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Monthly Archives: March 2016

The Overton window today

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Media theory has the concept of “agenda setting.” A large part of what drives the noisy discourse in the media every day is the competition among players with their own partisan agendas to set the media’s agenda and the public’s agenda. Obviously media attention can’t be focused on everything that matters. Some topics bore the […]

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Clara Rockmore — and a wee music lesson

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Today’s Google Doodle (you know — the little piece of artwork on Google pages) honors Clara Rockmore, a Theremin artist who lived from 1911 to 1998. A Theremin, of course, is an electronic musical instrument that was invented just over a hundred years ago and that was refined in the decades that followed. Most people […]

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Off and running …

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

A bluet The spring peepers are singing in the woods, daffodils are bursting out all over, and the early-budding tree buds are starting to open. All signs including the 10-day weather forecast seem to be pointing to an early spring. A daffodil A day lily shoot. They will bloom in June.

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Vegetarian surprise pot pie

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Cold weather came back. As a consolation, and to mark the transition off of winter cooking, I made a pot pie. Pot pies are not something I commonly make. But I am clear on two things on the theory of pot-pie making. For one, the crust must be generous, meaning that you want both a […]

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I’ll sing for some supper

Thursday, March 3, 2016

The abbey is a great place for bird-watching. I feel guilty that I’m not more systematic about bird watching and that I’m not better at identifying birds. Just as interesting as watching the birds, though, is listening to and studying bird song, because the abbey is a very quiet place except for bird song. Maybe […]

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Kill your dryer

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

According to an article at grist.org, Americans spend about $9 billion a year on electricity to power their clothes dryers. While appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines have made great strides in energy efficiency, dryers have not. In 2014, the Natural Resources Defense Council published a “call for action” for more-efficient clothes dryers. It […]

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Double-bump glassware

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

I guess I’m just sentimental about how food was served when I was much younger — back before the days in which everything became plastic, disposable, and super-sized. While browsing in a salvage store earlier this week (I love salvage stores — you never know what you might find) I came across a box of […]

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North Carolina barbecue

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

I am not strictly a vegetarian, but I seldom eat meat. I pretty much never cook meat at home, partly because I hate looking at and handling raw meat, and I detest the mess it makes in the kitchen. So, if I eat meat, it’s because I’m out and about. Pork barbecue is one of […]

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Tearing the horn off an anvil?

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

When I was a young’un, a saying I frequently heard (it was particularly said of children) was that a person who was prone to breaking things could “tear the horn off an anvil.” Over the years, I have occasionally used this saying. Often I have been met with a blank look. This caused me to […]

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