Last night made Pasta with Tender Greens from Mark Bittman's The Food Matters Cookbook.

8 oz pasta, preferable whole wheat (I used whole wheat linguine)
1.5 lbs tender greens, such as spinach, pea shoots, arugula, shredded napa cabbage, etc. (I used shredded napa cabbage)
1/4 cup olive oil, butter, or a combination of both (I used olive oil)
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan (optional) (I used pre-grated Kraft sprinkle cheese)
Freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it.  Add pasta; cook until tender but not mushy.  Add greens and cook until tender (this may take just ten seconds).  Reserve some of the pasta water and drain.  Toss the pasta and greens with the olive oil, then toss in the garlic, cheese, and plenty of black pepper, adding the reserved pasta water if necessary to keep it moist.

Very fast.  Pretty easy.  Appropriate vegetable:starch ratio.

But I thought the raw garlic was too harsh.  Also, I don't think I cooked the cabbage long enough.  The green parts turned bright green, which is when I drained it, but the yellow parts were still quite crunchy.  Probably should have added the yellow parts a few minutes before the green parts.

In conclusion: not a keeper.  If I were to try this recipe again, I would probably do it with a different mix of flavors: spinach instead of cabbage, and back off on the raw garlic.  Maybe toss the garlic in the boiling water to mellow it out.

Made pizza last night, following the instructions on the back of the Fleischmann's Pizza Crust Yeast package.  I was (mostly) in charge of the dough; Morgan topped it with jarred tomato sauce and grated cheese (mostly cheddar).  Also had microwaved frozen broccoli.

The word of the day is integument:

 Latin integument-um covering, integĕre to cover.(Show More)

  That with which anything is covered, enclosed, or clothed; a covering, investment, coating. 
a. In general sense.
b. spec. The natural covering or investment of the body, or of some part or organ, of an animal or plant; a skin, shell, husk, rind, etc. (OED)


"In the eighteen-hundreds, people called men's underwear 'nether integuments'."

 - Lauren Collins, Dept. of Foundations, "Skivvies 101", 13 December 2010 The New Yorker

The word of the day is ersatz:

German, = compensation, replacement.(Show More)

  A substitute or imitation (usually, an inferior article instead of the real thing). Also attrib. or adj., and fig. (OED)

"'Black Swan' turns Freud's uncanny into shtick; the sinister elements are overloaded and overdetermined.  After a while, you realize that the film is a case of ersatz formalism disguising chaos."

 - David Denby, "Fancy Footwork: 'Black Swan' and 'Love and Other Drugs'", 6 December 2010 The New Yorker

The word of the day is cachet:

French; cacher to conceal: in 18th cent. treated as English.(Show More)

1. A seal. letter of cachet (French lettre de cachet): a letter under the private seal of the French king, containing an order, often of exile or imprisonment.

2. fig. Stamp, distinguishing mark, ‘sign manual’.

3. attrib. Done under letter of cachet; privy, secret.

4. A covering of paste, gelatine, or other digestible material, enclosing (nauseous) medicine; = capsule n. 5. 

Draft additions September 2006 

 Prestige, high status; the quality of being respected or admired.  (OED)

"'We used their brand as a signifier of luxury and they got free advertising and credibility every time we mentioned it,' he writes.  'We were trading cachet.'  (Actually, the book, not free of typos, says 'cache.')"

 - Kelefa Sanneh, "Word: Jay-Z's 'Decoded' and the language of hip-hop", 6 December 2010 The New Yorker

The word of the day is hermeneutics:

< hermeneutic adj.: see -ics at -ic suffix 2. Also in form hermeneutic. Compare Greek ἑρμηνευτική (sc. τέχνη), Latin hermēneutica, French l'herméneutique.... 

The art or science of interpretation, esp. of Scripture. Commonly distinguished from exegesis or practical exposition. (OED)

"Throughout 'Decoded,' Jay-Z offers readers a large dose of hermeneutics and a small dose of biography, in keeping with his deserved reputation for brilliance and chilliness."

 - Kelefa Sanneh, "Word: Jay-Z's 'Decoded' and the language of hip-hop", 6 December 2010 The New Yorker

The word of the day is étude:

étude,  (French: “study”) in music, originally a study or technical exercise, later a complete and musically intelligible composition exploring a particular technical problem in an esthetically satisfying manner. (Encyclopedia Britannica)


"Early recordings of Jay-Z reveal a nimble but mild-mannered virtuoso, delivering rat-a-tat syllables (he liked to rap in double-time triplets, delivering six syllables per beat) that often amounted to études rather than songs."

 - Kelefa Sanneh, "Word: Jay-Z's 'Decoded' and the language of hip-hop", 6 December 2010 The New Yorker

The word of the day is apocope:

< Greek ἀποκοπή a cutting off, < ἀποκόπτειν to cut off.(Show More)

 

The cutting off or omission of the last letter or syllable of a word. (OED)

"Bradley also celebrated some lesser-known hip-hop lyrics, including this dense, percussive couple by Pharaohe Monch, a cult favorite from Queens:

The last batter to hit, blast shattered your hip

Smash any splitter or fastball - that'll be it

Picking through this ticket, Bradley paused to appreciate Monch's use of apocopated rhyme, as when a one-syllable word is rhymed with the penultimate syllable of a multisyllabic word (last/blast/fastball)."

 - Kelefa Sanneh, "Word: Jay-Z's 'Decoded' and the language of hip-hop", 6 December 2010 The New Yorker

The word of the day is foxed:

Of the leaves of books, also of timber; Discoloured by decay; stained with brownish-yellow spots. (OED)


"News of the world lay in the rain.
Maple leaves fell, pre-foxed,
as if stored for decades on library shelves."

 - William Logan, "Mysteries of the Armchair", 6 December 2010 The New Yorker

The word of the day is abecedarian:

< medieval Latin abecedāri-us (see abecedary n.²) + -an suffix.(Show Less)

1. Of or pertaining to the alphabet; marked with the alphabet; arranged in alphabetical order, as abecedarian psalms, like the 119th. 

2. Occupied in learning the alphabet, or pertaining to one so occupied.  (OED)

"In 1693, the philosopher John Locke suggested that learning to read could be a more enjoyable experience if there were 'Dice and Play-things with the Letters on them, to teach Children the Alphabet by playing.'  The father of liberalism and blocks would have loved Dinosaur Hill, where abecedarian wooden blocks come in fifteen languages, including Hebrew, Korean, Arabic, Norwegian, Braille, and American Sign Language ($39-$43)."

 - Patricia Marx, "Toy Stories: Rating this year's playthings", 6 December 2010 The New Yorker

The word of the day is burnish:

< Old French burniss- stem of burnir, variant of brunir; compare Provençal bornir; see burn v.²... 

  

1.

a. trans. To make (metal) shining by friction; to furbish; to polish (a surface) by rubbing with a hard and smooth tool. .

2.

  a. transf. To make bright and glossy; to overspread with lustre.

3. Of a stag: To rub the dead ‘velvet’ or skin from his horns  [compare French brunir in same sense] ; applied loosely to the annual renewal of the horns, perhaps by confusion with burnish v.² 

4. intr. To become bright or glossy; to shine, gleam. Also fig. (OED)

"Over the past month, I visited most of the toy stores around town and combed through dozens of catalogues and Web sites, encountering dolls that drink and wet (the Children's General Store, 168 East 91st Street; $50.75), pirate ships that can be put together with Velcro (fao.com; $29.99), Teddy bears dressed more stylishly than I am (Dinosaur Hill, 306 East 9th Street; $80-$200), cherrywood baby rattles so burnished they could be handles on a George Nakashima bureau (Dinosaur Hill; $20), and a boy who threw a half-hour-long tantrum in the Lego Store after his mother refused to buy him the Tantive IV Star Wars set (620 Fifth Avenue, at Rockefeller Center; $179).  'A hundred dollars is not a lot of money!' he wailed."

 - Patricia Marx, "Toy Stories: Rating this year's playthings", 6 December 2010 The New Yorker

 The word of the day is catamount:

Shortened < catamountain n.,(Show Less) apparently of English formation: it does not appear that the Middle English ‘cat of the mountain’ was a translation from another language.

 

1. = catamountain n.; a pard or panther. Obs.  

 

2. A common name in U.S. of the puma or cougar ( Felis concolor), also called Panther, Painter, and Mountain (or American) Lion.  (OED)

"serving the larger brain the cows eat so we will eat we guarantee
digestion is the only work they do heads down tails up
for the maximum yield they won't have sex
they get some grain some salt they get their shots no catamounts
no wolves we fertilize the fields we put up bales of hay"

 - Ellen Bryant Voigt, "Cow", 6 December 2010 The New Yorker

The word of the day is stanchion:

estanchon, estançon (modern French étançon), < estance prop < popular Latin *stantia: see stance n.²... 

An upright bar, stay, prop or support.  (OED)

"end of the day daylight subsiding into the trees lights coming on

in the milking barns as somewhere out in the yard some ants

are tucking in their aphids for the night behind

hydrangea leaves or in their stanchions underground

they have been bred for it the smaller brain"

 - Ellen Bryant Voigt, "Cow", 6 December 2010 The New Yorker

The word of the day is serif:

Typogr.  One of the fine cross-strokes at the top and bottom of a letter.  (OED)


Morgan was describing to me a logo that included the letter A, but it only had serifs pointing in one direction, so that one might interpret them to look like little feet.

Last night I made Spaghetti with Walnuts and Anchovies, because we seemed to have all the ingredients (except the parsley, of course, and the pecorino (but we did have parmesan), and I used angel hair instead of spaghetti).

It was very fast, but didn't taste like much.  Next time I'll add more garlic, maybe some crushed red pepper, or, better yet, just make Spaghetti Aglio e Olio.

The word of the day is anosmia:

modern Latin, < Greek ἀν priv. + ὀσμή smell.(Show More)

Pathol.

Loss of the sense of smell.  (OED)


[Some proteins, mutations in which are linked to a certain kind of disease,] are also expressed in the nose, and mutations in them can cause anosmia.

 - a seminar I went to

(I'm being deliberately vague here because the seminar was on unpublished work, and I would hate to be responsible for someone getting scooped on account of my blog.)

The word of the day is publican:

< Anglo-Norman pupplican, Anglo-Norman and Old French publican, Old French, Middle French publicain (French publicain) tax-gatherer (end of the 12th cent. in Old French) and its etymon classical Latin pūblicānus contractor for the collection of taxes and dues, tax-gatherer

 

1.a. Roman Hist. A person who farms the public taxes; a tax-gatherer, esp. any of those in Judaea and Galilee in the New Testament period, who were generally regarded as traitorous and impious on account of their service of Rome and their extortion.The word is freq. in biblical quotations or allusions, esp. with reference to the parable of the Pharisee and the publican (Luke 18:10–11).

α.

?c1200    Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 9295   Puplicaness comenn þær. Att himm to wurrþenn fullhtnedd.

c1230  (1200)    Ancrene Riwle (Corpus Cambr.) (1962) 168   Schrift ah to beon eadmod as þe puplicanes wes, nawt as þe phariseus wes.

c1384    Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Matt. v. 46   Ȝif ȝe louen hem that louen ȝou, what meed shul ȝee haue? whether and puplicans don nat this thing?

a1425    Wyclif Sel. Eng. Wks. (1869) I. 397   Whi etiþ your Maistir wiþ puplicans and sinful men?

a1450    York Plays 214   Of puplicans‥prince am I.

1548    N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Matt. in Paraphr. New Test. sig. Ciii,   Matthew whiche was other wyse also called Leui, beyng of a Puplican made an Apostle.

β.

1340    Ayenbite (1866) 175   Þe farizeus‥onworþede þane publycan [a1225 Vices & Virtues seculer] þet mildeliche byet his bryest ine þe temple.

c1390    Chaucer Parson's Tale 986   Swich was the confessioun of the Publican [v.rr. Puplican, puplicane, publycane] that wolde nat heuen vp hise eyen to heuene.

a1400    Clensyng Mannes Sowle in Eng. Misc. presented to Dr. Furnivall (1901) 270   The publican‥for mekenes and lownesse thought him self vnworthi to lifte vp his eien to heuen.

?a1475  (1396)    W. Hilton Scale of Perfection (Harl. 6579) i. xx. f. 13,   Þe pharisee‥com‥wiþ þe publican to þe temple for to preye.

a1513    J. Irland Meroure of Wyssdome (1926) I. 20   And of this is exempill of the Pharizean and the publican.

1548    N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Luke in Paraphr. New Test. iii. 12   Publicans, that is to saye, the customers and takers vp of tolles.

1581    J. Marbeck Bk. of Notes 882   The Harlots and Publicans repenting truly‥are more acceptable vnto God, then y^e proud workmongers, that trust in their owne righteousnesse.

1600    Shakespeare Merchant of Venice i. iii. 39   How like a fawning publican he lookes.

1630    H. Hawkins tr. St. Jerome Sel. Epist. 18   The Publican ryses from the custome-house, and followes our Sauiour.

1703    W. Burkitt Expos. Notes New Test. Matt. ix. 9   Matthew, a grinding Publican, is the Man.

1760    E. Burke Ess. Abridgm. Eng. Hist. 42   The provinces [of Rome] were over-run by publicans,‥confiscators, usurers, bankers.

1793    J. Alleine Admonition to Unconverted Sinners 177   Lord, I come to thee as the poor publican, and I pray his prayer.

1841    Dickens Barnaby Rudge xiii. 6   Believing‥that the publicans coupled with sinners in Holy Writ were veritable licensed victuallers.

1880    L. Wallace Ben Hur viii. i. 486   He brings twelve men with him, fishermen, tillers of the soil, one a publican, all of the humbler class.

1900    Biblical World 15 191   The farmer of taxes, who, like the publican in Roman times, has bought the taxes and tries to make as much as he can out of them.

2000    Amer. Jrnl. Archaeol. 104 301/1   The dedication of C. Popilius Primus to Nero‥was linked to the crisis between a certain Demetrius, whom she supposes was a publican.

 b. gen. Any collector of toll, tribute, customs, etc. Also fig. Now rare.

 

  2. A person regarded as a heathen; a person cut off from the Church, an excommunicated person. Also in extended use.With reference to Jesus's injunction to treat an excommunicated person as ‘a heathen and publican’ (Matthew 18:17).

a1400  (1303)    R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) 11649   A publycan ys, yn oure sawe, A synful man, oute of þe lawe.

c1480  (1400)    St. Matthew 12 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 190   Quha in hopyne syne is tane, þe ewangell callis ‘publicane’.

a1651    D. Calderwood Hist. Kirk Scotl. (1843) II. 81   We, not one or two, but the whole church, must hold him as a publicane; that is, as one cutt off frome the bodie of Christ.

1685    W. Stanley Disc. Devot. Ch. Rome 47   One that comes by Simony into the Popedom, is by their own Canon Law‥to be looked on as a Magician, Heathen, Publican, and Arch-Heretick.

?1761    ‘B. Montfichet’ Life & Opinions B. Montfichet II. 57   If Doctor Rantum‥did not chuse to prove himself a proper christian, the quality of heathen or publican must of consequence fit full as easy upon him as that of a christian.

1890    Musical Times & Singing Class Circular 31 463/1   You must learn to swallow the master [sc. Wagner] whole or be a ‘heathen man or a publican’.

1958    Amer. Q. 10 457   When he came to‥inquire whether excommunicated persons were allowed to attend church services, he was told‥that they were because there are Biblical examples of the heathen and the publican being allowed to do so.

  3. A person who owns or manages a public house or tavern.  (OED)

"If Bloomfield and Friedman wanted to be taken seriously as businesspeople, the oyster bar had to be a hit. Its success is critical to establishing their credibility as big-time restaurateurs, rather than twice-lucky publicans."


 - Lauren Collins, "Burger Queen: April Bloomfield's gastropub revolution", The New Yorker, 22 November 2010

The word of the day is crudo:

"Crudo" actually doesn't appear in the Oxford English Dictionary, so I had to turn to NPR: "The dish consists of raw fish dressed with olive oil, sea salt, acidic juices such as lemon or lime and sometimes vinegar."

Sounds like ceviche to me (i.e., fish that has been cured with acid), but I guess that while ceviche is likely to have Latin American seasonings (chili, cilantro), crudo is more likely to have Italian seasonings (olive oil, basil).

"In the fall of 2008, Friedman and Bloomfield decided to add fish to the meat-and-veg rotation, opening an ambitious seafood restaurant called the John Dory... There were five types of crudo...  When a small space became available in the Ace Hotel, this spring, Bloomfield and Friedman decided to open an oyster bar there... Bloomfield could revive some of her crudo recipes."

 - Lauren Collins, "Burger Queen: April Bloomfield's gastropub revolution", The New Yorker, 22 November 2010

I've a nasty headache just about every day since Thursday.  Two days ago I noticed it set in immediately after I ate a Hershey's kiss (yes, we're still working through the bag of Halloween candy that everyone brought to lab because they didn't want their kids eating it), and yesterday, I noticed it set in right during seminar (immediately before which, I, of course, ate a chocolate-containing Pepperidge Farm cookie, out of principle.  Out of principle because the department briefly suspended cookies as a cost-saving measure earlier during the economic downturn, so now that they've been reinstated I need to show my appreciation).

Testing the hypothesis that chocolate may be setting off my headaches, I refrained from eating a cookie at journal club today, and I didn't get a headache, consistent with my hypothesis.  (Which of course reminds me of that xkcd cartoon.)  On the other hand, eating a stack of chocolate-containing Hanukkah cookies Monday night didn't make the headache I already had any worse.  Will perhaps try a controlled experiment, but it's tricky because I have only one head.

Other hypotheses include:

1.  Eye strain.  I haven't had a new glasses prescription for three years, and because the glasses I got 3+ years ago have disintegrated, I'm actually using my slightly different prescription from 2003.  Once again, I'm having trouble resolving slides from the back of the room (I normally like to sit up front, but while I was TAing I sat in the back row because I thought it best to save the front seats for actual students), and resolving the names of streets until I'm practically on top of them.  Furthermore, I discovered during the seminar yesterday that vision out of my left eye is much, much blurrier than vision out of my right eye, which assuredly isn't helping.

2.  Scalp strain.  I hear that many headaches are actually caused by scalp pain (as opposed to, say, brain pain).  I haven't had a haircut in about 18 months (my last one was right before Caroline's wedding, in order to look presentable), so the bun that I wad into my hair clip has been getting steadily larger and, therefore, heavier.  Perhaps the tug of the hair in my hair clip is causing headaches.  Letting my hair down after the headache starts isn't enough to cure the headache.  I will get a haircut...sometime when I get around to it.  (Trying to remember how I managed to get regular haircuts when I had short hair.  I guess I just did them when I visited Wisconsin.)

Monday night I made a variation on the stir-fried sweet potatoes that I've made a number of times since Mark Bittman wrote it up in The Minimalist in September (you must remember, Mark Bittman has high standards, so "a better-than-average little meal" for him is probably a much-better-than-average meal for me).

But I had the leftover sage that I had gotten from Whole Foods for the White Beans, Tuscan Style, so instead of grapeseed oil, garlic, and ginger (I usually leave the scallions out anyway, because I rarely have them on hand, and I'm not a huge fan), I melted two tablespoons of butter and then added the sage, and sauteed (fried?) until the sage leaves started to wilt, and then added the shredded sweet potatoes (six little ones plus one big one: I like enough for both supper and leftovers for lunch the next day) and proceeded as usual.

As it turns out, Mark Bittman had previously published a stir-fried sweet potatoes with brown butter and sage recipe, which I didn't follow (no garlic), but it was nice to get some validation on the flavor combinations.


Last night I got home late-ish (after rehearsal, I had to briefly return to lab to take something out of the autoclave (I suppose I could have left it overnight and saved myself fifteen minutes, but that seemed inconsiderate)), and it turned out there was a condo association meeting.  The power was going on and off (which did make for a harrowing experience crossing Conway on the way home: the streetlights were out), and as I was going upstairs to drop off my stuff before coming back down for the condo meeting, I thought about making a quick dinner of scrambled eggs and toast to take down with me, but then the power went out again and I was stoveless.  I thus went down to the meeting without any supper (Morgan was working on his candidacy talk for today, so we needed a representative), but after an hour and half, when he was done with his talk, Morgan came down and brought me a scrambled egg sandwich, on toast.  It was perfect.