 
What are they hiding? Via Oliver Willis: "What's more important: Karl Rove's resume or a full accounting of the murder of 3,000 Americans?"
White House Holding Notes Taken by 9/11 CommissionWhat the ... I would really love to hear whatever spin Republican apologists want to try to put on this one. Explain how the administration's behavior in this situation is right. (Bet ya can't.)
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Not the biggest henge in the world, but certainly the tastiest. Eddie Izzard quite rightly called Stonehenge "one of the biggest henges in the world", but when it comes to henges, Stonehenge has nothing on MeatHenge. Any food-related weblog that's got a pack of bacon as its logo is a place where I want to be, daily. Why don't you go too? I'm generally not one to plug plugs for my site on other sites (a remarkably self-indulgent thing to do, it seems to me), but Hengemaster Dr. Biggles was kind enough to make and praise my recipe for blackeyed peas with sausage as well as take lots of nifty pictures of the process and the final dish, and for that I offer him my humble thanks. I've been way behind on getting a digital camera and offering photos of the dishes on my recipe pages, and that was a good little nudge to help me get my ass in gear and get more photos taken. Hmm, maybe he'll let me nick one of his pictures for the blackeyed peas recipe page on my site ...
My weekly visit to John O'Groats, one of my very favorite restaurants, is threatened by my new dietary philosophy, and this vexes me terribly.
Problem is, that sandwich as served is probably 21 or 22 points, not counting the fries which in today's case would have added another 14, bringing my favorite Friday meal to a total of 36 points, and I only get 24 in a day. I'd have to use almost 1/3 of my FlexPoints for the week. Sure, it's doable, but ... it's going to be tough to fit that in. Time to start tweaking. They were out of turkey today, so I substituted a pounded, grilled chicken breast, and removed some of the generous helping of Swiss cheese until it looked as there were just a one-ounce slice left. No mayonnaise (which pains me), and substituting Dijon mustard instead (which changes the flavor of the sandwich, but I can get used to that). With those minor changes I probably got it down to 12 points or so, which isn't too bad. Then there were those goddamned French fries ... boy were they good today (as usual). French fries area a half a point each, so I kept eating fries until I was out of points for the day -- I managed to get 18 fries out of that (about 2/3 of the total). Sure, that's fine, but that leaves me with 0 points for dinner (and it ended up being two raw carrots once I got home from the radio station). Looks like I'll have to 86 the fries except for maybe once a month or so, 'cause that's what pushes the whole thing over the edge. My pal Paul Tyler, John O'Groats' general manager, executive chef and highly genial host, assured me that they'd do everything they can to accommodate my dietary needs from now on, with appropriate portion sizes, different sides, etc. (This is one of the many things -- aside from the always-wonderful food, of course -- that makes him a great restauranteur.) So next time I'll have half a cup of potato salad for 4 points, or a side of fruit for 2. That'll probably work well, 'cause I'll still get to eat that magnificent sandwich, the sandwich that never ceases to make me feel better at the end of a crappy week at work. John O'Groats is located at 10516 West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, and is one of the best places for breakfast anywhere. Second that for lunch, and they serve an almost entirely different menu of wonderful dinners from Wednesday through Saturday. Show up there more than once and Paul will make you feel like a part of the family.
The Cocktailian. Kumquats are in season, and if you wanted some ideas for what to do with them, all ye with kumquat trees in your backyards ... try the Kumquat Caipiroska -- fresh kumquats muddled with citrus vodka and sugar. Yum!
Recipe of the day. Speaking of kumquats ... my new issue of Gourmet magazine arrived yesterday, and had an absolutely fabulous looking recipe for a dessert they call Sauternes-soaked Genoise with Candied Kumquats. It's too bad there's no picture in the online version, because I want to make it immediately. It's not too outrageous, either -- it has a Weight Watchers Point value of 7 per serving. This is a bit better than, say, pastry chef Mr. Lou's Banana Cream Pie as served at Emeril's Restaurant in New Orleans (one of the three or four best desserts in the city). One serving of that puppy contains 1,595 calories, 85 grams of fat, and a Weight Watchers Point value of 38. That's per serving. (Did I say that was per serving? Jaaaaaaaaysis ...)
Georgia creationists are at it again. It's terrible what happens when cousins marry, isn't it?
A proposed set of guidelines for middle and high school science classes in Georgia has caused a furor after state education officials removed the word "evolution" and scaled back ideas about the age of Earth and the natural selection of species."That monkeys-to-man thing"? "Galileo was not considered reputable"? Georgia citizens, please do what you can to remove members of the Peacock family from your boards of education. The world thanks you.
Screwed again. Imagine my surprise.
Bush's Aides Put Higher Price Tag on Medicare Law(Thanks, Wes!)
Looks like the political floodwaters are rising. Finally. I'd say they're dark, murky and up to his mid-thigh.
Bush's Risky OptionsI don't think scapegoating the intelligence services is going to work. The intelligence was there all along indicating that there was no imminent threat from WMDs in Iraq; they just picked and chose the bits of ingelligence that fit their agenda. It seems that the preliminary reports from the House and Senate intelligence committees have similar findings to David Kay's, who said that "his months of searching in Iraq had convinced him that Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction immediately before the war, and he called for an independent inquiry into why U.S. intelligence agencies were so far off the mark." However, if you keep reading deeper into the article, we hear:
"They just kept turning the page," said Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.), chairman of the House intelligence committee. "If it was true yesterday, it must be true today." Goss said the intelligence community provided enough caveats in its findings to signal the intelligence's murkiness to policymakers. "I don't fault the analysts. They tried to move the dots ... in a way that made connections. Did the analysts fumble? I don't think so. They just didn't have enough pieces of the puzzle."Citing even what may turn out to be faulty intelligence as "evidence" will, I think, not turn out to be an excuse for launching an unnecessary war. No Republican ever provided one iota of hard evidence that there was an imminent threat to the region, much less the United States; all we kept hearing from Bush is "there is no doubt in my mind" and "I firmly believe" and "it is my firm conviction that". Sorry, that doesn't constitute evidence. As far as the intelligence goes, critics are slowly but surely probing further into what they see as a whitewash, including among many other things intense pressure from Dick Cheney's office, "who wanted the [CIA] to endorse the view that Sadadm was actively pursuing nuclear weapons" and who "bullied and intimidated" CIA officials to repeat that assertion. Better buy yourself a boat, Mr. Bush; it's a long row back to Crawford.
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Da Oscas. And so this year's Hollywood hooey gets its early launch. We won't have nearly as much time to "catch up" and see most or all of the nominated films we've missed, but ... oh well. I'll definitely try to catch "21 Grams" and even "Seabiscuit" (although it looked disturbingly heartwarming from the trailers). Not too many surprises in a fairly thin year -- "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" should sweep everything, and if it doesn't get the Best Picture Oscar, then the Academy should be disintegrated upon Marvin the Martian's next visit. It was nice to see an Irish film get three nominations (almost par for the course for Jim Sheridan; there should be some celebrating while we're over there in a few weeks); I really must get out to see "In America". All the foreign-language nominees look really fascinating too -- I hope they all end up having a run out here (which they probably will). As much as I liked his performance, I was kind of surprised to see Johnny Depp nominated; he's been ignored for too long, but it's just like the Academy to nominate him for a summer fluff piece. Frankly, I'd love to see it go to Bill Murray, if for no other reason than to hear what he'd say in his acceptance speech. Eleven-year-old girls seem to have good luck when it comes to actress nominations, so let's pull for Keisha Castle-Hughes. The biggest dilemma for me, though, will be in the adapted screenplay category -- Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens really deserve it for LOTR but ... goddamn, I really really want to see "American Splendor" get it too. Oscar party (which is what it's all about for me) in just over a month! As is traditional with our friends who throw it each year, we're to bring food that was eaten in or suggested by one of the nominated films. I'm going to try not to be too obvious ... perhaps a bottle of Suntory Whiskey for "Lost in Translation", a bottle of cheap rum (or Navy Grog cocktails) for "Master and Commander" ... (I'm sensing a motif here.)
A B.A. in Bacon? That's a degree I'd want to get. One day maybe I can gather my Fat Pack friends, save up a week's worth of Flex Points and have an artisanal bacon tasting of our own. (Hey, cooked crispy bacon is only 1 point per slice!). My favorite quote from the article:
Rob Hurlbut, the president of Niman Ranch, said it best:Amen, my brother.
Quote of the Day: An editorial reply. Our brilliant, genius friends Dave and Steve simply could not let Mr. Nash's verse in yesterday's quote post go unanswered:
(Dave)Unfortunately, that was the last of the email exchanges. Waah.
They're baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! Yay! The 'dudes are together once again!
One of the premier originators of American roots music and pioneers of what was to become the "Americana Sound," the subdudes, have reunited and will release their first album in eight years, Miracle Mule, April 20 on Back Porch Records, distributed by EMI.This is very good news. The subdudes are amazing (and include several former members of Little Queenie and the Percolators to boot) and a whole lotta fun in concert. Go see 'em. Man, this is already looking like a great year for reunions, with the Planxty reunion shows that started off at Glór in Ennis, Co. Clare last Friday and Saturday and the 12-show Dublin run starting ... eek! ... this Friday! JAYsis! ... I'll be seeing Planxty three weeks from tomorrow.
"Did we say "WEAPONS of mass destruction? No no, what we really said was, um, 'step into class reduction!' It's an education thing. Really. Like, 'leave no child behind,' that sorta thing." What do they take us for? It's interesting, isn't it? When the U.N. weapons inspectors said they needed more time, BushCo said no.
U.S. Retreats From Iraq Weapons ClaimIsn't it also interesting that the White House needs more time to reach a determination, but the president's aides have refused additional time for the 9/11 commission to complete its report?
The President is fortunate that until now, the bipartisan National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States has received far less attention than controversies over the design for a World Trade Center memorial. At every step, from his opposition to its creation, to his abortive appointment of Henry Kissinger as its chair, to his refusal to provide it with adequate funding and cooperation, Mr. Bush has treated the commission and its essential work with contempt.The suggestion (the outright statement, really) is pretty clear: the White House is afraid that the outcome of the election will be influenced by public response to the commission's report. Why might that be, I wonder? Could it be because the Bush administration ignored every bit of intelligence the CLinton administration gave them on the way out, and let the 9/11 hijackers right into the country when they should have caught them?
Clues Missed on 9/11 PlottersThey fucked up, and they don't want anybody talking about it close to the election. How can we trust these people? In my opinion, we can't. Get 'em out. (Thanks, Wes 'n Steve!)
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Weekly weigh-in. 186.5 pounds. Pfeh. Only down this much from 188 last week. Still, not too bad, I guess, considering that I've lost 11.5 pounds in 17 days, and that includes being in New Orleans for a week. I guess this is where things start to taper off. Actually, two pounds per week is supposed to be ideal, but I'm annoyed that I only lost 1.5 pounds this week. I can't fudge it any less than that, though, because I embrace my little sister's philosophy of weighing oneself -- buck naked, bone dry, after a poop and a looooooong exhale.
Weapons of Mass Election. A new report has called for the halt of the deployment of SERVE, an internet-based voting technology, in 2004 until underlying security issues have been resolved. SERVE is "a project aimed at providing uniformed service members the ability to register, request an absentee ballot, vote and check registration status via the Internet, and is apparently highly flawed and extremely high risk for security breaches (including alterations of votes and untraceable vote-buying or -selling) and denial-of-service attacks. SERVE is currently scheduled to be used for the 2004 presidential primaries and general election and is expected to handle up to 100,000 votes for Arkansas, Florida (Christ, not again), Hawaii, North and South Carolina, Utah and Washington. This report should be required reading for all members of Congress. (Thanks, Wes!)
A Year of Cheese. (Via Sauté Wednesday): Every week for the past year, the San Francisco Chronicle's food writer Janet Fletcher has written an article about a different kind of cheese from around the country and around the world. I've only ever had nine of these, and I'm eager to read each article and try each cheese (Cheese Store of Silver Lake, here I come! Yes, I know cheese is like 3 points per ounce, shut up.) The above link has links to all the articles, so dig in and try some Abbaye de Belloc, Abondance, Appleby Cheshire, Azeito, Beafort, Bellweather Ricotta, Bleu des Basques, Brescianella, California Crottin, Camembert (and I don't care how fucking runny it is), Capricious Goat Cheese, Cashel Blue, Chimay, Epoisses, Fleur Verte, Garrotxa, Gorgonzola, Grafton Village Cheddar, Hudson Valley Camembert, Il Forteto, Ladotiri, Lamb Chopper, La Tur, L'Etivaz, Mahon, Manouri, Matos' St. George, Mezzo Secco, Monte Enebro, Montgomery Cheddar, Mozzarella di bufala, Mt. Vikos, Ossau-Iraty, Pedrozo Dairy's Black Butte Reserve, Peluso Teleme, Piave, Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Raschera, Reblochon, Ricotta Salata, Roccolo, Roquefort, Rouelle Cendre, Saenkanter, Sainte-Maure, Sally Jackson's sheep's milk tomme, Sant'Andrea, Sottocenere, Spanish Urgelia, Surchoix Gruyere, Tumalo Tomme, Tuscan Pecorino, Vermont Shepherd Cheese and Windsor Blue. (Any Venezuelan Beaver Cheese? "Not today, sir, no.")
Quote of the day. A bit of verse, actually.
The pig, if I am not mistaken,All thanks and praise to stupid pigs everywhere.
Oh dear. This is perhaps the most unfortunate URL for a church web site that I've ever seen.
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Home again, home again, jiggity-jig. Home since Wednesday, in fact, from my visit back home. It's been a busy few days and all. Sorry to have had postings dry up, but I generally don't post when I'm on vacation (something I recommend for every weblogger). Despite the hugely obscene food porn that I'm about to write, I am happy to report that in sixteen days on Weight Watchers, I seem to have lost 11 pounds (and only gained one back in New Orleans, believe it or not). Hey, y'know, this ... could ... WORK!! Now only 22 (my goal) to 29 (my doctor's goal) pounds to go. Goddammit, I want some French fries ... must ... resist ... resistance ... not ... futile ...
Sending Tuba Fats to the next life. The jazz funeral of Anthony "Tuba Fats" Lacen, one of New Orleans' most beloved brass band and traditional jazz musicians, took place on Sunday, January 18, 2004. I was lucky enough to be back home at the time, and wouldn't have missed it for the world. I was planning to join the second line, but wandered into Gallier Hall just as the service was starting. Even though I was quite a bit underdressed (to my chagrin), I was immediately handed a program and ushered into the service, which was just getting started. Family, friends and fans mourned together, the Tremé and Tuxedo Brass Bands played, one of Tuba's young relatives played "St. James Infirmary" on solo trumpet, Deacon John made me cry with a beautiful hymn, the preacher gave a great sermon, telling the congretation that Tuba's life is "to be continued" -- just like an episode of the old Batman and Robin TV show -- in the next life. There were tears, there was laughter, there was great music and a magnificent sendoff to a great musician. The funeral parade and second line left Gallier Hall, went down St. Charles to Poydras, down to Carondelet, across Canal to Bourbon Street and through the French Quarter down St. Ann St. to Jackson Square, where they stopped in front of the bench were Tuba and his Chosen Few Jazzmen and Brass Bands played for free, then up St. Peter to Preservation Hall, where he was a member of numerous ensembles, then up to N. Rampart and over to St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, where he was laid to rest.
Yes, you CAN eat in New Orleans and only gain a pound. Dunno how long one can keep that up, though. In addition to using up every single FlexPoint that Weight Watchers gives you (35 per week in addition to 24 points daily, which is my target), you'd have to use the Tom Fitzmorris technique of only eating half of what's on your plate. He sends the rest back to the kitchen, but that seems rather wasteful; I'd take the rest home and have a nice lunch the next day. The highlight was perhaps the BBQ shrimp po-boy at Liuzza's By The Track. It's a 9-inch French bread pistolette that's got the nose cut off, then hollowed out and filled with peeled shrimp in BBQ Shrimp sauce in all its spicy, buttery glory. There were no less than 3 dozen shrimp in that po-boy, and actually quite a few more than that. I ate about 2/3 of the shrimp, 1/3 of the bread (with three big sops of sauce) and left most of the sauce on the plate. That left me with some points to spend at dinner, and actually I was full after that. Of course, if I hadn't been on Weight Watchers I would have eaten every crumb of bread and sopped up every droplet of sauce, like my brother-in-law did. (Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my spiff new/used digital camera to the restaurant.) I did, however, bring it to Elizabeth's, the pride of the Bywater. I had been seriously jonesing for my beloved praline bacon, and although it was different this time -- ground pralines packed on top of limp bacon rather than a praline sauce on crisp bacon -- it was still pretty darn good. After that was the Duck and Sweet Potato Hash with Poached Eggs and Hollandaise Sauce. I asked for the Hollandaise on the side -- given that it's 2 points per tablespoon, and there was probably 8 points worth in the little cup, I needed to be prudent. I used my sister Marie's trick of dipping the end of my fork in the sauce before each bite -- that way I got the flavor but was left with about 80-90% of the sauce still in the cup when I was finished. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more duck meat in the hash than what my serving had, but it still tasted mighty good.
My sister Melissa and I also made a pilgrimage to Uglesich's -- Anthony was in fine form, and seemed more relaxed than I'd seen him in a good while. I think perhaps it's because he sees the light at the end of the retirement tunnel. They had signs up in the restaurant about their new website, www.uglesichs.com, which has information about the forthcoming cookbook. Anthony told me it was due out mid-October, so I guess that'll be it -- he always said the cookbook would come out once he and Gail retired. I started off with my favorite appetizer, fried oysters in blue cheese vinaigrette, and asked Anthony for his advice on some of the less commonly ordered dishes -- I wanted something I'd never had before. He recommended the Crabmeat and Potato Patties, which were crabmeat dressing with a thin layer of something like mashed potato all around, then pan-fried and served with a spicy dipping sauce and tartar sauce, with eggplant dressing on the side. He was right -- yum yum yum! I also made a stop at the Camellia Grill, which was the emptiest I'd ever seen it. Apparently they haven't been paying their bills, or something, and I heard that they have been forced into bankruptcy by three of their creditors, including the linen supplier -- no more linen napkins. Food was as great as ever, though. I figured an omelette would be about 35 points, so I opted for a burger -- they do one of the best ones in town. And my iced tea refill was free! (Finally!) The restaurant highlight of my home visit was without a doubt Tommy's Cuisine, a new joint on Tchoupitoulas in the Warehouse District. You may have heard about the big flap -- Tommy was Irene's head chef, partner and co-founder of Irene's Cuisine. They had a parting of the ways and he split, but ended up taking about 3/4 of the staff of Irene's with him. (We were greeted at the door by Sergio, who I believe had been the maitre'd at Irene's since it opened, and Dawain, the former Irene's waiter and my former 7th grade classmate who had taken care of us at Irene's many times before.) When Tommy opened his new place he hired another chef who cooked at Galatoire's for 35 years, decided to TAKE RESERVATIONS (which was the biggest complaint about Irene's from locals) and ended up with a menu that has every dish they served at Irene's, plus lots more. There are Galatoire's-like dishes (including grilled fish topped with Crabmeat Maison sauce), lots more specials and some killer desserts. I started with an excellent Crawfish Bisque -- dark, peppery and very flavorful, not a lot of crawfish tails and one big ball of dressing, but still delicious. Main course was Duck Tchoupitoulas (the re-named Duck St. Philip), roasted and glazed with a raspberry demi, which was absofeckingcompletelylutely perfect ("Best duck dish in the city," proclaims Wes). Dessert was a bittersweet chocolate mousse so thick it was almost like fudge, topped with whole hazelnuts and whipped cream, surrounded by a creme anglaise that was drizzled with raspberry coulis. Outrageous. I only ate half, and my 87-year-old grandmother leaned over and said, "Uh, are you going to finish that?" ... then scarfed down the rest. I know it's near-blasphemy (particularly to Wes, who considers Irene's his favorite restaurant in the city) and I hate to be disloyal to Irene's, but I think Tommy's is probably better -- no waiting, reservations that have you at the table as soon as you walk in, a nicer bar area, a nicer atmosphere, a bigger menu with more choices, the same perfect food and service and staff ... I think we all ought to give Tommy's a try. My mom cooked up a storm, too -- a peppercorn-marinated pork tenderloin with a tawny port sauce, red beans'n rice, shrimp Creole and our traditional family "stringbean artichoke thing" -- all of which are surprisingly low in points. Shrimp Creole is actually pretty good for you -- shrimp are extremely low in points, and there's no added fat other than 2 tablespoons each of butter and oil to saute the vegetables for the entire pot (which is maybe 12 servings). One really good-sized serving is only 6 points including the rice. Same goes for red beans, if you don't eat too much sausage -- Fitzmorris wrote an article on red beans last week saying that if it weren't for the extremely high fiber content of kidney beans, several thousand New Orleanians now alive would in fact be dead. My most surprisingly good meal was my last -- in the airport, of all places. The B Concourse has a variety of good places to eat, from Jester's Express (where you can get amazingly good hot sausage po-boys, red beans and jambalaya) to a Praline Connection (fried chicken, red beans with fried chicken livers, and lots more). I finally got my hot sausage po-boy with cheese on the way out -- it wasn't Gene's on St. Claude, but it was mighty fine enough, served with an unexpected side of very good fries -- a meal that wiped out about 2/3 of my FlexPoints for the entire week. The most amazing thing about this trip is that by watching my portions and still enjoying my food without going overboard, I only managed to regain 1 of the 9 pounds I had lost before leaving for New Orleans. Doing lots of walking and exercise bike riding helped ... as did spending 2-1/2 hours marching in the second line behind the casket at Tuba Fats' jazz funeral. Not too shabby for a boy on a diet.
Quote of the week. From the State of the Union address, via BoingBoing:
Bush: "Key provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire next year."A nice little jab in the ribs, which unfortunately doesn't make up for the piles of bullshit which filled the joint session chamber after the speech.
Busy busy busy. Your working boy has still been sick. All the phlegmy muck seems to be working its way down from my head into my chest. By next week it should be down to my feet and then, I hope, gone. Sorry about the lack of posting (there were at least two in-person "Where's my free content, dammit?!" questions from friends) -- besides being sick, this past week was the big push to get the liner notes done for the New Orleans box set. It ended up being a far more humongous project than I had imagined; the label asked for 3,000 words, and by the wee hours of yesterday morning, I had written 15,329. Hey, don't panic, y'all ... it's only five times longer than what you asked for. To my relief they didn't freak out, and after a preliminary look the reaction was more like, "Okay, let me read it again and then we'll see if we can make it work with the length." Woo! I guess the book(let) is going to be longer. Oh, and we've settled on a pretty much official title for the set: "Doctors, Professors, Kings and Queens: The Big Box of New Orleans. The guy who's doing the discographical annotations suggested adding "Ol" between "Big" and "Box", which I like, but we haven't heard back from the label yet. We're still hoping for an April release date, just before Jazzfest, and this is the last stomach-churning week during which we have to complete the licensing. We've got to nail them all down by Friday. Keep your fingers crossed. (If any of y'all know John Boutté, please ask him to email me by Friday so I can get him in touch with the licensing people!)
R.I.P. Tuba Fats, 1951-2004. Sad news from New Orleans:
Anthony "Tuba Fats" Lacen, the popular brass band tuba player and stalwart of the Jackson Square musicians' community, died late Sunday at his home of an apparent heart attack. He was 53.I feel doubly bad upon hearing this. In the first draft I had a Tuba Fats track on the box set, but we had to cut it due to length. :-(
Why I want to go to Serbia. Well, because my good friend Dule is from there, and one day I'd love to have him show me around his hometown of Belgrade and the countryside. If possible, though, I want to go during the time of year when this is happening:
He says that around New Year's this happens at every bakery in town (bakeries being the only places with big enough ovens to handle large quantity orders of roast pig). You've got to get your order in early too, because the demand is high. Forget mad cows ... give me roasted pigs! Srecna nova godina!
Speaking of pork ... here's a site right up the alley of all us porkophiles -- Porkopolis! Within find a treasure trove of all things porcine, including a timeline chronicling human/pig history, a porconography dictionary, pigart gallery and a whole lot more ... including this delightful piss-take on that feckin' ubiquitous blue dog.
Am I a masochist? Apparently. I'm going home to New Orleans tomorrow ... one week after joining WeightWatchers. Doctor says I have to lose 35 pounds, so away we go. WeightWatchers is actually kind of cool, and in one short week I've already shown some progress. But New Orleans food ... oh shit. It's all about learning how to count "point values" of food (or "pernts", as we'd say back home), and once you're at your point target for the day, you're done eating. Wanna know how many pernts in a hot sausage and cheese poor boy from Gene's on Elysian Fields? All of them. Plus 10. (Add 10 more if you want it with mynez.) I am so screwed.
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Bonne Année, y'all! Athbhliain faoi mhaise dhaoibh, and Feliz Año Nuevo too. It was a lovely holiday in and around our house this year -- great friends, gifts, food and drink, except when it wasn't lovely and included fever, chills, aches, fever, phlegm-o-rama and copious vomiting. Gotta love the oul' flu.
Queer Eye's food guy. eGullet.com features a two-part interview (here are the first and second bits) with food and wine maven Ted Allen of Bravo's "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy". (I couldn't believe it when Mrs. Zalta spat out the foie gras, either.)
Undermining the sanctity of marriage. I suppose all the shrill would-be lawmakers' and constitutional amenders' "Defense of Marriage" acts really don't count for Britney, do they? Oh yeah, it was just a joke ...
Cocktail of the Day. This one came up first in Gary Regan's Bartender's Bible under the category of aperitifs. It was lovely, particularly when we've been using Carpano Antica Formula vermouth instead of garden-variety red vermouth in our cocktails. Man, that stuff is good. Enjoy this one before dinner, or while reading "Henry V".
AgincourtThis one's also good for people who don't want a terribly strong drink, as the alcohol content is a good bit lighter than something like a Martini or Manhattan.
Ride 'em, cowboy, and rest in peace. John Hart, the monstrously great saxophone player for both Clifton Chenier's Red Hot Louisiana band and later on Rockin' Dopsie and the Cajun Twisters passed away on Boxing Day, at the age of 71. Listen to some zydeco today, especially Clifton's "Bogalusa Boogie" album.
Rip dem LPs! I've still got a lot of music on vinyl, some of which is incredibly rare. I'd really love to be able to carry it around with me in my iPod, but it ain't nearly as easy to rip an LP to MP3 format is it is for a CD. The New York Times offers a brief primer. (I use Griffin's PowerWave for the hardware, and Martin Hairer's Amadeus II v3.7 for the software.)
MoveOn.org's "Bush in 30 Seconds" finalists. Okay, so I didn't have time to watch and rate 1,000 30-second anti-Bush TV spots (which alone would have taken over 8 hours, not counting thinking, rating, clicking plus loading time); I managed to rate about 50. Enough people must have watched enough of them, though, because they're now down to 15 finalists. Head on over to Bush in 30 Seconds, watch and vote.
December Looka! entries have been permanently archived.
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