As some of you know, my Rumproast co-blogger, dear friend and all-around hilarious dude StrangeAppar8us suffered a traumatic brain injury last November and has been undergoing an arduous recovery process ever since. John and so many other wonderful and kindhearted bloggers and reader communities contributed generously to the Strange recovery fund and directed traffic and love his way.
If you know Strange, it’s easy to understand why. Even if you’re a cauliflower enthusiast, how can you not love a guy who once wrote:
Cauliflower is a mostly notational food—texture without essence, utility without passion, a strictly decorative rearrangement of dirt, water and sunlight. It is the “mercy fuck” of side-dishes—you only eat it because you feel so sorry for it.
Today, Strange made his triumphant return to Rumproast. Read all about it here.
Elizabelle
Have never seen such interesting commentary about cauliflower. Cauliflower, for gawd’s sake.
Hope the TBI left his writing and snark abilities unaffected.
kerFuFFler
Glad your friend is feeling better! (I’ve had really good cauliflower in curries but it is little bland on its own.)
jibeaux
Oh, wow. I’ll try not to draw conclusions about what it means to come through two things like that, but it means something and I hope he absolutely rages through the rest of his life. In the Dylan Thomas sense, not the Limbaugh-y sense.
The Bobs
Evidently he has never had Lebanese spiced roasted cauliflower.
It’s so manly to dis vegetables.
Steve
My goodness, what a story. I hope he’s worthy of his own sacrifice, whatever the fuck that means.
Ash Can
Yikes. Quite a story. I hope he continues to recover, and thrives.
Violet
That’s excellent news. Best wishes to him as he works on his rehab.
I do have to disagree about the cauliflower. I might have agreed until I grew my own. It was a complete revelation. I had no idea how delicious cauliflower actually was until I cut it and cooked it immediately. Only took a few minutes to cook and the taste was out of this world. I now plant it every year.
mistermix
I know someone who survived shooting himself through the heart. That was 20 years ago and he’s doing well today. I hope the same for your fried.
General Stuck
Dying is easy, comedy is hard. And sometimes, karma arises to turn that sideways . Glad that Mr. Strange is back with a plan.
Maude
Captcha wouldn’t let me comment over at Roast.
Strange has come out of the abyss and I wish I had something comforting to say.
LanceThruster
That pretty much sums up cauliflower for me, though it has been tasty to me before when on a crisp chilled veggie platter…but maybe that’s just because it was the delivery platform for the cucumber dill dip.
BGinCHI
That’s a hell of a story. Jesus.
Wishing him the best for spending his remaining time on the planet wisely and in making it a better place. He’s already ahead of a whole American political party.
Villago Delenda Est
Great news! The only thing better to hear, I think, would be that OvenMitt has been hospitalized for a kick in the crotch from a dancing horse.
MikeJ
@The Bobs: It’s not the cauliflower that saves any particular successful dish. It is the spices that manage to save something with no inherent flavour.
YAFB
@Maude:
Sorry about that. It plays up sometimes. I’ve disabled it for now if anyone wants another try.
Girasol
Strange sounds awesome, but completely wrong about cauliflower. Roasted, curried — possibilities are endless. My two boys love cauliflower florets deepfried – gobble them like candy. Bittman has a great recipe for curried cauliflower flatbread that’s a piece of cake (so to speak) and amazingly declicious.
Larkspur
@MikeJ:
See, there is always the possibility of redemption, even for cauliflower. I’m so glad Strange is still here to be convinced (maybe) by an assortment of cauliflower taste-tests.
Linda Featheringill
Ah, the lovely Mr. Strange. But he isn’t SOL, you know. Even if he did fail at his suicide attempt. He has friends. He has fans. And he has Mrs. Polly.
ETA:
I actually like cauliflower.
Libby Spencer
That is good news. Happy to hear he’s back.
sharl
Yaaay! (sharl aka m209)
fasteddie9318
While I understand the point about cauliflower, I will also say that when you’re trying to get a 5 year old to eat a vegetable, a lack of flavor can be a good thing.
Libby Spencer
Comment successfully posted at Rumproast. Thanks for turning off the dreaded Captcha. It always defeats my attempts to post.
YAFB
@Libby Spencer:
It’s a PITA, but if I turn it off for any great length of time we’re usually overrun with spambots.
If and when we have another membership sign-up drive, you can sign up and banish Captcha for ever.
The Moar You Know
TBI can do some strange things to a person’s “soul”. I had a former girlfriend whose mother had a haemorrhagic stroke at the age of 53. Angry, angry, bitter woman with a vicious streak a mile wide.
She didn’t really “recover” in the physical sense. She could walk, after a fashion. She could talk. She could deal with the bathroom to a large extent. But she sure wasn’t going to be going out for long walks anywhere, and she was never going to be able to drive again.
But the weird thing was that she didn’t have explosive rages any longer. At all. She didn’t really even get angry too much, even when justified, and it never lasted long. I liked her a lot more post-stroke than I ever did before. But it was hard for the family. In addition to the medical issues, they were having to deal with a stranger inhabiting the body of someone they knew and loved.
This brings up some really interesting questions as to what is the source of our personality, soul, personhood, whatever you want to call it. What the hell are we, if a head injury can change who you are?
I feel for Strange’s family. We had minimal help medically and none whatsoever financially, just me and the girlfriend, two dumb twenty-somethings adift in San Francisco trying to take care of an old lady who had shit insurance. We did what we could, but it really was about as bad as these things can get. Our relationship didn’t survive. Most wouldn’t under those circumstances. It’s by far the most brutal experience of my life and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone no matter what kind of shitbag they are.
Joy
It’s is so good to hear his voice again. He has been truly missed and I can’t imagine going through this election cycle without his “unique” perspective.
Maude
@YAFB:
Plz make sure Cole knows about the membership drive. He’ll post.
That is, if he makes it through the bathroom renovation.
If not, DougJ will post it.
Mrs. Polly
@ the moar: Strange’s family really consists of his friends, who are grateful for the privilege of knowing him. Luckily for both him and us, Strange has stayed his own, wonderful, kind and witty self.
The questions you raise about identity, the bewildering nature of brain injuries and the woeful lack of preparedness anybody has for going through this sort of catastrophe are good ones, and I’m sorry you and your gf had such a miserable time.
YAFB
Thanks. If and when it happens, I’d imagine Betty’ll let you know. We’re kicking the server and blowing on the sparkplugs at the moment.
Tom Levenson
Glad to hear this news. I’m so glad that Strange has his voice back and the will and desire to use it.
Just Some Fuckhead
Strange that I bought two different cauliflower dishes for lunch today. Olive antipasto salad containing lots of cauliflower and a jar of hot and spicy cauliflower that was on clearance near the checkout line.
Anya
Glad to hear strange is back and feeling better. He really is one of my favorite bloggers. I am sorry to hear that he felt so despondent that he shot himself. I hope he’s back with a renewed lust for life.
asiangrrlMN
I am so fucking glad to see Strange again, though really sorry he had to go through all that. Depression is so damn insidious and evil. I hope he never falls that deep into the abyss again.
The cauliflower riff is one I link in one of the posts I did about him when asking for mad monies on his behalf. It is a classic.
T. Scheisskopf
Oh, get off of Cauliflower’s case! You just have to know how to make it. Extra Virgin, a little butter, breadcrumbs, roast in a 425 degree oven till it browns and you can smell it.
Also works for Broccoli, Asparagus…