If anyone’s wondering why We may have seen a Chicken … looks suspiciously like this blog, it’s okay, it’s authorized activity. I’m doing a spot of reblogging, as wordpress.com blogs get monster search hits.
SEO? Me?! I’m hurt. It’s only bad when you do it.
What’s it with good east end chippies? St Andrews (Ellesmere and McCowan) closes at 8pm, and Duckworth’s at 7:30.
I caved to the tone craving, and ended up buying a Fender Champion 600 all-tube combo amp. It’s nice; just the right volume level for the basement, and even dimed (or duodimed, since it goes up to 12) it’s unlikely to raise too many complaints.
But filling in the registration card was a problem. Tell me what’s wrong with this question:
Hint: it’s not the content …
I had this Indian sweet last night. It’s good; better than that, maybe. It’s an ultra-friable milk, sugar, flour and nut delicacy, with a strange layered consistency. If you thought that tablet melts in the mouth, this positively vanishes. Good stuff — I shall look out for it.
Update: I found it. Two stores within five minutes of the house have it. When it’s in little squares, it’s soan papri. When it’s in little cakes, it’s soan cake. Either way, it’s good.
The Mower
The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be carefulOf each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.
— Philip Larkin
With fresh memories of Arthur Bryant’s, I tried Phil’s Original BBQ (838 College, at Ossington). It does a very creditable BBQ brisket, and the got sauce has the right mix of vinegar and burn. Not so sure about the sweet sauce, which has enough sugar and cinnamon to make french toast happy.
There’s blues on the sound system, and the service is quick and friendly. The bread’s maybe a bit too good – hey, if Wonderbread works for Bryant’s – but maybe it’s the closest you’ll get to KC BBQ without driving 1600 klicks.
… like coming home to a brick through the kitchen window.
The place was a mess, but the police and the insurers are being helpful.
We went to Elderly Instruments in Lansing, MI yesterday on the way home. It was about lunchtime, so we asked the staff for recommendations. The nearby Mama Bear’s Café was closed, so we took up another recommendation: the Golden Harvest.
Oo-aw, it was good. Where else can you munch on a perfect smoked turkey reuben while there’s Olivia Tremor Control cranked on the stereo? The Golden Harvest even has a MySpace page.
From a Dover Publications clip art book I bought:
Had my first experience of Arthur Bryant’s BBQ tonight. I have to say it’s way better than Montreal meat. I’m full up, but I could eat more.
Here’s hoping that the batteries last until at least 2pm, and that you managed to avoid (as I have, this far) hearing “Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime”.
Walk Score rates our neighbourhood at 32%, which isn’t very good. There are some errors in its analysis — we have a library kittycorner on the main intersection, and not 12km away, as Walk Score claims.
But yeah, there are problems. Our nearest bookstore? Cupid’s Boutique, where I’m sure they sell many illustrated periodicals for the discerning gentleman …
I could use a Thumbthing. I have been known to fall asleep reading in bed, with my thumb jammed in the spine of a book. Waking up hours later, my thumb is aching and decidedly tobleroneform …
(via)
… you think that you’d want to start a band called The Tortfeasors, with stage names derived from precedents: Hedley Byrne, Rivtow Marine, Junior Books, Donoghue Stevenson, Lambert V. Lastoplex …
Then you realise that would be a bad idea. On every level. Not least that I wouldn’t know what to do in (or with) a band.
I’m resitting the legal part of my PPE for the PEO next Saturday. Was somewhat taken aback when I heard I’d failed it first time, but now studying again, and seeing my notes and sample answers from last time — what, if anything, was I thinking?
I saw the most obscene markup in indigo this evening: the Linux Format OpenOffice.org special edition was priced at a hefty $34.95. This costs £10 in the UK.
The thing is, UK prices are quoted tax-inclusive. The ten quid you see is the ten quid you pay. Not so in Canada. In the most boneheaded move ever, our prices don’t include tax, so that $34.95 really costs you $39.84 (in Ontario, at least).
According to Google, £10 is $20.53. Indigo’s markup is almost 100%
