I could care less about football this past Sunday. Who even played in the Super Bowl? Why is one game such an event, a production? How did the multinational companies manage to capture our attention and imaginations by selling us stuff through their adverts? And, more importantly, why do we all care so much about this singular game played by grown men who most likely will be held captive by dementia, insanity, and depression once they retire from the gridiron? Ah, we’ll never know.
Rather than partake in the festivities, I took a nice, five-mile bike ride down to Palms to do some strenuous stair climbing. Initially I was the only one there, but a few other women eventually showed up. I didn’t see any men on Sunday.
In any case, I was about to write about Darwin’s Nightmare, but lost sight of that goal once I began to think about other things. That seems to happen often: I gather information, process it briefly, gather more information, process even more information briefly, and the cycle continues. Rarely do I invest more than a few hours a day on thinking about one thing. I have about fifteen projects that I’m juggling at once, and by the time I get back to my apartment, all I want to do is read or watch and not think about what I’m reading or watching.
Nevertheless, I’ll get back to Darwin’s Nightmare soon enough, as it deserves a good assessment.
Here are some things from around the InterWebs:
We throw around the terms green and sustainable around a lot (just look at the upper left-hand corner of this page!), but it sometimes helps to stop and rethink the meaning and practice of these terms. Here’s a good write up by Re-Nest about the philosophy of living in a thoughtful way that eschews accumulation and consumption.
I used to subscribe to what I thought were health magazines. While I no longer pay money to read the same drivel every month, I do peruse the free ones on the magazine rack at my gym. For the real deal, visit Mistress Krista Stumptuous. Who cares about the emaciated look when you can bench 150 pounds and beat the brains out of would-be rapists?
Kiopoolu is a fantastic, flavorful Bulgarian eggplant spread/dip. I found a packaged version of it at Trader Joe’s this evening. While not expensive ($1.99 a jar), I can probably make a lot more if I can find the right recipe. Here’s something I found off the Internet:
2 large eggplants
6 or 8 large red or green peppers sweet peppers
Salt
Pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup of olive oil
Minced parsley
Bake eggplants and sweet peppers at 350F until tender when pierced with a fork. Peel skin from hot vegetables and chop or mince the vegetables. Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir in the garlic and lemon juice. Gradually stir in as much of the olive oil as the vegetables will absorb. Mix well. Pile into a glass dish and sprinkle with parsley.
I’m not sure if this is authentic, but, thanks to the wonders of my workplace, I can ask one of my Bulgarian colleagues to be my guinea pig!
Fun times: I’ll be seeing Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser do their thing tomorrow night. Curious to hear about any possible new perspectives or directions they can offer on the food discussion, given that the topic has been getting tons of mainstream press in the past decade. Will report back.