November 12, 2005
Weekend update
Been busy lately. Some highlights:
Dinner with the ex-girlfriend. It was very nice, Mughlai food, and she only drew a knife on me once. True! She suggested her pseudonym for this blog be my "Former Future Ex-Wife". But she also wanted something literary, and I am kind of fond of "La Belle Dame sans Culottes (Réformée)".
Various subway mishaps. They actually deserve their own post, I think.
The Manhattan maple syrup manifestation. That, too, deserves its own post. Soon!
I missed Doug while he was briefly in the States, and John Holbo was in Brooklyn as well, darn it. I could have asked him to autograph my Blue and Brown Books.
Anyway. This weekend, I am making preserved lemons for tagine and removing paint from my door fixtures while fighting off a cold (and failing to fight off a headache) in between poring over Excel spreadsheets. Also catching up on my sleep: excitement galore! Alas, my home football team is tres suxxor this year. Still, here's an interesting article on the really beautiful game.
And here's a poem by Frank O'Hara that mFFEW/LBDsCR almost certainly knows by heart:
Lana Turner has collapsed!
I wa trotting along and suddenly
it started raining and snowing
and you said it was hailing
but hailing hits you on the head
hard so it was really snowing and
raining and I was in such a hurry
to meet you but the traffic
was acting just like the sky
and suddenly I see a headline
LANA TURNER HAS COLLAPSED!
there is no snow in Hollywood
there is no rain in California
I have been to lots of parties
and acted perfectly disgraceful
but I never actually collapsed
oh Lana Turner we love you get up
John Holbo
Ah, The Valve. A fine, fine blog.
I am making preserved lemons for tagine
Beatrix preserves her own lemons, too. At Chez Webb I generally cook the main courses, leaving the desserts to my gorgeous wife, but Bea does a magnificent tagine.
here's an interesting article
Willing to accept that gridiron can present 10 problems. But as an ignorant Antipodean infidel I have to ask, are they interesting problems?
- Syd
Posted by: Syd Webb at November 13, 2005 05:31 AMShall I compare thee to a fall day driving down Pucky Huddle Road* to the 1969 Woodstock concert site?
I'm interested in the Manhattan maple syrup business. First, in order to have maple syrup, you need a sugar bush. I'm sure there are several maple trees in the five boroughs, but I think the only places with room for a sugarbush are in Central Park and Inwood Hill Park. Once the requirement for a sugar bush is met, then I think one still needs a warming trend in February without any pesky subzero freezes subsequent. Manhattan is a heat island, so, I wonder if the maples would get cold enough to get warm enough, as it were?
Anyway, bring some lemons Saturday! (they will go well with sherry!)
* Route 52 west -> 52A west through Kenoza Lake -> 17B south through Fosterdale and Lake Huntington -> Pucky Huddle Road -> Beir Road -> Briscoe Road -> Hurd Road past the Double-E (ranching emu and alpaca now, whoopee!) up the back way to Rheinshagan's farm, now obliterated by bulldozers creating parking lots for Tanglewood in the Sullivan County Catskills!
Posted by: A New York City High School Math Teacher at November 13, 2005 11:43 PMSyd, the most interesting problems on Schatz's list I think are the ones on blocking and roster analysis, and in a completely different way, portfolio analysis.
That Sam Gamgee fellow sure plays pretty good there. And he's a doctor, doncha know!
Posted by: Carlos at November 14, 2005 12:32 PMMy only solace is that I would hope to be looking back on this past Sunday from the vantage point of mid January in anticipation of the NFC Championship game (parse those tenses why dontcha) while Green Bay is mournfully remembering better days. Cheeseheads sitting in the deep deep dark soul killing winter of the Upper Midwest. Well, OK I am really far from that upset that I’d wish the ninth Circle of Hell on Green Bay. That’s reserved for Philly or Carolina.
A question to Syd- you do realize that you would very likely be a Green Bay fan if you were at all an American Football fan? Or at least there is a feature about Green Bay that you might find appealing over other franchises.
And to Carlos – what of this Manhattan maple syrup smell? This is one of those “small-town” New York stories that really doesn’t travel far beyond the NYC media (like the Stab Baby)
Concerning Football statistics- it is a little bit sad that in contrast to Rotisserie League Baseball, fantasy footballers might as well be playing Electric Football
http://www.miggle.com/ Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Francis Burdett posed this question:
A question to Syd- you do realize that you would very likely be a Green Bay fan if you were at all an American Football fan? Or at least there is a feature about Green Bay that you might find appealing over other franchises.
The green and the gold, right?
Posted by: Syd Webb at November 16, 2005 01:41 PM