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[flowery_twat]

The OED word of the day almost always cracks me up. The word today is whelk. Already kind of funny, right? I mean it's hard to think of a situation where you'd really need to be able to talk about whelks. But then I scroll down to the various adjunct entries (obsolete uses, compounds and the like) and find: to be unable to run a whelk stall: an

Comments

[ljs]

'Whelk' is wonderful, and the insult is even better.

Er, I hear good things about Ruth Reichl's foodie memoirs, although I haven't read them. What about Jeffrey Steingarten?

I have no salad info to share, sorry.... [is ashamed of letting you down]

Hugs hugs!

[flowery_twat]

Ooh, good suggestion on the Steingarten. That would be fun. And I'll look for Reichl too - I think I remember hearing her talk about the book on npr at some point. Thanks.

*suffers from unreliable memory*

Have you actually eaten whelk? My one and only whelk 'experience' is a children's book called 'Down By Jim Long's Stage' about a bunch of fish who are rather mean to each other. I think they pick on the whelk.

[minervacat]

my favorite summer salad is argula with mandarin oranges, chopped walnuts and blue or mozarella cheese, and a raspberry vinagrette. i would eat it every day except that frequently we're out of oranges.

[flowery_twat]

Mmm. That sounds very good. I never buy arugula for some reason. Thanks, sweetie.

<333

[minervacat]

i am just a big fan of fruit and nuts in salads. fresh raspberries are good, too, but only with exactly the right dressing. something light and vinegar-y.

linney, i am so tired this morning and i so much want to be finished with my job. *naps on you*

[flowery_twat]

fruit & nuts in any combo is good by me.

*nods*

I'm so sorry, kitten. How many weeks have you got to go? Is it to early to start counting down the days?

*hugs you and tries to make the time pass quicker*

Hey, so I just realized you probably have an apartment in Chapel Hill now. Do you?

[flowery_twat]

Heee. I definitely have to get my hands on Hetty. I've been waiting to watch with a friend the next time I'm in London, but if there are dubious mollusks, perhaps I shall just have to jump the gun. :-)

I should, of course, have said that I've read everything by cee, inkstain and lale a dozen times over. But good call, for sure. Anything else come to mind?

Thanks for the book recs. The second sounds particularly fascinating - I'll keep my eyes out for it.

[traveller]

i'm the viggoest. :D

[flowery_twat]

course you are!

*punches anyone who says different*

[traveller]

i heartily recommend salman rushdie's book of essays, step across this line. it's about three years old, so you should be able to find it.

[flowery_twat]

really? I can't say that I've had much luck with Rushdie's fiction. That does sound really interesting though. Thanks.

[traveller]

rushdie is my boyfriend. which says more about me than it does about rushdie, probably.

he writes his essays and articles in much the same style as his fiction, so it's certainly possible you won't enjoy it at all.

what area of history do you like? i can maybe help there. :)

[flowery_twat]

Ok, to be honest, I tried to read Satanic Voices, god, would that have been in high school? And didn't exactly find it gripping. And then I read three quarters of an excerpt in the NYRB from the one about the rock musician and, again, didn't find it captured me. But it's entirely possible that (a)that doesn't exactly constitute a fair sampling procedure and (b) that the very same qualities in his writing that made it hard for me to connect to his novels would actually work extremely well in a non-fiction format. Besides, I don't think I've ever met anyone who expressed that much enthusiasm for his work before, you've totally piqued my curiosity. :-)

History-wise? Honest to god anything. Er, ok, probably not so much the history of the Red Socks, but just about anything else works for me. I've read the history of the the Detroit auto industry, and books about the battle of Tonkin and a book about the development of banking infrastructure in 12th century Europe and North Africa.

[herself_nyc]

Laura Shapiro's books, "Something from the Oven" and "Perfection Salad", are about the history of food in America, sort of, and are amusing and full of fascinating anecdotes.

Have you read MFK Fisher? I assume so.

My favorite nonfiction writer of all is AJ Liebling, whose marvelous book "The Telephone Booth Indian" was recently reprinted in paperback. It consists of pieces he wrote for The New Yorker in the late thirties and forties, mostly about New Yorkish things. If you can find another of his books, "Back Where I Came From," which is all about New York, you'll be very happy.

[flowery_twat]

Oh, brilliant! Thanks. I have not read any of those. Not even MFK Fisher. The Leibling sounds brilliant and entirely up my alley.

Hurrah!