Fried Chicken

Das Backhändl, Eduard von Grützner

Just because I love fried chicken and like to see everyone enjoying it too!

Lagniappe: One of the happiest nights of my adult life

One rainy Sunday a few years ago, Isabel, Owen, and I decided to pass the afternoon by watching a DVD of The Fellowship of the Ring, that movie about hobbits and elves and Orcs that we'd been hearing about. One hundred and seventy-eight minutes later, during which we neither moved nor spoke, we looked at each other, eyes glazed. We walked straight to the car, drove to the video store, and rented The Two Towers and The Return of the King. It was getting on dusk when I pulled into the Kentucky Fried Chicken down the hill and bought dinner.

My kids were shocked. Happy, but shocked. What was going on with Mom? KFC? I wondered that myself. But we were hungry and the chicken was hot and we had five more hours of Viggo Mortensen to watch. Fifteen minutes after I pulled into the KFC, we were back on the sofa with the bucket on the coffee table, eating mediocre chicken and mashed potatoes and biscuits and watching The Two Towers. It was one of the happiest nights of my adult life and my children get dreamy and nostalgic talking about it.

[here we're skipping her description of making perfect fried chicken from a Thomas Keller recipe, which was eaten without comment by her family after hours of labor]

Soon I was left with plates of picked-over bones and a ravaged kitchen. One of these days I will forget the evening ever happened. I suspect Mark and our children already have. But that night we ate KFC on the sofa and watched The Two Towers? That, we will never forget.

Jennifer Reese; Make the Bread, Buy the Butter

This book is so entertaining. I appreciate the analysis of whether it is better to buy or make various standard food items — granola/make, Pop Tarts/buy — but I have never made anything from it. I have read it twice, however, because the author is just so darned entertaining. And honest.

Ancient Mesoamerican relief sculpture of maize

Ancient Mesoamerican relief sculpture of maize

Lagniappe: The Sex Life of Corn

Next time you pull a piece of silk from between your teeth while you're eating a fresh ear of corn, remember that you've just spat our a fallopian tube. Corn has a curious anatomy: the tassel at the top of the plant is the male flower; when mature, it produces two million to five million grains of pollen. The wind picks up those grains and moves them around.

The ear of corn is actually a cluster of female flowers. A young ear contains about a thousand ovules, each of which could become a kernel. Those ovules produce "silks" that run to the tip of the ear. If one of them catches a grain of pollen, the pollen will germinate and produce a tube that runs down the silk to the kernel. There the egg and pollen grain will meet at last. Once fertilized, that egg will swell into a plump kernel, which represents the next generation—or a bottle of bourbon, depending on your perspective.

Amy Stewart, The Drunken Botanist

Okaaaaay. That next ear of corn is going to feel a little different when I eat it.

Notes on Mark: What Makes a Man Unclean

A silver washing cup used for
the Jewish ritual washing of hands

MARK 7:14-23
After Jesus' pronouncement that it is what comes from a man's heart that makes him unclean, he then proceeds to list what these are. Barclay looks at the Greek for each term so we get a real feel for the distinctions Jesus was making. And we can see it is a truly terrible list ...

He begins with evil designs (dialogismoi). Every outward act of sin is preceded with an inward act of choice; therefore Jesus begins with the evil through which the evil action comes. Next come fornications (porneiai); later he is to list acts of adultery (moicheiai); but this first word is a wide word -- it means every kind of traffic in sexual vice. There follow thefts (klopai). ... A kleptes is a mean, deceitful, dishonorable pilferer ... Murders (Phonoi) and adulteries come next in the list and their meaning is clear.

Then comes covetous deeds (pleonexiai). Pleonexia comes from two Greek words meaning to have more. It has been defined as the accursed love of having. ... Pleonexia is that lust for having which is in the heart of the man who sees happiness in things instead of in God.

There follow evil deeds. In Greek there are two words for evil -- kakos, which describes a thing which in itself is evil, and poneros, which describes a person or thing which is actively evil. Poneriai is the word used here. The man who is poneros is the man in whose heart there is the desire to harm ... Poneros -- the Evil One -- is the title of Satan.

Next comes dolos; translated guile. It comes from a word which means bait; it is used for trickery and deceit ... It is crafty, cunning, deceitful, clever treachery.

Next on the list is wanton wickedness (aselgeia). The Greeks defined as "a disposition of soul that resents all discipline," as "a spirit that acknowledges no restraints, dares whatsoever its caprice and wanton insolence may suggest."...

Envy is literally the evil eye, the eye that looks on the success and happiness of another in such a way that it would cast an evil spell upon it if it could. The next word is blasphemia. When this is used of words against men it means slander; when it is used of words against God, it means blasphemy. It means insulting man or God.

There follows pride (huperephania). The Greed word literally means "showing oneself above." It describes the attitude of the man "who has a certain contempt for everyone except himself."

Lastly comes folly (aphrosune). This does not mean the foolishness that is due to weakness of intellect and lack of brains; it means moral folly. It describes, not the man who is a brainless fool, but the man who chooses to play the fool.

The Gospel of Mark
(The Daily Bible Series, rev. ed.)

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Sources and Notes Index       

Julie and Scott continue to marvel at the choices of Kristin Lavransdatter. And not in a good way.

 Join us for Episode 374 of A Good Story is Hard to Find: Kristin Lavransdatter, Book 2: The Wife

Celebrants in Tailcoats

Celebrants in Tailcoats, Remo Savisaar

 I'll never know how Remo Savisaar gets these amazing photos. But I am very happy that he shares them with us.

Lagniappe: Where Cinnamon Sticks Come From

No one knows where cinnamon sticks come from. There is a bird called the cinnamon bird that gathers the fragrant twigs from some unknown location and builds its nest from them. To harvest the cinnamon, people attach weights to the tips of arrows and shoot the nests down.

That's not actually true, but it was Aristotle's best guess when he described cinnamon in his Historta Animalium in 350 BC. We have since located the source of cinnamon, relieving us of the necessity of shooting down the nests of mythical birds.

Amy Stewart, The Drunken Botanist

I love educated guesses. This makes me remember that some of our best guesses today, often made by historians and scientists, are going to look laughable in the far future. (Sometimes in the near future.) I wonder which ones?

Waterway

Waterway, Edward B. Gordon

Lagniappe: A Little Splash of Water

Do not be timid about adding ice or a splash of water to a drink. It does not water down the drink; it improves it. Water actually loosens the hold that alcohol has on aromatic molecules, which heightens rather than dilutes the flavor.

Amy Stewart, The Drunken Botanist

See, it isn't all just odd facts. Sometimes there's info that makes a difference in our lives. In mine anyway!

6th Sunday of St. Joseph

Reflecting on St. Joseph on the seven Sundays leading up to his solemnity is an old tradition.

Death of Joseph, St. Martin's at Florac

Death and Glorification of Saint Joseph

It is perfectly fitting that Saint Joseph has been proclaimed the Patron of a Good Death. Certainly no one can ever have experienced a more serene departure from this life than Joseph's in the physical presence of Jesus and Mary. Let us go to Saint Joseph whenever we are helping someone to prepare for death. Let us ask this help when our time arrives to go to the House of the Father. Joseph will lead us by the hand to Jesus and Mary.

After Our Lady, Saint Joseph enjoys the greatest glory accorded to a creature (cf B. Llamera, Theology of St. Joseph). This is only fitting considering his holiness on earth. Joseph gave his entire life to the care of the Son of God and his blessed Mother. Since Jesus honoured Joseph as his father during his earthly life, sincerely calling him "father," He would certainly want to exalt Joseph in heaven after his death (Isidoro de Isolano, The Gifts of St. Joseph).

In Conversation with God, Vol. 6: Special Feasts: January to June

A Lenten Litany - Fasting and Feasting

During Lent, let us…

Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ within them.
Fast from emphasis on difference; feast on the unity of life.
Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.
Fast from thoughts of illness; feast on the healing power of God.

Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify.
Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger; feast on patience.
Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.

Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.
Fast from worry; feast on trust in God’s Care.
Fast from unrelenting pressure; feast on unceasing prayer.
Fast from facts that depress; feast on verities that uplift.

Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm.
Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire.
Fast from shadows of sorrow; feast on the sunlight of serenity.
Fast from problems that overwhelm; feast on prayer that undergirds.
Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.
Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal truth.
Fast from discouragements; feast on hope.

William Arthur Ward

Gladioli in a Vase

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Gladioli in a Vase, c. 1875