elgoose's Journal

Subject:	That five-second rule
Time:	4:41 pm.

That Dropped Doughnut: How Soon, and How Often, Will It Come Back Up?

Last month, scientists at Clemson University in South Carolina determined that applying the five-second rule to dropped food will not actually prevent the food from gathering bacteria.

The nation's reaction to this: Duh.

The five-second rule. If you've never heard of it, ask any sixth-grader. "It means that if you drop something on the ground, you can still eat it if you pick it up in five seconds," says Kiara Hopkins, 11.

"God made dirt and dirt don't hurt," elaborates Christopher Evans, 13. "But after five seconds, it's nasty."

Imperative to the rule's effectiveness, Kiara and Christopher say, is yelling out, "FIVE-SECOND RULE!" as soon as an item has touched the ground. It is also acceptable for a friend to yell it on your behalf.

( Read more... )

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Subject:	Poor planning
Time:	8:45 am.

Right now, I should be driving to Cincinnati for class, but obviously, I'm not. Lots of reasons, most of which boil down to minor discontent and extreme laziness. I'd have to leave class early today, and that makes it seem hardly worth going, since we won't have much to talk about, since she didn't assign much and I'm tired of being the only student in class who contributes to the discussion anyway.

Same old, same old. The more things change, you know?

Anyway, I planned on saying something at the time, but I got caught in wave of fatigue, so napping took priority, and after that I had reading to do, but anyway, the 25th was my 25th anniversary of getting sober (as they say). It's sort of a stupid expression since one doesn't get sober like getting pregnant. It's an unimaginable process that I'm still in the middle of, but at any rate, it's been a long time without a drink or a drug.

Interesting.

So today at lunchtime, I'll go to my AA meeting -- it's a women's meeting, one that's full of people who have been sober longer than me, thank God -- and my sponsor will give me her 25-year token and then we'll go to have Korean food for lunch.

Who would have thought it would all turn out like this? And what happens next? I have no idea.

I really miss my mother. The six month anniversary of her death came a few days before my anniversary, and, well, I really miss her every single day.

I never expected it would be like this, any of it.

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Subject:	I love the Ohio News Network
Time:	8:52 pm.

Men Convicted Of Soliciting Prostitutes To Wear Chicken Suit

PAINESVILLE, Ohio - Three men convicted of solicitation will not face a traditional punishment.

Instead, Judge Mike Cicconetti will sentence the men to each wear a chicken suit like shown in the photograph below and carry a sign for three hours at the PMC parking lot on Richmond Street.

The sign says, "No Chicken Ranch in Painesville," which is a take on the movie, "The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas."

The brothel in the movie was known as the Chicken Ranch because during the Depression customers were allowed to pay with poultry.

Each of the men will have to wear the suit for an hour.

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Subject:	Lunch today
Time:	12:24 pm.

I think I maight have blogged about a version of this salad before, but if I did, it was a couple of years ago and it bears repeating. I got the recipe from a semi-authentic Brazilian cookbook.

Watercress salad

Watercress, chopped
Hearts of palm, cut in 1/2 inch segments
Cherry Tomatoes, halved
Yellow bell pepper, roasted
Hard boiled eggs, quartered

Dressing
Red wine vinegar and olive oil, in the proportions you prefer. (I like mine acidic and go about 50/50, but it's traditional to go more 1/3 vinegar, 2/3 oil)
Salt pepa and an dab of minced garlic

Okay, here's thing 1. You don't have to use watercress for this salad. Any bitter greens would work, or any salad mix you like. However, I think the bitterness of the watercress works really well and that's what the original recipe called for.

Thing 2. Use the ingredients in the proportions you like. An equalish volume of hearts of palm and tomatoes works well. My tomato plant is giving me more tomatoes than I can eat right now, so I put 14 or 15 in. That didn't even use up the backlog. I can't believe how many tomatoes I have.

Thing 3. I did not have any roasted yellow pepper lying around, so I sliced up a pepper and sauteed it in olive oil, with some salt and pepper for seasoning. I just cooked it enough to soften it, then put it on paper towels to drain and cooled it in the fridge for a while. Nice, and it heated the kitchen up a lot less than roasting on pepper would (and was faster).

Thing 4. Hard-boiled eggs are one of my nemeses. Unlike normal Americans, I do not keep ice in the freezer, so I have never been able to cool them quickly enough to keep that icky green ring from forming around the yolk. I tried a new thing today, and it was great.

Hard boiled eggs method: Put eggs in saucepan and cover with water to 1 inch. Bring to a full boil, then cover and remove from the heat. Let sit for ten minutes, then drain hot water. Shake the eggs a little in the pan to crack the shells, then cover with cold water. Let sit for a half hour before peeling. The cracks in the eggs allow the sulfur compounds that form that green stuff to leach into the water, and seriously, my eggs were lovely. Next time, I might cool them more thoroughly before peeling. It also helps to pass the egg under running water while peeling it. The water gets between the membrane and the egg and loosens it a little, enough that the membrane won't take great divots of egg white with it when you pull it away from the egg.

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Time:

9:08 pm.

I've been up since about 3:30 this morning. Spent somewhere between four and a half and five hours in the car, driving first to Cincinnati, then from there to Columbus, and then home to Dayton. Also, had a final exam this morning.

Who the hell schedules finals for 7:30 in the morning? Some sadist at the Universoty of Cincinnati, that's who.

I need to sleep, and yet I can't make myself go to bed. Kill me now. No, kill me when my alarm goes off at 5:30 tomorrow morning so I can start my second class.

Nice news today: taking a couple of classes has gotten my student loan deferred for six months. Score!

Must sleeeeeeep. Now.

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Subject:	This is ridiculous
Time:	7:12 pm.

So tired.

I've been getting up between 5:00 and 5:30 in the morning for a few weeks while I take classes at the University of Cincinnati this summer. I like school, but the schedule is killing me. I am completely exhausted twelve hours later. It's crazy. Usually I have to take a nap in the afternoon, and on days like today when I can't, I'm completely braindead by seven p.m.

I go to bed so early and get eight hours sleep, but it isn't the eight hours I need. Even when I sleep late on the weekend, I'm awake by 7:30.

Getting up early destroys my brain. I feel like I'm living with a permanent state of jet lag.

In other news: If you haven't read "A Simple Heart" by Gustave Flaubert, I highly recommend it.

So sleepy.

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Subject:	For some reason, this is really making me laugh today
Time:	7:26 pm.

Kiefer Sutherland is in Brazil, getting ready to launch a big publicity push for Citroen's new C4 Pallas. All the gossip pages have the following story: "Jack Bauer in Rio!!" Many jokes about him cleaning up the favelas overnight. He's been pursued relentlessly by the Brazilian paparrazzi, who are all crazed and fear nothing, not even Jack Bauer. Tonight, there's a cocktail party with ~~Jack~~ Kiefer followed by a private show with Marisa Monte to launch the new car. V. v. upscale, v. v. insane. I'm hoping for pictures.

Brazil Vogue Online has the best headline: "Visita de Gringo".

Jack Bauer eats a sandwich

Jack Bauer gets stalked (There are many like this)

And! And! Lenny Kravitz just got into town for Live Aid (insert standard joke about Lenny Kravitz, whom the Brazilians all seem to love for reasons that escape me) and some of the stories make it sound like he's BFF with Jack Bauer, just two guys, hanging out, being famous at the Copacabana Hotel.

Lenny Kravitz/Jack Bauer, OTP!!!

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Subject:	"Maybe they believe this is modernity."
Time:	2:31 pm.

McDonald's Takes Paris

Le Big Mac Booms in the Land of Haute Cuisine

PARIS — After devouring a Big Mac, a royal cheese, and paprika-flavored potato wedges dipped in mayonnaise, Romain Bertucca, a shaggy-haired 22-year-old drama student wearing a beret and ripped jeans, explained why he eats McDonald's.

"It's quick. The food is hot. It's not like a sandwich. It's McDonald's," he said, sitting on a stool with a friend on Thursday afternoon, overlooking Avenue de Wagram, two blocks from the Arc de Triomphe.

Mr. Bertucca is not alone in his endorsement of McDonald's, or MAKdoeNAHLDS, as it's pronounced here. In this land of haute cuisine where American tourists are customarily greeted with Gallic scorn, the world's largest fast food company is more popular than ever.

( Read more... )

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Subject:	It's a wash
Time:	7:16 am.

Good: The first little tomatoes on my tomato plant are just starting to turn red. I can't tell you how excited I am.

Neutral: I got my first pair of glasses yesterday. It turns out that I am nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other (plus with an astigmatism!!). I'm not ready for bifocals, so I opted for distance glasses, to help me read signs better when I'm driving. I sort of wonder if I shouldn't have gotten some reading glasses, too. I'm getting paranoid about aging, which has to be the greatest waste of energy ever.

Bad: Waking up crying in the middle of the night is a great way to:
a) mess up my sleep, and
b) mess up my sinuses.
It should go without saying that I don't need either of them messed with, but I'll say it anyway. Stating the obvious can be a useful trick at times.

Ongoing: This daily writing assignment is oppressive. It's hard for me to write only two or three paragraphs and keep myself interested. When I see what the other students have written, by and large, I despair of the future. What a bunch of meatheads. Still, it's nice to find out I can really have my mind blown by a text and that I can still engage it on lots of levels, even if I get bored trying to communicate some condensed and over-simplified version of that engagement.

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