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

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Sunday, February 02, 2003

This flyer came in the mail this week. $39 for a year's subscription. A few moments ago, I saw a book of the same name in Meg's Food And Wine Page... It is an interesting fact that I was reading MFK Fisher and her assorted opinions on dining with friends and family in The Art of Eating at the same time I was enjoying some meals of great symbolic and culinary importance Chez La Famille over the weekends we spent in Paris. Coincidence? I think not! Seriously, has anyone coincidentally here read this publication? I'm tempted to give it a try... 7:38:11 PM    comment []

Thanks to Radio Free Blogistan for providing a link to this Kurt Vonnegut interview at In These Times. Here a teaser: Based on what you’ve read and seen in the media, what is not being said in the mainstream press about President Bush’s policies and the impending war in Iraq? That they are nonsense. and, later on, more: That said, do you have any ideas for a really scary reality TV show? “C students from Yale.” It would stand your hair on end. What targets would you consider fair game for a satirist today? Assholes. Mr. Vonnegut never uses a single word more than is necessary. 7:02:11 PM    comment []

Another close-up of the mushroom kit growing surface, as it appears later in the day. 5:15:34 PM    comment []

It was Cathy that convinced me. Saw the Chef Wizard on FoodTV and thought "what a great idea, tongs with a soul!" So I ordered one, get one free, Liz will get the other - she's impressed too. After ordering, I got about three pages of additional offers for pasta thingies, even dental insurance, but as we all have learned you do in the age of up-selling, I simply tolerated them and moved on. Speaking of moving on, I am very happy that MoveOn.org exists to give of voice to those of us disenfranchised in the MegaWars between the party of Corporate Lawyers and the party of Corporate Machinery. We, the people, really should be running the country, ya' know? 3:48:20 PM    comment []

Hydra The entire surface of Mushroom Kit II is now covered with hydra, the things shown here at about 10x. In the past, I've called them tendrils and was tempted to call them mycelium. Mycelium is the name for the network they form, a sort of fungal internet with each hydra remaining only once cell thick and haploid, containing only one copy of each chromosome. When one haploid mycelium meets another haploid mycelium of the same species and they are sexually compatible, they...well, were not gonna get into that here. I don't wanna get Google hits from people looking for mushroom porn, but you can read more about it here. Without fungi, we wouldn't have cheese, bread, or beer. Above the Arctic Circle, Lapp people even eat lichens, a symbiotic duo of fungus and algae or possibly cyanobacteria. Icelanders make a lichen jelly, after removing the bitterness by soaking and adding a few blossums from creeping azalea for color. All of which is a roundabout way of saying the new Virtual Occoquan is out. Mark dedicated this issue to me, but I think he probably meant the other Paul Hinrichs, "Herky", who had a 21.60 ERA in 4 appearances at the mound for the 1951 Boston Red Sox. Still, he's got some nice mushroom pictures and has included a slice of my mushroom posts from the past week. You can read the entire list of contributors and articles in the table of contents,  but then you'd miss the great cover. Mark also has a cpuple of great mushroom pics at Fried Green al-Qaedas, here and here. Hear! Hear! 12:12:08 PM    comment []

I've just added Matt Mezger at Au Courant to my blogroll. Now that he's been cold-cocked by stever@powersupply.net in "comments", he has fulfilled all the requirements to become a member of the circle jerk. Here's your towel, Matt. Use it wisely! 3:55:10 AM    comment []

I've managed to keep this blog tamagotchi alive since August 27, 2002, posting entries of varying degrees of quality nearly every day. There is personal discipline involved. It must become a high priority each day. Did I say Enough? Did I say too much? Should I just shut up? Some sentences freeze in hell. Eternity passes and they still seem wrong. Other times, the thoughts flow faster than my fingers can type and paragraphs burst upon the screen. I look at them and wonder how they came to be. I read them and wonder what possessed me, I've actually written something that I would enjoy reading. Those moments are rare. I'm reminded of the advice given by a music composition instructor, "A composer's best friend is the garbage can." It can be a blogger's too, but usually it's enough to let the weak posts scroll. I've deleted very few posts. Usually it happens after some reflection and might be because it doesn't fit even in the very broad context of "food, and other things." A few have been deleted, or never even posted, because they reveal too much of my inner anger at the state of the world today. Those feelings are a vital energy source, but are better expressed later, with humor. It is also possible to insult someone unintentionally when the muse gets wicked. I'm referring to a line I used offhandedly last week saying I took David Rosengarten's recommendations "with a spoonful of Fleur de Sel." I didn't think much of it, other than a foolish pride in putting some new verbal seasoning on an old canard. Then Rayne posted a comment suggesting that I should save lines like that for The Bushies. Then, on Sunday, I got a note from David Rosengarten, for whom I genuinely have mountains of awe and admiration. He had seen the salon.com banner at the top of my silly blog (the default UserLand template, to which I reverted simply because it was the only one in which the hit counter worked for me) and assumed I write for Salon. He thought I was going to do an investigative series on The Rosengarten Report and he was pissed. Rather than revel in my unknown powers, I went into a blue funk that lasted the rest of the day. I couldn't take back those words, but I could delete them and I did. Thankfully, when Mr. Rosengarten (while blogging, the editorial "we" might make him "David", but in the darkest midnight of my soul he will always be "Mr. Rosengarten". I have the greatest respect for him, one of the best MetaFoodies in the known universe) understood my true intent, he was quite gracious. I wasn't even going to mention that here, it was a misunderstanding that was quickly resolved. Its rightful place is in my overstuffed bad composer's garbage can. But tonight I read a post at Au Courant that made me stop and think again. While Jerry Springer bouncebacks are in vogue, I've personally never had much use for FoxTV/Point/Counterpoint/Crossfire style macho shouting matches. All heat and no light. So, when Matt says some bloggers here have formed a clique, I simply take it to heart. I've been an outsider most of my life and understand the pain he must feel by being excluded by a bunch of us who just happened to begin this online endeavor a few months before he did. Yes, we have bonded, but speaking for myself (and hoping others will join me), the last thing we want for "this thing" is for it to become Cosa Nostra. An opportunity to use a Zappa quote! So I'll do it!: "I have a message to deliver to the cute people of the world...if you're cute, or maybe you're beautiful...there's MORE OF US UGLY MOTHERFUCKERS OUT THERE THAN YOU ARE!! So watch out." There is nothing exclusive going on here at blogs.salon.com and there never will be. We all paid our 40 bucks to get on this Midway Ride. We're all gonna twist and spin, scream and hug, and some of us might even puke or wet our pants. It's no big deal, really. We all can get off the ride any time we choose. The real struggle is with the inner muse. With luck and work, most of us will emerge as better writers than we were before UserLand pulled the gear lever on the Tilt-A-Whirl. My word to Matt is...keep up the blog, It's great. I make a point of reading it whenever I see it has been updated. Do not depend on feedback for your satisfaction in a job well done. My word to my fellow bloggers here is...we have an image problem. That is something we should take seriously. Rejection slips belong in the real world; this is the blogosphere and it has enough MIPS and Bytes for everyone to have a rose garden. 3:46:47 AM    comment []