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Archive for TehipiteTom
Tough Enough
My favorite passage in Insurgent Mexico is this one, in which John Reed argues the Woman Question with Pancho Villa:
Once I asked him if women would vote in the new Republic. He was sprawled out on his bed, with his coat unbuttoned. “Why, I don’t think so,” he said, startled, suddenly sitting up. “What do you mean–vote? Do you mean elect a government and make laws?” I said I did and that women already were doing it in the United States. “Well,” he said, scratching his head: “if they do it up there I don’t see that they shouldn’t do it down here.” The idea seemed to amuse him enormously. He rolled it over and over in his mind, looking at me and away again. “It may be as you say,” he said; “but I have never thought about it. Women seem to me to be things to protect, to love. They have no sternness of mind. They can’t consider anything for its right or wrong. They are full of pity and softness. Why,” he said, “a woman would not give an order to execute a traitor.”
“I am not so sure of that, mi General,” I said. “Women can be crueller and harder than men.”
He stared at me, pulling his mustache. And then he began to grin. He looked slowly to where his wife was setting the table for lunch. “Oiga,” he said, “come here. Listen. Last night I caught three traitors crossing the river to blow up the railroad. What shall I do with them? Shall I shoot them or not?” » Read more..
Tuesday Trivia: The Whedonverse in Numbers
In Deborah’s absence, here’s a little trivia quiz for the Joss fans out there:
- 1630 Revello, Buffy’s residence [solved by Maurinsky]
- 2517: the year in which Firefly is set [solved by Amy]
- 1880 is the year William the Bloody Awful Poet is turned [solved by George]
- 11 Firefly episodes aired/14 episodes produced [solved by Maurinsky]
- “Counting down from 730” – the countdown to Buffy’s death [solved by Amy] (bonus point: 7:30)
- Room 619 at the Hyperion, where Jasmine stays [solved by George]
(hint: this belongs to a set that also includes 315, 215, and 217 (rooms at the Hyperion mentioned in Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?)) - Room 314, the room in The Initiative where Adam is born [solved by Amy]
Update: All solved except for the bonus point. I’m sure someone out there can give us 7:30.
Best Billboard Ever
This is a billboard for a New Zealand pizza chain called Hell Pizza. Alas, some people complained, and the New Zealand Advertising Standards Complaint Board upheld the complaints.
Oh well.
On the plus side:
The board ruled the choice of words was irresponsible, but the association with Mr Bush did not cause serious or widespread offence.
So it was the language that was inappropriate, not the slam at Bush. Sounds reasonable to me.
[Cross-posted at If I Ran the Zoo]
Friday Rubble Blogging
This is some rubble we saw in Kotor, Montenegro in 1988.
Friday Slurm Blogging
Jody is feeding it on a more or less 24-hour schedule right now–enough to keep it reasonably active, but not the full schedule necessary for bread readiness. When Jody wants to make bread, she’ll feed it about every 8 hours or so for a day beforehand.
Love —> Buildings on Fire
Not really fire; just sunset reflected in the windows of Lone Mountain campus, USF.
Tolerance: Inappropriate in Fort Wayne
Here’s a story of basic human decency in darkest Indiana:
Sophomore Megan Chase wrote an opinion piece – her first for the [school] newspaper – that appeared in the Jan. 19 issue of the Woodlan Tomahawk that questioned people who believe it’s wrong to be gay or lesbian. Chase said she wrote the piece after a friend disclosed to her he was gay.
“I can only imagine how hard it would be to come out as homosexual in today’s society,” Chase wrote. “I think it is so wrong to look down on those people, or to make fun of them, just because they have a different sexuality than you. There is nothing wrong with them or their brain; they’re just different than you.”
…and of the efforts of school officials to crush it:
A student editorial in the Woodlan Junior-Senior High School newspaper calling for more tolerance for gays and lesbians sparked the principal to seek approval of each edition before it goes to print and issue a written warning against the journalism teacher….
Principal Edwin Yoder wrote a letter to the newspaper staff and journalism teacher Amy Sorrell insisting he sign off on every issue. Sorrell and the students contacted the Student Press Law Center, an advocacy group for student newspapers, which advised them to appeal the decision.
Last week, Yoder issued Sorrell a written warning for insubordination and not carrying out her responsibilities as a teacher. He accused her of exposing Woodlan students, who are in grades seven through 12, to inappropriate material and said if she did not comply with his orders she could be fired.
Inappropriate material. Advance Indiana has the full text of the editorial (scroll down). Go read it and see if you can tell any better than I can what the ‘inappropriate’ part is. The part where she says homosexuality is not a disease? Where she says it’s unfair for religion to condemn people to hell for something that isn’t a choice? Where she says being homosexual doesn’t make a person inhuman?
The journalism teacher and students are fighting it, with help from the Student Press Law Center. Meanwhile, the Fort Wayne Community School District “encourages [us] to comment or ask questions”, so if you have any comments or questions be sure to drop them a line.
(Hat tip: Shakespeare’s Sister.)
[Cross-posted at If I Ran the Zoo]
Sunday Sierrablogging
Anne Lake on the Silver Divide, John Muir Wilderness.
Fun With Vodka: Pink Peppercorn-Lemon Vodka
A few years ago I discovered, to my horror, that my favorite pepper vodka (Pertsovka, made by Stolichnaya) was no longer available. I decided to take matters into my own hands and try making my own infusions. I experimented with various flavors of peppercorns and chiles, and got some really nice stuff.
Then I found a nice honey-pepper vodka (Nemiroff, from the Ukraine) at the Russian deli I frequent. Being naturally lazy, I let my infusion experiments slide and drank Nemiroff instead.
Recently, I started playing around with it again, and made a lovely pink peppercorn-lemon vodka. It’s extremely easy: in about a fifth of vodka, use 20-30 pink peppercorns and maybe 1/2 tsp of lemon zest (more if you want a more lemony vodka…but you knew that, didn’t you?). Let it steep for a couple of weeks, strain out the peppercorns and lemon zest, and there it is.
This makes a really nice V&V1; just use more vermouth than you would with non-flavored vodka, and garnish with a twist.
It’s also really good with lemonade–which obviously has to be made from fresh lemon juice. My recipe, adapted from the old Joy of Cooking:
1 quart water
3/4 cup sugar
3 oz. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. lemon zest
1/2 tsp. salt
Heat water, sugar, and lemon zest until sugar is dissolved. Add lemon juice. Strain and cool.
Enjoy!
1Vermouth & vodka
