Em oi! #411: Shopping

em_411

This is the danger of encouraging people to read Shakespeare.

I have an excellent comic for Christmas coming up next week. Hopefully this offering, which I drew mostly freehand at a restaurant, will tide you over until then.

I was going to add a few notes about the Berbee Derby 5K, because it was a fun race, but I’m a bit late, so I’ll give the TL;DR version:

Did a 5.5 mile warm up because I was going to run with some slower friends; when we got to the race, they encouraged me to run at my own pace and then double back and meet them. Bryan had guessed I could finish in under 24 minutes, and I wound up doing it in 24:23, so I was pretty close. I finished just ahead of a fellow from my running group who is a 3:20 marathoner, and was initially elated to have beat him. Then I found out he’d actually just finished a 39-minute 10K and I felt less stoked. Doubled back and did the last half mile or so with my friends. Then home for nap before Thanksgiving.

Was that really TL;DR? Maybe a bit long. Lemme try again:

Ran a 24:23 5K after an absurdly long warm up and also while wearing my heavy sneakers.

Ah, there is proper conciseness. Concision? Something.

Let’s file this under PR2819 A3A L86 2015, for English literature–English renaissance (1500-1640)–The drama–Individual authors–Shakespeare, William–Separate works–King Lear–Texts–Selections. By editor.

Amongst authors, Shakespeare is kind of weird in LCC in that he has all the numbers PR2750-3112 devoted to him, while most authors are subarranged under one number by last name. So for example, the poet Claire Wahmanholm‘s number would probably be PS3624.A3[plus some other digits to put it in order with other stuff in the collection]; the author E. H. Lupton’s work might be filed under PS3612.U8[etc.]. (In a while, you’ll be able to see the actual call number here.) And you can see how those two numbers are only a few digits apart, because ALL post-2001 authors (authors’ surnames) beginning with L are fiiled under PS3612.A-Z, and all those beginning with W are filed under PS3624.A-Z. So I may have inadvertently messed up the number above slightly, because I don’t know if I have access to the correct sub-tables. But close enough is probably okay in this situation.

Em oi! #308: Our Honeymoon, a Recap (part 3/3)

Part one is here, part two is here.

And then we lived happily ever after.  So far.So normally in this situation I would have said, “Let’s get a cab and go find some ritzy place to have lunch.”  But Bryan was on a diet consisting of a) bananas b) saltine crackers c) soup, so we couldn’t.  Neither did we think that hanging around in the sun was going to be the ticket to a good time.

The Orlando airport, on the public side of security, is a giant mall.  At one point we tried to find a travel chess set in one of the shops and failed, though we did find travel “Hungry Hungry Hippos ™” and about fifty different Sudoku books (alas, no Kakuro).  On the non-public side of security, it’s a wasteland.  Nary a *$ to be found (sad, since I wanted a chai latte).

Anyway, the flight home was fine and Bryan got better and we actually had a really good time, with the exception of that 24-hour period that Bryan was vomiting/unconscious (from the anti-emetic injection they gave him – it was a type which tends to make people sleepy as it acts on the brain to stop nausea – he slept in the cabin, I read The Satanic Verses on the deck and reminded him to drink a glass of Gatorade every hour or so).

Next week, a comic with fewer than 22 panels!  I am excited.

Peanut Stew

From the Burkina Faso-ian roommate of my best friend.  I guess you could also call this “African Peanut Stew” if you wanted to be specific.  Or rather, if you google “African Peanut Stew” you will get similar recipes.   My guess is that in Africa they just call it “Peanut Stew,” though.

Ingredients
(This was made to feed 8+.  If you want less, try using 2 sweet potatoes and 1/3 cabbage)

  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
  • between 1/2 and 3 medium to hot peppers, minced (depending on how spicy you like it)
  • 3 big Idaho potatoes, chopped into small cubes
  • 1/2 small Acorn squash, peeled, seeded, cubed
  • 1/2 head green cabbage, chopped
  • 1/2 c. honey roasted peanuts (regular roasted peanuts are also okay)
  • 1 c. apple juice
  • 1 tin diced tomatoes (about 14 oz)
  • 1 knob ginger, grated (freeze and use a cheese grater)
  • 1/2 c. chunky peanut butter (we used the natural stuff because it’s better)

Methodology

  1. Throw the onion, garlic, and pepper into some heading peanut or vegetable oil.  Keep the heat about medium-high, and use a BIG pot.
  2. After a few minutes, add the potatoes and squash.  Mix from time to time.
  3. When the potatoes and squash are half done, add the cabbage and the peanuts.  Cover and let it cook some more, perhaps 5-10 minutes.
  4. When everything is almost done, add the tomatoes, apple juice, and ginger.  Let everything cook until done.
  5. Add the peanut butter and cook another 1-2 minutes.
  6. Serve with rice, flatbread, or fufu, if you are up to making fufu.  I am not up to it, so I used rice.  Garnish with fresh cilantro if you are the sort of person who garnishes things.  I am not.

Notes

  • Once everything is chopped, this comes together pretty quickly.  It took about an hour all together because peeling the squash took forever.  If you can peel squashes fast (or use a squash that doesn’t have ridges – butternut instead of acorn!) it could be ready to go in 30-40 minutes.
  • We served this for “Gamers’ Thanksgiving,” a little party we held for our friends.  It was well-received.  We actually had enough for the two people who had seconds, plus leftovers for two days!  Wow.
  • When making rice, 1/2 c. of dry rice per person is too much.
  • Good with Sri Racha if you have some people who like the spicy and some who don’t.

The Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women

Excerpt from Some of the Reasons Against Woman Suffrage, by Francis Parkman, possibly published around 1910, but written before then:

Woman suffrage must have one of two effects.  If, as many of its advocates complain, women are subserviant to men, and do nothing but what they desire, then woman suffrage will have no other result than to increase the power of the other sex; if, on the other hand, women vote as they see fit, without regarding their husbands, then unhappy marriages will be multiplied and divorces redoubled.  We cannot afford to add to the elements of domestic unhappiness.  (p. 3)

A small pamphlet issued, as it says in the title, by the Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women.  Lovely.

Madison Photos

I really like Madison in the spring.  Summer is also decent – clear skys, and I can usually deal with the heat while running, so that’s not a big deal.  Autumn is gorgeous in the upper midwest.  But winter is tough, especially if you’re like me and cold all the time.  So I decided to start taking some photos of Madison to remind me why I live here (besides being engaged to a guy who lives here, I mean).  Also, it gives me a chance to practice my photography.

A statue in front of the Kohl Center, by evening.
A statue in front of the Kohl Center, by evening.

I took this one Wednesday night on my way back from lecture.  Taking photos at night is difficult because my hands shake, but it came out well after I messed with the settings a bit.

Goodbye, Cruel World.

Once upon a time I started through a book on C (possibly C++) that had us write “Goodbye, Cruel World” programs instead of “Hello, World!” programs.

I am eventually going to write a few things here.  But for now I think I’m going to go do some editing of my poor, neglected novel, so I will have to do that later.