A little food porn

Our seasonal perigrinations are over. We didn't take the train to Seattle, as we did last year (and a good thing too, if jonquil's tale of trial is indicative. We did spend time again in Sebastapol, where we had some rain, but little flooding. We left Pasadena yesterday, and as we were pulling into town in Arroyo Grande I realised I really wanted to be in Pasadena, since I could have walked to the Rose Parade, and seen it in the rain, which is probably the only chance I'll have to do that in my lifetime. Ah well, better, when all was said an done that we were here.

Because we lost a fence. About 2:00 this afternoon we heard a crack, and looking out the sliding glass door we saw grass. We have no lawn, (the back yard is a flat-bed of concrete and feeding the dogs last night required wellies, standing water at least two-inches deep in the back of the yard. There is a slight slope, and some small point of drainage) what we saw was the neighbor's back yard.

No small amount of effort to remove some fifty feet of double-paled wooden fence. The wind had caused one of the 4x4s to shear, and that let the weight of the fence shear the rest. Happily there was a part of the fence, near the gate, which was a trifle more solid, and it held, so the dogs would not have gotten out, merely been trapped in a larger yard.

The $17 Fiskar axe (a celt, with a plastic handle, light, all the weight in the head, and even unsharpened [by my standards] quite up to knocking the remaining bits apart, and cutting a bit of more solid fence so we could be, reasonably, certain the better part of the fence wouldn't be shoved over.

Some rebar, and heavy rabbit wire and a fence was faked, until Alexa can talk to the landlord next door, and we can get a new fence built.

Oddly, the ant/termite damage was all in the upper rail, not the lower.

Dinner, when we got done with that, was a little later then I meant it to be (I am shifting the hour ahead a bit, because Maia has to get up earlier for her classes this term) because the bread was late.

Bread, semi-wild yeast (the red-star I have been nursing is going sour. It smells of apples when young, and cider vinegar when old), with rosemary and a salted crust. It was under-risen and came out heavy, and damp.

Rice pliaf: Jasmine rice, a smaller batch with saffron., wild rice, toasted slivers of almond, peas. Tossed with a trifle of butter. Atop that were chicken breasts and thick slices of bacon. A friend brought me a flitch and I thawed it today, cut about a 1/3rd of pound off in four slices. The top rind is very hard, in large pieces that rind isn't really edible. But the fat is good, the flavor strong and the meat well textured. I will make some baked beans with it.

Tomorrow is the Tuesday Night Supper Club, so I have a sponge working on the sideboard, and I think I'll make a pilaf again, perhaps a layered one in the covered dish Maia got me for Christmas. It matches the french butter keepper she bought.

Ralph Nader, the evil continues

This is a personal post, an upset about somethig which gores my ox, and only gores it because of the Internet.

Ralph Nader got a drug banned. He got it banned because in some people it causes liver problems.

On the surface that might not seem so bad, Vioxx, after all, is off the market because Merck decided the bad press associated with it made it too risky to keep making.

I know a little about the side effects of drugs. When my Reiter's was in full bloom I was on a number of different meds, some of them normal enough (a high-powered NSAI, for one) but used in a way which required my liver function to be monitored (150mg a day of indocin is a lot, not great for the guts, and with risks to the liver) but a careful physician and some regular tests were all we required.

The pay-off was that I could function. I was able to move, without too much pain (which is to say it was background. I didn't notice it, too much, though others did), and I could think, sleep through the night, walk; the little things.

If the Reiter's was still in force, I'd take the drugs; and the tests.

Luckily for me it wasn't a drug I expect to need which was killed.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden has narcolepsy. Her condition is ameliorated by Cylert. It is known to cause liver problems, which is why people who use it get their livers checked.

That's where the internet comes into play, and why it's not abstract to me.

If it weren't for the Net the Nielsen Haydens would be names I place (because we inhabit a smaller, non net-based world as well) but they wouldn't be people I know (and we'll leave the discussion of community, and knowledge aside for the moment), as it is they are people I like, and respect, and Teresa is, to quote Patrick, shafted.

Because good old Ralph, mister moral purity, the guy who stayed in the race; throwing it to Bush, because he saw the two-parties as equivalent, so much so that he ran again, for the same reason, he decided, over the objections of a whole lot of people who actually have to live with the effects of this drug; or the problem it relieves, they couldn't be trusted to act like adults, and make decisions for themselves.

Me, I know about those decisions. Back when my Reiter's was in full-flower I chose to take a sulfa-drug. Sulfa drugs have a high rate of allergic reaction. I knew that. I took the risk? Why? Becuase the other options were worse. I could stick the indocin... not a great idea, what with the gastric problems and the liver risk, or I could go to Remucade and get a permanent IV put in, have weekly IVs for a month and then get them every month for six months and hope that beat it into submission. The other option, toughing it out, letting my bones deform and becoming crippled.

I took the Sulfa. I ended up in the hospital. I went to the indocin. And, given what I knew, I made the right choice.

Teresa, as much as anyone I know, is able to make that choice for herself.

I am rambling. Thinking about the Rifkin's of the world, who got my movie popcorn ruined, because they think the oil it was popped in was bad for me (never mind that they let the WD-40 which is the erstatz butter remains) don't think she, or anyone else, should be allowed to consult with their physicians and come to an informed decision.

This and this are what she has to deal with. For details of the present problem read Fckng Ralph Nader, fckng Public Citizen

Nader, well he won't be persuaded, he; after all, knows best what we need, but if you want to help (if you don't know Teresa, do it for me, hell do it because it's right, and Jesus said to comfort the afflicted) you can try contacting Eveline Honig, 914-741-5680; evelinevvh@optonline.net might help (hat tip to jmhm for that).

And, should you happen to hurt Ralph Nader, I'll help for going your bail, should an alibi not be possible.