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

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Friday, October 31, 2003

Brown Paper Packages   The molcajete arrived a day earlier than I expected. ‘Ove’ Glove has already bonded with the tejolote and even normally camera-shy Claudette approves. Also included, but not shown, was a package of seasoning mix, with toasted cumin seeds, kosher salt, and “preservatives.”   5:10:48 PM    comment []

A great surprise came along with this month’s Gourmet magazine – A Guide To America’s Best Roadfood, by Jane and Michael Stern. The Sterns are surely familiar to listeners of The Splendid Table for their regular Where We Eat feature. You can also check them out at roadfood.com.   As you can see, Henry’s in West Jefferson, OH, just west of Columbus on old US-40, got a special mention and that’s a place I’ve eaten several times. Here’s a tip of the hat to my great friends J&M who took me there more than once for good food and good times. Great pie crust too! 4:09:53 PM    comment []

Interesting stuff here in the LATimes. Gray Davis requested $430 million from FEMA last April to clear dead trees in Southern California, but the request was ignored and not denied until October 24 – too late to appeal.   Outdated forest management techniques are partially to blame for the accumulation of tinder, but the main culprits are 4 years of drought and a nasty little pest called the Southern Pine Bark Beetle, which has killed 90% of the pine trees in Southern California.   The blight can progress practically unnoticed. By the time the larvae mature and move on to another tree, they have already killed another pine. The symptoms appear as a reddening of the upper needles later. It is said that they “move in waves,” as rapidly as a quarter of a mile per day. If only FEMA could move as quickly… 1:07:16 PM    comment []

It’s odd that politicians these days are the ones believing that brute military force can solve any problem, while military leaders are the ones who understand the futility of it. Shortly after 9/11, many right-leaning commentators informed us that the “cycle of violence” is an academic creation by left-leaning tenured university professors – stating in effect that the attacks on the US were unrelated to anything done by our government and, conversely, any military action taken by the US would not provoke retribution. The logic was that anything we do is “good,” driven by the universal values of truth, justice, and the American way and that anything done to us was done by those who hate those values and are motivated by “evil.” This morality play was to be performed on the world stage, not at the local YMCA, and everyone on earth, like it or not, was designated to be part of the cast.   As the paranoia induced by images of the WTC collapsing fades, there are signs that the second act is beginning. It is refreshing to see, in this context, that human rationality is creeping back into the news. This article, from today’s Guardian, cites Lieutenant-General Moshe Ya'alon (who intended his criticisms of Sharon to be anonymous) rebuking hardline Israeli actions as “counter-productive.” Insert your favorite Santayana quote here, or John Buchan’s if you prefer, here’s a few paragraphs from the Ya’alon article:   Israel's army chief has exposed deep divisions between the military and Ariel Sharon by branding the government's hardline treatment of Palestinian civilians counter-productive and saying that the policy intensifies hatred and strengthens the "terror organisations". Lieutenant-General Moshe Ya'alon also told Israeli journalists in an off-the-record briefing that the army was opposed to the route of the "security fence" through the West Bank. The government also contributed to the fall of the former Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, by offering only "stingy" support for his attempts to end the conflict, he said. Gen Ya'alon had apparently hoped his anonymous criticisms would strengthen the army's voice, which has been subordinated to the views of the intelligence services in shaping policy. But the comments were so devastating that he was swiftly revealed as the source. 6:08:38 AM    comment []