Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Lighten up, Francis.

How has Obama failed you today?

Just a few bad apples.

This Blog Goes to 11…

Gastritis Broke My Calculator

This is how realignments happen…

Verified, but limited!

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Where tasty lettuce and good mustard aren’t elitist.

Nevertheless, she persisted

We have all the best words.

What fresh hell is this?

An almost top 10,000 blog!

The house always wins.

Mission Accomplished!

Reality always wins in the end.

Han shot first.

Screw the Judean People’s Front. Splitters.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

I thought we were promised Infrastructure Week

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

I showered with Rahm and all I got was this shitty blog.

You are here: Home / Archives for Let's Make Our Own Fun

It’s a stressful, complicated time, and we all need a break sometimes.  Let’s have some fun, and find the fun stuff that’s out there.

Dear WaterGirl: Did You Know That...Let's Make Our Own Fun 1Let's Make Our Own Fun

Fun, Funny, Silly or Happy

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Waiting is hard.  I was thinking it might be nice for us to put together a collection of links that are fun, funny, silly or happy – a safe place for TaMara and family to go when they could use a break or are in need of a distraction.  Keep a good thought for TaMara’s Dad.

Is anybody with me?

So we don’t end up with a million youtube links that could be to anything, please add a short note with your link to let us know what it is – a Dog jumping on a trampoline, for instance.   You don’t need to write a book about it, unless you want to!

No COVID, no politics, no Trump.

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Condiments! (Respite)

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So, as a break from the always enjoyable pastime of Grey Lady bashing, how about a little food respite.

One thing that has struck me as we’ve stayed home is that though my spouse and I don’t eat out much relative to the published figures for American households, in normal (sic!) times we do pretty regularly get hits of flavors and culinary styles that we don’t cook at home.

There’s a tapas place near us with outdoor seating in warm weather, and pretty often we’ll go there for a cocktail and just one tapas plate before heading home to cook (old folks mini-dates).  A saffron and dried cod-fritter, perhaps, something we’d just wouldn’t get in our own kitchen.  There’s a great ramen place in walking distance too, along with a new udon shop we like, a good pizzeria, a pretty potent Sichuan place, and so on, plus the fancy spots we save for occasions: my go-to birthday dinner for the last couple of years has been the tasting menu at S.R.V., a really fine Venetian restaurant a couple of miles from us.

Digression: damn, I’m hungry now…

Condiments! (Respite)

Back to it.

Obviously, we aren’t wandering the culinary globe these days, or at least not beyond what we can recreate for ourselves at home. We’re good cooks–my wife was a pro for several years, working in some high end places. We enjoy playing with different culinary traditions–thanks to Fuchsia Dunlop I cook reasonable facsimiles of some of our Chinese favorites; we’ve got a good handle on some South Asian stuff (again, maybe Angl0-Indian-ish, but still, to our liking), and lots of other stuff.

But we’re necessarily narrower, and we have a repertory that, no matter how much we try to push out into new flavor and technique territory, is still necessarily way more constrained than what we’ve grown used to being able to grab. (Hell–there’s a Belgian french fry place down near Quincy Market that my son loves and that makes a damn fine fry. Not getting that at home.

So all that as prelude (TL:DR etc) I’ve found myself eyeballing condiments and spices as the fastest, simplest way to break out of the creeping boredom that can, I’m guessing, hit the best of home cooks when confined to nothing but.

So here’s the challenge for the comment thread. What simple, cheap, easy (any combo of those is good) ways have you all found to put a little spin on your stuff?

For us I’d say the single most important trick has been the use of Sichuan peppercorns, not just, or even primarily in Chinese recipes. They’re cheap, available by mail order and they add a lovely jolt to something as simple as broccoli. We use them either as they come, coarsely crushed, or roasted in an iron skilled for thirty seconds or so. (Whole peppercorns work too). They’re not so much hot as numbing–which is how they’re described when they’re at home, and they offer just a bit of surprise as we eat almost anything.

Other stuff: for a condiment, I love one from my childhood, Pickapeppa Sauce. It can enhance just about any savory.  I have memories from 50 years ago of meatloaf with a glaze of that on top. Damn…

Sorry–wandered into memory for a moment there.

Anyway–here’s a thread to write about the flavors you love, those you miss, and what, if anything, you’re doing to amuse yourself while we dine in isolation…

Over to y’all.

Image: Abraham Bloemaert, The Feast of the Gods at the Wedding of Peleus and Thetis, 1638.

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Book Recommendations (and Open Thread)

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First, here’s another little video from my cousin in Australia.

We had a request last night for a Book Recommendations post, so have at it.

Open Thread also, since it’s been hours.

Update:  It occurs to me that it might be helpful if you include the genre of the books you are recommending in the comments.

Update #2:  Suggestions brought up from the comments

On-line bookstores to support with book purchases, if you plan to be making any:

Just a reminder that Amazon has more than enough money, but the continued existence of Portland’s beloved Powell’s Books is threatened, and you can help save them by ordering through their excellent web site.

https://www.powells.com/

Or if you’re in the SF Bay area, you can help save Menlo Park’s superb Kepler’s Books

https://www.keplers.com/

A reminder that Bookshop.org might be a place to spend a dollar or two.

My neighborhood Bookstore will ship books.

Added on 4/17:

Giving you three bookshops, while noting there’s lots more in greater Boston area. These are just my 3 picks.

Papercuts in JP just moved before C-19 so if you’re in the Boston area they could use the help. Their shop website is https://bookshop.org/shop/papercuts

Also, Brookline Booksmith https://www.brooklinebooksmith.com/ is a great independent bookstore with a great bargain section & used book basement . (They do a lot of programming, signings etc, including using the Coolidge Corner Theater across the street). FYI They’re also doing virtual events now!

Harvard Bookstore In Cambridge has a similar setup with regular events & bargains & used & they’re also doing virtual events now too http://www.harvard.com/

Please do add Mysterious Galaxy to your Indie bookstore list. They’re doing a lot of virtual events it seems too, and as with their in RL events, they feature a lot of new cool authors in both mysteries and sf/f. And yeah, of course, they’ve fairly recently moved from their longtime location.

Updated on 4/18:

Two more bookstores

Still North https://www.stillnorthbooks.com in Hanover, NH

Book Passage https://www.bookpassage.com in San Francisco

wordbookstores.com – in Jersey City (also Brooklyn)

http://www.wordsbookstore.com/ – In Maplewood

https://www.montclairbookcenter.com/ – If you miss Leary’s, and the Strand is too crowded…

Still more independent bookstore recommendations:

Bookstores:

I see that Harvard Books in Cambridge has been mentioned. Not to be confused with the ‘official’ university bookstore, the Harvard Cooperative, now run by Barnes & Noble. A moment of silence, please, for the independent Coop (rhymes with loop) of my childhood, as well as the late and very lamented brick & mortar Schoenhof’s Foreign Books (web presence just isn’t the same…), along with the 24 hour Brattle Books, long gone except for fond memories of being judged old enough to tag along with my parents after my younger brother went to bed.

Other good options, all doing phone/mail orders as far as I know:

The Tribune, Norway, Maine

Left Bank Books, Belfast, Maine

Both of these are small town [Norway pop. 4500, Belfast 6600] book stores that ~ in addition to being great indie book shops ~ provide excellent support to the local libraries and other cultural institutions [The Tribune, for example, sells tickets for local theater companies and events at the historical society with no service fee].

Longfellow Books, Portland ME

Talking Leaves, Buffalo NY

And, finally (yeah, librarian me has opinions on good bookstores…. ), in Chicago, 57th Street Books/Seminary Co-op Bookstore.

 

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Fun Podcasts, Political Podcasts & Great Books on Tape

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First things first, here’s a little video from my cousin in Australia.

NICE SHOW!!!!

Okay, back to the post.  It looks like Wisconsin results won’t be coming in until perhaps 9pm tonight until the courts quit fucking with democracy, so in the meantime, how about sharing some of your favorite things?

I used to fall asleep at night listening to political podcasts, but that’s not exactly relaxing these days, so I have given up on that.  Now I put on a random episode of NCIS and listen to the voices of Gibbs, Ziva and the rest while I fall asleep.

A great book on tape might be just the thing to help put me/us to sleep.  I can’t be the only person who isn’t sleeping as well as usual, right?  If  you guys are game, let’s put together 3 lists for the No Cabin Fever For Us! heading in the sidebar:

Books on Tape (read by great narrators)

Fun Podcasts (not political, not current events)

Political Podcasts

*****

We’ve got quite a collection going over there in the sidebar, with things like:

Zoos, Aquariums & Wildlife
Noir: Favorites in Film, Books, TV  (BGinCHI)
Mystery Recommendations
Kids Channel
Free Streaming Services
Fun Music Thread (mistermix)
Museum Tours (Virtual)
Garden Tours (Virtual)
Tours of the Vatican, Machu Picchu, and more
Arts, Educational, & Public Affairs
One Good Thing (on-going thread)

But what I don’t know is whether anyone is actually looking any of it, or if interest in those resources was just a flash in the pan.  Maybe you can let me know in the comments?

Oh, and I contacted the developers again today about the remaining site issues.  By the end of the week, I hope to have a plan in place for resolution of issues like the back button.

Open Thread.

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One Good Thing

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This is an invitation to everyone to add one good thing to this thread.  Even if all you can muster is to link to the Stayin’ Inside music video or the awesome teacher singing I Will Survive, or anything else fun that has already been posted here or there in a thread, please do that.

I can’t be the only one who feels a wave of anxiety at some point, nearly every day.  If enough people chime in and we can get a good collection of inspiration and distraction, I’ll add this to the list in the sidebar.  Sort of an “In case of emergency, break glass” thread.

Together we can make a collection of good things, things that inspire us and help us feel good about some of our fellow humans, even in this scary time.

Here’s mine.  This is BG’s 8-year-old son, reading to Bear in his crate.  Bear is the new pup they brought home on Sunday.  This makes me happy, and gives me hope.

One Good Thing

If you’re not one of the people rolling their eyes at this thread, please chime in!

*That’s not an upper limit of one.

Update:  this thread has been added to the sidebar, where it can stay until it’s no longer useful anymore.  Anyone who is interested can continue to read and even add fun/good links or anything they find inspirational, long after the post is off the front page.

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