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Thursday, November 20, 2003 ( 9:15 AM ) Lostcheerio If you want to view the demonstration in London's Trafalgar Square live, go here. This is in honor of Bush's state visit to England. No matter how you feel or don't feel about Bush and Iraq, it's pretty cool that you can see this live on the internet. It should be going on for a few more hours. # Sunday, November 16, 2003 ( 8:06 AM ) Lostcheerio What I have learned in the last 12 hours my friends is this: If you can't bake, if you feel you haven't the faculty for it, if you feel eskeert by even the thought of a measuring cup or a greased cookie sheet, THEN STEP AWAY FROM THE OVEN. You do not have to bake. Because if you try, against all odds, against all the warnings of your Better Self, you'll end up with every pot and pan in the house dirty, all your youthful idealism smashed like an egg on the floor, and a small herd of tough and resentful baked items cowering under a piece of aluminum foil, 12 hours later. Useless and inedible baked items, I should add, in the interest of honesty. I tried to make soft pretzels, which I can remember making, as a child, with relative ease. Knead, roll, fold, pop in the water, they pop up cheerfully, pop in the oven, out they come brown and crunchy and chewy. Of course this was under the supervision of Older People who had Natural Competence in the field of Pretzel Manufacture. As for me, I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no pretzels, Miss Scarlett. What I learned I learned from the internet, and despite the "easy" recipes and "perfect results every time," my pretzels managed to foil me at every turn. If the recipe said, "Boil until they float" then they floated immediately, truculently, as if to say, "Ha." If the recipe said, "Bake them until they're brown," then they stayed as pale as the underbelly of a dead shark. They fell apart at every step, and had to be pinned back together with toothpicks, which then left big red holes in them. When they were finished, and Dan and I steeled ourselves to try one, we found it tough throughout, overly salty, and visually unappealing. And they were for Sunday school even! I'm going to let the baking appliances rest for another year. Maybe that innate ability will somehow surface and bloom in that time. My ancestors could all bake! Why can't I do it!? They probably didn't even find it necessary to whine and pule about sickly pretzels and misbegotten dreams. # |
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