes the spotlight to crudo; and pricey imported olive oil gives way to pricey domestic butter. Of this year’s “it” edibles, bacon has perhaps...
Recently I read a book written by Harun Yahya entitled 'Darwin's Dilemma : The Soul'. A good excerpt in initial chapter. Look at it : In the early 20th century, scientists discovered something new: that matter was not as we had imagined it to be. Matter was not solid. Matter had no colors. It gave...
A little more from the Aeneid today. Aeneas meets Dido on his way through hell to see his father: "Not far from these Phoenician Dido stood, Fresh from her wound, her bosom bath'd in blood; Whom when the Trojan hero hardly knew, Obscure in shades, and with a doubtful view, (Doubtful as he who sees,...
And here you thought this entry would be about my recent vacation to Victoria. Alas, many of the photos from that trip are on the other camera card, the location of which completely escapes me. This is one of the many joys of living with someone....two different people have two very different ideas...
Those of you who shop at Trader Joe’s: have you ever wondered what to do with raclette cheese? I’m going to tell you how I was taught to use it. When I wrote my post about Five Things to Eat Before You Die, # 2 on my list was raclette. I soon learned that Pamela of Posie’s Place put it down as...
There are some people who totally dislike liver or any kind of offal. On the contrary, I'm absolutely not an offal-hater. I crave those animal parts and anything made from them, apart from brains, when they are not "hidden" (not for taste reasons, but rather for psychological reasons that block me,...
Apparently the library is just about as soporific as Benadryl. Sometime after lunch, probably around 2 pm, I couldn't really hold my head up anymore. I've previously taken cat naps in the library, or any library I sit in for long hours on end, and they are usually good at temporarily curing me of...
In 2001 I was doing consulting work in Kansas City. On Monday at around 7 AM I would catch a flight out to KC and on Friday around 3 PM I would head back to the Twin Cities. Somehow I would manage to work nearly 60 hours in between those flights. But in between I would get my first real taste of KC...
