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

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Saturday, January 10, 2004

Here's a detail shot, showing the underside of the Villaware green bean slicer. It's working mechanism is clear in this shot - it holds the green bean vertical as it slices it into 2 or 3 slender pieces. Pretty solidly made too, the quality I've come to expect from Villaware. 8:07:55 PM    comment []

I haven’t written much about food lately. There’s a reason, I’m trying to lose some weight. I’ve lost about 6 pounds already and I haven’t had to give anything up except food and beer.   I celebrated early success by going to A Southern Season, a dangerous move, but I tried to steer clear of the food and focus on the tools. This is a Villaware (they make fine kitchen toys, I have many) green bean slicer. Once I saw one, I had to have one. It seemed like there was a hole in the heart of my already challenged storage space and the only thing that could fill it was a tool that “French slices green beans lengthwise.” Green beans with only the ends removed suddenly looked unfinished.   Alton Brown got me psyched for a Silpat nonstick liner, a parchment replacement for baking cookies and breads, so I got one of those too. It was Deb’s documented anticipation of Savannah Chocolate Chewies that fired my starting pistol on that. Haven’t made ‘em yet, but that picture is worth a thousand calories. I can look, I can cook, just can’t eat any of this stuff. That’s 2/3’s of the fun.   5:38:31 PM    comment []

Totally Delusional!   …but no plans to go to the pros   One of the abductors of Elizabeth Smart, Wanda Barzee, has been ruled incompetent to stand trial. Now having a prosecutor, judge, and defense team all agree that the bats in your belfry might be playing with the toys in your attic would be an enormous blow to the ego of a normal person, but Barzee has her own opinion on all this – you see, God put her up to it… "I do not believe myself to be mentally ill or infirm or incompetent in the eyes of the Lord," she said in the court document. She said the experts were unable to "understand the special nature of my relationship with God and my role as a minister and servant unto Him. ... Their inability to understand is also a result of their different belief system, and the influence of Satan's subtle powers on them." Barzee declined comment on the question of whether she was considering a career in politics in highly religious Utah, where the spirit of Orrin Hatch, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has reigned Supreme since his election in 1976. 4:47:30 AM    comment []