23 April 2010

Rain

Finally Rain. It's about time. This is the driest spring I can remember, but after the wettest winter - so go figure. Nice and steady and slow - rain, I mean - okay, who has their mind in the gutter?
Poor Dog 1 hates thunder - he's not scared - oh, hell no. He wants to take it on... right out in the yard. But.. he's a bit of a polly prissy pants about getting rained on (pool = okay, rain = not so much). So that doesn't go so well.  Dog 2 will stand outside in it - he doesn't even seem to care that it's raining or that he's about to get struck by lightening. 
Well at least it's raining and we really really needed it... thank goodness.  

Elizabeth Bennet speaks her mind ...

,,, maybe that's why 21st century readers like her best.
I've finally figured it out -  though it's highly (highly!) likely that some Austen scholar has posited this concept before. Is there any other Austen heroine who tells someone off, says what we are thinking?
But Elizabeth Bennet tells Darcy what to do w/his lame proposal. She calls him ungentlemanly, rude, severe, unkind - really all the things he was. How perfect. She may have been misled, but she says what we are all thinking - how can you propose to me and insult me at the same time?  You are a jerk. What other Austen character does that? Um, nobody.
S&S: Elinor Dashwood never tells Lucy Steele to go bugger off though she rightfully should. We would after all, wouldn't we?
PER: Anne Elliot never tells Lady Russell thanks for ruining my life and leading me away from the man I did, and still do, love. BWT, he's now throwing himself away on Louisa Musgrove (weak).
MP: Fanny Price, um mouse, doesn't tell Edmund he's making a huge mistake. Or at the least tell Henry Crawford to bugger the frig off because you've got his number.
Emma: Tell Augusta Elton she's crass, base, tacky, and quite frankly really sad for marrying Mr. E.  
NA: Catherine - you have more potential than you realize.. You know Isabella Thorpe is wrong and even hint to her that she is, plus you tell her brother almost to stuff it. You're young, but have the opportunity to make progress (w/ the help of Tilney).
No one but Lizzie actually does it - damn skippy - that's why we like her.

19 April 2010

Documenting Dinner

I read an interesting blog post recently about a chef's irritation with people photographing meals, chef, staff, etc. And I think I'm of the same mind (to a large degree).
I have to admit, I've not yet seen this happen in the gulf coast - no surprising, really. But just the idea that people would take pictures of food. Really? I read blog, so I see it, but ... strange. At least to me. Maybe if it was just so perfect, or artistic or if you're a restaurant critic (we have none of those here - sigh) and I could understand, but a cheeseburger - I mean, really?
I'm also astonished that someone would take photos of someone else w/out asking. What about other customers? The idea of recording the wait staff as he explains the special (My face is all screwed up in a question mark kind of way while I type this as I find it so - just  - wrong). You've really got to be kidding me. I guess I'm just naieve -or from a backwater where weird restaurant behavior isn't a habit. I feel bad for anyone who gets stuck in this awkward situation  - esp. a dinner companion. This article illuminates why some people feel the need to photograph food. But this quote is interesting ..."“In the unconscious mind, food equals love because food is our deepest and earliest connection with our caretaker,” said Kathryn Zerbe, a psychiatrist who specializes in eating disorders and food fixations at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland." Creepy.
Do people really care so much about what they eat or is it all self publication. See, I went to French Laundry and here's the proof. Wonder what the French Laundry thinks of this? What a way to have a special experience ruined.
I do take photos of things I make at home. I'm experimenting after all. I'm not bugging anyone except the MotH and the Boy (possibly) and I feel justified since I did the work and the whole idea of this blog thing is an easy way to keep images and ideas together. Still I will not be photographing my cheeseburger at the Oar House.