A Slight Delay

This post has nothing to do with Anthony Quinn’s costume changes. Come to think of it, as food goes, it’s probably about as Greek as Anthony Quinn. But I digress.

If you like bleu cheese dressing, you might like this. If you don’t like bleu cheese dressing, odds are better than even that you won’t like it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. What you’ll need, in no particular order:

1. Feta cheese, crumbled (if it already comes that way, so much the better).
2. Yogurt. Not the low-fat stuff, unless your doctor has told you otherwise. Greek yogurt works best; you can find it in most supermarkets, and the Fage brand is very good.
3. Mayonnaise. Use Hellmann’s. Please. I don’t generally put much stock in one brand over another, but Hellmann’s makes just about the only real mayonnaise out there. If it says “and Salad Dressing,” or calls itself “Mayo,” it doesn’t belong in your fridge unless you’re making cole slaw, or unless you have a tin palate. Read the rest of this entry »

Adrian Belew is the musical equivalent of a character actor. Like that face you’ve seen in God knows how many films but you can’t place the name, Belew’s guitar has left its fingerprints from one end of popular music to the other. Whether you recognize the name or not, you’ve likely heard that distinctive sound on records by Zappa, Bowie, the Talking Heads, King Crimson, Nine Inch Nails, Paul Simon, Jaguares, Tori Amos, and others; if you’re lucky, you’ve also heard him on one of his many solo outings.

And if you were in the sleepy, overheated vicinity of Teaneck this evening, you could also have caught him live at Mexicali Blues with the other two-thirds of his Power Trio, the ridiculously talented Eric and Julie Slick, who play drums and bass, respectively. The club featured terrific sound, great sight lines, and a temperature that would likely have allowed anyone who was so inclined to make a pretty serviceable omelette on one of the speaker cabinets.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week’s assignment was to write something awful. Not merely bad, mind you. I’m talking truly horrid. In case you’ve spent the last week fretting over the point of that little exercise (I know you weren’t; play along for a bit), here’s why I put it out there:

Anyone that takes writing even remotely seriously wants to do it well. And anyone–at least of the writers I know–that wants to do it well is convinced that their writing is pretty awful. Now, I’ll grant you that there are some pretty bad writers out there. But if you tried this exercise, you probably found that it took some effort to come up with something bad. Read the rest of this entry »

Occam’s Razor: The philosophical principle stating that the simplest solution is often the best.

So what’s Occam’s shaving cream?

High hopes accompany Barack Obama’s apparent nomination for the Democrats’ top spot this fall, just as some on the GOP side think that John McCain will bring their party, and the country, real and lasting change. If history–both long-term and recent–is any indication, though, voters on both sides of the aisle should approach the race as much with their heads as their hearts; if not, there’ll be some pretty dissatisfied and disaffected people from one end of this country to the other come 2012. Read the rest of this entry »

A companion piece of sorts to my last post on Idealist: I came across For A Good Cause today while looking for the graphic that accompanies the Idealist post. The last post on the blog, dated May 1, indicates that the blog’s author, Michelle Sands, was wrapping things up.

That’s actually a bit of a shame, because she has quite a bit to say to those looking to find work in the nonprofit sector, and the nonprofit culture in general. Her posts are insightful, and her blogroll has further great resources, related not only to NPO’s but also to PR. If any of this sounds useful to you, head over and have a look; based on the evidence, For A Good Cause deserves a longer run.

I like Idealist. A lot. If you’re trying to keep up with goings-on in the nonprofit community, to connect with people who share your ideas, you want to make a difference, or you’re looking for a job outside the usual corporate grind, they’re a fantastic resource. So I’m only too happy to pass along the following:

Here is the story. Posting a job on Idealist usually costs $60 (we are a nonprofit ourselves, and this small fee keeps us afloat) but starting today, and through the end of June, all job postings on Idealist are free for any nonprofit organization. Read the rest of this entry »

Listening to John McCain’s speech tonight, I finally figured something out. It always leaves me uneasy when I hear his “my friends…” mantra, and I couldn’t think of why. Tonight it finally clicked. It reminded me of Huxley’s Brave New World:

“Good-night, dear friends. Good-night, dear friends.” The loud speakers veiled their commands in a genial and musical politeness. “Good-night, dear friends …”

Having gone through eight years of an Orwellian presidency (and no, this isn’t lefty paranoia; look at the public, and Congressional, record), are we seeing the first stirrings of someone who wants to govern in the Huxleyan tradition?

God help us.

They always say you can tell a lot by a person by going through their medicine cabinets. I say, to hell with that. Go for the junk drawer, that cornucopia of forgotten crap. Every home’s got one; a home that doesn’t have a junk drawer is like a person whose reflection you can’t see in the mirror. You’re better off getting as far away as you can, as quickly as you can, because nothing good can come of it.

The junk drawer reveals a lot about its owner(s). What do they save? How organized is it? Have the rubber bands and paperclips started to multiply like rabbits yet, making the whole thing one enormous ball of unidentifiable detritus?

Personally, I think that scientists and physicists are barking up the wrong tree with all this nonsense about string theory and black holes. Anybody that’s had a junk drawer for any length of time can tell you plenty about string theory, because every last thing they’ve thrown in that drawer since 1979 has acheived some kind of critical mass, a combination of twist ties, twine, thread, and goop from leaky bottles of unknown origin, all of which attracts dustbunnies, AA batteries, and feral cats. The best junk drawers are the ones where you can find nearly anything, because they’re the one thing in the universe from which nothing can escape.

Somehow I get the feeling that as a kid, Andrew Zimmern never snuck anything off his plate to the dog. The sometime restauranteur, radio personality, television host and prolific blogger, it seems, will eat anything that crosses his plate.

But that isn’t what makes “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern” (on the Travel Channel; check your listings) must-see viewing. Some of us can’t stomach even the thought of head cheese (oh, the stories I could tell…), or eating rodents, regardless of how they’re prepared, so you’ve got to give props to a guy that can walk into a restaurant that specializes in dishes consisting of various animal penises and sample half the menu without batting an eyelash. Read the rest of this entry »