Macrobiotic Delicious-ness

Back to basics, the macrobiotic way with these delicious sounding recipes.

And more here.

Step ins

Explore this word and its meaning.

Mengele in print, for sale

It appears that Dr. Josef Mengele kept a diary, and that it is now up for sale.

Sundance Film Recs

Salon writer, Andrew O'Hehir, talks Sundance films here.

LBGT Film Festival

Here are so good film references.

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.

Christmas in New York

My entire immediate family is making tracks to Puerto Rico for Christmas.

I will instead head to New York City for a sweet sojourn in my home town.

\

Williamsburg, Brooklyn New York

I'll sleep in the 'Burg, take the L train to Manhattan each day to eat bagels; gobble up ethnic food; indulge myself on Sushi; make a bee-line to New York Central; tear up at the old Art Store, now Dick Blick on Bond Street; venture into old territory and explore and discover the new.

Fuji Instax Mini 7s

I'll be certain to get over to B&H to check out cameras; and perhaps buy one, trade one in or just browse.

Red Paste for Chops

Chinese New Year

I'll wander around the back streets of China Town, buy a pot of red paste for my name chop and lunch at a fabulous dim sum restaurant.


I'll see Blake and Dickens at the Morgan; Jung at the Ruben; Man Ray at the Jewish Museum,

Tim Burton at the MoMA ©

and perhaps find my way to 53rd Street to see Tim Burton at MoMa (I just learned that tickets may make for long delays).

Rockefeller Center

If I do not dawdle, I might have time to see the skating rink aglow with Christmas lights; fashion on Madison Avenue; take the tram to Roosevelt Island; buy perfume at Bloomingdale's; drink cappuccino at some of my old cafe haunts; and take photographs of the Brooklyn Bridge.

High Tea at the Palm Court, Plaza Hotel

If the Plaza was offering high tea, it would be one of my musts, but I suspect it is still closed...instead I'll find an equally satisfying luxury in my travels.

I might even take an excursion to a pen shop.

Danger alights as my fingers tap out the the words, fountain pen.

Check out Kinokuniya in Bryant Park or RC.

What about a movie night; will I find some of those not here films in the City, like An Education?

I will not stint but indulge.

Will I be sated?

The Talented Miss Highsmith

WP's review of the book differs widely from that of the NY Times and its pre-review, so much so that I thought I was reading about two different biographies.

I look for more meat on the review plate and read the LA Times.

Mercury retrograde

21 Capricorn 46 Sat, Dec 26

5 Capricorn 35 Fri, Jan 15, 2010

21 Capricorn 46 Thu, Feb 4, 2010