possibly the most beautiful loaf yet

hole weet.
. . .

if wishes were hybrid cars

I wish the word heath had more reason for me to talk about it. Heaths sound romantic.

. . .

cold brooze (updated)

I'm trying this today, with yogurt containers.

--in retrospect, I seem to be making cold-brewed coffee concentrate. this would explain the ridiculously large amount of coffee in use. alas, too late for this time, but next time I'll try this.--

Do you think that Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers get stoned before every show? It's hard to imagine how they can possibly find the exact same jokes (e.g. "You've wasted another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk" and "Don't drive like my brother") funny week after week after year after year otherwise.

. . .

(Update: the cold brew's pretty good! Not as good as the Mill's, but that's in part b/c I'm not using whole milk. Definitely richer than regular coffee. I'll be interested to see what my future houseguests think.

I'm also trying making no-knead bread with half whole wheat flour.

I'm going to miss the street tamales when I leave for NP.)

gauging interest

Hey, if I were to set up a mailing list so that you the readers would get an email when there's a new post up, would you want it? There would only be one email/day, regardless of the number of posts, except if there were no new posts that day, in which case no email either. And of course if you wanted an email every time there was a new post, you could have that too (could be multiple emails/day, on days like these--but usually just one or zero). Bert once said he wanted such notification. Does anybody else? Please let me know if you would like to be added to the mailing list either in the comments or by emailing me.
thanks,
. . .

a good quotation from the Restatement Second of Torts Liability

"Good whiskey is not unreasonably dangerous...tobacco containing something like marijuana may be unreasonably dangerous."

. . .

things I dreamt about last night

• knitting
• having my brother critique a half-written paper on the horrible eighth-circuit opinion on nebraska's no-gay-marriage constitutional amendment.
  

We went over the paper so thoroughly in the dream that I feel like it'll be a piece of cake when I finally start writing it. It's kind of cool, actually. I don't have to be consciously stressed out because my subconscious is doing all the work, via dreams and twitching eye muscles.

. . .

C-Town

This morning, in a classic procrastinatory move, I went out in the rain, sans umbrella, galoshes, or even glasses, to nose about the neighborhood. I met up with two smiley mailmen at the mailbox and picked up a latte at my little now-competing-with-starbucks coffee shop across the street. But the major event was going to C-Town (it sounds like a euphemism, I know, but isn't), my smelly neighborhood grocery store. I've been in my house a lot in the past week, and sometimes when that happens I forget how to act in public--on this particular instance, all wet from the rain and blind from the forgotten glasses, I stood in the dairy aisle, scanning and scanning the cheeses, whispering "goooooooooooat. gooooooooooooooat."

It turns out they'd moved the edible cheeses to another aisle entirely.

Unrelatedly, the woman in front of me bought (in order of my noticing):

• about 10 doublewide boxes of english muffins
• approximately 4 large bunches of fresh mint
• two bags of radishes
• one bag of what I think were kitty treats

And while Kentucky Derby Day, and mint juleps, are merely 8 days off, that mint won't still be good in 8 days. And the only other time I've seen anyone buy that many english muffins was at my parents' for a massive eggs benedict--but surely it's not possible that another enormous family has the same tradition. And the radishes? and kitty treats? Who IS this person?

I wish I worked at a grocery store. Constant speculation, all day long.

Just to be fair, here's what I bought:

• toliet paper (by the way, in England they call it "loo-paper," which sounds funny)
  
• yogurt
• goooooooooat cheese
• two small containers of red pepper hummus
• two bags of baby carrots

. . .

i heart science

NYT reports on directional-wagging-love-indicator study.



. . .

no more pencils no more books

no more teachers' dirty looks. done with class forever. whee.

. . .

my new favorite breakfast lunch and/or dinner

plain yogurt, honey, pecans. tart, sweet, texture. pecans are good. and you can break them up with your [bare] hands.

also, columbia law school, which got eaten for dinner by our basketball team tonight. go violets.

. . .

mac-shane in the membrane

a new mac tip every day

. . .

pee gloves

I made these gloves on my recent trip to NE with yarn I bought in Spain. They're called pee gloves because while I was at the House of Lounge, I peed, stood up, pulled up my pants, and, before flushing, and while holding the gloves in my hand, turned around to admire the stained-glass, rachel-made, dick mirror* hanging above the toilet and how beautifully it reflects one's crotch when! a glove fell in. I rinsed it off though, and it smells just fine. Plus you can pee while wearing them--easy to navigate the fasteners, although wiping might be a little weird, especially if I don't get around to weaving in those ends.

*sorry if this seems crass, but that's its name.
. . .

so amazingly amazing

my last law school class EVA is a mere 8 days away.

. . .

happy eggs benedict day!

To quote Madonna:

Everybody spread the word, we're gonna have a celebration [of eggs benedict]
All across the world, in every nation
It's time for the good times, Forget about the bad times, oh yeah
One day to come together to release the pressure [of not eating eggs benedict]
We need a holiday [to celebrate and eat eggs benedict].
Oh yeah! Oh yeah!


. . .

ninjenius

www.askaninja.com

. . .

everywhere everything everybody

is rain.

. . .

dispatch from la maison mcshane

"This might be of interest for your blog."




other map graphics.
. . .

today's answer (with galoshes-eating glue addendum)

no.

. . .

[Addendum.

Bob from the Comments says:
"Hi Anne,
Hope the superglue works but I don't think it will. The glue is going to be a bit runny I think (plus it may eat the rubber, not sure). I think you might have better luck with a small tube of silicone. Something like this: This or this. {those were links}

Hope things are rocking!
--Bob"

Bob! Man, I am really glad that it didn't melt the rubber. I think that would have made "today's answer" more like a "no!" than just the "no." Anyway, I was gluing the rubber to the inside lining--I have no idea what it's made out of, but it's soft and white and very-fake-furry. It did actually seem to work for parts of it, but I just didn't glue securely enough right around the edges of the tear in the rubber, so water could still get in. I might actually try gluing it again (especially since I now know that they won't melt). Anyway, thanks a lot for the suggestions! if the superglue doesn't work I'll move on to the silicone. I really dig having you science people around, even if it was too late to stop the glue from potentially eating the galoshes. Now, I think I will go potentially eat some dinner.

Things are most definitely rockin! way to rock the science!

. . .]

today's question

does super glue fix holes in galoshes? tune in later to find out.

. . .

r.i.p. kurt vonnegut

his obituary. his were some of the first grown-up books i ever read. so it goes.
. . .

just not enough posts for one day

Nebraska's Lake McConaughy, about 60 miles from North Platte.

. . .

just in case somebody missed it

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 last week that the Environmental Protection Agency not only has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases in vehicle emissions, its statutory obligations require it to unless it can prove scientifically that the gases do not contribute to global climate change. This opinion is particularly great because apparently the dissent argued (by Chief Justice Roberts) that the coalition that sued the EPA did not have standing. In order to sue someone in federal court, you have to have standing, which is composed of a "concrete and particularized injury" that is "fairly traceable to the defendant," and that can be addressed by a favorable judicial decision. Over the past 30 years or so, Justice Scalia has made it his business to make standing harder and harder to establish, especially in environmental cases. So this case is a big win on at least two issues: unless they can find some nasty weasely way to weasel out of it, the EPA will have to regulate vehicle emissions; and in the future it may be easier to get standing to sue the EPA on other grounds. The opinion is also remarkable in that courts are usually pretty hesitant to second-guess agency policy decisions, unless they think that the agency has gone absolutely bananas. It's pretty telling that even the Supreme Court is willing to weigh in on the lunacy of the Bush Administration's environmental policy. Here's the NYT article.

. . .

new layout

The labels in the left column, the right column, the whole thing a little wider. Let me know in the comments if it doesn't work in your browser (and what you see). Thanks.

. . .

histories benedict

My father makes the best eggs benedict you'll find. I don't order it in restaurants because I know it'll be a disappointment. It graces most family gatherings, accompanied sometimes with spats, but always with piles and piles of dirty china, crystal, linens (it merits the good stuff), and lip-smacking, satisfied kin. According to this impressively lengthy NYT article, the dish's provenance, like our meals, is not unmixed with controversy and benign eccentrics.

. . .

time to talk gender-neutral pronouns

One of the many interesting topics discussed at my safe zone training (SZT) the other day was gender-neutral pronouns. Apparently there are more out there (in English) than s/he, one, and what wikipedia tells me is called the "singular they." The ones I was introduced to at SZT were "ze" (pron. zee) for she and he, and "hir" (pron. here) for her, him, his and hers. This has a pretty contrived feel, but then switching up the ubiquitous "he" felt contrived for a while to me too, but now I find willynilly hes very distracting (and irritating).

Here's a fun chart from wikipedia with other options:
...

	Nominative (subject)	Accusative (object)	Possessive Adjective	Possessive Pronoun	Reflexive
He	He laughed	I kissed him	His head hurts	I am his	He feeds himself
She	She laughed	I kissed her	Her head hurts	I am hers	She feeds herself
It	It laughed	I kissed it	Its head hurts	I am its	It feeds itself
Singular they	They laughed	I kissed them	Their head hurts	I am theirs	They feed themself/themselves
Spivak	Ey / E laughed	I kissed em	Eir heads hurt	I am eirs	E feed emself / eirself
Sie and hir	Sie laughed	I kissed hir	Hir head hurts	I am hirs	Sie feeds hirself
Xe	Xe laughed	I kissed xem	Xyr head hurts	I am xyrs	Xe feeds xemself
Ve	Ve laughed	I kissed ver	Vis head hurts	I am vis	Ve feeds verself
Ze and mer	Ze laughed	I kissed mer	Zer head hurts	I am zer	Ze feeds zemself
Ze and hir	Ze laughed	I kissed hir	Hir head hurts	I am hirs	Ze feeds hirself
Zie	Zie laughed	I kissed zir	Zir head hurts	I am zirs	Zie feeds zirself
E	E laughed	I kissed het	het head hurts	I am hets
Thon	Thon laughed	I kissed thon	Thons head hurts	I am thon's	Thon feeds thonself

The gender-neutral pronoun "co" is used in contemporary everyday language by the 100 people who live at Twin Oaks Community in Virginia, USA.

...

I like to think of the connection between the verbs they chose as causal, namely, he laughed, so I kissed him, so his head hurts, so I am his, so he feeds himself. And I especially like that last sentence. Bold move, Twin Oaks Community! Anyway, perhaps I will try out a few of these options here on the ol' blog. Or I'll forget. We'll see, I guess. Wikipedia also says that English originally had some other gender-neutral pronouns, but by the 12th century, he and she had been "drafted to reduce the increasing ambiguity of the pronoun system." And it points out that gender-neutral language is no guarantee of equality or a dearth of sexism: apparently Chinese has gender-neutral pronouns and is plenty patriarchal. So perhaps gendered pronouns are merely functional (although one assumes the Chinese get along fine without them), and not reflective of underlying inequalities . If you're interested, I recommend checking out the wikipedia page on gender-neutral pronouns. There's a lot of stuff there about other languages and whatnot.

At the SZT, the person talking about the gender-neutral pronouns said ze thought that making sex/gender (I can't remember which one, probably both) distinctions was at the root of all inequalities and problems (including [I asked], racism and religious problems). I would normally have said ze was a woman, but apparently ze doesn't think that those sorts of classifications are necessary (and are in fact harmful). We didn't really have time to hash all this stuff out, but it was an enjoyable introduction to some radical theories. If nothing else, it's an interesting mental exercise to try to do without gendered pronouns and classifying individuals by sex and gender.

In other news, it's snowing and sunning at the same time. April is funny.

. . .

shame

from the NYT's "Even as Africa Hungers, Policy Slows Delivery of U.S. Food Aid", by Celia Dugger:

...
Within weeks, those rations [of gruel, given to Zambian AIDS orphans], provided by the United Nations World Food Program, are at risk of running out for them and 500,000 other paupers, including thousands of people wasted by AIDS who are being treated with American-financed drugs that make them hungrier as they grow healthy.

“Not to put too fine a point on it,” said Jeffrey Stringer, an American doctor who runs a nonprofit group treating more than 50,000 Zambians with AIDS, “but it will result in the death of some patients.”

Hoping to forestall such a dire outcome, the World Food Program made an urgent appeal in February for cash donations so it could buy corn from Zambia’s own bountiful harvest, piled in towering stacks in the warehouses of the capital, Lusaka.

But the law in the United States requires that virtually all its donated food be grown in America and shipped at great expense across oceans, mostly on vessels that fly American flags and employ American crews — a process that typically takes four to six months. [italics added]

For a third year, the Bush administration, which has pushed to make foreign aid more efficient[!], is trying to change the law to allow the United States to use up to a quarter of the budget of its main food aid program to buy food in developing countries during emergencies. The proposal has run into stiff opposition from a potent alliance of agribusiness, shipping and charitable groups with deep financial stakes in the current food aid system.

Oxfam, the international aid group, and other proponents of the Bush proposal say it would enable the United States to feed more people more quickly, while helping to fight poverty by buying the crops of peasants in poor countries.

The United States Agency for International Development estimated that if Congress adopted the Bush proposal, the United States could annually feed at least a million more people for six months and save 50,000 more lives.

But Congress quickly killed the plan in each of the past two years, cautioning that untying food aid from domestic interest groups would weaken the commitment that has made the United States by far the largest food aid donor in a world where 850 million go hungry.

Representative Tom Lantos, Democrat of California and chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, warned last year at a food aid conference in Washington that decoupling food aid from American maritime and agribusiness interests was “beyond insane.”

“It is a mistake of gigantic proportions,” he said, “because support for such a program will vanish overnight, overnight.”

But James Kunder, acting deputy administrator of the development agency, said in an interview that the administration proposal, which would affect less than half of 1 percent of American agricultural exports, would not undercut American interests.

“The burden of proof is on producers and shippers to show this is going to significantly damage their interests,” he said, “because we can provide compelling evidence that allowing local procurement is going to save lives by speeding up delivery of supplies.”

...

Over the past three years, the same four companies and their subsidiaries — Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Bunge and the Cal Western Packaging Corporation — have sold the American government more than half the $2.2. billion in food for Food for Peace, the largest food aid program, and two smaller programs, according to the Department of Agriculture.

Shipping companies were paid $1.3 billion over the same period to move the food aid overseas, the department’s figures show.

Nonprofit groups received over $500 million in donated American food, which they sold at market rates in developing countries to raise money for antipoverty programs, according to the international development agency, and a recent study by Emmy Simmons, a retired agency official.

Agribusiness and shipping groups vigorously oppose the Bush administration proposal to buy food in developing countries with cash, which they argue is more likely to be stolen. They say that American food is safer and of higher quality and that the government can speed delivery by storing it in warehouses around the world.

And they defend the idea that federal spending should benefit American business and farming interests, as well as the hungry. Without support from such interest groups, food aid budgets from Congress would wither, they say.

“It would be at extreme risk of being diminished,” said Paul B. Green, a consultant to the North American Millers’ Association, a trade group for the milling industry that counts Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge and Horizon Milling, a joint venture of Cargill and CHS Inc. among its members.

Gloria Tosi, a lobbyist and immediate past president of the American Maritime Congress, an association of United States-flag ship owners, agreed. “There’s no constituency for cash,” she said.

Many charitable groups involved in food aid share that worry, and also warn that a badly managed program to buy food in poor countries could drive up food prices and worsen hunger.

The Alliance for Food Aid, made up of 14 nonprofit groups involved in distributing and selling American food aid overseas, maintains that the Bush proposal is too ambitious and advocates a modest pilot program.

“Do a demonstration,” said Robert Zachritz, a senior policy adviser at World Vision. “Does it work? Then you can go from there.”

For now, the World Food Program says it hopes that other rich nations or individuals will donate cash to keep rations flowing for the half million needy Zambians, among them Munalula and 135,000 children fed through community schools.

...

. . .

dispatch from the house of lounge

http://voicethread.com

. . .

the nyt's nebraska travel section

"omaha's culture club"

the midwest's prairies

nebraska's star party (you won't get plutoed)

the sandhills

nebraska city (small pleasures and lazy days)

venturing off Interstate 80: "Nebraska is a place of clear light and calming vistas, of architectural landmarks, both majestic and humble, and many quirky little museums."

. . .

safe zone

I am receiving Safe Zone training tomorrow. It's a university program (for some reason they all seem to be? I'm not sure why), but I'm hoping to make mine available to wider audiences. I hope it's well done.

. . .

my first youtube upload

The sandhill cranes, plus some parents. It's the cranes making those funny noises, not the parents. And not the best cinematography, I know; it's best to think these things out beforehand. I didn't.



[edit: apparently the video is "processing," so it might not viewable for a while.]
. . .

sandhill cranes and airport dreams come true

The sandhill cranes, named for the sandhills of Nebraska where they stop by the millions to feed on their way up to Canada for the summer, may be viewed online here. My parents and I stopped to see them on our way home from North Platte. Right around sunset, the birds all come from the fields, where they've been eating corn left on the ground from the previous fall, to the Platte River, where they spend the night. Apparently they like to sleep (standing up) in the (very shallow) water because the water helps them hear predators coming. They've been doing this for zillions of years. Anyway, it's quite a spectacle to see huge numbers of three-feet-tall birds flying to the river and jumping around and making friends, all backlit by a beautiful Nebraska sunset. Maybe next year I'll have a sandhill crane party. But for now, the Cranecam will have to do. I highly recommend checking it out around the time of sunset or sunrise (when they leave the Platte) Nebraska time.

It was a little chilly in the blind where we watched the cranes.

Dad was pretty intent on the bird- and deer-watching.

In other news, I got to be the person who gets the sign at the airport! When I flew into Omaha, I was met by one of the Omaha Legal Aid folks, who had a sign for me! with my name on it! and he remembered to hold it up so that I could see it! (cough, cough, Zach) It was really great. I've always wanted to be one of those sign people, and it was especially great because it gave me something funny to say first thing (about how I'd always wanted to be one of those sign people). AND THEN! on the way home today, I got to be one of those "Paging Anne McShane, please come to Gate C4 for immediate departure" people! My plane was delayed, and I was wandering around the airport, and apparently they decided to take off a little earlier than was listed on the marquee. So really, a banner airport trip.

Here are some other classic moments:

I met Young Liam. He seems pretty cool, if a little gassy.


Nice as always to see H*s and SWT, + tasty bread in the sunlight.


And I do love me some magnolias.


I got to see other fine people but somehow they didn't make it into the camera. And I think five cats? yes, five. and a happy dog with not a thing wrong with her saliva glands.
Two thumbs up on the trip home.

. . .

employment

I have accepted a job with Legal Aid of Nebraska, North Platte office. North Platte is in the beautiful sandhills of western Nebraska, right where the North and South Platte Rivers join. It's three hours and fifteen minutes from Lincoln. The job should be great. There is just one other attorney and one paralegal (both very nice) in the office, so I will get terrific experience. Also, NP is small enough so that I should be able to get to know the local decisionmakers, barbequeing with judges and whatnot, which seems cool. I'm sure I'll have a lot more to say about all this in future.


. . .

a throwback to ghana

My friend Zach alerted me to this video from a Ghanaian tv station about a white Californian who went to Accra and became a tro-tro mate. The tro-tros are the uber-cheap privately run minibuses we used to get around when we weren't taking taxis. The mates are the guys that yell out the tro-tro's destination so people know to get on it, tell the driver when to stop for people, and take the money and give change. It's a complicated job, because you have to know all the rates for the different destinations, which change depending on when people get on, and keep track of who's paid and who hasn't, and give all the right change--that can be really hard because sometimes they collect all the money and only then then hand out change to everyone, so they have to remember who's going where, how much they owe, how much they paid, and how much change they're owed. Toward the end of the segment, they interview the driver (while he's driving), who's speaking Twi. If you listen, you can hear him say "Thirty-Seven" and "Accra, Accra, Accra," which are tro-tro destinations within Accra, and then the word "obruni" over and over again, referring to the white guy. I'm pretty sure he's imitating the obruni mate yelling out the destinations, and then discussing how all the people react, saying "obruni obruni obruni."



. . .