I finished reading George Eliot’s Middlemarch weeks ago. I put it off for years; I suspected it would be the best book I’d ever read and I wanted to have that experience to look forward to. I like rationing what I know will be superb, brilliant, superlative* books. I also feared what would happen to … Continue reading »
More on the Trollope/Dickens affair, or, why I’m more dubious than ever about biography
In the interests of following up on my entirely non-rhetorical question about what Trollope meant to Dickens, I’ve been doing a little reading. I’ve consulted Victoria Glendinning’s 1992 biography Anthony Trollope and ended up with a little bit of new information and a whole lot of new frustration. I’ll explain the latter shortly. But here’s … Continue reading »
A few updates
Hi there. This morning, I threw out my lower back (something that I’ve been susceptible to, on and off, since my early 20s–it’s always something completely innocuous that does it, such as sitting in a chair or (like this morning) untying my shoelaces). I’m comfortable enough, for the moment, sitting very upright in this computer … Continue reading »
The cocoa powder has met its match
Last week, I posted about Operation Empty the Cupboards, mentioning some pantry items I was long on in sheer volume and short on good ideas about. Andrew gave me an excellent idea for dealing with both the nori and the quinoa, while I successfully used up some peas in a green split pea sunflower pie … Continue reading »
Exquisite dishes, of the finest cuisine: Jorge Amado and the literary art of food
Jorge Amado’s Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands claims, in its subtitle, to be about “the fearsome battle between spirit and matter”. It isn’t much of a battle, in the end–having known extremities of sexual joy with her first husband, the roguish and incorrigible Vadhino, Dona Flor tries to re-imagine herself as a staid and … Continue reading »
Operation Empty the Cupboards
Oh hi. I’ve been busy the past week wrapping up my classes; actually, I’m not quite done. Tomorrow night will comprise my last three hours of “Edible Gardening in the City”. I should be working on my final presentation right now, but I thought I’d quickly provide a state of the nation blog post. (Also, … Continue reading »
Handwork for the over-educated and generally helpless youngish lady of the early 21st century
My formal higher education went on for approximately 500 uninterrupted years before I segued smoothly into the highly lucrative career of selling secondhand books. During my tenure as a pusher of moldering paperbacks, primarily of the Danielle Steele and Tom Clancy variety, I engaged in on the job training including, but not limited to: Updating … Continue reading »
Kale: a love story
I used to embody one kind of cliché: a kid, later a young adult, who didn’t like vegetables. In retrospect, this is perhaps not surprising given that the majority of my veg came from a can and/or was boiled into the world after the next world. No flavour, no substance; only pain, fear, and disgust. … Continue reading »
