Thursday, August 31, 2006
So when I see articles like this, written by a sensible economist and explained with great clarity, well I'm just delighted.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Friday, August 25, 2006
There's walking your dog, and then there's walking your dog.
The apocalypse, I swear, will arrive any minute...
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
But then I see this, and I think it's going to be a while before I go back to a movie theater...
Monday, August 21, 2006
Separately, Treacher also reviews Snakes on a Plane...
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Just returned from an almost week-long business trip to the west coast. I was able to spend some good Hollywood cruise time with "Winners Only" Nick, and with our other good LA friend Jay.
Had some sushi with Nick and Jay one night in Santa Monica, just near the water at the edge of the continent, and among much hilarity mostly relating to relationships and non-relationships, Jay opined of sushi: "I like it, but not when it's fishy". Yo, Jay, it's raw fish, ffs, it might taste a little fishy. Next day they took me to a dive Mex joint I'd have never stepped into alone and enjoyed the best burrito I've ever had. The burrito itself was bigger than my head, and the waiter (burrito boy?) was impressed at how much I was able to put away. I was quite famished though, and I must say again it was the best damn burrito ever.
Nick and Jay play their soccer in Malibu, and I got to see their home field, a place of knee-buckling beauty high above the Pacific ocean across the street from Pepperdine University. The ocean winds no doubt play a factor in the games, but with a setting like that who could ever possibly care?
Spent some time where we have an office, way inland in the desert, and the hotel I stayed at bizarrely had a New England nautical theme: lighthouses, lobster traps, etc. I'm not kidding, the whole New England nautical theme in a hotel in the southern California desert. Wishful thinking, I guess.
I'm glad I got to finally visit southern California, however briefly and however much the trip focused on work. I don't think I could live there though. I'd miss autumn too much...
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Apart from the headline, good for the monks for having the backbone and courage to do what too few in the democratic west are willing to do.
(via Pajamas)
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
You have to look carefully, though, like don't blink or anything...
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Monday, August 14, 2006
Thursday, August 10, 2006
3 or 4 Artichokes
a lemon
3 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white wine (what the hell)
a couple of cloves of garlic...okay 3 cloves
a little fresh parley
a fair amount of fresh thyme
salt & pepper
Cut the chokes lengthwise into quarters and drop them in cold water with the lemon juice so they don't discolor. Scoop out the nasty hairy inedible innards (Do veggies have "innards"? You know what I mean).
Get a big saute pan, turn up the heat, add the oil, vinegar, wine, garlic, parsley, thyme, salt, & pepper. Lay the cut up chokes in the pan and let them cook for a minute but not much more. Then put the pan in a 450 degree hot oven and let it cook for 15 or 20 minutes. Let it cool off a bit, then fire up the grill and throw the chokes on to heat up and get that smokey flavor, maybe 5 minutes or whatever. Viola!!
(Veggies don't easily compliment wine very well, so you should drink whatever you like.)
For those of us still unfortunately connected to the teacher workfare program known as "public education", here's the latest Carnival of Education.
But hey, its still summer vacation for a little while longer, so stop by the Carnival of Travel to see what's up...
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Michael Totten explains himself. Not that he needed to... |
I've spent a fair amount of time around seas and oceans over the years, at the Indian Ocean and the Great Australian Bight as a child, and more recently around California and the waters of Cape Cod.
And every time I so much as dip my toe in the water I remind myself that I'm entering an ecosystem that is more than 30 million years old. You are utterly out of your element and any thought that you might be "in control" in an illusion.
So for goodness sake, be careful out there!