02.26.07

hey, those oscar predictions weren't all that bad! joe and i came in second in the pool at our local pub; it was winner take all, so no cash for us,* but that's better than we fare when we're at their dart board. i feel that penelope acquitted herself well (especially from the waist up) in the fashion department, though i should have had more faith in cate blanchett: she won.

other weekend adventures included a trip to h&h bagels on the extreme west side yesterday morning; not something i would do again solo, though the neighborhood is probably worlds better now than it was a few years ago (just look at the shiny new hustler club!). the bagels themselves were decent, but i remain a murray's girl in the new york bagel battle: i love my foo-foo cream cheese, and a refrigerator case full of whipped philly doesn't do it for me. nor does having to walk an extra fifteen blocks because i don't have cash and every ATM in the neighborhood is out of service. my money-hunting did, however, take me past fountain new york, a collaborative exhibition featuring pieces from a half-dozen williamsburg galleries. joe and i went back yesterday evening, and it was very worth it: if we'd prevailed in the oscar pool, i'd have no problem plunking down our winnings for (an eighth of) something like this. it's nobler to want money if you'd spend it on art, right?

in personal art (cough) news, i've decided to fire up the sewing machine and try to make a quilt. so far i've jumped up and down on three pairs of chopped-up blue jeans (fig. 1), toasted said jeans on the radiator (fig. 2), made anal retentive little stencils for my pattern out of old junk mail, sewn together my first two pieces, and broken my needle (i was trying to catch the bobbin thread, which somehow escaped from whatever it's supposed to come out of in the base of the machine. if anyone knows where that something-it's-supposed-to-come-out-of actually is, um, call me). progress is stalled, but i remain enthused! like penelope, i will bring my A game when i face the kenmore instruction booklet tonight.

in impersonal food news, i've been plugging everyone i know into ye olde online cheese comparator. it tells me that my cheese rating, for instance, is king river gold ("has a pink/orange rind with a dusting [of] grey mould, and has a sharp taste."). joe, in turn, gets romano ("made by a method known as 'rummaging curd'"); i am sleepy enough that both of these make sense.


*i'm trying not to dwell on the fact that picking children of men for best adapted screenplay cost us a few hundred dollars. it's mostly working.

6 comments:

G said...

Camembert!

"A soft creamy cheese named after the French village in Normandy in which it was created, by a woman named Marie Harel. It has a crumbly, edible rind, and gets softer as it ripens, giving off that familiar smell for which French cheese became infamous."

Tom said...

"Your name is: Tom
Your cheese rating is: Schloss

A semi-firm Austrian cheese, Scloss is similar to Limburger, but with a stronger flavour. It is golden white, with a creamy texture."

Wonder if anyone ever gets fromunda...

tom (in chicago) said...

Of course, entering "Thomas" yields:

"Wensleydale: A traditional hard cheese, whose ancestry can be traced back at least as far as the Cistercian monks who came to England with William the Conqueror. It has a moist, crumbly texture, and comes in two main variants, blue and white. Blue Wensleydale has blue veins, double cream, and is similar to Stilton. White Wensleydale comes in a flat disc, with a honey flavour."

Wensleydale is also the name of the late proprietor of a cheese shop, in which there was no cheese.

lauren said...

monty python, no? i always loved that sketch.

in other food news, and in a somehow fitting end to oscar season, our office received a cake from joan rivers yesterday (as some sort of PR thing for her cosmetics line - insert joke on texture of JR's makeup here).

i gave the comparator my first and last name, as that was the format of the example i'd seen (britney spears = st. agur). lauren yields ricotta:

"A traditional whey cheese, Ricotta is white, creamy and mild, and is used when making traditional lasagne. Ricotta should be firm, rather than solid, and consists of a mass of fine, moist grains."

richard cheney, i would note, yields a cheese from afghanistan.

tom (in chicago) said...

OT: The Home Region strikes again, as yesterday was Trey Anastasio's court date:

"Anastasio, former leader of the rock band Phish, was arrested early Dec. 15 in Whitehall after police saw his car swerving and allegedly found him with an assortment of prescription medications, including hydrocodone, Percocet and Xanax, for which he had no prescription. [A fun weekend, I bet. --Ed.]

"Washington County District Attorney Kevin Kortright said Anastasio was carrying more than 60 pills, weighing more than a half ounce, enough to warrant the felony charge. He also allegedly possessed an unknown substance, which was later identified as heroin at the State Police laboratory."

Per Idolator (my new favorite blog): "He'll [also] address an outstanding 1988 warrant for 'excessive noodling.'"

Ha!

Just thought I'd share.

sara said...

my cheese name:
Port Salut
A semi-hard cheese, produced in Entrammes in North West France. Port Salut has a plastic texture, a cream colour, and a mild taste. It is matured for around 4 weeks.

my maiden cheese name:
Hipi Iti
Hipi Iti is a semi-soft New Zealand cheese. It is made from sheep's milk that gives a sweet, caramel taste. The name means "little sheep" in Maori. The cheese ripens in two months, and is similar to Feta.

a pre-/post- marriage commentary? i hope not!