disordered list
1. I am sick. B got a cold last week and I had thought I had managed to avoid it. No such luck. *drinks more hot brandy and lemon*
2. Nonetheless, I dragged myself out of my sickbed (mostly because I wanted to get outside in the beautiful fall weather) and walked down to the courthouse (with B) to participate in the pro-gay-people-getting-to-marry rally. Which was tiny, maybe 30 people, but hey, this is a small town. I knew about half of the people there (mostly older straight couples I know from the Dem party) and we smiled and waved at passers-by and they smiled and waved back.
artaxastra, who knows what of she speaks, has an interesting post arguing against protest rallies. I disagree with her in a comment here and make the distinction between "rallies for and protests against. Actually, I don't think we disagree so much as we agree that there are good rallies and bad rallies: the good ones foster a feeling of inclusiveness and community among the participants, and the bad ones are negative and scare people who are already nervous about the issue. The trick is to ensure the good kind of rally, or at least stack the cards in its favor.
3. Look, it's RPF futurefic! A group called The Yes Men staged an elaborate prank earlier this week, printing 1.2 million copies of a newspaper made to look exactly like The New York Times, dated July 4, 2009, and headlined "Iraq War Ends." The stories - all utopian imaginings of what might happen under a progressive administration, from universal health care to expanding the NYC bike path system - are available online here in a pseudo-NY Times blog format, along with a low-res PDF of the printed version. It's pretty cool. And pay attention to the advertisements.
4. When I did that foodie meme a couple of weeks ago, I said that I didn't follow any food blogs. This is no longer true. I am watching alineaathome (Alinea At Home) because Alinea is, apparently, stalking me.
I was at my hair salon waiting for the color to do its magic, a Gourmet in my hands, and I read an article about Alinea, an ultra-chic Chicago restaurant where the food is reduced to components of flavor and texture, "molecular gastronomy" that is designed to deliver an unusual and sublime experience. Like, a tiny square of corn custard with dots of concentrated chili, coconut, and lime flavors on it. Little nuggets of stuff that is more art than food, designed to look good and create indescribable sensations in the mouth. It sounded very cool. I thought that maybe, if I ever were to go to Chicago, I'd like to try it out.
Then I bought The Book of Vice by Peter Sagal (who does NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me), in which Sagal does various interesting things and writes about them. He goes to a casino. He goes to a strip club - several, actually. And he goes to Alinea. Which turns out to be really, really expensive but still sounds very cool.
And then I saw a link on friendsfriends to the abovementioned blog, in which Carol, a tenacious amateur cook and an engaging writer, is going to attempt to cook her way through the Alinea cookbook, one recipe at a time. Her three posts so far make me happy it's her doing it, not me. (One user review: "What this book is not: an everyday or family-type cookbook. If you are looking for a book like that, with great recipes that work, check out some of the America's Test Kitchen books. Think of it this way: if you want practical shoes, buy sneakers, not 5-inch stilettos. This book falls in the stiletto category. ") On the other hand, based on the results, I am seriously tempted to get the cookbook and try some of these myself. Maybe.
2. Nonetheless, I dragged myself out of my sickbed (mostly because I wanted to get outside in the beautiful fall weather) and walked down to the courthouse (with B) to participate in the pro-gay-people-getting-to-marry rally. Which was tiny, maybe 30 people, but hey, this is a small town. I knew about half of the people there (mostly older straight couples I know from the Dem party) and we smiled and waved at passers-by and they smiled and waved back.
artaxastra, who knows what of she speaks, has an interesting post arguing against protest rallies. I disagree with her in a comment here and make the distinction between "rallies for and protests against. Actually, I don't think we disagree so much as we agree that there are good rallies and bad rallies: the good ones foster a feeling of inclusiveness and community among the participants, and the bad ones are negative and scare people who are already nervous about the issue. The trick is to ensure the good kind of rally, or at least stack the cards in its favor.
3. Look, it's RPF futurefic! A group called The Yes Men staged an elaborate prank earlier this week, printing 1.2 million copies of a newspaper made to look exactly like The New York Times, dated July 4, 2009, and headlined "Iraq War Ends." The stories - all utopian imaginings of what might happen under a progressive administration, from universal health care to expanding the NYC bike path system - are available online here in a pseudo-NY Times blog format, along with a low-res PDF of the printed version. It's pretty cool. And pay attention to the advertisements.
4. When I did that foodie meme a couple of weeks ago, I said that I didn't follow any food blogs. This is no longer true. I am watching alineaathome (Alinea At Home) because Alinea is, apparently, stalking me.
I was at my hair salon waiting for the color to do its magic, a Gourmet in my hands, and I read an article about Alinea, an ultra-chic Chicago restaurant where the food is reduced to components of flavor and texture, "molecular gastronomy" that is designed to deliver an unusual and sublime experience. Like, a tiny square of corn custard with dots of concentrated chili, coconut, and lime flavors on it. Little nuggets of stuff that is more art than food, designed to look good and create indescribable sensations in the mouth. It sounded very cool. I thought that maybe, if I ever were to go to Chicago, I'd like to try it out.
Then I bought The Book of Vice by Peter Sagal (who does NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me), in which Sagal does various interesting things and writes about them. He goes to a casino. He goes to a strip club - several, actually. And he goes to Alinea. Which turns out to be really, really expensive but still sounds very cool.
And then I saw a link on friendsfriends to the abovementioned blog, in which Carol, a tenacious amateur cook and an engaging writer, is going to attempt to cook her way through the Alinea cookbook, one recipe at a time. Her three posts so far make me happy it's her doing it, not me. (One user review: "What this book is not: an everyday or family-type cookbook. If you are looking for a book like that, with great recipes that work, check out some of the America's Test Kitchen books. Think of it this way: if you want practical shoes, buy sneakers, not 5-inch stilettos. This book falls in the stiletto category. ") On the other hand, based on the results, I am seriously tempted to get the cookbook and try some of these myself. Maybe.