sundries

Hey all. For the USians it's Thanksgiving, and later I'm going to give thanks for some stuff. But first it's worth thinking about how your thanksgiving meal got to your table (and I don't just mean you in the kitchen) and knowing the details of the many, many parts of the whole Thanksgiving thing which are big, toxic myths. Aside from the fact that knowing the proper history is the least you can do, it's also interesting, and you should probably be angry you weren't taught this in school.

Given Nkosi is an up and coming opera singer from South Africa. His first language in Xulu and as a kid he never took singing seriously, because he never thought he'd get a chance to actually study it.

Nostalgia via barbershops in NYC. I am a huge fan of nostalgia, and of hanging onto things trying to pass out of the world, but the acuteness of our national fixation with same actually troubles me lately. Can we hold on to the lost world and move forward. I know, I know, I'm getting like this over barber shops.

Eighth grade used to be a bit more challenging.

Traveller of the day: Thembi the therapy hedgehog. As per usual, don't read the comments.

The Dallas Morning News is _not_ a minor paper. Like at all. Major market paper here! But they won't print wedding announcements from gay couples married legally.

Last night I started rereading The Great Gatsby for the first time since high school. Initial thoughts: wow, I hate all these people; oh, I totally see what bodlon was saying about me; dude, so little have things changed; Luhrmann better make this as utterly dark as it is. Because it's dark. Miserably dark. And also fascinating for the intensity of gender, and the worshipfulness of the narrator towards the intensity of gender, in all its characters. Oh, please let this film be as twisted as I want it to be. But, wow, not bedtime reading. Ever. Ever again.

Aside from Thanksposting, I'll also try to do Theater Thursdays (and/or catch up on Wicked Wednesdays) today. Being off in the UK, on holiday has everything turned around for me. Right now thought I need to go buy more stuff to cook.

Finally, on multiple nearly-related notes, I'm almost morally obligated to acknowledge the existence of Burlesque, which is apparently bad and boring.

food!

What I think we're eating for Thanksgiving, assuming I get this all to work (measurement and temperature conversions, gluten-free conversions, absence of some ingredients, ingredients with other names -- all makes this very complicated):

- candied sweet potatoes
- ham steak cooked in brown sugar and mustard
- chicken breast (haven't decided on preparation yet)
- green apples mixed with cinnamon, sugar, slivered almonds and white wine
- carrots
- fried zucchini
- guacamole (Because we can. Why are avocados so cheap here?)
- stuffing (gluten-free bread, shallots, tarragon, pine nuts, italian sausage, more butter than you can possibly imagine)
- a pecan tart
- meringue nests filled with strawberries, raspberries and pomegranate seeds

ETA: Because of a number of kitchen disasters and things not being as previously anticipated -- menu has changed a lot. Trying not to beat myself up over things that I couldn't anticipate just wouldn't work. I think it'll still be okay.

Things I am sad not to be able to find:

- corn (I am not eating it from a can).
- canned (or any other sort of) pumpkin.

Things that are particularly WTF for me:

- I could only find pecans in shell, which I've never even seen before, so I have to go beat those with a can of custard til they open.
- Wow, most mustard here contains wheat flour. This is very annoying and challenging.
- The busking band that plays swing music by the mall. Really, Cardiff? Really? Thank you.

Things that prove I am my mother's child:

- "Oh, I'll just make my own whipped cream." It's not like it's hard, but did I really need that task? No.