Anyone who’s worried about carbohydrates, please take a step back. Three cheers for the “Pasta Grannies” YouTube channel, and for the old ladies who show us how it’s done. It’s a really good look for social isolation, and for nourishing, filling meals during a time of trouble. As someone who’s had a manual “pasta” machine for years,… Continue reading Calling All Pasta Lovers, Everywhere!
Month: April 2020
A Tale of Two News Stories
News story #1: New York City auctioned off extra ventilators due to cost of maintenance. Yes, they did. Hundreds of them. Ventilators acquired by “Mini Mike” Bloomberg in 2006, in response to a new far-eastern flu strain. As part of that response, and in anticipation of an epidemic, New York City stockpiled ventilators and facemasks.… Continue reading A Tale of Two News Stories
Remember When ‘Fresh Air’ Was A Good Thing? I Do.
Journal of Public Health, written in 2015, and titled “The Open-Air Treatment of PANDEMIC INFLUENZA.” (No, I’m not shouting, the term is capitalized in the article title.) The authors seem competent, literate, rational and sane, and the details presented are many and compelling. Sources are painstakingly referenced and footnoted. It recapitulates the history, and efforts… Continue reading Remember When ‘Fresh Air’ Was A Good Thing? I Do.
Climin’ Psymon
Psymon (the “P” is silent, as in “psychedelic” and “psittacosis”) is just the most recent of many feline friends to have ingratiated themselves unexpectedly but permanently into my life and heart over the past four decades. I first noticed him during the dead of winter 2018, when I saw him, often accompanied by an all-black… Continue reading Climin’ Psymon
Friday Food and Drink Post: Before There Was AllRecipes, There Were Cookbooks!
And I’m a sucker for cookbooks. My favorites are the ones with personal touches, personal stories, and family recipes. In all of those veins, some of my “go-to” volumes are Nigella, Jennifer Brennan, Jamie Oliver, M.F.K Fisher, and Julia Child. In addition, when I’m visiting foreign climes, and if at all possible, I like to… Continue reading Friday Food and Drink Post: Before There Was AllRecipes, There Were Cookbooks!
Thoughts of Abroad, From Home
Oh, to be in England, Now that April’s there, And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning, unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough In England – now!! Perhaps it’s the fact that I can’t go to… Continue reading Thoughts of Abroad, From Home