Scott Douglas’ Terse Bloviation

To balance the puling below, I’ll write something nice. Stacey and I tried a couple of times to make vegetable broth, but the recipes we followed never turned out to be worth it, as they would call for a couple onions, carrots and other items that we would normally eat. But now, thanks to one of our way-cool neighbors, we know what to do. All vegetable scraps that we would otherwise compost go into a bag. When the bag is full, we put the scraps in a pot, cover with an inch or so of water, and simmer for a couple of hours until the liquid volume has been reduced by a third. Strain the scraps, bottle the broth and then put the scraps in the compost bucket. The broth is way tastier than what we made before or could buy, and the stuff made to use it winds up in the compost pile where it would have anyway.

Hi there. How have you been? You’re looking well. Have you lost weight?

What’s that? What’s up with me? Why, thanks for asking! The near future should include:

• A turkeyless Thanksgiving at the home of vegetarian friends.
• Final harvesting of brussels sprouts and sunchokes.
• My second race in the last 26 months.
• A weekend in Montreal.
• A few days with Zola Budd Pieterse for a Running Times story.
• Publication of the second edition of Advanced Marathoning.
• Continued daily sits in front of the lightbox to account for the fact that the sun, when it deigns to appear, checks out for the day at about noon.
• Continued vicarious pleasure in the well-earned success of Stacey’s great 2009 wall calendar.

How about yourself?