for my LOLcats

Based on this article, it looks like explaining LOLcats is challenging for even the most seasoned journalist:

“Just about every house in town is paying attention,” said Patrick Mulligan, a senior editor at Gotham Books who handled a 2008 book of cat photos with bizarre captions called “I Can Has Cheezburger?”

Isn't it cute when the nytimes tries to write about pop culture blog phenomena? They're always just a little too late.

why we have a future as travel writers

an excerpt from one of the few books available about hiking the JMT:

The store and the campground both have public phones, which you will share with 1,000 other campers and visitors to Tuolumne Meadows; if you have the patience to wait, you can phone home, perhaps to discover your lover has fallen in love with someone else, then return to the JMT with a broken heart. But, after just a few miles on the trail, absorbing the beauty of magnificent Lyell Canyon, you will realize that your lover didn't deserve you anyway, that being on the JMT is much healthier and more exciting than living in the city with an ingrate, and you will proceed to have the great trip you deserve, relieved to know that you won't have to return home to the wrong person. (Saperstein, 15)

be on the lookout for a JMT guide co-authored by Harvill, Harvill, & Kizer come 2010!

hey, there's a beverage here!

is it just me or is this article, like, 10 years too late?

i'm pretty sure our friend kate, who went to sleep on the floor covered with a washcloth after a night of them (circa 2000), would argue that the white russian revival is nothing new.

Though I can safely say none of us ever made it part of our breakfast ritual:

"Unlike a lot of Lebowski fans, Mr. Barber has a taste for the drink that predates his viewing of the movie. Several years ago, he said, he used to mix himself a White Russian every day for breakfast: “I called it the ‘Big Boy Milkshake.’ “

solo dino

Now that I'm cooking for one (and thankfully not eating for two as a certain blogger soon will be!), I have to exercise a fair amount of restraint when it comes to grocery shopping. After surrendering a block each of parmesan and feta and a tub of hummus to mold monsters and sacrificing countless bags of soggy baby greens, I'm finally getting a handle on how much I can consume before losing the battle to bacteria.
It's not too hard to be realistic at Trader Joe's and at the Berkeley Bowl I'm practically ascetic! Any item that might require a cross-store trek is unceremoniously dropped from the shopping list.
Farmer's markets pose more of a challenge. I'm getting better though. Last saturday I turned a blind eye to the '3 bunches of greens for $5' bargain and limited myself to a single bunch of dino kale and a modest amount of broccoli raab.

The consequence of buying food for one is that I don't get to share with anyone else.
so here's what I've been making:

- dino kale sauteed with onions, capers, olives, garlic, lemon zest and red chili flakes served over whole wheat spaghetti with toasted walnuts and parmesan

- tonight: sauteed broccoli raab with garlic and chili flakes served over toast and topped with a fried egg


and yes, I add chili flakes to everything.

Happy Halloween!

romantic musical face-off!

These past few weeks of (f)unemployment have seen me a frequent library patron. Before you mistakenly think this a self-improving pursuit, I should reveal that my rentals are exclusively cookbooks, cds, and dvds. After my computer choked on a sadly scratched Doctor Zhivago*, I ended up watching Once last night. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but was struck by some uncanny similarities to ANOTHER love story about the creative process of songwriting.
I'm already loathe to admit that I've even seen the train wreck that is Music & Lyrics**, let alone that I've seen it twice (it was on a transatlantic flight!). But these multiple viewings did help me keep track of all the necessary ingredients of a music-centric love story:

1) An older, cynical musician with a penchant for vaguely "ethnic" necklaces. Straining while singing shows how deeply they feel the music.














2) A delightfully optimistic, quirky young girl who shakes up the guy's world with her musical talent and charming idiosyncrasies (m&l: drew's inability to hang up her coat, once: girl drags a vacuum around dublin). accents a plus! (though drew's is still unidentified and, quite probably, unintended)

3) Playing on a store piano is a good way to get the creative juices flowing! To be fair, the immigrant girl had to play in the store because she couldn't afford a piano. :(








4) Scarves!








So obviously, M&L had all the makings of a successful musical romance save that most crucial element: serviceable music and lyrics.***




*research for my 'White Russian' Halloween costume
** AND that I saw it in the theater
*** sample line: 'I need inspiration/not just another negotiation'

a series of unfortunate events

Oakland, CA
10/17/08, 2:19 pm
Assault and consumption, serious injuries incurred. The perpetrator fled the scene of the crime. But not before numerous photos and a short movie of the binge were captured.


The survivors have been safely relocated and are awaiting psychiatric evaluations.



Oakland, CA
10/17/08, 2:25 pm
Mass homicide of some seriously lazy yeast.

I've seen pizza rise more than this fraking bread. My faith in the infallibility of the no-knead bread has been shattered.

Authorities are currently investigating squirrel in connection with the fallen loaf.

I braved the Bowl!

After weeks of cautionary tales and a special report today from L.A. Times (courtesy of sf's best google monkey), it seemed it was high time to pay the infamous Berkeley Bowl a visit.
Since i heard there are no such things as off-hours where berkeley free-lancers, stroller moms, and endless varieties of produce are concerned, I decided to throw the ol' bowl for a loop and go at peak grocery shopping time: 5:30! The bowl saw right through my ruse, however. The lines stretching into the aisles confirmed that 5:30 pm continues to be the universal grocery hour.

Thankfully, the experience was relatively stress-(and cart-)free since there was nothing I really needed, save a few bananas. And once i reached that produce section, oh my god.
It was amazing. I didn't even get to take a full tour of the place since I spent more than enough time weighing the virtues of different banana bunches. Coventional? Single topless?(oohlala!) Medium-ripe? Organic? Fair-trade organic??* jeezus.

No fist fights or avocado lobbing to report, but I was side-swiped by a shopping cart AND repeatedly jostled in the check-out line by a pregnant women with a big bag and a bigger belly. And no, her "condition" does not excuse her in my book.

I expect things are really going to get cutthroat when I'm there as a cook with a shopping list and not as a tourist.
Those cart-crashers had better look out.



*Re: the bananas: I took the middle road and went for the morally dubious, but slightly cheaper 'organic from ecuador'. When I got home I saw that the housemates had opted for fair-trade, proving that they are better people than I and also ensuring that we'll have no banana mix-ups. At least not this week.