I've been walking on the dikes by the former salt ponds of South San Francisco Bay. Said ponds were purchased from Cargill some years back and added to the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge, and are very gradually being returned to a more natural state.
This year the shorebirds have found something tasty in the mudbanks, and it's been a treat for birdwatchers. The last couple weeks, thousands and thousands and thousands of dowitchers, willets, jacksnipe, whimbrels, avocets, and other wading birds have been massing into flocks there.
I claim that the quick aerobatic flight of a flock of dowitchers at sunset beats flamingos for beauty and grace, hands down.
I make this dish, and variations thereon, whenever Safeway has whole pork loins for $2.00/lb. Use half a loin to make a 4-lb (2 kilo) batch, eat half with tortillas, freeze the other half of the chile; (I barbecue the other half of the loin under Hawaiian/pineaple/orange teriyaki and serve with hot fruit chutneys.)
It's a low-effort dish in large batches, tremendously easy to get right, and the proportions don't matter much. Some cubed loin, peppers, salsa - everything else is to taste.
The main difficulty is the self-restraint involved in continuing to cook until it's really _done_, when the pork becomes so tender it starts to fall apart.
Herdez salsa verde, as noted above, is superior.
If you can't get tomatillos, you can use chopped whole roasted green tomatoes. Neither is essential.
Tomatillos mostly bring acidity, and vary wildly between canned varieties and fresh; so the final taste adjustment I make is to adjust the acidity.
If it's too acid, I very much like the effect adding a tablespoon or two of a roux made with masa harina (or wet, microwave, and mash a quarter of a corn tortilla, then add liquid and mash the lumps until smooth.) I have been known to add two pinches of baking soda to good effect when the acid threatens to crowd out the other flavors.
Here in California, many grocery stores carry several varieties of green chile (the chopped pulp of roasted, skinned, seeded chiles) packed in glass jars. These make a good addition; my New Mexican friends claim that the _right_ way to make this dish is to use only New Mexico green chile and to omit the green salsa ...
As a leftover, it makes a dynamite omelette.
You
Must take the "A" train
To
Go to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem
I'm surprised that none of the John McPhee fans have mentioned Encounters With The Archdruid, in which McPhee goes on backcountry trips that combine David Brower (deep environmentalist, former leader of The Sierra Club) and "some of his natural enemies". With Floyd Domini, the dam-builder at the Bureau of Land Management, McPhee and Brower float the Grand Canyon. With Prof. Park, mining geologist from Stanford University, they backpack the northern Cascades (where a National Park may or may not contain a great deal of copper ore).
McPhee seems to respect and enjoy being with all these intelligent and engaged men, and his neutral reporter's voice is perfect for the inevitable disagreements.
does anyone here know anything about getting trn to send authentication to a news server?
trn - can't help you.
Forte Agent knows how, and is a generally wonderful Usenet appliance and emailer. I still use it for email. The cost is modest.
I want campaigns to be about ideas.
Ideas deserve more prominence than the press gives them, but the candidates' character makes more difference.
In terms of the ideas he expressed in his first Presidential campaign, George W. Bush could plausibly have thought a fairly moderate, mainstream Republican, and many did see him that way. Those who paid attention to his character have been less surprised at the course of his Presidency, because W remains as he was : a dry drunk, a sneering frathouse bully, the family neer-do-well and a failure at everything he tries, a mean and resentful little prick. (Molly Ivins made all this clear in 1999. So did Joe Conason in 2000.)
Ralph Nader has lots of really good ideas. But if you read the accounts by people who have worked for him, worked directly with him, you find that his temperament is unsuited to leadership. He alienates the people he works with, drives them crazy, drives them away to found competing organizations supporting the same policy agenda, because no one can stand to work with or for Nader. He'd be a disastrous _Mayor_, much less President, and I think that voters have rightly understood this throughout his political career. His ideas will go nowhere until they are picked up by someone with the temperament.
I'm not all that fired up about soon-to-be-President-elect Barack Obama's ideas. But he has a first-class mind coupled to a first-class temperament, and I think those are excellent reasons to vote for the man.
A brown-bag pie is kinda pointless in an oven,
but briliant over a fire or on a camping stove,
where the bag acts as an oven.
The cookie sheet is essential; it keeps the
bag from catching fire, and does the first bit
of heat spreading, The metal pie-pan does the
second bit of heat-spreading -- also, pyrex
pie-pans are contraindicated for camping because
of weight and fragility.
Beable, @multiple
first Kibologist nym I've seen. kudos.
Does Parry still reply when the Name Kibo is invoked?
the Web is too mighty to kiboze,
I'd guess.
I think that slacktivist's leisurely demolition of LaHaye & Jenkins' odious Left Behind series deserves a lifetime achievement award in this category.
Marilee, #27: are you talking about Joel Tornabene, aka Super-Joel ?
Neddie Jingo and Super-Joel's brother remember things a bit differently.
Out-of-the-blue cross-reference:
if this posting interests you, you may enjoy
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies.
DEACON E.L. MOUSE : Ha ha ha! It sounds like you're way out there, Pastor! Over.
PASTOR ROD FLASH : I'm high all right -[squelch]- but not on false drugs. I'm high on the real thing: powerful gasoline, a clean windshield, and a shoeshine. Over.
It's hard to believe that this thread is up to 92 comments and no
one has mentioned Wendell Berry's criteria for adoption of a new tool
or technology:
1. The new tool should be cheaper than the one it replaces.
2. It should be at least as small in scale as the one it replaces.
3. It should do work that is clearly anddemonstrably better than the one it replaces.
4. It should use less energy than the one it replaces.
5. If possible, it should use some form of solar energy, such as that of the body.
6. It should be repairable by a person of ordinary intelligence, provided that he or she has the necessary tools.
7. It should be purchasable and repairable as near to home as possible.
8. It should come from a small, privately owned shop or store that will take it back for maintenance and repair.
9. It should not replace or disrupt anything good that already exists, and this includes family and community relationships.
from WHY I AM NOT GOING TO BUY A COMPUTER
Ursula LeGuin quotes are the way to my heart.
I think I'm in kemmer.
All trades, their gear and tackle and trim
From one of my favorite poems. Thanks.
very simple.
one ring.
three rings.
seven rings.
nine rings.
I like the seven stars and seven stones and one white tree idea, but I think it'd be difficult to do well.
Greg London screv:
Functioning vacuum tube art. That could be cool.
Would you settle for a Nixie tube clock?
You can buy Nixie tubes here.
Shorter winter driving :
- your brakes don't work
- neither does your steering
- stay off the accelerator
- power and torque are your enemies
- if you have a manual transmission,
drive about one-half gear higher
than you normally would
I've seen a big phosphorescent stripe running through the Canadian shield rock in SW Ontario's Quetico Park, and phosphorescent lichen there and in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 6 |
| 2008 | 11 |
| 2007 | 3 |
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