I remember damage. Then escape. Fan of #crows, #StarTrek and the #Japanese language, among many other things. Currently posting one frog species per day. If I keep this up, I should be done in about 20 years. My toots are searchable.
Leading up to her birthday, Swatra had sent me subtle hints that she'd like me to try my hand at khachapuri, that gorgeous gondola of Georgian goodness. Normally not one to mess around with self-made dough, I clenched my teeth and dug in, and while the kitchen looks a mess, I think the result came out OK. Please bear in mind that until now I'd never used a mixer with dough hooks before, and that the recipe mentioned mystery ingredients like "strong flour" and "hard mozzarella." 1/4
I found a dozen or so of these guys on my kitchen ceiling. Does anyone know why they're here and how I get rid of them structurally? Please boost for visibility. I'd say they're about 1cm / 1/2 inch long. I've only seen them on the ceiling so far --thankfully.
Remember yesterday's #foodtoot, which listed a stick of celery as an ingredient? Well, they don't sell celery by the stick where I live, but rather by the "giant-ass head of celery doomed to mutate into a science experiment in the back of the fridge."
Celery is fine as an ingredient adding a certain je ne sais quoi to a French soup/stew, the bassoon of the culinary orchestra if you will. But I don't eat French soup/stew every day, or even every month. What is a waste-averse cook to do? 1/4
A friend of mine at King's College London invites you to take part in a knowledge test. I did it already, it was a lot of fun and very educational. Enjoy!
This was an actual 1911 court case in the Netherlands.
A man called Willem Markus catches the suspect, Johannes Beek, stealing city money. Markus reports Beek, who is fired. Beek bakes a cake full of rat poison (arsenic) and sends it to the Markus home. Markus doesn't eat it, but his wife does, and she dies.
Beek is tried for murder of the wife. Defense argues that Beek did not intend to kill the wife, only the husband. No intent means no murder; it's manslaughter at most.
Just now I thought, Do people still blog? I mean blogging in the original sense: posting links to interesting stuff you found online.
Turns out, yes they do. This blog I stumbled upon in the early 2000s and probably haven't visited in 5 years or more is still up and running: Everlasting Blort at https://blort.meepzorp.com/.
#foodtoot Brussels sprouts are notorious in the Netherlands, because traditionally, my people boil them to death. My mom never once made them, so I tried them with some trepidation. They turned out great.
The boring work: for each sprout, remove outer leaves, cut off dirty root, halve it. Repeat ad nauseam. Blanch them very briefly in salted boiling water, 3-6 minutes depending on size. Drain, allow to cool, season. Bake 20 mins at 220C, flat side down, on an oiled baking sheet on a tray.
#DraculaDaily "I saw the whole man slowly emerge from the window and begin to crawl down the castle wall [...] I saw the fingers and toes grasp the corners of the stones, worn clear of the mortar by the stress of years, and by thus using every projection and inequality move downwards with considerable speed, just as a lizard moves along a wall. [...] What manner of man is this, or what manner of creature is it in the semblance of man?"
Because I sometimes check in on the bizarro world that is QAnon, it's hard to separate Serbian artist Marina Abramović from the ludicrous caricature they've created of her: that of a spirit-cooking, satanic she-demon who's friends with Hillary Clinton.
Her retrospective exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, showcasing her 50+-year career, shows me something very different. But I can see how her personality and art make her a perfect candidate for such (literal) demonization. 1/3
#frogs Many-lined tree frog (Dendropsophus haraldschultzi) photographed by John Sullivan. Presumably, this frog is named after someone called Harald Schultz, but if you google that name in English Wikipedia or in Portuguese Wikipedia you get wildly different results. English: "Harald Schultz (1895-1957) was a German general during World War II." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Schultz
Portuguese: "Harald Schultz (1909-1966) was a translator, ichthyologist, ethnographer and photographer." https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Schultz
Today's #Wordle broke my streak, but I can't figure out what I could have done better. Is Wordle purely a game of skill, or is it possible to lose, no matter how well you play, because you're just unlucky?
The movie "Wicked Little Letters" is not just good because Olivia Colman is in it. It's also good because it's a deeply disturbing portrait of Colman's character, as well as 1920s England, disguised as a comedy.
Where it fails is in its apparent softening of the ugliness of the day: it features an Asian female cop (in reality, the UK wouldn't have one until the 1970s) and a black judge (even today, only 1% of judges in the UK are black).
