Easter Lemming Notebook

2012-01-18T01:20:00.000-08:00

Cro-Magnon skeletons discovered in North America

For decades now it has been clear that humans were in the America's much earlier than the experts believed. Like most other major scientific paradigm shifts you have to wait until a lot of the old guard pass away before the evidence is accepted.

That belief humans came across an ice free land bridge from Asia? Dead, although sea journeys along that coast look possible. The National Geographic people who had a large role in propagating the incorrect theories are now publicizing the other evidence for early boating colonization.

2012-01-05T01:30:00.000-08:00

Cowboy Bread

3 cups flour

2 sticks melted butter

1 pound light brown sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup chopped pecans

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup buttermilk

1 egg

Instructions: Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour a 9-inch-by-13-inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, combine the first seven ingredients, reserving 1 cup of the mixture.

Mix the remaining batter with the egg and buttermilk thoroughly.

Pour batter into the pan and top with the reserved mixture.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until just starting to brown.

Serve immediately, or set aside until cooled.

Or add two teaspoons yeast and place in bread machine for regular pecan cinnamon bread.

2011-12-31T15:36:00.000-08:00

DIP RECIPES

Black-eyed Pea Spread

The Washington Post called it "hummus", still showing itself completely clueless about the Middle East.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil
12 cloves garlic (one medium bulb)
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
1 15-ounce can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup jarred pimentos or roasted red bell peppers, drained
Salt to taste
A pinch freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Pinches of other herbs or seasoning as desired - I use fresh basil and mint and ground cumin

Brown the garlic and onion and pepper with a tablespoon of the oil. Toss all ingredients in a blender and grind and chop until smooth.

Traditional Hummus

1 clove garlic
1 (16 to 19 ounce) can garbanzo beans
4 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons tahini or sesame seeds
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch coarse black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 loose cup fresh herbs - mint, basil, parsley are good choices
1 tsp ground cumin

If you do not have tahini paste use a coffee grinder to finely grind the sesame seeds, roasted are clearly best. Place all ingredients in blender or food processor and chop and grind until very smooth.

Serve with pita bread or roasted tortillas sliced into 8 pieces each.

Making this now for New Years Eve. Like the Black-eyed peas tradition and this is a good recipe for them.

2011-11-22T11:27:00.000-08:00

Cornbread Stuffing

Yield: 12 to 18 servings

Time: About 2 hours, plus time for the cornbread to cool

Oil or butter for greasing the pan

2 cups medium-grind yellow cornmeal

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons baking powder

Salt

5 eggs

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil or canola oil

2 cups milk, preferably not skim

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter

3 medium yellow onions, chopped

8 celery stalks, chopped

1/2 to 1 pound ground pork sausage (optional)

2 to 3 cups Pepperidge Farm Herb Seasoned Cubed Stuffing or other seasoned croutons

1 tablespoon rubbed dried or fresh sage, or more to taste

1 tablespoon poultry seasoning, or more to taste

Black pepper

4 cups chicken or vegetable stock, or more as needed

1. Heat the oven to 425°F and grease a 9- by 13-inch baking dish. Whisk together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and 2 teaspoons salt in a large bowl. Beat 2 of the eggs in a separate medium bowl, then stir in the oil and milk. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until combined, then transfer the batter to the greased pan. Bake until the cornbread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool and let sit at room temperature overnight if time allows.

2. Heat the oven to 450°F and grease an 11- by 15-inch baking dish (or a 9- by 13-inch baking dish plus a few ramekins). Put the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. When it melts, add the onions and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until they’re soft, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer the vegetables to a plate or bowl. If you’re using the sausage, add it to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally to break up the meat, until no traces of pink remain, about another 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

3. Break the cornbread into 1- to 2-inch chunks in a large bowl. Add the onion mixture and the sausage (if you’re using it) along with the seasoned croutons, sage, poultry seasoning, and a few generous dashes of salt and black pepper. Toss to combine, then taste and adjust the seasoning. Beat the remaining 3 eggs and fold them into the cornbread mixture, then gradually add the stock, stirring gently to avoid breaking up the cornbread chunks, until the mixture is moist but not sopping. Transfer the mixture to the greased pan(s). Bake until golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes, and serve hot or warm.

from Slate.

My other somewhat similar recipes add mushrooms and/or apples and change the proportions of bread cubes to cornbread.

Can also use Jiffy Cornbread if it is less than half the final bread mixture (too sweet.)

2011-11-14T00:23:00.000-08:00

Treebeards' Hoppin' John

Hoppin’ John is a spicy black-eyed pea dish with a true, down-home goodness.

½ pound dried black-eyed peas
5 cups water
1½ teaspoons vegetable oil
½ cup chopped celery
½ cup chopped onion
¼ cup chopped carrot
½ clove garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
1 bay leaf
1¼ cups chicken broth
6 ounces cooked ham, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped
green onions (including tops)

Wash dried peas in cold running water and drain. In a 4-quart saucepan add 5 cups cold water and peas. Soak overnight. Do not drain.

In a skillet or a saucepan, heat oil and cook celery, onion, carrot and garlic.

Meanwhile, bring black-eyed peas to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.

Add cooked vegetables, black pepper, cayenne pepper, salt and bay leaf. Stir in chicken broth and ham. Cover and simmer 11/2 hours or until black-eyed peas are tender.

Sprinkle with chopped green onions before serving.

Serve over hot rice.

Serves 6.

A little trivia:
Most food historians agree that Hoppin’ John is an American dish with African/French/Caribbean roots. There are many legends that explain how Hoppin’ John got its name. It is traditionally a high point of New Year’s Day and often served with greens to ensure good luck and fortune throughout the year.

Source: Treebeards Cookbook

2011-11-06T16:44:00.000-08:00

Fall Vegetable Planting Schedule - Houston.

Beans, bush, seed: mid August-mid September

Beets, seed: September-mid October

Broccoli, seed: August-mid September

Broccoli, plant: mid September-mid October

Brussel sprouts, plant: September

Cabbage, seed: August-November

Cabbage, plant: September-November

Carrots, seed: September-November

Cauliflower, seed: September

Cauliflower, plant: mid September-mid October

Collards, seed: September-Dec. 1

Collards, plant: September-November

Cucumber, seed: August

Garlic, clove: late September-mid November

Kohlrabi, seed: mid September-mid November

Lettuce, leaf, seed: late September-January

Mustard, seed: September-November

Onion, seed: mid September-mid November

Onion, plant: mid October-November

Potatoes, Irish: mid August-mid September

Radish, seed: mid September-January

Spinach, seed: mid September-mid November

Squash, summer, seed: August-Sept.7

Tomato, plant: — mid July-mid August

Turnips, seed: Sept. 7-November, January-February

2011-10-29T01:17:00.000-07:00

Chocolate Craisin Almond Bread

1 1/8 cups almond milk
2 eggs
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs Appriva
2 tbs chopped dark chocolate
2/3 tsp salt
1/4 cup apple sauce
1 1/2 cups 5 minute oat meal
2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp yeast
2 1/2 tbs vital gluten flour (helps rise)
2/3 cups sliced almonds
2/3 cups dried cranberries (craisins)

Bread machine lite browning, regular bread

This is an addition to my several chocolate breads.

2011-10-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

Beet Greens Bruschetta With Poached Egg and Fontina — Recipes for Health - NYTimes.com

1 or 2 eggs

1 thick slice (1 inch) or 2 thinner slices whole-grain country bread (about 2 ounces)

1 garlic clove, cut in half

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup blanched or steamed beet greens, coarsely chopped (about 2 1/2 ounces)

Chopped fresh chives (optional)

1/2 ounce fontina or Gruyère, thinly sliced or grated

1. Poach the eggs first and set aside in a bowl of warm water.

2. Lightly toast the bread, and rub with the cut side of the garlic clove. Finely chop or purée the remaining garlic.

3. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a small skillet and add the garlic. As soon as it smells fragrant, in about 30 seconds, stir in the beet greens. Stir together for about a minute, until greens are infused with the garlic and olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

4. Top the toasted bread with the greens. Top the greens with the cheese. Place in a warm oven or a microwave and heat just until the cheese begins to melt. Remove from the heat. Blot the eggs dry if they are in warm water and place on top of the greens. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and chives, and enjoy.

Yield: 1 serving.

Advance preparation: The cooked beet greens and poached eggs will keep for 3 or 4 days in the refrigerator.

I would use a different cheese - whatever I have.

2011-10-19T22:33:00.000-07:00

An Interactive Guide to NPR's List of Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

Enter to win

(good reading.)

2011-09-14T01:00:00.000-07:00

FenCon 2011

Guest of Honor: Gail Carriger

Music Guest of Honor: Joe Bethancourt

Fen Guest of Honor: Steven H Silver

Artist Guest of Honor: Vincent Di Fate*

Science Guest of Honor: Les Johnson

Toastmaster: Bradley Denton

Special Guest: Lou Anders

Special Guest: Stephan Martiniere

plus many more guests

Crowne Plaza North Dallas - Addison, Texas

September 23-25, 2011

2011-09-14T00:51:00.000-07:00

Shady Vegetable Garden

The following crops will produce with three to six hours of sun, or fairly constant dappled shade, per day.

Salad Greens, such as leaf lettuce, arugula, endive, and cress.
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Peas
Beets
Brussels Sprouts
Radishes
Swiss Chard
Leafy Greens, such as collards, mustard greens, spinach, and kale
Beans

Fall planting, the advice for Houston at this time (Sept.) is to plant:
Beans
Parsnips
Turnips
Potatoes
Carrots
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Winter Squash
Might also try for cucumbers which really should be August.

2011-08-23T21:20:00.000-07:00

Gazpacho - summer treat

Total time: 30 minutes, plus chilling time for the gazpacho
Servings: 6

2 cups tomatoes (about 4), peeled and chopped
1 1/2 cups chopped cucumber
1 cup diced onion (from about ½ whole)
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper (from about ¼ whole)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup tomato juice, more or less to taste
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Pinch cayenne pepper
Tabasco sauce, or other hot sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice (from about ½ lemon)
1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon diced fresh chives

1. In a blender, combine the tomatoes, cucumber, onion, bell pepper, garlic, tomato juice and vinegar. Puree the mixture, then pour into a medium bowl.

2. Season with 1½ teaspoons of salt, or to taste (amount of salt can vary depending on the brand of tomato juice, if purchased), one-half teaspoon each of black pepper and cayenne pepper, and one-fourth teaspoon of the Tabasco, the 1½ teaspoons of lemon juice and one-quarter cup of olive oil. Taste and adjust seasonings and flavoring as desired.

3. Cover and refrigerate the gazpacho until well-chilled. Stir in the chives, and thin if desired with additional tomato juice or water. Taste and adjust the seasonings once more. This makes a generous quart of gazpacho.

Each serving: 125 calories; 2 grams protein; 10 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams fiber; 9 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 cholesterol; 6 grams sugar; 701 mg sodium.

Top with sour cream or yogurt if desired.

Carrot Top and Toasted Walnut Pesto - Friends Food Family

2011-08-14T09:55:00.000-07:00

Carrot Top and Toasted Walnut Pesto - Friends Food Family

About time for my fresh carrot top pesto.

1 bunch carrot greens (organic, washed, and loosely chopped)
1 clove garlic
1/2 onion chopped
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
1/4 cup chopped italian parsley
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup olive oil (we found we only used about 3/4 cup, total)
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

In a saute pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and loosely chopped carrot greens. Heat the greens and onions just until wilted (about 2 minutes). Remove from heat and let cool for a few moments.

In a blender, add the garlic, crushed red pepper, salt, pepper, walnuts, parsley, cheese, carrot greens mixture and half of the left over olive oil. Puree in pulses. Add the rest of the olive oil as needed to make a loose paste. Taste and adjust seasonings and oil.

Serve over prepared pasta, as a garnish for soups, or as a sandwich spread.
Keep in container in refrigerator for several days, or freeze for several weeks.

2011-08-04T11:49:00.001-07:00

Apple Chunk Bread

1 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup soy milk (badly needed using)

3 tbs vegetable oil

1 tbs brown sugar

1 1/2 tbs Apriva sugar substitute

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups bread flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp yeast

1 tsp baking soda

1 3/4 medium apples diced

Add apples after ball forms. Add 2 tbs flour if necessary after waiting a while for apples to mix in as it was this time for me. Can replace liquids, sugars, flours or fruit with similar ingrediants based on what you have and desire. Baking soda is only needed with buttermilk. If using more whole wheat flour add 2 tbs gluten flour to improve rise and texture as whole wheat has little gluten compared to bread flour.

2011-07-01T06:35:00.000-07:00

Black Russian Pumpernickel Bread

1 cup water

1/8 cup molasses

1/8 cup apple cider vinegar

2 tbs unsalted butter

1/2 oz. dark chocolate

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/4 cup rye flour

1 1/2 cup bread flour

1/2 cup bran

1 tbs caraway seeds

1/4 tsp fennel seeds

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tbs instant coffee

1/2 tbs dried onion

2 1/2 tsp yeast

1/4 cup warm water

pinch sugar

Optional

1 tbs cornmeal

1 tbs bread flour

1/2 tsp anise seed

Place all ingredients down to yeast in bread machine. Combine yeast, warm water, and sugar in small bowl making sure it bubbles then pour onto flour mixture. Check flour ball consistency after an hour or so and add bread flour or water if necessary. After 2 hours mix and add optional topping.

2011-06-29T18:42:00.000-07:00

WOW! Pumpernickel Bread

1 cup Buttermilk

2 tsp baking soda
2 tbs vegetable oil
2 tbs molasses
1 tbs brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp caraway seeds
2 tbs dark chocolate
1 cup rye flour
1 1/2 cup bread flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tbs vital gluten
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1/8 cup raisins

Bread machine light crust/ wheat flour setting
Add 30 min check the ball and add bread flour or liquid if necessary. I added 1/8 cup water. Raisins mostly melt into the bread.

Fresh Wow! Pumpernickel Bread with Mexican Vegetable soup. Soup is before fresh lime and cilantro added.

2011-06-19T08:21:00.000-07:00

CHOCOLATE RAISIN OATMEAL BREAD

1 cup chocolate almond milk
2 eggs
2 tbs brown sugar
2 tbs Appriva
2 tbs chopped dark cocoa
1/3 tsp salt
1/4 cup very berry apple sauce
1 1/3 cups hearty oat meal
1 cup bread flour
1 1/4 cup wheat or white wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp yeast (not rapid)
3 tbs vital gluten flour (helps rise)
1/4 cup walnuts or other nuts
3/4 cup raisins or dried cranberries

Bread machine - light browning.

2011-05-26T09:20:00.000-07:00

Four Seed Rye Bread

1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/2 tbs baking soda
3 tbs vegetable oil
3 tbs honey
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1 tsp dill seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp anise seeds
2 cups rye flour
1 cup better bread flour
1 cup wheat or white wheat flour
3 tbs vital gluten flour
2 1/2 tsp yeast

Whole grain cycle, medium browning.

At the thirty minute mark check the ball and add flour or water if needed.

2011-05-22T16:09:00.000-07:00

Cinnamon Chocolate Fruit and Nut Bread II

1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 1/2 tbs sugar
1 1/2 tbs Appriva
2 tbs chopped very dark 90% cocoa
1/3 tsp salt
1/4 cup very berry apple sauce
1 1/3 cups hearty oat meal
3/4 cup bread flour
1 1/2 cup wheat or white wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp yeast (not rapid)
3 tbs vital gluten flour (helps rise)
1/3 cup cinnamon chips
1/3 cup almonds or other nuts
1/3 cup dried cranberries

Bread machine on wheat bread, lite browning.
After 30 minutes look at ball and adjust flour or liquid.

2011-05-19T22:58:00.000-07:00

New Web Cooking Show - My Drunk Kitchen

Language not safe for work.

Mimosas and Brunch Episode 6

Episode One for those who need an introduction.

2011-05-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

Cinnamon Chocolate Fruit and Nut Bread

Recipe in progress.

1 cup lite coconut milk

2 eggs

3 tbs buttermilk

2 tbs sugar

1 tbs Appriva

1 1/2 tbs chopped very dark 90% cocoa

1/3 tbs salt

1/4 cup very berry apple sauce

1 1/2 cups hearty oat meal

1 1/4 cups bread flour

1/2 cup wheat or white wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp yeast (not rapid)

2 tbs vital gluten flour (helps rise)

1/2 cup cinnamon chips

1/2 cup almonds or other nuts

1/3 cup dried cranberries

Bread machine on regular bread, lite browning.

Still working on this, looks like it needs more flour from the lack of a ball.

2011-05-15T12:22:00.000-07:00

Eight Years Ago I posted...

Smucker's 100% Fruit is Less Than 50% Fruit

the main ingredient is fruit syrup.

Naked Travel Market Is Taking Off, Nudists Say

Rimshot.

A Drink a Day Improves Overall Heart Health

People who drink one drink a day -- wine, beer or hard liquor -- show significantly better elasticity of their body's arteries, an important measure of cardiovascular health, results of a new study suggest.

"We thought only red wine helps, but we found if people drink one beer or one unit of hard liquor a day, they also have improved arterial elasticity, better than nondrinkers," said Dr. Reuven Zimlichman of Wolfson Medical Center and Tel Aviv University in Israel.

More than one drink is not good for you.

Get Purple Cow and understand the best marketing.

Cows, after you've seen one, or two, or ten, are boring. A Purple Cow, though...now that would be something. Purple Cow describes something phenomenal, something counterintuitive and exciting and flat out unbelievable. Every day, consumers come face to face with a lot of boring stuff-a lot of brown cows-but you can bet they won't forget a Purple Cow. And it's not a marketing function that you can slap on to your product or service. Purple Cow is inherent. It's built right in, or it's not there. Period.

U.S. Lowers 'Normal' Levels for Blood Pressure Readings

The risk of heart disease and stroke starts to rise at readings as low as 115/75, and doubles for each increase of 20/10 millimeters of mercury.

And more that I blogged about 8 years ago.

In politics I saved all my posts for the end of the month, either that or blogspot has lost parts of the archive. I suspect the latter.

On my games blog I was on Civ 3 crack.

I hadn't started the adults only blog.

2011-04-23T01:31:00.000-07:00

Oh, the places you will go as an iPhone.

But most of these are not my travels but the person who had the phone before me. I picked it up as a reconditioned unit when my iPhone quit working. There was a two month gap in location tracking while it was being reconditioned but the location data isn't erased when you turn a phone in for another.

2011-04-13T12:58:00.000-07:00

Coconut Rice

1 1/2 tblsp. virgin olive oil

1 cup brown rice

1 (14 ounce) can lite coconut milk

14 ounce can vegetable stock

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes

1 pinch salt

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/2 teaspoon dried cilantro

1 bay leaf, cut in half

1 1/2 oz. (1 pkg) raisins

1/3 cup sliced almonds

Place in rice steamer 55 minutes.

2011-04-06T17:19:00.000-07:00

CHOCOLATE BANANA RAISIN NUT BREAD

Light Soy or Almond Milk 2/3 cup
Egg 1
Vegetable Oil 2 tbls.
Honey 1/8 cup
Molasses 1/8 cup
banana 1 1/2
salt 1/2 tsp.
cinnamon 1 tsp.
Old fashioned oatmeal 1/2 cup
Wheat flour 1 cup
Bread flour 2 cups
dark chocolate raisinettes 1 cup
sliced almonds (or other nuts) 1/2 cup
3 tsp vital gluten (optional, helps in rising).

Large bread machine on light crust/bread flour cycle.

2011-01-23T22:03:00.000-08:00

BAD VOTER ID BILL

I write about what is wrong with it here.

http://elemming2.blogspot.com/2011/01/bad-voter-id-bill.html

2010-12-08T11:00:00.000-08:00

Harvard Book Store's Top 100 Recommended Books

How many have you started, finished, want to read, or only saw the movie?

These are the Harvard Book Store staff's favorite 100 books.

1. A People’s History of the United States
Howard Zinn
2. The Wind Up Bird Chronicles
Haruki Murakami
3. The New York Trilogy
Paul Auster
4. The Crying of Lot 49
Thomas Pynchon
5. Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien
6. Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte
7. Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four
George Orwell
9. One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
10. The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger
11. Crime and Punishment Dostoevsky
12. On the Road Kerouac
13. Alice in Wonderland Carrol
14. Brothers Karamozov Dostoevsky
15. The Age of Innocence Wharton
16. Don Quixote Cervantes
17. Perfume Suskind
18. Ulysses Joyce
19. Anna Karenina Tolstoy
20. Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor
21. Cry the Beloved Country Paton
22. Dracula Stoker
23. The Eagles Die Marek
24. Emotionally Weird Atkinson
25. The Handmaid’s Tale Atwood
26. Infinite Jest Wallace
27. Kitchen Yoshimoto
28. London Fields Amis
29. Moise and the World of Reason Williams
30. Movie Wars Rosenbaum
31. Paradise Lost Milton
32. Persuasion Austen
33. Tortilla Curtain Boyle
34. Visions of Excess Bataille
35. Where the Wild Things Are Sendak
36. Wild Sheep Chase Murakami
37. Beloved Morrison
38. Counterfeiters Gide
39. The Bell Jar Plath
40. Blind Owl Hedayat
41. Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe
42. The Count of Monte Cristo Dumas
43. Dealing With Dragons Wrede
44. The Earthsea Trilogy Le Guin
45. The Ecology of Fear Davis
46. Franny and Zooey Salinger
47. History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides
48. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Alvarez
49. Kabuki: Circle of Blood Mack & Jiang
50. Of Human Bondage Maugham
51. The Satanic Verses Rushdie
52. The Sheltering Sky Bowles
53. Tristam Shandy Sterne
54. Well of Loneliness Hall
55. Wicked Pavilion Powell
56. Collected Stories of V.S. Pritchett
57. War and Peace Tolstoy
58. Babel 17 Delany
59. Dora Freud
60. Empire Falls Russo
61. For Whom the Bell Tolls Hemingway
62. Girl in Landscape Letham
63. Goodbye to All That Graves
64. Ham on Rye Bukowski
65. Like Life Lorrie Moore
66. Mao II Delillo
67. Random Family Leblanc
68. Revolutionary Road Yates
69. The Stranger Camus
70. Humboldt’s Gift Bellow
71. White Noise Delillo
72. Atlas Shrugged Rand
73. Bastard Out of Carolina Allison
74. Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills Bukowski
75. Delta of Venus Nin
76. Fast Food Nation Schlosser
77. Ficciones Borges
78. Go Ask Alice Anonymous
79. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Adams
80. Iliad Homer
81. On Photography Sontag
82. Republic Plato
83. Shockproof Sydney Skate Meaker
84. Society of the Spectacle Debord
85. Strangers in Paradise Moore
86. The Sun Also Rises Hemingway
87. A Wrinkle In Time L’Engle
88. Dubliners Joyce
89. The Breakfast of Champions Vonnegut
90. No Logo Klein
91. Aeneid Virgil
92. Ariel Plath
93. Charlotte’s Web White
94. Curious George Learns the Alphabet Rey
95. Enormous Changes at the Last Minute Paley
96. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter McCullers
97. Henry VIII Shakespeare
98. I, Claudius Graves
99. The Lost Continent Bryson
100. Master and Margarita Bulgakov

Put an S or F or W or M behind each book and pass it on.

2010-11-26T13:28:00.000-08:00

Italian Christmas Bread - Panettone Recipe

2 teaspoons yeast
2 cups bread flour
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla - nut extract flavoring
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup candied mixed fruit
1/4 cup candied cherries
1/4 cup chopped nuts
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup warm milk
1/4 cup powdered milk

A much better use for the candied fruit usually used for fruitcakes. Follow the directions on your bread machine about adding ingredients, I toss them all in with the liquid last. Cook on regular bread cycle. Slice and sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving. For the nuts I used walnuts but pecans or sliced almonds would also be good. This recipe has been reduced slightly and modified from Panettone II at allrecipes.com as the bread rose slightly too much for my medium size bread machine.

2010-11-22T15:35:00.000-08:00

Chorizo Split Pea Soup

1 package 9 oz. Chorizo Sausage
1 package 16 oz. dried split peas
5 medium carrots, sliced
3 stalks celery, sliced
1 1/2 medium onions, chopped
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 pinch of thyme
1 pinch ground black pepper
4 cups low-fat low-salt chicken broth
2 cups water

Brown chorizo and 1/2 of the onion over medium heat. Try to drain off much of the fat.
In crockpot add all other ingredients then stir in browned chorizo and onion.
Cook at LOW for 4 to 5 hours until peas are very tender or even mush.

Turn off crockpot and let stand 15 minutes until thickened. Add freshly ground black pepper before serving.

Optional - serve with sour cream and mango pico de gallo. A dash of lime juice may also be added. Toast is always welcome.

Chorizo can be replaced with other types of sausage or chopped ham or turkey. Other seasonings like garlic can also adjust the recipe.

2010-11-21T11:34:00.000-08:00

No Bake Cookies

CHOCOLATE OATMEAL NO-BAKE COOKIES

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups slow-cooking oatmeal
1/2 cup peanut butter

Combine sugar, cocoa, butter and milk in a saucepan. On medium heat, bring to a boil for three full minutes.

Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter (optional), vanilla and oatmeal.

Drop by spoonful onto wax paper. Let cool for at least 30 minutes.

Impossible 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 egg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Combine the peanut butter, white sugar and egg. Mix until smooth.
Drop spoonfuls of dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Use fork to make criss-cross pattern. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 6 to 8 minutes. Do not overbake! These cookies are best when they are still soft and just barely brown on the bottoms.

Ok, these are really better with a touch of vanilla and some chocolate chips and of course low-fat peanut butter and at least half Splenda for the sugar.

Read comments here.

2010-11-20T07:58:00.000-08:00

Crunchy Italian Breadsticks

1 cup bread flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup corn meal

1 tablespoon yeast

1/2 teas. garlic powder

1/2 teas. salt

1/2 teas. black pepper

3/4 teas. Italian seasoning

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/4 grated Parmesan Cheese

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/4 cup hot tap water

1/2 cup almond milk

Bake in bread machine under normal white bread.

Optional: Cut into sticks and brush with 1/4 cup unsalted butter and sprinkle with 1/2 cup Parmesan and broil or microwave 2 to 3 minutes. Also can add strips of mozzarella cheese.

Can easily be doubled.

Serve with Italian pasta dinner.

2010-11-19T11:54:00.000-08:00

Bread Machine Cinnamon Cranberry Raisin Nut Bread

1 cup vanilla soy milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup bread flour
2 tablespoons gluten
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon vanilla nut flavoring
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup cran-raisins
1/4 cup sliced almonds

Follow directions on your bread machine.

2010-11-15T19:49:00.000-08:00

Rye bread recipe

2 tsp yeast
3/4 cup rye flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup bread flour
1/4 cup flax seed
1/2 cup old fashioned oatmeal
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp dried onion
2 tbs vital gluten
2 tsp grated dark chocolate
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup honey
1/4 tsp salt

Whole wheat cycle bread machine.
Add 1/3 cup soy milk.
Add 1/4 cup Dr. B soda

Didn't mix well, had to add more liquid and restart. One corner still ended up with a little bit of uncooked flour. At the end was OK. Next time I'll leave out the Flax Seed which although healthy for you I am not crazy about when there is enough to really taste.

At least the Jalapeño Cornbread starting from a mix I made while fooling around with this turned out well.

Primarily this was to make more sandwich bread and start on the 7 pounds of Rye flour in the freezer. We start out with the flour in the freezer for at least 2 weeks to kill any weevil eggs.

Added - this was much better, good, the next day but it really didn't mix well.

2010-11-12T00:45:00.000-08:00

Marilyn Monroe's Fancy Stuffing

This is from the New York Times after a recently published book of found notes and letters.

Norma Jean Stuffing

Time: 2 hours

No garlic

A 10-ounce loaf sourdough bread

1/2 pound chicken or turkey livers or hearts

1/2 pound ground round or other beef

1 tablespoon cooking oil

4 stalks celery, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

2 cups chopped curly parsley

2 eggs, hard boiled, chopped

1 1/2 cups raisins

1 cup grated Parmesan

1 1/4 cups chopped walnuts, pine nuts or roasted chestnuts, or a combination

2 teaspoons dried crushed rosemary

2 teaspoons dried crushed oregano

2 teaspoons dried crushed thyme

3 bay leaves

1 tablespoon salt-free, garlic-free poultry seasoning (or 1 teaspoon dried sage, 1 teaspoon marjoram, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger and 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg)

1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more to taste

1 tablespoon pepper.

1. Split the bread loaf in half and soak it in a large bowl of cold water for 15 minutes. Wring out excess water over a colander and shred into pieces.

2. Boil the livers or hearts for 8 minutes in salted water, then chop until no piece is larger than a coffee bean.

3. In a skillet over medium-high heat, brown the ground beef in the oil, stirring occasionally and breaking up the meat, so no piece is larger than a pistachio.

4. In your largest mixing bowl, combine the sourdough, livers, ground beef, celery, onion, parsley, eggs, raisins, Parmesan and nuts, tossing gently with your hands to combine. Whisk the rosemary, oregano, thyme, bay leaves, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper together in a bowl, scatter over the stuffing and toss again with your hands. Taste and adjust for salt. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to use as a stuffing or to bake separately as dressing.

Yield: 20 cups, enough for one large turkey, 2 to 3 geese or 8 chickens.

2010-10-19T22:56:00.000-07:00

Oven Fried Calamari

Not as greasy as deep-fried but all the flavor.

2 pounds squid, cleaned

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 large eggs

4 large egg whites

2 cups finely ground white cornmeal

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Cut the squid bodies into 1/4-inch rings, leaving the tentacles whole. Blot dry with paper towels. Season the squid with salt and pepper.

Place half the flour in a wide, shallow bowl and season with pepper. Place the egg and whites in another bowl and beat well with a fork. Combine the remaining flour with the cornmeal in a third shallow bowl with pepper and whisk to mix.

Oil two large baking sheets, either by using 2 tablespoons of oil or spraying with cooking spray. Dip the squid rings into the flour and toss with your hands. Lift them out onto a baking rack and shake the excess back into the bowl. Then drop them into the egg mixture. Lift them out with a fork onto the baking rack, and shake to drip off excess. Finally, dip into the cornmeal, again shaking off the excess, using the baking rack. Place the squid in a single layer on the baking sheets. Repeat with the tentacles. Drizzle the remaining oil on top.

Bake the squid until crisp and golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes, turning with a spatula to ensure even browning. Serve at once.

More oven fried recipes from NPR here.

While we are mentioning seafood lets add my favorite: Grilled Shrimp.
Pick a recipe with some marinating in hot spices and juice.

2010-10-12T16:48:00.000-07:00

Golden Cheese Bread

1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 tbs butter
1/3 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
3 tbs crumbled feta cheese
1/3 tsp salt
1/3 tsp coarse black pepper
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp dill seeds
2 tbs vital gluten
1/2 cup stout oatmeal flakes
1/4 cup crumbled shredded wheat
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup bread flour
1 1/2 tsp yeast
2 tbs strawberry jam

Bread machine on whole wheat cycle (5 hours)

It really should have an egg or two but I was out. The butter is optional. The first time I substituted some juice from a jar of jalapenos and soy milk for the buttermilk.

2010-09-04T14:49:00.000-07:00

Quick Hearty Lunch

Sandwich made with homemade thick sliced jalapeno cheese bread with smoked turkey slices and Colby Jack Cheese and fresh fruit and yogurt salad. The Vitamin C packet is Glenda's.

Crystal Light Breakfast Orange drink mixed with apricot nectar to drink.

2010-08-28T19:12:00.000-07:00

Cranberry Oat Bread Recipe - Allrecipes.com

Original Recipe Yield 16 servings

Ingredients

1 cup water (70 degrees to 80 degrees)
1 tablespoon butter or margarine, softened
2 tablespoons honey
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup old-fashioned oats
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/3 cup dried cranberries or raisins
Directions

In bread machine pan, place the first eight ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer. Select basic bread setting. Choose crust color and loaf size if available. Bake according to bread machine directions (check dough after 5 minutes of mixing; add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water or flour if needed). Depending on bread machine just before final kneading (your machine may audibly signal this), add cranberries.

Changes - double the cranberries and add the same amount of walnuts. Replace half the bread flour with wheat flour.

2010-06-12T00:20:00.000-07:00

Recipe Time

Pasta with Walnut Arugula Pesto from Making Light.

1/2 C. walnuts
1 pint fresh baby arugula, tightly packed
4 healthy garlic cloves
a lot of olive oil*
salt, black pepper, white pepper
1 large lemon
2 C. finely grated hard sharp cheese
Throw your walnuts dry into a frying pan and toast, stirring constantly, until they smell like toasted walnuts. Immediately remove the pan from the fire and the walnuts from the pan. As soon as they’re cool enough to handle, rub the walnuts lightly between your hands to remove as much of the skin as will yield without a fight.
If your food processor is as small as mine, you now reduce the walnuts to particles that look like fine sand, then set them aside until after you’ve pulverized the arugula. This isn’t the fastest way to make pesto, but it does allow you to write recipes that call for an unspecified amount of olive oil.
Set a pot of water on to boil, peel the garlic cloves, grate the zest off the lemon, juice the lemon, and grate the cheese. I used a mixture of cheeses that was about two-thirds fresh Parmesan, and one-third Le Maréchal, which Patrick bought this past weekend because our grocery was giving out yummy free samples.
Stuff the arugula into the food processor along with the lemon zest, the garlic, and enough olive oil to get everything to cooperate. Turn the processor to “smite hem in pecys” and let ‘er rip.
Pause. Add the salt, pepper, and pepper. Process a bit to get them mixed in, and add more if needed. Meanwhile, if the water is boiling, add the pasta. As it happens, I used fusilli col buco, but almost any pasta would do.

2010-05-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

Kinky Kong

Much worse than SpiderBabe and Lord of the G-String.

Kinky Kong (trailer version 2)

Preview has 90% of the best parts.

Want more? Here is a scene that inspired a later movie.

Doesn't even have Misty Mundae.

2010-04-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

The use of plot devices in SF

The Well-Tempered Plot Device
Nick Lowe

Perhaps once in a generation, the science of criticism is shaken by a conceptual breakthrough so revolutionary that the literary establishment can only dismiss it as deluded quackery. Such a breakthrough is described in these pages. If I draw comparisons with Darwin, Einstein, Lysenko, the sceptical reader may smile. Yet they laughed at Leavis; they creased themselves pink at Edmund Wilson; they barfed up gobs of lung tissue at Derrida's Of Grammatology. To all such shallow-minded so-called "scientists" I say: go ahead and hoot! The High Speed Train of progress makes no unscheduled stops to pick up late travellers, nor can it be tilted in its tracks.

The failure of the old paradigm is simple. There's a curious bias in the vernacular of critical discussion towards the qualities that make a book good. Most of the language traditionally used to describe a book's achievement has to do with its positive qualities: the plot, characterization, style, ideas, significance. Moreover, it's a bias that carries over into all those gruesome handbooks on How To Write Totally Brilliant Novels and Win Big Cash Literary Prizes. The reason nobody's yet become a big time novelist by reading up on Diane Doubtfire is just that all the advice in such booklets is directed towards getting you to write a book full of plot, characterization, style, ideas, significance. In short, a good book.

Now, it strikes me that this is completely misconceived. You've only got to look around you to realize that most books that get published are NOT good. This simple point makes a nonsense of conventional criticism, which lacks any sort of vocabulary to discuss badness in any meaningful way. And yet badness is the dominant quality of contemporary literature, and certainly of SF. All orthodox criticism can say of a truly awful book is that the characterization is terrible, or the use of the English language makes your bowels move of themselves. It fails completely to grasp that bad writing is governed by subtle rules and conventions of its own, every bit as difficult to learn and taxing to apply as those that shape good writing. But do you ever find workshops offering instruction in how to write the sort of really atrocious garbage that leers at you from every railway bookstall?

2009-12-07T11:31:00.000-08:00

Homemade Cranberry Liqueur

Just a link to Gunther Anderson - who has more recipes including:

Homemade Kahlua® Recipe

6 cups sugar
6 cups water
20 tsp instant coffee
1/2 gallon vodka
12 tsp pure vanilla
Mix sugar, water, coffee together and bring to slow boil. Turn heat down and simmer 1 hour. Remove heat, cover liquid with plastic wrap. Let sit for 12 hours, then remove wrap (it will pick up film from the top). Add vodka and vanilla, stir well. Bottle in dark bottles.

Notes:, Yield 3 quarts. Drinkable immediately. We usually make a half-batch because it's so darn big.

2009-12-04T04:53:00.000-08:00

I'll Finally Repost this.

Kathryn had this on Facebook but I had seen it before.

2009-12-02T04:25:00.000-08:00

Another recipe

2009-12-02T03:45:00.000-08:00

Yucatan Puerco Pibil

Cochinita pibil has more discussion, many leave out the tequila.

2009-11-27T23:57:00.000-08:00

If You Really Want To

Enya - Only If

Only If... :
When there's a shadow,
you reach for the sun.
When there is love,
then you look for the one.
And for the promises, there is this land.
And for the heavens are
those who can fly.

[Chorus:]
If you really want to,
you can hear me say
Only if you want to
will you find a way.
If you really want to
You can seize the day.
Only if you want to will you fly away.

When there's a journey,
you follow a star.
When there's an ocean,
you sail from afar.
And for the broken heart,
there is the sky.
And for tomorrow are those
who can fly.

[Chorus]

Ooh go doe bay mwa.
Ooh go doe bay mwa.

[Chorus]

Ah! Je voudrai voler
comme un oiseau d'aile
Ah! Je voudrai voler
comme un oiseau d'aile, d'aile...

Ooh go doe bay mwa.
Ooh go doe bay mwa.

[Chorus]

If you really want to
you can seize the day.
Only if you want to will you fly away.

2009-11-27T22:45:00.000-08:00

White Dog and Six Months to Live

Saw White Dog on VHS yesterday and Six Months to Live was apparently stuck on as one of two short bonuses to the bootleg video.

White Dog is an overly dramatic movie never realeased theatrically in this country about an adopted dog in California whose owner discovers it had been trained to be an attack dog. And not just an attack dog, but a dog trained to viciously attack blacks. The film follows the attempt to retrain him - trailer. Glenda was very moved by seeing this movie on TV and tracked down a copy. The movie has played on HBO and probably other cable channels. That movie has it fans who have made more fake trailers. Interesting performances by Burl Ives among others.

Six Months to Live is one of the first short films by Sam Raimi. From Temple of Schlock:

Sam Raimi’s first film was called OUT WEST, a Three Stooges-inspired comic western he shot in 8mm, which was “about 22 seconds long,” he chuckles. As a teen he cranked out around 50 Super 8 movies with friends, all of them comedies, and in college he and his buddies formed a film society in which they charged admission for their films to the college audiences. “With good or bad responses it’s good feedback, especially when they’re paying a buck-fifty. I highly recommend [such a film society] for young filmmakers.” Some of these titles included IT’S MURDER, SIX MONTHS TO LIVE and CLOCKWORK.

Interestingly, Raimi has always been more of a fan of comedy than horror and/or gore. “I was always a fan of the Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers,” he says. “We wanted to make a first feature in college and realized that, no matter how badly it might’ve turned out in case we failed, the investors could still make some of their money back if we learned how to make a horror movie. So we sat in a drive-in for a summer and studied double feature after double feature of Italian horror pictures, trying to figure out what made them work. And then we tried to make our own.”

Six Months is mainly notable for very poor quality but demonstrates a gift for story-telling. There is a compilation of some of these Raimi short films from fans.

The other bonus short on the DVD was a SNL skit of Jesse Jackson reading "Green Eggs and Ham."

2009-11-17T22:35:00.000-08:00

OLD NEWS

Telomeres made headlines this fall when three American scientists won the Nobel Prize for discovering them and exploring their role in health.

Great short article that ties telomeres and healthy lifestyle choices together.

Shortened telomeres contribute to heart disease, diabetes, reduced immunity and possibly even brittle bones. In people over age 60, those with the shortest DNA tips have been shown to be three times more likely to die from heart disease and eight times more likely to die from an infectious disease than those with longer telomeres. Shorter-than-usual telomeres also have been found in many cancers, including those of the pancreas, bone, prostate, bladder, lung, kidney, head and neck.

One of the most exciting things about telomeres is that your everyday choices can make a big difference in how young they stay. Unhealthy choices can age you by an extra five, seven or even 10 years. In one University of California San Francisco study, for example, men who changed their diets, got regular exercise and calmed their stress with meditation actually increased levels of an enzyme that lengthens telomeres in immune cells. Just what should you tell your telomeres to keep you young and healthy?

1. Take it down a notch. Your stress, that is. The most stressed-out women have enough telomere shortening to make themselves 10 years older (including wrinkling!); moms of disabled children also tend to have shortened telomeres. So do pessimists! Researchers have shown that meditation, coupled with walking and a diet change - toward healthy choices only - lengthens your telomeres. Others are now studying whether mindfulness meditation alone can preserve telomere length. We already know that the technique can help you with the next factor that keeps telomeres young ...

2. Get an attitude. Worrying about pounds, food choices and calories is associated with shorter telomeres, according to a University of California San Francisco study of constant dieters. Step off the diet roller-coaster and achieve a consistent lower weight (and longer telomeres) with exercise and a meal plan packed with mindful eating plus healthy vegetables, fruit, whole grains, low-fat dairy, lean protein and good fats from foods including fish, nuts and avocados.

3. Activate yourself. Inactive people have shorter telomeres than active people. The difference is enough to age the sitting-around crowd by an extra decade. Go take a walk, for at least 30 minutes a day. Physical activity also can help reduce belly fat, another telomere foe.

4. Say goodbye to tobacco. Smoking two packs a day for 20 years aged participants in one telomere study by an additional 7.4 years. Your telomeres aren't the only reason you need to nix tobacco. Smoking messes with your lungs (of course), your heart and even your wrinkles and your sex life - and everything in between.

5. Go Mediterranean. That's the meal plan we mentioned in point No. 2, rich in delectable vegetables, fruits, whole grains and healthy fats. Telomeres, in one study, were longest in those eating the most vitamin C-rich foods - including citrus fruit, strawberries and red bell peppers - and vitamin E-rich foods such as whole grains. Add salmon and trout, olive oil and a cup of tea ... or two or three. Researchers in Hong Kong found the longest telomeres in men who drank three cups of green tea or sometimes black tea a day.

Soon a telomerase enzyme booster may increase health and longevity.

Mutant Hyperactive gene may explain longevity

Centenarians effectively have a body mechanic constantly repairing the hardware that runs the body, versus a normal person whose body's cellular control centre is left to wear out with time.

Researchers from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the U.S studied a group of Ashkenazi Jews and found those who lived longest had inherited a mutant version of the enzyme telomerase.

Tech entrepreneur and futurist Ray Kurzweil opened the conference with a virtual presentation on exponential technology trends that are bringing the prospect of achieving longevity escape velocity ever closer. “We are very close to the tipping point in human longevity,” asserted Kurzweil to the conferees. “We are about 15 years away from adding more than one year of longevity per year to remaining life expectancy.” This has been labeled by summiteer and life-extension guru Aubrey de Grey as longevity escape velocity. Achieving escape velocity, according to Kekich, would mean that “your projected day of reckoning moves further away from you rather than closing in on you.”

“Health and medicine will be a million times more powerful in 20 years,” Kurzweil declared. He predicted that the complexity of biology will yield to the exponential powers of applied information technology and take off. He cited Moore’s Law which predicts doubling of microchip functionality and halving their costs every two years. The decrease in cost and increase in speed of sequencing whole human genomes is outpacing even Moore’s Law. In 2000, the first genome was sequenced after 14 years and at a cost of $3 billion. Now various startups offer the potential to sequence an individual’s DNA for less than $100 in under an hour.

The goal of the summit was to devise scientific and business strategies with the goal of demonstrating the capability to reverse aging in an older human being by 2029. By then, Kurzweil argued, people will be beginning their intimate merger with information technologies, biotechnologies, and nanotechnologies. Kurzweil, age 61, emphasized, “Something I am personally interested in is not just designer babies, but designer baby boomers.”

Around ten years ago I heard of the people trying to prevent Old Age Disease and that telomeres were the most promising line of research and learned to keep an eye on Geron.

2009-11-16T00:19:00.000-08:00

Regrets

Mylene Farmer

There is a shorter version for in concert.

The story is pretty obvious from the first video. Beautiful song.

2009-11-16T00:07:00.000-08:00

Feel Small?

2009-11-14T22:40:00.001-08:00

A Bit of Pratchett

The order to read the Discworld books - not by publication date. Although I am impressed by the scale of his cliff hanger in the first Discworld - The Color of Magic (made into a very good DVD).

A Review of Pratchett's latest - but I think Monstrous Regiment is one of the poorest unlike the reviewer. MR is not bad, I haven't read a bad Pratchett even the first two and even the prior science fiction books before he started the Discworld series - see biblio MR is almost a stand alone and he was ticked off about the Iraq war and decided to take it out on war in general.

Here is the first verse of five of what I think is his only published poem.

The Secret Book of the Dead

They don't teach you the facts of death,

Your Mum and Dad. They give you pets.

We had a dog which went astray.

Got laminated to the motorway.

I cried. We had to post him to the vets.

That was from a limited edition book by Neil Gaiman and others like Pratchett that was very rare but has since been reprinted - Now We Are Sick.

2009-11-14T18:28:00.000-08:00

Funny Female Singer/Songwriters

Garfunkel and Oates

An LA-based comedy/folk duo made up of actresses Riki Lindhome (Last House on the Left, Changeling, My Best Friend’s Girl) and Kate Micucci (Scrubs, When in Rome).

Sex with Ducks.

Pregnant Woman are Smug

Download CD $5.

Here is another small CD by Kate Micucci - Songs.

WIllian H Macy and Kate Micucci sing it's time to get laid.

Carla Ulbrich

If I had the copyright on the word...

Sittin in the Waitin Room

Here are a number of free MP3s at her site.

That includes a song about prednisone which she experienced.

I have her Live From Outer Space CD I picked up at FenCon. FenCon is getting very good as a filk music destination.

Live From Outer Space also available as an Amazon download.

Venetian Princess is a YouTube Parody star.

Twilight - New Moon Parody (Vegetarian Vampire)

Taylor Swift - Parody - You Belong With Me ("Just A Zombie")

Lady Gaga - Poker Face - Parody ("Outer Space")

I Kissed A Girl (Parody) - Katy Perry - Elderly Remix

2009-11-14T02:18:00.000-08:00

Fall recipes

Bulgarian Vegetable Pilaf

1 cup Bulgar Wheat with soy
2 tablespoons virgin olive oil

Place above in large pot and brown on high on the stove.

One half large onion
One half bell pepper
One stalk celery
One third cup carrots
One cup snow peas
Other vegetables like mushrooms as desired
Crushed or diced garlic, bay leaves, marjoram or basil as desired
One third cup wine

Chop the vegetables and add to the browned bulgar wheat with the wine.

Two cups broth, vegetable or chicken, or a large can of low sodium chicken gumbo soup.

Add to mixture and bring to boil. Cover and simmer 15 minutes.

Add pepper and other seasonings like parsley if desired. Serve with dark bread.

I didn't have the broth one time and the can of Progresso was a good substitute, although it contains a small amount of chicken.

Dr. Weil’s Roasted Winter Squash and Apple Soup

1 large winter squash (about 2 1/2 pounds), such as butternut,
buttercup or kabocha; peeled, seeded and cut into 2-inch pieces
2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tart, firm apples, peeled, cored and quartered
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and red chile powder to taste
4 to 5 cups vegetable broth

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large roasting pan, toss the squash, onions, garlic and apples with the oil to coat. Season well with the salt and chile. Roast, stirring every 10 minutes, until the vegetables are fork tender and lightly browned, about 40 minutes.

2. Put half of the vegetables and 2 cups of the broth in a food processor and purée until smooth. Repeat with the remaining vegetables and broth. Return puréed mixture to the pot. If the soup is too thick, add more broth. Correct the seasoning and heat to a simmer.

3. Serve in warm bowls with dollops of cilantro-walnut pesto.

Cilantro-Walnut Pesto

1 cup walnut pieces
2 cups cilantro leaves, washed, drained and stemmed
1 green jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1. Put the walnuts in a food processor and grind them fine.

2. Add the cilantro, jalapeño pepper, salt, vinegar and 2 to 3 tablespoons of water and blend. Blend in a little more water if necessary to make a thick sauce. Taste and correct the seasoning, adding more salt if necessary.

More squash recipes from the NYT.

Here are recipes for a veggie Thanksgiving.

This page has many recipe links for a Mediterranean diet Thanksgiving. The traditional Mediterranean diet is also proven to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease.

2009-11-08T22:39:00.000-08:00

Old Favorites show up on TV for Halloween

Captain Mal of Firefly gets dressed down for dressing as a Space Cowboy for Halloween.

"Don't you think it is time you moved on?"

Drinking Ewoks take over Today Show set.

Al Roker, dressed as Han Solo, tries to keep the peace.

In a remake of an old show V opened with mostly good reviews and good viewership.

2009-11-08T00:37:00.000-08:00

What is that in my tomato soup soup

Recipe from The Amateur Gourmet with modifications

Spicy Tomato and Blue Cheese Soup
from "Michael Symon's Live To Cook" by Michael Symon

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
Kosher or sea salt
4 garlic cloves, sliced or chopped
1 28-oz can San Marzano or Roma tomatoes, with their juice
1 1/2 cups Chicken Stock
3/4 cups heavy cream or yogurt or low fat cream
2 tablespoons sriracha or tabasco or other hot sauce
1 tablespoon fresh or dried oregano leaves
1/2 cup Roth Kase Buttermilk or any other kind of Blue cheese

Heat the olive oil in a 4-quart pot over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion and a three-fingered pinch of salt and sweat for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and continue to sweat for 2 more minutes. Add the tomatoes, their juice and the stock and bring to a simmer. (I added a little more salt here too). Add the cream, sriracha sauce, and oregano and simmer for 45 minutes.

Pour the soup into a blender, add the blue cheese, and blend until smooth, working in batches if needed.

Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean pot, taste, adjust the seasoning if necessary, and reheat to serve. The soup will keep, covered in the refrigerator, for a few days.

2009-10-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

Good Webisodes and Low Budget Media

I am starting to become a big fan of Internet only series and other online only video. Also very low budget movie masters. Here are some.

The Guild.
The best online series.

The Family
I was told about this one about some poly people.

The Retarded Policeman
Very short but not very good or politically correct.

Sideshow Cinema

Michael Legge of Massachusetts produces, directs, stars, etc. in very low budget horror and SF films and videos. He also has an access cable series where he portrays a mad scientist and has a zombie cheerleader assistant and they show old horror movies. I discovered him by finding a Working Stiffs and Braindrainer double feature DVD at a Dollar Store. The funny Working Stiffs on the DVDS was a very poor copy and quit working before the end. Going online I saw he says this DVD was ~~stolen~~ unauthorized and he sells improved restored versions on his web site. Here is a portion of a recent production.

The Dungeon of Dr. Dreck

Another Working Stiffs
- not Michael Legge's but Clay Liford's..

This was part of A Four Course Meal, an anthology of comedy/horror that was seeking distribution.

2009-10-26T00:54:00.000-07:00

Zen

Zen Garden

2009-10-24T19:44:00.000-07:00

Red Dwarf Returns

The boys are back, and while they may be older, they're still none the wiser. The crew discover a dimension-hopping leviathan, but Rimmer is threatened with replacement by the new, improved holograph Katrina. She is determined to guide Lister to his home planet, but no one is prepared for Earth 2009, where the hapless crew face death unless they can track down their creators.

Amazon

Which also has the complete Red Dwarf series on DVD.

2009-10-19T03:36:00.000-07:00

Love Math?

2009-10-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Music from Marisa Monte

Necessary to find me:

To go it leaves me necessary to walk
I go there looking for
To laugh not to cry
To go it leaves me necessary to walk
I go there looking for
To laugh not to cry

I want to attend the sun to be born
To see waters of the rivers to run
To hear the birds to sing
I want to be born, I want to live

To go he leaves me necessary to walk
I go there looking for
To laugh not to cry

If somebody for me asks
It says that I only go to come back
When to find me I

I want to attend the sun to be born
To see waters of the rivers to run
To hear the birds to sing
I want to be born, I want to live

To go he leaves me necessary to walk
I go there for looking for
To laugh not to cry

If somebody for me asks
It says that I only go to come back
When I to find me [x3]

Later that to find me I…

Auto-translated, some corrections needed.

2009-10-01T22:25:00.000-07:00

AutoTune The Universe

Carl Sagan and Stephe Hawking put through the AutoTuner to explain why the sky calls to us.

Lyrics

[Sagan]
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch
You must first invent the universe

Space is filled with a network of wormholes
You might emerge somewhere else in space
Some when-else in time
The sky calls to us
If we do not destroy ourselves
We will one day venture to the stars
A still more glorious dawn awaits
Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise
A morning filled with 400 billion suns
The rising of the milky way

The Cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths
Of exquisite interrelationships
Of the awesome machinery of nature

I believe our future depends powerfully
On how well we understand this cosmos
In which we float like a mote of dust
In the morning sky

But the brain does much more than just recollect
It inter-compares, it synthesizes, analyzes
it generates abstractions

The simplest thought like the concept of the number one
Has an elaborate logical underpinning
The brain has its own language
For testing the structure and consistency of the world

[chorus]

[Hawking]
For thousands of years
People have wondered about the universe
Did it stretch out forever
Or was there a limit

From the big bang to black holes
From dark matter to a possible big crunch
Our image of the universe today
Is full of strange sounding ideas

[Sagan]

How lucky we are to live in this time
The first moment in human history
When we are in fact visiting other worlds

[chorus]

The surface of the earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean
Recently we've waded a little way out
And the water seems inviting.

Link and Lyrics from This Is True Blog.

2009-09-28T20:18:00.000-07:00

Give them what they want

When a few readers complained about yet another bosom lass on a Realms of Fantasy cover one blog commenter created the perfect cover for the complainers. Cheeky. One guess only as to what writer complained about being on the table of contents.

2009-09-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

Vegan Avocado Recipes for Diabetes

The New York Times had this and others. A vegan diet was slightly better than the AMA recommended diabetic diet for diabetes.

Chilled Avocado Soup

2 large ripe avocados
3 cups good-quality vegetable broth
1/4 cup dry sherry, preferably fino

1. Cut the avocados in half lengthwise, navigating around the pits. Twist to split, then remove the pits and discard. Using a medium-size spoon, scoop out the flesh in large pieces, then cut into 1/2-inch pieces.

2. In a heavy, medium saucepan, combine the broth and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.

3. Add the avocado pieces and simmer for 2 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons of the sherry and cook 1 minute longer.

4. Remove from heat and let cool for several minutes. Transfer the contents of the saucepan to a blender. (You may need to do this in several batches.) Process until the soup is very smooth and creamy.

5. Add salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons sherry and chill until very cold before serving.

Yield: 6 servings.

Mexican Tomatillo Stew

3 tablespoons olive oil
1-1/2 cups peeled and diced sweet potatoes
1 cup chopped celery
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
1 tablespoon cumin
5 cups lower sodium vegetable broth
2 cups diced tomatillos
2 fully ripened avocados, halved, pitted and diced
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Ground black pepper to taste

1. In large saucepan, heat oil. Add sweet potatoes, celery, onion, garlic and cumin; cook and stir for 5 minutes. Add broth and tomatillos; bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

2. Just before ready to serve, stir in 1 avocado and cilantro. Season with pepper, if desired.

3. Serve in bowls topped with remaining avocado, if desired.

Yield: about 10 cups.

Russ & Amy

2009-09-23T16:14:00.001-07:00

Russ & Amy, originally uploaded by stardreamer_to_vensre.

This is Russ and Amy at the ApolloCon in 2010 room party at FenCon this past weekend.

I don't think I can explain more....

2009-09-09T17:07:00.000-07:00

Dirt Cheap Housing

I have been looking into inexpensive to build, inexpensive to heat and cool, and hurricane and tornado resistent homes for the Southern United States.

Earth bag homes look really good for this.

Here is a tour of natural eco friendly homes including earth bag.

2009-09-05T23:12:00.000-07:00

Getting Scammed

If you see Cash4Gold advertisements and parties know that you are not getting a good deal and it is a bad company. You can read about the company and how it responds to people who report on its practices in Consumerist.

If you want to sell gold take it to a couple pawn shops and some jewelry stores and see what they offer first. You are likely to get at least twice what Cash4Gold will pay and aren't likely to be sued and you tell about their lowball offers.

2009-08-30T16:13:00.000-07:00

Eating Houston

FredEatsHouston is another blog about eating and living in metro Houston. Lots of observations about the restaurants and scene in The Heights and to a lesser extend Montross and other areas.

There are a number of Houston eating sites as the area is the most varied and inexpensive restaurant cities in the country. Allison Cook and Robb Walsh are essential in the old tree media - links are to their blogs.

What else - how about the top 5 BBQ places in Texas according to the Texas Monthly this year.

Snow's BBQ. 516 Main Street, Lexington, 979-773-4640
Louie Mueller BBQ. 206 W. 2nd Street, Taylor, 512-352-6206
Kreuz Market. 619 N. Colorado St, Lockhart, 512-398-2361
Smitty's Market. 208 S. Commerce, Lockhart, 512-398-9344
City Market. 633 E. Davis St., Luling, 830-875-9019

All of these, and more, can be hit on one long tasty day trip as people have done.

I should try this, although it would be very rare for me to agree with the Texas Monthly in the last two decades since it transformed into the fashion and lifestyle magazine for well-off conservative Texan wannabes.

2009-08-25T00:59:00.000-07:00

AAAAAVATAR!

Speaking of Avatars, this Coke Ad made me think of Charle's Stoss's Halting State.

2009-08-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

Where did the Tea-Baggers get their Inspiration?

Blame Canada!

2009-08-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

A Letter to My Republican Senators and Congressman.

I am writing to ask you to support health care reform by strong government action.

I know too many people who are not getting the health care they deserve because they can't afford it or their insurance is denying coverage. I don't want faceless bureaucrats in the for-profit health care industry deciding who lives and dies, who lives in pain, to give bigger executive bonuses.

The easiest option is to lower the Medicare age to 50 and provide government health care to all under 25 through state programs. This can be mostly financed by raising the Medicare tax and a very small financial investment transaction tax.

Reform of the insurance industry by knocking out pre-existing coverage exclusions and standardizing insurance reforms and coverage and other cost lowering measures could be a separate bill.

I doubt if you will pay attention to this but sometimes even politicians will eventually see sense.

2009-08-19T02:42:00.000-07:00

Do You Want To Date My Avatar?

Music video.

2009-08-11T05:09:00.000-07:00

What the World is coming to

- A Katamara Damacy Wedding.

2009-08-11T04:58:00.001-07:00

This looks good

2009-08-11T02:33:00.000-07:00

Saturn's Children as a commentary on Heinlein?

I really wasn't that impressed with the book but may have to reread it. It had many similarities to Friday and other Heinlein stories but....

From Raygun Review PDF:

January 2008
Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross
Ace, 2008, 336 pages
Reviewed by Steve Davidson

I’ve just finished Saturn’s Child, Charlie Stross’ homage/send-up of the works of Robert A. Heinlein and I’m very tempted to restrict my review to a single word: whew!
What a ride. This is an extremely complex work that twists together an enormous number of elements and themes—far too many to examine in any kind of detail in the space afforded here.

I’ll attempt a summary, just to give everyone some small idea of what they’re in for, because reading Freya’s tale is a must:
A straight re-telling of Heinlein’s • Friday, examining the various Heinleinesque social contentions and offering alternative viewpoints.
An exploration of every single work • Heinlein ever wrote, more often than not from a humorous perspective.
A compilation of contemporary social • issues (global warming, for example) and science fiction tropes (singularity, for example), mixed together and yielding a variety of viewpoints on those issues.
A presentation of and commentary on • the SF genre as a whole.
An action-adventure tale that spans • the solar system.
A mystery/spy thriller story.•
A possible commentary on Spider • Robinson’s completion of Heinlein’s Variable Star (although I’ve not had time to examine this contention in detail).
Most definitely several other themes • I’ve either missed or failed to list.

For those of you embarking on a doctorate in literature, Saturn’s Children is the kind of text that would provide more than enough meat for several dissertations: I’ll suggest that someone could make a very nice career out of charting the references, both overt and subtle, to various works by Heinlein.

That’s not to say that Saturn’s Children is some kind of dry, academic polemic. Far from it. In fact, the single most appropriate word to use to describe this novel is “juicy,” and I use that with every single possible sexual connotation
deliberately in mind.

Be forewarned: if sex in science fiction is a problem for you, don’t read Heinlein’s Friday and stay far away from Saturn’s Children. If fetish sex—particularly of the S&M variety—is something you believe should remain hidden behind brown paper wrappers, well then, Stross’ novel ought to be in brown paper wrappers, behind the counter, inside several layers of asbestos-impregnated plastic bags and under lock-and-key.

I found this aspect of the story to be perhaps the most intriguing (if saying so isn’t revealing too many of my own peccadilloes). Heinlein got progressively sexier as time went by, culminating in the time-travelling enabled, incest-laden confusion of To Sail Beyond The Sunset: there isn’t a single form of human sexuality he didn’t cover, with the exception of bondage/sado-masochism, and Stross focuses on this omission like the tip of a bullwhip in the hands of a master (that’s like saying “with a laser beam” for those of you not familiar with some of the more extreme tools of the S&M trade).

His use of such imagery is deliberate, not for its erotic content, but because it informs the overriding theme of the novel, which is that all of Heinlein’s social commentary was dreck, borne out of some misguided belief that mankind’s sole motivator is love. Saturn’s Children amply demonstrates that love can twist us just as easily as it can save us, and that it has resulted in the former far more frequently than the latter.

The story is a somewhat complicated one: Freya—the Friday stand-in—is a humaniform robot created to serve as a sex toy. Unfortunately, the human race has gone extinct and Freya has no one to ‘imprint’ on. Her type of robot is programmed to fall in love, totally and submissively in love, with the deeply human owner who purchases them.

Stross examines what this kind of programmed love means throughout the story and it serves as an analogy for “true” human love. Are humans deeply in love still beings of free will? Are they capable of making rational decisions? Are their motivations to be trusted?

Freya, on the verge of personal bankruptcy, falls in with a courier service that is really a secret espionage/assassination organization and gets embroiled in a war between various factions of robots, some of whom are bent on resurrecting the human race and others just as desperately trying to prevent this.

Along the way she travels to virtually every planet in the solar system (in a sequence that I believe has some relationship to Heinlein’s novels, although I’ve not yet broken the code), and while doing so, Stross manages to squeeze in a mention of, so far as I can tell, every single story Heinlein ever wrote. Without working at it I found imagery reminiscent of Glory Road, Stranger in a Strange Land, Time Enough For Love, Farmer in the Sky, Universe, Space Cadet, and on and on. In every single instance, Stross offers a different, if not always contradictory, take on Heinlein’s points of view.

Stross also deals in contrarian fashion with the singularity concept, dismissing it out of hand by having the human race simply fading away and going extinct. Humanity’s works, unfinished, have been left behind, abandoned (like a thrown-over lover I shouldn’t have to point out) to go their own confused way.

Stross also manages to throw a few other contemporary issues in, such as global warming and the growing fight between the “new atheists” and fundamentalists and his take on these is just as refreshingly humorous as everything else in the novel.
Saturn’s Children is highly recommended for everyone; Heinlein fans are particularly encouraged to give it a read: you may not like everything you see, but you will most assuredly recognize Heinlein’s style of presentation and pacing, and if nothing else, it will have you running to the stacks to make comparisons. I’m sure I’ll be re-reading this one multiple times, and I’ll be finding something else that will intrigue and amuse me every single time I do.

Steve Davidson

Steve Davidson has been an SF fan since watching his first episode of Fireball XL5. He is currently the ‘crotchety’ behind the Crotchety Old Fan blog and is the curator of The Classic Science Fiction Channel, a website devoted to classic science fiction film, television, radio and print. He can be found at www.rimworlds.com/thecrotchetyoldfan

2009-08-09T21:57:00.000-07:00

The Lester Dent Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot

This is a formula, a master plot, for any 6000 word pulp story. It has worked on adventure, detective, western and war-air. It tells exactly where to put everything. It shows definitely just what must happen in each successive thousand words.

No yarn of mine written to the formula has yet failed to sell.

The business of building stories seems not much different from the business of building anything else.

Here's how it starts:

1. A DIFFERENT MURDER METHOD FOR VILLAIN TO USE
2. A DIFFERENT THING FOR VILLAIN TO BE SEEKING
3. A DIFFERENT LOCALE
4. A MENACE WHICH IS TO HANG LIKE A CLOUD OVER HERO

One of these DIFFERENT things would be nice, two better, three swell. It may help if they are fully in mind before tackling the rest.

A different murder method could be--different. Thinking of shooting, knifing, hydrocyanic, garroting, poison needles, scorpions, a few others, and writing them on paper gets them where they may suggest something. Scorpions and their poison bite? Maybe mosquitos or flies treated with deadly germs?

If the victims are killed by ordinary methods, but found under strange and identical circumstances each time, it might serve, the reader of course not knowing until the end, that the method of murder is ordinary.

Scribes who have their villain's victims found with butterflies, spiders or bats stamped on them could conceivably be flirting with this gag.

Probably it won't do a lot of good to be too odd, fanciful or grotesque with murder methods.

The different thing for the villain to be after might be something other than jewels, the stolen bank loot, the pearls, or some other old ones.

Here, again one might get too bizarre.

Unique locale? Easy. Selecting one that fits in with the murder method and the treasure--thing that villain wants--makes it simpler, and it's
also nice to use a familiar one, a place where you've lived or worked. So many pulpateers don't. It sometimes saves embarrassment to know nearly as much about the locale as the editor, or enough to fool him.

Here's a nifty much used in faking local color. For a story laid in Egypt, say, author finds a book titled "Conversational Egyptian Easily Learned," or something like that. He wants a character to ask in Egyptian, "What's the matter?" He looks in the book and finds, "El khabar, eyh?" To keep the reader from getting dizzy, it's perhaps wise to make it clear in some fashion, just what that means. Occasionally the text will tell this, or someone can repeat it in English. But it's a doubtful move to stop and tell the reader in so many words the English translation.

The writer learns they have palm trees in Egypt. He looks in the book, finds the Egyptian for palm trees, and uses that. This kids editors and readers into thinking he knows something about Egypt.

Here's the second installment of the master plot.

Divide the 6000 word yarn into four 1500 word parts. In each 1500 word part, put the following:

FIRST 1500 WORDS

1--First line, or as near thereto as possible, introduce the hero and swat him with a fistful of trouble. Hint at a mystery, a menace or a problem to be solved--something the hero has to cope with.

2--The hero pitches in to cope with his fistful of trouble. (He tries to fathom the mystery, defeat the menace, or solve the problem.)

3--Introduce ALL the other characters as soon as possible. Bring them on in action.

4--Hero's endevours land him in an actual physical conflict near the end of the first 1500 words.

5--Near the end of first 1500 words, there is a complete surprise twist in the plot development.

SO FAR: Does it have SUSPENSE?
Is there a MENACE to the hero?
Does everything happen logically?

At this point, it might help to recall that action should do something besides advance the hero over the scenery. Suppose the hero has learned the dastards of villains have seized somebody named Eloise, who can explain the secret of what is behind all these sinister events. The hero corners villains, they fight, and villains get away. Not so hot.

Hero should accomplish something with his tearing around, if only to rescue Eloise, and surprise! Eloise is a ring-tailed monkey. The hero counts the rings on Eloise's tail, if nothing better comes to mind.
They're not real. The rings are painted there. Why?

SECOND 1500 WORDS

1--Shovel more grief onto the hero.

2--Hero, being heroic, struggles, and his struggles lead up to:

3--Another physical conflict.

4--A surprising plot twist to end the 1500 words.

NOW: Does second part have SUSPENSE?
Does the MENACE grow like a black cloud?
Is the hero getting it in the neck?
Is the second part logical?

DON'T TELL ABOUT IT***Show how the thing looked. This is one of the secrets of writing; never tell the reader--show him. (He trembles, roving eyes, slackened jaw, and such.) MAKE THE READER SEE HIM.

When writing, it helps to get at least one minor surprise to the printed page. It is reasonable to to expect these minor surprises to sort of inveigle the reader into keeping on. They need not be such profound efforts. One method of accomplishing one now and then is to be gently misleading. Hero is examining the murder room. The door behind him begins slowly to open. He does not see it. He conducts his examination blissfully. Door eases open, wider and wider, until--surprise! The glass pane falls out of the big window across the room. It must have fallen slowly, and air blowing into the room caused the door to open. Then what the heck made the pane fall so slowly? More mystery.

Characterizing a story actor consists of giving him some things which make him stick in the reader's mind. TAG HIM.

BUILD YOUR PLOTS SO THAT ACTION CAN BE CONTINUOUS.

THIRD 1500 WORDS

1--Shovel the grief onto the hero.

2--Hero makes some headway, and corners the villain or somebody in:

3--A physical conflict.

4--A surprising plot twist, in which the hero preferably gets it in the neck bad, to end the 1500 words.

DOES: It still have SUSPENSE?
The MENACE getting blacker?
The hero finds himself in a hell of a fix?
It all happens logically?

These outlines or master formulas are only something to make you certain of inserting some physical conflict, and some genuine plot twists, with a little suspense and menace thrown in. Without them, there is no pulp story.

These physical conflicts in each part might be DIFFERENT, too. If one fight is with fists, that can take care of the pugilism until next the next yarn. Same for poison gas and swords. There may, naturally, be exceptions. A hero with a peculiar punch, or a quick draw, might use it more than once.

The idea is to avoid monotony.

ACTION:
Vivid, swift, no words wasted. Create suspense, make the reader see and feel the action.

ATMOSPHERE:
Hear, smell, see, feel and taste.

DESCRIPTION:
Trees, wind, scenery and water.

THE SECRET OF ALL WRITING IS TO MAKE EVERY WORD COUNT.

FOURTH 1500 WORDS

1--Shovel the difficulties more thickly upon the hero.

2--Get the hero almost buried in his troubles. (Figuratively, the villain has him prisoner and has him framed for a murder rap; the girl is presumably dead, everything is lost, and the DIFFERENT murder method is about to dispose of the suffering protagonist.)

3--The hero extricates himself using HIS OWN SKILL, training or brawn.

4--The mysteries remaining--one big one held over to this point will help grip interest--are cleared up in course of final conflict as hero takes
the situation in hand.

5--Final twist, a big surprise, (This can be the villain turning out to be the unexpected person, having the "Treasure" be a dud, etc.)

6--The snapper, the punch line to end it.

HAS: The SUSPENSE held out to the last line?
The MENACE held out to the last?
Everything been explained?
It all happen logically?
Is the Punch Line enough to leave the reader with that WARM FEELING?
Did God kill the villain? Or the hero?

Lester Dent (1904 - 1959) was a prolific pulp fiction author of numerous stories, best known as the main author of the series of stories about the superhuman character, "Doc Savage." Appears to be out of copyright.

2009-07-26T02:21:00.000-07:00

Nerd Womanizer

VenetianPrincess

I Kissed A Girl (Parody) - Katy Perry - Elderly Remix

2009-07-26T02:07:00.000-07:00

David Spates will be a big time comedy star soon

10 Things You Should Never Say To Another Guy Friend - David Spates

Best 2 Girls 1 Cup Reaction

2009-07-26T01:21:00.000-07:00

High Speed Dance

"Krazy in Luv" Maurice's Nu Soul Remix of Beyonce Crazy in Love

2009-07-24T14:11:00.001-07:00

The IT Crowd

A short clip of the first five minutes of episode 1.

Other clips - team players and Friendface.

2009-07-23T17:58:00.000-07:00

Natalie Merchant's My Skin

Video images from Perfume - The Story of a Murder

Here is a Serenity video mix by the same artist - 1eva23.

And another

2009-07-21T00:46:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter Filk Song

Be My Ginny Weasley

This is from the song a day guy.

2009-07-17T13:07:00.000-07:00

International Dance

Big Bang - GO!!

BIG BANG - Lies informally known as death by pineapple.

2009-07-04T21:05:00.000-07:00

Geezer Con - Dance selections

For those who need reminders -

In the Mood- Glen Miller
Rock Around the Clock- Bill Haley & His Comets
Wake Up Little Susie- Everly Brothers
Hound Dog- Elvis
Shake, Rattle and Roll- Bill Haley & His Comets
All Shook Up- Elvis
Jailhouse Rock- Elvis
At the Hop- Danny & the Juniors
In the Mood- Glen Miller

2009-07-04T20:57:00.001-07:00

Live music for the 4th

The Mavericks

Blue Moon

The lion sleeps tonight

2009-05-17T11:47:00.000-07:00

Sci-Fi related

Been looking at my calendar and decided I would really like to go to Armadillo Con. I like Austin and less than one con a month isn't too much to ask work is it? Except that at the end of summer it is really 3 Cons in just over a month.

I have the UnCon game convention at San Jac.

Next is Apollo Con with games and movie making and writing madness.

I hope I can squeeze in Armadillo Con. I love Austin and would love to go to a Con there. If I count the Texas Democratic Convention as a science fiction, fantasy, and game con that was my last Austin Con.

Labor Day but not Labor Day game UnCon at San Jac - post from last year.

Then Fen Con - where I gave tickets to Pat and Glenda. Lois McMaster Bujold - enuff said.

Great line-up, except that does look like 3 cons in around 30 days in there.

Been thinking of Bob Tucker and filk songs. Here is a link to lyrics of a filk about Bob Tucker's Nieces.

I need to start communications with Apollo Con people. Since I have moved to the wilds of far distannt Galveston Bay shore La Porte I don't get involved in the Houston meetings. Some games I want to bring and a few other things.

2009-05-03T21:54:00.000-07:00

Too wEIRD fOR wOrDs

Lollipop - Aqua - "I am the Candyman"

2009-04-29T12:55:00.000-07:00

Endorsement - Thrift Drain Cleaner

If you have a stopped or slow drain there is one product that really works.

Go to a plumbing supply store and ask for Thrift Drain Cleaner. It was developed for septic tanks but works fantastic and quickly on all drain problems caused by the build-up of hair, grease and soap scum. It works much better and faster than the draining products you see in stores.

One warning, it requires HOT water. Using the "hot" tap water from our energy efficient setting caused the product to barely work - some foaming and results only like the store products. Using NEAR BOILING water heated on the stove or microwave and then poured in the drain causes the product to explode with foaming action.

Be very careful when using HOT water. This is a professional product, be very careful with very hot water.

To order online you can try here. You can also check Ebay if your plumbing dealer doesn't have it on sale to individuals.

2009-03-31T04:29:00.000-07:00

It's all about the Wordplay and Austin

Game designer Warren Spector with a digression on word play.

Jason Mraz - Wordplay.

I really like Austin and all the people I have met who live there or have lived there, even if they feel it is overpriced and under-conpensating. "Austin is a beautiful mistress who laughs in your face when you run out of money."

I am thinking about Armadillo Con this year or next or both. John Scalzi really liked it. I can probably go with my Star Wars Pocket Models game and Tichu, (strategy guide, more here), although I need to start making more panels at these cons.

2009-03-19T23:38:00.000-07:00

Short takes

The Hugo Award Nominations are out

My favorite book was not nominated - Nation by Terry Pratchett. It has won a younng adult book and an audio book award.

Real good movie review of The Watchmen by another Cheryl Morgan.

Swoopoo is more like gambling than an auction site. This discussion is old and prices have changed but makes some very valid points. Yes, there are a few people getting very good deals but the site is making tons of money by charging for the entertainment of bidding in the gamble you will be the last one to bid. There are also a number of suspicious bidders who are spending much more than items are worth just on the number of bids they make.

I've been working on converting the poor game Sid Meier's Civilization - The Board Game into Civilization - Alien Invasion. The preliminary version of the rules is done and I have set it aside for more thinking and play testing. It combines the player turn wheel of Imperial with the theme of Invasion of the Air Eaters with the battle resolution of combined arms. If I could work cards into it I would be covering all the recent game themes.

I am going to buy Tichu - the card game. Great game related to some Chinese card games. Some basic strategy.

2009-03-14T00:56:00.000-07:00

Now and then you just need Contemplation

Keep Me Where The Light Is... by ~JamesFlynn23 on deviant ART

2009-03-13T12:28:00.000-07:00

Tech Marches On

It's a netbook, it's a touchpad, it's a refrigerator magnet!

Google becomes your indispensable phone number.

From the great reporters at the NYT.

2009-03-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

Code Monkey

Amy's Facebook comment made me think of Code Monkey and smile.

2009-03-09T01:55:00.000-07:00

French Coffee Craze

le Café - Oldelaf (english subtitles)
Uploaded by Boebis

2009-03-04T20:13:00.000-08:00

Google Smarts

How many of these do you use?

2009-03-01T23:58:00.000-08:00

More Tweaks to Speed Up Vista

These are from TechRadar.

2009-03-01T05:38:00.000-08:00

Where No Queer Has Gone Before

The Star Trek online series Phase 2, the new Star Trek voyages, is receiving high marks and acceptance for the quality of it's shows. There has been over thirty million downloads of the web only episodes.

Now, they have available for download an adaptation of an unproduced Star Trek Next Generation episode by David Gerrold. David Gerrold is a major science fiction writer and penned one of the most popular original series episodes The Trouble with Tribbles. He is also gay.

Blood and Fire was never produced for the Next Generation because of the controversial subject matter for its time - gays on Star Trek and the episode's focus on the crew battling a deadly and infectious disease, a metaphor for AIDS.

The Canadian Gay online news site Xtra! has more.

The original Star Trek series was acclaimed when it first aired in the 1960s for its racially diverse cast, prominent female characters and political themes.

Carlos Pedraza, who adapted the original Blood and Fire script for the web series says putting gay characters into the Star Trek universe sends a positive message to Star Trek fans.

“The lack of seeing gay people in the Star Trek universe basically said to gay people, ‘You don’t exist in the future,’” Pedraza says. “Including gays shows that we’re not a disease and we don’t need to be cured, and we contribute as we’ve always contributed to the advancement of science, culture and art.”

But Pedraza says acknowledging the controversy that gay characters have created for 21st-century Star Trek fans proved a difficult balance when writing characters with 23rd-century sensibilities.

“We didn’t want the gay characters treated by the other character differently because they were gay. We really wanted to show that being gay in the 23rd century is normal,” Pedraza says. “What we tried to do was make a comment by showing how normally they are treated, and showing that the remarks that other people on the show make about these two characters have to do with the affection that they hold for each other, not that they’re the same gender. That speaks volumes to modern audiences.”

Blood and Fire has certainly struck a chord with Star Trek’s legions of fans. The episode was downloaded more than a quarter-million times in the first week that it was available, and has sparked debate on Star Trek fan discussion sites.

Phase 2 episodes including Blood and Fire Part 1 are available for download now.

2009-02-24T21:20:00.000-08:00

The Kindle

Almost there.... get rid of the keyboard, maybe a touch screen when you need it, and drop the price $100 or more. NYT review.

2009-02-10T23:36:00.000-08:00

io9 TV week previews

09 gives the geek shows for the coming week. This Friday looks awesome

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2009-02-10T23:33:00.000-08:00

WtF Blankets

College Humour has replaced the audio in one of those "blankets with sleeves" commercials.

Not safe for work due to language.

2009-02-01T10:26:00.000-08:00

Watchmen gets long intelligent review in NYT.

How much am I going to be disappointed?

Now, with the release of “Watchmen” imminent, the anticipation and tension among fans is at its peak. Unlike, say, the Batman or Superman franchises, whose titular heroes can be reinvented every 10 or 15 years, “Watchmen” has only one story to tell. If Mr. Snyder bungles it, no director will have a second chance at it.

Even Mr. Snyder’s friends in the entertainment industry say he faces widespread skepticism from the book’s passionate loyalists. “I think fans are going to see ‘Watchmen’ in the spirit of ‘What did he leave out?’ as opposed to ‘What did he put in?’ ” said Damon Lindelof, a creator and executive producer of “Lost” and one of a few people to whom Mr. Snyder has shown “Watchmen.”

The challenges of selling the film to moviegoers who have no familiarity with the graphic novel would seem to be even greater, as the comics tales have no clear central protagonist and no characters with worldwide recognition. Yet Warner Brothers has tried to create early buzz for the movie among the uninitiated, using a campaign built largely around sleek, moody trailers. DC Comics said that it has published an additional 900,000 copies of the graphic novel since the first “Watchmen” trailer was released last summer.