Second Breakfast

I was listening to Sirius Disorder today (Alan calls this “easy listening” and insists I’m officially over the hill and heard this track, which is courtesy of Wax Audio. Basically this guy followed Bush for a while capturing audio of his public statements, and then realized that he had captured Bush speaking every word from “Imagine”. The result (6.2MB MP3) is both hilarious and a little saddening.

This is the conclusion of the story that Simmons began in Ilium. Again, attempting to detail the plot of these big “space opera” books either 1) makes no sense or 2) completley diminishes the story. Read the publisher’s comments in the Amazon page for a good synopsis.

Again Simmons follows the style that he uses in a lot of his recent books: one central Big Idea, a large cast of characters, an increasingly fast-paced story arc, a lot of tension, and many story threads all moving in parallel. He’s quite good at creating the level of interest and engagement with the reader that makes his books “page-turners”. I’m sure at some point I thought “Honey, don’t bother me! Achilles is killing Zeus!”

The Big Idea that moves this book is the same one that Simmons introduced in Ilium, but more developed here. In typical sci-fi fashion, Simmons asks a central “what if” question. In this case, he posits the notion that in our quantum universe, what if thought created other universes? In particular, what if the literary creations of certain human authors, amplified by the reading and devotion of countless others, created universes in which their literary creations existed in actual fact? So the Greeks/Argives and Ilium/Trojans that we were introduced to in Ilium turn out to be the actual incarnations of those characters that Homer sang and wrote about in such detail. These aren’t the original humans whose conflict Homer dramatized in his famous saga, but actually those characters, brought into quantum reality through some process of human thought, and brought into our universe through magical application of superstring physics.

I suspect Simmons also read some Brian Greene books and got even more excited than I did.

In Ilium, we see the original Iliad conflict acted out, with the intrepid Thomas Hockenberry (resurrected classics scholar) accounting to his Olympic masters the minute differences between the tale Homer told and what is occurring on the Ilium-Earth and the plains of a recently terraformed Mars (oh yeah, Olympos in this case is Olympos Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system. Go figure…). Hockenberry derails the story in an attempt to save the Trojans he has come to love from destruction. In the second book, things come completely unglued, and we start to understand the reality behind the story. In the process a lot of cool stuff happens, including a visit to Tartarus with the entire cast of the Titans. Meanwhile on the “real” future-Earth, sentient robots and “old-style humans” struggle to save themselves and the planet from a number of potentially cataclysmic outcomes.

I can’t say I was completely satisfied with the ending, which sputters to a finish instead of providing a tight close to a very complex plot arc. I suspect Simmons is preparing the way for another pair of books, similar to what he did with the “Endymion” books after the pair of “Hyperion” books. Some authors simply can’t write short fiction.

A great geek book. I couldn’t wait for paperback, so I got this in hardcover.

This is a traditional Italian pasta dish that comes together quickly, and is quite delicious. Its probably quite familiar to food geeks like me, but I know some of my friends don’t cook much. This is an easy dish that seems like its more work than it really is and will be sure to impress whoever you’re cooking for. I don’t as a rule like tomato-based pasta sauces — at least, I can’t find many marinaras that I find interesting. But this is quite different from a marinara sauce (its not nearly as saucy, for one thing).

The name “puttanesca” derives from the Italian word for “whore”. There are a couple of different stories about the name. One story says that this dish was aromatic and that prostitutes would cook the dish to attract customers. I think this sounds a bit silly and overly-simplistic. There are lots of strongly-scented dishes in the Italian repertoire, so why should this one be special?

Another (better) story about this dish comes from Diane Seed in her “Top 100 Pasta Sauces”. (p.20) ISBN 0-89815-232-1. She says:

My introduction to this famous pasta dish occured when I overheard two elderly priests discussing the pros and cons of Spaghetti alla Puttanesca (”Whore’s spagehtti”) as they deliberated over the menu in a Neapolitan restaurant. Made of ingredients found in most Italian larders, this is also known as ‘Spaghetti alla Buona Donna’ - or ‘Good Woman’s Spaghetti’ - which can be misleading if one is not familiar with the ironic insult ‘figlio d’una buona donna’ - son of a good woman.

To understand how this sauce came to get its name we have to look back to the 1950’s when brothels in Italy were state-owned. They were known as case chiuse or ‘closed houses’ because the shutters had to be kept permanently closed to avoid offending the sensibilities of neighbors or innocent passers-by. Conscientious Italian housewives always shop at the local market every day to buy really fresh food, but the ‘civil servants’ were only allowed one day per week for shopping and their time was valuable. Their speciality became a sauce made quickly from odds and ends in the larder and now invaluable to us all, by whatever degree of virtue, when time and ingredients are in short supply.

This dish also figures in Lemony Snicket’s “The Bad Beginning”.

Items

• 1 lb spaghetti. I tried whole wheat spaghetti, but didn’t like it as much as regular Barilla or whatever.
• 3Tbsp olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped (optional)
• 3 anchovy fillets (anchovies are, in my opinion, always optional)
• 6 fresh plum tomatoes, or 1 14oz can of plum tomatoes. If using fresh tomatoes, cut the very tops off where the stem was, and cut them in half. Carefully scoop out the gelatinous seeds, and chop the tomatoes into 1 inch cubes.
• 1 cup of pitted black olives in oil. Calamata olives are good. Tinned black olives are bad (they just taste like the can). If you buy the Calamata olives and they’re unpitted, you can pit most of them by squeezing them if they’re soft and the pit will just come out. If the olives are less ripe, you may need to cut them (carefully!) across the middle and you can usually squeeze the pit out. Eat the ones that you can’t pit while you’re cooking. There’s a reason you’re in the kitchen.
• 4 Tbsp capers. Capers are the picked bud of the caper bush. You’ll find them wherever you find pickles and olives in your supermarket, usually in tall little bottles.
• Handful of fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley. There is a fair amount of difference in taste from the curly American variety, but use what you can get. If you don’t have fresh, skip it. The dried stuff is just pretty, and doesn’t provide any useful flavor.
• Salt and freshly-ground black pepper to taste
• Freshly-grated Parmagianno-Reggiano cheese (optional)

Method

1. Heat the pasta water. When it boils, add salt and the pasta and stir occasionally to keep the strands from sticking. Set your strainer in the sink now so its ready when the pasta is done.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. When its hot, add the onion and sautee the onions for five minutes, stirring occasionally until the onion is soft and translucent.
3. Add the chopped garlic, stirring, and cooking for about a minute, and the anchovies if you must. If you skipped the onion, be sure the oil isn’t too hot or the garic will brown instead of sweating, and your dish will have a nasty taste. I’ve burned enough garlic at this point to know…
4. Add the tomatoes, olives, and capers. Stir occasionally, and cook for five minutes or so, or until the tomatoes are fairly cooked and the sauce is somewhat saucy. Add salt (it needs at least 1 tsp, you may want more) and black pepper to taste.
5. The pasta will finish at some point during this as good spaghetti takes 8-9 minutes. Reserve one cup of the pasta water before draining.
6. Add the pasta to the sauce, or vice-versa, depending on your pan size. Add the chopped parsley, and toss to combine. Add some of the pasta water if the sauce is dry.
7. Serve immediately. This dish is typically not served with cheese, but I like it anyways.

This from Reuters (via Yahoo! News):

U.S. President George W. Bush writes a note to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a Security Council meeting at the 2005 World Summit and 60th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York September 14, 2005. World leaders are exploring ways to revitalize the United Nations at a summit on Wednesday but their blueprint falls short of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s vision of freedom from want, persecution and war. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

Apparently presidents have to go make water too. Who knew?

This is, I think, quite good news. Jerry Falwell, after years of making terrible, degrading, and insulting statements towards LGBT folks, seems to be softening his tone, according to an August 26 article from the Southern Voice:

The Human Rights Campaign has formally thanked Rev. Jerry Falwell for apparently speaking out in favor of gay rights for the first time publicly.

[...]

On Aug. 5, during an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Situation with Tucker Carlson,” Falwell raised eyebrowns when he said he was not troubled by reports that nominee John Roberts had done volunteer legal work for gay rights activists on the case Romer vs. Evans.

[...]

“I may not agree with the lifestyle,” Falwell said. “But that has nothing to do with the civil rights of that… part of our constituency.

“Judge Roberts would probably have been not a good very good lawyer if he had not been willing, when asked by his partners in the law firm to assist in guaranteeing the civil rights of employment and housing to any and all Americans.”

[...]

“Civil rights for all Americans, black, white, red, yellow, the rich, poor, young, old, gay, straight, et cetera, is not a liberal or conservative value,” Falwell went on to say. “It’s an American value that I would think that we pretty much all agree on.”

The article goes on to credit SoulForce, founded by Mel White, a former colleague and biographer of the Rev. Falwell, as perhaps instrumental in convincing Falwell that he needs to soften his damaging and hurtful rhetoric. I deeply admire White and his partner Gary Nixon, and the amazing work that everyone at Soulforce is doing.