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Poll #1499892 Shopping for Idiots
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 40

You already have two jars of ground nutmeg -- one still sealed and one unsealed but very nearly full. What should you not buy?

You have no mint. You've used up all your mint, there's no mint left. What should you buy?

Can you guess what Douglas bought?

Some people prefer check boxes to radio buttons.

Умер Владимир Турчинский.

Российский шоумен и спортсмен Владимир Турчинский умер на 47 году жизни, сообщил в прямом эфире "Серебряного дождя" Владимир Соловьев.
По его словам, Турчинский скончался ночью 16 декабря в своем загородном доме. Пичиной смерти называют сердечный приступ. Официального подтверждения пока нет.

As some of you are aware, I've been doing a bit of clearing up. From time to time I discover unexpected things.

I've found NLG35 in paper money from De Nederlandsche Bank, and FRF2.50 in coins from La République Française. Both of these currencies were yielded in favour of the Euro in 2002. At face value, they'd then have been worth €15.88 and €0.38 respectively -- which would convert into about £14 or $23 today.

So what can I do with it? Can randomly-chosen charities convert this old money into something useful?

Suggestions please.

I have once again thrown my hat into the Holiday Love Meme! Please say wonderful and nice things about me. I had a bad day at work (there were tears).

But my bad day at work was balanced out by a phone call I received during dinner.

On Saturday, I had auditioned for DeathPlay, the next Thunderbird show. It was about two theatre companies fighting to the death for the last theatre space in town. Out of the six people in the slot, only three of us showed up, which meant we all got to read a lot. It was very fun, although I had to overcome the fact that my partners couldn't read sides very well.

I GOT IN. I WAS CAST. I HAVE NOT BEEN IN A SHOW IN SIX YEARS. UNLESS YOU COUNT AMWA SKITS.

I didn't get the part I really wanted—it went to someone who'll be awesome, though—but I will be playing one of a pair of union stagehands who function as the Greek chorus or the Fools. I think it's the smallest part in the play, but there are no small parts, only small actors! And besides, there really aren't any small parts in a Thunderbird show. Everyone has a good time.

---

On Saturday, after the audition and before Writers with Drinks, Seanan (cadhla) and I wandered the Mission looking for dinner. Seanan is a picky eater, so the default taquería suggestion wouldn't fly. We came across Cafe La Boheme on 24th. They appeared to serve food that was palatable to both of us, but there were no free tables. There was one table, however, that was empty but for one cute girl reading a book. She looked Middle Eastern, Persian or Iranian.

Seanan asked if we could sit with her, and she said it was okay. I noticed she was reading Player Piano, by Kurt Vonnegut. She had just started. I had just been at a used bookstore and passed on a Vonnegut title. I asked her if she'd gotten it from Abandoned Planet. She said she'd gotten it from Borderlands, which we had just come from. I told her I had been looking at a Vonnegut but couldn't remember the title. I asked to see inside her book for a list of titles to jog my memory, but none did. (I think it was The Sirens of Titan.) I said I'd only read Slaughterhouse-Five but wanted to read more, and she was in the same situation, hence the book.

Seanan recommended I read Cat's Cradle and explained the premise, which she said made her think for the first time that there were some things science shouldn't do. I said I was watching Dollhouse and thinking the same thing.

The girl commented, "That was canceled, right?" A cute girl who read Vonnegut and knew about Dollhouse! Huh. I think at this point, she had given up all pretense of trying to read while we carried on a conversation a foot away from her and instead began conversing with us. She asked us if we knew any good music venues. Oh, there were many! We flipped through the SFWeekly looking for shows. She liked indie rock.

As it turned out, she was from out of town. Like, from France. And she was in town for a geophysics conference! A cute French geophysicist who read Vonnegut, liked indie rock, and knew about Dollhouse. I tell you, I am amazed that I was able to talk to her without stumbling over my words. Her name was Selene.

Since she was staying near Union Square, I told her about the glass elevator in the Westin St. Francis. I also invited her to Seanan's reading and told her how to get to the Make-Out Room. She was going to meet up with some of her colleagues and see what they were doing, but she said she might check it out. She put on her black fedora and bid us adieu (not literally, although she totally should have).

"Of all the places you should not invite cute French girls to," said Seanan, "the 'Make-Out Room' is at the top."

"That is my plan!" I cried. "I have not yet made out in the Make-Out Room. I am trying to rectify that."

Of course, she did not show up, and she is out there somewhere in San Francisco right now not making out with me.

So, apparently we need to severely shorten our throttle cable, but nobody seems to be able to give us directions on how to do so.

Ah, the joys of Urals…

At least it’ll probably be warm enough to ride by the time we get her running!

Originally published at Travels with Smutka. You can comment here or there.

It's that most wonderful time of the year - BNAT. My third (after 9 and 10), Kristen's fourth. The pre-party this year was at the Highball, a new venue which I guess you could call part of the Drafthouse South Lamar 'complex'. With its eight bowling lanes, dancefloor, karaoke and all-round good vibes it reminded me a lot of Bloomsbury Lanes in London. We hung out from about 6 until 9 there, having blazed through a few karaoke tunes (I blazed through the falsetto on 'Take On Me'), and although we wanted to stay for longer, BNAT weekend is most definitely a marathon, not a sprint. So we wussed out early, and after a breakfast taco to start of Saturday, we were ready for action.

We picked up our badges and swag bags first. The swag bags were a little smaller than usual (hey, don't you know that there's a recession going on?) but the quality of swag seemed better - not least the official BNAT t-shirt (based around the Paramount logo) and a Scott Walker DVD which I am eagerly awaiting to consume on my arrival home. With all that out of the way, we went into the movie theatre at the Drafthouse at 10:30, an hour earlier than usual because of all the stuff that Harry wanted to pack in. As is the norm, the screen was showing bad animation and home movies to get everyone in the spirit, if that was needed.

1115 - It was time to get properly started, with some awesome trailers (notably Stunt Rock, as ever, and 99 44/100% Dead). Harry then did his intro, we got to stand up in the crowd as visitors from England (was I the only one from England this year?) and we got a crazy 'Bulgarian folk dance' in honour of Harry's birthday. Need I mention that we got a fake-out of Teen Wolf again in order to wind up Jeff the Jew, who's been wanting the movie shown at the last few BNATs now.

1135 - FAUST
The famous story about a pact with the devil, retold by Germans in this 1926 silent film. For its 95-minute entirity, there was a guy gamely playing organ on stage in accompliment. It was a difficult watch, wisely ordered first, but some of its special effects (plus Metropolis last year) made you realise how much Weimar-era Germany was ahead of the game in the cinema of that era.

1325 - THE LOVELY BONES
One of the inadvertant funniest (and disturbing) moments of BNAT for me was hearing the intro to this film, then Jackie bending over next to us and asking if this film had anything to rape. Literally at that moment, the word 'RAPE' in huge letters came up on screen as part of a trailer film called The Rape Killer - proof that pretty much anything goes in a 70s B-movie. As for The Lovely Bones itself, well, it's a Peter Jackson adaptation of a book, and for the first 30 minutes, you'd never have put it down as a Peter Jackson film at all. Then all of a sudden, the afterlife scenes kick off across, with those astonishing CGI works across beautiful landscapes, and you wouldn't have thought this could have been the work of anything else. Its subject matter was disturbing and as such, no-one came out of it feeling upbeat. I thought it was a pretty good film, badly let down by its last 15-20 minutes when fate seemed to take care of everyone's destiny. But hey, if that's in the book, then Jackson didn't really have much to work with. As someone in the line for the toilets after the event said, a very good movie that they never, ever want to see again.

1550 - GIRL CRAZY
A lighter direction was badly required after two unremittingly bleak films to start us off, and that's what we got from Harry, in this musical starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland about a guy from New York who is sent west to the middle of nowhere to continue his education. It was a good pick-me-up, and Garland looked particularly stunning. Its interval in the middle for a Gershwin recital, and the closing sequence by Busby Berkeley clearly dated this film to a long-gone era, though.

1715 - Suitably cheered up, I headed out to Alyssa's car to check my phone and get the football scores. When I found out that Villa had broken our 26-year run and finally won at Manchester United, I must have jumped three feet in the air and scared the shit out of some folks waiting outside the Highball.

1735 - THE RED SHOES
So with a newly found sense of euphoria, we went back into the theatre anticipating the premiere of the film 9 (being also a musical, and with Harry putting the film 8 1/2 in its slot on the BNAT fake list). So we were surprised to get another vintage film up next. Now, this is where my complete lack of movie appreciation properly came to the fore, because I couldn't fucking stand this film. I've read some people say that this was their highlight of the first half of the festival, but it just was not for me - 2 1/2 hours long, and it felt like twice that. The dance scenes were very pretty though, if interminable, and the BBC English accents and bad teeth left me in no doubt as to where those tired old American stereotypes about us folk from Blighty came from. Talking of BBC English accents, here's an aside: the film was directed by Michael Powell, a man who I was cursing recently when subtitling South East Today back home when I had to, with great difficulty to me, repeat the line 'He was a man of Kent, from Canterbury). I have never been so grateful for our swearing filter.

1950 - A chug-off on stage between dudes from Ain't It Cool News and Broken Lizard.

2005 - SHUTTER ISLAND
Well, at least I know who to blame for The Red Shoes - Martin Scorsese. Harry had sold the concept of BNAT to him in order to get Shutter Island showed here this year, and not only embracing the concept, Scorsese suggested the film to show preceeding it. And how can Harry argue with that? Shutter Island was a thriller starring Leo DiCaprio. The film isn't out for a little while and the version we got was supposedly unfinished, though it all looked pretty slick to me. I enjoyed it a lot, and it reminded me of The Prisoner in its Kafka-esque tying of psychological knots round the main protagonist. Kristen wasn't so much of a fan, preferring the more 'vintage' Scorsese subjects, but it got two pretty lofty thumbs up from this seat.

2230 - LE MAGNIFIQUE
Time for yet another pick-me-up after some more bleakness, and this time it came in the form of this Jean-Paul Belmondo vehicle about a tormented writer churning out novels about a James Bond-style agent with considerably less subtlety. It never took itself too seriously, and mixed the 'fictional' action with the 'real life' mundanity really well. It was my own favourite vintage film of the weekend - and Harry told me later that he'd been wanting to program it for ages, but 1) couldn't find a print until one turned up by accident, and 2) couldn't find an appropriate new movie to show it next to.

2355 - MICMACS
As it turned out, Harry couldn't have picked a better film to match Le Magnifique with. Shown straight after it without a break as the second half of a French double-header, this was a fun crime caper where a man seeks to take revenge on the heads of two weapons companies. I really, really enjoyed this - just like the previous film, it gloried in its silliness, much like The Italian Job (the original version), one of my favourite films of all time. For most of BNAT, this was the pick of the festival for me, though it got trumped late on.

0145 - I have been going to BNAT these past couple of years with Kristen, Jackie, Chuck and Alyssa, and we started a tradition where we would go for a midnight shot in celebration of being right in the middle of this awesome birthday party. So we headed to the car, got out the Malibu and passed the bottle around until most of it was gone.

0200 - FROZEN
Another new film, and one where the directors were in the theatre to introduce it. The concept - three people get stuck on a chairlift as the ski resort they are on is about to close down for five days. It was all going so well for me in the early part of the film (particularly spotting an advertising hoarding for Newbury Comics - a favourite stores of mine in my Massachusetts days), but then the gore started. When I realised I had been looking away from the screen for five straight minutes, I decided it was a pretty good time to go AWOL and go for a walk outside to stretch the legs. I have a real problem with gore, even the milder stuff. Maybe it was all the sitting-in-the-same-place-for-hours-on-end stuff in the film that I was beginning to empathise with.

0340 - CENTIPEDE HORROR
At least it wasn't The Human Centipede, a film that even reading its Wikipedia page was enough to give me nightmares, but this film, combined with Frozen, is evidence enough that I might just be able to make it through BNAT, but never, ever Fantastic Fest. Don't ask me what happened, because I stayed outside attempting sleep in the lobby for its entirity, but courtesy of Chuck, I'm reliably informed that two highlights were a woman vomiting up centipedes, and centipedes emerging from another woman's vagina. Bravo!

0520 - THE CANDY SNATCHERS
Occupying the Teen Lust/White Dog slot this year was this little slab of exploitation from the 70s. I think Harry might have deliberately programmed this as the sleep film, and sadly, my 15 minutes of shut-eye I achieved during Centipede Horror wasn't quite enough for me - so I wasn't able to open my eyes through maybe half of this. Two scenes stand out though - the completely unprovoked demonic laughter from a minor character that goes on for literally a minute or so, plus the very final split-second of the film, which I won't spoil but is by some distance the film's most awesome moment.

0705 - A little respite before the big final flourish. There was a pyjama contest on stage, some entirely inappropriate footage of Japanese gameshow contestants being molested by dogs (really), and then a very funny Hollywood Story ripoff which was made specially for Harry's birthday, followed by the very first showing of the new trailer for Ironman 2. I didn't see the first Ironman, but this new one looks pretty good.

0745 - KICK-ASS
Complete with Q&A with the director Matthew Vaughn (who I briefly talked to outside the theatre) and actor Christopher Mintz-Plasse, this was the one absolute, undisputed triumph of this year's BNAT and my favourite film across all three BNATs that I've attended. I am no comic-book fan, and comic-book movies don't usually do it for me as a result, but anyone could enjoy this. The action sequences were brilliant, the musical cues were spot-on, and it had a real human heart. At one point, towards the end of the film, people were clapping in time to the beat of 'November Rain' by Guns 'n' Roses during a particularly awesome action sequence. As we left, I was walking behind Cargill - who knows a thing or two about BNATs throughout the years - and he called it one of the greatest BNAT moments ever. Who am I to disagree? Even a 30-minute delay to replace a blown speaker couldn't derail this one. The most literal film title since Snakes On A Plane.

1100 - AVATAR (3D)
How to follow Kick-Ass? Only one of the most anticipated blockbuster films of the winter, which isn't out for another week or two. People have been really down on this film before it even got released, and although we had a fair anticipation that it might be shown, I didn't want to pre-judge it. So what I think? On the positive side, it was stunning visually, one of the most beautiful-looking films you could ever watch - not least the night scenes with its great dollops of purple, mauve and light blue. But its essential problem is that behind its clever-cleverness is a very dumb movie. It strove so hard to be a war allegory, calling the material that the Earthlings are mining for 'unobtanium' and at one point even mentioning 'shock-and-awe tactics' - a real palm-to-the-face moment where they might as well have put a caption on screen saying 'CAN YOU NOT SEE THIS IS ALL A METAPHOR FOR THE IRAQ AND AFGHAN WAR, YOU DUMBFUCKS?'. But treat it as brainless entertainment, added to its lovely 3D visuals, and I'll say that in spite of its flaws, I quite enjoyed it. It will no doubt run up millions at the box office.

And at 1:35 in the afternoon, 27 hours after first entering the movie theatre, it was all done. The only thing about BNATs that kind of sucks is just that moment when it all peters out at the end - it's all sad that it's over. It is weird that usually I don't have the patience for a couple of films in succession back home, but with this I have little difficulty in making it through the whole lot. But that's the magic of this festival to me, and with the focus this year on full features rather than sneak previews - there were none of those this year, and just the one exclusive trailer - it was by quite some distance my favourite BNAT of the three I've attended. Good on Harry for getting it all together once again. I know I have mentioned this before, but as someone whose film knowledge stretches about as far as the person who claims he's a music fan but buy three CDs a year, I get a bit intimidated by the sheer geekiness on show at these weekends. But Harry has thankfully never held this against me - and I guess as a more casual film fan, I kind of offer a slightly more unique eye towards all the goings-on.

BNAT weekend wasn't quite over for us though. After grabbing a few hours' sleep, fucking up my body clock good and proper before flying home later this week, we went with Jackie and Chuck to Elysium to meet up with Harry and Patricia with a few others. There was a party at the Cargills house but Elysium is a better place to let off steam after such an intense weekend. Having danced the night away to the Pet Shop Boys and Erasure amongst others (making my inner ten-year-old very happy), we crashed out about three. Tonight is a barbecue at JJ and Domenique before heading over to Harry and Patricia's for a bumwine party - hooray! - and a chance to chew the fat over a few of the films mentioned above.

What a magical weekend. Thanks Harry, and happy birthday.

A couple months ago at the AMWA conference in Dallas, I made a couple friends nom de plumed Jimmy Pop and Pogo. We had similar musical tastes, and Jimmy Pop even remarked that he really wanted to see Muse live, as I did. So when I discovered that they were headlining Not So Silent Night, we were on those tickets like brown on rice. Rick (ellric) was also in since I had turned him into a Muse fan at an Interpol concert. Plus, with Muse, we would get AFI, 30 Seconds to Mars, Vampire Weekend, and Metric, all bands who had songs I liked. We paid a little extra to get floor seats.

I got to Oracle Arena a little before 5:30 and stood in the first line I saw, assuming it was the line to get in. The show was scheduled to start at 6:15, and I thought the doors would have opened already but not so much. The weather was crappy, and Jimmy Pop and Pogo were running late since they were driving. Rick joined me soon enough, however. Someone gave us free Monster booster shots.

Ten minutes later, I heard a security guy shouting some very disconcerting words, and I went closer to hear him more clearly and, uh, he had been saying what I thought he had been saying: we were in the wrong line. I called Rick over, and we walked to the South Entrance, which is where the GA line was. We found the South Entrance, which was where the GA line...started. So we walked all the way back to find the end of the line. I wonder what our place in line would have been if I had found the right line when I'd arrived. Ah well. They started letting us in pretty soon, and we downed our Monster drinks since no food or drink was allowed. It tasted like cough syrup. And Big Red. And something nasty. But I had never had one and wanted to see what it would do to me. I'm not sure whether I really felt any effects, but I certainly never got tired or sleepy, so it might have helped.

Umbrellas weren't allowed, which was totally lame on a rainy night, but I suppose they were afraid the Penguin was a big Muse fan. At least you could check them in for a dollar.

A man scanned our $74 tickets, and we were let inside, where we then received a wristband. We bypassed the concessions and merch table and entered the arena, where local band Scene of Action was playing. To my delight, there were hardly any people on the floor. Rick and I high-fived. There had seemed to be way more people in line, but we secured a spot only nine or ten rows of people from the stage. Rick estimated we were about 25 feet away. The problem was that Jimmy Pop (and his roommate) and Pogo (and her sister and co-workers) had not arrived, and there wouldn't be room for all of them eventually.

A bigger problem was that at about 6:24, nine minutes after the show was supposed to have started, Scene of Action finished their set. ...What? Surely their set was longer than one-and-a-half songs. This meant Metric was going to come on pretty damn soon. Come on, Jimmy Pop! Come on, Pogo! You can make it!

They didn't.

( Metric! )

( Vampire Weekend! )

( 30 Seconds to Mars! )

( AFI! )

( Muse! )

As we passed the East Entrance, a woman handed us cards. I glanced at it. And freaked the fuck out.

Muse and Silversun Pickups, April 14, Cow Palace.

Holy shit, usually those cards they give out go right in the trash! Oh, we are so going.

It's snowing out and so pretty! I'm really feeling Christmas-y today because of it. I think I'll wrap the couple of presents I have for mum and dad and put on some Christmas movies.

I have successfully upgraded my computer to Windows 7. Thank you all who gave info/suggestions in my post about it. So far everything went well and no problems. I'm loving the taskbar and the snap feature, that will help wonderfully. I haven't really looked into what else is different, but if it's better than Vista then great.

Been in Austin for a few days now and have completely lost track of what happened on any given day. So, here's a few random things that have been going on since we got here:

• Watching an utterly awe-inspiring and disturbing slice of blaxploitation homage/piss-take called Black Devil Doll. I am not-so-secretly hoping that Harry will play this at BNAT.
• Going to an underground cave called Inner Space Cave and seeing lots of lovely rock formations. Far, far more fun and interesting than it sounds.
• Eating our way round every taco/burrito joint across the state capital, as well as Magnolia, and the best burgers ever.
• Watching The Room twice through with Kristen, Jackie and Chuck, and quoting the film incessantly.
• Being introduced the wonderful and frightening world of bumwine.

Less cool things:

• Lala's. Man, I try, but I just don't get it. And everything that Kristen loves about it are the very things that I hate. Overpriced cans of Shiner? Nothing on the jukebox newer than 1959? In a strip-mall? Full of dubious characters? Smoker's paradise? I'm struggling with any of that. A place that makes even smokers grateful for a smoking ban. And I haven't even mentioned the Christmas lights that are on display all year round.
• It has been balls cold over here. Like, colder than London cold. During the summer there was about three months of unbroken 100F days. Now we can't ask for that, but it would be nice if it was at least as mild as London.

The weather is supposed to improve over the weekend. But that's BNAT weekend - where we spend 24 hours seeing hardly any daylight at all. Not great timing. But BNAT itself should be pretty good. We'll see. Black Devil Doll, please!

Compare today's XKDC "Natural Parenting" with one from a while back "Advanced Technology".

This is a message for those types who are familiar with the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, and wonder if there's anyone in Indiana who do something similar... but without ukuleles.

Also good for anyone who, in the words of georgiamagnolia (to whom be many thanks for the link), is trying to find their missing holiday spirit.

Straight No Chaser: The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Great stuff. See related videos too.

This post is mostly to say that I ate my first flounder. It was flounder stuffed with crab meat, so I think I mostly tasted the crab meat, but the fish part tasted like...fish. It was my first time baking fish in the oven, and it did not prove to be disastrous.

I am also reminding everyone about The Great Winter Road Trip and the associated mix CDs. Get those mixes in the mail soon, folks! Also, I have basically no plans for any of those days, so any suggestions on what to actually do would be appreciated.

Today in our weekly drug safety meeting, we talked about nipple tattoos. Like, tattoos of nipples for women with reconstructive breast surgery. I never mentioned here that at a recent department lunch, we talked about boob rubbing, groin shaving, manscaping, nipple cream, and butt cracks. I really can't imagine working anywhere else.

I can barely stay awake anymore, you guys. I don't know if it's Daylight Saving Time or what, but I sometimes get sleepy as early as eight fucking o'clock. Right now I am too zonked to write a proper post about television, so feel free to discuss the week's shows in the comments. I'm sure I have thoughts, but I simply cannot be arsed to put them in post form.

I am only coherent enough to propagate this meme:

If I had a warning label, what would it say?

And no, "May cause drowsiness" is not an acceptable answer.

At a recent medical writers conference, I picked up a free book. Free book! How could I resist? Especially when it was about a subject I've become interested in. The book was An Apple a Day: The Myths, Misconceptions, and Truths About the Foods We Eat by Joe Schwarcz, PhD.

Because Dr. Schwarcz is a chemist, he focuses on the actual chemical substances that have effects within our bodies. The book is divided into four parts. The first and longest part deals with natural substances found in the foods we eat. The second part deals with artificial substances and genetic modifications. The third part deals with contaminants. And the fourth and shortest part—surprising, given the title—attacks spurious health and nutrition claims.

The chapters are very short, most of them only three or four pages long, and each one is written to stand alone, which leads to a lot of repetition of basic concepts and key facts. This is both annoying and effective since it reinforces ideas like the fact that we needn't worry about carcinogens in our coffee since they're in such small amounts and, besides, there are carcinogens in practically everything we eat. Over and over, Schwarcz hammers home several important points.

Eat your fruits and vegetables, for starters. He discusses specific nutrients and beneficial chemicals (lycopene, anthocyanins, carotenoids) they contain that are best ingested along with the hundreds of other chemicals the foods contain. Whole grains are also good, as are some spices like turmeric and cinnamon. Time and time again, he pooh-poohs the general practice of simply taking supplements, citing studies that showed that the supplements provided no benefit. Well, sometimes. Sometimes the supplements are beneficial in specific populations—usually in patients with a condition to begin with, not healthy patients seeking preventive medicine. Vitamin D supplements, though, are ones he recommends, since the recommended daily dose of vitamin D is much higher than one would get from diet alone.

Schwarcz backs up his recommendations with science. Although he provides interesting anecdotal data, he always follows it up with data from trials and interprets the results for the reader. He points out numerous times that claims of a substance's benefit or harm are frequently made based on results in animal trials. And in these trials, the animals are often given doses hundreds or even thousands greater than are actually found in the foods themselves, making the claims relatively meaningless. For instance, in one study, rats were fed an artificial sweetener, and they developed bladder cancer. The amount they got, however, was equivalent to a human drinking 350 diet sodas a day. He examines the amounts of various substances found in foods and compares which are better sources of vitamins and nutrients. He also points out that you only get the benefit of these nutrients if you make them a regular part of your diet. Eating an apple once every couple weeks isn't the same as eating one a day.

Dr. Schwarcz clearly has it out for self-proclaimed health gurus with questionable degrees and calls out several by name to debunk their crazy claims. He also rebukes several activist groups who crusade against foods with one substance of questionable health risk among dozens of other substances with proven health benefits. As he says frequently, there are natural "toxins" and pesticides in the fruits and vegetables we eat already, and no one seems to get up in arms about those. He does acknowledge when the issues are hazy, however. Even though he's obviously biased toward scientists and their fancy "clinical trials" and "evidence" and "data," he notes when the activists do actually have some science on their side.

The tone is somewhat lighthearted, but not consistently. Schwarcz's attempts at humor or a cute punchline frequently fall flat or seem out of place or non sequitur. That said, it's extremely readable, and he doesn't let the text get bogged down in polysyllabic words and confusing biochemistry, focusing on the high-level concepts. The chapters are of varying quality; some seemed very superficial and didn't address issues I expected to read about. I also felt that, since the chapters were meant to stand alone, there wasn't a consistent sense of structure or organization throughout.

Overall, however, it's a very good overview of the things we put in our bodies and what they do to us, what we can do to stay healthier, and what we really don't need to be worried about, sensationalistic headlines be damned. I learned a lot, and I was especially interested to read about the results of all the trials. We rarely hear about food-related trials and what the results actually mean, only what the media spews out. Even more interesting were the studies of trials, searching the aggregate data for potential health benefits or safety risks. But besides all that, you've got to love all the food history trivia! Like did you know that spinach actually has very low iron content, and the reason the creator of Popeye believed spinach was high in iron was because in the eighteen hundreds, researchers screwed up a decimal and the result was propagated for decades? And that pretty much all artificial sweeteners were discovered by accident? And that the word "canola" comes from a combination of Canada, oil, and low acid?

I haven't read any other books on nutrition, so I don't know how this one compares. I thought it was pretty good, but not as amazing and enlightening as I was hoping for from the title. It did make me think more about what I eat. Even though I obviously knew I should eat more fruits and vegetables and oats and fish and whatnot, it really helps to know why, specifically. Now I know what actual health benefits I can reap from diversifying my diet!

It smells like snow outside. I wish I could bottle it and keep it with me all year.

I have 8 Google Wave invites.

Post your email address that you would like the invite to be sent to in a comment (screened of course) and I will send you an invite.

If I go to bed and more people want invites than I have left, I will put you on a waiting list for the next round lol

1.
2.
3.
go.

p.s. One thing to be aware of, invites do not come immediately, it may take a few days to a week to come but they do come.

also, if you have google wave, you can add me to your contact list if you want, my address is dawnam at googlewave.com

ladyminya, digitalsprawl, lee_ashburn, canadian_turtle, betterintype, gremmie_goo and coffeebits thank you all for the snowflakes!!! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I want to return the favour to people, but is the snowflake option over? I can't seem to find it.

So, Smutyanka is living up to her namesake again.  (Smutyanka is “female troublemaker” in Russian)

We did a lot of work on her last week and replaced the air filter, put on the new carburetor flanges and heat blocks, and replaced the torn fuel line.  Our plan was to take her to Crossroads Cycles this week to get the carbs balanced, now that they are firmly attached, and with that and her inspection, she should be good to go for regular riding.

No dice.

We tried to start her up on Friday and got nothing.  I couldn’t even really hear the engine trying to turn over, which usually means something is very wrong.  We headed over to the Soviet Steeds forum, and folks advised that when we drained the tank, we probably pulled some gunk into the petcock, and to take it off and clean it.  We did that, and there was indeed a little bit of gunk (especially blocking the reserve tank hole), and then re-attached it.  It still won’t start up.  The fuel flow now seems fine, but in the process of looking at all that stuff, we realized that our throttle cables are barely hanging on, and are literally hanging out of the throttle assembly on the right handgrip.  Back to the boards!

This is starting to get really frustrating for both of us.  We enjoyed getting to work on the bike and learn about motorcycle maintenance, but we have had the bike for three months and have driven it for only around an hour and a half, total ride time.

So, we’re thinking of selling Smutyanka and buying a brand new Ural Patrol T, sometime in the next couple months, once Marc starts his USIS job.

There are a few reasons for this:

1. The Patrol T comes factory painted in the original Soviet army green/brown.  While we have photographic documentation of black, civilian sidecar bikes being requisitioned for military use, using Smutyanka in her current color configuration makes her stand out at events, and might draw some “farb!” remarks, even though it’s not.
2. The Patrol T has 2WD.  For city driving it’s not an issue, but both of us really want to do some offroading with our Ural, and Smutyanka’s seemingly brittle condition and 1WD make that a little more difficult (though not impossible).  2WD would also allow us to drive in the snow, which would be nice.
3. With a fresh, brand new bike, it would be easier to diagnose problems.  Right now we’re stuck in a cycle in which we fix one thing, only to realize that it was just a symptom of something else that has been broken the whole tine.  With a new bike, you have a fresh starting point, so it’s easier to know when something is wrong.
4. Quite frankly, we’re not really in a good position to be doing major work on a motorcycle right now.  If we were living in a house, with a garage, it might be another story, but it’s very difficult to do any major work on a motorcycle when all you have is an apartment parking lot.
5. Urals now come with a 3(?) year factory warranty, and we live only two hours away from a dealer.  We can continue to do the minor stuff ourselves, but it’s nice to know that if something really goes wrong, we can get it fixed for free for a couple years.
6. The biggest of all:  even if we got Smutyanka running well, neither of us would trust her to be anything more than a “fun around town” vehicle.  I wouldn’t trust her to get me to work, and we would have to trailer her to all reenactments we took her to, however close.  A brand new Ural is reliable enough to be used as a daily commuter, and then it truly could be our second vehicle.  Marc wants to get a new car, but he would prefer to wait a little longer to replace his, and having a Ural that works might be a good stopgap.

We haven’t made up our minds yet, or even really discussed it all that much, but the topic has been brought up for discussion a couple times.  It wouldn’t be for a couple months yet, but it’s a possibility.

Originally published at Travels with Smutka. You can comment here or there.

deadwillwalk, bjtp and rejeneration/crack_impala, thank you so much for the snowflakes! ♥ ♥ ♥