Sunday, January 31, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
'Catcher in the Rye' Author J.D. Salinger Dies - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com
This was the paper back issue that I read in 1965. My parents threw it out. I had to buy three copies. The second one was thrown out too.
A "Catcher in the Rye" movie is now planned now that the author is out of the way. It will probably go the way of all "Gatsby" movies because we all have our own personal mental movie of these novels. It's too hard to compete with that.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
From Liederkranz to Life-Threatening
My favorite writer for American Heritage Magazine is John Steele Gordon. He usually writes the Business of America column. He gives needed background context to current events and insight into past events that are prologue to today. One of his earlier articles dealt with the limited American variety of cheeses,"Consider the United States. It has produced only three great,
uniquely American cheeses: Monterey Jack, brick, and Liederkranz." Mr. Gordon expands, "Soft drinks were invented in this country by businessmen, not chefs. So were canned soups, nondairy coffee creamers, breakfast cereals, and—may the Lord forgive us—TV dinners. Coca-Cola may well be the
most famous American product in the world."
However some elements of American foodstuffs don't fit with mass production, "The essence of industrialized food, of course, is uniformity and vast production. ...The essence of great cheeses, however, is idiosyncrasy and, almost always, very limited production. For natural cheese is a living thing."
"What makes cheese possible is the happy property of milk protein that it coagulates in the presence of acids and other chemicals produced by microorganisms. The protein and fat form curds, allowing most of the liquid to be separated out. The curds are then molded and stored while the microorganisms continue to work their magic, slowly producing the flavor, aroma, and consistency of each type of cheese."
"It is the infinite variety of these microorganisms that makes for the infinite variety of cheeses."
Natural Cheese itself is as individual as the people and the regions from where they came. Like the horse, "Europeans began settling the New World, they brought with them the cheese-making know-how that had developed over many thousands of years. Each immigrant group also brought a taste for the particular cheeses it had known at home, and cheese makers necessarily catered to these tastes." These were not the processed cheeses do familiar to our grocery shelves today. Then, cheeses were not formed and extruded on assembly line like an automobile. These European style cheeses were nurtured from years of experience, milks and bacteria. But cheeses and transportation and buggy whips were about to change.
http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1996/7/1996_7_42.shtml
uniquely American cheeses: Monterey Jack, brick, and Liederkranz." Mr. Gordon expands, "Soft drinks were invented in this country by businessmen, not chefs. So were canned soups, nondairy coffee creamers, breakfast cereals, and—may the Lord forgive us—TV dinners. Coca-Cola may well be the
most famous American product in the world."
However some elements of American foodstuffs don't fit with mass production, "The essence of industrialized food, of course, is uniformity and vast production. ...The essence of great cheeses, however, is idiosyncrasy and, almost always, very limited production. For natural cheese is a living thing."
"What makes cheese possible is the happy property of milk protein that it coagulates in the presence of acids and other chemicals produced by microorganisms. The protein and fat form curds, allowing most of the liquid to be separated out. The curds are then molded and stored while the microorganisms continue to work their magic, slowly producing the flavor, aroma, and consistency of each type of cheese."
"It is the infinite variety of these microorganisms that makes for the infinite variety of cheeses."
Natural Cheese itself is as individual as the people and the regions from where they came. Like the horse, "Europeans began settling the New World, they brought with them the cheese-making know-how that had developed over many thousands of years. Each immigrant group also brought a taste for the particular cheeses it had known at home, and cheese makers necessarily catered to these tastes." These were not the processed cheeses do familiar to our grocery shelves today. Then, cheeses were not formed and extruded on assembly line like an automobile. These European style cheeses were nurtured from years of experience, milks and bacteria. But cheeses and transportation and buggy whips were about to change.
http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1996/7/1996_7_42.shtml
Monday, January 25, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
A sad way to start the year
Here is a post from NRO that was truly significant.
The cost of a drug over the value of a patient is all too common now.
That is just from State limited and controlled insurance.
We all expect it will improve enormously when the Federalés take over all our health care needs.
NRO Media Blog 1-5-2010
I'd humbly suggest that Mr. Brokaw review my December post to discover some of the, um, shortcomings of Oregon's government-centric paradigm. In short: it's unaffordable and it rations care. If a visit to NRO proves a tad distasteful to the patriarch of NBC News, he can simply read the New York Times article that effectively rebuts his argument. Or, as Ed says, he could have a chat with Barbara Wagner:
01/05 12:45 AM 
The cost of a drug over the value of a patient is all too common now.
That is just from State limited and controlled insurance.
We all expect it will improve enormously when the Federalés take over all our health care needs.
NRO Media Blog 1-5-2010
Memo to Tom Brokaw [Guy Benson]
Ed Morrissey takes anchor-emeritus Tom Brokaw to task for offering fatuous advice regarding health-care reform on Meet the Press. Brokaw first conflates Medicare with Medicaid, then he urges the federal government to adopt a model similar to Oregon's public-health program:
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