Loosely Speaking

By Ciel - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Everything Else

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Waking up, smelling the coffee...

Suddenly it's Thursday... Sunshine is coming through the curtains, and someone promised me something approaching warmth in the weather today. Warmth in the 60s Farenheit. Long, slow spring this year. I have a couple of friends who live north of the border who are maybe dealing with snow again this morning and looking knowingly at each other, casting my way a raised eye-brow, that look of 'some people just can't see Truth even when they are shoveling off their doorstep.' These two don't believe... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

A response to Naut and others regarding Jerusalem

No matter how well Israel manages Jerusalem, there will always be the full range of the opposed, from the political detractors who are essentially simply anti-semitic to the all-out extremists who have sworn on the blood of their parents and children not to cease their efforts until Israel is driven into the sea. Israel has its extremists, too, without a doubt, but it is essentially a civil society which the cultural ideal of tolerance makes possible. Patience, compromise and good-faith are the... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Darwin Awards nominee

Imagine a kid on a bus tour who is someday, a likely winner of this anti-prestigious award. Because he is over 18, this hypothetical young fellow, he fancies himself a Man, and expects the rest of the world to respect that, to give over the honors and kowtows he feels entitled to by having survived this long. He is a petulant emotional bully to his father who was also along on the trip, and a wonder of cynical 'wisdom' as only a benighted adolescent can be. Also typically of the type, he never... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, March 15, 2010

This one's for Pat

Pioneer Cafe, Montana Morning Ladies of a certain age, girls no more except in the heart: What Life has given you have taken despite the dreams you had, despite intentions and resistance; Age acquiring resilience for survival's sake when life is hard or dull beyond endurance. Power in the circle around the cafe table every morning every day except Sundays, maybe: Ladies, old and aging socializing despite, because of Life; finding, making, sharing power 'round this table... and resilience,... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Disasters... not all that natural...

The earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and Turkey... Hurricane K in New Orleans... Dense fogs and driving rains and 70-car pile-ups... Nature does what it does. It isn't doing anything new. The disasters are not of nature but of our own unreadiness for the predictable, the inevitable. Where are the common sense and foresight to be prepared? What if the billions of recovery dollars going to Haiti now had gone years ago, to break the poverty there, and to build properly, to preserve human life and... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

peaceWorks

A few years ago, there was an organization started locally to promote peace. It lasted a while with its founder, but she left the area and put it in the hands of her second, who strove to keep it going. I connected with her and this fledgling effort at about the time she, working pretty much alone, was close to burn-out. That was 1988. We worked together on it, held some public meetings, wrote up a flyer, started a newsletter and did a few consciousness-raising projects around the state. The... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, February 22, 2010

I mentioned hot'n'sour soup...

Today I brought home a container from the restaurant that makes the good stuff... with bbq pork and bamboo shoots and carrots and mushrooms... and I shopped for a few more items... green onion, water chestnuts, some napa cabbage, and shitake mushrooms... fresh! Added in some lime juice and a little hoisin sauce... mmmm, not bad...! Only one thing wrong with it. It's gone, now. Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Breakfast, fast...

In fact, soup is one of the best fast and simple breakfasts there is... particularly if you are retranslating fat into less-fat. However... this is also a quick one worth the flurry of activity it takes to achieve, and because it assembles in one pan, I can attest it is a fine campfire breakfast, too! Way better than individually boxed frootloops. I prefer a cast-iron skillet, hot, with some olive oil in it. When the oil is hot, too, I turn down the heat to moderate high, and add either pieces... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

youtube Auden

If you read the WH Auden poem I posted in and about in recent weeks, you might enjoy this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWtVYYoJFl4 Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Never leave soup alone

I always cringed when Mom said we were having soup for lunch. Slow to eat, and as boring to taste... Usually canned Campbells, frequently chicken noodle. Sometimes tomato. When I got to college, dorm life changed soup for me. I had a stove and a pot... and I started making my own soup. Now that was a revelation! The first was a pot of beef broth made with some leftover roast beef and fresh vegetables, then at the end, I added in the last of the unsimmered beef so it had its full flavor in the... Sign in to see full entry.

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