Here's a link to 'stop buying crap' -- a blog after my own heart. In this installment: Things I'll never buy (my still unmaterialized) kids.
Note his car advice. He's going to buy his kid of a piece-of-crap, 23-year old used Japanese car. Well done! As I recommended earlier, it's something your kid can probably afford on his first salary after college.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Food: CSA's in the news
The New York Times has a story on Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). They frame it as buying a share of a farm. I like that idea, but I think it means I need to go volunteer at Towne's Harvest (my CSA).
Last week we picked up arugula, spinach, mesculan greens, cilantro and a thyme plant. It's still early in the growing season in Montana!
The arugula and mesculan greens made an excellent salad, and the spinach found its way into an egg bake. The cilantro went into fajitas and will also go on a Pad Thai I'll make tomorrow.
Last week we picked up arugula, spinach, mesculan greens, cilantro and a thyme plant. It's still early in the growing season in Montana!
The arugula and mesculan greens made an excellent salad, and the spinach found its way into an egg bake. The cilantro went into fajitas and will also go on a Pad Thai I'll make tomorrow.
Sueism: When in doubt, read.
I am in the midst of writing a book with two colleagues. We tentatively entitled it: Religion Implicated - What Sociology Teaches Us About Religion In Our World. Doesn't that title make you want to run out and buy it?
I'm responsible for four chapters, maybe five. The first two went really easily: An introduction to the sociological study of religion and a chapter on religion and science (I co-teach a seminar on that). The third chapter mystified me, however. Religion and the environment: What to say?!
So I started by reading a research literature I barely knew existed: How religious belief is linked, or not, to environmentalism; how Judeo-Christian religion shaped the technological and scientific advancements that have left us in an environmental mess; how Native Americans and other indigenous peoples respond to the appropriation of their religious traditions by environmentalists.
And the chapter wrote itself.
So I have a new Sueism: "When in doubt, read."
Its corollary: "When stuck, read."
I hope this strategy works as well for the Religion and Politics chapter. Right now I am reading about 'theocracy'.
I'm responsible for four chapters, maybe five. The first two went really easily: An introduction to the sociological study of religion and a chapter on religion and science (I co-teach a seminar on that). The third chapter mystified me, however. Religion and the environment: What to say?!
So I started by reading a research literature I barely knew existed: How religious belief is linked, or not, to environmentalism; how Judeo-Christian religion shaped the technological and scientific advancements that have left us in an environmental mess; how Native Americans and other indigenous peoples respond to the appropriation of their religious traditions by environmentalists.
And the chapter wrote itself.
So I have a new Sueism: "When in doubt, read."
Its corollary: "When stuck, read."
I hope this strategy works as well for the Religion and Politics chapter. Right now I am reading about 'theocracy'.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Budgeting: Really simple budgeting
Pear budgets calls itself 'really simple budgeting' and they are not kidding. I use Quicken for my financial stuff, despite Bessie's efforts to the contrary, but one thing Quicken does not do well, at least not in the old version I have, is handle irregular expenses (e.g., property taxes, insurance, car registration).
I saw a link for Pear Budgeting at the Get Rich Slowly website (also highly recommended), paid a quick visit and in less than 15 minutes had a budget laid out where I saw my monthly expenses and also what I should set aside monthly for my more irregular expenses.
I especially recommend these sorts of tools for my neices and nephews who are now young adults. Oh, the things I would have done differently! Saved $50 a month, no matter what, from when I got my first paycheck at age 15. OK, that's most of what I'd have done differently. But these websites give some nice tools for those new handling money. It's a nice headstart.
I saw a link for Pear Budgeting at the Get Rich Slowly website (also highly recommended), paid a quick visit and in less than 15 minutes had a budget laid out where I saw my monthly expenses and also what I should set aside monthly for my more irregular expenses.
I especially recommend these sorts of tools for my neices and nephews who are now young adults. Oh, the things I would have done differently! Saved $50 a month, no matter what, from when I got my first paycheck at age 15. OK, that's most of what I'd have done differently. But these websites give some nice tools for those new handling money. It's a nice headstart.
Food: Two more ways to eat vegetables
Gazpacho
This is based on the Gazpacho recipe in the Joy of Cooking, but substantially modified over the years. I keep a big bowl of it in the fridge through the summer. It’s a good way to eat more vegetables and a variety of them, it doesn’t have many calories and it’s very filling.
2 28 oz cans of diced tomatoes
2 sweet bell peppers, yellow and/or orange, seeded and diced
2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and diced
3 green onions, chopped (white and green parts)
1/3 cup each of fresh basil, tarragon, chives, dill (any 2, 3 or 4 will do), chopped
2 cups cold water
¼ - ½ cup olive oil
Juice of two lemons
Salt (to taste)
Mix the bell peppers, cucumbers, green onions and herbs in a large bowl. In a blender, puree 1 can of tomatoes, along with half the olive oil and 1 cup of water. Add to vegetable and herb mix, and repeat for the second can of tomatoes. Add lemon juice and salt (to taste).
This keeps nicely in the fridge for up to a week.
Summer-time Egg Bake
My friend Paula and I made this for ‘breakfast at Wimbledon’ this year. If you watched the men’s final, you’ll know that it extended well into ‘lunch at Wimbledon’ as well, but this kept us going for about 4 hours!
1 T olive oil
2 bell peppers (red and orange look best), seeded and chopped
2 cups fresh spinach, torn into small pieces
¼ cup chopped green onions (green and white portions)
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
6 eggs
2 T water
¼ cup fresh parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 375.
In a small pan, heat the olive oil and sauté the peppers until they just begin to soften.
In a shallow oven-proof dish, sprinkle the cheddar cheese in a thin layer. Top with spinach, sautéed peppers and green onions. Top with 6 eggs, distributing eggs evenly. Just break the eggs into the dish and lightly disrupt the egg yolk. Sprinkle water over mixture, and then parmesan cheese. Bake for 20 minutes or until egg is set.
We had this, along with berry muffins, for breakfast. The berry muffins use the Joy of Cooking muffin recipe, but we used whole wheat instead of white flour. In my experience, whole wheat flour is fine for making baked goods provided you will eat them in a day or two. And it’s much better for you than white flour.
This is based on the Gazpacho recipe in the Joy of Cooking, but substantially modified over the years. I keep a big bowl of it in the fridge through the summer. It’s a good way to eat more vegetables and a variety of them, it doesn’t have many calories and it’s very filling.
2 28 oz cans of diced tomatoes
2 sweet bell peppers, yellow and/or orange, seeded and diced
2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and diced
3 green onions, chopped (white and green parts)
1/3 cup each of fresh basil, tarragon, chives, dill (any 2, 3 or 4 will do), chopped
2 cups cold water
¼ - ½ cup olive oil
Juice of two lemons
Salt (to taste)
Mix the bell peppers, cucumbers, green onions and herbs in a large bowl. In a blender, puree 1 can of tomatoes, along with half the olive oil and 1 cup of water. Add to vegetable and herb mix, and repeat for the second can of tomatoes. Add lemon juice and salt (to taste).
This keeps nicely in the fridge for up to a week.
Summer-time Egg Bake
My friend Paula and I made this for ‘breakfast at Wimbledon’ this year. If you watched the men’s final, you’ll know that it extended well into ‘lunch at Wimbledon’ as well, but this kept us going for about 4 hours!
1 T olive oil
2 bell peppers (red and orange look best), seeded and chopped
2 cups fresh spinach, torn into small pieces
¼ cup chopped green onions (green and white portions)
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
6 eggs
2 T water
¼ cup fresh parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 375.
In a small pan, heat the olive oil and sauté the peppers until they just begin to soften.
In a shallow oven-proof dish, sprinkle the cheddar cheese in a thin layer. Top with spinach, sautéed peppers and green onions. Top with 6 eggs, distributing eggs evenly. Just break the eggs into the dish and lightly disrupt the egg yolk. Sprinkle water over mixture, and then parmesan cheese. Bake for 20 minutes or until egg is set.
We had this, along with berry muffins, for breakfast. The berry muffins use the Joy of Cooking muffin recipe, but we used whole wheat instead of white flour. In my experience, whole wheat flour is fine for making baked goods provided you will eat them in a day or two. And it’s much better for you than white flour.
Health: Ways we die
Here's an entry in the "New Old Age" blog at the New York Times. A geriatric medicine specialist asks people: "How many of you expect to die?" Slowly, reluctantly, the hands go up.
Well, there are only a few ways most people die, and none is ideal. You can die from cancer, probably relatively young but having lived an otherwise pretty healthy life. You can die from heart or lung disease, on average ten years older than the typical cancer death, but after sporadic serious illness -- ups and downs -- for a number of years. Or you can live into your eighties and beyond, and die of 'frailty and dementia': that's what's left for those who elude avoid cancer and heart/lung failure. It's a long slow decline.
I understand the urge to cure cancer, end heart disease and forestall other major organ failures. But we seldom ask what we are saving ourselves for: No one cheats death.
Well, there are only a few ways most people die, and none is ideal. You can die from cancer, probably relatively young but having lived an otherwise pretty healthy life. You can die from heart or lung disease, on average ten years older than the typical cancer death, but after sporadic serious illness -- ups and downs -- for a number of years. Or you can live into your eighties and beyond, and die of 'frailty and dementia': that's what's left for those who elude avoid cancer and heart/lung failure. It's a long slow decline.
I understand the urge to cure cancer, end heart disease and forestall other major organ failures. But we seldom ask what we are saving ourselves for: No one cheats death.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
UPAFTC
That's short for Unsolicited Parenting Advice From The Childless: What We Wish You Knew. It will be a best seller, once it has content to match the title.
Tip #17: High school students should not drive cars that are nicer than what they'll be able to afford on their salary from their first job after college.
Tip #17: High school students should not drive cars that are nicer than what they'll be able to afford on their salary from their first job after college.
By Request: Bessie
Bessie is my 13-year old tortie, eight pounds of black and orange cat, her claws sharpened on my bedroom walls. She’s full of opinion, often expressed with operatic precision at two in the morning.
She’s easily surprised: I can walk up behind her, talking away, but she doesn’t notice me until I pet her. Then it’s off to the opera. One night, as she yowled in the bathroom (all the better for echoing), I thought: “Oh my God. Can’t she hear herself?” Ah, insight. That’s when I realized she is a tad hard-of-hearing. Deaf, some might say.
Bessie is the only cat I know who eagerly approaches kids. She’s a big hit with the youngsters, most of whom have never seen a cat up close lessin' it had got a slow start running away. And then all they see is its patoshie, skeedaddling around the corner.
She does not like visiting the vet. The last time I brought her, she tried to escape by clawing to the top of the exam room window screen. We had to wrap her in a towel to give her shots. When released, she leapt at the vet assistant's torso, claws out, screaming like something out of Steven King’s Pet Cemetery. The vet decided to forgo further physical examination, settling instead for a visual scan from a safe distance. Then, with a straight face, he asked me: "So, does she have any problems?”
Bessie likes to sleep on my keyboard in the winter. Settling in, she has renamed files: I have icons on my desktop that I don’t recognize (-O(%29jfmp0?lod, anyone?). A few years ago, she permanently deleted my Quicken software. And on one particularly slow news day, she picked the r- and f-keys off my keyboard and played soccer with them. I never found the r-key.
Did you know that you cannot replace the r-key on your laptop keyboard without installing a whole new keyboard? That’s another story.
She’s easily surprised: I can walk up behind her, talking away, but she doesn’t notice me until I pet her. Then it’s off to the opera. One night, as she yowled in the bathroom (all the better for echoing), I thought: “Oh my God. Can’t she hear herself?” Ah, insight. That’s when I realized she is a tad hard-of-hearing. Deaf, some might say.
Bessie is the only cat I know who eagerly approaches kids. She’s a big hit with the youngsters, most of whom have never seen a cat up close lessin' it had got a slow start running away. And then all they see is its patoshie, skeedaddling around the corner.
She does not like visiting the vet. The last time I brought her, she tried to escape by clawing to the top of the exam room window screen. We had to wrap her in a towel to give her shots. When released, she leapt at the vet assistant's torso, claws out, screaming like something out of Steven King’s Pet Cemetery. The vet decided to forgo further physical examination, settling instead for a visual scan from a safe distance. Then, with a straight face, he asked me: "So, does she have any problems?”
Bessie likes to sleep on my keyboard in the winter. Settling in, she has renamed files: I have icons on my desktop that I don’t recognize (-O(%29jfmp0?lod, anyone?). A few years ago, she permanently deleted my Quicken software. And on one particularly slow news day, she picked the r- and f-keys off my keyboard and played soccer with them. I never found the r-key.
Did you know that you cannot replace the r-key on your laptop keyboard without installing a whole new keyboard? That’s another story.
Health Policy: Universal Health Care
The New York Times has an in-depth story on a cancer drug, Avastin, and its positive but largely marginal benefits to patients. The problem: It's a really expensive drug.
What's a doctor, a patient, an insurance company to do?
From the article:
"Dr. Winer says that when he is not sitting in front of a patient, he thinks about whether drugs like Avastin are worth it to society. But when facing a seriously ill patient, who, based on clinical trial results, might benefit — even if only a little — from Avastin along with chemotherapy, he has to think about his patient’s needs.
“I can’t say, ‘Let’s not use Avastin; it’s a very expensive drug and I am worried about the cost to society,’ ” Dr. Winer said."
And here's one of the problems with rushing into 'universal health care' before we figure out and communicate to the public what that means in practice. What will be covered and what will be excluded? Who will decide?
You can think about health care, for society as a whole, as having three desirable characteristics: Ideally it would be of low cost, high quality and accessible to all. The problem is that you cannot independently maximize each of these dimensions: there is no such thing as low cost, high quality health care for everyone. You have to give on at least one of these dimensions.
So: You can have cheap health care for everyone, but it's quality will not be maximized.
Or: You can have high quality health care for everyone, but it's going to cost you big bucks.
Or: You can have cheap and high quality health care, but you are going to have a heck of a time delivering this to everyone.
So, before I am willing to go for 'universal health care', I want us to face up to this reality and articulate what it means.
A society where so many are convinced that they should never grow old, should never die, no matter how they neglect their basic health, is not the ideal spot to implement universal health care.
What's a doctor, a patient, an insurance company to do?
From the article:
"Dr. Winer says that when he is not sitting in front of a patient, he thinks about whether drugs like Avastin are worth it to society. But when facing a seriously ill patient, who, based on clinical trial results, might benefit — even if only a little — from Avastin along with chemotherapy, he has to think about his patient’s needs.
“I can’t say, ‘Let’s not use Avastin; it’s a very expensive drug and I am worried about the cost to society,’ ” Dr. Winer said."
And here's one of the problems with rushing into 'universal health care' before we figure out and communicate to the public what that means in practice. What will be covered and what will be excluded? Who will decide?
You can think about health care, for society as a whole, as having three desirable characteristics: Ideally it would be of low cost, high quality and accessible to all. The problem is that you cannot independently maximize each of these dimensions: there is no such thing as low cost, high quality health care for everyone. You have to give on at least one of these dimensions.
So: You can have cheap health care for everyone, but it's quality will not be maximized.
Or: You can have high quality health care for everyone, but it's going to cost you big bucks.
Or: You can have cheap and high quality health care, but you are going to have a heck of a time delivering this to everyone.
So, before I am willing to go for 'universal health care', I want us to face up to this reality and articulate what it means.
A society where so many are convinced that they should never grow old, should never die, no matter how they neglect their basic health, is not the ideal spot to implement universal health care.
Baseball: Doug Glanville, the writer?
Nothing is more boring than listening to someone talk about her fantasy baseball team. So I'll spare you.
But I will direct you to an occasional series of New York Times columns by former big-leaguer Doug Glanville. He's smart, articulate and literate.
"The problem with being pre-ordained" is a case in point. It's about the collapse of the Cubbies in 2003. High hopes, shattered dreams, and all. But read it, and try to convince me that it isn't an allegory for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential bid!
And "Lovers not fighters", well, you'll never look at a baseball brawl in quite the same way again.
I look forward to seeing what Glanville comes up with next.
But I will direct you to an occasional series of New York Times columns by former big-leaguer Doug Glanville. He's smart, articulate and literate.
"The problem with being pre-ordained" is a case in point. It's about the collapse of the Cubbies in 2003. High hopes, shattered dreams, and all. But read it, and try to convince me that it isn't an allegory for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential bid!
And "Lovers not fighters", well, you'll never look at a baseball brawl in quite the same way again.
I look forward to seeing what Glanville comes up with next.
Friday, July 4, 2008
A Favorite Quote: Langston Hughes
“Then it was that books began to happen to me, and I began to believe in nothing but books and the wonderful world in books – where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables, as we did in Kansas.”
In the News: July 4, 2008
Barack Obama returns to Montana. What unexpected words! Obama spent the 4th of July in Butte, MT following up on very successful trips here before our June 3 primary.
Butte and Missoula are Montana's two biggest Democratic strongholds, but they are very different kinds of places. I have often thought of Missoula as Seattle/Portland-East, with hippies and health food and dred locks. Butte, in contrast, is a gritty working-class town orbiting around mining and labor unions before the decline of that industry.
The Post also had a story on a big, and secretive, land deal outside of Missoula, which will open up a significant amount of forest land to McMansion-style development: "Most are the second, third or even fourth homes of wealthy newcomers who have transformed the local economy -- 40 percent of income in Missoula County is now "unearned," from, say, dividends -- and typically visit only in the summer."
They're not building those houses outside Butte, MT. Enough said.
Butte and Missoula are Montana's two biggest Democratic strongholds, but they are very different kinds of places. I have often thought of Missoula as Seattle/Portland-East, with hippies and health food and dred locks. Butte, in contrast, is a gritty working-class town orbiting around mining and labor unions before the decline of that industry.
The Post also had a story on a big, and secretive, land deal outside of Missoula, which will open up a significant amount of forest land to McMansion-style development: "Most are the second, third or even fourth homes of wealthy newcomers who have transformed the local economy -- 40 percent of income in Missoula County is now "unearned," from, say, dividends -- and typically visit only in the summer."
They're not building those houses outside Butte, MT. Enough said.
Health: Diabetes is serious
The New York Times' Tara Parker-Pope reports on a recent study that shows people regularly underestimate the severity of diabetes as a health concern.
When I was in grad school in the early 1990's, I worked one summer doing intake interviews for a low-vision study at a VA Hospital. I remember two things, in particular: Of the low-vision patients I interviewed, most had diabetes and many were missing limbs (typically feet and legs). Turns out diabetes damages your body in all kinds of ways.
So, when I came up a couple of years in a row with blood sugar numbers that were 'pre-diabetic', you can believe I took it seriously. Here's a helpful site from the American Diabetes Association. It's good food and lots of exercise, not rocket science!
When I was in grad school in the early 1990's, I worked one summer doing intake interviews for a low-vision study at a VA Hospital. I remember two things, in particular: Of the low-vision patients I interviewed, most had diabetes and many were missing limbs (typically feet and legs). Turns out diabetes damages your body in all kinds of ways.
So, when I came up a couple of years in a row with blood sugar numbers that were 'pre-diabetic', you can believe I took it seriously. Here's a helpful site from the American Diabetes Association. It's good food and lots of exercise, not rocket science!
Food: Bruschetta
I made bruschetta for a dinner party earlier this week. I used a recipe that our long-time family friend Ray shared with me. The ingredients are the same as his, but I'm sure I have modified relative quantities over the years:
6 big ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, chopped
1 bunch fresh basil, chopped
1 T minced garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
dash of salt
1 baguette, sliced
Combine everything but the baguette. Let sit for a while (minutes, hours, days). This is a no-cook sauce! Ray puts this on freshly cooked pasta (indeed, he probably puts it on freshly
made pasta). But if you put it on baguette slices, you have bruschetta. If you are ambitious, you can dip each piece of bread in a little bowl of olive oil and toast for about 5-6 minutes; then put the tomato sauce on it.
My dinner hosts asked where I got the tomatoes: "From the salmonella farm, where else?" The good news for Montana: We haven't had a single reported case of salmonella since the 'outbreak' began. Bring the tomatoes back!
6 big ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, chopped
1 bunch fresh basil, chopped
1 T minced garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
dash of salt
1 baguette, sliced
Combine everything but the baguette. Let sit for a while (minutes, hours, days). This is a no-cook sauce! Ray puts this on freshly cooked pasta (indeed, he probably puts it on freshly
made pasta). But if you put it on baguette slices, you have bruschetta. If you are ambitious, you can dip each piece of bread in a little bowl of olive oil and toast for about 5-6 minutes; then put the tomato sauce on it.
My dinner hosts asked where I got the tomatoes: "From the salmonella farm, where else?" The good news for Montana: We haven't had a single reported case of salmonella since the 'outbreak' began. Bring the tomatoes back!
Sueisms: A new feature
On making good food choices: "They'll still be making Oreo Cookies next week."
"If it's not enough, it's enough." (Actually that is a mom-and-dadism. But my corollary is "If it's not done by midnight, it's done." After all, "sleep is my friend.")
"If it's not enough, it's enough." (Actually that is a mom-and-dadism. But my corollary is "If it's not done by midnight, it's done." After all, "sleep is my friend.")
Silver Linings: The Beginning of the End of the Obesity Crisis
The Washington Post reports that the American Family Association (AFA) is going to boycott McDonalds because it is insufficiently unfriendly to gays and lesbians: "McDonald's joined the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce several months ago and placed an executive on the group's board of directors, in addition to donating to the chamber."
The upside is improved health of AFA adherents. The downside is an increased likelihood that I will run in them in the locally-owned places I frequent.
In case you missed it, here's a review of Fast Food Nation.
Supersize Me, where Morgan Spurlock gains 20 pounds after a month of grazing through the McDonald's menu, is also worth a look. But only if you plan to swear off fast food until you forget what the film was about. Check out the review by Christianity Today, an evangelical publication. It provides a quick dip into the evangelical worldview and mindset.
The upside is improved health of AFA adherents. The downside is an increased likelihood that I will run in them in the locally-owned places I frequent.
In case you missed it, here's a review of Fast Food Nation.
Supersize Me, where Morgan Spurlock gains 20 pounds after a month of grazing through the McDonald's menu, is also worth a look. But only if you plan to swear off fast food until you forget what the film was about. Check out the review by Christianity Today, an evangelical publication. It provides a quick dip into the evangelical worldview and mindset.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Sociology in the News: Liberal profs retire?
According to the New York Times, there is a sea change in sociology: Old Marxists and conflict theorists on the way out, replaced by young and apolitical quant jocks. Just a note from the field: Sociology faculty are still pretty liberal.
Food: 4 for 11, not bad
From Tara Parker-Pope of the New York Times, 11 best foods we're not eating.
I've got four of these in the house.
1. Cabbage. I buy it already shredded, purple and green, mixed with shredded carrots. It's packaged by "Duncan" from California in a little plastic bag with a twistie tie. It feels like it is something between fresh and sealed in an airtight bag. On the advice of Mark Bittman, I put it in a bowl and mix in some olive oil and rice wine vinegar, and let it sit an hour. Great cole slaw.
2. Cinnamon. I put it in the egg batter for French toast. I'm not sure that's the best way to eat it, though!
3. Tumeric. This doesn't have much flavor but adds a nice yellow/orange glow to a pork curry dish that I make. Again, I may be cancelling out its benefits with how I eat it.
4. Frozen blueberries. In the freezer, to mix with plain yogurt and granola.
Pomegranate juice? I don't drink any juices -- too sweet. Haven't eaten a pomegranate since high school.
Sardines? Do anchovies count? I love anchovies.
And I expect my CSA to deliver swiss chard, beets and pumpkin this year. Little Heathens has instructions for how to make pumpkin for pie from scratch. I plan to try this.
I've got four of these in the house.
1. Cabbage. I buy it already shredded, purple and green, mixed with shredded carrots. It's packaged by "Duncan" from California in a little plastic bag with a twistie tie. It feels like it is something between fresh and sealed in an airtight bag. On the advice of Mark Bittman, I put it in a bowl and mix in some olive oil and rice wine vinegar, and let it sit an hour. Great cole slaw.
2. Cinnamon. I put it in the egg batter for French toast. I'm not sure that's the best way to eat it, though!
3. Tumeric. This doesn't have much flavor but adds a nice yellow/orange glow to a pork curry dish that I make. Again, I may be cancelling out its benefits with how I eat it.
4. Frozen blueberries. In the freezer, to mix with plain yogurt and granola.
Pomegranate juice? I don't drink any juices -- too sweet. Haven't eaten a pomegranate since high school.
Sardines? Do anchovies count? I love anchovies.
And I expect my CSA to deliver swiss chard, beets and pumpkin this year. Little Heathens has instructions for how to make pumpkin for pie from scratch. I plan to try this.
Vacation Reading: Animal Vegetable Miracle
This memoir of a year of eating locally is on my list of favorite books, because it is the most memorable of the recent books I've read.
I admit: I have never read one of Barbara Kingslover's novels (are her books about bounty hunters?!). But I recently joined a CSA (Towne's Harvest in Bozeman, MT) and I am taken with the idea of eating locally, as quioxitic as that idea is in a small isolated community where the summer growing season is about 3 1/2 months long. We received our first week's harvest on the 27th of June. Since I split it with three other people, I brought home a handful of lettuce (delicious) and one-yes, one-beautiful and not at all sharp tasting radish. The radish ended up on tuna salad.
A friend of mine told me that she'd only gotten about 1/3 of the way into AVM, because she found it preachy. I concur: Kingslover has her moments of self-righteousness. But those moments are balanced by humor, and the enormity of the task she and her family undertook perhaps entitles her to a bit of preaching.
I particularly appreciated her defense of meat-eating, provided you know your meat and how it lived and died. It was a deft balance of gory detail, righteous defense of eating turkeys your kids had actually named, and good humor.
I have considered vegetarianism in the last year or so, not so much out of empathy for animals as concern for how inefficiently we produce meat. I had arrived at the plausible option (for me) of 'vegetarianism plus bacon' (because by the time it is bacon, it is hardly meat anymore!).
But I am relieved to see that if I can eat locally produced meat, then I can elide many of the inefficiencies of meat production. It doesn't make me eager to go find a Hutterite (or as a student once wrote: 'Hooterright') chicken this weekend, of course. I'm still not much of a meat-eater. But I think I'll put vegetarianism on the back burner.
I was also struck by Kingslover's well defended ethical decision to pack her family up and move them to southwestern Virginia so that they could undertake this adventure. (Local eating is apparently less of an option in the desert Southwest.) I decided this spring that I could not move to exactly that part of the country, and for what to me are ethical reasons. That is, I could not see moving from a place where I can essentially walk everywhere I need to go in order to move to a place where I would have to drive my car for miles every day. Just goes to show, I guess, that there are lots of different kinds of ethics.
I admit: I have never read one of Barbara Kingslover's novels (are her books about bounty hunters?!). But I recently joined a CSA (Towne's Harvest in Bozeman, MT) and I am taken with the idea of eating locally, as quioxitic as that idea is in a small isolated community where the summer growing season is about 3 1/2 months long. We received our first week's harvest on the 27th of June. Since I split it with three other people, I brought home a handful of lettuce (delicious) and one-yes, one-beautiful and not at all sharp tasting radish. The radish ended up on tuna salad.
A friend of mine told me that she'd only gotten about 1/3 of the way into AVM, because she found it preachy. I concur: Kingslover has her moments of self-righteousness. But those moments are balanced by humor, and the enormity of the task she and her family undertook perhaps entitles her to a bit of preaching.
I particularly appreciated her defense of meat-eating, provided you know your meat and how it lived and died. It was a deft balance of gory detail, righteous defense of eating turkeys your kids had actually named, and good humor.
I have considered vegetarianism in the last year or so, not so much out of empathy for animals as concern for how inefficiently we produce meat. I had arrived at the plausible option (for me) of 'vegetarianism plus bacon' (because by the time it is bacon, it is hardly meat anymore!).
But I am relieved to see that if I can eat locally produced meat, then I can elide many of the inefficiencies of meat production. It doesn't make me eager to go find a Hutterite (or as a student once wrote: 'Hooterright') chicken this weekend, of course. I'm still not much of a meat-eater. But I think I'll put vegetarianism on the back burner.
I was also struck by Kingslover's well defended ethical decision to pack her family up and move them to southwestern Virginia so that they could undertake this adventure. (Local eating is apparently less of an option in the desert Southwest.) I decided this spring that I could not move to exactly that part of the country, and for what to me are ethical reasons. That is, I could not see moving from a place where I can essentially walk everywhere I need to go in order to move to a place where I would have to drive my car for miles every day. Just goes to show, I guess, that there are lots of different kinds of ethics.
In the news: July 3, 2008
I was a little surprised to hear that Barack Obama has come out in favor of faith-based initiatives receiving governmental support. In addition to the news story, the Washington Post published two opinion pieces on this development: Michael Gerson likes it, as does EJ Dionne.
Of course, I'd have fewer objectives to government support of faith-based initiatives if any of the initiatives so supported grew out of non-Christian (or Judeo-Christian) traditions. As far as I can tell, the Bush administration has limited the understanding of 'faith-based' to Christian only. That, to me, is a real problem. I hope Democrats do better.
But, I remind myself that I am unlikely to agree with every position my preferred candidate takes. In my book, this does not rise to the level of declaring war. But it is not a policy I'm jumping up and down in support of.
Of course, I'd have fewer objectives to government support of faith-based initiatives if any of the initiatives so supported grew out of non-Christian (or Judeo-Christian) traditions. As far as I can tell, the Bush administration has limited the understanding of 'faith-based' to Christian only. That, to me, is a real problem. I hope Democrats do better.
But, I remind myself that I am unlikely to agree with every position my preferred candidate takes. In my book, this does not rise to the level of declaring war. But it is not a policy I'm jumping up and down in support of.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)