Wednesday, November 16, 2005

unbelievable (but yet not...)

The FBI will issue a rare "letter of regret" and pay environmentalist Josh Connole $100,000 after mistakenly arresting him for domestic terrorism. Agents followed Connole for several days in 2003, after arson-vandalism attacks at four Southern California car dealerships in which gas-guzzlers were spray-painted with phrases like "Fat, Lazy Americans." His suspicious activities included living communally with fellow vegans, installing solar panels, protesting the Iraq war, and (horrors!) driving an electric car. When Connole caught on to the surveillance and approached local law enforcement for help, FBI agents arrested him, held him for four days -- often chained to a floor -- and prodded him to confess to the arsons. But oopsie! Another guy did it, and even wrote to the Los Angeles Times mocking the FBI for arresting the wrong man. Asks Bill Paparian, Connole's lawyer, "How does advocacy of electric cars become the basis for suspicion?"

source: grist magazine

Thursday, November 10, 2005

we've got alot to be thankful for...

so i'm sitting here watching food tv and paula deen is making thanksgiving dinner, savannah style. although i'm not particularly enthusiastic about oyster dressing, everything else has me counting thursdays...

including these. sweet potatoes. covered in coconut. i mean, come ON!

sweet potato balls
4 large sweet potatoes
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 cups shredded coconut, sweetened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 large marshmallow per potato ball

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Bake the potatoes until tender, then peel and mash them. Stir in the brown sugar, orange juice, zest and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, toss the coconut with the sugar and cinnamon. Press mashed potatoes around each marshmallow, creating a 2 to 3-inch diameter ball. Roll the balls in the coconut mixture. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Watch carefully for the last few minutes of cooking; the expanding marshmallows can cause the potato balls to burst open.


click here to look at all of paula's recipes from this episode (i'm totally going to have to try her apple butter pumpkin pie - yum) as well as find out when you can view this southern special for your very self.

i love thanksgiving. i love paula deen. i now know how to make turducken.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

sitting by myself...

barclay has a new song up on his myspace page. maybe he'll play it live this saturday night at prospero's.

ahhh, prospero's. one block away from my house. and i'm in houston.

somebody go and enjoy the show for me...

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

from the daily dig...

How strange that we should ordinarily feel compelled to hide our wounds when we are all wounded! Community requires the ability to expose our wounds and weaknesses to our fellow creatures. It also requires the ability to be affected by the wounds of others... But even more important is the love that arises among us when we share, both ways, our woundedness.

Source: M. Scott Peck, "A Different Drum"

Sunday, November 06, 2005

it's official...

i have a giant crush on orlando bloom.

tania and i went to see elizabethtown this afternoon. a few thoughts about the movie:
  • (see above comments regarding orlando bloom)
  • i love a whole lot of stuff about the south. (except sweet tea. yuck.) those people know how to take care of one another.
  • i love small town culture. especially since i'm able to appreciate it from afar.
  • one of these days, paula deen is going to be my friend.
  • i'm a fan of any movie in which patty griffin makes a cameo. one can never, never get enough patty griffin.
  • we should all take a road trip sooner than later.
i know alot of the reviews of this movie weren't particularly positive, but i really enjoyed it. i'd go see it again, and think you should too.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

get it, it's your digestive system!

source: strange but trewe (via deanne)

in NOVEMBER???

so i'm working today at taft, and a lady just walked in with her ten week old son in transport. and what, you ask, was covering his stroller?

a mosquito net.

you have got to be kidding me...

has santa seen this?

ran across this article today while in the midst of thesis research:
a note on mercury levels in the hair of alaskan reindeer

a fascinating read, i'm sure...

if i were in kansas city, i'd go see this...

The Sacred Art of Sand Mandalas
November 1 to November 5

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily

Union Station


Witness the construction of an ancient art form as the Tibetan monks of the Drepung Gomang Monastery construct a mandala, or Tibetan sand painting. The mandala (from a Sanskrit word meaning “world in harmony”) is a three-dimensional form composed of colored sand.

The Monks begin by consecrating the site of the mandala sand painting with a ceremony of chants, music and mantra recitation. Over the next 4-5 days, they will pour millions of grains of sand, using traditional metal funnels called chak-pur, to create the mandala.

Once complete, the mandala is consecrated and then swept up to symbolize the impermanence of all that exists. Half of the sand may be distributed to the audience in small bags as blessings for personal health and healing. Then the monks, along with spectators, travel to a body of water, where the sand is ceremonially poured into the water in order to spread the healing energies of the mandala throughout the world.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005