Main page
« May 11, 2008 - May 17, 2008
May 25, 2008 - May 31, 2008 »

May 22, 2008

Rousseau toy, cult books, Cat Stevens (Hollywood '73)

Just as the weight of passing facts and information (glioma, Celona, Madonna) threatens to dry us up, the holiday weekend that kicks off summer is just ahead. Barbecue! Plant tomatoes! Parade! Drink beer! Beaches! Oldies! Visit graves! Geraniums! Indiana Jones...!

To kickstart the feeling, a shift to vacation brain:

To accompany a 2006 exhibit titled Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris, the National Gallery of Art created a cool Shockwave toy: NGAkids JUNGLE. Starting with elements cast in the artist's instantly recognizable style, it's hard to make a bad "painting" here.

The instructions are clear and useful, sizes and positions of its elements can all be changed. A screenshot of my test drive is pictured above.

Alt-canon: Just in time for summer reading lists, 50 best cult books at the Telegraph (U.K.)

What is a cult book? We tried and failed to arrive at a definition: books often found in the pockets of murderers; books that you take very seriously when you are 17; books whose readers can be identified to all with the formula " whacko"; books our children just won’t get…

Some things crop up often: drugs, travel, philosophy, an implied two fingers to conventional wisdom, titanic self-absorption, a tendency to date fast and a paperback jacket everyone recognises with a faint wince. But these don’t begin to cover it.

Cult books include some of the most cringemaking collections of bilge ever collected between hard covers. But they also include many of the key texts of modern feminism; some of the best journalism and memoirs; some of the most entrancing and original novels in the canon.

Since the Telegraph published this list a few weeks ago, commenters have at least doubled it. Some are in high dudgeon over omissions, others immediately grasp that the list has found a spot in which to grow and simply list more titles.

I have read an embarrassing number of them, cultist that I am...

When I was 15 I cut out such a list from a guest column in Glamour magazine that sneered "read these or stay a bimbo" and carried it in my billfold for two years of library visits until I had read every one of them. Colin Wilson's The Outsider, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Ayn Rand are on the Telegraph's list, too.

Miss Lonelyhearts and The Education of Hyman Kaplan are not.

Remember when... Cat Stevens: Hollywood 1973 .[no label, 1CD] Live at the Aquarius Theatre, Hollywood, CA, November 9, 1973. Upgrade of a radio broadcast

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 7:27 AM | Permalink | Comments 1

May 21, 2008

6-foot-6 cow

I've been really busy, up much of the night coding, and I'm identifying with the lady in this photo. Have a cow...

Chilli the bull | Friesian is 6ft 6ins tall | Weighs 1.25 tonnes | Britain's biggest bull.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 11:04 AM | Permalink

May 20, 2008

Fresh strawberry frozen yogurt -- and how to make ice cream without a machine

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt Recipe at Elise Bauer's lovely Simply Recipes.

Strawberries are next up in the markets, and I want some of this. There's a grown-up version, too:

Best to eat it on the same day as you make it, as it will get icy if it stays in the freezer for more than 8 hours. If you want it to last longer and not get icy, add 2 tablespoons of vodka or kirsch to the mixture right before churning.

But I don't have an ice cream maker, and don't want to pop $50 on the one she recommends.

Chapter 5: Thermodynamics at Sci-Toys uses a baggie, a bag of ice and some salt. Copiously illustrated, it's more science project than culinary art. And the resulting ice cream is photgraphed slumping into a pool of unfrozen liquid which can't pretend it's custard sauce.

Now have each person squish the little bag around in the salt and ice, making sure that the ice contacts the little bag as much as possible, and that the little bag gets lots of kneading, to keep the ice crystals tiny, so the ice cream is very smooth.

...You will know the ice cream is done by feeling the mixture become a paste instead of a liquid. When you take the little bag out of the ice, wipe off the salt water, and then remove the outer bag carefully, so you don't get salt in the ice cream. The little bag will stand up in the bowl, because it is a frozen paste.

This recipe at Cooks.com substitutes a can, and seems to involve vigorous exercise, the better to help you burn off the ice cream:

Put all ingredients in a 1-pound coffee can with a tight-fitting plastic lid. Place lid on can. Place can with ingredients inside of #10 can with a tight- fitting plastic lid. Pack large can with crushed ice around smaller can. Pour at least 3/4 cup rock salt evenly over ice. Place lid on #10 can.

Roll back and forth on a table or cement slab, for 10 minutes. Open outer can. Remove inner can with ingredients. Remove lid. Use a rubber spatula to stir mixture; scrape sides of can. Replace lid. Drain ice water from larger can. Insert smaller can; pack with more ice and salt. Roll back and forth for 5 minutes more. Makes about 3 cups.

Elise links to Paris-dweller David Lebovitz's Making Ice Cream Without A Machine, which uses a brownie pan, and involves frequent visits to the freezer with a kitchen mixer (or whisk or spatula):

You can easily make Stracciatella ice cream with Italian-style chocolate chips: Drizzle pure melted dark or milk chocolate (about 5 ounces, 140 g) over the almost-frozen mixture, then stir, breaking up the ribbons of chocolate as they start to freeze, to create little 'chips'. Transfer the ice cream to a covered storage container until ready to serve.

At, another post in which he coincidentally blogs yet another Strawberry Frozen Yogurt Recipe, David admits to having bought a $299 ice cream maker.

Yet another recipe from Cooks.com may be more my speed. It reads like real cooking instructions (yes, there was ice cream before machines devoted to the task). I remember my mother doing something like this when I was small, using metal ice trays without the dividers:

CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM WITHOUT A MAKER

1 (13 oz.) can evaporated milk
3/4 c. Hershey's syrup
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. whipping cream

Pour milk into large bowl. Place bowl and beaters in freezer until ice crystals form around edge of milk. Whip until stiff peaks form. Fold in syrup, vanilla, sugar and cream. Freeze 4 to 6 hours. Yields 2 quarts.

I remember splintery shards of flavored ice, like a fudgsicle. After reading the thermodynamics post, I now know she didn't beat it often enough in the freezer to break up those crystals.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 1:07 AM | Permalink | Comments 2

May 19, 2008

How satellites have altered that famous 'whole earth' image

The big blue marble is looking a little odd these days. If ETs were looking for planets with signs of life, how could they miss us now?

ESA Multimedia Gallery

From the European Space Agency, what the whole earth looks like now, surrounded by satellites:

ESA
Trackable objects in orbit around Earth

This view is from the equator:

ESA
Objects in Low Earth Orbit

Very high-rez photos at the link.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 11:18 AM | Permalink

May 18, 2008

Before email

When I was in college, a new boyfriend sent flowers by telegram, and I thanked him by telegram. He replied, and a flurry of telegrams went back and forth over a couple of hours, each witty message delivered voice by Western Union operators.

Several days later, the yellow hard copies arrived.

Several weeks later, the bills came. We had no idea. We were young English majors flirting and just having fun.

When that old memory floated to mind today, I immediately realized we were trying to email each other, back in 1966.

The core concept of this art project was solid, but telegrams were a clunky technology.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 1:09 PM | Permalink | Comments 1