Good Podcast episodes
My perennially favourite podcast, Longform, interviewed David Grann on the subject of his most recent book, The Wager this week. What I particularly liked about this episode is how the discussion often glanced on the subject of history, what people think of it, its presence "always there, undergirding us, always flowing," its malleability.
From guest Anna Keay on Conversations with Tyler, I learned about The Landmark Trust, where, for a reasonable price, you can stay in a castle. It sounds like the coolest thing ever.
Finally, awhile back, I listened to a re-broadcast interview with Margaret Atwood on Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso. She reads a poem from her new collection, titled "Dearly" and I liked this single line: "It's the smallest details that foil translators."
Best Recent Read
There is something a little magical about Graphic Novel where the immersion in another world feels as powerful as video. I was so enthralled that I read the final pages in bed with a headlamp - a trick Alison Bechdel illustrated in one of her books.
Green Almonds
I stopped at Alsham Market for brown lentils, and when at the cashier, asked the man what the giant bag of fuzzy green things were, from which he'd scooped a bag-sized portion for the lady ahead of me. "Green almonds." He sprinkled a handful in my bag and we tried them that night, with a bit of sea salt, as he'd recommended. It felt like a treat to participate in this seasonal delicacy, even though we're not sure we'd buy a bagful...
What's cooking
The brown lentils were for Stanley Tucci's "Lentil Spaghetti" a dish he describes in his memoir, complete with the recipe. His memoir is really good for that... he describes food and drinks so well that one feels encouraged to try anything. The unpalatable martini we'd heretofore regarded as a cocktail to avoid, became, thanks to Tucci's authoritarian mixing regime, the exact thing he promised: "Drink it. Become a new person." (We became people who could drink a martini.) Then we got scared by how much alcohol could be so easily consumed and conscribed gin to the mother-in-law, on her visits, to be mixed with ice and lots of ginger ale.
The view
There was a Colorado-low yesterday... it's a weather event that can bring lots of snow, or not that much, or it could be rain, or it could miss the city, or it could immobilize it. It's the low you can just never know.
