John & Belle Have A Blog

Green Lantern

Joe O tell us of his pain. Coincidentally, Zoë drew Green Lantern today. Being traditionalist when it comes to such things, I'm relieved it's clearly Hal Jordan, not some other Lantern.

Cosmic Ponywatch, over coffee edition

Our meme has arrived.

In other news, this is a great comics blog. I particularly appreciated the sidebar tale of the 9-year old's band name idea: the definition of awesome. That is indeed the best band name ever. Also, check out the gentleman's 'best of' stuff. Also, this is a great comics parody site.

Zoë wants me to dress as a superhero for Halloween, so I got to thinking? Maybe Cosmic Boy, from that awkward Grell period of his costume's evolution? Ah! Here we go. Also, I find this site sort of strange. (Reminds me of a song.) And this was funny.

Get Shorty

This discussion at Kevin Drum's and Brad DeLong's over the utility of regarding division as repeated subtraction reminds me of something funny. I sort of thought I had blogged about this before, but google says I haven't. When I was in  5th and 6th grade I spent a lot of time doing long division. Pages of long division. This eventually got boring, and so I developed--short division! Except now I can't remember what it was. I wrote subscripts on the number being divided, I think. It worked, but my teacher forbade it as being too hard to check (which isn't crazy, since if I were to make some trivial error it would be hard to see at what point I had gone wrong.) Still, I felt rather aggreived that she wasn't more excited about it; I felt it was an exciting and mysterious process. Ah, I see I can re-learn the magic here.  I don't suppose I'll bother until Zoë gets to division in school...

Moments Later: On reflection, she was just being dumb. It would have been just as easy to check. It's almost as if Winyah Academy in Georgetown S.C. sucked.

Potato Tortilla

When you're really in a hurry or lazy (or feeling broke), bust out the eggs! This is tasty with a green salad and some sliced tomatoes. A bit more trouble than an omelette, but it seems more like you "made dinner" if you know what I mean, rather than just flaking out and feeding people omelettes (is that really flaking out? OK, at my house it is). Mom, stop laughing at me.

Catalan Potato and Onion Tortilla

1/2 c extra-virgin olive oil
3 potatoes, peeled, cut in half, and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 large onion, peeled, halved, and sliced
1/4 cup diced back bacon, meat only (or good ham)
salt and pepper and cayenne
5 eggs

1. Heat 6 T of the oil in a heavy skillet (cast iron, preferably). Cook potatoes, onion, and meat over low heat, covered, stirring frequently, till potatoes are soft (12-15 minutes). Transfer the mixture to a colander set on a bowl and let oil drain off for 10 minutes or so. Reserve oil.

2. Beat the eggs in a large bowl, season with salt, pepper and cayenne, and add drained potato mixture. Heat oil in big skillet (non-stick is best, if you have one) and cook tortilla for 5 to 7 minutes over medium low heat. Eggs should begin to set.

3. Invert tortilla onto flat plate, add remaining 2 T oil to pan and cook the other side of the eggs for 5 minutes more, till completely set. If you don't have a big non-stick skillet, keep going in the cast-iron one (wiping it very clean before putting the eggs in) and finish under a broiler for 5 minutes rather than attempting to flip the tortilla.

Serve warm or at room temperature (I understand that in Spain they have room temperature wedges of this sort of thing on bars as a snack, but I've never actually been myself.) Serves four or so. One or two extra eggs and lots of salad, you could easily eke it out for 6.

E Eats Everything

Sometimes, you just have to click on that AP link in the NYT sidebar. (Unrelatedly, what on earth is the NYT thinking in trying to get me to pay to read Maureen Dowd? And isn't some anonymous blogger just going to become the Krugman republishing site, thus disintermediating the whole shebang?) Anyway, Puppy Swallows 13-inch Knife, Survives:

Jane Scarola's veterinarian thought the X-ray was a joke. He's seen strange items get into the stomachs of dogs before, things like kebab skewers and small utensils. But a 13-inch serrated knife that somehow was swallowed by a 6-month-old puppy?...

Scarola used the knife to carve a turkey, and placed the blade on the counter -- far from the edge.

She thinks one of her six other dogs -- four Saint Bernards, a German shepherd and a Labrador -- somehow got the knife, which eventually made its way to Elsie.

''She wants to eat everything and anything,'' Scarola said.

UPDATE: Gary Farber tells us all how we can read all the NYT select wonderfulness---for free! Gary's awesome like that. Don't you sometimes wonder how come, if Gary Farber knows everything in the whole world at least 12 hours before everyone else, he's not all lionized and famous and stuff? I mean, sure, I lionize him. I want to see more widespread lionization, though.

Mixological Balderdash

Amusing New Yorker talk of the town about made-up words in the dictionary; semantic spring guns set against lexicographic poachers. Who knew the fields of our language need to be mined with whimsy, to ensure profit to those who enclose it and mark its borders for profit? (via Languagehat.) Oddly, no mention of the game, Balderdash.

If asked to define 'esquivalience' - but no one ever asks me these things - it would have been more a mash-up of this and this. So 'esquivalience' would be something like a key technical term in a scientific theory of the basis of different reactions to space-age pop.

It's Saturday night, so here's a mixological balderdash variant. Zoë - in the course of telling me my bedtime story - invented a drink: the battleship swish. Some of the superheros in the story liked the drink, some didn't. Now what do you think the ingredients of a battleship swish must be? (Scott is obviously going to suggest: same as a zombie, with Jägermeister substituted for rum. Or something. Or maybe that would have to be a 'thanks but no thanks for not being a zombie'.)

There should also be a 'virgin battleship swish' for kids. That's only fair to the inventor.

I have no idea how Zoë figured out 'battleship swish' sounds vaguely like a mixed drink name. I drink beer, Belle drinks wine. Gee whiz, we don't take the kid to bars. Some sort of mixological deep grammar?

We're Back

Well, Bali is a very nice place. The sort of place to make you think (to quote Belle's brother) 'sometimes I don't care what people write on the internet.' There is wisdom in that sort of lofty other-worldliness, if you can sustain it.

The most exciting moment came when the freak high wave hit and my excellent two-in-one edition of Paul Park's Soldiers of Paradise and Sugar Rain got whirled and spun and filled with sand, which took some time drying and brushing out later. The deck chairs floated. Belle grabbed Zoë, so she wasn't washed out to sea or anything. (But she was surprised to wake up under such turbid circumstances.) My flip flops were washed up about ten feet and my glasses on the little side table ... well, I like my new frames better. Getting new glasses in downtown Bali is a very reasonable economic proposition.

Henry Farrell gifted us the Park, which is tremendous. I'm stunned by the glory. I'll write a review later. It's out of print, but I gather his new book, A Princess of Roumainia, is getting good attention. The edition we have, thanks to Henry, is one of those cheap Fantasy & SF book club hardback editions. The cover art is dreadful; invasive sand and surf hardly wreaked especial improvement in print quality. But I realize I'm nostalgic about these editions, since I used to borrow stacks of a friend's dad's club hardbacks back in the late 70's.

See here for a very interesting interview with Park, plus sample cover art. Would you voluntarily read a book covered with this? Well, you should. Buy them used from Amazon for a penny. But buy them.

Everyone Can Eat The Lamb Burger (Jains Not Included)

This article about how McDonald's has fallen behind in Europe by not having halal outlets strikes me as strange. They serve very little pork (only in bacon, and that can easily be made turkey bacon), after all, and all the Singapore outlets are halal. I assume all the McDonald's outlets in Malaysia are halal; ditto Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, etc. Could it be so much trouble to export the halal technology? Relatedly (ish), Burger King now has a lamb burger promotion on. I bet they haven't done that in the US.

Special Drink

Zoë wants me to write this recipe on the computer, so that other kids' mommies will know how to make this special drink. Zoë wants the mommies to know that if their kids are sick, this special drink can help them feel better. (She's more or less dictating here, as you probably gathered).

1 part Lingonberry syrup
1 part Elderflower syrup (made my the same company but I can't find a link; they sell it at Ikea also)
2 parts fresh-squeezed lemon juice
8 parts water
mint leaves

Now you know. It's actually really good, and it was all her idea. Later when she's a world-famous chef we'll look back at this fondly.

"Teh Sexism": Reality...or Myth?

This seems a bit strange, but it appears that at least two of my male commenters have recieved an invitation to comment on TV about the question of whether men should be present for the birth of their children. I don't like to get all "feminist" on y'all, but doesn't seem just a wee bit odd that such an invitation would not be extended to the person who actually wrote the post in question? Keep in mind that these two invitees have done nothing else relevant than comment in the comments thread to my post. Some TV person followed the link to my post from Slate and decided to contact only the men who commented on the thread. If any other of my male commenters has been contacted, I am very curious to hear from you. If any of my female commenters has been contacted, then I am laughing out loud, and saying things like, "wow, I was totally wrong about teh sexism." Please let me know.

Fangle

Belle went shopping for toys in Chinatown and came home with some good ones. (Click for the larger versions.)

First, there is a plangency - nay, a pathos of distance - to this table tennis net box. Indeed, table tennis should be happiness for two, not an invitation to agoraphobia. (The loneliness of the long distance ping ponger.)

The makers of Make missed a better name. If it can be 'new fangled' there must also be an imperative form of the verb: fangle! ('Begin and begin.' Can any upbuilder deem any exhortation more edifying?)

"In the eder days of Art, Buiders wrought with greatest care."

Tasty Indian Food

I've been cooking a lot of Indian food recently, so here are a few more recipes. First of all, though, it's easy to make ghee. It keeps indefinitely in the fridge (and, indeed, at room temperature, which is the whole point), so you might as well make a lot. Put at least two sticks unsalted butter in a heavy frying pan, with a few cardamom pods, if you like, and cook over very low heat for 15 minutes, skimming occasionally. Do not stir.  The milk solids will fall to the bottom and blurble around as a white froth, reaching the surface now and again (hence the skimming). The clear, golden ghee will rise to the top. It's like a butter-licious lava lamp! It's fine at this stage, but real Indian cookbooks say to cook it 40 minutes, till the milk solids brown and impart a nutty flavor to the ghee. This is good too, but requires watching at the end; if it burns badly it will all have been for naught. Taking the pan off the heat carefully, to avoid mixing it up, pour the ghee off the solids. You will not be able to get it all without getting some solids in too, so don't try, and just accept that it is a slightly wasteful project. (Um, cheesecloth? I've never tried. Let me know). More recipes below, and you guys should know I love you since I lost this post already and had to type it all over again.

Frozen Pie

OK, I'm going to the doctor, and I'm sure it's a blocked sinus. I shouldn't really complain so much; if you start feeling sorry for me then just go give some money to Gary Farber, who isn't going on vacation to Bali next week. On a lighter note, I am going to make spanakopita this week, and I thought I would make double and freeze half. Should I freeze it unbaked and then put it right into the oven when I want to cook it? Bake it and then freeze and just heat it up after? I don't do a lot of freezing, so...

Rain

We are experiencing the most incredible thunderstorm right now. It started about an hour before sunset, which is unusual, and the sky became pitch black, the heavens opened, etc. 45 minutes on it is still going strong: white-out visibility, near-continuous thunder--as loud as only very nearby thunder can be. Less than 1/3 a second between lightning and thunder. I grew up in South Carolina; I've been in Cambodia during the monsoon; I'm telling you, this is some serious rain. It smells so intoxicating, so delicious outside: ozone and wet dirt. I have five or six jagged lines emblazoned on the blood-red inside my eyelids. I'm thinking John might be a little late getting home from work.

UPDATE: moving off slighty, at least 10 seconds between lightning and thunder, though raining harder than before. Tiny bits of hail (think about it.) Sumatra is about to catch holy hell.

My Face Hurts

So, on Saturday MeiMei broke my nose. This is the fourth time in my life (Zoë's done it too, the same way!). I was lying down and she was doing baby x-games Xtreme nursing, and she brought her head down to give me a kiss and hit me right on the bridge of my nose with her two front teeth. It really hurts. Actually, it hurts, and then there's this thin line of pain streaking out on the left-hand side of my face, under the eye, almost as if there was some hairline fracture in my cheekbone, but I don't think that could happen. John thinks I should go to the doctor. They're going to think he beats me and they're so intolerably unpleasant to you when they think that (I went there before when Zoë did it). But they really can't do much for your broken nose besides re-breaking and setting it...I want to have that done eventually but I sort of want to wait until I don't think any small children will smack into it again. I guess they could give me painkillers, but I have some painkillers anyway. My face hurts. Also, I hate the doctor, and I just went last week for something else. And I don't have insurance (long story). Oddly enough, my nose, though slightly wider, is actually more straight than after Zoë broke it, as it has been evened out. I guess I should probably go, though. F$#k.

Later: also, I have some awful cold or basic kicking-up of underlying immune-system problems, so all the lymph nodes in the left side of my neck are horribly swollen and painful, so maybe that's the problem? In which case, no need to go to the doctor, right? I'm thinking tiger balm is the answer to all my problems.

It Was Down At The Balinese

To all those who are curious, we're going to Bali and staying in a villa in Seminyak. I think the cooking class thing seems like a great idea. In the end, it turned out that the Singapore-Vietnam planes were all full anyway (full wrt the cheap seats.) Hey, what's that sound? Oh, it's the world's smallest gamelan orchestra, rhythmically drumming on a tropical xylophone, just for me.

Ask The Passenger

Salon's indomitable pilot encourages us not to draw statistically inappropriate lessons from the recent spate of airplane crashes. He's right, as far as that goes. But this seems stupid:

Bunn's argument hinges on large-versus-small/new-versus-old, rather than the slipperier American-versus-foreign, and panders to the long-standing suspicion that young, competitively aggressive airlines are apt to play fast and loose with safety. It's an assertion that appears on the surface to make sense, but it isn't bolstered by the record. In the United States, a 25-year look back, encompassing every upstart carrier since the industry was deregulated in 1979, from People Express to JetBlue, reveals only a handful of crashes subscribing to Bunn's template -- an accident rate roughly in proportion to overall market share. Globally, it's not much different.

OK, whatever, but if Patrick thinks, say, domestic Indian airlines don't cut corners, he just hasn't flown them recently, or ever. I myself was on a tour of India with a plane-hating friend, whom I had convinced to join me on a plane-trip intensive tour. On our first flight (from Cochin to Goa, I think), our sketchily-crewed plane came out from below the cloud cover to reveal itself as being only 500 m or so above the trees. Then we rapidly ascended into the clouds again, landing some 10 minutes later. We travelled by train the rest of the way. Likewise, I would fly Lao airlines, but I would also recognize that I am taking a greater risk than on the Singapore Airlines SIN-HK run. I'm all about statistics, but let's not be stupid.

C Is For Conifer

So, there is this great song on They Might Be Giants' new kids DVD "Here Come The ABC's" called "C is for Conifer". Like all the songs, it's really catchy; however, it has some confusing information in it. To wit: "most have cones for seeds/most have needles for leaves". Most have cones for seeds? What the hell kind of conifers are the other ones? Well, luckily I found a site that explains conifers--to kids!

Not all conifers produce seed cones. The female parts of junipers and yews are so highly modified that one can be forgiven for believing they are real fruits. Junipers produce berry-like structures while yews produce bright, fleshy, syrupy items looking much more like cherries than any kind of cone. To be convinced that such creations are not regular fruits, you must study how they develop.

Therefore, it's true that conifers have flower-like pollen, and even real seeds, but it's also true that conifers don't have real flowers. This state of affairs makes sense if you think of conifers as a kind of in-between invention nature came up with as it evolved from a time when spore producing plants such as mosses and tree ferns dominated the earth, to now, when flower-producing plants are dominant. Nature went step by step. After the spore producers there came gymnosperms, which eventually perfected the pollen and seed strategies. Later, the flowering plants arose, bringing with them the new idea of placing ovules inside pistils, which we know mature into fruits containing seeds. In other words, pollen was invented before fruits were.

I know this is going to sound retarded, but why, exactly, are those floppy, brown, pollen-exuding structures on pine trees not flowers? Not just because of their primitive wind-dispersal strategy, surely. And yew berries aren't fruits? Thems some fruity-looking cones, y'uns. OK, no pistils, apparently? Help me out, PZ Meyers.

 

   

Decisions, Decisions

John and I are an unusually harmonious couple (we first fell in love in our own 2 person Philosophical Investigations reading group, which is either super lame or the single coolest thing evar, so...). Still, we have clashing travel styles. John works very hard at his job and when he goes on vacation he wants to read in the shade on the beach, swim in the ocean, eat fried tasty seafood snacks, and drink beer. (All worthy goals, it must be said.) I, however, would like to go to some more "cultural" destinations, see temples, trek to hill tribe people, go back to Cochi in India, etc. John doesn't like places that are very crowded, or where people hassle you with aggro touting. (I think you're seeing the forces that keep us away from, say, India. And, um, China.) I want to go to Lijiang, back to Siem Reap, to Myanmar, and so on. John, not so much. More of the Phuket. Not that there's anything wrong with Phuket, god knows (though it's too rainy right now.) So, next week we could go to Vietnam, fly into HCMC and stay a night or two, and then head up to Hoi An. Or, we could go stay in a beautiful villa in Seminyak on Bali, without having to do any travelling once we got there. The price is about the same (cheap). If we go to Vietnam I guess we have to fly domestic Vietnam airlines to Da Nang and then take a bus? I'm really sure we're not going to overnight on the train. Anyone done this? The last time I was in Vietnam was years ago with my ex, and we bought a motorcycle in Saigon and drove it to Hanoi (about 1,200 miles). It also took a month, though...and with the babies the whole motorcycle thing is not looking too good. So, what do you guys think? Should we go someplace I want to go (given that it's been all beach vacations all the time since we moved here) or am I being a total asshole for getting bored with Bali, when I don't have a job, John needs a break, and Bali is amazing? (Granted that in the grand scheme of things this is like arguing about the kind of magical frosting on your magical fairy cake. I realize this is not exactly an earth-shattering problem.) Thoughts? On a different note, Zoë has decided we need to go to Zanzibar, based on some random thing she saw on TV, and I am totally behind it. I really want to go to Zanzibar. I've always wanted to go to Zanzibar! (But not next week.)

Snitch: Bush Has Suffered Enough

I really am kind of at a loss for words here:

So, George Bush has already paid, as he should, a weighty political price for his literally fatal insouciance.

This column is just bizarre. It's more or less consistent, in one sense; it's all about how the disaster in New Orleans doesn't make the invasion of Iraq have been a bad idea. (Since new effects can't bring about past states of affairs, we'll give him this one). It accuses people who want to withdraw from Iraq of being racially predjudiced against "Ay-rabs". Ho hum, par for the course there. But even though Hitchens seems to think Bush did a bad job (even though it wasn't his fault, because federalism is to blame) he doesn't at all adress the obvious question of whether the Bush administration is competent to defend the US against terrorist attacks. At all. Hmmmm.

Homecoming

It wasn't such an easy trip, 24 hours to DC for the APSA annual conference, then 48 hours of jetlag and home again. (My ears feel funny. Why do the airline people think I want to watch "Madagascar" so many times? But, then again. Some people have REAL problems.)

Moment of Levity: Extra-Random Sunday Random Ten

1. Narc/Interpol
2. Never Going Back Again/Fleetwood Mac
3. Teenage Head/Flamin' Groovies
4. Young, Gifted and Black/Bob and Marcia (The Trojan Story)
5. Detroit Rock City/Kiss
6. Why Don't You Love Me/Hank Williams
7. The Exorcist/Hellacopters
8. Going Back to Cali/LL Cool J
9. Compared to What/Roberta Flack
10. Ah Singapore/Shonen Knife (?!)

WWHD?

The thing about captaining the ship of state is this: if you lose a good part of your fleet, you get relieved of your command. Even if you did all you could---but especially if you didn't. Even if you made a reasonable guess about the future that turned out wrong---but especially if you ignored prescient warnings from that lowly lieutenant. Even if a damn meteor strike holes your ship without warning. What about all the Democratic mayors, senators and governors? Yeah, kick their asses to the curb too. Everybody, up and down the line. Enough failing upwards, enough medals of honor. Once things get stabilized, I want everybody to fucking resign their command, because this just wasn't right. Come on: WWHD? (What would Hornblower do?)

The Business End of an M16

Nice to see just now on CNN: military man in charge Russ Honoré (don't know his rank UPDATE: Lt. General) barking orders at people in trucks to "put those weapons down! That's an order! Put those weapons down!" The CNN anchorman was discussing with a retired army man (who was conversant with Honoré's command) that while there might be some looters, they were an infintesimal amount of the people involved, who were mostly victims, and didn't need to see "the business end of an M16". Someone needs to alert the "shoot to kill" warbloggers. Also, were these the type of people who should have been shot, young men in the chaos outside the convention center who tried to help feed their fellow refugees?:

The lawlessness was sometimes welcome. On Friday morning, some young men broke into the kitchen of the Marriott Hotel, across the street from the center, fixed a gigantic batch of scrambled eggs, grits and bacon and served it to storm victims.

Henrietta Glover, 61, a former preschool teacher, said, "We have some Robin Hood figures who have gone out and found milk and food for us and fixed food for us."

Should these have been some of the looters shot on sight?

Or maybe this guy, a looter strangely popoular at the Corner? Why isn't Jonah still asking the tough questions? "When I hear that that Rhodes woman from Air America is encouraging looting, all I can think is that she's letting some radical chic nonsense take precedence over the need to save peoples' lives."

Thanks, Doughboy! (God, I feel like I'm maligning Bob Wills and Pappy O'Daniel.)
 

WTF^10,000

WTF?!?!!!:

At one point, the evacuation [of the Superdome] was interrupted briefly when school buses rolled up so some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt Hotel could move to the head of the evacuation line — much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the stinking Superdome since Sunday....
National Guard Capt. John Pollard called the decision to move the Hyatt people to the head of the line “very poor.”

Oh, well thank you very fucking much. I know it's easy to say from here that we'd each have been the solo business traveller who gave up her seat to the woman with the feverish one-week-old, but I'm willing to be realistic and give those people a pass. But the National Guard was thinking what, exactly? I'd really, really like to think it wasn't "we got to get these nice white people out of this horrible situation" but for the life of me I can't think of anything else. Anything at all.

This Is Not Good

Say what you like about casting blame for the unfolding tragedy in NO, the bare facts of the matter are these: America suffered a serious attack on Sept. 11, 2001. That was four years ago. I think we had all assumed that in the meantime a lot of wargaming and disaster-mitigation planning and homeland security gearup had been going on. If this is what the Federal and State governments are going to come up with when the suitcase nuke goes off in D.C., then we are well and truly fucked.

Priorities

Rich "Compassion" Lowry:

Amen Bill Kristol:
Just said on Fox how the image of lawlessness in NO is the biggest threat to Bush politically, and he has to send in regular military troops if necessary...

Right, so, the problem is not the actual people dying who might still be saved by massive airdrops of food and water, or the people facing the threat of dysentery in the Superdome, or those still waiting to be rescued while the New Orleans police force has been diverted from rescue to anti-looter operations. Just the "image of scary black people lawlessness" and the political threat it poses. Let's keep our eyes on the ball here, people. You'd think after the recent Jonah "Katrina van den Heuvel/Thunderdome/poor people won't be disproportionately affected by the flooding" posts the Corner might just hold off on Katrina commentary for a while. The image problem for them, politically, is that it makes them look like insensitive assholes whose only concern is partisan advantage.

Poor New Orleans

God, how can things in New Orleans really be this bad? Those poor, poor people. I don't have anything scintillating to say about it; I've never been and now I guess in some sense I never will go there. This is an awful tragedy. Does Gov. Blanco really believe this, though?

At a news conference, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco tersely rejected suggestions that authorities had not moved aggressively enough to evacuate the city: "We begged all those people to get out," Blanco said. "Even those with limited circumstances were given the opportunity" to leave."

I don't think that's true. Let's wait a few more days before we start blaming the victims, OK?