New: We're going to be reading "A Christmas Carol" for the December STIR. Like many of you, I have seen many productions of this, but I am not sure if I have actually read the original Charles Dickens text. So, let's read and discuss. Sure, I know we're in the midst of holiday craziness and finals time but A Christmas Carol* is short, it is timely, it is good, and it is widely available for free (including on several forms through Project Gutenberg here). Grab, borrow, or download yourself a copy and we'll start discussing on Dec. 20th.
Newish: We're going to be reading Kenneth Miller's Finding Darwin's God for January at the request of one of my students who wants to discuss.
Sorta Random: Has anyone made vinegar, sauerkraut or kimchee?
Old: I had the good fortune to see Janet and skype with Brenda recently. Janet and I discussed July's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and concluded that Tom Wolfe was fantastic at re-creating the scene, but that we were overall satisfied to be done with that scene (both in the book and satisfied that it wasn't part of our life). Brenda and I each had issues with verisimilitude in Diary of Marie Landry. The book is allegedly the diary of a 14-year old. I didn't believe that her English would be quite that good and thought that the diary device was overall unnecessary. Brenda didn't believe that Marie would whine so little and be so repentant when she did whine. Brenda was also waiting for some sexual tension or growing up issues.
*Novel or short story? To italicize or quote?
Showing posts with label acid media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label acid media. Show all posts
Monday, November 26, 2012
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Bacteria Good: Tripping Bad
As I've previously mentioned, sometimes the universe shouts a message to me through sheer repetition (I'm sure many political advertisers shout through repeition as well, if only I lived in a contested state and watched television).
From reading The Elecric Kool-Aid Acid Test and dooce.com, being awakened by my children, and from looking at photos of celebrity fashion "don'ts", it is clear to me that I should never do acid*. Heather Armstrong of Dooce likened the experience of child-caused-sleep deprivation to an acid trip (although, like me, she has no first hand experience with the latter) which concurs with Tom Wolfe's description. It makes me wonder why anybody would ever intentionally enter that state, especially knowing that it could sneak up on them unawares later in life. Message received, universe. I'll stay away from those guys hanging out around the playground and their stickers**.
When The Wall Street Journal, Parents Magazine, Conservation Magazine, Best Science Writing 2011, and The Art of Fermentation all, within a week, instruct that bacteria can be beneficial, how could I ignore the message? I must surely breast feed my baby, allow my children to get dirty, refrain from germaphobic sanitizing, and not take antibiotics uncessesarily. Okay, I already do all of those things. Why is the universe telling me this now?
Maybe the prompter the universe hired to give me personal messages is on vacation and we're into reruns for August?
By the way, Janet and I are discussing lots about Electric Kool Aid. If you read it and want to join us, please let me know.
*Even though my attractiveness went way up to a friend of a friend when he learned I'm into acid this year and plummeted when he learned that it's "not that kind of acid".
**Was anyone else instructed in elementary school to stay away from unknown adults encouraging you to lick stickers because they might have LSD on them? I was. The Mister thinks this is crazy. He does have a point. While I know that LSD can make people do weird things, I'm pretty sure going a long way out of the way to give away acid to third graders was not high on most of their lists.
From reading The Elecric Kool-Aid Acid Test and dooce.com, being awakened by my children, and from looking at photos of celebrity fashion "don'ts", it is clear to me that I should never do acid*. Heather Armstrong of Dooce likened the experience of child-caused-sleep deprivation to an acid trip (although, like me, she has no first hand experience with the latter) which concurs with Tom Wolfe's description. It makes me wonder why anybody would ever intentionally enter that state, especially knowing that it could sneak up on them unawares later in life. Message received, universe. I'll stay away from those guys hanging out around the playground and their stickers**.
When The Wall Street Journal, Parents Magazine, Conservation Magazine, Best Science Writing 2011, and The Art of Fermentation all, within a week, instruct that bacteria can be beneficial, how could I ignore the message? I must surely breast feed my baby, allow my children to get dirty, refrain from germaphobic sanitizing, and not take antibiotics uncessesarily. Okay, I already do all of those things. Why is the universe telling me this now?
Maybe the prompter the universe hired to give me personal messages is on vacation and we're into reruns for August?
By the way, Janet and I are discussing lots about Electric Kool Aid. If you read it and want to join us, please let me know.
*Even though my attractiveness went way up to a friend of a friend when he learned I'm into acid this year and plummeted when he learned that it's "not that kind of acid".
**Was anyone else instructed in elementary school to stay away from unknown adults encouraging you to lick stickers because they might have LSD on them? I was. The Mister thinks this is crazy. He does have a point. While I know that LSD can make people do weird things, I'm pretty sure going a long way out of the way to give away acid to third graders was not high on most of their lists.
Friday, August 3, 2012
"Lactic acid is a foodies' new BFF"
So read the subhead of a July 14 Denver Post article. Fermented food is apparently making a "big bubble" on the scene. I had no idea I was so with it.
The Mister and I gleaned from the article that we needed the book it kept referencing, The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz, as this year's anniversary present. We ordered it to arrive at our house just as we did (yesterday). So now we are home and contemplating the romance of starting a big batch of anniversary Kraut-Chi or some back-to-school noni or smekra in the 110 degree heat. The book is hefty, so in the right light I suppose it could be considered a desk set (because it's certainly not copper, wool or brass).
We also ate some fabulous meals while on the road, and stayed two different nights in hotels away from our kids, so instructions for promoting beneficial bacteria are not the only way we celebrated, just the most amusing.
I'll keep you posted on acidification results.
The Mister and I gleaned from the article that we needed the book it kept referencing, The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz, as this year's anniversary present. We ordered it to arrive at our house just as we did (yesterday). So now we are home and contemplating the romance of starting a big batch of anniversary Kraut-Chi or some back-to-school noni or smekra in the 110 degree heat. The book is hefty, so in the right light I suppose it could be considered a desk set (because it's certainly not copper, wool or brass).
We also ate some fabulous meals while on the road, and stayed two different nights in hotels away from our kids, so instructions for promoting beneficial bacteria are not the only way we celebrated, just the most amusing.
I'll keep you posted on acidification results.
Monday, July 2, 2012
A little acid to brighten up STIR
The thing about acid is that, in the right dose, it can brighten up any dish.
My summer reading needs a bit of brightening. I carried One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the May/June STIR book around for weeks. I finally sat down to read it. I managed five pages before deciding it was too depressing for me now (that statement may cause my Brother in Law to shake his head sadly and wonder just how "lite" I need my reading to be, and many others of you to shake your heads because it is a great book*). So I picked up The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. My Mother had given it to me for my birthday and, to me, it has the title of a quirky book (and a star one at that). I was two pages in before I fully realized I had traded cruel treatment in a mental institution for teenagers with terminal cancer. Terminal cancer won.
The Fault in Our Stars suffers a bit from a Juno complex (the teenagers are way too witty for their own good), but is generally fabulous-- if you are into romantic comedies about teenagers about to die. I highly recommend it for a lot of my reading audience. There's also a fabulous champagne scene tying stars to sparkling wine (using the alleged Dom Perignon quote, "Come quickly! I am drinking the stars!"), a few sucker punches plot-wise, and a lot to think about (teenage cancer patients being more worried about their what happens to their parents after they die than about their own fates, for instance).
In any case, Janet, was here over the weekend (hooray for friends who visit!) and we decided I needed an "acid" book this year. Janet and I like to read "recent classics" (Graham Greene last year, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Faulkner were under consideration for this year). So, even though it is officially off-limits for being officially non-fiction, the July STIR selection is The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe. Acid! Classic! and with references to the author of the book I didn't read. Join us if you'd like.
Speaking of STIR books, I realized two from last fall were mostly overlooked during the Juno's Daughters craziness. I still highly recommend, and would still like to more discuss The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. The former is a short novel with a masterful building of tension, the latter an account of where cells we research really came from.
Other books I've recently read (recently being the first half of the year): The Lacuna: Barbara Kingsolver's latest novel I found super-engrossing for the first half (Mom needs to read it) and good for the second half. The first was one of the best half of a book I've read in a long time. What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell which was perhaps a bit more entertaining than Outliers because, as a collection of articles, it has less of a point and a more interesting range. NutureShock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman: a scary evidence-based book about child behavior that explains how we are doing it all wrong. Highland Fling: a romantic comedy by Katie Fforde. I enjoy Fforde because her characters are always not-gorgeous, working, and more often than not, gardening and that was true of this one as well, but I liked Wild Designs and Second Thyme Around. Toss the Bride by Jennifer Manske Fenske: fun, but not as well-written as those by Fforde or Jennifer Crusie. Bet Me: one of my new favorites from the aforementioned Crusie.
*If you read One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, let me know and I'll try to set up a discussion with Debbie, the book's selector. And maybe me. Someday,
My summer reading needs a bit of brightening. I carried One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the May/June STIR book around for weeks. I finally sat down to read it. I managed five pages before deciding it was too depressing for me now (that statement may cause my Brother in Law to shake his head sadly and wonder just how "lite" I need my reading to be, and many others of you to shake your heads because it is a great book*). So I picked up The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. My Mother had given it to me for my birthday and, to me, it has the title of a quirky book (and a star one at that). I was two pages in before I fully realized I had traded cruel treatment in a mental institution for teenagers with terminal cancer. Terminal cancer won.
The Fault in Our Stars suffers a bit from a Juno complex (the teenagers are way too witty for their own good), but is generally fabulous-- if you are into romantic comedies about teenagers about to die. I highly recommend it for a lot of my reading audience. There's also a fabulous champagne scene tying stars to sparkling wine (using the alleged Dom Perignon quote, "Come quickly! I am drinking the stars!"), a few sucker punches plot-wise, and a lot to think about (teenage cancer patients being more worried about their what happens to their parents after they die than about their own fates, for instance).
In any case, Janet, was here over the weekend (hooray for friends who visit!) and we decided I needed an "acid" book this year. Janet and I like to read "recent classics" (Graham Greene last year, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Faulkner were under consideration for this year). So, even though it is officially off-limits for being officially non-fiction, the July STIR selection is The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe. Acid! Classic! and with references to the author of the book I didn't read. Join us if you'd like.
Speaking of STIR books, I realized two from last fall were mostly overlooked during the Juno's Daughters craziness. I still highly recommend, and would still like to more discuss The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. The former is a short novel with a masterful building of tension, the latter an account of where cells we research really came from.
Other books I've recently read (recently being the first half of the year): The Lacuna: Barbara Kingsolver's latest novel I found super-engrossing for the first half (Mom needs to read it) and good for the second half. The first was one of the best half of a book I've read in a long time. What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell which was perhaps a bit more entertaining than Outliers because, as a collection of articles, it has less of a point and a more interesting range. NutureShock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman: a scary evidence-based book about child behavior that explains how we are doing it all wrong. Highland Fling: a romantic comedy by Katie Fforde. I enjoy Fforde because her characters are always not-gorgeous, working, and more often than not, gardening and that was true of this one as well, but I liked Wild Designs and Second Thyme Around. Toss the Bride by Jennifer Manske Fenske: fun, but not as well-written as those by Fforde or Jennifer Crusie. Bet Me: one of my new favorites from the aforementioned Crusie.
*If you read One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, let me know and I'll try to set up a discussion with Debbie, the book's selector. And maybe me. Someday,
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