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Floating
Answered my own question--you are the "Merry Christmas, Ted" guy! Congrats on that win! I am enjoying your posts, refried; you remind me of my cousin Gibby, who is a very talented home cook as well as engineer. How cool that you met with such success on your very first attempt at the kind of sauce that beats out all those French concoctions for subtlety and complexity! Have you experimented further with mole? I have been under the weather for a while, but soon plan to try to make a vegetarian version of a mole--and really would love to explore adaptations of all of the regional Mexican salsas I can...it seems so far that just replacing chicken with a good veg stock will do--if you have any suggestions, I appreciate it! Suzanne D.— April 17, 2009 4:05 p.m.
La Mesa's Magical Oasis...
Another amazing read, Lisa--a soul-quenching drink! I know we both loved RDVaughn's piece, but I will have to amend and say "Reader: Wake up! Hire this one, too!" Descriptive/ekphrastic writing is my absolute favorite genre, and you really take the time to slow down, savor, and take your reader by the hand. So many bloggers and columnists are about ego, but ego is so much better sublimated into the landscape, into the texture of things. You do that for us, while also showing you can write kick-a** 1st person narrative, with humor and style. "There is so much more one could write about, so many hidden, secret places...probably though it is best left that way." Say it ain't so, and write on! I have family with three properties in Fallbrook and you inspire me to write about the same kind of natural bounty, like orange tangelos against the blue sky, fields of weeds affording here and there sudden glimpses of sparkling pools or little patches of green lawn. It is cabin fever time, waiting for summer and sangrias by that pool! Thank you for that inspiration, and needless to say, your blog is definitely going on my favorites tab! Suzanne— April 17, 2009 3:46 p.m.
The Loss of "Cool"
"If I say it even the cat chokes back a laugh." Lallaw, you DO say it w'out sprayin' it, girl! Thank you for a laugh on an otherwise crappy day! We are so on the same page as womenfolk, too; though I have not had children, I fight to retain my status as the "cool Aunt," a battle I feel to be constantly losing in an increasingly foreign landscape of Ipods, IM chat, and cell phones with which you set up domestic partnership. It does seem that the idea of love of the "geek" does not die. An early twenty-something cousin professes a love for geeky boys (which still seems to mean slightly anti-social, Star Trek-fanatic computer enthusiasts, who excell in the sciences). I appreciate this, or could, if she didn't seem hellbent on marrying them in succession and bearing their children. If she stuck with Star Trek conventions I'd be soooo happy... Loud concerts--who needs them?! I want to control the volume, and relax with a glass of wine and good company--or have room to dance! I'm sure you are as cool dancing as you look sitting in that breathtaking view of Anza--reminds me, time to get in camping before it's too hot. Anyway, as for "hip" vernaculars, I'm stickin' with bellydancing--never goes out of style ;)— April 17, 2009 3:25 p.m.
Junk Talk
Didn't one of the mother nature commercials have some sort of explanatory graph, with arrows pointing at a cute little Atari-like icon of a red-bowed package? Clever. Although I think I prefer the humor of European commercials when it comes to bodily organs and functions...— April 17, 2009 12:54 p.m.
Ostensibly Nebulous
I have a strange memory, so forgive if I am wrong, refried: Are you of the initials DAD who won the neighborhood contest with your tale of cooking an Xmas meal while, your usually rambunctious neighbor slept on? It is, I think, your kid's names, and especially the mention of Rocio that sparked the memory. Anyway, excellent mise en place on your stove! I love a clean cook! Of course, you know I would say that Soy-rizo rocks! SD— April 17, 2009 12:46 p.m.
Junk Talk
I will line up for a serving, refried :)— April 17, 2009 12:31 p.m.
Banker's Hill/Mercy Outpatient
Thanks, magicsfive! I enjoy your posts, too, and I'm sure we'll meet again soon. It's a *whole* new world blogging, and sure beats the humorless, carefully circumscribed communications demanded of online teaching. See you in the threads!— April 17, 2009 12:11 p.m.
Junk Talk
Ha ha! So you ARE Ollie, refried? Such bristling from such an intrepid soul, then? The only way to get to know you is through your writing, so gotta use your words (and if you are Ollie, there are words to be missed!) After such an uneasy detente on the other thread, yeah, your comment about dinner was grating--surely not only to me. It reestablishes the smug attitudes we seemed to have replaced with a bit more understanding. Sorry if I offended you too, and: I am going to promise not to respond to *that* topic again on this particular thread. Peach and Picky, lallaw? That is priceless with a capital Pee. Sounds like residents of whatever town they're calling it in Paint Your Wagon--mayor was Jubilation T. Cornpone?— April 17, 2009 11:33 a.m.
Junk Talk
Oh refriedgringo, not to start up on that topic again, but really--you'd think you picked up a little more from the conversation than the (false) impression that people get teed off at the mere mention of meat for dinner... I wonder if Barbarella's friend Kristen performed VM in Florida a couple years ago? "The Vagina Monologues was renamed "The Hoohaa Monologues" in Florida (No Vaginas Please We're Floridian, 2007), following a complaint from a female resident." http://www.matthewhunt.com/c***/reappropriation.h… I had to use asterisks for the censors, of course. The article in the link has more to do with the "c" word, but is pretty comprehensive of historical attitudes and treatments. Yes! I agree Barbarella--it is that "jine" syllable! I have always been shy of the "v" word myself, and notice I even pronounce the soy mayo product "veeg-uh-naise," rather than "vej-uh-naise." Something about the "v" and the "j" sound-- don't like the idea of junk and food together :) Certainly, there is more to why we flinch. I hate to think that as a woman, I've been unconsciously socially primed to fear and denigrate the female organ--even through such an innocuous example of avoidance through pronunciation, but there has always been a fair measure of shame that the proud phallus doesn't quite have to endure... Freud talks about the fear of castration (when isn't he?!) and the vagina dentata (ancient fear of vj with teeth). I'm sure they go into this in depth with the Monologues. There was a poem --Housman? using the myth of vagina dentata, and a reply like a century later from a first wave feminist poet, I think--will try to find them--hilarious stuff.— April 16, 2009 5:06 p.m.
Banker's Hill/Mercy Outpatient
Thanks Lisa. I wrote back on the "Diva" thread, too. I am not taking losing a contest as evidence I should stop writing--in fact, I'm grateful to this contest for serving as impetus and incentive to start again, after years of apathy and thinking I wasn't really meant to write anything but criticism (I've also dropped that, too). Anyway, this blogging business can be soul-healing as well as great fun. I look forward to seeing you in the threads! -Suzanne— April 16, 2009 1 p.m.