Market Report: Nonsense

Breaking News!

My mother, a very wise woman, thinks the fight over water is the next big thing.

Whoa! Stop the Presses and sign the petition!

Dear Reader,

You should sign this petition because the building currently existing here is lovely, and the one they are proposing really isn't (see image above). Image from here.

The Southern Hemisphere is so Hot right now!

So, dear reader, I spend a lot of time reading other blogs, walking the mean streets of Hackney, and disparaging as much as possible. There seems to be lots of attention being paid to the graphic designs inspired by African and Latin American textiles-- in particular I've noticed the jagged, repetitive lines, geometrical shapes filled with gradated colours, compositions that seem stacked rather than grid based. Newspapers talk about African inspired fashion while blogs like Mr.Mort and Indian Summer Vintage and vintage stores seem to respond more to Latin American or traditional Southwestern iconography. Maybe it is a proximity thing for the blogs, American bloggers are more likely to see things or be nostalgic for an imagined imagery that is geographically closer (and Swedish vintage stores in London are more likely to be sourcing their stock from New England or Canada) while here in the UK, particularly in this neck of London, we are more likely to see African stuff (I pass how many wax cloth shops and money transfer shops to Nigeria on my 30 minute walk to work? 15?).  Or just African inspired fashion is yesterday's news and Latin American will end up SS2011?  I'm sure that, to some degree or another, you can read a bit of colonialism or post colonialism into all of this.  But I have a sweet little Godard dvd to finish watching right now, but if threadbared (my new favourite smarty pants fashion blog) were to write about it, I'd prolly agree with whatever they post.

Reimporting Export Strength Gin: A Taste Off

To know me is to know my love of the "off." Be it bug spray, or better yet, the cook off, dance off, sing off, etc. So this holiday, we decided to test 2 diet tonic waters. Personally, I drink gin and tonics not because they taste like delicious turpentine but because of their medicinal qualities, particularly their anti malarial and anti scurvy ones. If you saw the size of the mosquitoes that breed in my work's loo, you'd get your doctor to prescribe g&ts, too. I digress. So, we tried both the Posh Tonic Water Sainsburys and their Basics brand. What did our intrepid guinea pigs have to say? It was easy to id the posh tonic water as it had a much more pleasant aftertaste, but it certainly wasn't worth the £.35/100mL price difference.

Whoa, an interesting new blog

So Dear Reader, I am trying to expand my horizons. And I'm not talking about eating poultry (for some reason pate doesn't freak me out the way all other poultry preparations do). This new fascinating blog called threadbared discovery on my part (thanks Jezebel!) has some very interesting articles that I plan on reading one day when I'm not swamped with my own worries of samples arriving on time.

Yahoo = Hoo Ha!

Years ago I lived in this idyllic house for 2 years. One of my rooms in this house was the very same room that the founder of Yahoo! used to live in (one of those guys or maybe just netscape). Anyway, I, like most people, have long since stopped using Yahoo about 10 years ago. But my dear Hackney Freecycle insists on using this dinosaur system. Kills me! Ugh!

Santa Hat, Deerstalker Hat, Thinking Hat

So, dear reader, I'm hard at work on my murder mystery. Alas, more of my time goes towards thinking what to wear to my book launch than to writing. But I do quite a lot of research. In addition to exploring my settings, I've read nearly all of the books on how to write a novel, murder mystery, get published, pick what to wear at your book launch at the Stoke Newington Library. But I have not yet read this one, yet.

Hey, if you want to buy the hat above. Some very lovely gents make it.

no poor people!

I think taxidermy is pretty passe these days along with all of that neo victoriana hoo haa. It is just so tedious and odious, and just one more thing you have to dust. But I do like the sign on this door of a taxidermy shop in the 'hood.

Bad, GorBro, Bad.

http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifClick here for bad news bears. Usually, I am a fervent defender GorBro in the face of DavCam, but this is HOO HAA.

Amen!

Excellent! I have always hated Passing Clouds in Dalston. We nearly went to a night there but they wanted to charge 5 quid 'for the experience' as patchouli wafted towards me. I hate patchouli. I don't know about you, but 'the experience' doesn't cut it. So stupid. We ended up going to The Haggerston, an excellent pub, and spent our 5 quid there. I spend 5 quid there pretty often. Anyway, Passing Clouds seems to have made some more enemies! Excellent!

Yowzers!

Guess I'll go eat worms

From Whitstable.

postal

More

I can smell a crime a mile away...

http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/content/hackney/gazette/news/story.aspx?brand=HKYGOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newshkyg&itemid=WeED07%20Apr%202009%2016%3A39%3A14%3A837

I told you so!

Hold that thought...

So, the clever folks at Homerton Hospital's respiratory clinic have not yet actually decide if I have TB or not. Public health, in theory, is a good thing. Let me tell you, it is a pain in the neck to be at the receiving end of it. I spent 2 hours on Thursday trying to get the conclusive "purple box" blood test. Hypothetically, if I do have TB, I can't even go to the fancy Swiss rest homes (where I could work on my German while reclining) as the Home Office still has my passport.

Aha! Suspicions confirmed by wikipedia!

Confirmed by wikipedia:

Some health workers fear that a resurgence of goitre might occur because of the trend to use rock salt and/or sea salt, which has not been fortified with iodine.

Can you imagine a near future with hundreds of foodies with goitres. Ewww!

I want iodized sel de mer!

Do you know what upsets me? Non-iodized salt. Switching to iodized is such a simple way to improve your thyroid health. Unfortunately, the only iodized salt available is usually that really cheap table stuff, and not the nice flaky sel de mer that gives that lovely salty flavor crunch. Hrumph.

Modernism Makes Me Hungry...

Dear Reader,

Apologies for the silence. Things are very crazy what with my fitness kick, all of the books at the New York Public Library which demand my attention, etc. But I will take this moment to announce a new big plan. Yes, Christoph and I have a little transatlantic cottage industry going on and soon you will be able to view and buy our scrumptious designs, which will in turn finance our wedding celebrations which in turn you will prolly be invited to.

Toaster Oven? I say Most-er Oven!

Dear Reader,

As a person who does international moves to and from places with diffent voltages and plugs with alarming frequency I have very few electrical kitchen devices. But let me tell you about this rare and ingenius device that is a miracle worker on a hot day: yes the humble toaster oven! The high points of my culinary history have all been toaster oven concoctions- from my earliest experiments with mixing butter and sugar together (mmm!) and spreading the resulting caloric spread on toast and baking it until it caramelizes to the raisin bread with cheddar cheese melt (!!!) to my latest achievment: toasted veggies. Instead of cranking up the oven to a ridiculous temperature to roast my veggies (usually for an omelet or to toss with my farro pasta) I simply arrange the vegetables cut to pinky finger thickness, toss with salt, pepper and olive oil and toast twice. Amazing. But this story is a bitter sweet story. Toaster ovens are unavailable in the UK. Not even at John Lewis! the sadness! and they are a rare beast in France.