Tag: weblogs

I found this site: AORTAL — the anti-portal on this blog: Broccoli and bechamel, which I in turn found through a comment on Prepare to Meet Your Bakerina. (The obscure delight of this post will make sense only after you go to Aortal.)

I’ve fallen prey to yet another tawdry weblog meme. (I caught it from Bakerina.) Here are twenty tracks played at random by my iTunes selection at work:

“Yome, Yome” Mandy Patinkin Mamaloshen
“A ‘Wassail’ Suite” The Waverly Consort A Waverly Consort Christmas — Christmas From East Anglia To Appalachia
“Obvious Child” Paul Simon Rhythm Of The Saints
“I Will Survive (1993 Phil Kelsey Classic 12” Mix)” Gloria Gaynor The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert
“Alone (Adapted From Yeomen Of The Guard)” Soundtrack Topsy-Turvy
“Santa Lucia” Garrison Keillor Now It Is Christmas Again
“Farwell My Good 1 Forever” Kronos Quartet Early Music (Lachrimae Antiquae)
“Den BlÃ¥ SlÃ¥tten / OrmslÃ¥ (The Blue Tune / The Legless Lizard)” Den Fule Nordic Roots: A NorthSide Collection
“E” Drunken Munkey Dance Factory Level 2
“Why do the nations so furiously rage together” Messiah
“Et Barn Er Fodt I Bethlehem” Garrison Keillor Now It Is Christmas Again
“Stormyren (The Big Bog)” Olov Johansson Storsvarten (The Big Black One)
“Vals Efter Erlandsson” Olov Johansson Storsvarten (The Big Black One)
“Paragon Rag” Various Artists & James Levine Scott Joplin: Greatest Hits
“Eric Bohlins Brudpolska” Olov Johansson Storsvarten (The Big Black One)
“All I Want Is You” U2 The Best Of 1980–1990
“O Little Town Of Bethlehem” Nat King Cole An Eclectic Collection Of Christmas Classics
“I Know What I Know” Paul Simon Graceland
“Rachell’s Weepinge” Kronos Quartet Early Music (Lachrimae Antiquae)
“Höglorfen” Hedningarna 1989–2003
“Heavenly Union” Tudor Choir The Shapenote Album

I found this link: SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Society | Comment: Nigella Lawson on women, sex and booze over on the Julie/Julia Project, (now no longer a current blog, but I’m reading along faithfully). Here’s a zinger:

Of all drugs, alcohol is probably one of the most unattractive: it makes people boring and loud, a lethal combination. Sit me in front of a cokehead any day — at least the conversation will be better.

Found a nifty site through a link on another weblog:

create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

I found a fun meme on Bakerina’s blog, where she kindly invited people to play along. I took up the invitation, and here are Bakerina’s five questions to me, with my answers.

1. What is it about knitting that you find so satisfying?

There are so many things: I love the texture and the color (although these delights could be satisfied by fondling a basket of yarn) (. . . which I’ve contemplated); I like the creativity of selecting stitch patterns (color patterns, mostly; one of my favorites is called “dancing grannies”). The greatest satisfaction, however, is very much about the physical act. I find it calming and centering; it seems to disengage a judgmental, impatient part of my mind. I often knit during Quaker meetings for business, and it helps me listen.

2 What do you want to read when you finish the book you are currently reading?

“The” book I am currently reading? I’m reading “The Quakers in America”, a brand-new, very good book (which moved right to the top when I got it); “How to Cook a Wolf” by MFK Fisher; “Master and Commander”; and “The Sacred Art of Bowing.” I usually have several titles in the mix at once. Three of these are library books on interlibrary loan, which means I read ’em when I get ’em. Oh, and I’m working on the “Illiad.” I guess getting back to that is what I want to read next.

3. A compound question: When you moved from the West Coast to the East, how did you travel? Did you see or do anything particularly memorable along the way?

I flew. Or rather, I rode in an airplane. I shipped my belongings via UPS, at least the ones I wanted to take. I abandoned my futon, believing correctly that it would be cheaper just to buy a new one. I heavily weeded my collection of paperback sci-fi, fantasy, and religion/spirituality books, and spent years regretting it as I searched for hard-to-find old favorites when I needed comfort reading.

4. If you had an independent income and could live anywhere that you desire, where would you live?

I would live on the bluffs above the Pacific Ocean near Bonnie Doon, California (just north of Santa Cruz).

Or maybe London.

How big will my independent income be?

5. Have you ever been to Reading Terminal Market?

Mmmm. Sausage. The single most-missed Philadelphia experience is RTM. I used to work half a block away. Can I tell you what this meant?

Lunches: We got yer Mexican, yer Chinese, yer American diner, yer Southern, yer Thai, yer Italian, yer cheese-steaks (although, truth be told, my favorite cheesesteaks come from street trucks or Greek pizza joints); yer ice cream; yer fancy-schmancy coffees, teas, muffins, and cookies.

Dinner: Oh, to be able to buy fresh veggies daily; meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy directly from family farmers; fresh fish cut to order; whole spices in bulk; fresh artisanal bread; perfectly aged cheeses and ten kinds of olives; trendy and mundane kitchen implements; cookbooks; gewgaws; used books.

Breakfast: There is nothing better than the heavy, dare I say greasy, traditional American breakfasts served at what my friend Barbara and I affectionately call “The Amish Counter.” Once a week for several years, that’s where you’d find us, eating spuds. And, in my case, omelettes or eggs and bacon or sausage. Good, Pennsylvania-German style all-pork links, an inch in diameter and cut into two-inch sections before being broiled. (Not the sickly little bread-filled Irish breakfast links you find here in Boston.)

Be still my heart. Have I been to Reading Terminal Market, indeed.

If you would like to join the fun, here are the rules:

1 — Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2 — I will respond; I’ll ask you five questions.
3 — You’ll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4 — You’ll include this explanation.
5 — You’ll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.

Bakerina has a beautifully written, very sad post on one aspect of modern city life. I’ve been there, too.

Somehow I’ve become included in yahoo and google search results, and it’s fascinating to take a look at my statistics page now. (Typepad offers a rather basic statistics page, but eventually I caught on to the fact that I can tell what search phrase was used.)

It seems I should be more careful to say something worthwhile when I list books as I finish reading them, and I should certainly be saying something about lace, of all things. I actually did finish a piece of lace knitting a few weeks ago; I hope to have some kind of post soon, perhaps even a photo, about it. Perhaps that would be worth following a search on “lace shawls” to my blog.

How do you stack up? The Geek Test