2016 archive
Collectives 0
If it’s a murder of crows, a pride of lions, and a gaggle of geese, why not a meme of hipsters?
Look in the Mirror 0
If you are white like me and this doesn’t make you a bit uncomfortable about the presumptuousness of whiteness, you aren’t paying attention.
Below the fold in case it autoplays.
Droning On (Updated) 0
No one could have predicted . . . .
The Metropolitan police said they were contacted on Sunday afternoon by the pilot, who landed the plane safely at Terminal 5. No one has been arrested, officers said.
The flight, BA727, was coming in to London from Geneva, carrying 132 passengers and five crew.
Addendum, a Week Later:
“And That’s the Way It Was” 0
Actually, no, it’s not.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness is cleaning up.
The girl is expected to be OK, according to her mother, who did not want to be identified Sunday night. The bullet lost momentum after going through the wall, and didn’t pierce the girl’s leg.
Five Seed Bread 0
I made this today.
It was a complete ad lib effort inspired by a reference in the first Corinna Chapman story by Kerry Greenwood. Although there is a book of Corinna Chapman recipes available, the recipe for this “Seed Bread” is not in it; in the book, Corinna, who is a baker by trade, states that it is her secret recipe, and I reckon it is.
The book also refers to “kibbled wheat” and “kibbled oats” as part of the secret recipe. “Kibbled wheat” appears to be what in the States we refer to as cracked wheat; “kibbled oats,” steel-cut oats. I didn’t have any on hand and, frankly, I’ve never been a big one for oats, except in the form of oatmeal cookies.*
I must say, my experiment was quite successful and I look forward to trying it again. The finished product is quite savory. You can click the picture above for a larger image, in which you can see the seeds embedded in the loaf. Perhaps I’ll even give the oats and wheat a try.
Ingredients:
- 1 cp. warm water
- 1 packet yeast
- 1 1/2 cps. white flour, approx.
- 1 1/2 cps. rye flour, approx.
- 1 tbs. each dill seed, fennel seed, sesame seed, caraway seed, or to taste
- 1 tsp. coriander (the reference in the story referred to coriander seed, but I didn’t have any of that, so I ad libbed)
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. light brown sugar
Procedure:
1. Dissolve yeast in water and proof.
2 Add seeds, salt, and sugar.
3. Add white flour and stir well.
4 Add rye flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring after each, until dough is stiff and firm enough to knead.
5. Pour out on floured board and knead until firm and springy. If the dough feels a little sticky, knead in additional flour as needed.
6. Pour a bit of olive oil into a bowl and coat dough with the olive oil, then cover and allow to rise (approx. 1 1/2 hours, depending on heat and humidity).
7. When dough has approximately doubled in size, shape into a loaf and place in loaf pan or on cookie sheet and allow to rise for approximately 20 mins.
8. Place in oven preheated to 400 Fahrenheits and bake until a knife inserted into it comes out clean (approx. 30 mins.). If you wish a crustier loaf, place a pan of hot water in the oven and, after the bread has started to cook, brush the top of the loaf with water a couple of times, say, at the 10 and 20 minute marks.
Makes one loaf.
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*I have the same feelings about oats as Dennis the Menace once expressed about carrot cake when he said, “Nothing this good could come from carrots.”
Coal Dustup 0
In an stunning example of “if you don’t let people talk about it then it must not be happening,” a coal waste company sued a citizens group for slander because they complained about the ever-present effects of the dust blanketing their community from the ash pit.
Just follow the link.
You can’t make this stuff up.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness is a family affair.
Another day in NRA Paradise.
Errata 0
Last night we watched the latest episode of Bones from our DVR, in which Emily Deschanel stated that the Iliad (it sounded like “Ilium” on the soundtrack) told the story of Odysseus and Scylla and Charybdis.
It doesn’t. That’s from the Odyssey.
We are a society of stupid.
Deduct This! 0
Warning: Taste (Very Little)
Moved below the fold because it autoplays on some systems.
(Parenthetical Remark: Autoplaying is evil. It is more evil than HTML email.
I am looking for a pattern, but have not found it. I can’t blame it on Windows, as it occurs on Linux also. These pestilences autoplay on some Linux distros and not on others, in some browsers and not in others, and I have not isolated a pattern.
Eventually, though, I shall track down the trouble and I shall shoot it. Troubleshooting is what I do.
By the by, if you catch something autoplaying, email me from the link over there on the sidebar
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and I shall push it below the fold.)
A Cat’s Cradle of Procedural Opacity 0
I was at a gathering earlier today in which the process for choosing delegates to my party’s local and state conventions and, ultimately, to the national convention, was the topic (no, I’m not planning to be a delegate to anywhere). The person in charge of the gathering stated in passing that the selection process still makes his brain hurt.
Daniel Ruth wrote in his column yesterday that our parties’ processes for nominating candidates are a hodgepodge of procedural pitfalls surrounded by tripping hazards surrounded by thickets and despairs of their rationalization. A snippet:
Can it get any worse? You betcha, as long as a Koch brother can stroke a cat.
Follow the link for why he says that.
