the linked site doesn't do much to describe what "Hamletmachine" is. I imagine it to be some giant ENIAC-style steel box with lights that spits out punch-card couplets and binary pentameter tragedies.
Taste is weird. There seems to be this threshhold beyond which, as long as the thing (morsel of food, work of art) doesn't cause you to physically vomit, how well you tolerate (or enjoy it) is driven in large part by familiarity. Of course, once you're past the threshhold, how familiar you become with the thing is up to you. If only there were a phrase that captured such tastes, the ones we choose to acquire.
Once I read, or was told, that if you don't like some particular food, make yourself try it on 7ish different occasions, and presto, your palette will cry uncle and before you know it you're having squid for breakfast.
What does this say about the things we tend to like automatically, without some kind of careful deliberation? Can we sort them all into two bins labeled "bland" and "drugs"?
I always think of acquired tastes as things you don't like when you're a kid but grow to like as an adult. Most kids don't like brussel sprouts, but many adults do. I think there's an actual physiological change.
I would agree. I was a borderline weird fussy eater as a kid (no spices, few sauces, some, but far from all, standard vegetables) but since college have eaten pretty much anything I could chase down and wrestle down my gullet. I swear everything tastes different that it did when I was a teenager.
And I apparently had FL's adolescence. (I am still wondering why I attended a performance of Hamlet translated into Swedish, a language with which I am entirely unfamiliar, at BAM when I was 16. I can't imagine what I thought I was going to get out of it.)
We're born with a whole hootenanny of tastebuds, but they diminish with age. So, given a fixed flavor, our younger selves would tend to rate it stronger than would our older selves. In effect, food tastes blander and less objectionable over time.
Re 11-- I read someplace once upon a time that broccoli, asparagus, and brussel sprouts have some specific flavor that some children's tastebuds react to particularly strongly--like they're supertasters for that one thing, and it's a BAD taste.
Interesting. I was absolutely not a picky eater as a kid, but my brother was, especially toward vegetables. However, broccoli and brussel sprouts were two of the only veggies he would eat willingly. My older son is coming out of a picky stage, but broccoli has always been okay, and brussel sprouts are acceptable.
Looking back, I realize that almost all of the foods I didn't like as a kid were mushy. I thought asparagus was flat out the nastiest thing on earth, but I'd only had canned asparagus until my 20s, when I discovered it was actually quite good. Canned asparagus remains irredeemably nasty.
With almost no exceptions, the foods I don't like now are due to texture. For example, I love the taste of guacamole but biting into avocado is pretty unpleasant, I like fruits not-quite-ripe, etc.
I would literally get sick when I ate brussels sprouts. It was the only food for which I had an official waiver from my parents. Everything else was subject to the "two bites" rule.
if you don't like some particular food, make yourself try it on 7ish different occasions, and presto, your palette will cry uncle and before you know it you're having squid for breakfast
This sounds right, or at least describes my experience: a few years ago, coming off decades of near-vomiting at the very smell of fish, I decided that I would become a fish eater. It worked.
I think I was only a picky eater when I was a kid because I emulated my siblings - they professed to hate fish, so I declared I hated it, too. I'm still not a huge fan, but there are certain seafood items I now like, a lot.
Funny, apo, that you mention texture - it's a huge thing for me, I tend to almost never like things that are of a uniform consistency (e.g. applesauce, oatmeal, pudding... the exception is ice cream), and prefer things with different tastes, textures, and preferably temperatures combined into one foodstuff - this is why I love the sandwich.
Eggs—I used to hate them, and I can't imagine why.
When I got to the point where I had the will power to go to the gym every other day, I started to like it. (This is all very recently.) Reading Beckett, same thing. (Makes you sweaty, etc.)
Also, I like Pinter. My dad, a graphic designer, was designing a poster for Betrayal but was too lazy to read it, and he used to have me read plays/books and give him synopsis/advice for his designs since I loved to read and he didn't. Kind of funny handing that play to a 12-year-old.
I don't like grits. The other exception to the uniform consistency rule is mashed potatoes, though I would argue that made properly, they shouldn't really be uniform.
I also don't like deserts of this nature. Flan and custard are out.
Somewhere I was reading that one of the things that makes authentic fancy Chinese cuisine great is the conscious playing with textures, making surprising new textures, etc. Sounds plausible Could explain why the Chinese will eat anything.
Well, even if the textures are interesting, it still has to smell good. I was in an Asian grocery store last night and some of that stuff smells seriously wack.
Wolfson seems to be AWOL, so I'll take it upon myself to remind you that they're BrusselS sprouts. There isn't one Brussel, you philosopher dork flippin' eejits. This whole "brussel sprouts" thing is fast becoming the unfogged equivalent of what's known in the UK as the greengrocer's apostrophe. i'm sure apo would understand.
and three cheers for ogged for coming out in favor of eggs (when prepared properly). a brave stand, that.
pinter, however, never fails to remind me of why i don't like theater. A) it's too theatrical; B) peoplewho like it are almost always dickheads; and C) most of them don't understand that Waiting for Godot should be done with a Dublin accent, especially the accent one hears on taking a taxi from Dublin airport, at which point one understands just what a bleedin' fookin' genius yer man Samo was.
Oh Flan, me gusta flan. (I like it with coconut which provides some texture, and with creme brulee you get the crunchy sugar on top.)
I think it's funny that we're all talking about food on Yom Kippur. I guess that the Jews are off at temple and not reading this thread, but otherwise it might be considered cruel.
BTW--I loved asparagus as a child, but not brussel sprouts. (Kids often seem to like sweet vegetables like carrots. I know that I did, but now, I don't really care for them--cooked w/ butter that is.) Nobody ever fed me canned asparagus though; that could be a traumatic experience.
40: Some of us taught our classes (at the time when we would ordinarily be napping on Yom Kippur), stopped of at home to feed the shiksa kitty, and peeked in at the mineshaft before heading out to shul. Daaammmn yooooo!
Brussels sprouts are just butter delivery systems. I like 'em, even if it means John will never trust me. Being a Russ in meatspace, I often refer to my kids as the Russell sprouts.
The local Harris Teeter produce department starting carrying fresh ones recently, which I'd never seen before. Big branches of them. They look like jingle bells.
The three foods that, along with liver, made me shriek hysterically and be sent to my room. I like asparagus now, can tolerate broccoli, and still loathe brussels sprouts. But I don't have to shriek about it any more. Yay! I can have ice cream for dinner! Yay! It's worth it to be that much closer to death!
I was dragged to Marshall Field's (Fields'?) last weekend, which wasn't so bad, but even better was the pumpkin frozen yogurt they served in the cafe downstairs. Damn, that was good.
43: snees, I think that brussel is an improvement over brussels. When my sister was little, she couldn't say vegetables, so it came out vegepetals--which we thought was charming. Frankly, I'm ready to start a campaign to make that the standard pronunciation.
That was the n that got lost from the word that should have been "browning" but inexplicably came out as "browing". Brussels sprouts with browing, light or heavy, are not likely to taste very good.
A French friend once claimed that in his elementary school cantine, Thursdays, in season, were Brussels sprouts days. I think they came with a side serving of bread. Children were discouraged from bringing sack lunches. This must say something about France. Or Socialism.
54, 56: gotcha. Although Pinter and a dinner including nicely cooked brussels sprouts probably have a very definite -brow associate; maybe high-middle?
My flight is delayed, I gotta talk about something.
The sack lunch nurtures the illusion of individual competence and as such promotes false consciousness. Only the children of the bourgeoisie, running-dog lackeys of the capitalist class that they are, carry sack lunches.
School food in this country is generally disgusting. When I went to a girls day school, there was a good salad bar, and the teachers would eat there. In public school, not so much.
slol, when my Dad worked in a women's prison, the warden always ate in the cafeteria and made sure to tell the cook that she was doing a good job; the food was netter and the prisoners felt better and behaved better. We don't value food enough in this country.
BG, I try always to evince gratitude for good service. I was replying to JM's suggestion that discouraging sack lunches has something to do with socialism.
I didn't see 60 until after I had posted. I mostly typed "slol" as a form of phatic communication. It was meant to say, "hey, there. I know you're out there and bored."
I was never a fussy eater as a kid and since we were vegans for about ten years and my parents were keen 'experimenters' in the kitchen I ate all kinds of wierd stuff.
But broad beans would literally make me vomit. Even now, one taste and I'd get the dry boak.
JE: Apostropher is not, in any way, ever to be trusted.
slolernr: Is that apropos anything in particular?
It's a simple logical inference based on evidence supplied voluntarily to apostropher. (The inference does assume, quite rightly, that all of my gut reactions, when stated as propositions, are valid principles).
I agree with the cooked carrots sentiment. Though they are tolerable when baked in a roast, with onions and potatoes (all in a broth) as well. (Though they're definitely the weakest element aside from the onions, which I simply discard.)
Of course I should be saying this on the baseball thread, but I have long been intrigued by Pinter's marriage to Lady Antonia Fraser. Makes me assume he's a closet monarchist.
Also, he was pretty decent as an actor in the screen adaptation of Mansfield Park. He gave good disdain.
the linked site doesn't do much to describe what "Hamletmachine" is. I imagine it to be some giant ENIAC-style steel box with lights that spits out punch-card couplets and binary pentameter tragedies.
Posted by mike d | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 2:47 PM
That's more or less right.
Posted by FL | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 2:58 PM
An extremely weird "appraisal" of Pinter by Ben Brantley. Mostly about how watching a Pinter play makes you feel, like, so weird, even after.
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 3:04 PM
Taste is weird. There seems to be this threshhold beyond which, as long as the thing (morsel of food, work of art) doesn't cause you to physically vomit, how well you tolerate (or enjoy it) is driven in large part by familiarity. Of course, once you're past the threshhold, how familiar you become with the thing is up to you. If only there were a phrase that captured such tastes, the ones we choose to acquire.
Once I read, or was told, that if you don't like some particular food, make yourself try it on 7ish different occasions, and presto, your palette will cry uncle and before you know it you're having squid for breakfast.
What does this say about the things we tend to like automatically, without some kind of careful deliberation? Can we sort them all into two bins labeled "bland" and "drugs"?
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 3:06 PM
SB, I've had sushi on over 7 occasions, and I still just tolerate it.
So whaddaya think about THAT.
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 3:09 PM
Sushi is certainly not drugs!
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 3:12 PM
If only there were a phrase that captured such tastes, the ones we choose to acquire.
The phrase isn't "acquired taste"?
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 3:24 PM
I always think of acquired tastes as things you don't like when you're a kid but grow to like as an adult. Most kids don't like brussel sprouts, but many adults do. I think there's an actual physiological change.
Posted by bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 3:27 PM
I would agree. I was a borderline weird fussy eater as a kid (no spices, few sauces, some, but far from all, standard vegetables) but since college have eaten pretty much anything I could chase down and wrestle down my gullet. I swear everything tastes different that it did when I was a teenager.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 3:31 PM
And I apparently had FL's adolescence. (I am still wondering why I attended a performance of Hamlet translated into Swedish, a language with which I am entirely unfamiliar, at BAM when I was 16. I can't imagine what I thought I was going to get out of it.)
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 3:33 PM
We're born with a whole hootenanny of tastebuds, but they diminish with age. So, given a fixed flavor, our younger selves would tend to rate it stronger than would our older selves. In effect, food tastes blander and less objectionable over time.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 3:46 PM
The phrase isn't "acquired taste"?
It is.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 3:49 PM
Sushi is certainly not drugs!
Speak for yourself. I get a jones for it as bad as I do for coffee or cigarettes.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 3:52 PM
Sushi is sometimes drugs!
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 3:53 PM
Re 11-- I read someplace once upon a time that broccoli, asparagus, and brussel sprouts have some specific flavor that some children's tastebuds react to particularly strongly--like they're supertasters for that one thing, and it's a BAD taste.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 3:54 PM
Interesting. I was absolutely not a picky eater as a kid, but my brother was, especially toward vegetables. However, broccoli and brussel sprouts were two of the only veggies he would eat willingly. My older son is coming out of a picky stage, but broccoli has always been okay, and brussel sprouts are acceptable.
Looking back, I realize that almost all of the foods I didn't like as a kid were mushy. I thought asparagus was flat out the nastiest thing on earth, but I'd only had canned asparagus until my 20s, when I discovered it was actually quite good. Canned asparagus remains irredeemably nasty.
With almost no exceptions, the foods I don't like now are due to texture. For example, I love the taste of guacamole but biting into avocado is pretty unpleasant, I like fruits not-quite-ripe, etc.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:08 PM
In an amusing contrast to 11, little babies are delicious, but lose their appeal as they get older.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:09 PM
I would literally get sick when I ate brussels sprouts. It was the only food for which I had an official waiver from my parents. Everything else was subject to the "two bites" rule.
Posted by Matt F | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:09 PM
17-And the best tasting babies are Irish, of course.
Posted by Matt F | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:11 PM
if you don't like some particular food, make yourself try it on 7ish different occasions, and presto, your palette will cry uncle and before you know it you're having squid for breakfast
This sounds right, or at least describes my experience: a few years ago, coming off decades of near-vomiting at the very smell of fish, I decided that I would become a fish eater. It worked.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:12 PM
I think I was only a picky eater when I was a kid because I emulated my siblings - they professed to hate fish, so I declared I hated it, too. I'm still not a huge fan, but there are certain seafood items I now like, a lot.
Funny, apo, that you mention texture - it's a huge thing for me, I tend to almost never like things that are of a uniform consistency (e.g. applesauce, oatmeal, pudding... the exception is ice cream), and prefer things with different tastes, textures, and preferably temperatures combined into one foodstuff - this is why I love the sandwich.
This thread is making me hungry already.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:12 PM
a phrase that captured such tastes, the ones we choose to acquire.
Cigarettes and tequila.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:12 PM
Eggs—I used to hate them, and I can't imagine why.
When I got to the point where I had the will power to go to the gym every other day, I started to like it. (This is all very recently.) Reading Beckett, same thing. (Makes you sweaty, etc.)
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:13 PM
this is why I love the sandwich
...at the Mineshaft.
of a uniform consistency
Hmm. I've never heard that before. So no grits for you. Pity.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:15 PM
Also, I like Pinter. My dad, a graphic designer, was designing a poster for Betrayal but was too lazy to read it, and he used to have me read plays/books and give him synopsis/advice for his designs since I loved to read and he didn't. Kind of funny handing that play to a 12-year-old.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:15 PM
Eggs—I used to hate them, and I can't imagine why.
Because eggs, without some salt & seasoning, or cooked improperly, are about as gross as a food can be (properly prepared, they're awesome).
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:16 PM
I don't like grits. The other exception to the uniform consistency rule is mashed potatoes, though I would argue that made properly, they shouldn't really be uniform.
I also don't like deserts of this nature. Flan and custard are out.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:17 PM
fuck. desserts.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:20 PM
I also don't like deserts of this nature.
Jean Baudrillard (Apologetic): I'm sorry I'm so late for dinner, dear, I got stuck at the office. Have I missed everything?
Mrs Baudrillard (Annoyed): Welcome to the dessert of the meal.
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:20 PM
I'm too slow!
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:20 PM
Slow, but creative.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:23 PM
you mention texture - it's a huge thing for me
Somewhere I was reading that one of the things that makes authentic fancy Chinese cuisine great is the conscious playing with textures, making surprising new textures, etc. Sounds plausible Could explain why the Chinese will eat anything.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:24 PM
Well, even if the textures are interesting, it still has to smell good. I was in an Asian grocery store last night and some of that stuff smells seriously wack.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:26 PM
Somewhere I was reading
Could it have been our very own John Emerson?
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:26 PM
Could it have been our very own John Emerson?
Was somewhere else, before that, I think.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:28 PM
the Chinese will eat anything.
A truer statement you could not make.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:28 PM
Wolfson seems to be AWOL, so I'll take it upon myself to remind you that they're BrusselS sprouts. There isn't one Brussel, you philosopher dork flippin' eejits. This whole "brussel sprouts" thing is fast becoming the unfogged equivalent of what's known in the UK as the greengrocer's apostrophe. i'm sure apo would understand.
and three cheers for ogged for coming out in favor of eggs (when prepared properly). a brave stand, that.
pinter, however, never fails to remind me of why i don't like theater. A) it's too theatrical; B) peoplewho like it are almost always dickheads; and C) most of them don't understand that Waiting for Godot should be done with a Dublin accent, especially the accent one hears on taking a taxi from Dublin airport, at which point one understands just what a bleedin' fookin' genius yer man Samo was.
Posted by peter snees | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:28 PM
A truer statement you could not make.
Well, except that Asians are crappy drivers.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:31 PM
Was somewhere else, before that, I think.
Oops, yeah. I should have read the post of yours he was commenting on.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:31 PM
Oh Flan, me gusta flan. (I like it with coconut which provides some texture, and with creme brulee you get the crunchy sugar on top.)
I think it's funny that we're all talking about food on Yom Kippur. I guess that the Jews are off at temple and not reading this thread, but otherwise it might be considered cruel.
BTW--I loved asparagus as a child, but not brussel sprouts. (Kids often seem to like sweet vegetables like carrots. I know that I did, but now, I don't really care for them--cooked w/ butter that is.) Nobody ever fed me canned asparagus though; that could be a traumatic experience.
Posted by bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:32 PM
Battlepanda confirmed what I said. It's not really a profound perception.
I would never trust anyone who liked Brussels sprouts.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:32 PM
Christmas isn'r complete without roast beef and brussel sprouts.
I was pretty picky as a child. I disdained american cheese. I liked brie. I was also partial to shrimp cocktail.
Posted by bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:35 PM
bostoniagirl, you are driving me to drink, even though te gusta flan (a mi tambien). brusselS, damn it.
BTW, I hate them however they're spelled. And I've always loathed cooked carrots.
Posted by peter snees | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:35 PM
40: Some of us taught our classes (at the time when we would ordinarily be napping on Yom Kippur), stopped of at home to feed the shiksa kitty, and peeked in at the mineshaft before heading out to shul. Daaammmn yooooo!
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:36 PM
bostonia : what happens when boston breaks away from the US and forms its own nation.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:36 PM
Brussels sprouts are just butter delivery systems. I like 'em, even if it means John will never trust me. Being a Russ in meatspace, I often refer to my kids as the Russell sprouts.
The local Harris Teeter produce department starting carrying fresh ones recently, which I'd never seen before. Big branches of them. They look like jingle bells.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:40 PM
broccoli, asparagus, and brussel[s] sprouts
The three foods that, along with liver, made me shriek hysterically and be sent to my room. I like asparagus now, can tolerate broccoli, and still loathe brussels sprouts. But I don't have to shriek about it any more. Yay! I can have ice cream for dinner! Yay! It's worth it to be that much closer to death!
Posted by mcmc | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:48 PM
Ice cream is so yummy. Sugar free sorbet is also good.
Posted by bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 4:55 PM
I was dragged to Marshall Field's (Fields'?) last weekend, which wasn't so bad, but even better was the pumpkin frozen yogurt they served in the cafe downstairs. Damn, that was good.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:01 PM
43: snees, I think that brussel is an improvement over brussels. When my sister was little, she couldn't say vegetables, so it came out vegepetals--which we thought was charming. Frankly, I'm ready to start a campaign to make that the standard pronunciation.
Posted by bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:07 PM
Brussels sprouts, cooked in a pan with a light oil at high heat, develop a nice little browing on the exterior, and taste really good.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:13 PM
n
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:13 PM
n
Please explain, slol?
Posted by bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:15 PM
browning, not "browing"
Posted by Matt F | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:17 PM
That was the n that got lost from the word that should have been "browning" but inexplicably came out as "browing". Brussels sprouts with browing, light or heavy, are not likely to taste very good.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:18 PM
54 to 53. that's by way of explanation, not correction.
Posted by Matt F | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:19 PM
A French friend once claimed that in his elementary school cantine, Thursdays, in season, were Brussels sprouts days. I think they came with a side serving of bread. Children were discouraged from bringing sack lunches. This must say something about France. Or Socialism.
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:20 PM
54, 56: gotcha. Although Pinter and a dinner including nicely cooked brussels sprouts probably have a very definite -brow associate; maybe high-middle?
My flight is delayed, I gotta talk about something.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:21 PM
I didn't even notice the missing "n." I guess that my mind just filled it in.
Matt F--I'm pretty sure he knew that you were helping me out.
I think that n all by itself reminds me too much of math class.
Posted by bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:22 PM
The sack lunch nurtures the illusion of individual competence and as such promotes false consciousness. Only the children of the bourgeoisie, running-dog lackeys of the capitalist class that they are, carry sack lunches.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:25 PM
School food in this country is generally disgusting. When I went to a girls day school, there was a good salad bar, and the teachers would eat there. In public school, not so much.
Posted by bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:26 PM
slol, when my Dad worked in a women's prison, the warden always ate in the cafeteria and made sure to tell the cook that she was doing a good job; the food was netter and the prisoners felt better and behaved better. We don't value food enough in this country.
Posted by bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:29 PM
School lunches ("dinners") in the UK are famously awful as well.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:29 PM
BG, I try always to evince gratitude for good service. I was replying to JM's suggestion that discouraging sack lunches has something to do with socialism.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:30 PM
Where ya headed, slol?
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:33 PM
A land far, far away, with bad school dinners.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:33 PM
I didn't see 60 until after I had posted. I mostly typed "slol" as a form of phatic communication. It was meant to say, "hey, there. I know you're out there and bored."
Posted by bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:34 PM
I love that land!
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:34 PM
It has its merits, to be sure. BTW I paid cash money for The Wire as inflight entertainment.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:36 PM
I heard that in the UK some of the schools have really long-term contracts with the providers of bad food, and they can't get out of them.
Posted by bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:36 PM
The Wire as inflight entertainment
A fine choice. An episode or season?
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:38 PM
Season one. I've seen one of the later seasons, I'm not sure which.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:39 PM
Very good. Not exactly a pick-me-up, but very good.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:40 PM
BTW, Ogged, I'm glad you've decided to succumb to The Wire.
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:42 PM
Yeah, well, I knew what I was getting into as far as that goes. Contrariwise, I have also got Life with Jeeves, so I feel well-balanced.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:42 PM
Apostropher is not, in any way, ever to be trusted.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:52 PM
Is that apropos anything in particular?
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 5:52 PM
37: The green grocer's apostrophe was well explained to us stateside people in Eats, Shoots & Leaves. So some of us are familiar with it.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 6:03 PM
I should have known this thread would have nothing to say about Harold Pinter. Unless I am missing the brussel sprouts allusions.
Funniest blog excepting Fafblog.
Posted by bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 6:10 PM
Bob, everything about Pinter is in the obvious place, namely the baseball thread.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 6:30 PM
re: 80. And really, I suppose that's the way it ought to be.
Posted by bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 6:39 PM
I was never a fussy eater as a kid and since we were vegans for about ten years and my parents were keen 'experimenters' in the kitchen I ate all kinds of wierd stuff.
But broad beans would literally make me vomit. Even now, one taste and I'd get the dry boak.
Posted by Matt McGrattan | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 6:53 PM
Was somewhere else, before that, I think.
Mitch Mills?
Also, Brussels sprouts are good. This is a judgment of taste.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 7:24 PM
Hi, Bob! For serious literary talk on Pinter, or anyone for that matter, go to "The Literary Saloon." Link.
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 7:50 PM
JE: Apostropher is not, in any way, ever to be trusted.
slolernr: Is that apropos anything in particular?
It's a simple logical inference based on evidence supplied voluntarily to apostropher. (The inference does assume, quite rightly, that all of my gut reactions, when stated as propositions, are valid principles).
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 8:13 PM
"By apostropher".
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 8:14 PM
Also, Brussels sprouts are good. This is a judgment of taste.
They're great if you like making little girls cry.
Posted by mcmc | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 8:22 PM
And really, who doesn't?
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 8:45 PM
zaaack-ly!
Posted by mcmc | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 9:11 PM
I agree with the cooked carrots sentiment. Though they are tolerable when baked in a roast, with onions and potatoes (all in a broth) as well. (Though they're definitely the weakest element aside from the onions, which I simply discard.)
Posted by pdf23ds | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 9:14 PM
pfd, I recommend exploring the possibilities of fennel.
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 9:18 PM
Pdf, rather. Sorry.
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 9:19 PM
Of course I should be saying this on the baseball thread, but I have long been intrigued by Pinter's marriage to Lady Antonia Fraser. Makes me assume he's a closet monarchist.
Also, he was pretty decent as an actor in the screen adaptation of Mansfield Park. He gave good disdain.
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 10-13-05 9:30 PM
My brother, a cook, says that you can put carrots in little teabag thingies and take them out of the soup once the flavor is boiled out.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 10-14-05 9:20 AM