The Illiterate

Among the masses

After months of no tv and not really missing it (until I was sick with a nasty cold and wanted nothing more than 400+ channels to mindlessly flip through), we bought one yesterday and within an hour of getting it home and set up, had digital cable once more. Our local cable guy, from Millenium, is amazing and right there unless a game is on. Today meant a trip to IKEA for a roll-around stand sort of thing, and now we are good to go. Hours of absolutely mind-numbing drivel and news with the sound off will ensue, but we also have a cool new toy to watch our Kurosawa DVDs on.

More masochism than sense

Having been tv-less since last May when principe J moved out on his own and we gave him our 19″ for use with his various gaming systems, we are considering buying one. One way to almost completely short-circuit the urge: go to Best Buy at Southcenter on the day after Christmas. Aside from the traffic, the parking, the crowd, the incessant noise inside and flashing graphics on every screen – they didn’t have the one we wanted. Maybe tomorrow, we can call them at 8 am. Whoohoo.

One woman asked for the sound to be turned up on a tiny little flatpanel the salesguy had just referred to as “entry-level”. Like anyone would be able to actually hear those eentsy speakers amid the bone-shaking bass and utter cacaphony in the store.

RJM is nearly finished reading Pride and Prejudice aloud to me. Perhaps it would be best to stick to the old-fashioned entertainments for a while longer.

Christmas passed

Every year, I swear the same thing – I will make a point of not traveling every week before Christmas in the month of December, so I can get cards into the mail with personal greetings rather than a hurriedly penned signature, so I can ship gifts a week in advance rather than paying dearly for overnight service and anxiously wondering if they will really make it in time. Needless to say, every year the vow is broken and I’m away and working hideous hours up until the moment of 12/21 or 22 when all the shopping must be done by braving the hoards and the shipping can’t be put off a single moment.

Aside from receiving the news on Christmas Eve that both of my grandmothers had experienced major heart surgeries the week prior (they are each in their early 90′s, each live independently still, and each came through their procedures with good prognoses), the season has actually been quiet and mild. And, in a major coup for a peaceful season, we completely avoided entering a single mall, doing our shopping at smaller, out of the way merchants.

Now that my children are definitely grown, the Christmas spirit is somehow easier to enter into, though not until those few days prior to 12/25. Once in it, I don’t fall out as readily; I can maintain a generous nature and equanimity even through the requisite phone call to my mother, which this year didn’t go so badly as in years past. Family members came to our small place for tea this year, and I seriously overbought on the biscuits – we have enough to last RJM and I well into the new year. Principessa C brought warm chocolate chip cookies as well which were quite yummy. The pumpkin pudding was done the day before, even with the last minute realization that the oven door simply could not close with the enormous bain marie I use. Cranking up the heat by 50 degrees and covering the pudding mold with foil and cooking it for a total of 6 hours did the trick though, and it unmolded perfectly. It’s a bit firmer in texture this year, more velvety. I believe this is due to the trick I found in Cook’s Illustrated magazine about drying out the pumpkin first, rather than the change in steaming methods. The chestnuts roasted without major explosions this year too.

We snacked and drank tea and opened presents for a few hours and then headed off to a late lunch at 727 Pine. It’s a lovely, lively, refined space, subtly lit with many mirrors and glass panels, velvet banquettes and simple, straightforward linens and silver. The backlit bar beautifully displayed the various bottles like gems. The waitstaff are all in black, or at least they were for the holiday, and unpretentious, professional, inordinately helpful and unobtrusive, adding greatly to the enjoyment of the meal. We were there for the 5 course prix fixe. My choices: Stilton and pear salad, pear and parsnip soup, mascarpone risotto with truffle, veal chop, gingerbread macaron. Everything was outstanding, a wonderful balance of flavors and larger portions than I expected. The risotto stands out in my memory the following day, with its crown of paperthin white truffle slices and the light lemon tang and perfect bite of the rice. The veal chop was a thick boneless cut, done medium rare and finished with an intense demiglace redolent of shallot. The underlying potatoes were tasty and complemented the silky meat. The chocolate offering for dessert sounded too intensely chocolate for my current tastes – over the past months I’ve come to realize that chocolate has fallen slightly out of my favor and caramel has taken its place. The gingery macaron was both crunchy and chewy, its spiciness tempered by the vanilla ice cream. Bits of pear adorned a ring of sauce about the central disk, and a caramel wafer stood upright in the small scoop. It was all delicious, satisfying, and a lovely holiday meal.

The wine list is extensive, but the steward was exceptionally helpful. We stayed with Australian reds and enjoyed a Clare Valley shiraz/grenache from Lengs and Cooter and a southern Rhone blend from Torbreck.

I would like to express my public thanks to the waitstaff of 727 Pine, who worked on Christmas Day so we could have an enjoyable, restful meal. And next year, I’m not going to travel so much in the month of December…..

Gnosticism for kids

The only thing that surprises me about this is that it took so long in coming. The main reason His Dark Materials hasn’t received the same sort of criticism that the Harry Potter books have is that it hasn’t sold as widely, but I always knew that once it got a little more attention, more people would start coming after Pullman. And, boy, does he sound feisty about it. He’s being a little disingenuous though, when he says the book’s vision of a weak and dying God is “simply a symbolic ending for an old idea of God.” What Pullman really presents is gnosticism, the idea that the God of the bible isn’t really God, but an angel who took power on earth and prevents human beings from coming in contact with the true God who created the universe. Gnostics believed that Jesus was a representative of that true God, and that he was killed by the usurper. The book doesn’t represent a reform of Christianity, but its uprooting, at least as Christianity is understood today. In that way, it’s a truly revolutionary piece of children’s fiction (as well as being a great read), and I’m surprised that Pullman has gotten away with it as long as he has. Needless to say, even though I don’t believe in a God of any kind, gnostic or otherwise, I’m on his side.

(link via the Bookslut)

How to tell if Gandalf has been in your hotel room

According to the New York Times, the first thing good Sir Ian McKellen does on arriving at a hotel is find the Gideon Bible, turn to Leviticus 18:22—”Thou shalt not lie down with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination”—and rip the page out. He says it helps him sleep more soundly. Me too, Sir Ian, me too.

Novelizing politics

I still have my doubts about The Believer as a literary, essay magazine

A lovely Saturday

We had a wonderful evening on Saturday, first meeting BB and CW at The People’s Pub in Ballard for dinner. We’d never been there before, but found it easily enough and parked in a pay lot across the street. Their menu is great fun – 3 kinds of schnitzels, deep fried pickles (!), a fried tomato sandwich that sounds terrific. RJM and I started with Laphroig on the rocks and a sausage and cheese plate before the others showed up. I was going to have the fish and chips, since we missed out on having any at the fantastic pub I know in San Diego, but BB talked me out of it. He was right, of course, the Germans aren’t known for either their way with fish or their chips. The waitress gave us a heads-up that there were only 2 rouladen in the place, so we could fight it out for them if we liked. We didn’t – RJM had the j

I dream of Ernie

Aside from all the “weird in the US, perfectly normal for Mexico” stuff that went on this week, I had one seriously bizarre and disturbing dream that involved living in a house with a bug-infested crawlspace and a strange encounter with Ernie of LittleYellowDifferent, featuring a pair of tatty silk boxers in godawful colors and patterns and some odd sexual posturings. Eventually things ended with the forced subduction of The Illiterate into the voracious maw of LYD’s vast ranging corporate hunger. Yes, we were a subsidiary, to be known as LittleYellowIlliterate.

It was very very strange. The aftermath of too much carne asada and watching Jackie Brown en espa

Home Again

Home again, a day early because the work went fairly well. RJM took some photos of Rosarito, especially some of the signs around town, and they’ll be up here later. It’s just so good to be back in Seattle, in our own bed, in our own place. The cats were quite upset – we left them alone in the apartment, and JPW was to come by every other day to feed them and clean their box. They hadn’t seen anyone since Tuesday night, their food bowls were empty, and they were desparate for attention. I let them come in the bedroom with us, they were so pitiful. It was a mistake, because I got no continuous sleep due to being stepped on, kneaded, licked, whisker-tickled, purred at, and playing a starring role in their King of the Mountain game at 2 am. Funny how they leave RJM alone and focus all their loving attentions on me.

Here are the week’s association words, from LunaNi

Sounds so simple I just got to go

So we are finally, after two delays, off to Mexico tomorrow morning, me to work, RJM to experience the town of Rosarito. This is where we’re staying. Have you ever seen such a surprised Dr. King? The rest of their site is equally wonderful. Particularly reassuring is the presence of an on-site biochemist to check the food and drinking water.

Back on Friday, if not before.