Thursday, 2 April 2009
Around here, April showers bring*…April flowers! At least rains this early in the month!
These were open yesterday midday, but with the rain we’ve had off and on (and sometimes ON-ON) since yesterday evening, I guess they opted to stay safely closed today….
* Apparently this is from a proverb known at least from the nineteenth century….
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Wonderful.
Outstanding performances by Bardem and Cruz.
Woody Allen’s script—extremely well done. Tight. Strange to hear so many typical Allen comments from the mouths of such different characters. Yet, he made the movie totally work in a Spanish setting. Loved the music (but then I’ve been partial to Spanish guitar music for years…).
The sign in the picture? From Piedmont Park. Why here? Dunno. Still searching for the answer. Me and Cristina….
Monday, 19 January 2009
Nandina in winter mode (berries are poisonous), glowing even on an overcast day….
I keep hearing that this inauguration will be historic….
However. I can’t imagine that the inauguration of any President of the USA, or even of Bolivia or Botswana, is not historic.
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
From “stela” honoring Georgia poet Sidney Lanier. I’m sure he didn’t write the line below….
I spotted that on someone’s T-shirt yesterday….
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Yes, I mean you. Even if you’re a vegetarian!
How did I forget this phrase? Must be all the worthless information and trivia stuffed in my brain—e.g., don’t forget to buy butter, various driving routes to downtown, theories of sociopolitical evolution, and whether to spring for Chuck Todd’s new book….
Anyway, enjoy your status as an apex predator*….
* For the purposes of this entry, think of this guy as Alan Shore, not James Spader, and remember that the word predator is from the Latin for plunderer….
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Don’t get too focused on this, but notice how many times these two words are misused in the coming days: lectern and podium.
Remember: podium has a root in pod-, meaning foot (podiatrist!); thus, you stand on a podium. That thing that you stand behind that holds your notes: that’s a lectern (its root is in a word meaning to read).
As to the picture: this detail is above the door to the stairs to the second-floor units in a four-apartment building. I think the structure was built as apartments, and is not a converted single-family home. Still, this is a lovely detail that cost extra initially, and extra money continues to be spent to keep it bi-color.
Tuesday, 30 December 2008
…magical. Best sorbet I’ve ever had: mango.
And one of my favorite snacks. Fresh or dried (preferably with no added sugar, thank you TJ’s).
This particular specimen was almost perfectly ripe….
It took me a while spending time in rural Mexico to figure out what the 10-cm long fibrous, beige, lozenge-shaped organic discards were that I kept seeking lurking in the dust in villages—mango pits!
Fun mango facts from Wikip: mangos are about 50% of the tropical fruits produced worldwide (>23 million tons in 2001) and the most common commercial cultivar is Tommy Atkins; the name mango comes to English from Asia via Portuguese (those wily traders!); and, apparently there are freestone varieties (never seen them).*
* Watch out for the skins and sap; some varieties contain, uhoh!, urushiol (especially KW!).
Sunday, 28 December 2008
There are myriad rhyming arithmetic riddles (chistes, I think…) out there, including (possibly especially) in Spanish. I think this is one I heard in Oaxaca some time ago….
Un pato con una pata, ¿cuántos patos y patas hay?
It employs confusion that is similar to that encompassed by this riddle:
What’s black and white and red all over?*
So: patos are ducks and patas are feet, but also could be a female duck. Therein lies the confusion. Anyway, I was always confused by this riddle (they have never been my strong suit), but I think it says, if there’s a duck with one foot (or a female duck), how many ducks and feet are there? Googling suggests one cheeky answer is “un pato cojo“, meaning a lame duck.
Why do I mention all this? The pastry above is Mexican, and called a pato. And, in this case, no feet…. See how my mind works?
* See, this only works if you hear it, because to be correct you have to spell it “read” not “red”…and the answer is: the newspaper. This is the classic version, anyway. There is a subset of versions that actually rely on “red”, and their answers often refer to gruesome penguins.
Saturday, 27 December 2008
We did our idiosyncratic version of shopping today, looking for loose, leaf green tea and tuna steaks for searing. Hecho*.
Heading south afterward on Buford Highway, there’s a spot where you get a good view of downtown. We got caught by a light and I took this photo of the buildings shrouded by some low-hanging clouds, residue, I think, of last night’s rain….
* Spanish for made/done. Commonly seen in the phrase “Hecho en México.”
Saturday, 6 December 2008
When we stayed at a B&B in Britain on our honeymoon, I found out that in British English a yard and a garden are two different things when I complemented our host on all the lovely plantings in his back yard, as we looked out the picture window. He looked at me funny and said, well, here a yard is somewhere you have garbage cans and park your scooter, and this is a garden.
So, of course I replied, I love your GARDEN! while thinking, aha, that’s what Scotland YARD means!
Regarding the lovely reflecting GARDEN ornaments above, I need to route myself back down that street on a sunny day with the good camera and get some better shots.