I was looking for a place that delivered Indian food and having no luck. Fortunately, I found something at least as good: a Bangladeshi restaurant, Bengal Cafe. Delicious, reasonably priced, and they deliver to my neighborhood. The dal was of the soup variety, which I didn’t like much, but the korma was excellent, as was the rice-pudding dessert and the bread.
New Vocabulary: Hyfrecator
I learned a new word today: hyfrecator, an electrocautery tool used in medicine. Hyfrecators are also used in incredibly painful-looking branding rituals, as described here at Modblog.
I’m Not Going to the Parade
I’m not going to the parade this weekend. But Slate has a great article on the global commodification of Irishness.
Are they made from real Girl Scouts?
Someone in Bookdwarf’s cabal has given us several boxes of Girl Scout Cookies. This is a disaster for freedom, by which I mean my nutritional peace of mind.
This blow against my rock-hard abs is somewhat mitigated by adequate information about the farming practices used by the chocolate farmers whose chocolates go into their cookies and of course delicious special recipes made with those cookies.
But still, that half box (OK, quarter-box, as of this afternoon) of Thin Mints on top of the fridge is posing a dangerous threat, and must be destroyed. A targeted strike force is at the ready, and I anticipate that the destruction will be delicious.
Top Ten Sources for Business News
The top ten sources for business news, my first page for toptensources.com, is now live.
Bad News
These “boot camps” seemed like a good idea at first, but remember that they’re still basically a cross between summer camp and jail. And that they are populated by the most troublesome teenagers in the area. So it’s not that surprising to find that a kid got beaten to death by the guards at one. I’m actually surprised it hasn’t happened more.
At first, I thought this headline read “Bush Defends Mediocre Plan.” But that wouldn’t make sense: I haven’t known him to make any plans that good.
Terminology Problem
Miguel points to George Clooney’s open letter defending liberalism.
I can’t say I agree with him.
We say “Progressive” now.
Comments
OK, I’m turning comments back on. We’ll see if I attract spammers.
Next: trying to write something worth commenting on.
Words
Two words that for some reason keep popping into my head recently:
Melisma, the combination of multiple notes that the Village Voice and I both find so annoying in contemporary American pop.
Pellicle, the slightly sticky surface that meat develops when it’s been cured and dried enough to start smoking it. (See also the Wikipedia entry on pellicle, which points out that it can be a variety of different membranes.)
Cutting off your nose to spite your face
Spite is often considered to be the one action that truly distinguishes humans from the lower beasts: only we are foolish enough to hurt others even if it hurts us as much, or more. This isn’t technically true– swans are known to engage in spiteful behavior, and I think chimps got caught at it once or twice as well.
Still, it’s worth bearing in mind when you think of the fact that a 100-year-old adoption-oriented charity has shut down rather than comply with state anti-discrimination law.
See the Slate article on family law and gay parents for more detail on what it means to seek “the best interests of the children,” as the legal standard specifies we must do in these sorts of cases.
