This is my blogchalk:
United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

Subscribe to this blog in Radio:

Wednesday, November 13, 2002

The essence of a tautological trap, which Pesky the Rat would appreciate because of the fate of Schrodinger's Cat: Put the quarry into a box with a deadly substance. If it turns to the left, use ad hominem. If it moves to the right, feed it, but with poison. If it moves forward, shock it. If it moves back, corner it. Down, it moves closer to the deadly (radioactive will do) substance. The only way out is if you, the experimenter, remove the lid, which kinda proves it is already dead. Use your NRO Thesaurus and speak in a gravelly, measured, convincing voice so any meowing is drowned out by your verbal virtuosity and thespian acuity. 9:14:33 PM    comment []

Has anyone read George Orwell's latest book, Why Christopher Hitchens Doesn't Matter? 8:45:48 PM    comment []

Got me a strip steak tonight, really two of 'em, with one of those 3 dollars off instant Harris Teeter coupons - signifying it's about to pass its "died-on" expiration date. Picked up a handful of shittake mushrooms too, wondering if anything else is shitake, and put those into a pull-and-tear produce bag already pulled-and-torn that I found nearby. Got home, peppered that steak, put on a hearty layer of kosher salt, sprayed it with canned olive oil, and seared it top and bottom in a ridged pan. Dropped the heat, threw in the mushrooms with a fat patty of butter, stirred a while, and eventually allowed the steak to rest on a bed of 'em at medium heat for a couple of minutes before plating. It was pretty tasty, think I'll do that again sometime. 8:17:37 PM    comment []

This is day 15 for the first stage of the portabella mushroom kit. There's a circle of no growth in the very center, so the pattern resembles the Japanese Flag. I might have counted wrong once or twice along the way, but re-reading my blog entry for 10/28 cleared up any confusion (thanks, me!). I'm giving it one more day before cutting away the plastic. I'm also going to make some pints of cranberry something for Thanksgiving. According to the Mehu-Liisa manual, I'll get 1 1/2 to 2 cups of juice per quart of cranberries. Still, there are 282 cranberry recipes at Epicurious, so I don't want to get bogged down thinking plain ol' cranberry jelly. A few mention a mix of flavor with oranges. Imagine the kitchen aromas from that! 5:22:47 PM    comment []

My friends at work with a "pre-existing" are in a state of total shock at what their co-payments will be next year. If you are unemployed, don't become ill unless you are obscenely rich - any illness is weakness, like one for truffles or Freudian psychotherapy, that you can only afford to cultivate if you are independently wealthy. If you're not doing so already, please read the Joe Klein/Robert Reich (now "Bob") email exchanges over at Slate. From "Joe": Second theme: the Democrats need to embrace complexity. This is anathema, I know. Politicians hate compound sentences. But let's face it, most of the best Democratic ideas are complicated. They usually involve this formulation: We should make [name your sacrifice] in order to gain [name your long-term benefit]. The Republicans, by contrast, tend to be the party of the sentence fragment: Cut taxes. Wave the flag. Family values. (Although thoughtful Republicans are uncomfortable with such empty, short-term blather.) My sense is that civilians are uncomfortable with it, too. The folks may not be up on the vagaries of prescription drug plans, but they can sniff out oversimplifying phonies. They understand what poll-driven, market-tested language sounds like. They will be attracted to candidates who are a) unpretentious; b) funny; c) tough-minded; d) creative; and e) willing to tell them inconvenient truths. (By the way, unpretentiousness doesn't mean bogus, flashy NASCAR populism.) Personally, I resent that, as a NASCAR Liberal who believes it is self-evident that the day the world started to go to hell  was on 2/18 when Dale Earnhardt crashed - not on 9/11 - and that photogenic poseur Jeff Gordon is the embodiment of evil (while still keeping my mind open to opposing viewpoints, of course). To hear a good show about a whistling contest in Louisburg, NC, go here. 3:57:33 AM    comment []