Hi, Martooni. I saw the fairy door. It's wonderful.
Good morning, Cassandra.

I can just see it on bloggingheads.tv: Joel and Mudge debating the theories of Sigmund Freud! Now that would be edifying.

And can we do Carl Jung next?

Requiescat in Pacem Error. I had him on my mind yesterday when I found out the family of groundhogs the dogs have been harassing all summer just moved to the neighbour's lot and rebuilt their underground fortress 20 feet from the property line... I wished he had been silent recently because he was in drydock for some mid-life refit, but, sadly, I learn this morning it was not the case. The good ones always leave too early.

Mudge, what is up with the Iggles uniform??? Baby blue & yellow? Baby blue socks with yellow stripes? In my mind I had a picture of the typical Philly fan fan scanning his closet for the right baby blue and yellow outfit to wear to the game...
Our local team (cable gods have decided Detroit stations would feed us the stuff from all US networks) finally showed their real colour in that game though.

Here is Error's obituary from The Trentonian:

http://www.trentonian.com/WebApp/appmanager/JRC/Daily?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pg_article&r21.pgpath=%2FTRN%2F_Obituaries&r21.content=%2FTRN%2F_Obituaries%2FTopStoryList_Story_695849

Good morning, all.

Joel, thanks for posting my item as a Kit, I appreciate it. There's so much more to say about EF, and so many did so quite eloquently yesterday. I know his family appreciates it.

To Joel's comment:

"All it really means is that there's not a single "self" but rather an agglomeration of interconnected, highly distributed, decentralized mental programs."

Er, I suppose one could make a case that each of us is run like the Federal Government. Feel free to debate how effective that model may or may not be.

bc

bc, I'd say the federal model explains a lot about the general mess of human existence.

Nothing says 60's dorm room like a debate about the nature of reality. Pass the bong and quit bogarting the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Freud has been pretty much discredited as a scientist, but as a literary theorist his views have too much truthiness to abandon totally.

Presidents run things? Nixon allegedly paid attention at least once a week for several years to get the "temporary" Navy Buildings removed.

The local public radio station replayed Radio Lab's "Emergence" program from 2005. Wonderful. http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2005/02/18

There's a lot going on without awareness, but back in 1981, Donald Redfield Griffin of Rockefeller University in New York published "The Question of Animal Awareness: Evolutionary Continuity of Mental Experience". My recollection is that some biologists thought the book was a prime example the silly things that tenured professors can do. I think an assistant professor looking for tenure would never have taken up that line of work.

There are very, very good reasons for our perception of the world to reflect reality, and in particular the facets of reality that are relevant to our lives. Like not stepping on snakes, finding edible ripe fruit or animals, maximizing your chances of finding the right mate and raising above-average children. Lots of things like that. Peoples of the Amazon may found value in hallucinogens. Certainly Richard Schultes had a long, healthy and productive life studying their uses of plants (including hallucinogens).
http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/schultes.html
(regrettably, the wonderful little magazine from which this story is reprinted went bust).

I shall miss friend Errors clear, concise and meaningful thoughts. I shall miss his friendly manner. Most of all however, I shall miss his presence. Farewell my friend, though we never met.

I was sad to learn of Error's passing. Since he told us of his illness about a year ago (when was it?), he has been always not far out of my mind.

I recently read Marjorie Williams' "The Woman at the Washington Zoo," partly because I had wanted to read more of her work ever since encountering what turns out to have been her final essay ("The Halloween of My Dreams"), and partly because her illness was the same as Error's. And, as it happens, a close friend of mine from high school, who is one of those rare lucky ones whose liver cancer was diagnosed very early, early enough that it could be arrested through surgery. Yeah, sure, she's missing a few organs, keeps having suspicious "shadows" on her liver that need to be "abraded" (whatever that means) and she's now an insulin-controlled diabetic. But, hey, she's alive, she's got a husband who loves her (an even older friend of mine), and she has a sweet little daughter. And the illness caused her to drop some extra weight, so she looks great!

Life is good. The one thing we know is that life also isn't permanent (well, we also know about taxes). A bit of wisdom that is so obvious that we don't consider it wise until we hear it in the right voice and the right frame of mind, is that we all are going to die. We just don't know when, or of what. Williams says that the only difference between her and the rest of us is that she had a better idea of "when" than most, and a good idea of what probably would kill her. Knowing that it's going to happen, and if you're over 40, knowing that the tank is less than half-full, what are you going to do with the time that you have? I'll tell you one thing -- I'm much more resentful of pulling all-nighters than I used to be. If I kill myself to complete a project, when do I get the happy pay-off for all my hard work? Forget that. Take a walk outside and enjoy the beautiful world that we have been granted the gift of living in. It's good.

the human mind as bush-cheney or the federal goverment.
hmmmmm. me and my little elves will ponder that.

Error, I hardly knew you and yet I knew you well. I'm fairly certain that the place beyond the fairy door is wonderful, warm, and that groundhogs are friends there.

Error in 08 and beyond.

Close to the end of January, I think, Tim.

I agree totally. I've started thinking of how many Saturdays, max, might be left, and how unwilling I am to spend them working, as I did last weekend.

I read of Error's death with sadness and very real sense of loss. I've been back boodling for an hour and I wish I had been on in real time so I could take comfort and share my thoughts with you yesterday.
I spent Saturday night at a BBQ with friends I had mentioned Error to, Dave, who hosted the party, is a rabid Tull fan and Don, who is currently resisting the Evil Ground Hog Conspiracy on his home turf. We gathered our cars around a fire and tuned our radios to the little broadcast CD player I use. The first 3 Tull albums were played and I chose Zappa's (another musician Error liked) "Strictly Commercial", a compilation album that begins with the instrumental "Peaches and Regalia."
I've mentioned to friends that "Peaches and Regalia" would be a good piece to play at the end of a memorial service. Its humour, vigour, and joy will lend a spring to the step of the people have to carry on.

I hope ScottyNuke won't be offended if I compare his wonderful announcement to "Peaches and Regalia."
Congratulations Mr. Nuke, I know you and your beloved will have many happy years.

I, for one, will continue the struggle against the machinations of the International Ground Hog Conspiracy. I know the silly smile I beam their way will disguise my nefarious intentions.

The topic to day is ATP and it's role in a cell, including formation of memories. I need to find a way out of my students' amygdylas and into their short term memory.

jack, do let us know how that works out for you.

Scottynuke and FoSN, congratulations. FoSN, you can look forward to many happy years of telling 'the story'. It is a gift of some import, that can be brought out with fine wines and friends and laughter forever. It bodes very well for many years of laughing together in the future.

Boko;

Not at all, not at all. :-)

And I ask ye, where was THIS scurvy quiz last week, me hearties???

http://encarta.msn.com/quiz_254/pirate_quiz.html?GT1=10393

8/10

:-)

Jack, there is a great book on precisely that topic! _Deep Survival_. One of the interesting things about it is he explains why we sometimes do stupid things even though we know better. There are some examples in there that would make the topic interesting. For example, why would snowmobilers doing an avalanche rescue go racing up an unstable peak on the way home, knowing it was unstable and foolhardy to do? How do experienced hikers die underestimating Mt. Hood?

Not that I've every done anything stupid when I knew better myself. :-) Just sayin'.

I can think of one thing for which we can give Herr Professor Doktor Freud credit. It's not so much one of his claims, as a fundamental axiom: the mind is a product of the body it inhabits. Hence, Freud's fixation on sexuality, oral gratification, and all that stuff. It's pretty clear now that he had some crazy parochial notions about these things, but he cottoned on to the idea that society, and the minds that create it, is a mechanism to modulate access to the things that satisfy physical wants and needs. The mind emerges from the complexity of the nervous system, but it also arises from the complexity of the mechanical system to which it is attached. That's pretty profound. The problem with Freud is that he didn't seem to have a clear notion of the significance of an hypothesis as a falsifiable claim. As the progenitor of a field of study, it seems obvious that he would be wrong in most every particular of theory. His job was to provide initial hypotheses that stake out the territory. The error (there's that word!) was in confusing untested hypotheses with profound wisdom and insight. Freud and his followers declared Freud himself to be outside the bounds of experiment and refutation, leading to the forceful application of counter-productive notions that have screwed up untold numbers of people.

Yeah, dbG. re.: foolhardiness: Check THIS out.

Without Freud, would we have Woody Allen?

What makes these questions of consciousness so tricky is that the topic is frighteningly amorphous. (And we though clouds were hard.) How do you measure consciousness? What does it weigh? How much energy does it use? Is the nature of human consciousness even the same from person to person? Heck, does consciousness even exist at all or is it all just clever programming?

These are questions that fall dangerously close to the philosophical, which makes me wonder exactly how one would spend billions of dollars usefully. I mean, there is only so much espresso that can be productively consumed. Exactly what scientific experiments are being proposed?

But, to my mind, (get it?) there is a more fundamental question. To me, I don't wonder as much what consciousness is, but why it is. That is, I question the evolutionary advantages of higher forms of consciousness. Did it really help our reproductive success in the mists of prehistory to be able to contemplate notions of infinity? Were prehistoric women really that easily impressed?

I wonder if, perhaps, this vaunted human characteristic of advanced consciousness is actually some kind of side effect. An evolutionary by-product of limited value in itself. Perhaps human consciousness is nothing more significant than the heat produced by a microprocessor.

10/10 on the pirates quiz. I had to deduce/guess on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride question. 8 of the 10 I knew cold, however.

I love the entrance to P's of the C. Floating through the mysterious (yet strangely clean) bayou, on the boundary between the world of ordinary human society in the form of the lighted restaurant, and the dark world of dark doings in floating shacks, mysterious sounds, and possible alligators in the water. Well done.

Yoho- I may not be able to talk like a pirate, but Imust know something about them. 10/10! woohoo!

I loved "Woman at the Washington Zoo". She was a truly lovely writer. I remember reading that Halloween essay the day it was in the paper. I was sitting in my carpool line and I read it and re-read it and then called my sister to tell her to drop everything and read it. Powerful.

I got 7/10 on the quiz and since I thought I might not get any correct I was quite pleased. The Pirates ride at Disney is about the extent of my knowledge of Pirates.

9/10 on the pirates quiz, didn't know the Disney question.

I loved Marjorie Williams' stories on personalities, Vernon Jordan for example. Wouldn't it be great to have her take on Darth Cheney and Arbusto? The cancer memoir made me weep.

RD, I wouldn't be surprised if evolution operated more directly on the properties of the brain in human females than in males, and the only reason men have equally big brains is because brain development is not controlled by sexual hormones. Women are responsible in technologically simple agrarian societies for managing crops, making ceramics, brewing beer, and window treatments, while men are responsible for drinking beer, public drunkenness, and moving furniture. A mere three jobs, and none of them mentally taxing. At least, I seem to recall that my undergraduate anthropology classes could be paraphrased in that way.

9/10 on the pirate quiz. But more importantly, who are cooler, pirates or ninjas?

Thinking of Pirates of the Caribbean, it seems our crocodiles are less snappy than alligators. Crocs are doing nicely in the Miami area.

And I think I'd take sharks over alligators. Despite that recent surfboard with a huge chunk bitten out (Flagler Beach), our sharks usually just nibble ankles.

New Providence (the Bahamian island where Nassau is) was a big pirate hangout, evidently after things got sort of hot at Old Providence (Isla de Providencia, an English-speaking bit of Colombia). It seems Providencia was a kind of southern branch of New England.
http://www.destinationcartagena.com/isla_de_providencia.html

So Puritans were privateers! Did the Spanish treat them as religiously-motivated terrorists?

Hmm, SciTim, so you are suggesting advanced cognitive thought in those with a Y chromosome is akin to the existence of male nipples.

Interesting.

My wife got us tickets to see the fairly hoary "Defending The Caveman" when it comes to town. I guess I'll have to write a detailed evolutionary anthropological thesis about it after I have had time to let it sink into my little vestigial skull.

I suddenly remembered that Steven Gould once proposed that the ability of women to experience intense sexual pleasure was probably a side effect of the development of this capability in men. If one accepts this dubious premise, and also accepts the even more questionable notion that higher consciousness exists in men because it was needed in women, an obvious question is raised.

Who got the better deal?

SciTim & RD: I don't think women thought up this particular strategy and I suspect it doesn't take much higher level thinking to design it. It certainly didn't becoime the subject of critical analysis before it was implemented. I respectfully submit this to be in the running for the first annual Why do Men Have Nipples? award.

Duh. Forgot the link.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/23/AR2007092301431.html?hpid=topnews

7/10 on the pirate quiz. I'll go clean the bilges.

I ignored me gut an' changed two questions! I'm cursed by elves!
Only lubbers ken Disney.

Who got the better deal, Padouk? Ask yourself who can have multiple O's, and who needs to rest up for a couple of days after just one. (OK, that might have been "too much information.")

Aced the Pirate quiz. Don't know why I even bothered. Argggh. (Though I admit I did have to guess at the Disneyland question.)

Shriek, those Eagles retro uniforms were uncontestably the single-most hideous uniforms ever worn by any competitive sports team, ever. I include the Menudo versus Men In Hats summer league softball game of 1983.

To clarify two points: Joel, I didn't think the "illusory self" idea was yours; I knew you were quoting somebody else. We are in complete agreement on the Butterfly and similar illusory theories.

And to clarify what I said about Freud: I said I think he got the overall structure correct. He called them ego, libido and id, and you can change around the names and tinker with their functions all you want, but I think he was onto something. Some of the other things I think he got right:

1) The unconscious mind. Granted the idea of the unconscious mind has been around for thousands of years, and turns up regularly in Shakespeare and hundreds of lesser artists. Nevertheless, it was Freud who brought it into the realm of psychology as a science (using the term "science" pretty loosely in this context). He took it seriously, made people think about it, and turned it into a serious field of medical and biological inquiry. To me he gets props for that, and the naysayers can boo and hiss all they want. That he got a lot of stuff wrong is like saying Columbus was a dolt because he thought he was in the East Indies. Freud and Columbus were two pioneers who were the first to go where nobody had been before. I respect and honor that. (William James, another hero of mine, was doing a lot of work on the same subject at the same time, and the two men paralleled each other in many ways. James stayed pretty much on the theoretical stuff; it was Freud who first developed a method of systematic study and use as actual in-the-field therapy. To me he gets props for that. YMMV.)

2) Sex plays a huge and largely unseen role in the background of our thought processes, and often gets us messed up and twisted around and obsessed, etc. etc. Anybody out there crazy enough to want to dispute that? Know who the first guy was to say that and bring into serious academic study? Uh-huh.

3) People repress all sorts of stuff, and it sits there somewhere in the back of your brain, and oftentimes rots away and has an influence on you many years later. We all good with that? Anybody need examples? Post-traumatic stress disorder? Incest survivors? Rape victims? Who was the first guy to seriously work on that kind of thing (other than, say, Shakespeare)? Hint: it wasn't B.F. Skinner.

4) Oftentimes people get messed up in their heads about stuff, and it's good to go talk to a trained specialist. Sometimes it works and helps, sometimes it doesn't. We all still good?

5) Anybody want to dispute (a) the existence of defense mechanisms, (b) Freudian slips, (c) dream interpretation and symbolism (OK, maybe when YOU dream about trains going into tunnels it's just about transportation issues and the need for higher AMTRAK subsidies). To this day we use terms and concepts such as @nal personalities, ph@llic symbols, death wish, will-to-live, the ego (as an entitiy), narcissism and narcissistic personalities, etc. It seems to me the question of whether Freud got this stuff "right" has become irrelevant: the concepts are "out there" and in common use. To me that speaks volumes.

And just to add a little more, William Little, the man who first identified cerebral palsy, claimed it was due to lack of oxygen. It was Freud who first disputed that notion, postulating that asphyxia was a symptom, not the cause of the disease. It wasn't until the 1980s that Freud was proved right and Little wrong.

I still think many of the insights and ideas in "Moses and Monotheism" and "Civilization and Its Discontents" are dead on.

That Freud got lots of stuff "wrong" is beyond dispute...but name me a pioneer and founding theoretician in any field of study who didn't? The overarching theme of Joel's piece is that even after nearly 150 years of intense study about the human mind, we still don't know diddly doodly (a highly scientific, technical term we deep thinkers use), and Joel and others predict we still won't a hundred years from now. So I don't see how we can fault Freud too much when nobody else has gotten too much closer than he ever did. I think the point is that people are at least playing in the right ballpark (where the hot dogs and beer may cost $4 billion, but that's not much worse than Camden Yards), and Freud's the guy who started that process. That he didn't all the rules right any more than Alexander Cartwright did isn't material, at least to me.

Thanks for this Boodle-mined Kit, Joel. Both halves are representative of this peculiar institution.

I'm glad Mudge's musings made it, because I was struck by his comparison of the mind to the Bush-Cheney administration. Perhaps we all have an evil twin lurking within us; perhaps, like Bart Simpson, we were the evil twin all along and only the presence of our better half controlling our consciousness permits us to live, work and Boodle normally.

Really, this is fascinating stuff. I like the whimsy of the myriad elves but can't ascribe to it as a theory. My evil twin won't let me.

I don't have an evil twin. I have an evil set of quintuplets. Perhaps even a whole litter.

No, you don't.

Yes, you do, too.

Who asked you, moron? Stay out of it.

Moron, who you calling moron, buttface?

Now, now, fellahs, let's calm down and

Oh, bite me. You always take his side.

Is it safe to come out now?

I hate snakes.

You two are such wusses, jeez. Stay in yer freakin' room, see if I care. Hey, look at the rack on

That's all you ever think about. You're disgusting.

Oh, good. Lunchtime.

This op-ed in the NY Times apparently is handling both sides of the debate, so we can all take a break:

SIGMUND Freud died 68 years ago today, and it remains uncertain whether he is what W. H. Auden called him, "a whole climate of opinion / Under whom we conduct our differing lives," or whether he is completely passé. It's still not clear whether Freud was the genius of the 20th century, a comprehensive absurdity or something in between.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/opinion/23edmundson.html?em&ex=1190779200&en=f05d02485e2da44b&ei=5087%0A

=====
Regarding the evil twin and the elves, I like the AA wisdom that talks about the "committee" -- it's your bad selves or the demons or whatever, that are always plotting your next stumbling block. That is a good description of how it feels sometimes when bad behaviors just spring up, seemingly out of nowhere, or the way you can be feeling great and suddenly get hit with an urge -- where did that come from? The Committee.

Sometimes it's like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfes in here.

Isn't that supposed to be "Dwarves"?

Well, well, if it isn't little Miss Anal-Retentive Schoolmarm.

Well, *some* of us were paying attention in class. And what were *you* doing? Staring at MS's legs, most likely.

I can't help it if she sat right next to me.

Perv.

Again with the name-calling. Are we gonna go eat, or what?

Stop that Mudge you'll cramp your clicking finger.

Here's that ugly uniform.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/football/nfl/09/23/bc.fbn.lions.eagles.ap/index.html

I swear, if you bring up freaking Julian Jaynes again...

The female members of my Evil Committee love the socks though.

Bart Simpson is my inner child: his skate--board is my lap--top; and Homer's car% is the inter--webs.
I shudder to think where Krusty fits but Moldy, Bubbles, Yendor, Doofy, Cheery, Brainy, Chilly, and Gloomy are self evident.

I think of it more as a Calvin/Hobbes type of thing. Everyone thinks I'm Hobbes, but I'm really Calvin and sometimes I transmogrify.

I haven't heard about the AA Committee idea, kbert, but I'd certainly admit that my shadow self sometimes has not-bad ideas.

Shriek, we took a vote, and it's unanimous: those socks are hideous. Even the guy who watches "Queer Eye for the Middle Linebacker" agrees they're hideous. But virtually all of us thank you for the cross-eyed girl in the bathing suit right next door.

Mudge, the consciousness split in three parts? Aristole got there in the 4th century BC, only he termed it "soul" in his book De Anima (latin translation).
http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/psyche.htm
According to him, orexis (desire) mediated between the conscious and the material body (what I today would call the peripheral nervous system) to impel action.
It's just that Freud read "desire" as sex drive and formulated his entire theory accordingly. Don't you ever get the feeling he'd get hot and bothered when seeing even a potted plant?

Other than that, I do agree with you and SciTim about his importance. I think the biggest thing was that he founded talk therapy.

Jekyll/Hyde Mudge aside, I don't think the unconscious is necessarily evil. I'm convinced that mine is smarter and more tuned into my needs than I am.
But of course if a certain perky gent wants to go all borderline personality or dissocative personality, that's his choice-- as long as all of his alters get to vote on it.

Wilbrod, I agree with you about the good side of the unconscious mind. And I have to concur with Freud about dreams being a big clue to our unconscious. Although I think our memories of dreams are like an ink blot test, that we create the memories because dreams actually happen in another sort of language that does not translate into waking life.

I've always felt that the ability to go easily between waking and sleeping, and thus between "consciousness" and dreaming, is related to mental health.

Again, a reason to avoid caffeine.

There's good review of David Halberstam's last book "The Coldest Winter," about the Korean War.

'http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/books/review/Frankel-t.html?pagewanted=all'

Anybody beside me watch the first episode of the Ken Burns epic, "The War"? I thought it was terrific. The chat with him at 11 this morning was pretty good, too.

It's going to be on for 7 straight nights, and I'm probably gonna miss the last one on Saturday. I'd rate it pretty close to "must-see TV," though, but then, it's the kind of thing that's in my wheelhouse, so of course I'd think that.

I'm always a little annoyed that there's no way for Burns to mention that one of the people featured, Sam Hynes, wrote what is commonly regarded as one of the two finest first-person accounts of combat during WWII (the other being Gene Sledge's "With the Old Breed"). And Joel may already know that Hynes became a professor of literature at a certain Ivy League school known for its tigerish mascot.

All this talking about mind stuff is making my mind hurt. Mine has been on hold all weekend waiting for Ivan's Mom's critique of fried stuff on a stick.

It's on PBS like the other Burns series right? Then we don't get it on basic cable. Since the move to Detroit from Rochester as a feed point for US networks we don't get PBS in the basic package. That and getting the Lions instead of the the Bills (old Marv Levy fan from his Alouettes stint here) is just another reason to hate the move.

It's the committee that makes the person. Sometimes you may wish that Thirsty, Horny or Lazy didn't show up but here they are, signed-up for life.

Just noted that a Canadian artist I was particularly found of has passed. Ken Danby RIP.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070924.wdanbyobit0924/BNStory/Entertainment/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20070924.wdanbyobit0924

9/10 on the pirate quiz.
I wish I could tape the War program, all of ken Burn's stuff has been wonderful. I watched Saving Private Ryan on Saturday night and then promptly thanked my Mom and her generation for all their sacrafices on Sunday. She always says to me"I guess you don't want to hear the old stories" and I always say "of course I do" and "your generation saved the world"

Arrrrgggggg off to work.

Mudge you cracked me up there......Thanks!!

Mea maxima culpa, bh, and abject apologies. I have no culinary adventures to report. Despite my best efforts, both boys flatly refused to even taste deep-fried mashed potatoes on a stick, along with deep-fried oreos, Snickers, and pickles on a stick. I begged them in the name of Boodle research. I pleaded on behalf of my imaginary friends. They stood firm. As the responsible adult and only driver, I felt it prudent to forego the experience myself. We did eat corn dogs, but this is traditional fair fare with no hint of the exotic.

They also sold pizza on a stick. Next year I expect to see deep-fried pizza on a stick.

You teach your kids to eat healthy and keep their arteries in fighting shape for fair food, and this is the thanks you get?

Boy.

I've always suspected that the conscious mind is divided into three parts: the Gottado, the Oughtado, and the Wannado.

The Gottado controls those things that are necessary to do, like eating, sleeping, and going to work.

The Oughtado controls things that people do only so that they can continue to think of themselves as virtuous. Like occasionally calling annoying elderly relatives and flossing.

The Wannado controls the things that we do just for fun. Like boodling.

It is the subtle interplay of these three forces that determines how we spend the day.

Gosh, those names sound almost like mafia families :).

Ahh.

Hmmmmmm...

:). <------- emoticon with a chin mole?

:-)

Sorry S'nuke...that should have been :P.

(:*P)::. on your lap, more precisely.

Watched 'War" last night and one thing that really struck me was the scene and comment at the end of the Guadalcanal segment was the priviate receiving a letter on his eighteenth birthday. The couldn't get ammo and food for weeks but the mail got through on time?

I worked in Sacramento '59- '61 with a Japanese engineer that went through the internment as a young man. But he had TB at the time and was just sent to a TB hospital up in the Sierras and regulary was able to the take the Greyhound bus back to Sacramento to play poker. But his family did lose their truck farm.

Ivansmom, being designated driver should have exempted you from deep-fried mashed potatoes on a stick. Probably those instant flakes, anyway.

No deep-fried Pepsi or Coke?
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/12/deepfried-cocacola.html

If Scotty's going to be silly with emoticons, here are some @ssicons, sent to me by my Sunday School teacher (warning! a bit risque!):

(_!_) a regular @ss

(__!__) a fat @ss

(!) a tight @ss

(_*_) a sore @ss

{_!_} a swishy @ss

(_o_) an @ss that's been around

(_x_) kiss my @ss

(_X_) leave my @ss alone

(_zzz_) a tired @ss

(_E=mc2_) a smart @ss

(_$_) Money coming out of his @ss

Omygod dbg. I am forever amazed at the devious creativity of those with access to a deep fat fryer. I strongly suggest that Mudge not gaze upon this concoction lest he be sent into immediate hyperglycemic shock.

Mercy.

dbG, that concoction cries out to be accompanied by a deep fried Mars bar.

Still trying to imagine Pizza on a stick.

Thanks for your concern, Padouk, but although I do indeed have my food issues, deep-fried whatevers aren't among them. I'm actually a bit repulsed by the notion of deep-fried Snickers and that kind of stuff. The place where I'd have real trouble would be dragging me past the Penna. Dutch bakery stall with the apple/cherry pie/strudel/tart/turnovers. That's where I go weak in the knees. I'm not real good about walking past the funnel cake stall, either.

You just reminded me, RD. I used to manage restaurants.

Hors d'oeuvres for one reception included scallops wrapped in bacon. The other manager ordered battered scallops by mistake; we didn't notice until the last minute. So we wrapped the bacon around them, toothpicked them and threw them in the deep fryer. You wouldn't believe how good they were! Even better than deep-fried pickles or deep-fried soft pretzel chunks.

Back to tidying up in anticipation of guests in a moment, but a friend's teenage daughter works at the cafeteria at a theme park.

Every morning this summer she made the favorite breakfast of every worker--grilled cookies.

Mudge, are you implying some people actually walk *past* the funnel cake stand?

Funnel cake, where simple carbohydrates and diglycerides combine in ultimate perfection?

I still remember my first time with near absolute clarity. It was August 1987 at a street fair near Reading. And to think I was already a quarter century old.

Oh, the wasted, wasted years.

RD, I'm ashamed to say that I have done so a couple of times this summer.

I used to have it as a regular 4th of july treat when growing up, so when it's available otherwise, it feels...wrong. And this 4th of july, I found an even better treat-- a smoked whitefish/salmon stall.

Funnel cakes suddenly seemed like a passing fling of my feckless youth.

They say you never forget your first ...ah... funnel cake, Padouk.

The Oklahoma state fair has numerous and varied food booths, but many favorites are represented multiple times. Thus, if you passed the corn dog or Indian taco or funnel cake stand, be not despondent. Another will be a few paces away, along with an opportunity for fresh-squeezed lemonade (and very tasty too). There are a few specialty booths, such as those offering deep-fry and stuff on a stick, which have a wait. The booth with the perennial long line sells hot fresh cinnamon rolls. The aroma overpowers all other smells for yards (not bad, for the fair) and irresistibly draws you in.

I loved being helped to understand Freud with the supports of college: nerdie nighttime dorm chat, accessible professors, and loads of time to think. Indulge me with my response to Mudge's Masterful Musing on "Yes! Freud Matters, despite some Stupidness." Freud developed the notion of "psychic apparatus" by cribbing from physics. He spoke often of the organizing sort of an "energy economy" within the mind. Freud riffed on the work of Gustav Fechner, modeling the psyche as a series of states with 1)flow, 2)equilibrium, and 3) transformations.

Many of our behaviors seek to establish states we can endure (and other that we can enjoy).

(Here I wish I could explain how Dr. Neuman explained the Pleasure Principle in terms of thermodynamics, but I am flummoxed.)

However, we can think on the "strange economy" of the defense mechanism, whereby people behave in such ways as to lower tensions and seek a tenable equilibrium. The behavior might make absolutely NO SENSE TO THE OBSERVER, but can be explained in the outcome of lowered tensions for the actor.

Freud made so much possible: research questions, self-reflection, and even definitions of terms that make possible a modern discussion of what the inner groundhogs are up to.

I like Mudge channeling the late Philip K Dick there at lunchtime.

Speaking of throwback NFL uniforms, I always liked the Lombardi-era Washington NFL Franchise unis designed to look like Green Bay's.

And who doesn't love the San Diego powder blue?

I liked Pitt's last week, too.

Question: Will Baltimore wear old Browns uniforms? [ha!]

bc

At the Plant City Strawberry Festival, after I had the mandatory strawberry shortcake, I used to spend hours watching the cinnamon roll guy make his stuff. So much sugar and butter went into those it's a wonder they didn't have a cardiologist on staff.

I am astonished at the fried-foot-on-sticks-fair-fare. Such a roadtrip it would be to sample the regional variations.

At the Cascade County Fair, in Great Falls, MT, were available these delights to be eaten on paper plates at picnic tables covered in real cloth red gingham:

pemmican
homemade beef jerky
frozen bananas dipped in Magic Shell
beef brisket
tri-tip beef sandwiches
rhubarb pie
shoestring fries with pepper, not salt
red velvet cake
bottles of Nesbit's Orange
bottles of Hamm's or Olympia beer (oldsters)

CP, I must send you my mom's rhubarb jam/sauce recipe that she's using. She freezes it instead of canning, or keeps it in the fridge.
It's delicious on vanilla ice cream or toast alike.

Oh, do, Wilbrod, do. Yum.

Maggie OD yesterday said, "a funeral, then a wedding." Both rituals feature the conviviality of food.

So, great to talk about consciousness and all, but food talk may be the best way to stave off anxiety. I hope I can parlay a love of food talk into a long and healthy life. Eating too much food, especially of the delectable sort, may very well shorten life.

Darn.

As for the inner groundhogs... people in manic or seizure states often don't remember what happened afterwards (similar to delirum tremens, which in fact has related biochemistry to mania).

During this state they will act differently but still remain responsive to the environment somewhat.

A friend once strangled an abusive family member when disturbed during a grand mal seizure. She was extremely scared of this family member (in fact, the abuse probably gave her the epilepsy in the first place). She had no memory of it, but another family member let her know. Since then she's really wondered whether she was really so "out of it" not to know who she was defending herself from in a seizure state.

Incidentally, it is known for epileptics to grab people who lean right over them during a seizure in some sort of self-defense.

If we don't remember it, were we really unconscious then? And what do we mean by unconscious, anyway?

But my heart will always belong to "Fisher Scones" served at The Puyallup Fair.

Perhaps mostlylurking will comment on the sly attraction of these warm buttered scones with raspberry jam.

RD -- those scones sound lovely. I recall scones from my granny made with the tiniest of currents.

Glad you liked the moonflowers and morning Glories. My moonflowers are spent, but the tiny blue morning glories persist even though the bigger blue sails are gone now.

dbG... those bacon-wrapped scallops sound like the perfect Kosher appetizer--NOT!

(CP.. nice to see you back in the boodlefold.)

Gawd, all this talk about food, and it's more than three hours before I get home to eat! :-(

CeePee's reference to Hamms beer brought back memories of the TV ads they used to air, with the antics of that cartoon bear in the north woods. Very funny. Now you know that I'm an old geezer. Sneekin' up on Mudge in that department.

DUN dun dun dun DUN dun dun dun
From the land of sky blue waters (waters),
From the land of pines, lofty balsams,
Comes the beer refreshing,
Hamm's, the beer refreshing.

DUN dun dun dun DUN dun dun dun
Brewed where nature works her wonders,
Aged for many moons, gently mellowed,
Hamm's the beer refreshing,
Hamm's the beer refreshing.
Hamm's.

bc, If the Ravens don the Browns uniforms, I swear that I'll use the TV brick.

Not quite a fair thing, but fresh strawberry milkshakes are a roadside staple near Homestead, Florida.

Yesterday, a local supermarket had big boxes of flowering potted Dendrobium orchids from the same area. These Asian orchids seem to be pretty easy plants for the yard.

Thanks, TBG, being boodle-enfolded beats boodle-bereft.

Just Sayin': loved those commercials growing up. Recall the flap about the cartoon camel selling cigs? I always think about the Hamm's beer bear as a similar case. I take it, then, that Hamm's is gone.

Cue jingle and tom tom drums:

From the Land of Sky Blue Wa aa ters.....
Hamm's, the beer refreshing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc7HoWEk6y8

Welcome back College Parkian. All this talk of food makes me wish I could sneak out and back to the fair for some snacking. Alas. Even if I could or would, the fair is gone for another year.

I do know where I can get some scones, though I'm sure they're not as good as those at the Pullayup fair.

Well, Ivansmom, the Tulsa State Fair is just around the corner...

http://www.tulsastatefair.com/fair/index.asp

I remember when I was growing up that I used to be puzzled by the existence of *two* state fairs in one state. And I was aware that some people around my neck of the woods claimed that the Tulsa State Fair was the real mccoy and the OKC one was a pretender. But I knew better because I'd been to the state fair at the state capital and they had a DOUBLE FERRIS WHEEL (!)

Good grief, I posted that link without looking at it. The Tulsa State Fair is featuring

********
Deep fried bacon cheddar mashed potatoes on a stick, Cookie dough with fondue and deep fried Ravioli!
*******

Fax me some celery sticks, quick!

Exactly, kbertocci. The Tulsa "state fair" is merely a pale imitation of the State Fair. Some of those Tulsa folks just don't want to make that drive. All the 4-H and FHA judging and animal competitions, teacher of the year, rodeo -- the things that make it a State Fair -- are in the state capital.

Now I got a tune cootie, to go with my growling stomach. Sheese :-)

I thought it was National Bohemian that was from the Land of Sky-Blue Waters. I think the same bear-wiz beer was sold under several different regional labels.

I knew a fellow once who managed to win a free beer from a bartender by demonstrating the ability to pee sky-blue waters. He nabbed some methylene blue tablets from work (he was a Navy corpsman), he and a buddy took the tablets, waited an appropriate length of time, then called the bartender to witness their feat. Free beer!

I added a couple small bits to the kit.

I want to see the Ken Burns thing. Maybe tonight. Mixed reviews in the press, but I'd like to hear more from the boodle about it.

Mudge writes: 'I'm always a little annoyed that there's no way for Burns to mention that one of the people featured, Sam Hynes, wrote what is commonly regarded as one of the two finest first-person accounts of combat during WWII (the other being Gene Sledge's "With the Old Breed"). And Joel may already know that Hynes became a professor of literature at a certain Ivy League school known for its tigerish mascot.'

Yes, I had Hynes in an English class and he was great. I may have to go scrounge around in my attic for the books we read. I know we read Jude the Obscure; a wonderful book but oh so horribly grim and tragic -- the death knell of the Victorian novel, in Hynes's view.

You had Hynes for a teacher? I'm so jealous I can't see straight. If you tell me he had Paul Fussell come in to guest-lecture I swear I'll open a vein.

The Fisher scones are fabulous - I have waited in long lines for them. Alas, this time I had to acquiesce to my sister's wish for ice cream. I should have grabbed a bag of scones on the way out. The mix is available (in grocery stores here and online), and Krusteaz makes a good one too. I realized just now that we had ice cream 4 days out of the 6 that my sister was here...

Regarding "The War" I watched it along with my husband who can't get enough of anything having to do with WWII. Personally I am a little sick of hearing about the greatest generation. And 7 days of it times 2 hours each episode?

Yes, it was horrible and every other negative adjective and an almost incomprehensible number of people died. But the documentary so far deals mostly with personal stories of our citizens who were either drafted or chose to enlist and suffered the consequences (my family as well). Or they were interred in camps (Japanese Americans, etc.). It's been more than 60 years. It so apparent from the documentary, at least last night's episode, that most were forced to serve one way or the other and the country, of course, supported the efforts, etc. But we know all that...there have been tons of movies, documentaries, etc. Yes, it's nice to have recorded stories for future generations and those weirdoes who try and change historical facts. But I'd rather hear/learn perspectives about more recent events.

I feel the same way about the Civil War, birdie, after enduring being raised by a Civil War buff.

And about football.

Stronger. Faster. Better. And Deadlier.

...Space microbes!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070924/ap_on_sc/germs_in_space

We must take a moment to hope that groundhogs will never go into space.

And now we know why Jeremiah was a bullfrog who wouldn't jump..

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070924/ap_on_sc/deformed_frogs;_ylt=AiVDYHS0vlW3rF1lL0TlWwtxieAA

And could consciousness be the thing that moves wheelchairs?

http://www.livescience.com/technology/070912_thought_wheelchair.html

>Deep fried bacon cheddar mashed potatoes on a stick, Cookie dough with fondue and deep fried Ravioli!

that's awesome!

Thanks for confirming that I am not unique in my fondness for Fisher Scones. In response to my whining my relatives usually mail me some scone mix every year (I'm waiting...) and it never goes to waste. Yet there is something about consuming a freshly-made scone at the Fair that is unique. Maybe it is the professional equipment they use, or the specific mixture of butter and jam. Or perhaps it is just the special ambiance of the Fair. You know, what with the cows and all.

Oh my. I see my Google ads include one for sexy pictures of Lara Flynn Boyle. I can't help but think that Error Flynn would be pleased.

Well, RD, I prefer to think that it's the fresh outdoor air! And, L.A. lurker, I agree - bacon and mashed potatoes on a stick - mmmmm.

I spoke to a woman while waiting for the library to open today. She had come to the library to get a recipe for "jarring" peaches - what I would call "canning". I had never heard it called that before. Is that a Southern expression or Washington state or what?

Mostly, my grandmother (who did a lot of it) called it "putting up" whatever. (Putting up preserves, putting up tomatoes, etc.) Mason jars, the whole nine yards. Jelly and preserves (blackberry)were done in open-top jars more like glasses, at the top of which a half-inch "cap" of melted wax was used as the seal. No pressurized lid required. Did our own root beer, too, for a few years. A few years back some in-laws gave us a ton of cucumbers, so my wife and I "put up" a couple dozen jars of sweet pickle chips--best I ever ate.

Don't think "jarring" is a Washington State term. At least I have never heard of it. Makes a certain amount of sense, though.

My mother's big effort was peach preserves for my dad, who loved them on toast at breakfast. She'd peel and slice a mountain of peaches (at least a peck, IIRC) and slowly cook them with sugar in the enamel baby bathtub on top of the stove for hours and hours. Then she would pack them in clean jars and boil them till they sealed. All in an un-airconditioned kitchen.

I also remember fig preserves and bread and butter pickles being made. The pickles were to die for.

*Sigh*

I've mastered her cheese straws and ladyfinger cookies (those dry cookies, as Mr. T calls them). Dunno if I'll ever have the moxie to try preserves. The height of the mountain are my grandmother's homemade egg noodles. A couple of my cousins have done that. Maybe I should try.

Slyness, I have an air-conditioned kitchen, all the stuff, know all the tricks. Next summer, come up and we'll jam.

One other thing about the passing of Error Flynn. Bob was just a bit older than me, which is part of why I enjoyed his comments so much. We had many of the same cultural touchstones. But his death at this age also makes me start to realize another aspect of becoming "middle aged." People you care about start to die. And this gives one a new perspective on aging. Yes, your jowls start to become startlingly salient and you realize that the hairline ain't gonna be moving forward again, but you are still alive. By staying alive I keep the stories of those I have known alive. And in some vague airy way I feel that do so honors the dead.

Carefully staying on topic, I consulted the great mind in the sky known as Wikipedia and find Hamm's goes with the bear and the sky blue waters. Mr Boh, with half a handlebar mustache, goes with the Natty Boh.

My mother used to "can" dozens and dozens of mason jars of tomatoes each year. As well as some reasonably dreadful pickles. But where she really shone is in her ability to make and "can" applesauce. Huge amounts of cinnamon and just a hint of nutmeg and cloves. Never been topped.

RD, that's right. That's why it's important to record and keep memories of those you love. My mother had photo albums of her family, but many of the pictures don't have names recorded, so we tried to get some of that written while people who still remembered were alive. Not sure if anyone will know or care about old photos when we are gone. My mom and her aunt also kept diaries which are very interesting to us, even though they're just about mundane things (and hard to decipher - my mom had tiny, tiny writing).

I've had a number of work colleagues die unexpectedly - some my age, some a bit younger. My mom was only 59 when she died, just a few years older than I am now. So I try to appreciate my life as best I can, even when I'm stuck in traffic or dealing with a middle-of-the-night call from work, or some other frustration.

I like to think that Error knows some answers the rest of us don't know yet.

It seems so small, compared to the loss of Error Flynn, yet I feel the need to tell my imaginary friends that about a half-hour ago, we had to euthanize our dear cat, 'Bo (CH. Felitan Strabo of LaChrista). Sudden critical renal failure, hospitalized since Friday evening, dramatically deteriorated today in spite of the best of care.

Bo looked a very aristocratic Siamese, but he was really just a funny, cuddly, silly boy. A darling.

It was a sweet goodbye, but a better life.

Yoki, sorry about your beloved cat, pets are a big part of the family and their loss is deeply felt.

I'm so sorry to hear your sad news Yoki. Loss is always hard. Sending me best thoughts on a northernly trajectory.

Sounds like great fun, dbG! Mr. T likes jams and preserves so this could be very productive for both of us.

Yoki, I'm sorry to hear about Bo. Do you have other cats to comfort you? It's hard indeed to let them go.

I talked to my niece this morning. She has acquired a third Sheltie, a 13-week-old puppy. I'm sure she will be a great comfort, now that my niece has lost both her parents.

I never got to sniff Bo. or Bob. Not fair!
Yoki, I don't have to tell you to seek fur therapy when you have three dogs at hand.

-- Wilbrodog. Now to Wilbrod.

Mostly's right, RD. My first year in HS I had my grandfather and a teacher die.

And then long before my HS graduation, a beloved next-door neighbor who was sort of like Curmudgeon with a hunting 'n' fishing license. He built his own gazebo, he put up more bird-feeders than you'd imagine existed in the country, and so on.

He was the first guy I knew who would actually WANT to eat shark-- and did. And after I tasted shark, I still don't know why.

Oh, he was out to get the rabbits eating up his garden. I doubt he had an Elmer Fudd accent. I commented rabbits were cute. He also said "and they taste good, too."

I know he would have won any fight against any wascally groundhogs if unwisely challenged by overgrown rodents.

He and his wife inspired me and his children with a keen love for nature. He died of a heart attack in his early seventies, I think.

Death strikes at any age, it's just the odds keep going up all the time.

Yoki... so sorry about your sweet Bobohead. Losing a pet is always hard.

Lots of love,
TBG

Storyteller Tim,

National Bohemian was made in Baltimore. But your description of both it and Hamm's is correct.

Yoki,

I'm sad to hear about your cat. If he was suffering, you did the right thing. It's hard to do. I still remember the call from my dad that he had to put our dog down and that was 25 years ago.

Yoki, he lived a long life with a wonderful family who loved him. You were all fortunate, and I feel your loss.

Slyness, it's a deal.

When I was married and lived in Ohio, I'd put up about 100 pts. of different kinds of jam every year. We hung out with a bunch of nice people who entertained, and showing up at someone's house with a jar of dinner (Red raspberry with gin, Black raspberry with Cointreau) or regular jam seemed to bring a smile.

When I started grad school on the other side of the state and came home on weekends, I noticed the jam stash going down rapidly. My then-husband was getting pity dinner invitations 3 or more times a week and taking jam each time so he wouldn't have to pick up flowers or something.

Now, it'd take me 50 years to eat 100 pints of jam--so you'd be a good partner. I have the feeling we'll do great pickles, too.

Did you know that women were the majority of photographers in the early days? The emulsions were similar to pickle recipies, or so I've read.

I have two Concord grape vines in my back yard. Each year I make jelly. This year it didn't work quite right. Anybody want some nice home-made grape syrup? I got lots.

Now that is an interesting bit of trivia, dbG! I've never heard that, but it makes perfect sense.

The things I learn here!

RD, you'll have to join us. Come and grape syrup no more.

Homemade grape jam is wonderful and less fragile than jelly. I have a Cuisinart power strainer which works perfectly for grapes. One year my friend and I made over 100 pints in a day.

Our husbands and her kids kept wandering in and saying, "Grape jelly is on sale down at the IGA." Then they tasted it. No more comments.

RD... You have concord grape vines growing in your yard? That means you have grape.... leaves!

Next spring, I'll trade you some fresh-picked ones for some stuffed and cooked ones.

RD reminded me of the time while my mom sister and I were away, Dad and the boys decided to make applesauce. They went out and purchase fresh apples and proceeded to make a vast quantity of sauce. When we came home they offered us bowls of fresh, warm and VERY PINK - applesauce. Seems they left the peels on.

The applesauce was forgetable - the memory of the pink colour lasting.

dbG et al you have me wistful for my moms jams and jellies, her red current jelly was my favorite. My parents also made pickles, I remember some they made in a crock pot over about 14 days? Dad took great delight in add the spices everyday.

hmmm, I wonder if DHS will let me cross the border with several mason jars of my apple chutney, dilled carrots and chili sauce? We could have a good old-fashioned canning swap. Then none of us have to go malnourished through the winter!

I'm amazed and delighted to learn I am not the only Boodler who cans when she can.

Oh goodness, TBG, these things produce scads of leaves. (The bunnies love them.)

I never realized that Concord leaves were of the kind you can cook. I always imagined, you know, some kind of exotic Greek grape leaves flown in directly from the sunny shores of the Med. Shows what I know about cooking.

Anyway, remind me next spring and I shall shower you with fresh grape leaves.

Just don't tell the rabbits. They get terribly possessive.

Thanks all for your kind words about our 'Bo. It is quite a blow to our family, but he was very old and had had a very happy life. All shall be well, and all shall be very well.

Reminds me, Yoki, how was the Cincinnati Chili?

Yoki, as long as they don't have contrabrand meat in 'em (so maybe no chili sauce).. you might have a chance to sneak 'em through.

I can ask the local border police next Sunday just what's allowed across, because it's really hard to tell.

Sounds to me like we just need to meet someplace and take over somebody's kitchen for a week of canning and cooking. Now wouldn't that be a blast?!

Stuffed grape leaves
Homemade grape jam
Bread and butter pickles
Crab soup

This could get to be a big thing.

Long weekend sounds good! My kitchen's okay, but someone else may wish to volunteer.

Well, RD.. you set me off to learn if there are differences in grape leaves and I saw this...

==
When buying a grape plant to grow for the leaves, choose a variety that does not have a lot of white fuzz on the underside of the leaf. White grape varieties usually do well, but Concord grape leaves do not--too much fuzz.
==

Oh well. It sounded good while it lasted.

Too much fuzz, indeed.

C'mon, TBG!

It'll just be like a peach or kiwi! I'm sure a little fuzz won't ruin your stuffed grape leaves.

dbG, the Cincinnati Chili was *fantastic.* Utterly unlike anything we've eaten before but absolutely delicious and, perhaps, the ultimate comfort food. Your recipe should win the Spatula D'Or at a food festival. The secret ingredient is really important (I tested by taking a small amount wit'out out of the big pot, and then adding it to the larger amount.)

I hope it was OK I used your basic Catelli dried spaghetti and not fancy fresh noodles? And medium Cheddar? Nothing exotic or high end, but all delicious.

I also tried it one way, two way, all the way up to four way, and four way is by my lights the way to go. Five way might be a bit much, you know?

I just had a mind-tasting-experiment in my head, and I fear that if the Concord grape leaves have "too much fuzz" they might be rather nettle-like. Burn the tongue and induce coughing. Perhaps we can take them very young and blanch the fuzz off?

I have a very large canning kettle, two canning tongs, and sixteen boxes of mason jars, so maybe we should communally can in my summer-kitchen? We could have a Canadian WAPO reunion! And publicize it on the front page, thereby confusing the powers-that-be. Excellent!

Glad I checked in once more before going upstairs.

Yoki, Cincinnati chili wouldn't know what to do on fancy pasta or cheese! It's from OHIO! (not that there's anything wrong with that)! Sounds as if you made it perfectly.

Now you have to try it on hotdogs, warm the buns, cover the hotdog with chili, the chili with cheese, the cheese with onions.

My mom used to can - red currant jelly and grape jelly - and sour cherries (remember the sour cherry discussion?). Too much work for me, though. I prefer to freeze things. My husband sometimes does some canning (or jarring, as at least one person in this world calls it.)

Scottynuke, I meant to congratulate you earlier. Wonderful news! It reminded me of my first serious boyfriend, when I was in college. He used to leave notes and poems in books - which I never found. He always had to point them out to me, days later. Maybe that's why he broke up with me - I'm just too dense!

Yoki, sorry to hear about your kitty. It's tough to lose old friends...

I am diverted by this discussion. Thanks.

mmmmm (HS voice), chili on hot dogs, cheese on chili, onions on cheese. I'm all about that.

Yoki, I'm sorry to hear about Bo.

Joel, I read Hardy's Jude the Obscure not too long ago. It was a great book (though as you point out, not a happy one at all), and I can see why some felt it was the death knell of the Victorian novel. You could make a case for it being a novel crossover from classical Victorian in style to modern in themes and character.

bc

Dark Victorian novel genre, hmm.

Post-gothic? Woodcut noir? Corset noir?

Bustles 'n' gore?

I love Jude The Obscure. From the fake pregnancy to trap a guy into marriage to "Done because we are too menny." I find the the struggles of Jude to be completely contemporary and relevant. Hardy was a genius at chronicling the human condition.

I sent CP my mom's recipe for rhubarb jelly/sauce.

Here's the rhubarb recipe from my mom. It is made with strawberry, raspberry or fruit of your choice.
The raspberry or strawberry is a killer IMO, but I think peach is a possible, ditto for blackberries, etc.)

The most recent batch used raspberry jello, frozen raspberries and blueberries this time)

6 to 8 cups of sliced rhubarb
1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar.

Let that set for a few hours or overnight. Then slowly cook that along with:

2+ cups berries or other fruit (strawberries, or raspberries with a few blueberries)

Note: rhubarb does not smell so great while cooking. It tastes far better than you would expect.

Cook for half a hour or until the rhubarb is very tender. Turn off the burner and add 2/3 3 oz packages of jello
(strawberry, raspberry, peach, whatever fits the fruit you;re using), and sugar to fit.

At this stage, my mom normally adds sweet n low to equal 1/2 cup of sugar as a token concession to her diabetes.

After it is mostly cooled, put it in sealable plastic containers. Store one in the fridge to use, and one in the freezer

Bon appetit!

-----

Yoki, I am very sorry to hear about your cat Bo. Knowing he had a good life and is not suffering is a comfort eventually. There has been way too much sadness lately. My friend with ovarian cancer is doing well but I am concerned for her anyway and I recently heard that one of my cousins has a rare form of lymphoma. He doesn't seem to be in immediate danger but if the cancer is that rare, who really knows for sure. I had a meet and greet with my new doctor today. I need routine blood work and a colonoscopy - ugh- at some point in the near future, but I seem to be fine. The older I get, the more I realize how fleeting good health can be and it's scary.

We've been watching the Ken Burns series. I am enjoying the personal approach the four towns bring to the narrative. I like hearing about the failures and missteps instead of the sugar coated propaganda of war movies. It makes it more real and more terrible, but also more impressive that we managed to defeat Japan and Germany. "S" has just finished transcribing about 50 letters written by a cousin who was on the submarine Tang during the war.(The sub sunk itself with a faulty torpedo during its fifth and most successful mission, only eight men survived, his cousin wasn't one of them.) "S" has coordinated the letters with the historical record of the Tang's missions. Burn's series fits in nicely with the letters.

Again, thanks all. There is real comfort for whatever aches your heart, here.

Bad Sneakers said, "the more I realize how fleeting good health can be."

Exactly. Mazel Tov.

I've spent many hours (and untold dollars on pharmaceuticals, legal or not) trying to pinpoint the elusive source/location of "self".

It was fun to experiment, but all I can report result-wise is that "self" is kinda like the "Tao"... "The Way that can be told of is not The Way". Sorta like those floaties in your eyes... if you don't focus directly on them, you can see them drift around (especially against a blue sky background). But the second you try to focus on them they disappear.

Yeah, yeah... I know... go sniff some more of that fairy dust, martooni. Or lacquer thinner.

Jude the Obscure? Hardy? The first contemporary novel-writer. The perfect novelist (read the Mayor of Casterbridge, compare and contrast the symbols of country/town, wild/tame, submit a 900-word essay at your convenience) and bridge between then and now.

[redacted]

I like the idea of Life as Floaters. Good stuff, martooni.

Pinpointing your consciousness is like trying to see the back of your own eyeball.

Oh, I like taoism a lot.

Yoki, so sorry to hear about your cat Bo.

Nobody around here cans anything. Occasionally, some people would pickle cucumber, chilli or papaya that you'd finish in a day or two. Canning requires skill and a lot of work. In short, we're lazy. All restaurants pickle chilli to be used as dips.

It'd be so fun to just sit around and watch you guys do canning and listen to you chit-chat. D@mn that body of water.

I'm sorry to hear about your cat, Yoki. A champion siamese. My favourite cat. We had one named Tai when we lived in Ohio. He was on the small side. We had a couple of acres and Tai used to be pummelled on a regular basis by this monster siamese by the name of Mouse. When we moved to Syracuse it was to a housing development wiwth 1/2 acre lots. Tai kicked every animals butt and established a territory that was about three blocks. We had to find him a farm home to keep the neighbor's dog safe. He succumbed to pneumonia shortly thereafter. So it goes.

Having to say good-bye to an animal who has been a part of your family is so hard. Go find another cat right now, Yoki, you won't regret it!

TBG, thank you for the compliment yesterday. Bob Lewis's death hit me really hard, he was close in age to my own kids. Just shouldn't work that way.

Catching up on the Boodle...

Life as Floaters?

Yeesh.
Someone should see a gastrointestinal doctor and flush those things down.

Though I see where the metaphor works...

bc

At a palm and cycad sale on Saturday, I met the nursery's cat, who was extraordinarily friendly, but sort of disappeared as more people showed up.

Even if cats are not not very much domesticated, they can be persistent, long-lived parts of our lives.

And if not the actual cats, then the hairball stains and the scratch marks in the sofa.

Sorry, I was having a cat-bashing moment there ;).

I have in fact had a close acquaintance with a cat once, but I maintain he was quite unusual for a cat. Oodles of personality, but far more salt and sass than sweetness.

Catching up tonight.

National bohemiam, "natty boh" as we called it was brewed in Baltimore at the Carling brewery and there saying was "from the land of Pleasant Living" When I was younger and poor you could get a case for about 5 bucks.

BC, the ravens better not wear the brown's uniforms. Well maybe just this week when we visit Cleveland, They already hate us, may as well insite a riot while we are at it.Thank goodness we have only been in existance for 11 years, we don't have any weird uniforms.

Yoki, sorry to hear about your cat, mine is getting up there in age too,but he will live long living in these woods.I caught a big hairy spider the other day and freed it outside, only to find my cat eating it later.

Well goodnight or good morning as the case may be. I hope EF is looking down on us enjoying tonight's boodle.

Hi, all, some catching up.

Birdie, it's true that WWII involved pretty much everybody, in great contrast to all the US wars since Vietnam. Everyone had participated to some extent, if only by not having many nylon stockings, and we came out of it being all part of the same society. I think that's why the 50s and 60s were so special, and why those of us growing up then might have had "progressive" ideas that are now out of favor, as individualism has reasserted itself. The emergence of TV is also a factor in the decline of national community IMHO. We now have communities like all-volunteer youth soccer leagues and churches, but they are more circumscribed than the complete national effort of WWII.

Reading talk about EF looking down on us. I take exception to that. I don't want to come across quite as strong as LindaLoo, but that bit of what might be thought of as harmless symbolic speech has the unfortunate effect of propagating the idea of an afterlife, spirit world, etc. I don't think that idea would ever get to first base on its merits in the 21st century if it weren't already widely believed, but it's alive and can reproduce itself.

All this reminds me of Berger & Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality. It's not about how the mind works, but how it creates the non-physical structures that we all inhabit.

Today's hullabaloo about Ahmadinejad speaking at Columbia reminds me of the local neighborhood market. About 25 yrs ago it started getting overwhelmed by the large chains, and began to cater to the Iranian or Persian community hereabouts. Now it's a largely Persian market, with halal products at the meat counter. But it also has Indian and Mexican items (and what nationality is cat food?), and an open door into the adjacent kosher butcher shop with the sign in English, Farsi and Hebrew, which serves as an alternate meat department. Left to their own devices, people seem to be able to get along. There's another market a mile away like that where the deli has three slicing machines -- kosher, halal, and don't care.

LTL-CA...

GWE said he hoped the afterlife was real. That's his own personal belief issue, not a symbolic statement of anything.

Please note that the "afterlife" virus is already out there and reproducing anyway. To chide GWE for commenting on this is inappropriate. He is not going to convert millions from atheism with that comment.

Additionally, I ask you, why do we even bother with funerals, why don't we just throw people away like carrion, because you know, nobody's home anymore anyway.

The answer is-- it's not logical. It's not even "cultural brainwashing."
Neanderthals buried their dead with flowers. Elephants bury their dead as well. In every culture there are funeral rituals whether the body is exposed to birds, burnt, or whatever.

Human emotion doesn't bow or change itself to prissy logic and idealism. Don't even try.

Yoki, my condolences on Bo. I'm sure he enjoyed his life with you. *HUGSSSSSSSS*

*post-very-busy-Monday, low-powered Grover waves*

:-)

In fifth grade I told my friends that our cat had died. They didn't believe me because I was so matter of fact. Then it him me that I would never again pet the gentle Siamese cat we had that was older than me was. Then I cried over a death for the first time. Pets are practice family.

Yoki used Catelli pasta!?!
Oooh Nooo
I'm sorry about your cat dear, but you've got to get a grip. What would Bo think!!
You might as well use NoName pasta.
I'm shocked.
Really.
I won't have that Catelli stuff in the house.
Oh ya. Good Morning!

Catelli is a good name for a cat! Yoki, so sad when the furry among us succumb.

Cincicatty would also be a good name for a cat, as would Chili-cat.....somehow, that special chili dinner seemed a fitting offbeat wake meal. I expect that the cat fairies may hover eventually when your household is ready to counterweight the doggies with some specialness of cat.

Dogs and cats, with their hard-wired stances toward us make me think about the emerging consciousness of mammals....viva la difference.

While driving to work I suddenly recalled hearing a talk a long time ago about "quantum consciousness." I think it was an attempt to explain consciousness in terms of QM. I don't recall being especially persuaded, although, as a prof once told me, "everything is Quantum Mechanics."

I do recall that one of the major ideas behind Quantum Consciousness is that the mind is like a Quantum Wave Function, in that once disturbed it collapses. The upshot is that if the brain is disturbed by say, transporter beam technology, the mind vanishes.

I believe it was at this point in the narrative that I got all grumpy.

RD -- wouldn't this forum be great?

Professor QM -- Quantum mechanics explains consciousness.

Professor TD -- Balderdash, the underlying system is found in Thermodynamics.

Point-Counterpoint, etc.

Sort of like Bertrand Russell and C.S. Lewis on the God Problem.

I love making jams, canning pickles, cherries, plums, crab apples, all those things. There are few things finer than looking at a shelf of jams and jellies of all colours standing prettily in the sun (and then you'be better get them downstairs because the sun will ruin how they look).

In a lot of ways, I miss those days when I could do that sort of things, indeed when it was neccesity. The other side of that equation was not having new shoes but for sneakers ever, wearing winter boots, till the heels fell off, and having coats older than your kids, no matter how old your kids were.

You know, I feel a whole lot better about having to be at the office at 6:30 this morning. My rose coloured lenses were were getting in the way.

Puss is a good name for a cat. My friend Don named a new kitten after its most noticable attribrute when it walked away with its tail in the air. * or A__hole.
When his good lady took the kitty to the vet for its shots they asked for the name.
"As....Puss",said she.
A$$Puss became a huge tomcat(neutered) who once left a muskrat on the stoop. Don could use him now in his war against the International Groundhog Conspiracy.

I emailed my sisters about last night's short grape leaves discussion and forwarded them the cool article that had stated that Concord grape leaves are too fuzzy.

One sister replied with this story about our very refined grandmother, or Yia Yia...

"I'll never forget Yia Yia's advice when I told her my romantic notion of planting grapevines on my trellis on Hanover Street, just like hers in Chevy Chase.

"'Oh, no, honey,' she said, 'the birds will eat the grapes and sh!t all over your awning.'

Pop went the fantasy. "

I will bet she was a heck of a grandmother TBG, great story.

I did a little research and learned that in a pinch new spring Concord grape leaves can be cooked, but they are less than ideal. Still, in the interest of Culinary Science, we could always give it a shot.

Concord grapes are stupid easy to grow. You just build a trellis, stick a vine or two in the ground, and then jump back quickly. The trickiest thing is preventing a fungal disease known as "black rot." Judicious application of fruit-tree fungicide seems to do the trick.

Because the vine is next to a busy road, the birds seem to keep their distance. And the yappy dog helps. The biggest hassle is bees. When the grapes start to get too ripe, the swarming begins.

Even with my general horticultural incompetence I produce more grapes than I know what to do with. There is a reason grape jelly is not known as an elite food product.

Good morning. Very funny, Joel:
"The feeling that everyone is trying to take the romance and mystery out of life -- trying to drain all the magic out of it -- is generated by subconscious activity in the limbic system, specifically the amygdala, the fornicate gyrus, and the nucleus accumbens."

I'm slao struck by the quantum theory, imperfectly reinterpreted by me, that if the mind