The Illiterate

resolute

We joined a health club today, because……well, honestly, we both need to do something about this damnable out-of-shapeness. We saw a photo from Christmas where we look like refugees from a Roz Chast cartoon (the paper crowns didn’t help). Loser-like, with pants that don’t zip easily and shirt buttons threatening to pop. So now’s the time. When you see us, ask us when the last time was we worked out, just to keep our motivation (and/or guilt feelings) going.

My debt reduction program from last year continues. It went well enough and is fairly simple: pay cash.

I’m still trying to get registered for the one class I will be taking at WSU. No panic yet, even though school starts on 1/10.

Other than that, I’m wishing you all a happy, prosperous, adventure-filled 2005 (my favorite kind of year). Read more, learn to cook something new, don’t be afraid to challenge yourself.

the right thing

Dear President-elect Bush,

Do the right thing. Cancel the inauguration party, have a quiet little ceremony, and use the taxpayer monies you won’t be spending on yourself for tsunami relief. Yes, all of it.

JSM at theilliterate

new tech

I’m no early adopter, and once I find something that works well enough, I tend to stick with it. I’ve been using Eudora as an email client for almost 10 years, for example. It took me ages and lots of haranguing to move from Netscape to IE. I stuck with Windows NT and then Windows 2000 for much longer than I needed to.

But earlier this month, Eudora crapped out on me big time. Maybe it’s just not that happy with XP, and I am using an ancient freeware version. Whatever the case, it tossed the text of several very important messages to the ethereal winds, never to be reclaimed. I’ve found myself getting more and more annoyed with IE and its penchant for major security issues, not to mention pop-ups.

So tonight I downloaded and installed both Firefox and Thunderbird to give them a spin. So far (what, 20 minutes into it), I like.

top ten update

Just in time for Christmas, Gavin DeGraw enters the top ten to let us know that he doesn’t care about anybody but himself. Meanwhile, Mario, who swears he cares more about you than that other guy did, creeps up to number 1. Personally, I think it’s Gavin who’s telling the truth.

Food

I Love Cooking has been not working for a month, and it’s making me technologically sad. I’m still cooking away though. Today for lunch I made a mushroom barley pilaf with some finely diced carrot and scarpelli soup. I used to have this soup at Riazzi’s in Tempe AZ. Beat up two eggs really well with two teaspoons of cold water and put it in a cup you can pour from. Heat up a small skillet and add a bit of butter. When the butter foams, pour in 1/6th of the egg and swirl it around to coat the bottom evenly. Toss on some shredded parmesan and some oregano. Let it cook for a moment, but not brown. Roll it out onto a plate and make 5 more. To serve, put 3 rolled omelettes into the bottom of a soup plate and ladle on piping hot chicken broth. Finish with a sprinkle of parmesan and a grind or two of fresh black pepper.

Dinner tonight was lamb shanks, following Paul Bertolli’s recipe in Chez Panisse Cooking. They were incredibly good, meltingly tender.

Oh, and oatmeal cookies from the Snoqualmie Oatmeal package. Double extra yum!

top ten update

No new songs this week, though “Breakaway” reappears and Trick Daddy goes bye-bye (loudly, of course). And here I may as well lament the fact that there is not a single Christmas record in the top fifty. Though there are a few hit LPs, nothing seasonal has made the pop charts this year. Not even a novelty record. How disappointing.

family matters

My sister started a family newsletter a few years ago, mostly because some relatives had died and no one told any of us but also because we are far-flung and do like to keep track of each other from a distance (and for some reason we are not much for phoning or writing). She grew tired of trying to drag the thrice a year articles out of people and has passed the task on. My youngest sister was going to take on the job, but her computer has apparently joined the pile of completely dead and utterly worthless technical garbage littering the planet. And so RJM and I have taken up the banner.

Our first issue is going to press shortly. We are missing articles from about half of those who should supply them. Instead of badgering them, I’ve decided to write a family gossip column, listing things I’ve heard about them. It should be entertaining, to say the least. This may also be our last issue.

top ten update

Actually updated yesterday, but I got lazy all of a sudden. No big changes other than the one I suspected, “Breakaway” dropping off the chart to be replaced by Destiny’s Child’s “Soldier”, a song that I have a lot of issues with, as you’ll see.

next up: the revival of huac?

The Waxman Report on government funded abstinence programs is bad enough, but what it portends, along with other little pieces of news, is even worse. I’ve always wondered if this country could ever return to the levels of intolerance demonstrated by the Palmer committee after the first world war, or by the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) in the late 40s and early 50s, and now it looks as if the answer is yes. Except there are no anarchists or communists now, so the new targets will be homosexuals, along with the usual liberal entertainment figures, and, also as usual, they’ll probably find some way to work jews into the mix. If Iraq collapses, look for a big anti-semitic thrust against the neocons–who deserve criticism for their policies, but not for being Jewish. Maybe they’ll call it HUHAC this time: the House Unamerican Homosexual Activities Committee.

Of course, the Palmer and HUAC eras were followed by huges bursts of liberalism: the jazz age and the 60s, so Ashcroft and Santorum and all their pals are probably just digging their own graves, but it’s still going to be ugly.

top ten update

At last, an interesting song enters the top ten. Lil Jon’s “Friends and Lovers” is stylish, fiendish, and funny, a subtle parody of the smooth soul stylings of so many pop-hop records–and he got Usher and Ludacris to help him do it. The rest of the chart is pretty much the same, except that “Goodies” is gone, and Snoop claims the top spot. He deserves it, too, if only for his display of professionalism and true confidence–as opposed to the amateurish and insecure bragging of so many other rappers.