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United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

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Saturday, November 16, 2002

If you haven't already read about Myra Hindley on Secular Blasphemy, do it. Also check out this opinion at telegraph.co.uk: It is irrelevant whether Hindley felt remorse, by Theodore Dalrymple (Filed: 17/11/2002). Ringing most true, this quote (boldface mine): The necessary restrictions on the rigour of punishments have nothing to do with the deserts of those receiving them: indeed it is difficult to imagine a punishment so harsh that it would have been unjust to Myra Hindley. No: punishments are kept within bounds not for the sake of justice, but to maintain the humanity of those administering them, and the civilisation of society in general. From The Guardian, this Guy Fawkes Day article linked to a Weekely Newes article dated 31st January, 1606 (Al's ancestors must have been building TCP/IP water wheels about then) describing in lurid detail the capital punishment du jour of being hung, drawn, and quartered - which, Simon Jeffery almost breathlessly appends, " included castration and being disembowelled alive". I wonder if Theodore Dalrymple imagined that while writing his piece. My point is that there is a continuum, between that low point of civilization, past disgustingly sanitized lethal injection, on through Manson and Hindley living on in a system that promises redemption (but cruelly, perhaps wisely, withholds it), to the other extreme where truly dangerous people are released to perpetrate again. The extremes are not acceptable to any civilized person or society. The cost of keeping dangerous people in boxes is high, something conservatives, forgetting for the moment that they are the ones who overuse "moral equivalence", are quick to point out. However, without the belief in an afterlife, life in prison is eternal irrelevance - something I believe is worse than death. With a belief in an afterlife, there is a possibility of true redemption. It is up to the criminal and no one in a civilized, sane, and free society should care one way or the other what mental machinations take place in an irrelevant mind. Death imposed only shortens the duration of irrelevance.  11:25:35 PM    comment []

They are $3.49 for 20 sheets at Harris Teeter, suggested list $3.99. A perfect answer to "what do I do with the cutting board after I cut up a chicken" - throw it away! You can read more about them here, or from Saran. 4:26:25 PM    comment []

New Vacuum Cleaner Day (no "!"). Blew out the last one when a little rock fell down the intake with the filter removed. It rattled as soon as I turned it on. Something in there got broken. It still worked after I got the rock out, but made a screeching sound that was unbearable. Somehow, the cats knew what the knew one was as I was taking it out of the box. Not a skedaddle, but nervous scoping-out of escape routes. The trigger mechanism for skedaddle is anything being plugged into a floor level outlet. They know the sound. Twyla hides in the closet, where the mushrooms are growing, on the second shelf, as far back as possible. Claudette had almost conquered her vacuumphobia before Twyla came along. She'd sit on the sofa, rapt, but feigning boredom. Now Twyla's panic has infected her too. Plug something into the floor outlet, even a night light, and they both scram. (nothing cooking today, maybe some baguettes later. They say a blog is about to die when the blogger starts writing about his pets. After that, nothing. Not a bang, not even a whimper. Not sure what the mean time to expiration after a vacuum cleaner entry is...maybe Google knows?) 4:03:17 PM    comment []

No!  Cremino or Crimino? This mushroom has an identity crisis even as a juvenile. 2:25:16 PM    comment []

A whole site about mushrooms! It says either portobello and portabella will do. No mention of portobella or portabello, though All Recipes Encyclopedia used portobella. A google of "portabello" returns "about 18,800" hits, but asks if you meant "portobello". Rather than clear things up, this just confuses me. I had to check that last sentence about a dozen times to make sure I got all variations spelled correctly - whatever "correctly" is. Babelfish capitalizes "Portobello", but not the rest. Here is a picture of Via Portobello, Sestri Levant, Gulf of the Tigullio - Genoa Italy. London Markets references a Portobello Road. Google "Portobello" and you get "about 196,00" hits. Once again, Babelfish. Porta Bella = beautiful door, Porto Bello = beautiful port. (that's assuming Italian, but from Spanish you get "I carry beautful" and "it carries beautiful".  Enough) Anyway, I learned that the best way to keep my remaining mushrooms is to put them in a paper bag in the refigerator. That's all you need to know when they're this cheap. Wonder if 99 cents a pound is a once in a lifetime deal, that maybe no one was buying Crimini a few weeks ago - like during the longshoremen lockout at the west coast docks. Beautiful Port? 1:45:30 PM    comment []

Portobello or Portobella? Looking at the All Recipes Encyclopedia, looks like it can be either - with portobello preffered. Reminds me of chicken wings, which used to be the cheapest part of the bird until Buffalo Wings caught on. Fully grown crimino mushrooms had to be discarded until they got a fancy name and a few spectacular presentations. Harris Teeter still had portobellos (dang it, they are never portabello, which I may have used - but the hell with it, it's just a made-up name anyway) for 99 cents a pound. I picked up a dozen for under 3 bucks yesterday and dropped off half of them to Liz at her workplace on my own way home early from work. It was in time for her to use one on a sandwich when she went home for lunch. My own lunch used up 2 of 'em and a third made its way into a midnight omelet. A bit from the All Recipes Portobello entry stuck in my mind - because these are fully-grown mushrooms, the gills have opened, releasing moisture and thus concentrating the flavor. Liz likes that flavor straight up, sauteed in a little butter. My preference is that too, but with a tiny sprinkle of tarragon. Where has Tara gone? My own portobello project really seems like a waste now, but it still has been fun. The plastic in the box has been cut away, per the instructions, and the flaps on the top of the box have been tent to protect the juvenile crimini from breezes. For the next 7 to 14 days, the mushroom guide says to keep the growing surface slightly damp, but "Do not over water." I'm using an excellent spray bottle with a great mist pattern from Dollar General. For some reason, the cats skedaddle the second they hear the water sloshing around in it. Alternatively, they clear out, get, hotfoot, hightail, scram or vamoose. 7:32:43 AM    comment []