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Monthly Archives: June 2020

Cucumber sandwiches

Sunday, June 28, 2020

Here in the U.S., cucumber sandwiches are thought to be an English thing. I’m not sure if that’s true, though it sounds reasonable, and stores here sometimes sell what we call “English cucumbers.” In any case, when I was a boy in rural North Carolina, cucumbers were plentiful, but I had never heard of a […]

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I’ve changed browsers

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Periodically I go on a tear about Internet security. I take a look at everything — the browser I’m using, the browser’s security plug-ins, my Mac’s firewall, and pretty much everything I can think of. I check to see if there’s anything new that might help. The Brave browser is pretty new. Version 1.0 of […]

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Borage

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Click here for high-resolution version. I had not previously encountered borage. I think it is not as commonly used in the U.S. as it is in Europe. But we grew some this year in Ken’s herb trough, starting from seeds in a variety pack of favorite German herbs that I bought on Amazon. The borage […]

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Foundation teaser

Monday, June 22, 2020

Today Apple released a teaser for their Apple TV production of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, which we will get to see in 2021. I have read Foundation three times, I believe. It’s bound to present a challenge for filmmaking, and they’re bound to have to improvise. As beautiful a piece of fiction as Foundation is, I […]

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Why I can’t have apple pie

Monday, June 22, 2020

The squirrels have been stealing peaches from the orchard for at least a couple of weeks. Now they are stealing apples. This morning, I saw Mrs. Squirrel in the backyard, coming down from the orchard with an apple in her mouth. I knew where she was going, so I had time to go get the […]

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One last noble service from your mayonnaise jars

Saturday, June 20, 2020

It bugs me how much food gets wasted inside retail food jars, no matter how much scraping you do when the jar is empty. With mayonnaise jars, my solution is to keep the near-empty jars in the refrigerator until I need a quick salad dressing. Add vinegar, seasonings, and herbs, shake it up, and you’re […]

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Why you need a private VPN server

Thursday, June 18, 2020

To my regular readers: This is a nerd post that won’t interest most of you, for which I apologize. However, about half of the connections to this blog come from Google, from people who have searched for a topic that I have written about. This post is mainly for readers from Google who are interested […]

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Countdown to summer: 4, 3, 2, 1

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

The first pesto of the season may not be as exciting as the first tomato sandwich. But it’s pretty exciting. It would have been a crime to apply heat to a perfect little squash that was growing in a cool rain only minutes ago. So I et it raw. Speaking of summer, do we tolerate […]

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Do we really need so much stuff?

Sunday, June 14, 2020

It took almost a month to build the new shed up above the garden. For ten years, a shed has been much needed here, because I did not have a place to store the lawn mower, or the tiller, out of the weather. Plus my beloved Jeep needs to be sheltered. But when I stand […]

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Two Years Before the Mast

Sunday, June 7, 2020

“A Clipper at Sunset,” Edward Moran, 1829-1901. Whenever I have one of my fits of despair that writers can’t write anymore, I look for a classic to read. This led me to Richard Henry Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast. My main interest in this book was Dana’s account of sailing around the Horn from […]

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