Which of you Heathen-aged nerds can identify the doll used in the picture atop this Ars Technica story about the whole Silk Road affair?
Monthly Archives: October 2013
JWZ Posts for Me: Mobile Web Devs SUCK
Mobile web design: The reign of morons indeed.
Go read the whole thing.
Sic Transit Gloria
Hey Heathen, remember that ramshackle church across the street from Heathen World HQ?
What the shutdown is about
From Ezra Klein here:
This is all about stopping a law that increases taxes on rich people and reduces subsidies to private insurers in Medicare in order to help low-income Americans buy health insurance. That’s it. That’s why the Republican Party might shut down the government and default on the debt.
And also this:
Democrats won more votes than Republicans in the last election. That was true in the presidential campaign. It was true in the Senate campaigns. And it was true in the House campaigns.
That doesn’t mean the Republican Party is under any obligation to stand back and let Democrats do as they please. But imagine if the Republican Party had won the 2012 election and Senate Democrats threatened to breach the debt ceiling and cause a financial crisis unless Republicans added a public option to Obamacare. Does anyone think a President Mitt Romney would find that position reasonable? Does anyone think that position would be reasonable?
Dept. of Science Fiction Devices
Uncrate, a gadget blog I follow, is featuring an affordable, portable hydrogen generator for outdoor, off-the-grid use today.
Whoa.
This time, I promise not to make them deliver a pack of gum
Marcella Hazan, 1924-2013
If you’ve eaten at my house, you’ve certainly eaten a bolognese or a risotto. They were the first things I learned to cook well enough to serve confidently, and remain staples of my kitchen.
I am not a great cook, but I can follow directions. If you’ve enjoyed those dishes at my table, you have Marcella Hazan to thank, because the recipes I use are from her Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, first published in 1992. There is no better starting place. Prickly and opinionated, Hazan’s recipes may chide you for using the wrong pot, or the wrong kind of pasta, but it’s useful to know how to do something right before you launch out on your own.
Serving from her book, I also extend a chain of reference, friendship, and food; I learned of the book from my friend Carl sometime in the late 1990s, whom I suspect picked it up from his friend Chris, who in turn credits another friend he was visiting in Milan in 1994. I’m sure the chain goes ever backward, and includes many more links forward — I know I’ve given copies as gifts many times myself.
Food and friends and fellowship are the essence of a good time. Hazan’s book helped me create no small number of delightful evenings including all three, and for that I’ll be eternally grateful.
Marcella Hazan died on Sunday in her home on Longboat Kay, in Florida. She was 89.