more on the candidates in the race described in the arktimes link below

i'm thinking that the democrat is fairly safe, if this is how the candidates present themselves on the campaign trail. searcy may be among the most god lovin' and baby-killer hatin' places in that district, but that gun-and/or-flag waving act probably doesn't even play well there. no matter how much they wish, it's not like these candidates are running against ted kennedy or hillary clinton.

posted by Chris at 5:09 AM

looks like someone's been reading hermits

or, at least they read something i wrote here a month ago. except that they probably didn't. anyway, their editorial for today kind of resonates with some of the ideas i had, right?

posted by Chris at 3:28 AM

the junior high is in charge

i have liked john mccain for a long time. he is one of the few politicians with a national reputation who do not fit neatly into their party stereotype and who generally have something interesting to say. (to me, the most interesting congressperson, along these lines, is barney frank from cape cod.)

on the other hand, when i hear most politicians open their mouths, i cringe in anticipation of their pandering to party extremists. for example, as i listened to the hearings about the taguba report, i thought ted kennedy asked moronic partisan questions, but he was surpassed in this patronizing vein by senator james inhofe's inane and simplistic comments at the hearing. inhofe's tone of voice sounded like one of someone who was knew he was speaking nonsense that was jarringly out of context but who was compelled to play the part of the blindly loyal nationalist. it reminded me of the "she started it, and she shouldn't tell on people anyway" response of a child who has been tattled on.

with that memory still fresh, today i look at cnn.com and see a story about dennis hastert acting like a twelve year old. are congresspeople not adult humans? ostensibly, they live in the same world that the rest of us inhabit, but they do not behave like it. if i treated my colleagues like this, people would be certain i was an ass.

why is it, that when we survey the political landscape we see cartoonish buffoons (e.g., bush, kerry, cheney, blair, hastert, etc.)? are these really the best people that we can find to be our leaders? if not, does this say anything important about the way we run our democracy? i am increasingly feeling that open-mindedness, independence, and a spirit of inclusiveness and compromise have no place in this system as it is currently practiced.

posted by Chris at 8:16 AM

presented

i gave the high school presentation on monday. whether or not you care, it went well. although high school students scare me much more than do college students, these kids seemed grateful for a break in their routine.

when i was preparing the talk on saturday, mb accidentally unplugged her laptop, damaging the powerpoint file beyond repair, so i had to redo the entire thing on sunday. all of this (see post below) serves a powerful reminder that i should never say yes to anythingincluding girl scout cookies, drugs, sex, or any combination of these three.

to help you imagine that this is some sort of topical and/or interesting posting, i offer you the following key words around which you can now pretend that i crafted a blog entry: abu ghiraib. 2012 olympics. compost. lighting farts on fire. tort reform.

posted by Chris at 7:31 AM

compost news

so our little compost heap is cranking along at close to 160 degrees.

the hydrangeas that are right next to it and help block it from view are a very happy blue.

the two gardenia bushes aren't faring so well, but i hope that a treatment of coffee-grounds will do the trick...i hear fish emulsion is really good, or blood meal

by composting we've cut our own garbage production by at least 1/2 if not 2/3, even 3/4. in the old apartment, we would of course, recycle, as we do now, but we still produced a good 2-4 trash bags a week. now, it's pretty much down to one. it all depends on how much stuff with packaging we buy in any given week.

and that has started me on my new obsession. our trash bag, even just that one trashbag is pretty much all unrecyclable, unbiodegradable plastic stuff.

i may just start taking my used styrofoam and eggcrates and refilling them at the store.

"yes...could i please get a lb of salmon...but could you unwrap it and put on this styrofoam tray...thanks. you're helping me help nature."

posted by Jeremy at 11:16 AM

a summertime favorite

this is a summer time favorite in our house...it's from the june 03' cooking light

another favorite is watermelon ice. pureed watermelon, 2-3 oranges, 1 lemon, and sugar to taste...if you do add, it only needs a little. no water need added, freeze like you freeze in the recipe below.

bluebery granita with fruit compote

The more frequently you stir granita, the slushier it will be. The less you stir it, the icier it will be. You can use raspberries, blackberries, or any other delicate fresh berries instead of the blueberries in the compote. Make both the granita and the compote up to a day ahead.

Granita:
2 quarts fresh blueberries (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 1/2 cups water, divided
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Compote:
2 cups quartered small strawberries, divided
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1 (2-inch) piece lemon rind (removed with vegetable peeler)
3/4 cup fresh blueberries
1 teaspoon lemon juice

To prepare granita, place blueberries in a food processor or blender; process until smooth. With food processor still on, slowly pour 1 cup water through food chute; process until well blended. Strain blueberry mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl; discard solids.
Combine 1/2 cup water and 3/4 cup sugar in a small saucepan over high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Stir sugar mixture and 3 tablespoons juice into blueberry mixture. Pour mixture into a 13 x 9-inch glass baking dish; let cool to room temperature. Freeze 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until ice crystals begin to form. Remove mixture from freezer; stir well with a fork. Return dish to freezer; freeze 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes or until slushy. Cover and freeze 1 hour.

To prepare compote, place 1 cup strawberries in a food processor or blender; process until smooth. Strain strawberry mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl; discard solids.

Combine 1/2 cup water, 1/3 cup sugar, and rind in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute; remove from heat. Discard rind. Add puréed strawberries, quartered strawberries, blueberries, and 1 teaspoon juice to pan; stir gently to combine. Let cool to room temperature. Cover and chill. Spoon compote into each of 8 bowls; top with granita.

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 2/3 cup granita and about 1/3 cup compote)

NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 174 (3% from fat); FAT 0.5g (sat 0.0g, mono 0.0g, poly 0.1g); PROTEIN 0.9g; CARB 44.5g; FIBER 3.5g; CHOL 0.0mg; IRON 0.3mg; SODIUM 7mg; CALC 12mg;

posted by Jeremy at 11:33 PM

Dipping Brad Pitt in the Styx

Hardly do I deserve itI'm not on a marathon-dissertation-schedule, after allbut right now I feel like one of those seventeen-year cicadas digging himself out of the ground. My new purpose is not to mate and die, however, which is unfortunate because I cannot imagine a better way to go out than in a frenzy of sex. We look down on the lesser creatures for their limited needs, but by God, what breath they must breathe! So what that your mate will devour you when it's over? Truly, you've done enough. As it is, I put an end to an ever-expanding paper, turned it in to someone who doesn't really care one way or the other, and have a weekend before I must bury myself again.

Meanwhile, I have enjoyed a lot of sleep, a Czech bier, and Errol Morris's The Fog of War, an exquisitely produced, provocative set of conversations with Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense for both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Think what you will of Cold War politics, love or hate the policies that McNamara began which were instrumental to the beginning of Vietnam, the film is a candid history of American power in the mid-twentieth century. From McNamara's narration to the haunting score by Philip Glass, kl & i both thought The Fog of War a remarkable movie. It's thought-provoking but not mind-numbing like trying to imagine Brad Pitt as Achilles, which I still haven't been able to do, and I've been trying for months!

Speaking of Achilles, I heard somewhere on the radio todayoh, I remember, it was a quip during Wait Wait Don't Tell Me!a new unit of measurement. millihelen: a unit of beauty sufficient to launch one ship.

posted by Greg at 11:28 PM

for the people, by the people

when i read posts/essays like this one i begin to feel really guilty. most of my posts are poorly written and are of little content. no aesthetics, no penetrating deep thought or analysis of the world around us.

but, then i read about the octupus that found love late in life.

or i read this quote in an article on a restaurant that serves only organic veggies and humanely-treated-meat, and though i may agree with the sentiment of the quote, the person's articulation makes me cock my head:

"You can raise humane veal. There's no reason you have to keep them in a crate ... keep them anemic. God didn't create veal crates. We did," Lerner saidthe vegetarian owner. "If we can make people feel good about veal again, that's a good thing."

and i realize, yes...i have felt very guilty about the veal other people eat. i need to feel good about veal again.

a church right next to us had a sign up for a few weeks that hurt my brain. it read sign broken, message inside. if i were to go inside to hear the message that would be proof that the sign was actually not only a perfectly functioning sign, but also a very persuasive sign...and thus the sign would only be broken to the extent that it denied its own efficacy, which it most clearly did, but this denial, should i act on it, would be proof that it was in fact very effective.

if i can't understand a simple sign, how could i begin to understand the current situation. so my goal in life is to get to a point where i can turn several shades of pink and green and white and brwon and blue when making love.

posted by Jeremy at 5:07 PM

milque.toast

i am such a sucker. a few months ago i agreed to give a presentation at a high school. after four phone calls, next monday was set as the agreed upon date. after i agreed to do it, i was told that it was going to be two hours long. i was told that it was going to start at 9am, which, because it is in a town 2 hours from where we live, means i have to spend the night there sunday night and i have to hurry back so that i don't miss an entire day of work. although i have to pay 20 dollars for a train ticket, i will receive no compensation whatsoever.

last night i called and tried to hint that i totally neither have time to prepare nor any desire to go. (this week is crazyeveryone at work but me is at a conference in amsterdam, so i am holding down the fort on a big project. also, i had to take off work last monday to watch rose. finally, i just got asked to do a 40-hour french-to-english translation jobin addition to my other duties.) she patronizingly that it would be really good if i could follow through on the commitment i made because i was already "on the program." (actually, i am the program for that morning.) i was told that "it would be really good if the students could interact with me."

why do they want me? not because of anything i have done or anything i know...but because i speak english. they do not care what i talk about. next month's speaker: a first-year college student who is the coordinator's daughter.

i am pissed at myself for agreeing and not backing out when she told me the details. the coordinator goes to the church that we attend, which allowed her ample opportunity for not-so-subtle guilt-tripping.

i hope i get sick.

posted by Chris at 8:43 AM

bugger me

i hate 18th century american intellectuals. they're impossible to understand.

and blogger changed all its buttons and i can't figure out how to publish. i hate that.

and i hate tedious scholarship.

and i hate that i feel like i'm supposed to write tedious scholarship.

and i hate the criticism industry.

posted by Greg at 6:15 PM

dissertation update...or what i do with my boring days

this entry fulfills my necessary quota of boring, boorish, and tedious recapitulations of my rather bland, soporific, and utterly meaningless life...my problem, of course, is that i am not insouciant enough...then again, neither are the millions of other people out there blogging and recording, for posterity, that today, monday the 10th of may, they had brussel sprouts for lunch, and liked them

so, 3 chapters are in. i've got a month left before i turn in the entire diss and a month and half before the defense. in that month, i need to write a chapter, edit my prologue, write an epilogue and mold the various chapters into a coherent document.

i won't be sleeping very much these next few days.

as stands: my advisor loved the 1st chapter.

the second chapter he said was adequate and had no doubt that the committee would think it solid, but it didn't blow him away like the first and he wants more of the same feeling...lousy crack head! will i have the time before the defense to prepare the mixture, the spoon and the flame to give him his fix? who knows. we can only hope. i never thought i'd be a pusherman.

the third chapter, i think, that there are moments that he will really like, but it too still needs editing. BTW, greg, don't bother about reading what i sent you. it's changed substantially.

i hope, but then again, my hopes are always utterly unrealistic. that sometime next week, i've put the deadline as monday. that i will have cranked this next chapter out...or at least a good 35 pages that can be edited over a week. while i begin to work on the epilogue and whip the prologue into shape.

this is really a crazy schedule....it'll be a month of 4 am bedtimes and getting up between 8 and 10 and only reading and writing and glazing over for hours upon endless hours.

posted by Jeremy at 1:29 PM

social psych too?

here is an op-ed by the critically aclaimed ted conover. he's one of the many "non-fiction writers" that in order "to write what you know" while at the same time doing an exposee, goes whole hog and does stuff like become a guard for a year in order to write about it. i haven't read any of his critically aclaimed writing...and maybe if i did i would fall under the spell, but there is something about this kind of posing that i don't like. i think it has to do with the thought that one year, or however long it was, as a guard-in-training coupled with research, i assume, will provide all the necessary knowledge needed to speak with authority on the subject matter.

but that's neither here nor there for this post.

the op-ed is about the torture, and it's decent, near the conclusion he writes: What we do know about the treatment of prisoners in this "war on terror" (of which Iraq, we are told, is a part), is that the Geneva Conventions don't always apply — the prison at Guantánamo Bay, filled with hundreds of "enemy combatants" (who are not afforded the protections of P.O.W.'s) being Exhibit No. 1. Is Guantánamo different from Abu Ghraib? The administration would say yes. Then again, the new head of Abu Ghraib, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, was in charge of the interrogations at Guantánamo until just recently.

in no way do i condone the actions, and yes, the geneva conventions are there for a reason...but this is war. what do we expect out of tired, scared, trigger-happy?, hateful? (not that they went over with hate, at least not all of them), jaded young men who have gone over there as soldiers to fight, to kill (the enemy), to subdue the land, who because of their job are not supposed to consider their opponents as humans.

in no way does this excuse the attrocities of war...but it is war...and it is attrocious...and i don't know what else we could really expect. regardless if the administration has proven that it could care less about the "rules." when has war, even when nobles would picknicking on the hills above the plain, ever been civilized?

posted by Jeremy at 11:54 AM

hometown news on cnn

Not a great way for the hometown to make it to cnn.com. it's disappointing when we confirm stereotypes of southerners.

with respect to stereotypes, i suspect that it is often worse to be counted as a member of the warm-but-incompetent than of the cold-but-competent stereotyped groups. the previous sentence refers to the social psychology lesson of the day: most, if not all, stereotypes fit into either of two categories: likable-but-incompent or competent-but-cold. for instance, southerners, black people, elderly people, and fat people generally fit into the former, but asians and business women, among others, fit into the latter. one of my former professors highlighted this distinction in a series of (relatively) interesting articles, just as she was moving to a professorship at princeton.

i am sure it does not feel good to be considered icy but intellectual, but i am constantly cringing about my social group being counted as stupid. in my years among the non-southerners, i have experienced first-hand how perceived warmth can be parlayed into a lot of social and personal benefits, but, in ways that my non-southern peers have not, i have felt consistent pressure to demonstrate intellectually that i am not in any way like 99.5% of the people around whom i grew up. former president clinton and i, along with countless other southerners, have this in common. i suspect. others, perhaps including the current president, seem to have resisted this pressure, at least with respect to their public personae.

posted by Chris at 8:47 AM

because it's time for some news...

because life can't be all cigars and beer...which lead to horrendous forms of cancer (lung, throat, mouth, lip, maybe even thumb) and that, so attractive, american epidemic of the beer gut (though coke and fries will produce a pretty good imitation, the difference being that the coke/fry gut seems to be more doughy and the beer gut kind of firm, much like a keg)

brace yourselves for rampant disease: "Emerging zoonotic diseases (diseases that can jump across the species barrier) are a global and regional issue of increasing importance and the current upward trend is likely to continue," Meslin told reporters following a three-day meeting at WHO headquarters. "But continual changes in risk factors lead to unpredictability and we are not able to tell where the next zoonosis will pop up."

the headline reads: falling in love bends gender"It's as if nature wants to eliminate what can be different in men and women, because it's important to survive at this stage," she said. Not all scientists agree with Marazziti's interpretation of the results and some say changing testosterone levels could be a result of increased sexual activity.

oh! those canadians"It's Gina Lollobrigida, idiot!" bellowed Human Resources Minister Joe Volpe, prompting Kenney to say he was sorry for "offending the ageing sex kitten community".

last of all...celebrate it! celebrate the cinco de mayo, well, that was yesterday...but don't...please, i beg you, don't refer to it as mexican independence day which is the 16th of september.

instead on the 5th of may 1862, 4,000 Mexican soldiers defeated the French army of between 6 and 7 at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of Mexico City. though it may have been, as some claim, the first time in 50 years that napoleonic forces were defeated in battle, this still didn't stop france from taking the country a year later.

posted by Jeremy at 1:36 AM

does this make me (more openly) gay?

The only beer I enjoy is the fruity variety. To me, the others pretty much taste like butt. You can say I am a cretin, but I have had several non-fruity varieties, from Belgian to German to Bostonian, and I don't really like them.

However, among the fruity beers, I have loved the less popular peach and the more popular cherry. I would like to try the strawberry and the blueberry. But, I am here today to sing praise to the framboise.

Of these, I love most:



I discovered it in a creperie in Flemish Bruges, which we have now visited four times, more for the framboise than for the crepes.

You can keep your cigars. Leave me the fruity beer. In moderation. Lest I get fat. And become a fat papa.

posted by Chris at 10:05 AM

tru confessions of a hermit

so, here is a poem i wrote several years ago. greg may remember it.

i post it both as a response to anon and so that hermits can fulfill the shameless, creative self-promotion that is part of having a blog. tho i doubt that i will get a book contract for my 3 good poems.

cohibas

they are tight-rolled
on the smooth-hard legs
of beautiful virgins.

supple-sweet, brown leaves
are worked across cinnamon thighs
bestowing potency and taste.

I have seen these sirens
working, singing and laughing,
rolling and smoking cigars

of their own making—
with wrinkles plentiful
as the folds of the Sierra-Maestra

and deep as time.
I have met these artisans:
all men and no hero among them.

but how many aficionados
have twirled their tongues
around Havana-gold,

sucking out its fire, thinking
of poor, beautiful virgins,
cloistered on an island, rolling

the very cigar, whose nectar
they savor, blowing
smoke rings in the air?

posted by Jeremy at 8:19 PM

on the perfect pint

anonymous, you have tickled my tongue and tripped my taste: you have initiated a talk of that most beautiful of beverages, bier. There indeed is considerable pleasure in being a bier snob. (Part of the pleasure comes in spelling it bier rather than beer.) I consider myself fortunate never to have stumbled through the hazy undergraduate wilderness stoned on Budweiser, but at the same time, I am sad that I was never schooled on the finer points of a lager or an ale.

The tastes of bier, in other words, I've had to cultivate, and I can't say I've been particularly good at it.

But let me back up. It all begins hier, at John's Grocery. Legend has it that a Whitman scholar from England was visiting Iowa City (where the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review is published), and he had one guidebook, and one request: The one place he wanted to go was Dirty John's because his guidebook told him it was the only place in the Midwest where he could buy any English bier he was looking for.

My trips to John's are rare: for me to be a connoisseur can be expensive because I find it difficult to stick to a budget. But when I do go, I wade through the bottles. Usually, I decide on a region of the world or a specific brew: perhaps yesterday I bought a Japanese brand; today may be a selection of Czech beers; tomorrow only bocks from Germany; and the day after that, anything from the excellent Summit brewery in St. Paul, Minnesota..

My favorite beers to drink, however, are brews from Trappist monasteries. Unfortunately, at $5.00 a bottle, it's expensive to buy much Orval.

The only thing I don't buy is Guinness. Guinness can only be drunk on tap.

posted by Greg at 2:53 PM

la mala educacion

From what I can tell, in a way, it’s “Sleepers,” though maybe this might be too harsh a movie, meets “Six Degrees of Separation” meets “Adaptation” meets any countless movie that retells someone’s life through the device of untangling a mystery.

It’s sort of Almodóvar’s literary autobiography…that is, it is set in what he considers to be two of his most self-defining moments…his childhood in catholic schools in the 60’s and his early adulthood in the early 80’s, which are to Spain what the late 60’s are to the US. However, it isn’t like “Stand by Me,” or “The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys” or any other movie that explores the national importance of a moment, like the 60’s, through the metaphor of loss of innocence or coming of age. The protagonists are already adults during this part of the 80’s and the movie is more about the story and story telling than about an ode to the 80’s. Now, Almodóvar, though he acknowledges having used his memories, personally important places and historical moments (60's catholic school, 80's rebellion), he denies that it is autobiographical in the sense of "the true confessions of Almodóvar."

The main character is a director coming off of several successes that is stuck and has no ideas for his next movie. His childhood friend/lover drops in out of the blue to visit him and give him a script. Actually, they haven’t seen each other since the priest of the school kicked the future movie director out because he too was in love with the friend and didn’t want competition.

I won’t give you more, unless you really want to know. I have, though, given you enough clues in the movie comparisons to get the gist of the story. The worst comparison is by far Sleepers.

In a way, it seems to be about story telling itself...with a lot of triangular relationships and mirroring devices, very Lucien Dallenbach. If you can read, or muddle your way through Spanish, this is where I got most of the info. It’s a synopsis and an interview with the director.

Also apparently, Moon River and Breakfast at Tiffany’s feature prominently in the film. This Capote adaptation has really become iconic for Spanish cinema, especially Spanish cinema that deals with topics related to gay-life and gay-identity.

posted by Jeremy at 1:21 PM

more food for fodder...

here is a student poem that i came across in an anthology/learn how to write poetry manual called 13 ways of looking at a blackbird

it's nice. it's funny...though it looses its humor after the third syllable of the second stanza. it's still worth a chortle.

Feeding Francis Bacon

I tried this experiment:
fried a package of bacon.
While it was fresh, the smell pungent,
I took it to the pig pen

for Francis. I dropped it in
his tin slop bucket and waited.
(I could have sworn I saw him grin
like he knew that I had baited

him.) But then, that helpless hog
I saved from slaughter—from the knife—
that litter runt, the underdog,
as though his whole stinking life

he had not heard of sin or ham,
devoured some relation’s meat,
dug a hole, scratched, and burped and ran
his muddy snout across my feet.

posted by Jeremy at 12:57 AM