Thursday, May 15, 2008
Louise Ure - Muderati - Funeral Music
Louise Ure has a good blog post over at Murderati, the typepad blog that rotates posts by murder writers through the week.
Her post this Tuesday was about funeral music -- specifically, your funeral music. What music would you choose to play at your funeral?
When my cousin died, the family and her friends gathered at Pfeiffer Beach down in Big Sur. The music that played while her dad waded out into the surf to sprinkle ashes was Joan Baez singing Amazing Grace, a capella.
When Elizabeth died, her granddaughter sang Bette Midler's Wind Beneath My Wings, a capella:
Did you ever know that you're my hero,
and everything I would like to be?
I can fly higher than an eagle,
'cause you are the wind beneath my wings.
It might have appeared to go unnoticed,
but I've got it all here in my heart.
I want you to know I know the truth, of course I know it.
I would be nothing without you.
One of the songs Ure mentions is this one, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's medley of Somewhere Over the Rainbow and What a Wonderful World.
What is the music of your life, your soundtrack?
My answer later. We're off (on this friggin' hot afternoon -- up over 93dF upstairs) to the Waterfront Restaurant down by Pier 5the Ferry Building for a Spanish wine tasting.
Later.
posted by Sal Towse at 2:24 PM|
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Her post this Tuesday was about funeral music -- specifically, your funeral music. What music would you choose to play at your funeral?
When my cousin died, the family and her friends gathered at Pfeiffer Beach down in Big Sur. The music that played while her dad waded out into the surf to sprinkle ashes was Joan Baez singing Amazing Grace, a capella.
When Elizabeth died, her granddaughter sang Bette Midler's Wind Beneath My Wings, a capella:
Did you ever know that you're my hero,
and everything I would like to be?
I can fly higher than an eagle,
'cause you are the wind beneath my wings.
It might have appeared to go unnoticed,
but I've got it all here in my heart.
I want you to know I know the truth, of course I know it.
I would be nothing without you.
One of the songs Ure mentions is this one, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's medley of Somewhere Over the Rainbow and What a Wonderful World.
What is the music of your life, your soundtrack?
My answer later. We're off (on this friggin' hot afternoon -- up over 93dF upstairs) to the Waterfront Restaurant down by Pier 5
Later.
Labels: life, music, people, video
posted by Sal Towse at 2:24 PM|
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California Supreme Court overturns gay marriage ban
California Supreme Court overturns gay marriage ban
Yay! Hooray! Equality!
Now onward to November when the California Protection of Marriage Act (a constitutional amendment) will probably be on the ballot to read:
SECTION 2. Article I. Section 7.5 is added to the California Constitution. to read:
Sec. 7.5. Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.
Bah.
Today's California Supreme Court decision [PDF]
posted by Sal Towse at 10:25 AM||
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Yay! Hooray! Equality!
Now onward to November when the California Protection of Marriage Act (a constitutional amendment) will probably be on the ballot to read:
SECTION 2. Article I. Section 7.5 is added to the California Constitution. to read:
Sec. 7.5. Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.
Bah.
Today's California Supreme Court decision [PDF]
Labels: California, causes, legal, life, politics
posted by Sal Towse at 10:25 AM|
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Bits and bytes
It seems to have been all Twitter and no Blogger for far too long. (For the Twitter bits, look over to the right sidebar ...) A brief wrapup of my long weekend.
Saturday morning I walked down to John's Grill on Ellis for a lunch meeting of Mystery Writers of America/Northern California chapter. Along the way I came upon a crowd of "anonymous" with face masks and disguises, gathering near the Transamerica Pyramid for their May 10th swipe at the Scientology headquarters nearby. "Ask me why I'm wearing a mask." read one sign. Jason Beghe showed up on Saturday and mingled with the anonymous undisguised. What more harm could he fear? Search for /anonymous scientology/ for the scoop and the YouTube videos.
Guest for the MWA-NorCal lunch was agent Elise Proulx (Frederick Hill Bonnie Nadell Associates on Union Street in our fair and bucolic ville), who has just become a member of board of Litquake. She talked of this and that, but my notes are elsewhere. Most of what I remember was nothing ragingly new to anyone who read Miss Snark back in the day, or who has read her archives since, but a fair number of the unpublished in the audience obviously hadn't had that experience.
Proulx did say that she hates synopses as a matter of course. She'd rather get a three-para query letter with a overview para, a short synopsis para and a who-are-you-the-author para. If she likes that, she'll ask for a partial. If she likes the partial, she'll ask for a full. She'd rather be reading a partial or a full than a synopsis. Her percentages of how-many-queries become how-many-partials become how-many-fulls become clients weren't terribly encouraging.
Proulx also said that there's a site out there (you may know which one I mean -- she didn't remember the name of it) which sends out queries for writers. She says she gets these e-queries with her name there next to a cc: for a LARGE bunch of other agents in the A-F category. She deletes those queries; she considers them spam. Be forewarned.
Funny stories about queries? Proulx had them in spades. Gaffes? Those too. Note: Do not send a query to her headed Dear Ms Hillnadel. Yes, her e-addr is elise_hillnadell-at-sbcglobal.net, but that doesn't mean she's changed her last name.
A good time was had by all. My chicken caesar salad was excellent. My $3 worth of raffle tickets won me a book of my choice from those donated at the table on the east side of the room. I picked Louise Ure's latest, The Fault Tree. Had her sign it. Started it over the weekend. Intriguing sleuth. Interesting setup.
After the MWA-NorCal lunch, I walked down to the Embarcadero and met up with his nibs and moseyed over to the long line of people waiting to get into KFOG Kaboom! at Piers 30-32. Cost this year: $15 each plus service charges. The sound system was better than years past when things were free. There were more porta-potties. I assume that's what all the money goes for. Wish it were still free. Howsomever. ...
The gates opened early and we found a great spot right at the edge of Pier 30. Mellow people abounded. We ate roasted corn and Philly cheesesteak and crabcake and all sorts of the equivalent of stuff on a stick while listening to Matt Nathanson, Collective Soul and Los Lobos through the afternoon. As dusk drifted in, so did the fog. Trails and trickles, ohpleasedon'tgetanythicker fog. We watched the tugs pull FIVE BARGES FULL OF FIREWORKS into place. If you click on the Kaboom! link above, you'll see video of the fireworks. Unfortunately, a bit diluted by a bit of fog. Next year!
Sunday, we drove over to Aptos and had lunch with the older younger guy and his partner. After lunch we all piled into the Honda with 105K miles on it and drove to Santa Cruz with gifties for the matriarch in honor of Mother's Day. We drove the guys back to Aptos where I got my MD's present (a box of delish chocolates from Richard Donnelly Chocolates in Santa Cruz. Sweet!)
From there we drove south to see what wildflowers were still left to see, to Carmel and east over the hills to King City where we checked into the Motel 6 (they'll keep the light on for you.) Big spenders: $46.03 including taxes and all =and= a senior discount.
We had dinner at Alexander's, which was suffering pains with new management. Staff all seemed new. No liquor license yet. Uproar. Not staffed up for all the folks showing up for Mother's Day dinner. Loads of patrons. Few staff. (We'd forgotten it was Mother's Day dinner time when we decided to head over there for dinner. ...) Was this the =first= day under new management? Might've been. It was =that= discombobulated. I won't list the woes, but that meal was in the Top Five Woeful Dinners we've had in the past thirty years. Here's hoping things shake out as they get settled in.
Next morning we had breakfast at V's Diner, the little diner next to the Motel 6, where you couldn't just ask for corned beef hash, you had to order breakfast, which meant two eggs anywayyouwantem, corned beef hash, hash browns or fruit, toast or muffin or pancakes. ... well, you get the idea. The corned beef hash was excellent. There was too much food to finish.
We checked out and headed off, first to Mission San Antonio de Padua, the very cool mission in the middle of Fort Hunter Liggett, on the old Hearst Ranch property that the Hearsts sold to the military in 1940. Mission San Antonio is the best mission I've ever visited. We first visited back in 1990 when the older younger guy was in fourth grade and studying California missions. The mission is still stuck out in the middle of nowhere because it's surrounded by Hunter Liggett, and so seems to be closest to what it might've been when his nibs' great-great-great whatever came up with the DeAnza expedition in 1776, tugging on his mom's skirt hem, asking, "Are we there yet?" Lovely spot.
From the mission, we headed back to King City and then east to Bitterwater where we caught Airline Highway and wandered through places and off to the end of Willow Creek Road
and back onto the highway and on to Paicines, up Panoche Road toward New Idria. We turned around before we reached the mines but gosh, it's lovely country out there.
The last time we were here, we came a different route and earlier in the year.
This year we had to cut out earlier than we would've liked because we had to get to the outlet shops in Gilroy before they closed because I needed some new walking shoes. (My current pair are worn to the nub and the outlet shops are too far from home to justify a special trip, but if we happen to swing by on the way home from the far southlands ...)
Home again, home again and a lovely time we had. Next time we will head out earlier in the spring for our wildflower trek. Although there were still some blooming, the spectacular shows that look like someone spilt watercolor paints over the hillsides were weeks gone past. We hadn't had a spare duo of days to make the trip earlier this year, but what we found was beautiful too.
posted by Sal Towse at 2:37 PM||
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Saturday morning I walked down to John's Grill on Ellis for a lunch meeting of Mystery Writers of America/Northern California chapter. Along the way I came upon a crowd of "anonymous" with face masks and disguises, gathering near the Transamerica Pyramid for their May 10th swipe at the Scientology headquarters nearby. "Ask me why I'm wearing a mask." read one sign. Jason Beghe showed up on Saturday and mingled with the anonymous undisguised. What more harm could he fear? Search for /anonymous scientology/ for the scoop and the YouTube videos.
Guest for the MWA-NorCal lunch was agent Elise Proulx (Frederick Hill Bonnie Nadell Associates on Union Street in our fair and bucolic ville), who has just become a member of board of Litquake. She talked of this and that, but my notes are elsewhere. Most of what I remember was nothing ragingly new to anyone who read Miss Snark back in the day, or who has read her archives since, but a fair number of the unpublished in the audience obviously hadn't had that experience.
Proulx did say that she hates synopses as a matter of course. She'd rather get a three-para query letter with a overview para, a short synopsis para and a who-are-you-the-author para. If she likes that, she'll ask for a partial. If she likes the partial, she'll ask for a full. She'd rather be reading a partial or a full than a synopsis. Her percentages of how-many-queries become how-many-partials become how-many-fulls become clients weren't terribly encouraging.
Proulx also said that there's a site out there (you may know which one I mean -- she didn't remember the name of it) which sends out queries for writers. She says she gets these e-queries with her name there next to a cc: for a LARGE bunch of other agents in the A-F category. She deletes those queries; she considers them spam. Be forewarned.
Funny stories about queries? Proulx had them in spades. Gaffes? Those too. Note: Do not send a query to her headed Dear Ms Hillnadel. Yes, her e-addr is elise_hillnadell-at-sbcglobal.net, but that doesn't mean she's changed her last name.
A good time was had by all. My chicken caesar salad was excellent. My $3 worth of raffle tickets won me a book of my choice from those donated at the table on the east side of the room. I picked Louise Ure's latest, The Fault Tree. Had her sign it. Started it over the weekend. Intriguing sleuth. Interesting setup.
After the MWA-NorCal lunch, I walked down to the Embarcadero and met up with his nibs and moseyed over to the long line of people waiting to get into KFOG Kaboom! at Piers 30-32. Cost this year: $15 each plus service charges. The sound system was better than years past when things were free. There were more porta-potties. I assume that's what all the money goes for. Wish it were still free. Howsomever. ...
The gates opened early and we found a great spot right at the edge of Pier 30. Mellow people abounded. We ate roasted corn and Philly cheesesteak and crabcake and all sorts of the equivalent of stuff on a stick while listening to Matt Nathanson, Collective Soul and Los Lobos through the afternoon. As dusk drifted in, so did the fog. Trails and trickles, ohpleasedon'tgetanythicker fog. We watched the tugs pull FIVE BARGES FULL OF FIREWORKS into place. If you click on the Kaboom! link above, you'll see video of the fireworks. Unfortunately, a bit diluted by a bit of fog. Next year!
Sunday, we drove over to Aptos and had lunch with the older younger guy and his partner. After lunch we all piled into the Honda with 105K miles on it and drove to Santa Cruz with gifties for the matriarch in honor of Mother's Day. We drove the guys back to Aptos where I got my MD's present (a box of delish chocolates from Richard Donnelly Chocolates in Santa Cruz. Sweet!)
From there we drove south to see what wildflowers were still left to see, to Carmel and east over the hills to King City where we checked into the Motel 6 (they'll keep the light on for you.) Big spenders: $46.03 including taxes and all =and= a senior discount.
We had dinner at Alexander's, which was suffering pains with new management. Staff all seemed new. No liquor license yet. Uproar. Not staffed up for all the folks showing up for Mother's Day dinner. Loads of patrons. Few staff. (We'd forgotten it was Mother's Day dinner time when we decided to head over there for dinner. ...) Was this the =first= day under new management? Might've been. It was =that= discombobulated. I won't list the woes, but that meal was in the Top Five Woeful Dinners we've had in the past thirty years. Here's hoping things shake out as they get settled in.
Next morning we had breakfast at V's Diner, the little diner next to the Motel 6, where you couldn't just ask for corned beef hash, you had to order breakfast, which meant two eggs anywayyouwantem, corned beef hash, hash browns or fruit, toast or muffin or pancakes. ... well, you get the idea. The corned beef hash was excellent. There was too much food to finish.
We checked out and headed off, first to Mission San Antonio de Padua, the very cool mission in the middle of Fort Hunter Liggett, on the old Hearst Ranch property that the Hearsts sold to the military in 1940. Mission San Antonio is the best mission I've ever visited. We first visited back in 1990 when the older younger guy was in fourth grade and studying California missions. The mission is still stuck out in the middle of nowhere because it's surrounded by Hunter Liggett, and so seems to be closest to what it might've been when his nibs' great-great-great whatever came up with the DeAnza expedition in 1776, tugging on his mom's skirt hem, asking, "Are we there yet?" Lovely spot.
From the mission, we headed back to King City and then east to Bitterwater where we caught Airline Highway and wandered through places and off to the end of Willow Creek Road
and back onto the highway and on to Paicines, up Panoche Road toward New Idria. We turned around before we reached the mines but gosh, it's lovely country out there.
The last time we were here, we came a different route and earlier in the year.
This year we had to cut out earlier than we would've liked because we had to get to the outlet shops in Gilroy before they closed because I needed some new walking shoes. (My current pair are worn to the nub and the outlet shops are too far from home to justify a special trip, but if we happen to swing by on the way home from the far southlands ...)
Home again, home again and a lovely time we had. Next time we will head out earlier in the spring for our wildflower trek. Although there were still some blooming, the spectacular shows that look like someone spilt watercolor paints over the hillsides were weeks gone past. We hadn't had a spare duo of days to make the trip earlier this year, but what we found was beautiful too.
Labels: California, life, photographs
posted by Sal Towse at 2:37 PM|
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[BLOG] Get A Look At This!
Get A Look At This -- blog that posts curious stuff. Worth another RSS feed link
posted by Sal Towse at 1:10 PM||
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Labels: blog
posted by Sal Towse at 1:10 PM|
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Friday, May 09, 2008
[ATTN: UV] Sidewalk art in the City by the Bay
All but the last line true. Wait. Let me correct that. I have no idea what an Indian fighter or chemical test pilot are. I don't know what being spiritually aerodynamic is but it probably has something to do with the Church of well, you know. The last line is absolutely untrue. That I know.
Labels: art, photographs, San Francisco
posted by Sal Towse at 5:15 PM|
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FactCheck.org: That Chain E-mail Your Friend Sent to You Is (Likely) Bogus. Seriously.
FactCheck.org: That Chain E-mail Your Friend Sent to You Is (Likely) Bogus. Seriously.
Interesting article. Keep the link stashed away and return it to anyone who sends you one of those chain e-mails about this or that presidential candidate.
posted by Sal Towse at 10:31 AM||
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Interesting article. Keep the link stashed away and return it to anyone who sends you one of those chain e-mails about this or that presidential candidate.
posted by Sal Towse at 10:31 AM|
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Thursday, May 08, 2008
The sixth mistake? "working, hardworking Americans, white Americans"
AP article: Clinton presses on, urges supporters to ignore calls to quit
In an interview with USA Today published Thursday, Clinton noted that the coalition of voters who have supported her in the Democratic nominating contest had eluded Obama and would pose problems for him in the general election.
"Senator Obama's support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again ... there's a pattern here," Clinton was quoted as saying.
***
Some of us working, hardworking Americans, white Americans are wondering whether anyone has sent a search party out looking for her marbles.
Washington Post Behind The Numbers blog: Clinton's Broader Base?
Update: YouTube clip of the interview's salient point [Thx! Archer!]
posted by Sal Towse at 9:35 PM||
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In an interview with USA Today published Thursday, Clinton noted that the coalition of voters who have supported her in the Democratic nominating contest had eluded Obama and would pose problems for him in the general election.
"Senator Obama's support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again ... there's a pattern here," Clinton was quoted as saying.
***
Some of us working, hardworking Americans, white Americans are wondering whether anyone has sent a search party out looking for her marbles.
Washington Post Behind The Numbers blog: Clinton's Broader Base?
Update: YouTube clip of the interview's salient point [Thx! Archer!]
Labels: politics
posted by Sal Towse at 9:35 PM|
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The Five Mistakes Clinton Made - TIME
Now, granted, there's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip. It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED wasn't. ...
But I found this article interesting. Some of the points I'd heard before. The Ickes-Penn story I heard for the first time today.
The Five Mistakes Clinton Made - TIME
by Karen Tumulty
For all her talk about "full speed on to the White House," there was an unmistakably elegiac tone [Note: Tumulty is not the only person to use this adjective to describe Hillary's speech] to Hillary Clinton's primary-night speech in Indianapolis. And if one needed further confirmation that the undaunted, never-say-die Clintons realize their bid might be at an end, all it took was a look at the wistful faces of the husband and the daughter who stood behind the candidate as she talked of all the people she has met in a journey "that has been a blessing for me."
It was also a journey she had begun with what appeared to be insurmountable advantages, which evaporated one by one as the campaign dragged on far longer than anyone could have anticipated. She made at least five big mistakes, each of which compounded the others:
[...]
posted by Sal Towse at 9:22 PM||
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But I found this article interesting. Some of the points I'd heard before. The Ickes-Penn story I heard for the first time today.
The Five Mistakes Clinton Made - TIME
by Karen Tumulty
For all her talk about "full speed on to the White House," there was an unmistakably elegiac tone [Note: Tumulty is not the only person to use this adjective to describe Hillary's speech] to Hillary Clinton's primary-night speech in Indianapolis. And if one needed further confirmation that the undaunted, never-say-die Clintons realize their bid might be at an end, all it took was a look at the wistful faces of the husband and the daughter who stood behind the candidate as she talked of all the people she has met in a journey "that has been a blessing for me."
It was also a journey she had begun with what appeared to be insurmountable advantages, which evaporated one by one as the campaign dragged on far longer than anyone could have anticipated. She made at least five big mistakes, each of which compounded the others:
[...]
Labels: politics
posted by Sal Towse at 9:22 PM|
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You can't go home again. ...
14 April 2006, two days before my dad died, escrow closed on the home where I'd spent the majority of my life, where I'd lived over twice as long as I'd lived in my childhood home.
We were without question out of the bucolic ville and into the City.
We'd drive by when we were in the area. The tall poles with orange netting showing the outlines of the house-to-be went up, then tipped and tilted after the winter storms. The renters who moved in shortly after escrow closed moved out around the time the orange netting went up. Bellecourt was vacant, tree fall littering the circular drive. The house that his nibs and his father had helped build was in limbo, just waiting for permits to go through before ... before what? We were hoping maybe it would be just a remodel, yes, a major remodel but maybe one where the bones of the place were still visible if you squinted just right. Maybe?
Months. A year went by. Maybe the buyers had run out of money. Maybe they'd changed their minds.
I drove past the old place last week to find cyclone fencing around the entire acre property. A construction truck parked out front. Port-a-potty for the crew. Came home and told his nibs that the house was still standing though.
His nibs just got a note from old friend that his wife drove by and the house has been demolished, scraped, gone-gone-gone in preparation for the new construction.
*sigh*
Even if we win the lottery, we can't go home again.
Ever.
posted by Sal Towse at 9:02 AM||
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We were without question out of the bucolic ville and into the City.
We'd drive by when we were in the area. The tall poles with orange netting showing the outlines of the house-to-be went up, then tipped and tilted after the winter storms. The renters who moved in shortly after escrow closed moved out around the time the orange netting went up. Bellecourt was vacant, tree fall littering the circular drive. The house that his nibs and his father had helped build was in limbo, just waiting for permits to go through before ... before what? We were hoping maybe it would be just a remodel, yes, a major remodel but maybe one where the bones of the place were still visible if you squinted just right. Maybe?
Months. A year went by. Maybe the buyers had run out of money. Maybe they'd changed their minds.
I drove past the old place last week to find cyclone fencing around the entire acre property. A construction truck parked out front. Port-a-potty for the crew. Came home and told his nibs that the house was still standing though.
His nibs just got a note from old friend that his wife drove by and the house has been demolished, scraped, gone-gone-gone in preparation for the new construction.
*sigh*
Even if we win the lottery, we can't go home again.
Ever.
Labels: life, real estate
posted by Sal Towse at 9:02 AM|
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Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Sentinels
Black birds (not "wild parrots of Telegraph Hill" although this *is* their tree if you believe what the politicos would have you to believe).
Where are the parrots? Ou sont les parrots?
Labels: life, photographs, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill
posted by Sal Towse at 8:04 PM|
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Thursday, May 01, 2008
Grapes 2.0
Yay, me! I just caught up on eighty back posts at grapes 2.0, dating back to before we left for Jordan/Egypt in March.
bloglines lets me know just how far behind I get on the umpty ump RSS feeds I've stashed away here.
So, I go away for a while or don't hang out on the computer for a while and before you know it, a blog I track has EIGHTY POSTS I haven't read yet with more added each day.
Fine. Caught up on grapes2.0.
Next up Sara Zarr's blog: 116 posts behind on that one. ...
posted by Sal Towse at 4:04 PM||
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bloglines lets me know just how far behind I get on the umpty ump RSS feeds I've stashed away here.
So, I go away for a while or don't hang out on the computer for a while and before you know it, a blog I track has EIGHTY POSTS I haven't read yet with more added each day.
Fine. Caught up on grapes2.0.
Next up Sara Zarr's blog: 116 posts behind on that one. ...
posted by Sal Towse at 4:04 PM|
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Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Old Bailey Online - The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 - Central Criminal Court
Old Bailey Online - The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 - Central Criminal Court
[courtesy of Auntie K. Thanks, K!]
First thing I did, of course, was pop /towse/ into the search to see what the Towses were up to from 1674-1913.
posted by Sal Towse at 9:56 AM||
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[courtesy of Auntie K. Thanks, K!]
First thing I did, of course, was pop /towse/ into the search to see what the Towses were up to from 1674-1913.
Labels: history, resource, URL
posted by Sal Towse at 9:56 AM|
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Monday, April 28, 2008
I miss sunsets
We face east toward Oakland and Berkeley and get sunshiney wakeups in the morning, but our location means the sun sets behind the hill directly behind us so we never see sunsets unless we're out and about.
I was talking with a nabe the other day who told me he takes the stairs to Pioneer Park (AKA Coit Tower to most) to watch the sun set. Sounds like a plan.
We were out and about yesterday ...
posted by Sal Towse at 2:50 PM||
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I was talking with a nabe the other day who told me he takes the stairs to Pioneer Park (AKA Coit Tower to most) to watch the sun set. Sounds like a plan.
We were out and about yesterday ...
Labels: life, photographs, San Francisco
posted by Sal Towse at 2:50 PM|
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Tales of the City: Derek Powazek
Derek Powazek - 90-Second Story: Grumpy Neighbor
posted by Sal Towse at 11:00 AM||
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Labels: life, San Francisco, video
posted by Sal Towse at 11:00 AM|
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Saturday, April 26, 2008
Recent Earthquakes - Map for 120-40
Recent Earthquakes - Map for 120-40
Reno's rocking. ...
[ref] nineteen shakes >= 3.0 in the last five days. ...
3.5 2008/04/26 08:20:40 39.543N 119.936W 1.1 4 km ( 2 mi) NNE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.4 2008/04/26 02:11:59 39.525N 119.927W 2.1 3 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.7 2008/04/26 00:29:20 39.527N 119.927W 2.7 3 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.4 2008/04/25 23:43:50 39.521N 119.924W 1.4 3 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
4.7 2008/04/25 23:40:10 39.520N 119.930W 1.4 2 km ( 1 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.3 2008/04/25 23:39:59 39.516N 119.924W 1.7 3 km ( 2 mi) E of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.6 2008/04/25 18:13:20 39.529N 119.918W 1.6 4 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.3 2008/04/25 10:30:10 39.531N 119.928W 1.4 3 km ( 2 mi) NE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.3 2008/04/25 01:42:58 39.521N 119.922W 2.6 3 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.3 2008/04/24 18:00:33 39.531N 119.929W 2.2 3 km ( 2 mi) NE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.6 2008/04/24 17:47:52 40.375N 115.374W 0.0 6 km ( 4 mi) ENE of Ruby Valley, NV
4.2 2008/04/24 15:55:49 39.527N 119.929W 2.8 3 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.0 2008/04/24 15:51:06 39.539N 119.938W 1.8 3 km ( 2 mi) NNE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
4.1 2008/04/24 15:47:04 39.533N 119.932W 1.1 3 km ( 2 mi) NE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.0 2008/04/24 00:33:15 37.891N 118.097W 5.5 42 km (26 mi) S of Tonopah
Junction, NV
3.0 2008/04/23 14:21:39 37.377N 114.696W 9.9 14 km ( 8 mi) SSE of Helene, NV
3.2 2008/04/22 19:06:54 37.992N 118.681W 5.6 38 km (23 mi) SSW of Qualeys Camp, NV
3.8 2008/04/22 13:40:09 41.221N 114.806W 7.7 18 km (11 mi) NE of Wells, NV
3.1 2008/04/21 12:14:10 39.517N 119.922W 2.6 3 km ( 2 mi) E of Verdi-Mogul, NV
Update: Earthquake wizards say the increasing 4.1->4.2->4.7 quakes don't follow the standard pattern of large shake followed by decreasing intensity aftershocks. They don't know quite what to make of it. CNN update
posted by Sal Towse at 11:07 AM||
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Reno's rocking. ...
[ref] nineteen shakes >= 3.0 in the last five days. ...
3.5 2008/04/26 08:20:40 39.543N 119.936W 1.1 4 km ( 2 mi) NNE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.4 2008/04/26 02:11:59 39.525N 119.927W 2.1 3 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.7 2008/04/26 00:29:20 39.527N 119.927W 2.7 3 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.4 2008/04/25 23:43:50 39.521N 119.924W 1.4 3 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
4.7 2008/04/25 23:40:10 39.520N 119.930W 1.4 2 km ( 1 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.3 2008/04/25 23:39:59 39.516N 119.924W 1.7 3 km ( 2 mi) E of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.6 2008/04/25 18:13:20 39.529N 119.918W 1.6 4 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.3 2008/04/25 10:30:10 39.531N 119.928W 1.4 3 km ( 2 mi) NE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.3 2008/04/25 01:42:58 39.521N 119.922W 2.6 3 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.3 2008/04/24 18:00:33 39.531N 119.929W 2.2 3 km ( 2 mi) NE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.6 2008/04/24 17:47:52 40.375N 115.374W 0.0 6 km ( 4 mi) ENE of Ruby Valley, NV
4.2 2008/04/24 15:55:49 39.527N 119.929W 2.8 3 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.0 2008/04/24 15:51:06 39.539N 119.938W 1.8 3 km ( 2 mi) NNE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
4.1 2008/04/24 15:47:04 39.533N 119.932W 1.1 3 km ( 2 mi) NE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
3.0 2008/04/24 00:33:15 37.891N 118.097W 5.5 42 km (26 mi) S of Tonopah
Junction, NV
3.0 2008/04/23 14:21:39 37.377N 114.696W 9.9 14 km ( 8 mi) SSE of Helene, NV
3.2 2008/04/22 19:06:54 37.992N 118.681W 5.6 38 km (23 mi) SSW of Qualeys Camp, NV
3.8 2008/04/22 13:40:09 41.221N 114.806W 7.7 18 km (11 mi) NE of Wells, NV
3.1 2008/04/21 12:14:10 39.517N 119.922W 2.6 3 km ( 2 mi) E of Verdi-Mogul, NV
Update: Earthquake wizards say the increasing 4.1->4.2->4.7 quakes don't follow the standard pattern of large shake followed by decreasing intensity aftershocks. They don't know quite what to make of it. CNN update
Labels: quakes
posted by Sal Towse at 11:07 AM|
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Highland bagpipe is a recent invention for nostalgic Scotish émigrés, expert claims
By Patrick Sawer
Last Updated: 3:04am BST 21/04/2008
[telegraph.co.uk]
Whisper it if you dare, but the age-old Highland bagpipe - beloved of sentimental Scots and American tourists in search of their Highland roots - is in fact a recent invention.
A controversial new study has claimed that far from being the time-honoured instrument which led the clans into battle against the Auld Enemy, the bagpipe as we know it was developed in the early 1800s.
It now seems that, like the kilt and most tartans, the tradition of the great Highland bagpipe was something manufactured for the benefit of nostalgic Scottish émigrés.
[...]
[via Funky Plaid at Swirling Vortex of Verisimilitude]
posted by Sal Towse at 10:51 AM||
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Last Updated: 3:04am BST 21/04/2008
[telegraph.co.uk]
Whisper it if you dare, but the age-old Highland bagpipe - beloved of sentimental Scots and American tourists in search of their Highland roots - is in fact a recent invention.
A controversial new study has claimed that far from being the time-honoured instrument which led the clans into battle against the Auld Enemy, the bagpipe as we know it was developed in the early 1800s.
It now seems that, like the kilt and most tartans, the tradition of the great Highland bagpipe was something manufactured for the benefit of nostalgic Scottish émigrés.
[...]
[via Funky Plaid at Swirling Vortex of Verisimilitude]
Labels: history, information
posted by Sal Towse at 10:51 AM|
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Thursday, April 24, 2008
Home again, home again, and wilted spinach salad and garlic bread for dinner
We got back from our flying visit to Obama country late Tuesday.
(One of the reasons we visit Obama country. ...)
Weather when we landed was spitting. (Oh, please give us more rain before the dry summer months kick in.)
We caught the Super Shuttle in from the airport. His nibs had signed and paid online (cheaper that way) before we left home. There were two other guys in the van before us and we wondered where we'd be taken on our way home. Super Shuttle is a fantastic random way to see parts of the City that we don't usually see.
Both guys -- turned out -- lived in the Sunset, just a few blocks from each other. One was like at 26th and Noriega, the other at 27th and Judah, maybe?
After dropping the second guy off, the driver drove like a bat outta hell to get from the Sunset to Telegraph Hill, through the park, up Park Presidio to 101 to Lombard then over on Larkin and up Union, down Montgomery.
Home again, home again. Drop the bags on the floor. Pick up the mail that's sitting where it fell after the mail carrier stuffed it through the door slot.
By now it was past 7:30p and our usual behavior would've been to walk down to Mario's Bohemian Cigar Store and order a large carafe of cheap red wine and two orders of canneloni. Soul soothing food for tired people. Ymmm. But there was this drizz, see? and I was tired and ... I can make dinner quicker than we could walk the four blocks down to Mario's and wait for our order. Not to mention I didn't feel like walking uphill home after dinner.
Dinner Tues
Preheat oven to 375dF or so. Set the rice cooker cooking rice. Fish from the freezer, thawed in the microwave. Place on aluminum foil. Sprinkle with mixed herbs. Squeeze half lemon on top. Wrap up and put in oven for 15min. (~$3)
Prep broccoli and put in microwave for 3min. (~$0.50)
Hmmm. Hmmm. Start sorting through mail. 15min up. Check fish. Put back in for another five minutes. Check broccoli. Zap for another minute. Rice is done. Fish is done. Broccoli is done. Dinner is served ~ twenty-five minutes after we decided not to walk down to Mario's.
Cost: maybe $4 for the two of us. ($0.50 for broccoli. $0.20 for rice, maybe? $0.20 for lemon. $3 for fish. ... Cheaper than Mario's, that's for sure.)
Dinner Wedn
Last night I just wanted something simple. Still lagging from the trip. His nibs had stopped off in Chinatown on his way back from his doctor's appointment and stocked up on fresh veggies and fruit. What sounded good?
Hardboil two eggs. Well, three eggs, really. Save one for an egg salad sandwich Thursday or Friday. Peel and chop two eggs.
[How to boil an egg. Place egg in small pot. Cover with cold water. Place pot on burner. When water boils, turn off heat, put lid on pot and wait ten minutes. After ten minutes, pour hot water from pot and cool egg(s) by filling pot with cold water.]
Rinse bag of spinach from Chinatown. Shake dry. Put in large heat-proof bowl. Cost: $0.50
Toss chopped egg on top. Cost: $0.40 +/- for two eggs.
Take about 1/3 lb bacon and cut into small bits. Fry. Cost: ~$0.70 (bacon 4lbs/$8 @ Costco)
While waiting for bacon to crisp, slice a chunk of sour batard in half, butter, sprinkle with garlic herb sprinkle, put back together, butterside<->butterside, wrap in aluminum foil and heat in 400dF oven. Cost: ~$0.60
Take fried bacon bits out of frying pan and toss onto spinach in bowl. Pour off all but 3T of bacon fat. (Save remainder of bacon fat in refrigerator dish with bacon fat already saved there for another day. ...)
Add 2T olive oil to bacon fat in frypan. Heat. Add 1/2 onion, chopped. Brown. Add ~ 3T balsamic vinegar and scrape up bits from bottom of frypan. Cost olive oil/onion/vinegar ~ $0.50
When hot through, pour onion/vinegar/fat over spinach/egg/bacon and toss. Serve with garlic bread.
Cost for tasty, nutritious (well, except for the bacon and bacon fat) dinner for two: $3, if that.
Home again, home again. Let's take a boat to Bermuda. Let's grab a plane to Saint Paul. Let's take a kayak to Quincy or Nyack. Let's get away from it all.
But it's oh. so. nice. to come home.
posted by Sal Towse at 11:19 AM||
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(One of the reasons we visit Obama country. ...)Weather when we landed was spitting. (Oh, please give us more rain before the dry summer months kick in.)
We caught the Super Shuttle in from the airport. His nibs had signed and paid online (cheaper that way) before we left home. There were two other guys in the van before us and we wondered where we'd be taken on our way home. Super Shuttle is a fantastic random way to see parts of the City that we don't usually see.
Both guys -- turned out -- lived in the Sunset, just a few blocks from each other. One was like at 26th and Noriega, the other at 27th and Judah, maybe?
After dropping the second guy off, the driver drove like a bat outta hell to get from the Sunset to Telegraph Hill, through the park, up Park Presidio to 101 to Lombard then over on Larkin and up Union, down Montgomery.
Home again, home again. Drop the bags on the floor. Pick up the mail that's sitting where it fell after the mail carrier stuffed it through the door slot.
By now it was past 7:30p and our usual behavior would've been to walk down to Mario's Bohemian Cigar Store and order a large carafe of cheap red wine and two orders of canneloni. Soul soothing food for tired people. Ymmm. But there was this drizz, see? and I was tired and ... I can make dinner quicker than we could walk the four blocks down to Mario's and wait for our order. Not to mention I didn't feel like walking uphill home after dinner.
Dinner Tues
Preheat oven to 375dF or so. Set the rice cooker cooking rice. Fish from the freezer, thawed in the microwave. Place on aluminum foil. Sprinkle with mixed herbs. Squeeze half lemon on top. Wrap up and put in oven for 15min. (~$3)
Prep broccoli and put in microwave for 3min. (~$0.50)
Hmmm. Hmmm. Start sorting through mail. 15min up. Check fish. Put back in for another five minutes. Check broccoli. Zap for another minute.
Cost: maybe $4 for the two of us. ($0.50 for broccoli. $0.20 for rice, maybe? $0.20 for lemon. $3 for fish. ... Cheaper than Mario's, that's for sure.)
Dinner Wedn
Last night I just wanted something simple. Still lagging from the trip. His nibs had stopped off in Chinatown on his way back from his doctor's appointment and stocked up on fresh veggies and fruit. What sounded good?
Hardboil two eggs. Well, three eggs, really. Save one for an egg salad sandwich Thursday or Friday. Peel and chop two eggs.
[How to boil an egg. Place egg in small pot. Cover with cold water. Place pot on burner. When water boils, turn off heat, put lid on pot and wait ten minutes. After ten minutes, pour hot water from pot and cool egg(s) by filling pot with cold water.]
Rinse bag of spinach from Chinatown. Shake dry. Put in large heat-proof bowl. Cost: $0.50
Toss chopped egg on top. Cost: $0.40 +/- for two eggs.
Take about 1/3 lb bacon and cut into small bits. Fry. Cost: ~$0.70 (bacon 4lbs/$8 @ Costco)
While waiting for bacon to crisp, slice a chunk of sour batard in half, butter, sprinkle with garlic herb sprinkle, put back together, butterside<->butterside, wrap in aluminum foil and heat in 400dF oven. Cost: ~$0.60
Take fried bacon bits out of frying pan and toss onto spinach in bowl. Pour off all but 3T of bacon fat. (Save remainder of bacon fat in refrigerator dish with bacon fat already saved there for another day. ...)
Add 2T olive oil to bacon fat in frypan. Heat. Add 1/2 onion, chopped. Brown. Add ~ 3T balsamic vinegar and scrape up bits from bottom of frypan. Cost olive oil/onion/vinegar ~ $0.50
When hot through, pour onion/vinegar/fat over spinach/egg/bacon and toss. Serve with garlic bread.
Cost for tasty, nutritious (well, except for the bacon and bacon fat) dinner for two: $3, if that.
Home again, home again. Let's take a boat to Bermuda. Let's grab a plane to Saint Paul. Let's take a kayak to Quincy or Nyack. Let's get away from it all.
But it's oh. so. nice. to come home.
posted by Sal Towse at 11:19 AM|
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Why Hillary Makes My Wife Scream
Chapter 1. Specimens of the American Vulgate
Chapter 1. Specimens of the American Vulgate. 1. The Declaration of Independence in American.
Mencken, H.L. 1921.
[The following is my own translation, but I have had the aid of suggestions from various other scholars. It must be obvious that more than one section of the original is now quite unintelligible to the average American of the sort using the Common Speech. What would he make, for example, of such a sentence as this one: "He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures"? Or of this: "He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise." Such Johnsonian periods are quite beyond his comprehension, and no doubt the fact is at least partly to blame for the neglect upon which the Declaration has fallen in recent years. When, during the Wilson-Palmer saturnalia of oppressions, specialists in liberty began protesting that the Declaration plainly gave the people the right to alter the goverment under which they lived and even to abolish it altogether, they encountered the utmost incredulity. On more than one occasion, in fact, such an exegete was tarred and feathered by the shocked members of the American Legion, even after the Declaration had been read to them. What ailed them was that they could not understand its eighteenth century English. I make the suggestion that its circulation among such patriotic men, translated into the language they use every day, would serve to prevent, or, at all events, to diminish that sort of terrorism.]
When things get so balled up that the people of a country have to cut loose from some other country, and go it on their own hook, without asking no permission from nobody, excepting maybe God Almighty, then they ought to let everybody know why they done it, so that everybody can see they are on the level, and not trying to put nothing over on nobody.
All we got to say on this proposition is this: first, you and me is as good as anybody else, and maybe a damn sight better; second, nobody ain’t got no right to take away none of our rights; third, every man has got a right to live, to come and go as he pleases, and to have a good time however he likes, so long as he don’t interfere with nobody else. That any government that don’t give a man these rights ain’t worth a damn; also, people ought to choose the kind of goverment they want themselves, and nobody else ought to have no say in the matter.
[... Chapter 1. Specimens of the American Vulgate. 1. The Declaration of Independence in American. Mencken, H.L. 1921. ]
[via Archer]
posted by Sal Towse at 9:56 AM||
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Mencken, H.L. 1921.
[The following is my own translation, but I have had the aid of suggestions from various other scholars. It must be obvious that more than one section of the original is now quite unintelligible to the average American of the sort using the Common Speech. What would he make, for example, of such a sentence as this one: "He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures"? Or of this: "He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise." Such Johnsonian periods are quite beyond his comprehension, and no doubt the fact is at least partly to blame for the neglect upon which the Declaration has fallen in recent years. When, during the Wilson-Palmer saturnalia of oppressions, specialists in liberty began protesting that the Declaration plainly gave the people the right to alter the goverment under which they lived and even to abolish it altogether, they encountered the utmost incredulity. On more than one occasion, in fact, such an exegete was tarred and feathered by the shocked members of the American Legion, even after the Declaration had been read to them. What ailed them was that they could not understand its eighteenth century English. I make the suggestion that its circulation among such patriotic men, translated into the language they use every day, would serve to prevent, or, at all events, to diminish that sort of terrorism.]
When things get so balled up that the people of a country have to cut loose from some other country, and go it on their own hook, without asking no permission from nobody, excepting maybe God Almighty, then they ought to let everybody know why they done it, so that everybody can see they are on the level, and not trying to put nothing over on nobody.
All we got to say on this proposition is this: first, you and me is as good as anybody else, and maybe a damn sight better; second, nobody ain’t got no right to take away none of our rights; third, every man has got a right to live, to come and go as he pleases, and to have a good time however he likes, so long as he don’t interfere with nobody else. That any government that don’t give a man these rights ain’t worth a damn; also, people ought to choose the kind of goverment they want themselves, and nobody else ought to have no say in the matter.
[... Chapter 1. Specimens of the American Vulgate. 1. The Declaration of Independence in American. Mencken, H.L. 1921. ]
[via Archer]
posted by Sal Towse at 9:56 AM|
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Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Twitter Saves Man From Egyptian Justice
Twitter Saves Man From Egyptian Justice
Way to get publicity for twitter, Ev.
posted by Sal Towse at 2:58 PM||
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Way to get publicity for twitter, Ev.
posted by Sal Towse at 2:58 PM|
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This Is How We Lost to the White Man
'This Is How We Lost to the White Man'
Article in the May Atlantic about Bill Cosby's activism and his path from I Spy and the Huxtables to his Pound Cake speech and on.
The Web article includes a link to a vid interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates, who wrote the article. Both the article and the Coates interview are time well-spent.
Link: The Pound Cake Speech - Bill Cosby, speaking 17 May 2004 in Washington, DC, at the NAACP's 50th anniversary of Brown v Board of Education (text and audio)
posted by Sal Towse at 1:45 PM||
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Article in the May Atlantic about Bill Cosby's activism and his path from I Spy and the Huxtables to his Pound Cake speech and on.
The Web article includes a link to a vid interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates, who wrote the article. Both the article and the Coates interview are time well-spent.
Link: The Pound Cake Speech - Bill Cosby, speaking 17 May 2004 in Washington, DC, at the NAACP's 50th anniversary of Brown v Board of Education (text and audio)
posted by Sal Towse at 1:45 PM|
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Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Michelle Obama on The Colbert Report
How I spent my Sunday with Obama and the Mayhill Fowler Agenda
I was starting to hear whispers in the blogosphere about Mayhill Fowler and the bzzz she created with her column on Huffington Post on Friday covering a comment Obama had made at a fundraiser five days before. (Five DAYS?!?? How's that for the immediacy of blogging, eh?)
Comments on the HuffPo posts about the uproar questioned her motives, her allegiances (was she really a closet Hillary supporter?) and her purpose in following Obama's campaign.
A Google search for /"mayhill fowler" -huffington/ brought me to this pro-Obama blogger post on the Obama site, a supporter who was at the Sunday event, someone who could at last put things in context.
Sandy's Blog: How I spent my Sunday with Obama and the Mayhill Fowler Agenda
Odd. The only Mayhill Fowler that Zabasearch.com shows in Oakland was born in 1974, six years after HuffPo's Mayhill Fowler graduated college. I assume that Mayhill Fowler is an offspring of the Mayhill Fowler on HuffPo. How come the sixty-one-year-old Mayhill doesn't show up with Zabasearch? Her husband does.
Update:Another blogger who was there chimes in: David Coleman: I Was There: What Obama Really Said About Pennsylvania
and
2004 Charlie Rose clip (up on YouTube) that shows Obama talking the same sort of talk only instead of the sound bite, there's a full discussion:
clip and full interview.
posted by Sal Towse at 12:18 PM||
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Comments on the HuffPo posts about the uproar questioned her motives, her allegiances (was she really a closet Hillary supporter?) and her purpose in following Obama's campaign.
A Google search for /"mayhill fowler" -huffington/ brought me to this pro-Obama blogger post on the Obama site, a supporter who was at the Sunday event, someone who could at last put things in context.
Sandy's Blog: How I spent my Sunday with Obama and the Mayhill Fowler Agenda
Odd. The only Mayhill Fowler that Zabasearch.com shows in Oakland was born in 1974, six years after HuffPo's Mayhill Fowler graduated college. I assume that Mayhill Fowler is an offspring of the Mayhill Fowler on HuffPo. How come the sixty-one-year-old Mayhill doesn't show up with Zabasearch? Her husband does.
Update:Another blogger who was there chimes in: David Coleman: I Was There: What Obama Really Said About Pennsylvania
and
2004 Charlie Rose clip (up on YouTube) that shows Obama talking the same sort of talk only instead of the sound bite, there's a full discussion:
clip and full interview.
Labels: politics
posted by Sal Towse at 12:18 PM|
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Sunday, April 13, 2008
View from the Hill
In today's Chron ... a view from the Hill
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2008/04/13/PKMADONNA.DTL
:-)
The text was influenced by the mystery I'm allegedly working on. (Nothing about people with telescopes and/or wheelchairs. Honest!)
Update: Updated link to Madonna strip. Previous link was 404.
posted by Sal Towse at 10:54 PM||
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2008/04/13/PKMADONNA.DTL
:-)
The text was influenced by the mystery I'm allegedly working on. (Nothing about people with telescopes and/or wheelchairs. Honest!)
Update: Updated link to Madonna strip. Previous link was 404.
Labels: art, life, people, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill
posted by Sal Towse at 10:54 PM|
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Saturday, April 12, 2008
Dinner last night - give me that old time sauce and sole
Simple really.
We buy fish at Costco in big cheaper-by-the-pound lots and then divvy it up into 1/2lb. bags for the freezer.
Cost of fish ~$3.
1C of dry white wine. (Doesn't need to be the pricey stuff, but at least make it something you'd drink out of a glass without spewing. Peter Vella Chardonnay out of the box we stash in the hall closet for just such uses.)
Chopped onion. I used maybe half an onion. (onion $0.39/lb in Chinatown)
Add wine and onion to saute pan and heat to boiling. Add fish. Cook until fish flakes easily with a fork. Take fish out of pan and put in a glass baking dish.
While the fish is cooking. Melt a cube [1/2C] of butter in a measuring cup in the microwave. Butter melted? Fish done and removed to baking dish? Good.
Boil down the wine and onion until reduced to about 1/3C. Add the hot wine/onion reduction to the melted butter in the measuring cup.
Separate two egg yolks.
(We used the egg whites in the scrambled eggs this morning. ...)
Put two egg yolks in blender and whirl. You see where we're going right? While the yolks are whirling, pour the wine/onion/melted-butter mix into the blender and whirl until it all thickens up. Call this a Hollandaise variant if you must.
Pour the sauce over the fish that's in the baking dish. Sprinkle with a bit of shredded Parmesan cheese. On top of that, sprinkle a dusting of paprika.
Put under a broiler until the sauce browns lightly.
Served with rice and asparagus, which happens to be 99c/pound in Chinatown and local, not shipped in from Chile or some such place. We had about half a pound between us.
Total cost something like $4, maybe $4.50 for the two of us.
Delish. Hard on the arteries, but delish.
posted by Sal Towse at 7:35 PM||
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We buy fish at Costco in big cheaper-by-the-pound lots and then divvy it up into 1/2lb. bags for the freezer.
Cost of fish ~$3.
1C of dry white wine. (Doesn't need to be the pricey stuff, but at least make it something you'd drink out of a glass without spewing. Peter Vella Chardonnay out of the box we stash in the hall closet for just such uses.)
Chopped onion. I used maybe half an onion. (onion $0.39/lb in Chinatown)
Add wine and onion to saute pan and heat to boiling. Add fish. Cook until fish flakes easily with a fork. Take fish out of pan and put in a glass baking dish.
While the fish is cooking. Melt a cube [1/2C] of butter in a measuring cup in the microwave. Butter melted? Fish done and removed to baking dish? Good.
Boil down the wine and onion until reduced to about 1/3C. Add the hot wine/onion reduction to the melted butter in the measuring cup.
Separate two egg yolks.
(We used the egg whites in the scrambled eggs this morning. ...)
Put two egg yolks in blender and whirl. You see where we're going right? While the yolks are whirling, pour the wine/onion/melted-butter mix into the blender and whirl until it all thickens up. Call this a Hollandaise variant if you must.
Pour the sauce over the fish that's in the baking dish. Sprinkle with a bit of shredded Parmesan cheese. On top of that, sprinkle a dusting of paprika.
Put under a broiler until the sauce browns lightly.
Served with rice and asparagus, which happens to be 99c/pound in Chinatown and local, not shipped in from Chile or some such place. We had about half a pound between us.
Total cost something like $4, maybe $4.50 for the two of us.
Delish. Hard on the arteries, but delish.
posted by Sal Towse at 7:35 PM|
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Views from the Hill
No picture. Didn't think of it while everything was happening.
BIG CLOUD OF BLACK BLACK SMOKE coming up from the other side of Treasure Island. We popped the cover off the telescope lens and spotted a yacht adrift, flames billowing above it, being pushed south by the tides. The boat drifted behind the Admin building and then came into sight again. Looked like probably an engine fire. That end of the boat was engulfed in flames. Engine fire? Fiberglass boat? The smoke was immense.
One of the fireboats headed off from Pier 22 1/2 to deal with the blaze. Coast Guard and other boats were keeping clear after rescuing the folks on board the boat. The fireboat eventually arrived (They're not the fastest boats on the Bay.) and started dousing the blaze. Eventually the yacht sank beneath the waves.
Not a sunny Saturday for the people on the yacht, but at least they got out with their skins intact.
Update:Chron story
posted by Sal Towse at 6:41 PM||
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BIG CLOUD OF BLACK BLACK SMOKE coming up from the other side of Treasure Island. We popped the cover off the telescope lens and spotted a yacht adrift, flames billowing above it, being pushed south by the tides. The boat drifted behind the Admin building and then came into sight again. Looked like probably an engine fire. That end of the boat was engulfed in flames. Engine fire? Fiberglass boat? The smoke was immense.
One of the fireboats headed off from Pier 22 1/2 to deal with the blaze. Coast Guard and other boats were keeping clear after rescuing the folks on board the boat. The fireboat eventually arrived (They're not the fastest boats on the Bay.) and started dousing the blaze. Eventually the yacht sank beneath the waves.
Not a sunny Saturday for the people on the yacht, but at least they got out with their skins intact.
Update:Chron story
Labels: life, San Francisco
posted by Sal Towse at 6:41 PM|
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Thursday, April 10, 2008
Callooh! Callay! Internet Resource for Writers rounds the Big One
Internet Resources - Writers Resources - Writing Links & Writers Links for Writers
And, turns out, the count didn't zero. Rather, added another digit.
I'm *still* going to swop in another free hit counter. Maybe Site Meter. I'm not too fond of how the current hit counter delivers data.
A MILLION HITS! I can't believe it.
posted by Sal Towse at 8:47 AM||
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And, turns out, the count didn't zero. Rather, added another digit.
I'm *still* going to swop in another free hit counter. Maybe Site Meter. I'm not too fond of how the current hit counter delivers data.
A MILLION HITS! I can't believe it.
posted by Sal Towse at 8:47 AM|
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Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Kensington, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Kensington, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Brilliant blog.
posted by Sal Towse at 1:25 PM||
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Brilliant blog.
Labels: blog, photographs
posted by Sal Towse at 1:25 PM|
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Internet Resources - Writers Resources - Writing Links & Writers Links for Writers
http://www.internet-resources.com/writers/
Hit counter stands at 999439. When it rolls over to zeroes, I plan to swop it for a different counter.
Mercy me. A million hits. Who woulda thunk back when that this day would come to pass?
posted by Sal Towse at 12:54 PM||
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Hit counter stands at 999439. When it rolls over to zeroes, I plan to swop it for a different counter.
Mercy me. A million hits. Who woulda thunk back when that this day would come to pass?
posted by Sal Towse at 12:54 PM|
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|
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Lost in Translation the sequel
