Two Things
I made a note this past weekend of two little things I wanted to share. One we saw when we were walking in the Annapolis Mall (which has for some time been officially called someone's "Shopping Towne" or some such, but I don't pay much attention to those details anymore.
Anyway, there was this little kiosk thingie in the middle of the floor, impeding traffic, that had a sign taped to it that said "Positions Available — Enquire Within", and I had to wonder where "within" is at a kiosk. I thought of asking, but the person attending the kiosk looked tired already from the effort of tying his own shoes that morning, so I left behind that little bid for verbal pleasure.
Before the mall excursion, we had taken Isaac's car to the Subaru place for some diagnostics. While we waited in their new and comfy waiting space, we watched whatever was ESPN. This was quite an unusual experience since, as you can imagine, we've never had ESPN on in the house. (Largely because we don't watch TV, but also because we don't have cable.)
It was like watching an alien broadcast from some other planet, to tell the truth; I decided that it was one example of programming on the Straight Boy Network, and it was one more reason that I'm more than happy with my gay lifestyle. Everyone seemed rather excited about the idea of college football that would be happening that day, and there were lots of shots of young men holding up "Number 1" fingers and shouting incoherently while shoving their faces into the camera. The insides of their mouths were slightly provocative, but not all that much to tell the truth. In between these episodes, there were announcements that generally seemed aimed at convincing men that fast cars would make them feel better about how small their penises were.
Mostly, I shook my head in incomprehending wonder.
The Gilded Age II
The Gilded Age has returned with a vengeance. Washington again is a spectacle of corruption. The promise of America has been subverted to crony capitalism, sleazy lobbyists, and an arrogance of power matched only by an arrogance of the present that acts as if there is no tomorrow. But there is a tomorrow. I see the future every time I work at my desk. There, beside my computer, are photographs of Henry, Thomas, Nancy, Jassie, and SaraJane – my grandchildren, ages 13 down. They have no vote and they have no voice. They have no party. They have no lobbyists in Washington. They have only you and me – our pens and our keyboards and our microphones – to seek and to speak and to publish what we can of how power works, how the world wags and who wags it. The powers-that-be would have us merely cover the news; our challenge is to uncover the news that they would keep hidden.
[Bill Moyers, "A Question for Journalists: How Do We Cover Penguins and the Politics of Denial?", keynote speech to the Society of Environmental Journalists Convention, Austin, Texas, 1 October 2005.]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Writing
Now That We've Caught It…?
I'm beginning to think that passing middle age means living everything through words that I've already spoken, writings that I've already written, conversations that I've already had, or cartoons that I've seen.
Case in point. I see where Brent Scowcroft says in the New Yorker (I'll read it sometime, but I'm about 3 years behind in my New Yorkers right now):
…but what do you do with Iraq once you own it?
and I can't help remembering that cartoon showing two hunters sitting in a tree, with a big, brown bear at the base of the tree reaching up towards them. The caption reads: "Well, what do we do with it now that we've caught it?"
Buying Civilization
But how to "deliver a minimum level of existance to all"?*
I think that's the crux, actually. I don't think that I mind people's being rich, not even fabulously wealthy — it's all part of the American dream, although most of the wealthy are euro-style old-money wealthy. But then, I don't buy into the argument that the poor are "deserving", because they won't get off their fat asses and work; I don't agree that being poor is a moral failing. I believe I thought this way even before my current 3-year-plus stint at unemployment, which might well have had the power to convince me that there's more than just my personal motivation and work ethic involved. I'm still quite creative and unusually productive, but yet to find a way to generate income from my productivity.
Twenty years ago, I was more of the flat-tax persuasion, because it seemed logically fair to me. I got older and began shifting towards progressive taxation, which I had previously reviled. I don't think I have a short explanation for that shift, alas. Somehow, the "self-evident" criticism that progressive taxation is just hidden income redistribution became its desirable feature.
From where I am at now, I've centered my reflections around the idea that "taxes are the price we pay for civilization". Some are able to buy more civilization than others and I seem to be tipping ever more towards Marxism, believing that — despite the wealthy's notion that they made all their money themselves — their wealth is really (at its simplistic root) the result of exploiting the worker. The wealthy like to think that they are independent noble savages, but they are not; they are imbedded in a socially constructed economy to which they implicitly owe more than they acknowledge.
But, my radical notions are not all unbridled rage directed towards anyone who has more money than I do (which is a pretty large group at the moment!). During the most recent "debate" about an approach to a national health plan during the Clinton presidency, I concluded that universal (American) health care was something we should do because it was a good idea and, as a nation, we could afford it.
I guess, in other words, I had decided that universal health care was a piece of civilization that was worth buying. I think it's silly and unproductive to have libertarian-style arguments over whether taxation is theft at the point of a mob-controlled gun, because "do you support higher taxes" as an isolated principle is so clearly a strawman that anyone would set fire to.
There are things that we, as a society, can choose to do together that acknowledge our mutual dependencies — none of us has created our modern, technology-dependent lifestyle on our own, and none of us pays our own way without reference to others. Most noticably, we can choose to do some things that none of us individually or in smaller groups could accomplish alone. In other words, we can choose to buy some civilization, and choosing which bits of civilization to buy, I think, is the more productive discussion to have.
———-
*This started out as a comment to an article at S.W.Anderson's "Oh!pinion" blog, "Look at who’s ‘helping’ working poor, small business", and then it grew, and I decided to put it here, too. The discuss had moved towards tax policy and the divide between the wealthy and the poor, which led to the opening rhetorical sentence.
Primates & Judicial Philosophy
Despite my proddings, some of you may still not read Bob Park's "What's New". But that's okay, since I tend to put the best bits here anyway.
Recently he solicited readers' questions that might be suitable for appropriately probing the thoughts and positions of Supreme Court nominees regarding science. This week he revealed "the question that best captured the consensus of our readers' views in the fewest number of words was from Abi Soffer at SLAC:"
How does being descended from a monkey affect your judicial philosophy?
In: All, It's Only Rocket Science, Laughing Matters
Frontiers of the Mind
New frontiers of the mind are before us, and if they are pioneered with the same vision, boldness, and drive with which we have waged this war [i.e., World War II] we can create a fuller and more fruitful employment and a fuller and more fruitful life.
— President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a letter to his science advisor Vannevar Bush asking for recommendations that led to the creation of the National Science Foundation, 17 November 1944; the letter is reproduced in Vannevar Bush, "Science — The Endless Frontier: A Report to the President on a Program for Postwar Scientific Research", July 1945, three months after Roosevelt's death.
In: All, Common-Place Book, It's Only Rocket Science
Dandelion Wine
A few nights ago at one of our local mega-bookstores. our interest was drawn to a table of "last chance" titles, 3 for $9.99. What a deal! I've always been fatally drawn to remaindered books — my obsession for remaindered cookbooks is legendary in some circles — so naturally this was an interesting table. We made our selection and brought them home.
One of the books was Country: Wisdom for a Country Life, by David Larkin (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 2000). It's a large-format compendium, filled with fascinating articles on odd topics having to do with the theme "Country", with an abundance of very attractive pictures. Some chapter names give a bit of flavor: "Signs of Animals", "Edible Plants', "Barns and Farmyard Structures", "Weather Lore", "Scarecrows". Anything that promises eccentricity immediately attracts my attention.
It was a good choice, especially for $3.33. I stayed awake late last night and read virtually the entire 300 large-format pages. I suspect that the word most fit to describe what Mr. Larkin was writing about is "lore", and he does so with great charm.
But one thing really surprised and delighted me, right on p. 57 in the "Edible Foods" entry for "Common dandelion". The text begins:
Common dandelion
(Taraxacum offficinale)The dandelion, a perennial, is so admired that entire books have been written celebrating its use in everything from soups and salads to "coffee" and desserts to herbal medicines. This beautiful weed, with it bright yellow flowers, was introduced to North America by european settlers.
When I was much younger, say about 9 years old to make it a round, 40 years ago, my family visited the house of some friends of my parents. I couldn't possibly say who, or where exactly, although I can bring to mind a soft-focus picture of the neighborhood and the 30s style bungalows. It was some sort of very festive occasion, with quite a few guests.
There are two things I remember vividly from that visit. One was learning how to eat hot peppers (keep you mouth closed and don't inhale). The other was my first taste of dandelion wine.
I don't know that I remember the taste of the dandelion wine, but I do remember its golden color, like liquid sunshine, and I remember thinking that it tasted very, very good, even though I've never been a big fan of the taste of wine since then.
That was the only time I ever tasted it, too. It's far too much trouble to make commercially, and I don't know that anyone bothers to make it at home anymore either. But I've always been fascinated and wondered how to make it.
And there, on p. 57, was the answer I didn't realize I'd been waiting 40 years to see: a recipe for Dandelion Wine. Here it is.
Dandelion Wine
16 cups dandelion flowers (all green parts removed)
3 pounds granulated sugar
2 oranges
1 lemon
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
4 quarts boiling water
- Put the flowers in a large, nonreactive pot and add boiling water. Let sit for three days, then strain through cheesecloth.
- Add sugar, grated orange and lemon rind, and juices to the strained liquid and boil to make a syrup. Cool to lukewarm and add yeast.
- Let mixture stand for four days in a warm room, covered lightly with plastic wrap.
- Filter the liquid into a nonreactive container. Cover loosely and let sit until fermentation stops, about three weeks. Funnel into sterilized wine bottles, cork tightly, and store in a cool, dark place for about six months before serving.
Yield: 4 quarts
In: All, Food Stuff, Reflections
Vote "No" on 2 in TX
Welp, those Texans are out to show how much they dislike gay people again with a proposition on their fall ballot to reserve "marriage" for mixed couples, and the "no" people and the "yes" people are setting out to see who can spend the most on emotionally appealing television commercials.
I particularly liked this moment from one of the "no" commercials (i.e., that would be my vote and the vote of all other kind, loving people who value good relationships):
Ron and Mary Jo Dupre, parents of two gay sons, appear in another commercial. Mr. Dupre, a retired oil and gas operator and financier, describes himself as a "a typical redneck" whose first reaction upon learning about his sons was, "What did I do wrong?"
"I didn't do anything wrong" he says he realized.
In another spot, Ms. Dupre says, "I did not expect my daughter-in-law to be named Jeff, but I love him."
[Ralph Blumenthal, "In Texas, Marriage Is on Ballot", New York Times, 13 October 2005.]
Peter Medawar on IQ
I've been rediscovering the erudite and rather fabulous Sir Peter Medawar. The two bits below are from a piece that he calls "further footnotes" to a book review of his called "Unnatural Science"*
1. The question of the single-number valuation of IQ. Several correspondents have spelled it out to me that both athletic prowess and a human being's body temperature, for example, are influenced by a host of variables; yet an athlete's performance in the hundred-yard dash and a patient's temperature are both recorded in single values on one-dimensional scales. This is very true, but a patient's temperature is not taken by any physician to measure his state of health, nor is an athlete's speed in the hundred-yard dash used as a measure of athleticism or any other physical analogue of intelligence. The one measures a patient's body temperature only, and the other how long a man takes to run a hundred yards in a hurry. In just the same way an IQ test measures a candidate's prowess at the particular, kinds of intellections which are measured by such tests.
[…]
5. An anecdote about wicked old Sir Francis Galton will illustrate very clearly the difference between an IQ score and intelligence. Lewis Terman, God alone knows how, estimated Galton's IQ as 200—a figure of which he said that it was not equaled by more than one child in 50,000 of the generality—but at the same time we know from Galton's own memoirs that when at age eight he was issued with Caesar's Commentaries for class use he was vastly surprised to find his copy so new-looking and shiny, considering that, having been written by Caesar, it must be getting on for 2,000 years old. Yet is it not absurd to ask oneself—as strictly speaking one should if one is to acquiesce in the illusion of single-value mensuration—how much must be deducted from an IQ score of 200 to make allowance for so egregious a mistake?[Peter Medawar, "Unnatural Science, Cont'd.", The New York Review of Books 24, Number 11, 23 June 1977.]
———-
*P. B. Medawar, "Unnatural Science", The New York Review of Books 24, number 1, 3 February 1977; reviewing The Science and Politics of IQ, by Leon J. Kamin, and The IQ Controversy, edited by N.J. Block, edited by Gerald Dworkin. The piece begins this way:
If a broad line of demarcation is drawn between the natural sciences and what can only be described as the unnatural sciences, it will at once be recognized as a distinguishing mark of the latter that their practitioners try most painstakingly to imitate what they believe—quite wrongly, alas for them—to be the distinctive manners and observances of the natural sciences. Among these are: (a) the belief that measurement and numeration are intrinsically praisworthy activities (the worship. indeed, of what Ernst Gombrich calls idola quantitatis); (b) the whole discredited farrago of inductivism — especially the belief that facts are prior to ideas and that a sufficiently voluminous compilation of facts can be processed by a calculus of discovery in such a way as to yield general principles and natural-seeming laws; (c) another distinguishing mark of unnatural scientists is their faith in the efficacy of statistical formulas, particularly when processed by a computer — the use of which is in itself interpreted as a mark of scientific manhood.
In: All, Common-Place Book, Writing
Unfortunate Boosterism
Surely you remember all those magnetic ribbons that were far more popular on the rears of cars a few months ago than they are now? All those yellow "support our troops" ribbons, followed by red, white, and blue "support america" ribbons, and then pink ribbons and green ribbons and camouflage ribbons (I'm not kidding)…. Why, some of us are even old enough to remember the original red AIDS-awareness ribbons that were actually ribbons.
Anyway, I was driving in rush hour this morning so I got to observe the rears of lots of cars, and the few ribbons that were on the rears of those cars, and I saw one that I thought a little odd given our current post-Katrina, post-Rita sensitivities. It was a medium blue in color; evidently referring to a high-school "mascot" it said:
Go Hurricanes!
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Indiana U-Turn
What are we to make of this? On 4 October we got news from Indiana that State Representative Patricia Miller proposed to save un-made babies from un-fit parents:
INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana legislative committee is considering a bill that would prohibit gays, lesbians and single people in Indiana from using medical science to assist them in having a child.
Republican state Sen. Patricia Miller said state law should have requirements for assisted reproduction similar to those for adoption. She acknowledged that the legislation would be controversial.
It would require "intended parents" to be married to each other and says an unmarried person may not be an intended parent.
["Plan Would Limit Reproduction Options For Gays, Singles", TheIndyChannel.com, 4 October 2005.]
Then, about 24 hours later, on 5 October, comes this news:
INDIANAPOLIS — A proposed bill that would prohibit gays, lesbians and single people in Indiana from using medical science to assist them in having a child has been dropped by its legislative sponsor.
State Sen. Patricia Miller, R-Indianapolis, issued a one-sentence statement Wednesday about her decision to drop the proposal.
"The issue has become more complex than anticipated and will be withdrawn from consideration by the Health Finance Commission," she said.
["Bill To Limit Reproduction Options For Gays, Singles Dropped", TheIndyChannel.com, 5 October 2005.]
I can't decide which is more scary: that an elected representative would even think to introduce such legislation, or that she'd then just try to erase it altogether a day later. She gives such a believable explanation, too! It makes one wonder what forces were at work that managed to quench so quickly a proposal that many reactionaries would welcome, and what it is they're trying to hide by doing so.
Here are a few more details (from the second listed piece) from her proposed legislation:
A doctor could not begin an assisted reproduction technology procedure that may result in a child being born until the intended parents have received a certificate of satisfactory completion of an assessment required under the bill. The assessment is similar to what is required for infant adoption and would be conducted by a licensed child placing agency in Indiana.
The required information includes the fertility history of the parents, education and employment information, personality descriptions, verification of marital status, child care plans and criminal history checks. Description of the family lifestyle of the intended parents also is required, including participation in faith-based or church activities.
In either case, I don't mention it for the sensationalism, nor really because it's yet another attempt to try to withdraw civil liberties from gays and lesbians.
I decided I wanted to keep a record of it here before a few more days passed and it just seemed like we had imagined it. I don't think that this Indiana State Senator should be allowed a free ride, nor be allowed to pretend that she never did anything quite so unthinking, stupid, and hateful in her role of public trust, nor should her constituents too easily forget either, especially the ones who approved of her actions.
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Splenetics
Spam Cake II
Just a few days ago, I posted a short piece about a recipe for "Spam Cake" that came my way, and mentioned my morbid fascination for Spam — second only to my love of Jell-O and "congealed salads". Of course, we knew it wasn't likely to stop there; I wouldn't be surprised if, soon, I have to include a "Jell-O & Spam" category for the blog.
But anyway, prompted by a visitor who had googled for "Spam Cake", I thought I'd take a moment myself and see what other delights might be hidden in the dark corners of the internet.
Happily, I discovered that the Kentucky State Fair sponsers, among other enticing and delicious categories, an annual "National 'Best SPAM® Recipe' Competition". Even more happily, the 2005 Best SPAM® Recipe Winners can be downloaded!
I had mixed emotions seeing that Second Place had gone to a recipe for "SPAM-USHI", since Isaac and I had discussed several years ago an idea for Spam maki-sushi (i.e., sushi roll), but we never did anything about it. One must sieze the iron while it's hot, so I suppose I'd better get to work on creating the Wasabi & Anchovy-Paste Advisory Board. Sometimes life just seems too short.
Anyway, first place in the contest went to something called a "Party SPAM Cake". Now, although this is not a real "cake" in the sense that our previous recipe for "Spam Cake" was a cake, it is a sort of cake-like thing. In this case: SPAM and some chopped vegetables folded into cream cheese, chilled and molded in a cake pan. Serve with Ritz crackers, of course.
Hey, I've just realized: add a package of lemon Jell-O* to the mixture, mold it in a ring ….
[Update added moments later:] Well, one thing leads to another. I happen to find that someone posts something in her journal about "spam cake" and before you know it I find myself reading a recipe for "Chocolate Covered Bacon". Yumm. Bacon-y and chocolate-y.
———-
*Prepare Jeff-O according to package directions, chill about one hour, fold in remaining ingredients, pour into mold, refrigerate for four hours.
In: All, Curious Stuff, Food Stuff
Aliens Removing Human Brains?
SOME 3.7 million people claim to have been abducted by aliens. Only 11 per cent of Americans believe in evolution. Type "Flat Earth Society" into the Google search engine on the internet and you will have a choice of 466,000 sites. How did we get this stupid?
One explanation is that the aliens doing all that abducting have been removing people’s brains. Perhaps there is a UFO pathology laboratory hovering somewhere over Bonnybridge with the sum of our collective senses pickled in jars.
[…]
Previous generations had their superstitions, but they had a fundamental belief in the ability of science to improve their quality of life. They were proved right. Within three generations, life expectancy in Britain rose by 30 years. In the half century after the Second World War, infant mortality fell from 50 deaths per 1,000 births to fewer than six. For good measure, science threw in the internet, talking pictures and the self-cleaning oven.Science equalled progress and was seen as an almost universally good thing. Our grandparents may have balked at seating 13 at the dinner table, but they would never have argued that teaching children about feng shui was as important as teaching them the second law of thermodynamics.
Now, in our age of unreason and anti-science, life expectancy is set to fall for the first time, the fate of tissue samples and diseased organs has become more important than the welfare of the living, and the government has announced that alternative treatments such as Indian ayurvedic medicine could be granted the same status as conventional medicine on the NHS. According to Francis Wheen’s brilliant new book, How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered The World, the 36,000 general practitioners in this country [i.e., Great Britain] are now outnumbered by the 50,000 purveyors of complementary and alternative medicine.
[Gillian Bowditch, "Stupidity in the new age of anti-science", The Scotsman, 10 February 2004.]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Speaking of Science
Reassurance-Op
Is it just me, or does anyone else find this swaggering confidence on the part of the President less than reassuring?
I take this issue very seriously," he [Bush] said. "The people of the country ought to rest assured that we're doing everything we can.
[Gardiner Harris, "Fear of Flu Outbreak Rattles Washington", New York Times, 5 October 2005.]
It doesn't really matter, of course, what it is that he's talking about, although the topic in this case was a briefing about a possible outbreak among humans of avian flu.
Elsewhere in the same article,
"No one in the world is ready for it," Mr. Leavitt [Secretary of Health and Human Services] said. "But we're more ready today than we were yesterday. And we'll be more prepared tomorrow than we are today."
Now this I can easily translate as Bush League speak for To the extent that we're prepared, we're ready.
In: All, Common-Place Book, Plus Ca Change...
Representative Mediocrity
Harriet Miers: cronyism or representative mediocrity?
When Richard Nixon, no fan of the Supreme Court, nominated the forgettable G. Harrold Carswell thirty-five years ago, Senator Roman Hruska defended the nomination with an unforgettable bit of wisdom: “Even if he is mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises and Cardozos and Frankfurters and stuff like that there.” Have we sunk, again, to that level?
[Geoffrey R. Stone, "Cronyism and the Court", The Huffington Post, 3 October 2005.]
Maybe this is the answer to the President's popularity that we've been looking for: he looks out for the little guy. Of course, by little guy we don't mean the poor or disenfranchised, we mean the successfully mediocre. Sure, the middle-American in Kansas can buy into the propaganda that W. is mediocre just like him, but this is really a mediocrity of a different class altogether, and I don't use the word "class" thoughtlessly. Bush is the triumph of the rich and mediocre, those who have enough money to keep failing and thereby succeed fully at miserable failure. The rich mediocre American is a descendant of the widely lampooned English upper-class twit.
Mediocrity is clearly a characteristic that the President recognizes in others and he rewards it, not only with ambassadorships in the time-honored tradition, but by Medals of Freedom and appointments to big, important federal agencies.
As the joke goes: my mother always said that in America anybody can become president, and George Bush proves it! Of course, if you'd prefer the Supreme Court….
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Ascent of Science
I recently finished reading the massive but excellent book The Ascent of Science, by Brian L. Silver (Oxford University Press, New York, 1998). I had noted many passages that caught my eye as I read, and have shared some. As usual, I got behind, so here are the remainders.
Linnaeus, in 1735, commented, "It is remarkable that the stupidest ape differs so little from the wisest man, that the surveyor of nature has yet to be found who can draw the line between them." [p. 269]
Just as true, it seems, going on 300 years later now that the genes of the chimpanzee have been sequenced.
Now this following example I have yet to see put forth as fundamentalist support for creationist doctrine:
Lamarck's belief in the inheritance of acquired characteristics ws anticipated by Charles Darwin's grandfather Erasmus, and has in fact persisted for centuries. It is part of the folklore of many societies and has been around too long to be killed by ugly facts. One example of the effect on their offspring of what their parents see is about 4000 years old. Genesis 30:37–39 reads: "Jacob then got fresh shoots of poplar, and of almond and plane, and peeled white stripes in them, laying bare the white of the shoots. The rods that he had peeled he set up, in front of the goats, in the troughs, the water receptacles, that the goats came to drink from. The mating occured when they came to drink, and since the goats mated by the rods, the goats brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted young." [p. 288]
Einstein's feelings about relativity and religion — which should not come as a surprise:
Einstein was much concerned with questions of morality and meaning. When asked what effect relativity had on religion, he replied, "None. Relativity is a purely scientific theory, and has nothing to do with religion. Nevertheless, there is a long history of fruitless attempts to relate the specifics of mathematics or physics to man's religious and moral life. This is the wacky side of the Pythagorean heritage. The most general lesson that man can learn from science is the need to apply the highest standards of reason to those problems to which they can be applied. [p. 400, emphasis in original]
About the events that put Einstein's name on everyone's lips:
Einstein's theory predicted that the path of light would be bent near massive bodies. Newton had also believed that his light corpuscles would be attracted by gravity, and Faraday looked unsuccessfully for the effect of gravity on light. Einstein's prediciton was tested in 1919, during an eclipse of the Sun. The man who organized the experiment, which involved sending observers to Brazil and Principe, an island in the Gulf of Guinea, was the English cosmologist Sir Arthur Eddington, who was an early convert to relativity. […]
The experiment had been on a grnd scale. An account of the observations was presented at a joint meeting of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society, in London, and the announcement of the results by the astronomer royal, Sir Frank Watson Dyson, was a dramatic high point in the history of science. The deviations recorded by the two expeditions were 1.61 and 1.98 seconds of arc, although the experimental error was rather large. Einstein had predicted a deviation of 1.74 seconds of arc. The chairman of the meetings, J.J. Thomson, proclaimed, "This is the most important result obtained in connection with the theory of gravitation since Newton's day [and] one of the highest achievements of human thought." That was on 6 November 1919. The following day there was an announcement in the London Times, and within days Einstein's name became known to more people at one time than that of anyone else in the history of science. [p. 431]
The heading to Chapter 33 on "Cosmology" [p. 442]:
The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of mankind than the discovery of a star.
— Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, early nineteenth-century gastronome
A curious footnote to scientific history and theory that I'd never heard before:
Before Galileo turned his telescope to the night sky in 1610, the universe was a much smaller place. There are fewer than 5000 stars visible to the naked eye, alhtough it must have been assumed that there were many more, in view of the common European belief that each person had his own personal star. [footnote:] In the fifth century, Bishop Eusebius of Alexandria asked if "there were only two sars at the time of Adam and Eve." [p. 451]
Finally, a remark that has not lost its defining utility:
In the early 1920s the automated production line turned America into an object of mass envy and admiration. Technology, not art or basic science, was confirmed as civilization's status symbol. Few heeded the words of Dean Inge, in the 1920 Romanes Lecture: "The European talks of progress because by the aid of a few scientific discoveries he has established a society which has mistaken comfort for civilization." [p. 488]
In: All, Common-Place Book, It's Only Rocket Science
Spam Cake
Second only, in the realm of strange food fascinations, to an unnatural interest in congealed salads is my fixation on Spam, the Hormel canned-meat product. I still have hanging, right here where I can see it, a Spam Calendar from 2004, where each month features a recipe illustrated by an appetizing, full-color picture. Yumm. Someone asked me the other day why I still had it up — as though to show the current days of the week might be the only use for a calendar! — and I said it was for "inspiration".
A couple of weeks back we kicked off the pot-luck season around here with a pool party, and I took my latest find: Spam and French-Fry Casserole. I was hoping for a spectacular success to match my all time favorite "8-Can Casserole", and next favorite "McGill Masterpiece" (recipes to follow, some day), but it disappointed me a little bit by not exhibiting the hoped-for burst of flavor in each bite that I'd hoped for. The search goes on.
At any rate, I was having a bit of an e-mail exchange with a fellow lover of weird food, and happened to be reminded about recent intelligence received concerning a recipe for a "spam cake". This is one I can't wait to serve, just for the opportunity to reveal its secret ingredient:
There are zillions of SPAM concoctions on the internet – everything from Rack of Spam to Spammus to Spam soup. But all-be-darned if I couldn't find one for SPAM cake. So I called the SPAM Museum, located at 1937 SPAM Boulevard in Austin, Minnesota and asked them. The lady said I'll have to call you back. Twenty minutes later the phone rang and she said "the recipe for SPAM cake is very simple. Follow the directions for any white, spice, yellow or devil's food cake mix, but substitute grated SPAM for the oil." *
Tra la!
———-
*Charles Pheonix, "Slide of the Week: Spam Cake Birthday Party Luncheon, Alcoa Aluminum Company, LA, 1955", God Bless Americana, 30 June 2005.
In: All, Curious Stuff, Food Stuff
Alphabetical Ideology
I happened to be reading some columns by Cynthia Tucker at uExpress.com, which offers political columns by about a dozen, widely syndicated columnists, when I noticed something that I thought odd.
- In the list of columnists "On the Right", the writers' last names began with these letters: "B", "C", "G", "G", "K", and "L".
- In the list of columnists "On the Left", the writers' last names began with these letters: "R", "R", "S", and "T".
Now, what do you notice? No, I'm not referring to the fact that in this world of so-called "liberal-dominated media", they have 50% more writers "on the right" than "on the left" — for "balance", no doubt. But that's not what I wanted to point out.
Why is it that the names of the writers "on the right" all begin with letters from the first half of the alphabet, but the names of the writers "on the left" all begin with letters from the last half of the alphabet?
Coincidence? Nefarious conspiracy? The long term results of seating by alphabet in grade school?
Clearly, I need research money to look into it.
In: All, Curious Stuff, Eureka!
Cheesy Dreams
Thanks to Annie at Maud Newton's blog, I got to read this fascinating report from the British Cheese Board* called "Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Cheese". With a title like that, you know it's going to be good.
The thesis is simply stated at the outset:
The age old myth that cheese gives you nightmares has finally been laid to rest this week following the release of a new study carried out by the British Cheese Board.
The in-depth Cheese & Dreams study, a first of its kind, reveals that eating cheese before bed will not only aid a good night’s sleep but different cheeses will in fact cause different types of dreams.
Summarizing some of the startling conclusions:
85% of females who ate Stilton had some of the most unusual dreams of the whole study. 65% of people eating Cheddar dreamt about celebrities, over 65% of participants eating Red Leicester revisited their schooldays, all female participants who ate British Brie had nice relaxing dreams whereas male participants had cryptic dreams, two thirds of all those who ate Lancashire had a dream about work and over half of Cheshire eaters had a dreamless sleep.
The cheeses [all British!] used in the study were
- Stilton
- Cheddar
- Red Leicester
- British Brie
- Lancashire
- Cheshire
I suspect the researchers were most surprised to find that the vast majority of Stilton eaters slept well, albeit with "odd and vivid" (men) or "bizarre" (women) dreams. Fortunately, these odd, vivid, or bizarre experiences were not unpleasant.
Highlights included talking soft toys, lifts that move sideways[#], a vegetarian crocodile upset because it could not eat children, dinner party guests being traded for camels, soldiers fighting with each other with kittens instead of guns and a party in a lunatic asylum.
There are other descriptions of interesting dreams reported by the cheese-eaters, but I wouldn't want to give it all away. But don't forget:
There are over 700 varieties of British cheese available, with a British Cheese for every occasion.
This, of course, rather leaves the door open for all sorts of comparative studies between the dreams induced by various national cheeses, particularly among those of native nationality. However, that does leave one wondering what Americans would dream after eating American Pasteurized Process Cheese-Food Product.
———-
*Lately I've been reading cookbooks that seem to be compilations of "favorite recipes", often provided by manufacturers or "boards" that promote different foods, or combinations of foods, in different parts of the US. Things like "Washington State Apple Advisory Board", or "Philly Cheese-Steak Promotion Board", many of them for foods that you'd think couldn't generate enough interest to pay for one advisor, let alone an entire board. I'm looking forward to the day when I have some leisure to explore some of these boards and their favorite recipes, although I fear that my blog's 4 readers may pay the price for it.
*In passing, it makes one wonder whether, perhaps, Roald Dahl had enjoyed a bite of fine English Stilton before writing the relevant portions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. When I was in sixth grade, our teacher would read to us for a short while after recess, while we students put our heads down on our desks and rested. That Dahl book was one of her choices, and I was terribly impressed by the idea of a lift that could move sideways. [This note added a day later.]
In: All, Curious Stuff, The Art of Conversation
People Mulch
When I heard about this from someone, I thought it just sounded really cool (as it were), and would cut down on emission of green-house gases from crematoria, and promote the planting of trees. Another part of it, of course, is that I just like Swedes.
A town in Sweden plans to become the first place in the world where corpses will be disposed of by freeze-drying, as an environmentally friendly alternative to cremation or burial. Jonkoping, in southern Sweden, is to turn its crematorium into a so-called promatorium next year.
Swedes will then have the chance to bury their dead according to the pioneering method, which involves freezing the body, dipping it in liquid nitrogen and gently vibrating it to shatter it into powder. This is put into a small box made of potato or corn starch and placed in a shallow grave, where it will disintegrate within six to 12 months.
People are to be encouraged to plant a tree on the grave. It would feed off the compost formed from the body, to emphasise the organic cycle of life.
[…]
The technique was conceived by a Swedish biologist, Susanne Wiigh-Masak, 49, who said: "Mulching was nature's original plan for us, and that's what used to happen to us at the start of humanity – we went back into the soil."
[Kate Connolly (in Berlin), "Sweden's new funeral rite – bodies freeze-dried, powdered and made into tree mulch", The Telegraph [UK], 28 September 2005.]