Cooking with Bubbe

What a wonderful program, Cooking with Bubbe, discovered at the Globe.

Anne Frank Banned in VA School

Incredible, rapid decision, with one complaint, to remove the biography from class-room study.

Reversed decision.

Captive Phrases

professor Lawrence Lessig. But, he adds, "There's a difference between what you can legally do, what you can technically do, and what you ought to do.

so much more than her marital prospects.

 empower communities, not corporations.

When the bullying goes beyond meanness, criminal accountability is the ultimate consequence

While correlation is not necessarily causation

 I'm one of the actors, not one of the observers."

the sleeping souls of your ancestors are calling out to you

pithy aperçus

we saved her from the river and she ended up in the sea.

impulse for renewal

his life was a series of lapses."

reductio ad absurdum

an epic of self-delusion

progress-resistant cultural influences

ambivalence, doubt and confusion are essential to forming dynamic new hybrid selves

hidden brain

anger is born of impotence, a frustration that can melt away just by doing something about it.

the inchoate chafing at any manifestation of authority

Holocaust Survivor, Pianist and Kafka Friend

Long surviving, Alice Herz-Sommer, tells her story.

A girl on the train

The girl on the train based on a 2004 real life incident in France, reframed into a film--it might be worth finding.

Purchases to make

The Sharp R230 Compact Microwave Oven (exact model numbers: R230KK and R230KW)squeezes a 0.8 cubic foot 800 Watt capacity into a compact package that easily fits on your countertop. This Sharp microwave oven has an 10 3/4 turntable, plus it features 15 automatic cooking settings, including defrost by weight. This small microwave oven offers many great cooking options. You can't miss with this compact microwave oven from Sharp. ~70.00

Astrology Program ~ 70.00

Waffle Bathrobe ~ 70.00 (Instead I picked up the funkiest Teddy-bear robe at the Thrift Shop for 4.00 plus tax)

Small Alarm Clock ~ 15.00

A book resolution for 2010

Linda Miller at Salon.com had some interesting things to say about reading books, how we select them and last but not least, how a journal, diary or record of those books we read with some notes, can be a sure-fire way to keep our memory neurons active and our information gathering skills dynamic.

My New Year's resolution about books and reading differs somewhat from Ms. Miller's suggestion to read a book that is unappealing.

Instead I am going to parse my "wish list" at Amazon and elsewhere, and sift through the pages to refine which of the dozens--possibly hundreds of books--I have accumulated in the last couple of years.

I know that if I made reading my sole occupation as I did the summer I spent in Guilford I could read between 5-7 books per week, but I am in a different place in my life and that ain't going to happen.

I started to review all the books on my lists; deleted quite a few and will be gathering the titles and authors into a fresh journal later this month.

Martin Luther King, Jr

Quote from Rev. King:

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

Eric Rohmer

An article and side bar of his films at the New York Times. And from Scott, also at the Times an appraisal.

New York, Perhaps Next Time

Some exciting stops along the way in the Apple here.

Brownies from Scratch

Ada's Brownies by Anne Stander

1/4 pound of butter
2 squares baking chocolate
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Melt butter and chocolate and set aside to cool. Cream sugar and eggs. Add vanilla, then flour, salt and nuts. Add butter and chocolate mixture. Bake in greased, floured 9-by-9-inch pan. 350 degrees for 10 minutes, then 300 degrees for about 25 minutes.

My Notes

This is the original recipe written as was. Translated: 1/4 pound butter is one stick of unsalted butter. Two squares baking chocolate is 4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate -- use the best you can find. Cut back on the (white) sugar slightly. Nuts are optional.

For gluten free: Use Bette's Featherlight gf flour blend from Authentic Foods and add 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum. Under-measure the gf flour just slightly.

Mix everything as little as possible. Brownies don't benefit from overmixing. Less fussing makes them dense and chewy.

Recipe courtesy of Lisa Stander Horel at Salon.com

A man and a film: Haneke & White Ribbon

In this review at Salon, a philosophic look at film maker, by film director Haneke.