Fictional foods by Jami Attenberg When
writing about Edie Middlestein, a morbidly obese character whose obsession with
food is tearing her family apart, I initially avoided describing her eating
habits. The food seemed irrelevant to
the novel's bigger picture: Edie's
deteriorating health. I focused instead on the life-and-death crisis
and her family's impression of her physical self. Halfway through the first draft, I realized
that the book couldn't be complete without describing what she ate. What a character
eats is a detail—like eye color or a favorite song. But food is also our lifeblood. I wondered: When does food become more than just the thing
your character is putting in her mouth? In "The Odyssey," every feast is extremely
ritualized; high-status individuals even get a better cut of meat. And those, like Nestor, who serve a generous
and appropriate meal to their guests are considered to be superior. Circe poisons her guests' dinner with a drug
that turns them into pigs, for example, after they gorge themselves on her
food. Carelessness toward food also
says something about a character's emotional state. The great Saul Bellow (who fictionalized his
own real-life bout of food poisoning in "Ravelstein") chooses to
begin "Herzog," the tale of a college professor in the throes of an
emotional crisis, like this: "Normally particular about food, he now
ate Silvercup bread from the paper package, beans from the can, and American
cheese. Now and then he picked
raspberries in the overgrown garden, lifting up the thorny canes with
absent-minded caution." Herzog's
disinterest in caring for himself at once sets the tone for the book. But one of my
favorite uses of food in a book is when it becomes its own character, as in
Nora Ephron's "Heartburn." Recipes
are integrated seamlessly, as if Ephron were calling on a friend to speak for
her when she cannot. The section titled
"Potatoes and Love: Some Reflections" arrives as her narrator is
approaching a breaking point because of her unfaithful husband. "In the end, I always want
potatoes," she says. "Nothing like getting into bed with a bowl of
hot mashed potatoes already loaded with butter, and methodically adding a thin
cold slice of butter to every forkful."—Ms. Attenberg's novel "The
Middlesteins" was published October 2012..
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324307204578129014000055282.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_Lifestyle_5
On a budget--gift exchange party
ideas: dollar gift exchange, home wrap-up (gently
used items), beverage exchange, re-gift giving, ugly-sweater exchange, edible
exchange, book exchange, homemade craft items.
http://www.pjstar.com/features/x1233651929/Buttoned-Up-Cheap-and-fun-gift-exchange-party-ideas
Before ebook readers became popular in 2010—when e-reader sales quadrupled within
months—publishers had only one way of measuring a book’s success: sales. Back then, it was almost impossible to do
detailed market research that didn’t involve direct feedback, either through
letters to the publishers or reader surveys. But the information didn’t tell the whole
story about what readers wanted to read, and they said nothing about how they
read. Did they read the whole book, or
lose interest after a few pages? Did
they skip certain chapters? Did they
highlight and revisit favourite passages? Now the makers of the Kobo, Kindle and Nook
are collecting hard data about exactly how their customers read. What many readers don’t realize, says Ryan
Reith, a mobility research manager with IDC,
a market-intelligence firm, is that when people activat e an e-reader, they
create a data profile, not unlike what happens when you activate a smartphone.
“Your reading activity then becomes part of a digital profile,” says Reith, and
that data is used to direct readers to purchase books that match their interests.
Kobo allows readers to turn off the
tracker in their e-readers, but few people are aware that’s an option . At a
tech conference in New York City this year, Kobo executive vice-president
Michael Tamblyn told the audience what kind of information Kobo has gleaned
from the software: 80 per cent of its
readers are women; most reading is done during the evening commute and between
11 p.m. and midnight; and, upon finishing 50 Shades
of Grey, most readers immediately buy the next book in the trilogy. But while e-reader makers have come forward
about the extent of the data they are tracking in their devices, what they
haven’t disclosed is how they intend to use it. Reith says they may be keeping the data to
themselves for legal reasons, but he does not rule out the possibility that
certain ebook makers are considering making the jump into publishing. Romance novels, as well as genres such as
crime and fantasy, have experienced the largest growth in the electronic
market, and roughly 20 per cent of Harlequin’s sales now come from e-readers. E-readers are popular with Harlequin readers
simply because romance enthusiasts are voracious readers; they enjoy having the
freedom to buy new books at any time, from anywhere. Kelley Armstrong, author of the
bestselling paranormal fantasy series Women of the Otherworld, says she is
interested in data tracking to learn more about her readers, but she wouldn’t
use it to appeal to her demographic more directly. “When you target one demographic too hard, you
risk alienating others,” she says. “At
the end of the day, I write the stories I want to write.” Lauren B.
Davis, author of the Giller-nominated Our Daily Bread, says she
has no idea who is reading her books, but that’s the way she likes it. “Having your mind on the market stifles people
from taking chances,” she says. “When
I’m writing, I don’t like to feel like I have the reader over my shoulder.” But Davis can see why publishers, desperate to
stay afloat, would use data tracking. “If, 10 or 15 years from now, publishers
started using data to change how people write, I would not be surprised,” she
says. “[But] I would quit.” http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/11/26/your-e-reader-is-watching/
The L.A. City Council in December 2011 passed
a new ordinance that effectively banned anyone but local artists from engaging
in commercial activity on the boardwalk's beach-facing side. Ordinance violators are subject to fines and
repeat offenders can end up in jail. That
has left it to officers like Sgt. Daniel Gonzalez to routinely weigh in on a
debate more suited to the Museum of Modern Art or the Guggenheim: What constitutes art? There were virtually no rules governing commerce
on the boardwalk until two decades ago, when the city banned unlicensed vending
there at the behest of local merchants who complained that vendors were
stealing their business. But in 1997 a
federal appeals court overturned the ban, arguing it trampled First Amendment
rights. Since then the city has tried
implementing a slew of different rules to avoid sheer chaos—for example
requiring artists to enter a lottery for "Public Expression Participant
Permits." But each version of the
law proved either too restrictive or too vague to hold up in court, deterring
some police from issuing citations altogether.
The ordinance that took effect earlier this year gives police more
explicit guidelines than ever to determine what qualifies as art. Pottery doesn't count as art because it has a
utility apart from its artistic message, according to the ordinance, nor do any
goods that appear mass produced, like home appliances and auto parts. Hula-hooping might be performance art, but selling hula hoops is not. Hand-drawn henna tattoos can pass for art, but those made with
mass-produced stenciled designs are another story. Mass production is difficult to determine,
too, since the ordinance gives no specific number of items that constitutes a
"mass." Hannah Karp http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323622904578129650246966768.html?mod=rss_Arts_and_Entertainment
The Meigs County Courthouse is a local
government building in Pomeroy, Ohio. Built in the 1840s
in this Ohio
River village, it serves as the seat of government for Meigs County, and it is one of Ohio's oldest
courthouses still used for its original purpose. In 1819, Meigs County was separated from Gallia County, and a courthouse and jail were
soon built in the community of Chester.
This building, known as the Old Meigs County Courthouse, remains in
existence; it is the oldest standing courthouse in Ohio. Within twenty years, Chester was in decline
and the new riverside village of Pomeroy was growing in prominence; the
resulting change of county seat status from Chester to Pomeroy,
accomplished in 1841,was later deemed the "one great event" in the
county's history. In 1845, the Meigs County
Commissioners arranged for the construction of a new courthouse in Pomeroy,
contracting with S.S. Bergin to be the architect; construction was overseen by County
Commissioner John C. Hysell, and the building was completed in 1848. Fifteen years later, the courthouse was used
as a temporary jail for more than two hundred of Morgan's
Raiders who had been captured in the Battle of Buffington Island in Meigs
County. Because downtown Pomeroy lies on a narrow strip of land between the Ohio
River and steep cliffs, the courthouse was built against the cliffs. By 1877, insufficient interior space forced
the construction of wings along the hillside to house additional offices, along
with spiral staircases, the columns, and the Italianate-influenced cornice on the
tower. In order to permit fuller use of the existing portions of the building,
workers excavated the street to the same level as the basement. Existing hilly land around the wings permitted
the construction of at-grade entrances to all three floors of the
courthouse. See picture and location
at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meigs_County_Courthouse_(Ohio)
What is the difference between nutmeg and mace? Nutmeg
is not a nut, but the kernel of an apricot-like fruit. Mace is the thin leathery tissue between the
stone and the pulp; it is bright red to purple when harvested, but after drying
changes to amber.
http://www.asiatatlerdining.com/singapore/what-is-the-difference-between-nutmeg-and-mace
What is the difference between a spice and an herb? Spices
are flavorings, often of tropical origin, that are dried. Most spices come from plant fruits, as is the
case for mace, nutmeg, black pepper, and cardamom. Cinnamon comes from the bark of a shrubby
tree, and ginger comes from the underground rhizome of a plant. Herbs, in the culinary sense, are leaves of
plants that can be used either fresh or dried to season food. In the botanical sense, an herb is any plant
that does not have woody perennial stems like a tree or shrub. http://www.usna.usda.gov/Gardens/faqs/herbsfaq2.html
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