rhondak

Dear Historical Genevan Printer:

      Make up your mind. If, in your edition of the collected works of Machiavelli, you want Il principe to appear second, after the Historie Fiorentine and before the Discorsi sopra la Prima Deca di Tito Livio -- and since you've labeled them "Parte seconda", "Parte prima" and "Parte terza", respectively, in the table of contents, that looks like a fair bet -- don't put the catchword "DISCORSI" on the last leaf of the Historie Fiorentine. You are apt to confuse people. Like binders. And catalogers attempting to write signature statements describing the Platonic state of your work.

Sincerely,
nebroadwe
(the Rare Books cataloger who hates mixed bibliographic signals)

Dear Contemporary World of Machiavelli Bibliography and/or Cataloging:

      Why haven't any of you mentioned this? You're making me nervous ...

Sincerely,
nebroadwe
(the Rare Books cataloger who can't be looking at the only copy with this problem)

The long-continued use of tea has a distinct effect upon the character. This has been too often noticed and remarked to be questioned. There are tea-sots in every great charitable institution - particularly those for the maintenance of the aged. Their symptoms are generally mental irritability, muscular tremors and sleeplessness. The following is an account of one of the cases observed. The immediate effects upon him are as follows: In about ten minutes the face becomes flushed, the whole body feels warm and heated and a sort of intellectual intoxication comes on, much the same in character, it would seem, as that which occurs in the rarefied air of a mountain. He feels elated, exhilarated, troubles and cares vanish, everything seems bright and cheerful, his body feels light and elastic, his mind clear, his ideas abundant, vivid and flowing fluently into words. At the end of an hour's tasting a slight reaction begins to set in; some headache comes on, the face feels wrinkled and shrivelled, particularly about the eyes, which also get dark under the lids. At the end of two hours this reaction becomes firmly established, the flushed warm feeling has passed off, the hands and feet are cold, a nervous tremor comes on, accompanied with great mental depression. And he is now so excitable that every noise startles him; he is in a state of complete unrest; he can neither walk nor sit down, owing to his mental condition, and he settles into complete gloom. Copious and frequent urinations are always present, as also certain dyspeptic symptoms, such as eructations of wind, sour taste, and others. His mental condition in peculiar. He lives in a state of dread that some accident may happen to him; in the omnibus fears a collision; crossing the street, fears that he will be crushed by passing teams; walking on the sidewalks, fears that a sign may falls, or watches the eaves of houses, thinking that a brick may fall down and kill him; under the apprehension that every dog he meets is going to bite the calves of his legs, he carries an umbrella in all weathers as a defence against such an attack.

- At Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O'Brien

Ukranian Music
Originally uploaded by Happy_Peasant

Video posted by Steve Spitzer on flickr, who came to our fiddle-raiser event with a bag of gloves to keep those fingers warm. Thanks Steve!

This is an Ukrainian polka-type piece, called a Kolomyika. My buddy on the flute is the amazing http://www.theodoreceplina.com
He learned the tune by ear from the CD I made with Oksana Moshinsky - http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/ommrkh

--
(quick summary of what we raised so far:
http://community.livejournal.com/violinistas/6431.html)
--
Steve also has a longer video up on youtube-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enoYh6_Kyv8
This one is 'real' Mexican music, even though the Sonorans thought it was German when I played it for Father Kino days. (sigh)
It's called -
"Traigo Sufrir en mi alma"
(I carry suffering in my soul)
I'm reading from a book by a folklorist Paul Anastacio -
http://www.swingcatenterprises.com/
He collected the music of the "mexican paganini" violinist Juan Reynoso.
I recommend everything on this site.

quick, someone, I need $25,000.

IT'S IMPORTANT.

Two years ago, when I started my doctoral degree, I already had an idea of what I wanted my dissertation to be on. Now that I'm almost done with my coursework and comps, I've begun doing some research on my topic, just to be ahead of the game.

Here is my dilemma: the topic I've chosen has not been extensively written about. This is, in a way, excellent! It means I will be writing a paper on a subject that has not been extensively covered(although it has growing interest in my field), and could therefore lead to some possible publishing (I am not required to have my paper published). The bad is I have very little to go with, and I obviously can't base a dissertation on let's say five articles and a website.

I have a paper advisor, but he cannot meet with me until next semester. I'm just curious as to what the general consensus is about thesis topics and the amount of research already done on said topic. There is no big hurry, I'm just a little worried. Thank you for your help!

ANTYTHESYS full length POINT BLANK available at

www.dsbp.cx

www.infrarot.de

www.stormingthebase.com

www.musicnonstop.co.uk

www.darkestlabyrinth.jp


Available Digitally at all the biggest stores

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Woobie Wisdom: Baked Macaroni and Cheese + Vegetarian stuffing makes a hangover better. Not heart smart but definitely hangover helpful.

Last night was Kim's belated birthday party hosted by Ms. Tracie. What initially seemed like a low key beer and chit chat party quickly devolved into a Beatles' Rock Band party, full on booze-o-rama. Thus today, I pay the price. Pajamas, bad tv, soda and comfort food. A small price to pay for fun.

My mojo has been off a bit this year. I haven't felt so pretty or so feisty for quite a while and I have noticed that I have been getting into an appearance funk. Taking a little less pride in my appearance--more with jeans and t's and less with pencil skirts and teacher cleavage. Last night, though, a bunch of people kept telling me I looked beautiful. Add a little beer and by the end of the evening I felt beautiful. It was nice to have a little boost to the ego. I think I need to do the new year's resolution thing again. Make an effort of sorts. We all know I am a vain woman and should try to remember that on occasion. Let my SoCal roots show, not my gray.

Watched two movies that started slow but engrossed me by the end. One was Away We Go and the other was Capote. I'd avoided Capote for a while but am glad I finally made time to watch it. I think Phillip Seymour Hoffman was amazing in his performance. I am even inspired to give Capote a whirl. I have read a few short stories and Breakfast at Tiffany's but I may actually bust into In Cold Blood over holiday break.

Trying to motivate and get some chores done before bedtime but have a feeling I will continue to slag off.

Highlight of my week: It may rain soon. Like tomorrow. No biking to work but that is a small price to pay for H20 kisses from the sky.

Got this from the Food Network magazine. I didn't have fingerling potatoes & couldn't find them anywhere so I substituted Yukon Golds. It was excellent served with some crusty bread.

Slow Cooker Pork Stew

1 lb fingerling potatoes
3 carrots, cut into 2” chunks
2 stalks celery, cut into 2” chunks
3 cloves garlic, smashed
2” piece of ginger, peeled & grated
¼ cup all purpose flour, divided
Salt & pepper to taste
3 bay leaves
2-2½ lb pork shoulder roast
1 tsp dried thyme
½ tsp ground allspice
1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes

Combine potatoes, carrots, celery, garlic & ginger in a slow cooker. Toss in half of flour and season with salt & pepper. Scatter bay leaves over vegetables.

Season pork generously with salt & pepper. Sprinkle with thyme and allspice, then toss in remaining flour to coat. Place pork on vegetables in slow cooker. Add 2 cups water and the tomatoes. Cover & cook on low for 8 hours.

Remove pork from cooker; discard bay leaves. Shred pork into large pieces and return to cooker. Stir to combine.

If you could go back to college, which classes would you take to help yourself become a better librarian?

The original recipe came from a 70s cookbook called Crockery Cookery. My mom used to make this when I was a kid. I have taken the recipe and made it my own over the years. It's a very basic recipe, but it's a great comfort food and wonderful for cold winter days.

2lbs stew meat cut into about 1 inch cubes
flour
1 T worcestershire sauce
1 onion chopped
1 cup beef boullion
1t sugar
Carrots sliced I don't use a set amount. I just keep adding until I think there is enough, but it's usually about a bag of baby carrots.
5-6 Potatoes in bite sized chunks
4 cups of water

coat the meat in flour and brown. Add all ingredients to the crockpot and cook on low 8-10 hours. About 20 minutes before you're ready to eat turn the crockpot on high. In a cup or small bowl mix about 1/4 cup flour with some water and add to stew. Allow to cook on high about 15-20 minutes to thicken.

Okay, so I have this package of Italian Saugage. And I want to use it in my slow cooker.

So, I was looking at CrockPot's official site and I saw this recipe. Now it says to precook the sausage in a skillet before putting it in the crock pot.

And I just read in this post that you don't have to pre cook meat before sticking in the crock pot. Even though every recipe I read for Sausage on Crock Pot's site said to</a>.

Is there anyway I can modify the recipe and just throw the sausage in the slow cooker and skip the pre cooked step? And if so, how much longer would I have to cook it for?

Forgive my silly question, as the only times I really use my crock pot is to keep Swedish Meatballs warm when dad takes them to parties...

My slow cooker has been languishing unloved for a while since the ridiculously short power lead means it's difficult to find a safe place to leave it on during the day, out of the way of our terminally curious Irish setter.

Yesterday however we were out and the dog was going with us, so it finally got a turn in the spotlight. I'd bought some breast of lamb very cheap, which is an ideal cut for slow cooking. The recipe was improvised, but good enough that I remembered what I'd added.

1 breast of lamb (don't ask about the weight, it came in a packet from Sainsbury. Figure enough for 3-4 people)
2 chopped onions
1 peeled, cored and diced butternut squash.
1-2tsp each cumin, coriander, dried chilli, crushed coriander seeds
2 lamb stock cubes
Splosh of tomato passata (again, not very scientific. I guess I added around a cupful?)
Water as needed.

Cut the lamb into chunks and brown all over. Throw into pot with other ingredients. Add water as required (depends on how soupy you want it). Stir well.

Cook on high for about 4-6 hours. After 4 hours most of the meat was fork-tender, but a few fatty bits would have benefited from longer

Before you serve it, use a ladle or slotted spoon to remove the fat. There will be masses- breast of lamb is notoriously fatty but it tastes good. The lamb was delicious with plain couscous, but would probably work well with rice or mashed potato too.

I've reconverted to crockpotting again now!

:) Hello all. Ive been lurking for quite a while (this community even inspired me to buy my very own first crock-pot, whoo.) I haven't had the chance to use it until today and Im very excited about it. I made an extremely simple chili (keeping it easy for the first time use...it smells amazing and the couple of tastes Ive stolen have proved it so.)

Its like...insanely easy (I dont usually cook at all and dont like overly hard reciepes)...and a smaller portion because I bought a 2 Qt. because its just my boyfriend and I, and we dont usually keep leftovers.

So here's what I used:
3/4 lb. of ground beef, browned
1 can light red kidney beans
1 can chili beans
1 can black beans (cause they are my favorite)
1 can tomato paste
lots of onion flakes (my boyfriend and I hate onion pieces)
1/2 a package of chili seasoning
garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Once its done, we are weirdos and will be adding a little butter and cheese. Hope it turns out good!

Today vampymissk, amyboyd and I braved the drizzly-wet and foggy elements and adventured out to the McKinney Holiday Home Tours. The weather made it all the more seasonal and gave a special dimension to stepping out of the cold and into a warm home decorated with Fir tree branches, holly berries, candles, and magical Christmas lights everywhere. I'd never participated in a home tour before and Karla - knowing how much I love antiques and historic homes gifted me a ticket. It was such a cool thing exploring older homes and seeing how each generation has either preserved the original design or made a few modern changes depending on their needs. A few of the homes were still owned by great-great grandchildren...talk about incredible history.

Misha, Karla & Amy on McKinney Holiday Home 2009 Tour

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