Text 20068, 143 rader
Skriven 2014-12-03 13:00:00 av NANCY BACKUS (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av MICHAEL LOO
Ärende: Re: wanderings 371
==========================
-=> Quoting Michael Loo to Nancy Backus on 12-01-14  15:50 <=-

 ML>> so it is to my substantial advantage that the insurers
 ML>> cultivate undue fears in the general population, especially
 ML>> those who have no real reason to expect that they will use
 ML>> the services.
 NB> True.  I'm becoming more jaundiced towards the industry lately with
 NB>> the hordes of spoofed number/place calls that have reached our house. 
 ML> Bear in mind that it's not the already debased insurance
 ML> industry that is to blame, it's the call centers, which
 ML> are either whole-cloth scammers or work on some inflated
 ML> commission arrangement.

True.  Worse, probably the callers themselves are only being paid on
some much less inflated commission... leading them to be more pushy.

 NB>> Many of them hang up before anyone comes on the line, the rest are
 NB>> someone with an accent (and a probably spoofed name) wanting to sign
 NB>> us up for insurance quotes for home, auto, etc insurance.  And even
 NB>> though it appears to be the same clearinghouse call center for all
 NB>> the calls, they never catch on that NO means NO!!
 ML> The only thing that might work is if you just put the
 ML> receiver aside and walked off. One of the weapons they use is
 ML> not to relinquish the line even when you hang up. If you used
 ML> the same tactic on them, you might actually get a coveted
 ML> spot on their do-not-call list.

Maybe.  These seem not to be using the non-relinquish tactic.  Today it
wasn't insurance, it was solar energy...  Same background noise... maybe
same place, maybe they are all interchangeable anyway...  ;)

 ML>> Oh, sure. She introduced herself as the one they assigned
 ML>> all the tough cases to (probably true) and remarked that
 ML>> they've been trying to get rid of her for 40 years (maybe
 ML>> true). One of the ones whose eccentricities are tolerated
 ML>> because of their general level of competency, no doubt.
 NB>> Was she well over 60?  The 40 seems a little hyperbolic...
 ML> Actually, now that I recall, she said that they'd been trying
 ML> to get rid of her for 50 years. She had to be 70 if a day. The
 ML> hyperbolic part was probably the getting rid of part - she was
 ML> distinctly eccentric and kind of anti-authority, but her skills
 ML> were such that they probably wouldn't have actually fired her
 ML> for (what I see as) normal quirkiness.
 
Even the timespan had to be somewhat hyperbole... She'd have to have
worked long enough for them in order that they would have appreciated
her abilities... In the early days she could have been more easily let
go for less cause... :)  Of course, the eccentricity might have grown
over the years and/or become more blatent...  ;)  But yes, the main
hyperbole could well have been the actual getting rid of her... 

 ML>> not widely used in this country - it's much more painful
 ML>> and much less convenient but I think is used in less
 ML>> developed countries and in combat situations (involves a
 ML>> long rigid steel shanked needle such as you used to see
 ML>> in horror movies, cartoons, and the like). And it still
 ML>> took the chief 3 or 4 tries.
 NB>> OUCH.  It's the needle that gets down deep to the ones not easily felt
 NB>> on the surface, I guess...  still pretty drastic... 
 ML> It's the needle that doesn't give up when a vein rolls,
 ML> and during these last adventures, they all were either
 ML> sclerosed up or rolled away trying to escape when they
 ML> saw the thing coming.

If they hadn't burst already... 
 
 ML>> Go to your butcher and buy some caul fat - or in this case
 NB>> /Can/ one buy caul fat at the butcher's here in the states...? (I
 NB>> noted that the recipe came from South Africa)
 ML> You can special order it. It has been a long time since
 ML> I saw it actually out and available - and even then it was
 ML> frozen: I can imagine someone reading off a cookbook and
 ML> not figuring out that it had to be thawed, unrolled, and
 ML> stretched out before using and subsequently huffing back
 ML> to the store with this useless globby mess. In most cases
 ML> a moistened or greased cheesecloth should substitute okay.

I'll keep that in mind, should the occasion arise.  :)  The purpose is
to provide fat (and/or moisture) for what otherwise would dry out in the
cooking, right...?

 NB>> I've been reading a new acquisition from the Folio Society, a
 NB>> cookbook called Good Things, published originally in the 1970s, by
 NB>> Jane Grigson
 ML> Ian used to refer to Jane Grigson a lot, and Nicholas
 ML> had a collection of her books, out of one of which I
 ML> made this for a party at his house.
 ML> Aloo saag (alu shag)

Was this the source of your comment that spinach and potatoes don't go
well together...?

 ML> 20 oz spinach
 ML> 5 lb potatoes*
 ML> * Grigson calls for I believe twice as many potatoes as
 ML> spinach, but I did as I was told)

Did she mean by weight or by volume, do you know...?  I suspect her
judgement would have come out nicer... ;)

 ML> 1 c chopped onion (original says 2 onions sliced thin)
 ML> 2 minced garlic cloves (I'd have added this if it
 ML> - were my party, which it wasn't)
 ML> 4 ts turmeric
 ML> 2 ts fenugreek leaf, crumbled (not in original)
 ML> 1 ts cumin powder (I'd have used this if I had
 ML> - found the cumin, which I didn't)
 ML> a little amchoor (I'd have used this if I had
 ML> - found the amchoor, which I didn't)
 ML> 2 Tb ham glaze (not in original)
 ML> 2 c water (not in original)

Lots of adjustments, I see...  ;)

 ML> Wash and pick over spinach. Drain. Heat oil in a large
 ML> pot; stir-cook spinach until just wilted. The Grigson
 ML> recipe asks for 1/2 Tb salt; Nicholas refused to
 ML> acknowledge this. Chop spinach coarse and set aside.
  (snip)
 ML> The original doesn't call for added water, which I imagine
 ML> would make a sticky mess at the bottom of the pot. Nor does
 ML> it call for ham glaze, but when I tasted the saltless
 ML> version Nicholas ordered me to make, it was just so darn
 ML> bland, and the ham glaze was just sitting there begging to
 ML> be used.

I wonder if part of the saltlessness was due to the quantity of
potatoes.  Also if fewer potatoes would have made it less necessary to
add water...?

 ML> What I did: after one of Jane Grigson's less inspired
 ML> recipes, in World Atlas of Food

Her original might have turned out a bit better... ;)  However, I note
that that recipe doesn't appear in her Good Things cookbook...  :)

ttyl          neb

... I'm sure everything I can't find is in a safe place somewhere.

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