Text 7780, 88 rader
Skriven 2008-05-25 17:54:00 av Michael Loo
     Kommentar till en text av GLEN JAMIESON
Ärende: beyond our own noses 358
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 GJ> Me too.  I gave up buying the local daily paper when its front page
 GJ> banner headlines concerned the viability of a local footballer's knee,
 GJ> while disasters resulting in mass deaths in India were relegated to
 GJ> page 3 or thereabouts.

At least they make page 3.

 GJ> But even a death toll of 75,000 (later estimate, and rising) is not

I was unaware it was that many, but I'm not surprised. The quake was
in a fairly populous area.

 GJ> great compared with the numbers killed by cars, which in USA are in
 GJ> the hundreds of thousands per year.

I was unaware it was that many. That puts it even beyond the heart
attack and cancer range, no?

 Instead of banning cars
 GJ> completely, which would be the natural thing to do if the same number
 GJ> of people was killed by unpasteurised cheese, they are just made a bit
 GJ> safer for the occupants, while the whole country shares the economic
 GJ> and emotional costs of these deaths.
 
Having a transportation system that didn't rely on cars wouldn't be
a bad idea; making the cars safer is also not that bad of an idea.

 GJ> Back when I was younger ("There he goes again!", they cry.) my parents
 GJ> used coal gas for cooking.  That contains a large proportion of CO and
 GJ> H2.  Before it was lit, all that CO poured into the kitchen
 GJ> atmosphere, but it didn't harm me.  This toxicity was well known, and

Are we completely sure of that?

 GJ> exploited by those people who preferred a nice, quiet suicide by
 GJ> kneeling down with their head resting on the middle rack in the gas

"He turned on the gas and he went to sleep" - Simon and Garfunkel,
A Most Peculiar Man

 GJ> oven.  That achieved a lethal concentration, but everything, including
 GJ> the suicider, could explode if a spark from a light switch ignited it.

The H2 explodes; don't think the CO does, at least not to that
degree.

 -=> Glen Jamieson said to Carol Shenkenberger <=-

 GJ> About 20 years ago I dined in a small Italianate restaurant in
 GJ> Adelaide which had very tiny - about 4 cm long - octopuses which had
 GJ> been deep-fried.  Apparently marinated first, then quickly cooked in
 GJ> hot oil to crunchiness.  They really did look like dead spiders, but

Perhaps they were in fact dead spiders, which are supposed to
taste pretty good anyhow. Deep-fried big baby octopuses would
probably be kind of mushy inside.

 GJ> the taste and texture were glorious.  I have been looking for octopuses
 GJ> like that ever since, but all the "babies" sold are at least twice that
 GJ> size. 

I've seen the occasional baby octopus of that size, but you are
right, generally they're 2-3x that.

Cornmeal mush
serves 4

1 c yellow cornmeal
1 c cold water
1 ts salt
4 c boiling water

Combine first three ingredients and stir well. Add the boiling
water and cook in the top of a double boiler (or very carefully
on the stove). Stir constantly for 3 min. Then cover and cook
over lowest heat for at least 15 min, until thick. [I continue to
cook uncovered, stirring constantly, for 20-25 min.]

This may be served hot as a breakfast cereal or - as I do -
cooled in a loaf pan, then sliced 1/2" thick, floured, and fried
until the outsides are crisp. At Carol Bryant's the other day
I stirred half a cup of chopped bacon into the hot mush before
turning it out into a (well-buttered) loaf pan.

Posted by moi 25 May 98

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