Minuses and plusses....

A rainy Monday sort of limited activity so just some short subjects today:

Negatives

I’m getting tired of the weather channel. They started me when they anointed themselves as the “Hurricane Authority” (of which we will no doubt be repeatedly reminded of very soon), but now it seems that they are intent on bringing us more and more “specials” with things like “storm stories” and “it could happen here!”. Scene after scene of people being dragged from a swollen river, a flooded home, tornado victims still in shock, etc. I don’t need to see this stuff. They just seem to go out of their way to glorify natural disasters. The other day they showed some tapes from a storm chaser who called a tornado on the ground: “The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!!” Gimme a break. Wonder what the people under the thing thought. Their next big thing is “Vortex 2!” in which I suppose they will inform us stupid people about searching for tornados. Just show Local on the 8’s, the national radar, forecasts, and leave the damn drama to somebody else..

And, I’ve just about had it with Swine, er, excuse me, H1N1 virus. Well, not the virus, but the reporting of same. Our local news channel closes every segment of the news with “stay tuned for the very latest on the virus”, as if it changed every 5 minutes, or feature after feature on “what you need to know to protect yourself!”. I suppose it’s just the typical feeding frenzy of the press. The next thing will be “did we overreact?”. I can’t wait.

Positive

Now that I feel better, while doing research for an upcoming feature, I was browsing through Larousse and came upon one of those diagrams showing cuts of pork, that sort of exploded pig thing we all see showing ribs, hams, etc. Larousse being Larousse, they had diagrams for American, British, and French cuts. Guess what? The Americans have a mere 5 cuts, as does the British, but the French, ah the French, have 16! Where we have the “Arm Shoulder”, the French have the “palette”, the “épaule”, the “plat de côtes”, and the “jambonneau avant”. Beef? American 17, British 15, French 24. Lamb? American 6, British 8, French 9. Veal? 7, 8, and 13. It is left to the reader to ponder who is the more sophisticated about food.

Very Positive

Another reminder that tonight at 7 O’clock (that’s seven hours after noon), in St. Mary’s Hall at the college, there will be a recital by students of Brian Ganz. So, at 7 tonight, I hope to see you there. It should be something to hear. Good for the soul, and much better than swilling liquids from a bottle with a lime wedge stuck in it.. Until 7 then…..


DFD

Quick culinary tip: cold crab cakes are delightful for breakfast