When I was starting college, my dad gave me a cookbook as a present. It is Betty Crocker’s Quick & Easy Cookbook: 30 minutes or less to dinner every night. I was appreciative but skeptical. For one thing, my parents’ cookbook shelf is full of Moosewood tomes, full of lovely vegetarian dishes by the lovely Molly Katzen, who writes things like “Pile up everything in a provocative yet compelling arrangement” in the margins of the recipes. Whereas Betty Crocker seemed too… old-fashioned? Midwestern? Full of recipes like “Cheesy tuna broccoli skillet casserole”? Yes, all that. So I wasn’t...
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My First Derby
Before Saturday, I had never watched the Kentucky Derby, even though I grew up just a few hours north of Louisville. I guess I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. But after reading Ghost’s charming paen to Mint Juleps, I figured I ought to try one, and check out the race while I was at it. One of my favorite alcohols + one of my favorite herbs + tons of sugar = what not to like? The real question is why I’d never sipped one before. Anyway, the julep was delicious, though my friend R., who’s...
Continue reading...Getting Outside
It’s a boring, quiet Tuesday here in my cubicle. When one spends the entire day in a cubicle with no nearby windows, one can sometimes lose perspective and sort of forget that there’s a world outside, that it might, in fact, be a beautiful day out. Which it is, today. I just got back from an afternoon jog, and I’m feeling ever so much better. I am always grateful for the chance to step away from my desk and computer. One of the things I love about living in DC is being surrounded by people who are...
Continue reading..."Sweating like Vegas Elvis on a squash court" or Liveblogging the Brits part 2.
In the last week, Nick Clegg, of the Liberal Democrats, went from leader of the third party to the leader of the tied for first (for the first time in 104 years!!!) party, to being unfairly demonized by the Daily Mail party. Shock. Any, in about two minutes Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg slug it out over foreign policy. Perhaps there will be a tea break in about half and hour. We’re just not quite sure. 3:00- Brown starts it out. Nothing to write, nothing. 3:02- Cameron wants to help families. Great foreign policy talking...
Continue reading...No hipsters in China
China is the world’s largest bicycle market, where 51 million bikes were sold in 2009 alone, according to the China Bicycle Association. However, the world’s largest bicycle trend, fixed-gear bikes, or “fixies,” have been lagging in popularity. Actually, they’re basically non-existent. “Fixes,” so-called because they rely on only one fixed gear and the cyclist slows the bike by slowing their pedaling, were born from New York bike messengers, and have become a staple of urban bicycling almost everywhere; well, except China. They’re not nearly as functional as multi-gear bicycles (complete with brakes!), so many assume that a...
Continue reading...Poem of the Week
It’s gray and rainy and chilly in DC today, the kind of day that calls for the following lunch: a hot cup of lentil soup, a few wheat crackers, and some seasonal springtime poetry. That’s what I’m having, anyway. This poem is one of my all-time favorites, and it appears in Tony Hoagland’s excellent and often quite funny collection What Narcissism Means to Me. A Color of the Sky by Tony Hoagland Windy today and I feel less than brilliant, driving over the hills from work. There are the dark parts on the road when you pass...
Continue reading...Report from the heartland: Tea Party in Ohio
My mom mentioned recently that there’s a Tea Party guy running for state representative in my home state of Ohio. No great surprise there, but what worried her was how many yard signs she’d seen for him in the neighborhood. Now, my parents do live in one of the more conservative parts of a pretty conservative town. But there’s a difference between conservative and fringe, and up til now, it seemed like the Tea Partiers could be clearly distinguished from the usual run of the mill strident Republicans. My parents are friendly with their neighbors, and for...
Continue reading...Doctor Who, "The Eleventh Hour"
“I’m the Doctor. I’m worse than everybody’s aunt…and that’s not how I’m introducing myself.” It took almost the full hour for me to adjust to the new Doctor Who, but it did happen. The episode opened with Eleven crashing to Earth in the TARDIS, and while it was an exciting opening shot, I wish they had backed up a few minutes to cover what happened during the final moments of “The End of Time,” because I am forgetful and easily confused, apparently. We also get new opening credits, theme song, title logo, and, as we see later,...
Continue reading...Well, this is something.
Not to harp on British politics, but it is indeed historic for Britain and holds many important implications for America when the Liberal Democrats top a poll for the first time in 104 years. (Caveat- The Lib-Dems are an 80’s merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party, nonetheless….) The idea behind the Lib-Dems is one that has reached its place in history at an important moment. I’ve said to people for some time that Barack Obama’s politics, when translating American politics and policy in British politics and policy, fall well within the realm of...
Continue reading...Truth in (Crazy Anti-Choice) Advertising
Late last year, Baltimore City Council passed an ordinance requiring “limited service pregnancy centers” that do not provide abortion or birth control services to post signs saying so. The bill was enacted in response to complaints from pro-choicers that these centers were providing inaccurate and misleading information. Like, claiming that abortions are connected to breast cancer, for instance. They also tend to set up shop right next to actual clinics with actual health professionals who offer real, nonjudgmental options counseling to women. And they typically lure patients in with offers of free pregnancy testing (which just happens...
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