Text 14600, 87 rader
Skriven 2007-04-24 18:48:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av JOAN MACDIARMID
Ärende: The Great Wasteland 416
===============================
 JM> I haven't tasted the raw herb, nor have
 JM> I smoked it, 

I've done both, the first both legally and illegally, the
second only illegally. The unburned taste is not offensive,
but the effects did not impress me unduly. The burned taste
is somewhat unpleasant, as are the effects.

I used to specialize in contests as a kid, and for one
(a chemistry one!), my school's team won on the strength
of individual 3rd, 5th, and 7th place I think finishes
(this being for southeast Texas, a hotbed of chemistry,
especially petrochemistry). The night before several of
us had gone to an, er, party, and at this party I had
my first encounter with the dreaded drug. I attributed
my 5th place finish to having stayed up all night and
having partaken of the noxious weed (I'd been a shoo-in
for first, or so everyone thought, beforehand); the 7th
finisher, a dark horse, had also attended the party, and
he attributed the lofty nature of his placement to the
same circumstance. I remember that contest pretty clearly.
I was cruising along until the last part, when my energy
completely left me, and I couldn't even read the words on
the page. The section was on orbital theory, which I didn't
understand anyhow. Later I was told that if I'd got just
10 or 20 percent right in that section, I would have been
in the top three: but in fact I got zero. I didn't
particularly mind, to tell the truth. We took the purse
for the team prize and went to dinner and an Astros game
with it, the surplus going to pay for some lab equipment
for the school. The top prizes were enough cash for a
year's, semester's, or a couple month's university tuition.
As my year was paid for by the NMSQT, I didn't care.

 JM> but the stench of it in burnt form I have experienced

One pretty much has to have lived under a rock not to
have encountered that. I've smelled it in the most unlikely
places.

 JM> The hemp part of the plant might not have much
 JM> digestible nutrition, just fiber. I guess he
 JM> wanted non-poisonous volume to fill his belly
 JM> while he starved himself.

So why not use Kleenex, it's cheaper. Speaking of which,
I once covered a rising loaf of bread with paper towels,
which were then eaten by the dough. After baking, there
was no trace of the towels, and I figured people just got
a little extra fiber in their bread.

 JM> I don't think he considered scientific
 JM> evaluations of his food in the same context
 JM> as he considered his lab work. Different
 JM> mental compartments!

There's a bit of a mistake in mappining one's thinking
this way. He might have been a decent chemist, but no
really great things have come from thinking within the
box, as they say.

Nut Balls
cat: cookies
yield: about 6 dozen

1 c butter, softened
2 oz sugar
1 T vanilla
2 c pecan meats (substitute other nuts)
2 c cake flour, sifted
confectioners' sugar for rolling

Beat butter and sugar until light. Beat in vanilla. Grind pecan meats
or chop them fine and add them in along with the flour. Chill for a
bit until the dough is manageable, and then with floured hands roll
into appx. 1" balls. Arrange on a greased cookie sheet and bake at
300 for 40 - 45 min or until they are somewhat colored (not brown).
After you remove them, roll them while they are still quite warm in
a bowl of confectioners' sugar. Let them cool and then roll them
again in the confectioners' sugar.

(Something like this recipe was in Children's Digest between 1958
and 1960, and I've been making them ever since)

___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Doc's Place BBS Fido Since 1991 docsplace.tzo.com (1:123/140)