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Wednesday, July 09, 2003

As a welcome thunderstorm builds outside, I'm ricing potatoes. The thunderstorm is not welcome to TwylaCat, who doesn't like thunder and blames me for all unpleasant sounds (wonder how that got started?), but the heat has been unbearable the past three days and a break from it is nice for me. It was so hot last night that I didn't get around to finishing up what was to be a diner special - roast beef with potatoes. The roast was leftover from a week ago (keeping nicely, sealed in a FoodSaver bag). I sliced it paper thin and cooked it up in beef broth. When it was tender, I threw in a package of au jus mix. Tasted just right, but I didn't feel like doing the potatoes. Tonight I boiled the potatoes on their skins, to keep them from getting waterlogged, and peeled them under running water while they were still hot. They put up a decent fight in the ricer. Now they'll sit in a warm oven until I feel like re-heating the beef. 6:21:26 PM    comment []

In case you’re wondering what happens with those red hats, like the ones Rayne made, look no further than today’s Durham Herald Sun:       Finery fitting for young-at-heart hat wearers By Peter Sorenson : The Herald-Sun chh@heraldsun.com Jul 8, 2003 : 7:16 pm ET  CHAPEL HILL -- To Shirley Durham, the best thing about being a member of the Red Hat Society is that it offers a chance to feel young again. "When we were little, we used to play `dress-up,'" Durham said. "Now, we get to play it again." Dress up in red hats and purple attire, that is. Chapel Hill's chapter of the national Red Hat Society -- "The Blue Heaven Hatters of Chapel Hill" -- was chartered almost a month ago at a restaurant in Pittsboro, according to Princess Margaret Jernigan. The local chapter currently has 15 members. It had to pay a fee of $35 to receive its charter, Jernigan said. The national Red Hat Society claims roughly 67,000 members in chapters across the United States. It started several years ago when a California resident, Sue Ellen Cooper, bought a bright red fedora at a thrift shop in Tucson, Ariz. A couple of years later, Cooper read the poem "Warning" by Jenny Joseph, which she liked enough that she decided to give a copy of the poem and a vintage red hat to a friend as a birthday gift. Cooper thought that the hat would look nice hanging on a hook next to the framed poem. But her friend got so much enjoyment from the gift that Cooper gave the same gift to several more of her friends. One day it occurred to them that they had formed a sort of "Red Hat Society," and they thought that they should go out to tea in "full regalia." The purple motif comes from the Jenny Joseph poem. The members in Cooper's group thought wearing purple dresses would complete the image. The group's numbers swelled, and soon a "sibling" group was born when one of the California group's members passed the idea for it along to a friend of hers in Florida. The Red Hat Society is for retired women, and all of the local chapter's members are over the age of 70, Durham said. The group's activities include getting together to play cards and going on various trips. Durham, Jernigan and other members of the chapter said there's really no obligation, even to the society's other groups, except to have fun. Upcoming events for the Chapel Hill chapter include a jubilee in Georgia Sept. 16-18 and a Red Hat Society convention in Wilmington in November. "We're planning things like group lunches, teas and trips to different places, such as museums," said Jernigan, who added that she had eight chapter members to her home on Airport Road recently to play cards. "I want to plan a trip from Salisbury to New Orleans that'll get them together for a big `to-do.' It's all fun," Jernigan said. "We get together in a fellowship of older people who enjoy each other's company." Members say the Red Hat Society has few formal rules, other than the dress code of red hats and purple dresses at meetings. Members take turns planning the chapter's events. Information about the Red Hat Society -- such as how to find and join a chapter, what the chapter dues pay for and a copy of "Warning" -- can be found on the group's Web site, www.redhatsociety.com. 5:49:03 PM    comment []

next to of course god america i “next to of course god america i love you land of the pilgrims’ and so forth oh say can you see by the dawn’s early my country ‘tis of centuries come and go and are no more what of it we should worry in every language even deafanddumb thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry by jingo by gee by gosh by gum why talk of beauty what could be more beaut- iful than these heroic happy dead who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter they did not stop to think they died instead then shall the voice of liberty be mute?”   He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water     e. e. cummings                   Bushism of the Day By Jacob Weisberg Posted Wednesday, July 9, 2003, at 10:48 AM PT   "It's very interesting when you think about it, the slaves who left here to go to America, because of their steadfast and their religion and their belief in freedom, helped change America."   —Dakar, Senegal, July 8, 2003 (Thanks to Michael Shively.)     5:16:57 PM    comment []

pssst...wanna read something truly nauseating? 6:08:03 AM    comment []

Kill looters, urges archaeologist Dr George and the Baghdad museum director, Nawala al Mutawwali, emphatically denied that any museum staff were implicated in the thefts from the collections. Both have been the target of repeated accusations that some staff at least colluded with the looting, and then exaggerated the scale of the destruction. Half the stores have now been searched - the work was hampered until electricity was restored only a few weeks ago - and they said 13,000 objects were definitely missing, around 10% of the entire collection, including all the oldest cylinder seals. Other thefts include small ivory and metal objects, and ceramics. Iraq is truly a country of magic. Thousands of weapons disappear. Objects from museums disappear, return, and then mysteriously disappear again. Who can we trust? Let's ask Andy... So who was right -- Rich and Conason or Rummy? Rummy, of course. He almost always is. 3:10:26 AM    comment []