another new toaster oven – really?
Posted: July 31, 2019 Filed under: Cooking, SoCal Life Leave a commentI really had no desire to buy yet another kitchen appliance. I figured we were in good shape as far that went. But when I went to unplug our toaster oven the other day, I noticed that the cord was hot. I mentioned that to Terry, and she said that she had noticed the same thing. She also pointed out that the toast was burning around the edges, even on the light toast setting. I had noticed that as well, but I figured it was operator error. Guess not.
It really hasn’t been that long since we replaced our toaster oven, less than two years, but here we are again. My brother, who is a retired firefighter, told us then that when the cord is hot, to waste no time. He said, in essence, do not pass Go, do not collect $200, do not wait for the next sale. Replace it now.
The most recent toaster oven had a convection setting. But that was well before we got our new stove with its convection oven. This time around we opted for a smaller model without the convection capability, but with toast, bake, and broil. We’re trading in Hamilton Beach for Black and Decker. Our new toaster oven takes up considerably less counter space, which is a nice bonus, given that counter space is at a premium in our kitchen.
It’s not something we wanted to do, but when my brother speaks about fire safety we listen.
waiting for the Holy Spirit
Posted: July 29, 2019 Filed under: Episcopal thoughts, Religion, Spirituality Leave a commentI am not a trinitarian kind of guy, as I have more than once noted here. My personal theology is much closer to rabbinic Judaism than it is to a Christian trinitarian perspective. Yet I am an Episcopalian, about as trinitarian a denomination as it’s possible to be.
Nonetheless I do sometimes like the idea of the Holy Spirit, depending on how it is portrayed. Some of the best, most interesting, and fun portrayals can be found in the Facebook page Unvirtuous Abbey. One of my favorites is this one. It reminds me that in those moments when God seems far away one only need wait a short while for the arrival of His (Her!) presence.
vegetarian chili
Posted: July 26, 2019 Filed under: Cooking, Recipes Leave a comment
I continue my quest to try plant-based alternatives to meats. Sprouts Farmers Market market recently added a couple of LightLife products in addition to their Beyond Meat line. I bought a package of their Ground product and used it to make chili. I sautéed it with chili con carne seasoning and then added crushed tomatoes, black beans, and tomato sauce. I seasoned it with cumin, coriander, garlic, freshly ground pepper, and minced onion.
It was good. Really good. I’ve made a similar chili with Morningstar Grillers Crumbles and this was far superior.
The food industry is making great strides in this realm. I anxiously await the arrival of the Impossible Burger at Burger King here in Southern California.
the sunflowers have arrived
Posted: July 22, 2019 Filed under: SoCal Life Leave a comment
I wrote some weeks back about how we didn’t have sunflowers this year. I was disappointed and speculated that perhaps this was due to our unusually wet winter.
I’m delighted to say that the sunflowers have arrived. They started showing up shortly after the Fourth of July. They are now out in abundance and are showing up on undeveloped property throughout the west side of the San Jacinto valley.
You may recall my writing that sunflowers to me represent hope, progress, and new beginnings. I am, therefore, most happy to see them this year in spite of their late arrival.
we lost our Indian restaurant
Posted: July 19, 2019 Filed under: Food and Drink, SoCal Life Leave a commentMy brother Brian is really good at updating me on things he knows I’m interested in. Like when he told me that there was an Indian restaurant going in on the east side of town. Terry and I live on the far west side of Hemet and my brother lives near the extreme eastern border of the city limits. So I appreciate it when he tells me about what’s happening out that way.
The restaurant was “It’s Taste of India,” which is rather odd grammatically. Either there is an “a” missing or the restaurant was owned by someone named It. In either case, Terry and I were delighted that the restaurant opened, because previously the closest Indian restaurant was thirty minutes south of us in the congested, high-traffic realm of Temecula.
We were pleased with the food at Taste of India and valued the hospitality of the owner. We had lupper (late lunch/early supper) there a number of times and always loved it.
I was unhappy, then, when Brian told me that a Mexican restaurant had moved into that space. When I had a chance to head out that way myself I saw that beneath the restaurant name the sign said, “Authentic Mexican Food.” Say what? There must be two dozen Mexican restaurants here in the San Jacinto Valley. So all of those are fake?
No matter. What is important is that we’ve lost our local Indian restaurant, and for that Terry and I are very sad,
Sapiens
Posted: July 17, 2019 Filed under: Audiobooks, Books Leave a comment
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari
narrated by Derek Perkins
HarperAudio, 2017
$23.07 for Audible members, more for non-members
purchased with an Audible credit
The author of this book got his PhD at Oxford and teaches history at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has the hubris in this volume to attempt to provide a complete history of the human race. Surprisingly, he pretty much succeeds.
Harari starts with the story of early man, and points out that Homo sapiens was not the only human species. He explains that sapiens competed against other human species, such as Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis. It was not inevitable that Homo sapiens would be the successful species, but it became so for a variety of reasons.
He describes the success of the hunter-gatherers and discusses how that group had a healthier, more varied diet than the wheat farmers. Harari explains how wheat domesticated humankind, and not the other way around because in growing wheat a community could feed more people in a smaller area than its hunter-gatherer counterparts.
The author lays out how empire, for all its faults, was required for culture and that there would be no culture without empire. He goes on to describe the interrelationship between war and capitalism.
In the modern era, Harari discusses factory farming in painful detail and how the system has no respect for the natural needs and desires of the animals involved. That section may make you rethink drinking milk and eating meat.
As he nears the close of the book the author discusses genetic engineering and the cyborg elements of science: combining the organic with the non-organic.
The book is well-narrated by Derek Perkins, and his inflections are in sync with the text. His engaging and authoritative British accent kept my interest throughout.
This is good stuff, though not always easy to listen to.
that’s not how the game is played
Posted: July 12, 2019 Filed under: Baseball Leave a comment(…except that it is)
As I’ve noted before, I have loved and followed baseball since I was five years old. And like many, I have a purist streak. I can tolerate the designated hitter in the American League, but please do not ever bring it to the National League.
So there are some recent trends that annoy me. One is position players pitching an inning near the end of a game where the outcome has been deemed to be not consequential. It’s bad enough to see other teams do it, but to have catcher Russell Martin of the Dodgers pitch an inning is aggravating. I’m not a big football fan, but I know enough about it to follow a game when I choose to watch (which is not often). I know that only certain players are eligible to receive a pass, and that their uniform number must be within a certain range. Baseball needs a similar rule.
Then there’s the “opener,” as opposed to starting pitcher. The opener only pitches an inning or two before being replaced by a pitcher in long relief. A team may announce that a certain left-handed pitcher is starting a game so as to influence the opposing team’s starting lineup. Except the opposing manager is frequently on to this ruse so it is often ineffective. The Angels did this the other day. Again, aggravating.
Then there’s the fact that intentional walks are now signaled by the manager, rather than having the pitcher throw four pitches off the plate. Not’s not how the game should be played.
OK. End of rant. Back to enjoying baseball.
The Prodigal Tongue
Posted: July 10, 2019 Filed under: Books Leave a comment
The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship Between American and British English
Lynne Murphy
Penguin Books (April 10, 2018), 368 pages
Kindle edition $8.99, Amazon paperback $11.55
Lynne Murphy is an expatriate American who lives and teaches in England. As such, she is acutely aware of the differences between British and American English. She makes very clear at the outset that she is not, however, interested in the superficial differences between the two forms of English, such as the difference in meaning of phrases like, “Shall I knock you up in the morning?” or of words such as truck vs. lorry.
Murphy really gets into the subtleties of the differences between the two forms of English, delving, for example, into whether the use of the subjunctive is more British or American. She points out that many words and phrases that the English consider Americanisms in fact have their origins in British English.
While there are many interesting passages in this book, such as her discussion of Noah Webster and his (highly successful) quest to Americanize English, some of the material is so arcane as to be downright boring, even to an avowed word nerd such as myself.
While much of the information is fascinating, to my mind had the book been cut by twenty-five percent it would have been far more readable and engaging.
how did I miss that?
Posted: July 3, 2019 Filed under: Cooking, Media 1 CommentIt occurred to me that I had not seen a copy of our favorite cooking magazine, Cooking Light, for a while. I did some checking online and I discovered that the magazine published its final issue in December of last year.
Say what?
Time Inc. sold its magazine business to Meredith Corporation (think Better Homes and Gardens) and Meredith started cutting back. The fine folks there decided that readers of Cooking Light would do just fine with their own Eating Well.
The thing is that Terry and I, though subscribers, never received that farewell issue of Cooking Light. We would have noticed. Big Time. For sure. It would have struck me like a lightning bolt had I actually pulled that issue out of our mailbox. I checked with Terry just in case I had missed something . She agreed that I hadn’t .
Nor did Meredith even have the courtesy to ask us if we’d like to complete our subscription term with issues of Eating Well.
There aren’t that many good cooking magazines out there, and we’ve lost one of the best.
goodbye to all that
Posted: July 1, 2019 Filed under: SoCal Life, Toastmasters Leave a commentThursday was my final Toastmasters meeting. I had planned this for a while.
I joined Menifee Toastmasters in October 2015 after having moved here in May. I really enjoyed it. I liked the way the program was structured and the progression involved. The program was based on a series of print manuals with a nice range of variety. After I finished the Competent Communication manual and got my Competent Communicator award a whole new world opened up with a selection of fifteen advanced manuals on a wide variety of topics. Through those I got my Advanced Communicator Bronze and Advanced Communicator Silver awards. In amongst all that I got my Competent Leader award through the Competent Leadership manual.
And then Toastmasters International had to go and change it all. They replaced the previous program with a new one called Pathways. It is all web-based and focused on corporate-sponsored clubs, as opposed to the community clubs. It has a distinct career-based bias, neglecting the wider range of experience. I was not happy with the new program.
Thursday’s meeting marked the end of my tenure as president of the club, so it seemed time to make the break. There are other things I can do on those Thursdays. There is the Farmers Market, there is the local interfaith council on the second Thursday, and always the noon Eucharist at Good Shepherd Episcopal.
In counting my ribbons I found I had twelve best speaker awards, thirteen best evaluator, and nine best table topics, the impromptu segment. The count is not exact, as there were ties and sometimes I got the ribbon and other times not. So I feel good about my accomplishments.
Nonetheless, it is time to move on.
my point being 