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Saturday, June 17, 2006
Another Carnival!
Posted by Lis Riba at 3:01 PM
 Via Ragnell: The Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans!
Now that's one I know lots of us can find things to write about! Whee!
Fifty Book Challenge
Posted by Lis Riba at 2:45 PM
Several people I know participate in something called the Fifty Book Challenge, the idea being that one tries to read fifty books in one calendar year. Since I began tracking all the books I finish, back in mid-2000, I've never read fewer than sixty, so I didn't bother to officially join any of the communities. At any rate, I just now finished book #50 for the year. Book #50 was Temping fate, a brand new YA novel by Esther Friesner, involving a young woman who finds summer work with three rather unusual sisters... I bought it last night at the grand opening of Pandemonium in its new location. 
Book #49 was another YA novel, Lady with an alien by Mike Resnick. Fun book. It's part of a series, in which each work is based upon a famous painting. Most appear to be straightforward historical fiction, but Resnick took one look at the creature in the woman's arms, and thought that Leonardo was too good an anatomist... "and that little animal simply doesn't look like an ermine to me." As I said, fun book. It's nice reading stories where none of the characters are stupid. And I'm particularly fond of this passage. The first speaker is a time-traveller from the future:
At any rate, the 50 books I've read this year breaks down as follows:
Two of the works I've read previously in earlier years, all the rest were first reads. You can find the full list of all books I've read this year on my Books Read This Year page, links going back to mid-2000. Meanwhile, I've got two other books out of the library to finish: Avalon High by Meg Cabot and Ready, steady, go! : the smashing rise and giddy fall of Swinging London. I was about 80 pages into the latter before picking up Lady, which I found simply irresistable. Ready, steady isn't quite what I was looking for -- primarily focused on the people and personalities of the 1960s, where I wanted a broader social look at postwar London. But I've got a list of other books that may cover that subject; my only trick is finding the right one... PS: After leaving Pandemonium, we walked around the corner to Rodney's Bookstore, where we stayed until closing and struck up a chat with a really interesting guy. I didn't have time to evaluate and buy, but here are a few of the titles that caught my eye:
Friday, June 16, 2006
To help us through this minefield...
Posted by Lis Riba at 11:50 PM
Don't ask for backstory, but there are huge debates going on in the feminist blogosphere regarding women performing blowjobs.* Regardless of how you feel on this issue -- pro, anti, confused, or indifferent -- you simply must view this YouTube video: lessons on safe and unsafe sex, by Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Dawn French, and Rowan Atkinson. Pay close attention to the variations of Position #4: Enjoy! *If you're really curious, you can follow the debate in these blog posts, particularly the last two:
PS: Thanks to Keith DeCandido for the link.
I've been thinking...
Posted by Lis Riba at 7:10 PM
A dangerous pastime, I know. What constitutes a group for purposes of group insurance coverage? Because I keep reading posts and comments by other bloggers who are suffering in some way because they can't afford individual health insurance. Health insurance works best when the risk is spread across a pool of people. This way, the healthy can support the sick, without unfairly burdening any individual with unaffordable premiums. [For more on this notion, see this old post of mine quoting Malcolm Gladwell on The Moral Hazard Myth.] Group insurance is usually handled through employers, but I've heard of other clubs or organizations that also provide insurance coverage. And if Costco or certain AAA clubs can offer medical insurance to its members, shouldn't it be possible to turn bloggers into a group for health insurance purposes? I'd think it would be a desirable population for insurers: average age from 20s to 40s, usually in sedentary jobs rather than high-risk ones, often in the computer industry. Is this at all feasible? Anybody who knows more about insurance care to pick up this ball and run with it?
In other words: the song of the lyrebird
Posted by Lis Riba at 7:35 AM
Okay, I am actually writing the content of this post myself, but since it is all just a clever ploy to get you to listen to some birdcalls, I think the title counts. Ian tells some delightful stories about a mockingbird where he grew up which could imitate a garbage truck emptying a dumpster. The "beep-beep-beep" of a vehicle backing up followed by the loud grinding and rumbling -- so realistic that my in-laws filed noise complaints against a nearby business until they finally found the feathered culprit. Anyway, apparently mockingbirds barely hold a candle to the lyrebird of Australia. Male lyrebirds try to impress potential mates by demonstrating their skill in mimicry -- everything from other birdcalls to... well, you'll just have to hear it to believe it. In April 2006, to celebrate naturalist David Attenborough's 80th birthday, the public were asked to vote on their favourite of his television moments. This clip of the lyrebird was voted number one. You can watch it as embedded Quicktime or in WMV format. Also, via Wikipedia, this page of further lyrebird recordings. [First seen on Magpie's blog]
In other words: a memorable meal
Posted by Lis Riba at 7:15 AM
To celebrate our anniversary, Ian and I went to the Craigie Street Bistrot for a superb dinner. Ian took tasting notes throughout (they actually gave us a notecard and pencil at the start of the meal for such purposes), so I'll let him tell the tale, (recopied from his journal: Lis's and my anniversary dinner Two years ago, for our anniversary, Lis and I went to a wonderful restaurant called the Craigie Street Bistrot, on Craigie St, outside of Harvard Square. I wrote about the meal we had then. And we went back again this year, last night. Okay, so our anniversary was on the thirteenth, and last night was the fourteenth, but the Chef's Whim is on Wednesdays and Saturdays. So, let me tell you about THIS trip. Two years ago, we spent $90 on the entire evening, for two hours of good food and company. This year, we spent over twice that, because a) the price has gone up $10 per person, b) they now added an option where you can get an EXTRA two courses for an extra $15 per person, and we got wine with dinner, which we didn't do last time. And we got THREE hours of good food and company. And it was definitely worth it. Six course tasting menu instead of four. Here's what we got: First, the chef sent us champagne cocktails, on the house, in celebration of our anniversary. They were wonderful -- I wrote a tasting note of "almost like ginger ale, but rounder." And, of course, better. The cocktail added sweetness and some fullness, and it was actually a decent champagne, although not so top-notch that one would be upset by adding things to it. Then I ordered, on the waiter's recommendation, a half-bottle of the 2000 Trimbach Riesling. I was looking for good links online that would have tasting notes for it, to explain the thing, but I'm only finding notes for the 2002 and 2003, which are totally different from what I drank. I'm finding online prices for the 2000 for as little as $24 for a half-bottle, which amazes me, because the restaurant price was less than twice that, and I'm used to a markup of three to four times. I mean, $24 for a retail half-bottle, and we got it, in a restaurant with full wine service, for only $46. If you can find this wine, you have GOT to try it. jehanna, I'm looking at you. The wine is wacky-nifty. It's the weirdest thing EVER. I don't know if I liked all the notes, but I found it really, really cool. So, you open the bottle and its initial nose is, honestly, petrol. And it drinks with an almost pickle-y taste for the first couple minutes. Then it opens up, and becomes floral, and a kind of astringent taste. And then it has an alcohol-y nose, and gets a little sulphur-y, and it keeps changing over the couple hours I was drinking it. I mean, by dessert, it had almost turned into what you EXPECT a Riesling to taste like. I don't know where the sweetness came from, but it did. And, of course, the rolls on the table are baked in-house, and are wonderful, but I'm assuming y'all know what really good simple bread tastes like -- the kind made from flour, water, yeast, and salt, and maybe using steam to crisp up the outside. Except they do it better than just about anyone else. So, on to the tastings. The first course was an arctic char pate. They didn't call it a "pate" -- I don't remember the word they used, because I didn't recognize it. I think it was something like "reillete", or "reyete" or something like that. [A commenter suggested this was probably a "rillette"] But it was arctic char, made into a pate consistency, with some lemon, and other flavors, with radish slices and mixed fresh herbs on top, and served with brioche toast. I don't normally like fish. Most people who know me know that. I usually will say simply that "I don't like fish", because it is simpler. The truth is, "I don't like fish that tastes like it is more than a couple hours old." I liked this. A whole lot. It was amazing. After a while, we got the second course. It was bluefish, served on a bed of wilted greens (I forget what kind, but they were good), with a reduced pan-juice sauce with brown butter and sherry. The bluefish had been caught that morning, fishing off a beach in South America. I forget exactly where in South America, but the point is, it was AMAZINGLY fresh. Looking back over my notes from two years ago, I note that we had bluefish then, too -- and this one and that one are the two best pieces of bluefish I've ever eaten. Looking around at the other diners who were getting the Chef's Whim (and you're not guaranteed to get the same thing as the people at the next table, but you often do), I think that this was one of the two courses that we wouldn't have gotten if we went for four instead of six courses. This fact makes me very happy that we went for the extended menu. The third course was a ragout with forest mushrooms, fresh greens including fiddlehead ferns, sorrel sauce, a lightly poached farm-fresh organic egg (laid that morning), and two pieces of blood sausage that had been made in-house. I like blood sausage. And this was, without a doubt, the absolute best blood sausage I've ever had. The fiddleheads were perfect -- which isn't easy: you pretty much have to pick them in the right ten minutes of the year -- the egg was amazing, the mushrooms were amazing. Oh, yeah. The other thing I can't stand are mushrooms. Except these. These were amazing. The sorrel sauce might have been a little overpowering, but it was served on the side, so you could add only as much as you wanted. Then we got to the fourth course, which was the other course that we got from the extended menu. It was a soup. A beef bullion with fresh ginger, confit, and forest mushrooms, among other flavors. It had an almost overpowering umami taste -- it was wonderful. And it was served with two pork croûtons. I bet you didn't know that you could make croûtons out of pork, did you? They are the same size and crunchiness as regular bread croûtons, but made out of pork and pork fat. The waiter told us that the staff, among themselves, refer to them as "porky croûtons of love". And I see why. You could put them in the soup, or you could just eat them plain. I did one of each. So then to the fifth course. Which, Lis and I agreed, was the weakest of the five courses, even though it was still amazingly good. It was a hangar steak from an organically raised Vermont cow, with a medallion of bone marrow, a burgundy-snail sauce on top, and a green garlic sauce on the side. I switched to a different wine for this course -- I got a half glass of Burgundy (I forgot to ask the vintage and vineyard), which I didn't write any tasting notes about, besides "earthy nose", because I just started drinking it, because it was good. So, I ate a snail. It was pretty good. And the sauce was good. Honestly, the weakest part of the course was the steak itself -- and that was because it was too heavily spiced. It had something of a pastrami flavor. Which I generally quite like, but I felt like it was fighting against the other flavors. I think I would have preferred the steak cooked without the spice rub, and just going with the flavors from the sauces. It was an AMAZINGLY tender piece of beef, and I frankly could have eaten it with no additional preparation, besides being cooked to perfection the way that it was. Then came dessert. With dessert, I finished off the Riesling, which, by that time, had magically turned into a dessert wine, and Lis ordered a glass of a dessert wine -- she let the waiter choose which one, as he knew what he'd be bringing, and could match a wine to it. Again, I forgot to get the name of the wine. Which is a pity, because Lis LOVED it. It was sweet, obviously, almost as sweet as a plum wine with a similar mouthfeel and drinking characteristics, but with more of an apple-y, cider-y flavor. Since Lis's two favorite alcohols are plum wine and cider, we were very impressed with the waiter's psychic powers, in finding the PERFECT wine for her. We got two desserts, and decided to trade them. Lis was served, and I ate, a rhubarb-and-dried fruit dish with a crumble topping, and homemade vanilla ice cream. I thought it was AMAZING -- a pretty simple, basic dessert concept, done just right. A similar effect to, like, a Brown Betty, something in that family of desserts. Done perfectly. What I got, and Lis ate, was something like a flan in texture, but white. On the side were blood orange slices and fennel sauce, and the flan was beautifully spiced. I really, really liked it, but liked the crumble better, and Lis liked the flan better -- it was sweeter. I only had one bite, so I don't really have a description of it, except, "yum." We spent an absolutely lovely three hours there, enjoying each other's company, and the food, and the wine. It was an amazing meal, but, if you'll excuse the glurge, the best part of it was being with my wife. Yes, the waiter got a really good tip, for recommending the Trimbach, and for choosing the perfect wine for Lis for dessert. ETA: Lis reminded me that this post isn't actually done! After dessert, we got another on-the-house course compliments of the chef. It was a champagne-orange soup with a yogurt sorbet. It was bitter, and sweet, and bubbly, and refreshing, and amazing. It was the best possible capper to the meal. Also, the chef came out, and we got to thank him for the amazing meal in person. Now, Ian and I have a slight difference of opinion, as I was certain the final treat was a champagne-mango soup, but either way, it was divine. The next time my parents are in town, I hope to treat them to the Chef's Whim. Hopefully with Ian's parents, too. They do offer a vegetarian version, and while the website says no substitutions, both upon making reservations and on arrival, the host asked if we had any food restrictions, so that might not be as strict as set out. I wish I could afford to treat all my foodie friends -- we were thinking of jehanna and also Ayesha (particularly while sopping up the fennel in my dessert). If you do go, leave plenty of extra time for parking. The restaurant has fewer spaces than there are tables, and it's in a residential neighborhood. You may have to circle a while before finding a space and having to shlep.
In other words: Carnival of the Feminists call for submissions
Posted by Lis Riba at 7:00 AM
Since Bitch|Lab is hosting, I'll just quote her directly:
The carnival's actually coming to town on my birthday. I wonder if I could hit the trifecta of suggested themes by writing further about FSD... Thursday, June 15, 2006
Mo(zilla) Better News
Posted by Lis Riba at 12:10 PM
[An update to Tuesday's Smooth move, Mozilla]
Well, after receiving a firestorm of criticism over the last two days, Mozilla has backed down on their attempts to enforce terms on anyone using their generic feed icon, six months after the campaign towards universal adoption began. Late yesterday, Frank Hecker, executive director of the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, proposed recommended usage guidelines for use of the feed icon, along with a FAQ:
Mind you, LiveJournal's icon for syndicated feeds (
Then again, Hecker notes that "some of the versions of the icon hosted on [feedicons.com] don't fully conform to the proposed visual guidelines," either. And feedicons.com is one of the main sites trying to popularize it as a standard. There've been some other interesting developments as well, including questions whether Mozilla actually has trademarkable rights in the icon (raised by one of the icon's co-creators) and why it's so similar to the four-year-old logo for DVB Viewer... FWIW, I've decided to wait on returning the feedicons to my UI until Opera restores it to their builds. Just to make sure there's no further funny business...
DVDriving me crazy
Posted by Lis Riba at 6:05 AM
Nobody answered when I posted this last month, so I'm trying again on a less-busy day: Earlier this year, I discovered:
Can anybody recommend a good freeware and/or open source program for copying files to the DVD drive under Windows? An actual high-quality compressing backup would be useful, too, but right now I just want to copy files so anybody can read them from disk and I can free up space on my hard drive.
*Yawn*
Posted by Lis Riba at 5:54 AM
You know, rainy nights aren't terribly restful if you've trained your subconscious to listen for the sound of a cat urinating nearby... Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Decisions, decisions
Posted by Lis Riba at 5:49 PM
Glenn Greenwald's book tour for How would a patriot act? finally makes its lone Boston stop: Tuesday, June 20 Meanwhile, Party at the Newbury Street LUSH When: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 6-8PM Hm. Rare chance to meet a blogger with whom I've exchanged comments and links, or free skincare products... BTW, that sample soap sliver from Sabon? Based on fragrance and appearance, I think it's Grass. [Can't entirely tell, since they gave me a piece about the size of two pennies stacked.] At any rate, I love the scent; if I keep it by my desk, I find myself sniffing it compulsively. I don't want to use it until I know what it is, but don't necessarily want to buy any until I've used it. I suppose I'll have to go into the store with my sliver, ask them "which soap is this?", then go back home without buying to try it out... Seems somewhat rude, but if they didn't want folks doing that, they should've labelled their samples, I suppose.
Saints preserve us! A different kind of potboiler
Posted by Lis Riba at 5:45 PM
So, I just finished reading Pickled, potted, and canned: how the art and science of food preserving changed the world by Sue Shephard (out-of-print, but coming soon in a paperback edition). The narrative is primarily organized themtically, by method, rather than chronologically or geographically. This allows technique to build upon technique, and really points up the convergences among extremely disparate cultures. However, if you're looking for information on the foods of a particular period or country, this may not be so helpful. The book opens on a somewhat dry note (pun unintended) but quickly picks up steam. I've often heard that the best cuisines are often the peasant foods, where folks have been forced to make the best with what they have available. This book shows how much the available preservation methos have influenced those tastes: cheeses, sausages, pickles, preserves... In the process, you'll read about lots of fascinating dishes you may want to try, and several you may find revolting. The latter half of the book focuses on innovations since the eighteenth century, such as canning and refrigeration. Since these are so much more recent, these chapters look more at the inventors themselves, and less on how it shaped people's daily diets. [And yet again, this really makes me want to read up on the discovery of vitamins as vitamins and how those changed the way people ate. Also interests me in looking the other way and finally reading Eating right in the Renaissance.] Previous book read was Black powder war, the third in Naomi Novik's Temeraire series (and last for a while, though she is working on future installments). Unfortunately, this one didn't wow me as much as the first two. Spoilers for the series and theorizing follows; highlight to read:
Yesterday evening I started Bad Prince Charlie by John Moore, which strikes me as cutesy but again not as compelling as the author's earlier books (The Unhandsome prince and Heroics for beginners). One amusing bit I wish to share from early on -- no spoilers:
[Heh, Amazon reviews of Pickled, potted, and canned criticize its lack of footnotes (a complaint I've also made about modern nonfiction), while it's been two years since I wrote about the increasing popularity of footnotes in fantasy fiction. The trend only seems to be intensifying. Explain that.] I also picked up Ready, steady, go! : the smashing rise and giddy fall of Swinging London from the library, to hopefully build on the conclusions from London 1945 which I read last month. What are you reading? PS: Forthcoming book found while searching for something else: Treading the bawds: actresses and playwrights on the late-Stuart stage by Gilli Bush-bailey. Isn't that a great title? Tuesday, June 13, 2006
The Language of Flowers
Posted by Lis Riba at 7:45 PM
Of our online wedding pictures, this is probably the best image of my bridal bouquet. So, here are the meanings of the predominant flowers we picked:
Even though we were ignorant of those meanings at the time, that's pretty good symbolism for establishing a life together, don't you think? Yes, Lis and Ian got married amid blossoming lisianthus. Furthermore, Anne is my middle name, so I was doubly in the blooms. And whether it's evidence of environment or genetics, my father was the first one to spot that little pun! PS: On Edible Books Day 2004, I revealed the symbolism and puns in our wedding cake. PPS: On further search, I find several sites attributing "Fantasy" to Queen Anne's Lace. In fact, the meanings for Queen Anne's Lace seem to be split about evenly between "Fantasy" and "Sanctuary". Both are cool, but I'm now curious to the origins and traditions behind each.
Realtime weather on Google Earth
Posted by Lis Riba at 7:40 PM
With hurricane season thirteen days in, and Alberto already on his way up the coast, I thought folks might be interested in this find, via Inside Google:
Smooth move, Mozilla
Posted by Lis Riba at 10:59 AM
Or: How to Lose Friends and Influence People
For over six months, FeedIcons.com has been spreading the word (and image files), evangelizing to promote consistency and reduce confusion. And the icon is certainly spreading. LiveJournal has adopted a variant for its syndicated feeds, and I even switched to it in my updated design. So, imagine my dismay when this morning's news feeds includes the following bit of bad news from Opera Watch:
Here's Opera's official statement on the matter (in their build announcement):
Yeah, Mozilla's filed a trademark on the icon. And so nice of them to raise the issue within one month of Opera 9's ship date... over four months after Opera first expressed interest in using the icon! Do you think Microsoft is being held to these terms, too, or is this just a way to shut out the third-party browser? Heck, yeah, I'm ticked! I've been a huge advocate within my company for standardizing on this icon in our UI. Now I have to tell upper management they either have to sign some kind of licesning agreement with Mozilla, or we need to design a new graphic. Makes me feel like a chump for trusting in Mozilla. I thought their efforts to universalize the icon were an act of open-source altruism, not a way to make everyone beholden to them! I'm still gathering information on how to present this at work, but for my own sake, I'm saying to heck with Mozilla! Until they shape up, I'm reverting my site design back to its old icon for feeds. Update:On Thursday, I wrote “Mo(zilla) Better News,” which has the latest information on the issue.
For old times' sake
Posted by Lis Riba at 8:30 AM
Aw, heck, you only just dropped me off at work, but this day needs to get a little more verse before I see you again...
For those who didn't already know and/or haven't picked it up yet, "As time goes by" is our song. Whaddaya say, love? Maybe a double feature of Casablanca and Desk Set tonight?
Lucky Seven
Posted by Lis Riba at 12:48 AM
It was seven years ago today that Ian and I stood under the chuppah, surrounded by our families and friends, and got married. And, as usual for this time of year, I take another look at the vows I wrote:
I think I've done pretty well by those, and am more than willing to commit to uphold them for all my foreseeable future. I recently found another poem I've been holding on to share with you:
Traditional gifts for a seventh anniversary* are wool or copper. [The modern seventh anniverary gift is a desk set, but since we already own the DVD of the film, that would probably be superfluous.] Monday, June 12, 2006
YearlyKos 2006 or BloggerCon 2003?
Posted by Lis Riba at 8:50 PM
The more things change, the more they stay the same. The first ever YearlyKos convention was held in Las Vegas last weekend, and many of the comments sounded awfully familiar: 1) Pam Spaulding, today about YearlyKos:
Me, October 2003 about BloggerCon:
2) Campus Progress via Slant Truth, today about YearlyKos:
Me, October 2003 about BloggerCon:
It's like deja vu all over again. TOP |
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