From France's mirepoix (onion,
carrot, celery) to Germany's Suppengrün (carrot, celeriac, leek) to the famous
Holy Trinity of Cajun cooking (onion, celery, green bell pepper), almost every cuisine in the world
starts with a common simple, balanced, vegetable base. What do these groups of produce have in
common? At the most basic level, they
begin recipes—from soups to curries to roasts—and lend them flavor. They also often come from a category of
vegetables and herbs called aromatics.
In the Western world, these might include garlic, onions, carrots,
celery, bay leaves, thyme, parsley, and peppercorns, while in Asia you might
find green onions, ginger, garlic, and warm spices. Finally, they're almost always sautéed to
gently tease out flavors that permeate the rest of the dish. Sofrito and its Italian counterpart,
soffritto, literally mean to stir-fry.
Italian Battuto—as the Italian flavor base is called before it is cooked
and becomes a soffritto—is kissing cousin to France's
mirepoix. It starts with the same foundation
of onions, carrots, and celery. Parsley
leaves, garlic, and fennel, or sometimes finely diced cured meats like pancetta
or prosciutto scraps can find its way into the mix. Lindsey Howald Patton Link to recipes at http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/all-about-mirepoix.html
“I keep saying ‘where’s the
body? Kill someone,’”
Marilyn Stasio told us in the latest
episode of Criminal.
She reads at least 200 crime novels a year to determine which are worthy
of her prestigious “Crime Column” in the New York Times Book Review. We spoke with her about crime as
entertainment — and why people are so addicted to the genre that she can’t stay
away from: “My fingers just itch when I
see something that’s says ‘murder.’” Her
favorite Agatha Christie novel is The Murderous Affair at Styles (the
book in which Christie introduced the world to her famous Belgian detective,
Hercule Poirot). But Stasio says her
all-time favorite crime novel is The Moonstone, by Wilkie
Collins. Listen to the full conversation
at http://www.thisiscriminal.com/episode-75-the-gatekeeper-9-22-2017/
Marilyn Stasio,
who has written The Times Book Review’s Crime column since 1988, when speaking of her favorite
writers, says she admires them for different reasons: Elmore Leonard for his dialogue, P. D. James
for her plots, Ruth Rendell for her mastery of suspense. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/25/insider/revered-and-feared-in-the-book-review-crime-columnist-marilyn-stasio.html.
Pulped fiction in
England About 2,500,000 of old copies of Mills & Boon
romantic novels were acquired during the construction of the M6 Toll. The novels were pulped at a recycling firm in
south Wales and used in the preparation of the top layer of the West Midlands
motorway, according to building materials suppliers Tarmac. The pulp which helps hold the Tarmac and
asphalt in place also acts as a sound absorber and is vital in the construction
of roads. Richard Beal, the company's
project manager for the M6 Toll, said the books' absorbent qualities made them
a vital ingredient in the construction of the country's first pay-as-you-go
motorway. "We use copies of Mills
& Boon books, not as a statement about what we think of the writing, but
because it is so absorbent. "This
means that the road will last longer before we have to repair it, which is good
news for the paying customers using it to escape congestion on the
M6." He said for every mile of
motorway approximately 45,000 books were needed. Tarmac spokesman Brian Kent said the company
was not suggesting there was anything wrong with Mills & Boon novels. "We want to reassure Mills & Boon
readers that we're not just picking on their favourite books--other books are
down there too." http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/3330245.stm
Mills & Boon was founded by Gerald
Rusgrove Mills (1877–1928)
and Charles Boon (1877–1943) in 1908 as a general fiction
publisher, although their first book was, prophetically, a romance. An early signing was the mystery and crime
writer Victor
Bridges. Mills & Boon also published--in 1911
and 1912--two early works by Hugh Walpole, including the very successful Mr Perrin and
Mr Traill (which
was subsequently filmed). It was not until the 1930s that the company
began to concentrate specifically on romances. The company was purchased on 1 October 1971,
by Harlequin
Enterprises of Canada, their
North American distributor. Modern Mills
& Boon novels, over one hundred of which are released each month, cover a
wide range of possible romantic subgenres, varying in explicitness, setting and
style, although retaining a comforting familiarity that meets reader
expectations. One distinctive feature of
both Mills & Boon and Harlequin (in North America) is the length of time
their books are available to buy. They publish a set number of books each month
which are sent to subscribers and displayed on stands in book shops. At the end of
the month, any unsold copies in the shops are withdrawn and pulped. Titles are available to buy direct from Mills
& Boon for 3 months or until they are sold out, whichever is sooner. Any remaining books are disposed of. Fans looking for particular books after this
time must find them second-hand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mills_%26_Boon
Flashback and foreshadowing are different ways to accomplish the same end: to introduce
events that are not happening in the story’s current moment. Done well, both can increase a story’s
dramatic tension and deepen a character’s development. Both also play on the difference between
story time, or that experienced by the characters living the story as it
unfolds, and discourse time, or that experienced by whoever is reading the
story. A famous example of foreshadowing
comes from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," where Romeo tells his
love "Life were better ended by their hate/ Than death prorogued, wanting
of thy love.” Homer employs
flashback in "The Odyssey," when Odysseus relates his earlier
experiences to other people. This allows
Homer to fill the reader in on Odysseus' past without spending undue time in
boring narration. Foreshadowing is a
less concrete technique than flashback.
While the latter simply relies on a detour in time to a previous moment,
foreshadowing is often used to build suspense toward a major event or finale
that the reader has yet to experience. http://education.seattlepi.com/techniques-flashback-foreshadowing-can-dramatic-effect-piece-writing-5044.html
In Western literature, The Odyssey is the first and most
enduring traveler's tale--a quest and a hero against others. Additional fantastic voyages are Sinbad,
Jason and the Golden Fleece, and True Story by Lucian. In Western film, the Road movies with Bing
Crosby and Bob Hope are comedic travel tales.
On TV, The
Good Place is a fantasy and comedy series that premiered on
September 19, 2016, on NBC. The characters
travel from place to place and misadventure to misadventure.
The Canterbury
Tales is the world's
weirdest road trip. It tells the story
of a group of pilgrims (fancy word for travelers) on their way to Canterbury,
who engage in a tale-telling contest to pass the time. Besides watching the interactions between the
characters, we get to read 24 of the tales the pilgrims tell. Geoffrey Chaucer likely wrote The Canterbury
Tales in the late 1380s and early 1390s, after his retirement from
life as a civil servant. In this
professional life, Chaucer was able to travel from his home in England to
France and Italy. There, he not only had
the chance to read Italian and French literature, but possibly, even to meet
Boccaccio, whose Decameron—a collection of tales told by Italian
nobility holed up in a country house to escape the plague ravaging their
city—may have inspired the frame story of The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer's decision to write in his country's
language, English, rather than in the Latin of so many of his educated
colleagues, was a big break with learned tradition. But the risk paid off: we know The
Canterbury Tales were enormously popular because so many more
manuscripts of the tales survive than of almost any other work of this time
period. The Canterbury Tales were still going strong when the
first printers made their way to England, and William Caxton published the
first printed version of The Canterbury Tales in 1476. https://www.shmoop.com/canterbury-tales-prologue/ Read The Canterbury Tales "a
reader-friendly edition put into modern
spelling by Michael Murphy" at http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/webcore/murphy/canterbury/2genpro.pdf
Constantin Brancusi
French-Romanian Photographer
and Sculptor Movements and Styles: Dada, Cubism Constantin Brancusi is often
regarded as the most important sculptor of the twentieth century. His visionary sculptures often exemplify ideal
and archetypal representations of their subject matter. Bearing laconic titles such as Fish,
Princess X, and Bird in Space, his sculptures are deceptively
simple, with their reduced forms aiming to reveal hidden truths. Explaining that
"The artist should know how to dig out the being that is within
matter," Brancusi sought to create sculptures that conveyed the true
essence of his subjects, be they animals, people, or objects by concentrating
on highly simplified forms free from ornamentation. http://www.theartstory.org/artist-brancusi-constantin.htm
See also https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/constantin-brancusi
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 1845
February 19, 2018 On this date in
1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066,
allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese Americans to internment
camps. On this date in 1976, Executive Order 9066,
which led to the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps, was
rescinded by President Gerald Ford's
Proclamation 4417. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_19 Thought
for Today Architecture is inhabited
sculpture. - Constantin Brancusi (19 Feb 1876-1957)
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