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olt! is a way station and oasis on the ancient road from Bedlam to Bellevue, dedicated to free and open discussion of topics moving heart and spirit.
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From: gunter
3/26/23
Crocuses are up!
I saw the first crocuses of the year on my walk along the Hudson today, nestled on a slight rise facing south. It's still a bit brisk with few people by the river other than regulars walking their dogs including one hapless owner I've noticed before whose lab only moves about 50 feet before stopping.
The dog needs a treat to do the next 50. Sometimes he manages, say, 75 feet when being led by the scent of a treat, but then he sits until he gets it. I watch them disappear down the walk in fits and starts. Something went terribly wrong with training there.
Dogs are smart and capable of learning to do the most amazing things. Owners often aren't. For the most part here in the city they have learned to pick up after their dogs, leaving little brown spots everywhere; they look to be incapable of understanding the curb your dog part though and congratulate their charges, giving them treats for pooping right in the middle of the walk or by the front door of a restaurant.
You can't blame the dogs, they obviously haven't been told, they are perfectly able to hold it and drop it in the right place just the way people do. I've seen a neighbor's dog strain at his leash to get to the storm drain at the corner where he always poops. Now that is a smart owner.
I suspect it's a way for people to express long suppressed frustrations from their childhood toilet training days, the doggies get to poop at will, whenever, where ever.
030706
From: gunter
Apr-2
Shark
I don't really like shark since it tastes like shark, but a dare is a dare. We hit all the usual spots: Trader Joe's, The Whole Foods Market, The Essex Street Market, and of course various sidewalk mongers in Chinatown with their aquariums of live shark. After an afternoon of wielding our lasers I finally had enough nicely-charred meat to make a good stew. Shark is notoriously tough, only lasers will adequately zap the stuff enough to even think of eating it. Several times I thought Chams was going to beat me to the kill but I'm faster and had more incentive: a bottle of Carmenere from Chile I've been saving for just such an occasion (rich, peppery and meaty!) Besides, I've been using fish lasers for over 10 years now.* He was really dragging low when he wandered off and left it. I imagine he headed to the veggie market for dinner to feed his kids tonight. Hah!
After combing the Web for recipe inspiration, I combined celery and onions, threw them in a sauce pan with some olive oil, stirring over medium-high heat until the veggies softened and started sticking to the pan, then added tomatoes with a handful of coarsely chopped cilantro, bringing it all to a full boil over high heat while pushing pieces of shark down into the veggies, finally turning down to a simmer on low heat until the shark turned opaque but still moist in the center. The charred bits flaked off nicely at this point, giving the whole stew that savory "just lasered" flavor.
I served the stew ladled into bowls over plain white rice, more freshly chopped cilantro, table spoon of yogurt for each bowl, juice from lime wedges, salt and lots of freshly ground five-pepper variety. I like pepper. The cilantro, yogurt and lime really did the trick, hardly tasted like shark. .
As usual, Cat turned up her nose at the fishy offering though she gave it one lick; I could see she really wanted some - just didn't want to spoil her record.
The supermarket is out of jello chocolate pudding, dammit; jello chocolate vanilla swirls pudding simply doesn't hack it.
080307
From: gunter
Apr-9
Happy Easter !
Allow me to me explain.
I am a Social Christian, meaning I follow NORAD's track of Santa taking off from the North Pole on Christmas Eve and hide eggs for kids on Easter. When Pope Francis calls for World Peace on Easter Sunday I'm all in favor.
In the spirit of the occasion I asked Bing's Image Creator to create an image of Obama and Trump shaking hands in a desert, what could be more symbolic than that? To my surprise Bing tells me I'm way out of line there. .... threatens me with suspension for posing such an impossible task?
... OK. How about Gandhi and Jesus shaking hands in a desert?
Two strikes against me. Guessing at the problem, I ask for two unnamed guys:
man in a robe with long hair and a man in loincloth and bare feet shake hands in a desert with blue sky
and voila ...
Interesting: there are no feet and making it 'man from India' also gets the warning, I may be banned for life!
In any case, I wasn't quite happy with the loincloth look there, so I went with swimming trunks instead?
and there you are, it's my contribution to World Peace ...
From: gunter
Apr-9
Easter Dinner ... green eggs and ham on a dinner table with checkered tablecloth
[Peas? Did someone order peas?]
From: gunter
Apr-10
You mean the peas? If sparrow eggs are green that's a possibility. I think it’s peas or edamame.
- Edited April 10, 2023 10:01 pm by gunter
From: bshmr
Apr-11
Edamame, it might be. Soybean species vary widely in size and from what I have seen some in shape. Soybeans used for natto are smallest and oval-ish; edamame (in my experience) are multiple times larger than natto; what I cook with are hard dry spheres that morph into small white bean-iikes; roasting dried soybeans results in 'crunchies' for trail mix.
From: gunter
Apr-12
Did not know from natto. I'll check it out.
I did some more experimenting. Since I can't use names or skin tones I tried describing. Can't of course do recognizable faces. And getting the two together seems impossible.
