Hey, do I really get to crack this one? Shows I have no life, that that makes me happy.

::joins you in lifelessness::

It's time for that annual exercise in futility we call "picking the Derby winner". I'm down to a choice between Scat Daddy (bad pedigree for the distance, but the best preparation of any horse in the race) and Dominican (steadily improving; some believe he's only good on artificial surfaces, but I think it may be a coincidence that he started getting good while racing on Polytrack.)

::joins you in lifelessness::

It's time for that annual exercise in futility we call "picking the Derby winner". I'm down to a choice between Scat Daddy (bad pedigree for the distance, but the best preparation of any horse in the race) and Dominican (steadily improving; some believe he's only good on artificial surfaces, but I think it may be a coincidence that he started getting good while racing on Polytrack.)

It's also Cinco de Mayo, which gives rise to thoughts of Mint Julep Margaritas and such.

Here's a Lee Judge cartoon from the KC Star I saw this morning that I think some will find entertaining.

I'm going to try making Teresa's limeade. I have a microplane zester, thirtyish limes (I lost count and just bought 'enough' then couldn't force the checkout girl to do it for me), and no idea how much of anything to use. This could end very, very stickily.
On the other hand, every time I try a new recipe, I end up with more miscellaneous kitchen supplies. This one brings with it said zester, a funnel, and a tea strainer.

In this hour of darkness for the Rangers, I think of Messier 11.

there's got to be good sense as well as sound
adding things up doesn't tell us all we'd like
numbers are more pleasing when they're round

what we desire is not just what we've found
the numbers buzz like bees around their bike
there's got to be good sense as well as sound

into the soil the rods and rocks we'll pound
much hangs we learn upon a single spike
numbers are more pleasing when they're round

the words pile up they form a growing mound
against the current they form a large dyke
there's got to be good sense as well as sound

magical colours will in this space abound
the reader will crowd up upon the mike
numbers are more pleasing when they're round

i've staked this out and made this a home ground
what others find i'll count a lucky strike
there's got to be good sense as well as sound
numbers are more pleasing when they're round

The "thicket" of quotation marks in the Particle about "Borderline Personality Disorder" made my "eyes" "hurt." Can somebody who was able to finish it explain what the heck is going on?

Are there actually such things as mint julep margaritas? That sounds amazingly tasty, to the point where I'm tempted to run by the local liquor store to try making one if anyone has a recipe handy.

Can I get some moderately-priced restaurant recommendations for Nebula weekend?

We're going to be in midtown on Friday night. We're looking for good or interesting ethnic. If all else fails, we'll go to Virgil's.

Saturday lunch I'm guessing we'll grab what we can near the hotel (the Marriott Financial Center in downtown). Are some of the restaurants open in that part of town on Saturday? It looks like there's a lot of Thai in the area, which is nice to see.

On Sunday, I want to try to bring a group over to Chinatown for dim sum. It looks like it's only about a mile from the hotel over to Chinatown, which would be a nice walk if the weather is good. I've eaten at a few dim sum places in Chinatown, but I no longer remember the names of them.

Fade, somehow I can't see margaritas made with bourbon.

Linkmeister, this is probably true. But my vast ignorance of alcoholic beverages and endless optimism compels me to ask, just in case!

Jenny @ #9: The short version is that Borderlines, while genuinely in pain and wounded due to a shitty childhood, are very good at making other people feel and seem crazy.

My extended interpretation:

The further problem which that web-page itself embodies - rather than commenting on - is that if you try to deal with the BPD behaviors by forestalling or countermoving against them, you can only do it if you become and act completely paranoid, controlling, and start sounding crazy yourself. This confirms the suspicions of the person with BPD and the people they have convinced you are Bad.

"A strange game. The only way to win is not to play."

#6: I've tried straining Copious Lemonade with a tea-strainer, it's frustrating because the holes clog very quickly with the pulp and there's not enough area of sieve to get a reasonable amount of lemonade through between washings. I think you need a finer-mesh normal-sized sieve, though where one of those comes from I know not.

The microplane zester is very precisely the point of culinary extravagence up to which I will not go; I know they're lovely implements, a housemate had one, but I will not pay $35 for a grater.

Mine was twelve dollars and change, Tom at 15, but it was the grater-zester rather than a grater-grater. I don't have a cheese grater or anything at the moment, and I don't expect I will until Teresa posts a recipe that requires one. It's an adventure turning a post-dorm first apartment kitchen into an actual kitchen. You never know what you're going to need.

Doctor Who now skips a week: next week is something called the Eurovision Song Contest. And, maybe just age, skin-colour, and posh frock, I had one of those moments when, seeing Martha's mum, I wondered if they'd cast Eartha Kitt.

Which leads to the thought of Martha's mum being Catwoman.

"Something called the Eurovision Song Contest" is in fact one of the planet's great annual barking-mad festivals of aesthetic catastrophe. Here's last year's winner. Here's the contest itself.

European readers of Making Light can gloss all this better than I can.

Diatryma @ 16

Yuo'll spend the rest of your life accumulating kitchen tools as you find the need for them. (My mother had one drawer we called the 'funny shapes' drawer: all the odd-shaped things that didn't really fit (in either sense) into the 'spoon' drawer (also including turners) and the 'knife' drawer (the one you looked before reaching into, because everything in there was dangerous). Where do you put potato mashers and garlic presses?)

On straining lemon juice for lemonade: the normal-size mesh works fine; when it starts getting full of pulp, turn it over and pour water through it (unless you're like me and don't mind the pulp).

Can someone repost the lemonade recipe? PNH/TNH?

In other, personal news, my goal is to have the final edit of the thesis done before those horses cross the finish line. As I have about 10 more pages to edit, I should go focus on that rather than read ML.

Thank you, Alan Walker, for spotting the (possible? probable?) malware embedded in the Particle about Borderline Personality Disorder. The warning is much appreciated, and I've taken down the Particle.

PJ at 19, that's part of why I'm having trouble accumulating. It's so much easier in a dorm-- one person has the big pot, one person has the cookie sheets, one person has the electric mixer. Growing up, my family kept a big crock of spatulas, wooden spoons, and a weird springy thing we never used for cooking but were not allowed to play with. No potato masher, though.

Teresa @21, and Clifton @14,

Let me recommend Bully Online as a useful resource. It's the best website I've seen for learning about bullies:
1. what bullies do - see the 4 most common types of bully- and do to you: see am I being bullied?
2. how to recognize the effects bullies have. i.e. stress that often you blame yourself for, because bullies are sneaky like that.
3. how to start countering them and start reducing the stress they've caused.

I know several people who've been helped by this site, including me.

Four years ago I was working at a nonprofit* and getting increasingly and weirdly stressed. I couldn't figure it why, which itself was stressful. Once you've been working for a while, you'd like to think of yourself as fully capable of handling anything reasonable and rational.

Except my boss was an expert at couching the unreasonable and irrational as if they were the most innocuous requests.

Luckily I found the Bullies site: just being able to define the bully-caused stress as such took half the stress away. Her affects on me changed from chronic to acute.

I finished the project and happily went onwards. She died two years later from a stroke: sad, but not unexpected.

All to say that if you know anyone who is getting unusually stressed in a "blaming-themselves even though they can't name what they're doing badly" way, point them to this site. Because it's a UK site the legal matters won't necessarily apply to other locations, but then you'll have the terminology and knowledge to find your local equivalent.

---------
* low wages, good cause, at the height of the low-times for Silicon Valley so changing jobs wasn't easy.

Laurie D.T. Mann #11: One place that comes to mind is the Cabana Carioca Restaurante, Brazilian cuisine, at 123 W 45 St. (There's also the Cabana Carioca II, a couple of doors down at 133 W 45 St.) The times I've eaten there, the food has been good, but the service is uneven. (Sometimes they're quite slow.) Still worth it, and reasonably priced.

Diatryma at #22, I suspect the weird springy thing was a wisk used for scrambling raw eggs. We have one of those.

If you've got a rasp around, it can double as a lemon/lime zesting tool.

Potato mashers go in the crock to the left of the stove. It's the miscellaneous one, closer to the prep area, where things like meat pounders, shears, scissors*, and the big strainer all live. The crock to the stove's right has all the spoons, ladles, nylon cooking forks and spatulas.

There are also three tool drawers. One has stuff I'm most likely to use; the other two contain, respectively: stuff I almost never use, like cookie cutters; and all the impedimenta associated with blender sticks and food processors, along with some other pointy stuff.

I used to notice that every time I watched Alton Brown, I'd end up getting another piece of cooking equipment. (Now he's scheduled across from the late-night weather, so mostly we miss him. Equipment purchases have gone down somewhat.) (Never did feel the need for an Advantium oven, though.)

* It is my contention that the most important kitchen tool is the pair of scissors, so I can cut through all the disgustingly human-proof plastic that's in my way every time I want to open something.

Diatryma @22,

What you need in a kitchen often seems like the first chapter of many cookbooks, and could be a giant thread in itself. [Goes to kitchen. Checks. Perhaps not: several of my favorite cookbooks don't have a tools section. Thought they did.]

Two things I can strongly recommend:

1. splurging on, or not being cheap in getting your good sharp kitchen knives*. A high-quality knive is like a Great Weapon in Brust. It makes you want to use it. Whatever money you'd save on a cheap knife will be lost in spoiled produce and more expensive cuts of meat because you won't want to do as much work yourself.

2. Getting a set of Oxo Good Grips or similar implements**. Same argument as for the knives. Good design makes a tool fun, perhaps effortless, or at least not burdensome.

My Oxo mandoline- that's fun. I'll be looking at produce, and the thought will come "Hey, I haven't tried that yet on the mandoline. Why not?"

ok, three things
3. two silicone oven mitts, and, if you have nonstick pots and pans, a silicone spatula or two. Silicone is a relatively new material for the kitchen and I wouldn't use it for learning to bake, but it makes for much safer oven mitts. I also prefer my silicone basting tool to my old brushes- easier to wash. Note: test your potential purchase by twisting it: all-silicone won't change color, silicone with filler will.
-----
* back 10 open threads ago I'd written:
"A random observation of the really obvious which someone else could still find helpful:

Really sharp kitchen knives are a wonderful thing. I recently found my set of good German knives, the ones I'd let get buried in a box during my last move. I'd forgotten how much ease they add to cooking.

They add a +2 to all things culinary- shopping at farmers markets, browsing recipes- because any ingredient's food prep time/ effort is cut by half. Thus the complexity of recipes I'm willing to try for a given time-budget has gone up correspondingly.

And it wasn't that I was using butter-knives on raw squash, just good, not great, knives."

** Unfortunately I'm not immediately seeing any big sets for sale (i.e. a Costco version).

PNH #18: There's got to be something positive to say about an international competition one of the winners of which was an Afro-Caribbean man representing Estonia.

Diatryma @ 22

I'd recommend signing up for 'Cooks Illustrated' (if you haven't already) because they do reviews of equipment. (The expensive stuff isn't always the best, surprisingly.) They're the ones who do 'America's Test Kitchen Cookbook', the one in the five-ring binder. (Found at Costco a few weeks ago: only $20!) It has recommendations for tools that are necessary and those that are handy-but-not-necessary. Also lots and lots of recipes, in many sections. Got entertained by reading as sets the names of the recipes on the facing pages where the dividers go in.

Fade (#10): I'd try something like this:

Take a silver julep cup, run a lime wedge around the rim and frost with white sugar. In the bottom of the cup, thoroughly muddle, oh, a teaspoon or less of turbinado sugar and a small handful of torn mint leaves, and maybe a little squeeze of lime juice to get it going. In a cocktail shaker, shake 2-3 oz. of reposado or añejo tequila and the juice of half a lime with crushed (not cubed) ice. Pour into the julep cup and give the whole thing a gentle stir or two to work up the sugar and mint. Garnish with a lime wedge and mint sprigs. Strong tequila taste at the start, with a sweet, minty finish.

It's basically a no-salt margarita with mint, prepared like a julep. I have no idea whether this recipe would work, but it's what I'd do. The proportions might need some finessing. Have a backup cocktail available.

I'm getting together with friends tomorrow for Cinco de Mayo a day late -- I'm making ceviche. Spent much too long today juicing a dozen limes with one of those wooden citrus reamers. Luckily I had no hangnails. I wasn't able to get seafood as nice as I wanted--the snapper was a little soft, but it smelled clean. I hope it turns out. I'm thinking of roasting the corn tonight and chilling it overnight before assembly.

Then we're going to go see The Asylum Street Spankers here on tour, which I'm starting to really look forward to.

Howard Peirce:

I may try that! It certainly sounds like it has potential.

This may be a stupid question: how do I crush ice? What springs to mind is "ice cubes, hammer, cutting board on kitchen counter" but I can already picture the potential for ice shards everywhere. (My culinary aptitude is...not what it could be.)

Kathryn FS #27:

Mandolines scare the bejesus out of me (and I'm generally OK w/ sharp edges on things). Is the Oxo in some way considerably safer than the rest of the pack? (I've got a Star, and at this point you'd have to pay me to use it.)

Fragano #28: I know people who throw Eurovision parties every year. I had a few drinks with the Israeli entrants after one of the competitions held in Ireland as I was eating in the restaraunt in their hotel. I still think Patrick's capsule review could be printed on the invitations for next years event:

"One of the planet's great annual barking-mad festivals of aesthetic catastrophe" - PNH

I especially love his Euro-spelling of "esthetic".

Fade, I was kidding about the Mint Julep Margaritas, but apparently I lack imagination. And...ice cubes, dishcloth, hammer, etc. Or a cloth bag if you have one (and don't mind messing it up a bit).

Fold the ice cubes into the dishcloth, and hit it with the hammer. Or if you're very strong and have a marble rolling pin (a marvelous thing for pastries, I'm told), you could try that, but I'd still wrap it in a cloth first.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I've seen this year's British entry on Graham Norton's TV show. He said it was the first thing he'd had on that was gayer than him.

It's marvellous.

Niall McAuley #s33 & 35: Pity I won't be there for that party.

There's someone gayer than Graham Norton? How on earth is that possible?

Fade, use a good ol' Waring-style blender to crush ice. That's what they were originally designed for, before the invention of the smoothie. I used to see these mechanical ice crushers* a lot in thrift stores, which was the way to crush ice before the blender was commonplace. They were standard barware during the Golden Age of the Brandy Alexander, and go well with your Esquivel and Les Baxter LPs.

If you make Margarita juleps, let me know how they taste.

* I see by googling that you can still get mechanical ice crushers (e.g.), now with 21st-century styling. It seems a bit of an affectation to me, but of a certain appeal to the retro-lounge crowd.

Fragano, you asked for it.

Niall McAuley #38: Now I'm going to be really scared the next time I get on a plane....

33, 28, 18: I was talking with a Slovenian friend one night over drinks (a theme?), and he fell into the standard European ex-pat lament about how Americans are a bunch of Philistines with no appreciation for art, culture, or beauty, and I looked him in the eye and said, "Sascha, one word: Eurovision."

"Fair enough," he said, and that was the end of it. And it's a good thing, too, or I would've had to whip out the James Last.

Niall 38: Aaaaauuwww maaaaaaaii gawwwwwwdzzzz. They're doing a parody, right? No...they're serious.

Before seeing that (or rather as much of it as I could stand to watch) if someone had used the phrase "ABBA, only stupider" to describe something, I'd've thought they were exaggerating.

Niall @38: Thank you for that. I'm very pleased to see that Eurovision continues in the grand tradition of being more camp than a field full of pink tents.

Was that song a deliberate micturation extraction of those incredibly sexist "Fly me" ads BA used to run?

Wikipedia entry on Scooch's "Flying the Flag (For You)."

We're doomed, doomed I say. We started out our Cinco de Mayo by adopting two kittens, Siegfried and Yum. Brief trip to grocery store on the way home (someone stayed with them in an open car because of the heat) to buy kitten chow and a temporary litterbox.

Older two cats have noses out of joint but I think they'll adjust. So far: Angelina is on the hassock behind my desk which is her usual place, don't know where Badb Catha is, Yumi is running around on the 2nd floor and Siggy is downstairs running about/sleeping. Alternately. I've witnessed it.

I was just responding to a thread on a different forum, regarding what one does in the event someone has a seizure, and started a list of Jim Macdonald's informative emergency situation posts. Is there an existing list of Jim's posts already? I've been doing a search on all of Jim's posts here, and realizing he posts a lot.

By the way, the Union Jack in that video is flying upside down. Pointless pop trivia via the ever brilliant Pop Justice.

Finally, an Open Thread I can contribute something meaningful to! ("Nonsense up with which I shall not put.")

I haven't seen Bob Altemeyer's work mentioned here (not that I read *everything* here) and a search on Altemeyer brings back nothing, so...

Read his book -- free! Online! http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/%7Ealtemey/

It explains the psychology of social dominators and right-wing authoritarians. It is fan-damn-tastic, and I truly believe every progressive with any interest in American politics needs to understand the content of this book. And it's fun to read, too.

Thank you, and I return you to your previously scheduled Cinco de Mayo.

Limeade has been made and it may very well be lethal. There's a bottle of made-mostly-right and a bottle that's half made-mostly-right and half the Everclear that was left in the bottle because I am new at this and didn't think to buy cheapcheapcheap anything just for the glass.

Now how do I wash a microplane zester?

P J Evans @ 29

'America's Test Kitchen Cookbook',

I second this recommendation. We found it at Costco a couple of months ago and bought 3, one for us and two as gifts. It's especially nice because it explains a lot of the steps that other cookbooks take for granted, but that new cooks aren't familiar with.

I just want to say...

GO UTAH JAZZ! UTAH OVER HOUSTON! WHAT A GAME! WOOOOO!

Thanks. Just wanted to say it.

(Comment partially cross-posted at carpetbagger):

Wanted to highlight and respond to Patrick's particle on Thomas Sowell off of carpetbaggerreport.com. For those who haven't clicked it, Sowell is a popular and influential "intellectual" right-wing columnist. He just wrote the following, published in National Review:

When I see the worsening degeneracy in our politicians, our media, our educators, and our intelligentsia, I can’t help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup.

Me: What’s really bizarre about this is, if you read the whole column, it looks like he was trying to be George Carlin. This is not a real column; it’s a serious of random observations where he’s trying to be funny or clever. He couldn’t come up with a real column, (probably trying & failing to defend Iraq, or Gonzales, or Attorneygate in drafts he threw away).

As I'm sure many readers of this page know, when you think of something small & clever you like, but there’s no room for it in the bigger thing you’re working on, you file it away for later. When you can’t produce a column on deadline, you collect all the little bits you have and publish them. There’s nothing wrong with this practice in and of itself, unless you’re a crypto-fascist like Sowell.

But think about it. This isn’t something he came up with randomly. This is something he wrote down earlier, decided he liked it, saved it for a rainy day, pulled it OUT again, and published it without hesitation.

Isn’t this patently Un-American? Shouldn’t he be fired for this, in a just world? It is, and he won’t (as it's not), but let’s stay outraged, just the same.

with regard to Eurovision-I'm addicted to "How Clean Is Your House"-and they have a particularly disgusting house the owner of which made her living writing songs for Eurovision contestants...

Greg @51 -- and then when you realize that an op-ed in the WSJ this week explicitly called for a dictatorship in America, you kind of think maybe they really are out to get you.

In Australian history, the "fifth of May" is sung as the death-day of Ben Hall in the ballad "The Streets of Forbes", said to be written by an eyewitness in Forbes that day. Those links have the right words, here's some more quick general background and a midi file.

<koff> Sorry, my post #54 belongs on another thread. I was meaning to post this one here.

Eurovision. Oh yes. Many will be the dress-up party and varying bouts of stunned silence with hysterical, unbelieving laughter around the TV. It's one of the big drawcards for our 'ethnic' station, SBS. (Another is their soccer coverage.) Next Saturday, the preliminary finals, and Sunday 13th May, the Big Night. "Barking-mad festivals of aesthetic catastrophe" is an excellent description.

Keir (#46) If the people hanging the flag knew it was a sign of distress and request for help, perhaps the upside-down Union Jack was deliberate?

Mez, for a distreass signal it would have to be the ensign, red, white, or blue as appropriate.

(The traditional snark on this is to then point out that the French use their tricolour as an ensign, thus saving them time in making distress signals at sea.)

I notice there's a Toohey's commercial in the Particles. I wish to add their new ad. Inflatable people meet Busby Berkeley.

The inflatable bit I thought worked really well; the beer commercial bit (including gratuitous shot of girl in bikini) not so well.

(Well, it might not be as new as all that: I don't watch a whole lot of television with ads; I in fact saw it at the cinema.)

Diatryma in 48 --

You clean a microplane rasp with water, from the back. If you must, and only if you must, clean the working surface directly use something durable -- stainless steel steel wool, say -- in quantity, and strictly from the direction the teeth don't point in a wipe-lift, wipe-lift motion. (Sideways is bad, because the teeth all point both sidewayses, too.)

Microplane rasps were originally developed for rapid stock removal in hardwood; they should be treated with exactly the same caution you consider appropriately applied to an exposed rack of razorblades, because that's exactly what they are.

General note on good knives --

Get a leather stop and some good (~1 micron grit) honing compound) and make a couple passes on each side of the blade before each use, or something completely flat like plexiglass or a small steel mirror and some 3M mylar-backed extra-fine microabrasive, and do the same couple passes per side of the blade before each use.

(Knife steels act to file and swage the edge; they're appropriate more or less solely for knifes you consider disposable or for knives that can't hold an edge anyway due to metallurgical deficiency.)

I am personally not fond of the German style of consumer cooking knife with the heavy handle and the quillions, and prefer the French, which is lighter in the handle and is easier to get without the quillions.

It is no longer true that you can get a finer edge on high-carbon knife blades than you can on stainless steel, but it is still true that they're easier to sharpen. (You can also get an excellent general purpose cooking knife for 25 CDN in high carbon.)

My personal preference (leaving aside the completely lovely antique Sabatier knives with blade forms no one still makes) are the Grohmann knives from Pictou, Nova Scotia. High-carbon stainless and they'll cheerfully sell the restaurant grade/style knives over the web.

I went to see Spiderman 3. The less said about that... Anyway, I got a few chuckles when I came across the theater's coming-soon posters: it shows a cityscape, and on top of the buildings a dog surveying everything, a dog with a red cape. The poster's tag line?

"One Nation, Under Dog."

I have a microplane zester the size of a large (woodworking) file. I can zest an entire lemon in under a minute, yielding extremely fine zest of exactly the kind you want to be able to mix into your cake batter or whatever. It accumulates on the safe, smooth interior of the zester (which has a cross-section like this: <__>), and I just push it out with my finger. I clean it by running it under water; I keep it in the plastic sleeve it came with.

It may be the only sharp cooking tool I have that has never tasted my blood. (ADHD is not an advantage in cooking.)

I also have a marvelous little microplane nutmeg grinder (with storage space for both whole nutmeg and the fresh-ground, with a shaker, all in an object smaller than my fist), but I haven't used it yet. Next time I bake that almond bread.

Which may be today, now that I think about it. My mouth is watering.

Graydon @ 58

I was lucky enough to have money at the same time that Lee Valley had some old-stock Sabatiers from a warehouse. I'm almost afraid to use it.

Do not ever, Ever, EVER leave a microplane grater in a kitchen drawer without some sort of protective covering around the blades.

Seriously.

(Luckily I had fast enough reflexes to freeze as I touched it, but I really don't want there to be a next time; while they're a great kitchen implement I can't help thinking that there's also a very grim role waiting for them in an as-yet unpublished Iain Banks novel ...)

I think Patrick's being too mild in his description of Eurovision as "barking-mad", I think it's absolutely Upminster.

I bought a tiny micro-plane zester for I think four pounds, in a really excellent kitchen shop in Ledbury. (Right next to a really excellent deli, and downstairs from a really excellent cafe. Ledbury's worth visiting, and that particular street corner is worth lingering on and going back to.) My microplaner wouldn't be any good for hardwood, but it's perfect for limes and lemons.

District Line jokes!

Xopher in 60 --

Honest to Tiwaz, it is a woodworking file. The Microplane people discovered there were better profit margins in kitchen implements, but the only difference is the packaging.

P J Evans in 61 --

That's where mine are from, too, and I use one of mine quite a bit. (Another is the serious-turkey carving knife and I rarely cook turkey, never mind serious-turkey; the third is the spare for the first one, still in Cosmoline.)

No sharp knife should ever be put in a dishwasher, which goes about double for high carbon steel bladed sharp knives and off into "AIGH! NO!" territory for those old Sabatier knives, but if they're wiped and dried immediately after use (and the wood on the handles gets some walnut oil from time to time) they're really quite durable. The trick of wrapping the blade in paper towel, soaking the towel in vinegar, and wrapping the lot in aluminum foil will give you a pickled gray/blue blade colour, and avoid issues with bits of the blade turning black.

Charlie @62: I do hope Mr Banks is not reading this thread, because I really, *really* do not want to read that scene.

We have one of the knives made by my great-grandfather (who was a blacksmith on the railroad, and illiterate until my great-grandmother taught him to read). The steel is much thicker than modern all-purpose knives, and the blade has kind of a machete shape. It takes a good edge, but it doesn't keep it all that well, and it turns black when you cut fruit with it. It's kind of too large for my nerve-damaged hands, but my son loves it.

Typewriter recycled into a waffle iron.

(via TreeHugger and Baking Bites)

This is probably a stupid question, but if one gets a new roof on one's house, does that process involve the upper floor of the house actually becoming open to the air for any period of time? Or do they just peel off some old layers of shingles and stick on new ones but leave some sort of roof-substructure intact so that the top floor still has a ceiling etc.? I need to both rent my top-floor apartment out and replace my roof, and I'm not sure if the sequence is critical.

This is a less stupid question: many moons ago we talked about Kalamazoo, coming up this week, so I know other folks here are going. Who else besides me, and does anyone want to meet up during the conference? I present Thursday afternoon and am free to play the rest of the time, minus whatever time I spend in my room writing my NEXT presentation (for 5/17). Also, any advice on dress for a female presenter? Do people do the formal business look, business casual, jeans and funky dresses....?

Susan--I haven't been in years, but it used to be slightly more formal than classwear. Meaning women have to wear suits or nice dresses.

Susan @ 69... It shouldn't involve exposing the upper-room floor, unless they discover, after removing the old shingles and tarp that parts of the actual roof are in dire need of replacement. As for that, I'd expect that those who do that kind of stuff could tell in advance.

(Will you be taking advantage of the situation to have a turret added to your abode?)

#69 Susan: Unless there is damage to the wooden underlayer of the roof, they either put a new layer of shingles on top of (at most one) old layer, or peel off the old shingles and put down new ones. The process generally takes a day or two at the most and never involves anything becoming open-air. Roofers generally schedule with an eye on the Weather Channel, as well.

The major annoyance is that unless your roofers are very, very neat, you will find bits of peeled-off shingle here and there for a long time afterwards.

Do people really put their good knives in the dishwasher? *shudder*

Heavy-duty cooks tend to look down on them, but we have a set of Henckels knives & love them.

As for summer movies--I wish _Spider-man 3_ looked good, but it really doesn't. I'd be excited for the third _Bourne_ movie, but it's directed by the same person as the second and the second made me extremely motion-sick (I haven't watched any trailers yet, because I didn't realize it was coming out until yesterday). And after the messes that were _Ocean's 12_ and the second _Pirates of the Caribeean_ movie . . .

Well, there's going to be a whole lot of waiting on reviews & word of mouth before I get excited about things.

(Oh! But there is _Stardust_, which I have hopes for. Almost forgot about that.)

Kate Nepveu... Halfway thru Spiderman, I found myself thinking "Ho-hum." As for my wife, she kept looking at her watch. This movie made me realize that X-men 3 wasn't such a big mess after all.

Meanwhile, I am cautiously awaiting the release of the Fantastic Four movie. Michael Chiklis, who plays Ben Grimm, is a big fan of the comic-book and I got the sense he wasn't too happy with the earlier movie, but that this time, with the Origin out of the way, they were able to tell a story. Galactus is supposed to show up at the end. I wonder if he'll be wearing the purple striped trunks and the purple head-bucket.

On being re-roofed:

Check the ground for nails, very carefully. You really don't want to step on a roofing nail, and the lawnmower won't appreciate them either.

Since it's Open Thread 84, here's Eighty Four, PA: http://www.hometownlocator.com/City/Eighty-Four-Pennsylvania.cfm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighty_Four,_Pennsylvania; and 84 Lumber, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/84_Lumber.

P J @ 75... You use your lawnmower on the roof? How come? Do you live in a hobbit home?

Serge @ #74: re: _Spider-man 3_: This movie made me realize that X-men 3 wasn't such a big mess after all.

Oh that's not good.

But does it have a covertly sexist plot for that extra level of unpleasantness?

(As for your other comments, I didn't see the first _Fantastic Four_ movie so am not particularly waiting on the second.)

Kate Nepveu @ 78... Well, Spiderman's lead female is always getting abducted and screaming. (Would I scream if I were stuck in a taxi hanging in a spiderweb way up there? I'd probably be uttering a non-stop string of 4-letter words, but that wouldn't do well for the movie's rating.) So the answer is yes, regarding the sexism. As for X3, what specifically did you have in mind in that area?

(cont'd from #79)

Actually, Spiderman's girlfriend becomes endangered only once in this movie, but it's still annoying. At least, in Superman returns, when Lois Lane is getting tossed around inside the plane, she tries to strap herself down. She's not passive. (Heck, she even saves Superman from drowning later on.)

On being re-roofed:

The contractors who worked on my house were supposed to use a heavy magnet to find all the roofing nails on the ground, but I still found roofing nails, and even a few gutter spikes (if that's the right term), in my flowerbeds after I had the old shingles torn off and new ones put on. But it was the nail my tire found in the driveway that made me wonder just how diligent they were with the magnet.

The *Coast Guard* produces skiffy? Who knew?

I'm verifying that Turkish statement in my Elementary Turkish textbook. (I had a roommate from Izmir at MIT, so my interest is not completely idle.) I can still count from one to ten in Turkish from memory; I know four is dört (the ö pronounced much like the German equivalent), and eight is sekiz, so I trust Wikipedia is correct, but the best thing Ronald Reagan ever said is "Trust but verify," (and he didn't even make that up!) so verify I shall.

Serge @ 74

This movie made me realize that X-men 3 wasn't such a big mess after all.

Would that be called praising with loud damns?

It sounds like Stan Lee and friends forgot the basic rule of show biz: "Leave the theater before the vegetables come out". I guess I'll wait for the DVD or the HD broadcast on HBO.

DaveL #72: Roofers generally schedule with an eye on the Weather Channel, as well.

When we had our roof done a couple of years ago after an epic hailstorm, the contractor informed us that his insurance didn't let him perform if there was more than a 30% chance of rain.

Bruce Cohen @ 84... Would that be called praising with loud damns?

Kind of, because X3 could easily have been a great movie, a great swan song. At least, unlike Spiderman 3, it had many moments of great beauty and sadness, like when the Angel refuses to take the Cure and literally spreads his wings and escapes, flying by Alcatraz where a young mutant is being prisonner and looks on with yearning.

Serge @ 86

Oh, I agree completely. X3 could have been X2 with more angst and grimness, if only.

Personally, I wish that they'd forgotten about X3 and spent some time and energy producing a decent film of Dr. Strange. I've been hoping someone with a lot of money would realize that modern CGI could do well by Steve Ditko's graphic concepts.

Hurray, standing-wave surfing in the Sidelights!

They have that in Munich, too; I was on a bicycle tour around the city, and they took us to see it. The main spot is in this lovely tree-shaded section of creek, and people in wetsuits line up on each bank and take turns in the wave.

It's on YouTube, of course; Here, here, and here.

Bruce Cohen @ 87... I'd love seeing a big-screen adaptation of Dr. Strange. But without the funny talk that's so overblown that it makes Prince Namor sound like a trash-talker.

Susan, TexAnne: Does the recommendation of suits/nice dresses for Kalamazoo hold for those of us no longer (or never) in the academic rat-race? I was obsessing about what to take for parties and such, annoyed that I had plenty of festive wear for winter, but somehow the spring and summer stuff shrank in the closet over the winter. Hate it when that happens! However, I did get a new pair of pointy-toed heels, this being a medieval conference. Tonight, the search for the cool jewelry, so I can avoid re-re-writing. Or fretting about a missing picure.

Tracie: Hmmmmm. I think if you're going just to go, you can wear what you want (but not jeans). Have you been before? I'd be cautious about the pointy-toed heels. Some of the buildings are far away from each other, and it really is uphill both ways.

Belated thank you to Kathryn from S @ #23:

I am no longer enmeshed in such a situation, but thank you for the thought and effort to provide a resource.

My response was partly based on my own experience and partly a reaction to the "helpful" suggestions in the web page - e.g. you need to quickly look around to see the facial expressions the BPD person is making at the people you're talking to, you need to quiz all your friends to find out what he/she is telling them, etc. That is just a recipe for becoming crazier yourself.

I was in a long-term relationship with someone who - in retrospect - I understand as having a lot of borderline behaviors and structure, briefly summarized as "You are a crazy and abusive person, why are you so terrible to me? Never leave me!" I am happily out of that relationship now, and in a much saner one. (My wife and I may both be a bit nuts, to various degrees in various ways, but our relationship is sane and sustaining.) Thus my War Games quote, "the only way to win is not to play."

My wife and I have also been dealing for the last few years with a foster child, the extent of whose problems only became clear after we had become her legal guardians. Right now she is living in a residential treatment program, which she hates, and is trying to "make nice" so she can come back and live with us - but without really dealing with any of her issues, learning to comply with rules, stopping the rages and property damage, giving up the self-injury, etc. She has some very strong narcissistic characteristics, and also some very strong borderline characteristics. While it is improper to diagnose personality disorders before adulthood, because virtually all teens have some characteristics in the personality disorder spectrum (Axis II), all the shrinks who saw her while she was inpatient last year seem to think she is well down that road. We really wanted to do something good, but it's not worked out too well.

Serge @ #78: The Phoenix plot in _X-Men 3_ was covertly sexist.

Kate @ #93:
The Phoenix plot in X3 was also a horrendous perversion of the original Dark Phoenix saga, which was a much-loved favorite of my teenaged self. I try not to think about that movie.

#76 Janet Brennan Croft: Oh, but wait, there's more. The 84 Lumber founder, Joe Hardy, who is currently 84, married his third wife on Saturday. She's all of 22. You can't make this up: http://www.post-gazette.com//pg/07127/784077-85.stm

#24 Bruce Adelsohn: Thanks for the pointer about Cabana Carioca Restaurante. Years ago, Jim and I found a good Brazilian place outside of Times Square, but when I tried to find it a few years later, I couldn't. I wonder if it's the same place.

Nemo@82, the American Society of Actuaries produces skiffy (well, actuarial fiction more generally, but a good proportion was science-fictional).

And no, I'm not linking to it.

It may (or may not) surprise you that some of it is quite good.

Kate Nepveu @ 93... Susan @ 94... X3 felt like they had a script for something called X3-The Cure and a script for X4-Dark Phoenix, but they ran out of money so they decided to crazy-quilt X3 and X4 into something that did disservice to both plots. Especially to the Dark Phoenix. God. I don't know how many times I reread the comic's issue where the X-men fought to save Jean's life and yet in the end she had to commit suicide.

(Cont'd from #97)

It's a good thing that X3 didn't also try to integrate the plot of my other famorite X-men plot of all time.

The Sentinels have taken over the USA and the moment they move out, the rest of the world is ready to nuke America. Almost all mutants and superpowered have been killed. But a few remain and Kitty Pryde is sent back into her younger self of today to stop the chain of events that'll lead to that grim future. And they succeed and History diverges. But the original future remains and Wolverine and everybody else dies.

"Once upon a time, there was a woman named Jean Grey and a man named Scott Summers. They were young. They were in love. They were heroes."

(That may not be a perfectly accurate quote, but I read the Phoenix saga 20+ years ago, and it still packs a punch for me.)

I not only reject X3, I reject all the ludicrous retcons the comic book has gone through since that made Phoenix really not Jean Grey after all.

Susan @ 99... That's how I remember it too.

Grant Morrison did some interesting stuff a few years ago when he brought Phoenix back into Jean. A souped-up Magneto was able to kill her, and her last words to Scott should have sounded ludicrous, but they did not.

"All I've ever done is die on you."

Oh, my. Words do fail me. The latest of TNH's particles, S.A. Wilson's Therapy Blend Coffee. seems to be for real. If it's a spoof, it's a very involved and complete one. If it's not, well, "so many rejoinders, so little time".

Bruce @101,

I like living in the 21st century. Strike that- love it. I've never been tempted by the "wouldn't you like to visit the 1800's?" thought experiments.

But every once in a while I'll see a website that has a particular kick. A kick like the Omelas residents got upon visiting the basement. It creates a sudden and intense desire to just shut off the computer and walk away.

That coffee site. Just... wow...
[stares in silence]

And speaking of 21st century moments:

There's been news today about the brightest and most powerful stellar explosion ever recorded by science having been recently recorded by science.

Fun story, especially as it may have relevance to Eta Carinae, which is only 8,000 light years away

However, model a version of yourself from 20 years ago, and then savor this sentence from the NYTimes article:

"Astronomers have been following the star since last September, when it was discovered in a galaxy 240 million light years away in the constellation Perseus by Robert Quimby, a University of Texas graduate student, who was using a small robotic telescope at McDonald Observatory near Fort Davis, Tex., to troll for supernovas."

Such a nice sentence.

Makes up for that :washbrain: particle.

Re: K'zoo

From observations: When you're presenting, a suit, or at least skirt and blouse. All other times, business casual/churchwear is just fine. I'm bringing several pairs of black slacks and a collection of haori, because it worked last year. I, too, present Thurs. afternoon.

Those of us who are going- How about meeting for dinner before the Pseudo Society lectures?

Kathryn @ 103

Thank you. It feels much better now.

Before I go wash out my brain and forget that site exists, I'll mention that I like the idea of calling that an "Omelas moment". Please don't tell me what association of thoughts brought that into your mind; I'm quite sure I don't want to think about it just now.

churchwear is just fine

(looking horrified)

The last time churchwear was a factor in my life it involved white gloves and a little pocketbook. And a skirt.

I'm developing enough of a case of nerves to plan to hide in my room the entire conference now.

What is the Pseudo Society?

Susan @ 106... I've seen you in action emceeing a masquerade before thousands of fans. You did fine there, you'll do fine at this thing too. And you won't have to warn people against using flash photography.

TexAnne, I'm going to present. The last time I went was almost 30 years ago, but I remember the hills, and I know they haven't gotten any flatter. The pointy-toed shoes are for standing around at parties, with a pair of walking shoes stashed in my purse. I just seem to feel more festive in heels, and today's pointy shoes are much more comfortable that those in the 50s and 60s.

This afternoon I talked with the person I'm riding up with, who is an associate dean in her department. She agreed with my suspicion that suits (except perhaps while presenting) mark you as on the prowl for employment. I'm decades past that! Not that there isn't some fashion competition at the more informal level. Slacks with a artsy top -- haori would qualify -- and cool jewelry should work well.

Meeting after the Pseudo Society would be perfect. The Society is a very special group that presents, well, very special papers, after everyone has had a chance to drink a lot. It is the successor to the American Committee on Jutish Studies. Is there some sort of token we could wear to identify us?

Susan, remember- Don't Panic!

I'm wearing the suit (or rather, brocade blazer and slacks) to present because I *am* looking for eventual employment. Heather Rose Jones did hers in khakis and a fun shirt last year, iirc...because she's now happily out of formal academia.

Before or after the Pseudo Society? After the lectures are the open bar of the SLU Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, cash bar from Four Courts (and someday I'm going to want to pitch them a manuscript. Need to finish it first), and the Dance.*

If after, how about the table at the left rear corner of the dance floor? I'd prefer before, between getting through the crush that is the Brewers Guild tasting and the Pseudo Society. Can someone suggest somewhere?

*Think high-school dance, except with alcohol and people who spend most of their lives teaching and researching.

Would it be petty for me to point out that I posted the Medieval Tech Support video particle to Making Light two months ago, and no one noticed, and I didn't even get a mouseover thank-you?

It could be that I'm just horrible at promoting Internet videos. Or maybe I really am a thread-killer. In which case, you should really check out the X Minus One trailer that I posted last week just before that thread died.

I would love to be employed as a dance scholar, but I suspect Kalamazoo is not quite the place to make that happen. I will wear my Nice Black Dress to present in, if I can get the cat hair off it, and wander around in my kimono and various pairs of pants the rest of the time.

The dance sounds horrifying in general but meeting people to talk to at it sounds good.

Howard @#110:

Nah. Been there, had that happen to me, too, except that it got incorporated into a front-page post rather than a particle. One might suspect our hosts actually have off-blog lives or something.

Given the X-Men comments upthread, I thought this might fit in:

From the LASFS newsletter, minutes of meeting 3630:

In response to Jerry Pournelle's question of 'what do you get when you cross Hellboy and Catwoman', the answer is 'Hellboy Catwoman sin (theta)'. (You can't cross Catwoman with Spiderman, because Spiderman's a scaler.)

Howard Peirce, #110: Not petty at all. In fact, we sometimes get a few days behind on the comments, particularly the open threads. It's exquisitely embarrassing to discover that the sidelight I put up ten minutes ago was suggested by a regular a week ago. Anyway, I believe the mouseover has now been fixed.

Niall, #38: Ye ghods and little fishes, someone's crossbred ABBA and Village People!

OTOH, watching that led me to this, which has a certain charm (the first 30 seconds aren't much, but it gets a lot better after the music starts). And that in turm led me to this slightly-more-professional job, and a whole list of similar efforts using the same music.

Graydon, #65: You also see this effect with beading supplies. You can get exactly the same Fireline stringing material in the sporting department at Wal-Mart (where it's sold as fishing line) for roughly 1/5 its cost at your Local Bead Store.

Laina, #81: There's at least a possibility that one of the neighborhood cats, or even a squirrel or raccoon, relocated that nail from some very obscure spot into your driveway after the roofers had gone over it.

You can buy small rare-earth magnets very cheaply on eBay. A few of those, attached to something that lets you cover a wide swath of ground fairly fast, would make short work of finding leftover roofing nails (and any other magnetic flotsam!). Note that the normal cautions about magnets apply squared to these things -- they are the magnet equivalent of those really good kitchen knives people have been talking about.

Sisuile, #104: May I assume that a professional pantsuit is also appropriate, or do I have to wander off muttering things like, "It's the 21st century, dammit, when are you people going to get with the program!"?

Susan, #69, unless the actual rafters are rotten (which is a much much bigger problem), the roof won't be open. Watch out for roofing nails, I got a flat tire from one, and that was after the roofers spent half an hour going around with giant magnets.

Howard, #110, I frequently post things that later turn up as sidelights or particles proposed by other people.

Laina @81

I'll second Lee @115's suggestion on super-powerful magnets. If you have a local tool-renting place handy check if they rent a magnet tool first.

We use magnets like that during clean-up at Burningman. There, to leave without cleaning up all of you moop is both a sin and a cause for getting one's camp demoted to the outer circles. Moop includes things as small as staples (or sawdust. or seeds. They want a clean desert)

Lee @115,
You asked on another thread if I have a LJ account. Inspired by that, I've actually started one today. (It'd been on my list of things to do for about 5 years now.)

Kathryn @ 117... So what is your LiveJournal's name?

May I ask for a technical recommendation?

I need to reload FileZilla on my wife's computer. Darn thing got hosed out when the laptop went thru a major virus cleanup. Two years ago, when I inherited the job of maintaining her site, I uploaded FileZilla from the link below, but I don't know if there are other places I should get the software from, these days. There seem to be quite a few such places, based on my googling.

Any recommendations?

http://www.download.com/FileZilla/3000-2160_4-10326071.html?tag=lst-0-1