it's been a quiet week here at kidchamp HQ: tuesday's merry midnight cacophony (in hell's kitchen, as throughout the city and apparently everywhere else, the buildings themselves seemed to howl with glee) made way, on wednesday, for news of prop 8's passage in california (and its nasty relatives' success in other states) and bad news close to home (i remain employed, but i knock on wood every time i say so). i spent my second day off running overcomplicated errands and donating platelets - my reptilian responses to changes in the environment.
04 10 minute apple sauce, courtesy of alton brown: easily the coolest thing to happen to my microwave since i learned to nuke eggs properly back in san francisco. dump a handful of basic ingredients in two big plastic yogurt containers with lids, zap them for 10 minutes, then stick-blend everything together - voila! breakfast (or dessert) for a week, and the kitchen smells amazing. i'm already on my second batch (though i cut the honey down to one teaspoon and don't use the booze).
05 want to read thrillers you can still snoot about? meet arnaldur indriðason, the rock star of icelandic crime fiction. i had his jar city (a groomsperson's gift from jacob; the title refers to icelandic hospitals' organ archives) on hand when a downed power line stranded us on the tracks in delaware last month, and crawling around in reykjavik's dark-and-seedy-but-somehow-still-adorable underworld made the seven hours we spent returning from baltimore almost painless. i'm now reading silence of the grave (on doomsday orgies and world war II) and just picked up a copy of voices. icelandic reading group? anyone?
06 armchair foliage, my ongoing photoset of central park's annual striptease, isn't the most consistent series out there: i switched cameras about a week in when joe gave me The Professor for my birthday (and then i had to swap the old sony cybershot in again a few days ago when he needed it for work), so viewing it as a time-lapse slide show carries some risk of whiplash. that said, manhattan as it autumns! relaxing when it isn't jerky, no?
imaginary reading group discussion questions
01 was there an election night primal scream in your neighborhood, too?
02 how are you autumning? any clever recipes i should know about?
03 that nelson song is probably the most terrible thing i've ever demanded from itunes. what's your secret shame?
*those who bought your selections also bought:
"in the heart of the young," winger
"trixter," trixter
"vixen," vixen
sigh.
5 comments:
01: i was in hyde park (obama's neighborhood) when the election was called, so yeah - you could say that i was at the epicenter of the primal scream.
02: i'm getting ready to make
this for my orphan thanksgiving. also, i'm stoked to try out the Cook's Illustrated classic pie crust recipe that uses vodka in place of water (apparently gluten can't form in the presence of ethenol - yay cooking science!). but, why oh why, do all good recipes assume that i own a food processor? i'm low-tech, recipes!
03 - secret shame? two words: gossip girl. oh god, did i say that out loud? on the internet? oops. still, every time you reference Nelson (blog, twitter) i get that song stuck in my head for like 3 hours.
i'm with you on the food processor thing: we had a processor attachment for our blender that cracked just enough that it was technically still workable (but drooled all over the counter whenever i used it for anything). i finally pitched it with gusto when i got an immersion blender, which ALMOST replaces a food processor (and is easily my favorite kitchen tool of all time).
you are forgiven for GG, as long as you don't lust after chuck bass.
do almost-shames count? i very nearly bought the song "i kissed a girl" by katy perry, after hearing it constantly in italy for 10 days. i thought it was pink singing, until i got home, which somehow made it ironic and kicky rather than katy-perry-stupid. it's still catchy, but after reading about katy perry online and the general level of dumbness, i had to sit it out.
i may be cooking at a friend's house for thanksgiving this year, and if so, i'll be brining my turkey per alton brown, and making the apricot-leek-pecan stuffing that i live the other 364 days out of the year for...
An Open Letter to the New York City Board of Elections
By Tim Robbins
What celebrity dilettante wouldn't want his private information made public? What kind of snob gets angry that his family's safety might be compromised? It comes with the territory, right?
Mr. Gregory C. Soumas
Board of Elections in the City of New York
Executive Office
32 Broadway
New York, NY 10004-1609
November 17, 2008
Dear Mr. Soumas,
I would like to publicly apologize for being such a dim-witted dilettante on Election Day. I was under the naïve assumption that I could vote where I voted in the last two elections. Your thoughtful letter pointed out that if I had voted in the recent primary election in September I would have discovered that I was no longer registered in the polling place I have voted in since 2004. Considering your position at the Board of Elections and your deep respect for the democratic process I must assume that my local 14th Street poll worker, Betty J. Williamson's assertion that my name was on the active voter rolls for the primary in September of this year was erroneous and that she must be as confused and wrongheaded as I am. If Ms. Williamson saw my name in the book in September that would mean that you are lying. Certainly you wouldn't lie about a thing like that. That is unbecoming of a man of your bureaucratic stature. And why would anyone in the Board of Elections be eliminating legitimate voters from the rolls in late September and October of 2008? That's just crazy and un-democratic.
I should also apologize for the misguided actions of Justice Paul G. Feinman in issuing a court order on Election Day allowing me to vote on 14th St. He apparently thought that a printed out record from your own Board of Elections computer verifying my polling place as 14th Street was justification for issuing the court order. If he had only thought to contact you, you could have helped him understand the logic and wisdom of eliminating my name from the book on 14th St. where I have always voted and leaving my name registered at a place I have never voted.
I must also thank you for sending your letter not to me but to all the major newspapers in the New York area and across the Internet. I understand it was your way of clearing up this matter and for that I am grateful. I am particularly appreciative of your sending a copy of my voter registration card with my home address and driver's license number to all the newspapers and, by extension, to millions across the internet. What celebrity dilettante wouldn't want his private information made public? What kind of snob gets angry that his family's safety might be compromised? It comes with the territory, right? I was thinking of returning that favor by publishing your home address in this letter but then I thought that maybe one of the thousands of New Yorkers that were taken off the voter rolls in the last two months might not understand what a patriotic upstanding man you are and might show up at your doorstep with the misguided assumption that you are a petty vindictive corrupt scumbag.
Tim Robbins
New Yorker since 1961
Voter since 1976
P.S. If anyone reading this letter had a similar experience on Election Day it can and should be reported at www.866ourvote.org
cc: Commissioners of Elections
Marcus Cederqvist, Executive Director
George Gonzalez, Deputy Executive Director
Pamela Perkins, Administrative Manager
Beth Fossella, Coordinator, Voter Registration
Steven H. Richman, General Counsel
Troy Johnson, Chief Clerk
Timothy Gay, Deputy Chief Clerk
administrative note: i'm going to count that as both a scream and a recipe.
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