Yesterday, I didn't get out of the house. I spent it packing, picking stuff up, making chiles rellenos, and reading. Tay gave me a paperback of Old Mans Wa'r and I finished it in about 24 hours. Apparently I have a soft spot for space cadet sci-fi. This was good, a fun read, definitely lighter than either Heinlein or Hadleman. The only thing is that it's so close to both authors without the social critique punch, that is almost feels like fan fiction. There was a great part early on in the book, when the 75 year old recruits get chewed out on arrival by a sergeant who is highly aware of the trope he his fulfilling. I actually read it out loud.
My last night in Houston, I prepared a Bayless recipe for chiles rellenos with ground beef. There was something not quite right about them, that they lacked a certain cohesiveness or a depth of flavor then when I made them the first time.
I did get the frying much better this time, using a medium flame and really watching the batter as the key indicator of doneness.
The only other change apart from the meat selection was that instead of blistering the chiles in a quick fry of oil, I charred them over an open flame and rubbed of the skins under cold water. Still a pain in the ass to do, but it was easier and less irritating than when I did it before.
Since I'd finished my book, I had to find something else to read on my flight today. I'd seen 12 Years A Slave recently, and it in doing some research on it and other slave narratives, this book kept popping up as nearly required reading in that field. It must have been written in the early 1900s as the author, Mr. Booker T. Washington, was born a slave in 1859.
It's an interesting contrast. Solomon Northrup was thrown into slavery after being raised and living as a free man. Booker T Washington was born into slavery and had to fight incredible odds simply to go to school. Solomon's story is easier to understand- he reacts to slavery as any modern American might. There is this strange alienation I feel towards Washington. He speaks apologetically and even defensively for the white southerner, for slave owner. While he states that all the slaves wished deeply for freedom, he said that he never felt bitter towards them, and indeed, told stories about freed slaves who sent money and bits of food to their former masters who had fallen on hard times.
There is an interesting depiction of the quality of the designed world under slavery: in a world of slavery, labor is becomes degraded because labor is the activity of the slave. Things are shoddily built and not kept up because 1) the slave doesn't care how he does his job- it's not his nor will he get any satisfaction from its completion and 2) slaver Southern whites distanced themselves from any kind of labor and so skills and handicraft and basic knowledge of upkeep were lost.
It's really fascinating to me because its effects were felt through the entire designed environment- the poor quality and taste of the food, the mansions eroding and plaster cracking apart, overgrown plantations, poorly managed.
Washington is a character himself- highly religious, uncomfortable with the idea of racial social equality, an ardent believer in the moral right of capitalism, and convinced that leftists and strikers were simply men who had saved up enough money to declare a vacation for boozing and carousing before going back to work. Also, interestingly, he declares in many places the civilizing influence and importance of dental hygiene. The first students of Tuskegee were required to procure and use a toothbrush and often he had to show them how to use it.
My last night in Houston, I prepared a Bayless recipe for chiles rellenos with ground beef. There was something not quite right about them, that they lacked a certain cohesiveness or a depth of flavor then when I made them the first time.
I did get the frying much better this time, using a medium flame and really watching the batter as the key indicator of doneness.
The only other change apart from the meat selection was that instead of blistering the chiles in a quick fry of oil, I charred them over an open flame and rubbed of the skins under cold water. Still a pain in the ass to do, but it was easier and less irritating than when I did it before.
Since I'd finished my book, I had to find something else to read on my flight today. I'd seen 12 Years A Slave recently, and it in doing some research on it and other slave narratives, this book kept popping up as nearly required reading in that field. It must have been written in the early 1900s as the author, Mr. Booker T. Washington, was born a slave in 1859.
It's an interesting contrast. Solomon Northrup was thrown into slavery after being raised and living as a free man. Booker T Washington was born into slavery and had to fight incredible odds simply to go to school. Solomon's story is easier to understand- he reacts to slavery as any modern American might. There is this strange alienation I feel towards Washington. He speaks apologetically and even defensively for the white southerner, for slave owner. While he states that all the slaves wished deeply for freedom, he said that he never felt bitter towards them, and indeed, told stories about freed slaves who sent money and bits of food to their former masters who had fallen on hard times.
There is an interesting depiction of the quality of the designed world under slavery: in a world of slavery, labor is becomes degraded because labor is the activity of the slave. Things are shoddily built and not kept up because 1) the slave doesn't care how he does his job- it's not his nor will he get any satisfaction from its completion and 2) slaver Southern whites distanced themselves from any kind of labor and so skills and handicraft and basic knowledge of upkeep were lost.
It's really fascinating to me because its effects were felt through the entire designed environment- the poor quality and taste of the food, the mansions eroding and plaster cracking apart, overgrown plantations, poorly managed.
Washington is a character himself- highly religious, uncomfortable with the idea of racial social equality, an ardent believer in the moral right of capitalism, and convinced that leftists and strikers were simply men who had saved up enough money to declare a vacation for boozing and carousing before going back to work. Also, interestingly, he declares in many places the civilizing influence and importance of dental hygiene. The first students of Tuskegee were required to procure and use a toothbrush and often he had to show them how to use it.
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