Hooray for the Frivolous Weird

I like odd people. Most of the interesting people I know are dancing, strutting, stumbling, and occastionally, marching to the beat of their very own (often polyrhythmic) drummers.

It's important for me to distinguish the Frivolous Weird from the Obsessed Weird. I find the people who do Society for Creative Anachronism fascinating, in theory. I many have only met a couple. I don't remember. But they're often DEEP into it. Same for some Star Trek or Star Wars fans. Or Civil War re-enactors. (Think about that Venn diagram.) To the point that there's no room for humor or even good-natured mockery. It's what some folk have instead of lives.

This is for all the lonely people.

We like to be accepted, and are often even willing to be inauthentic to get people to like or at least notice us. My cousin who joined the radical Christian church because they seemed to care about him. Many of the people I've worked with in various theatre companies over the years are odd in their own special ways. But we find each other and life gets better.

Let's here it for the odd dilettante. I know that the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. But not in my eccentric orbit.

I say, get up, get out, and go have a face-to-face, authentic (true to yourself) non-commercial human interaction. It's good for you. And good for everybody else, too.

True justice is easier when you realise that it's just us. It's hard to really make somebody a "them" when you know their story.

Thanks, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, and Rice. Love, Hamas

Oh my! No showers of roses when the "heroes" rolled into Baghdad? Could it be that some people don't like us? Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, etc. aren't really public relations successes, are they? Unless you make it your business to capitalize on these shining examples of what the Good Guys do. Thus the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections. How unexpected was that? The world is significantly less safe (especially for Americans) since this gang took power. Hope you're happy, Red States. My Republicans for Voldemort bumper sticker resonates with truth.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
- Benjamin Franklin

It's OK, I wasn't using my civil rights anyway.
America has been released from its social contract.
It's a free agent now.

Freedom, however, isn't free.

Life. Don't Talk to Me About Life.

The church ladies and forces of evil have mastered the art of rhetoric, particularly refurbishing words to the point that some words have had their original meanings clouded. And that's sad.

Case in point: Life.
As part of the effort to return the United States to some mythical theocratic state, to remake America the way Jesus would want it, one primary goal is to make it impossible for a woman to legally end an unwanted pregnancy. The linguistic implications of this are manifest in the co-opting of the word life. Instead of honestly referring to the cause as being Anti-Choice or even anti-abortion, they say it's Pro-Life. Proponents of genocide aside, who isn't pro-life?

Let's get this out of the way right now: nobody gets pregnant so she can have an abortion. Abortions are for accidents. People who believe abortions should be safe and legal are not Anti-Life. It's a compassion thing. Something the church ladies aren't good at.

It's just another "Oh my goodness, isn't that terrible!" issue that serves the objectives of redirection. Don't look at the issue (why do women have unwanted pregnancy?), look here and be outraged (PARTIAL BIRTH!).

But I digress. It's difficult to see the words life or choice anymore without being reminded of this whole infuriating business. Too bad for Volvo. As we prepare to get a new car, I acquired some brochures from the Volvo dealer and was startled to see that their slogan now is "Volvo for life." We understand, yes, Volvo, safety, life, blah blah blah. Elegant simplicity, and all that. Still, it's no "Find your own road." It leaves a bad taste in my mouth because of the above-mentioned co-option. Too bad.

And Now for Something Completely Different

No rants today. I'm just cooking.

It's the first official post of the new year and instead of compaining about the state of this embarrassing country, I'm going to just catalog what's been going on in this kitchen for the last few weeks.

Set the wayback machine to December 30. My lovely bride (my Sue-chef) and a college pal of hers who happened to be visiting spent the day making a variety of interesting stuffings while I deboned a turkey, a duck, and a chicken. The next day we put all together and cooked it for nine hours and... Stunning. At right: our New Year's Eve turducken - three boned birds with stuffing, rolled and tied, roasted, flipped and cross-sectioned.

And there's the bread. To divert myself from the outside world, I carried up the KitchenAid and got to it. I've tried a variety of recipes in search of MY bread. I think I'm reasonably close with one that started as a baguette recipe and has morphed into our house loaf. It works with roasted garlic bonus pieces or without.

Today started with roasting bones that are now simmering in the stock pot. The rondeau is ready to go in after the kindergarten bus gets here. All this is in service of a bouef en daube that's marinating for a gathering on Saturday evening. It's the initiation of my doufeu.