food

Randomness for 11/19

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1) How many baboons could you take in a fight, armed with only a giant dildo? My score: 38.

2) The milk industry responds to the findings of Jamie Oliver’s nutritious school lunch experiment, which I linked to in a previous Randomness. Naturally, they claim (falsely) that kids won’t drink milk without a ton of chocolate and sugar. My own son drinks milk once in a while, but I imagine it isn’t nearly as often as the dairy lobby would like.

3) Men married to smart women live longer. via E.E. Knight

4) Economic stimulus that makes sense: Cash for Caulkers. via Ezra Klein

5) The dummy-slap heard round the internet: RWA revokes Harlequin’s preferred-publisher status over new vanity press. I link to Making Light because the RWA still has their open letter behind a member login, for whatever reason.

Randomness for 11/12

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1) Detroit: failed city/urban planning petri dish. via James Nicoll

2) New ocean forming in Africa.

3) Superfreakonomics and horseshit. via Paul Krugman

4) Elegant wedding reception breaks down into moving brawl. ‘The fighting ruined the reception and some of the guests and wedding party members headed to their hotel nearby where the fighting erupted all over again in the parking lot of the Marriott Residence Inn which is located at 4312 Boy Scout Boulevard. A woman put the groom’s 74 year old grandmother, Mary Wright in a choke hold.

Wright told 10 Connects that she was trying to calm down the crowd and tell them not to fight on such a special occasion. She says that’s when her attacker said “I’m going to have to choke you out.”‘

5) 50,000 lost soldiers found, 2,500 years after they were lost.

6) Google auto-complete reveals class and education differences. “Someone once told me that there is nowhere we are more honest than the search box.” via Ezra Klein

7) TV cook accidentally does science. Here’s your big surprise for the day: eating decent food improves schooling. I know! Shock!

8) White privilege even extends to virtual environments. Fer Chrissakes.

Randomness for 10/14

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1) E.E. Knight explains “modeling” and bookshelf presence. There’s always something knew to learn about writing and selling books.

2) Honda unveils Segway-like unicycle. Tremendously awesome and tremendously uncool at the same time. via Genreville

3) Buy your own secluded Bond-villain hideaway! If this had been built in the woods instead of the desert, I’d be showing it to my wife. via seawasp.

4) The art and science of boiling perfect eggs. via Ezra Klein

5) Will climate change mean the near-extinction of basic food crops?

6) Here’s your word of the day: Procrasturbation: to waste time by pleasuring oneself. via Savage Love. Also discussed in that linked article is the ethics of sex with zombies.

It’s really easy to grind your own

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I have a couple of gadgets that can turn chuck into ground beef, and I really recommend using one of them. Pre-ground beef just isn’t safe.

Followup to yesterday’s post

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Evidence is increasing that obesity is not simply a matter of self-indulgence and self-control. While I’ve seen articles here and there about chemical influences on weight and diabetes, this is the first article I’ve come across that ties several research threads together.

Obviously, this all comes with the caveat that it’s science reporting, which is likely to be wildly inaccurate in the details and the implications. However! If the research is solid, it could go a long way to understanding the health implications of the chemicals we use everyday, not to mention the difficulties people have with their weight.

And while I’d heard of the problems associated with DDT and other pesticides, this is the first time I’d heard of preliminary results linking childhood obesity to soy.

It’s interesting stuff, and it really challenges the typical moralizing about food and weight in this culture. Also interesting is that that article linking obesity to chemicals hasn’t attracted the trolls the way the article about the link between obesity and genetics has.

On a personal level, I took my son to the pool yesterday for his “swim lesson” (really just an excuse to get out and move around). Generally, I don’t like swimming–I dislike being submerged in something I can’t breathe, and my son really hates it–but it was great to spend an hour playing without a full day’s worth of knee and ankle pain.

Let’s not dwell…

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Let’s not dwell on the fact that the dude in this blog looks like Howdy Doody after a visit from the Blue Fairy. Seriously. Let’s not.

Instead, let’s focus on his efforts to create a “meatini”–a cocktail of dead animal flesh. (No, I will not be making one).

The world = Strange place

Lunch question

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A salad still counts as a salad, right? Even if it’s small? Even if it comes served in a split french roll? With a whole bunch of lunch meat? Right???

I had a delicious salad for lunch today.

In other non-news, I’ve been meaning to followup on yesterday’s post about the difference between art and craft, but I slept poorly last night, and now I can’t muster any enthusiasm for it. I guess I’m not going to have a thinkier blog until a thinkier person starts writing it.

Expect more funny links and abbreviated complaints about healthcare reform!

Last week’s trip to the restaurant (with bonus furniture pix)

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We brought a camera to the Boat Street Cafe so we could take pictures of the food, but it looked so good we fell on it instantly. No pix for you of the food, but here’s the restaurant:

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I should have taken it facing the other way, so you can see the open air patio.

I had the lamb and my son ordered grilled octopus. Seven-years-old and he goes for the most adventurous food on the menu. He loved it, too. My boy.

Also, we have been talking for a long while about replacing our old dining table chairs. We got them when our upstairs neighbor died, and her sons–both in their sixties–unloaded gave us a bunch of her furniture rather than try to dispose of it. But the seats were torn, the padding hung out and some of the screws had stripped out of the wood.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to replace furniture when you don’t have a car, so we’ve been putting it off. Enter a multi-family garage sale up the road where my wife picked up six of these:

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I love my new chairs.

Much to do before I leave on my trip.

I eat

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Tonight, I’ll be meeting my family (wife, son, visiting sister-in-law) for dinner at my favorite restaurant. It’s provincial French, and very simple. Not too fancy, but delicious food.

I wish they’d put the Normandy Chicken back on the menu, though.

Should I mention that I had completely forgotten about it, and that my wife had to call me to remind me? No, better not.

This. Is. Awesome.

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Turn fast food take out into beautiful food!

seen via blackhanddpants