Scott Douglas’ Terse Bloviation

Keith Dowling and Stephanie Herbst-Lucke.

So that a certain someone will receive this band‘s CD as a present from moi, thereby allowing me to hear it. (Yes, this is akin to when Homer gave Marge a bowling ball with his name on it.)

In 1990, my training partner went to see them–all the way from Australia–with my then-girlfriend, while I stayed home to rest for a meaningless Baltimore Road Runners Club cross country race the next morning. Idiot.

Most people like food and pretty pictures and knowing what day it is. Therefore, what more would they like in their (really big) stocking than a 2009 calendar that features fine-art food photography, seasonal recipes and fun food factoids, the latter scripted by moi? Learn more and buy the abfab calendar here.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/12/07/travel/1207-SKI_3.html

12/5/08

As in many other areas, the biggest education debates are happening within the Democratic Party. On the one hand, there are the reformers like Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee, who support merit pay for good teachers, charter schools and tough accountability standards. On the other hand, there are the teachers’ unions and the members of the Ed School establishment, who emphasize greater funding, smaller class sizes and superficial reforms.

Amby Burfoot, Kristy Johnston, Ben True.

Don’t bang car doors into the place on your shin where you have a bump from an ancient stress fracture, especially if you are about to drive an hour and use the shin muscles the whole way to work the gas pedal.

Also, the easiest way to peel ginger is with the side of a spoon.

And now a message from Fiddlehead Media Inc.’s president, also known as Stacey. If you can contribute, write to me and we’ll work out logistics. I’ll match any contributions sent in response to this post.

Hello,
It is slaughter time again at Wolfe’s Neck Farm, where I periodically do volunteer animal care, and I wanted to see if anyone might be able to help contribute to saving a few of our woolly friends. For $125 per animal (which is half of what they would get for the meat), the farm is willing to let them go to a wonderful place in Anson, Maine, run by Beth and her husband Jerry, who so kindly adopted our sheep friends Harry and Sally last year. They get lots of love, food and plenty of room to roam there. Five lambs are up and I’d love to see if together, we could save at least two. The money for the lambs goes to running the educational program at the farm, which is a wonderful way for children to learn about animals and farms. I know it’s a terrible time to be spending money on non-necessities, but it is a tax-deductible contribution so you can consider it your charitable giving for the year! Let me know if, and how much, you might be able to contribute and I’ll see if we can save a couple of these sweet creatures. Any amount will do! Thank you so much.
Stacey

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.