Reading meme and other things..

[shadowkat]

1. So, I've had a day. Which wasn't helped by being soaked by the deluge on the way home. It was pouring so hard, that after two blocks, having an umbrella didn't appear to matter. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

2. Currently reading..(I'll look it up for you) The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African-American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty

It's basically a memoir by an gay African-American chef -- who explores his African-American ancestory and heritage through cooking. So part cookbook, part memoir.

I'm about 20% in -- or 50 pages.

Reading it has made me think about my own cooking or culinary heritage such as it is. Mainly the writer makes the assumption that we all have one, or all African-Americans can trace theirs through it. (I beg to differ, I happen to know a lot of African-Americans who do not cook nor want to. What is about human beings that we have a tendency to think everyone shares our views, perspective, and skill or tastes? )

Anyhow, my mother doesn't like to cook. She cooks well. And we had interesting and innovative meals growing up. Also she was open to experimentation, mainly because she got bored easily. But if the meal required a lot of preparation or serious time spent in the kitchen -- it did not happen. She took shortcuts. Her mother was pretty much the same way, although her mother liked to make more candies and treats, also her meals growing up were rather bland -- mostly mid-western big meals -- meat and potatoes. When Granny grew older -- she didn't cook much at all. And whenever I visited her -- we tended to go out to eat, or fix something that was quick or easy.
My mother doesn't cook much now -- usually orders in or goes out to eat. Their retirement community has a club that they can order food to be delivered or eat at.
My brother likes to make bread and maple syrup. But I don't think he cooks. His wife on the other land loves to cook.

My mother's grandmother was, or so I'm told, an extraordinary cook. She made her own donuts, cinnamon buns, and other goodies. But her daughters didn't inherit her talents.

That said -- I do, however, have found memories of watching my mother cook or bake in the kitchen. And many of my short-cuts and cooking habits come from her. Like her, I don't like anyone cooking with me or near me. OR hovering. I remember trying to cook Thanksgiving Dinner when my mother couldn't do it, and my grandmother was visiting us -- and they took turns hovering. "Why are you putting orange juice in the cranberry sauce?" And..."Shouldn't you check the turkey again?" Or..."watch those potatoes.." I was about ready to strangle them. I remember telling these two women, who I towered over, and loved dearly to stop hovering and let me work. Or I'd be more than willing to sit on the coach and watch television while they did the cooking.

My mother taught me how to quickly bake a moist chicken breast, poach salmon or any fish really -- without buying a dutch oven or covered clay pot. All I needed was a roasting pan and aluminium foil. Put the chicken, spices, lemon juice, olive oil and some veggies together - wrap the foil around it - stick in the oven in the roasting pan for about 20-30 minutes, for 400 degrees. Done. Same with Salmon - except different spices. Trout - use bacon. So easy.

My mother is a whiz with short-cuts. And how to cook without precise measurments, or the exact ingredients. She taught me how to be resourceful and how to buy good ingredients. My father taught me how to be frugal and make use of what I had -- the man grew up on Chef Boyade Ravioli, Campbell Soup, and Spam. His parents lived hand to mouth most of the time.

When I was little, my mother made sugar cookies and cut them out in different shapes, such as toy sled, a christmas tree, santa clause, a star, a manager, a snow man, reindeer, a doll, and a teddy bear. She'd hand decorate each and every one. While we'd ice the rest, and decorate them as we chose. It was a family project we did on Christmas Eve or the day before. I also remember when she took a cake decorating class -- and went out of her way to bake and hand decorate all our birthday cakes...she made everything from an Raggedy Ann Cake -- that looked like a life size doll including a head to a Baseball Cap. My favorite -- was a basket filled with flowers. But she didn't love it enough to continue with it or she got bored. And she was too anxious about her cooking to really entertain -- although she did make an excellent lasagna every Christmas Eve up until approximately 2008. Then, we just went to dinner or had other things. My mother is open to change.

Did we have traditional foods that I can trace back to Ireland or Germany or Wales or anywhere for that matter? Scalloped Potatoes -- which I despised. No, most of my mother's cooking she found from people outside of her family. We did have grits a lot, growing up. I loved my mother's grits. Also polenta -- a corn porridge with butter that was something her Momma aka Granny used to make. And, Divinity - which my Granny knew how to make and taught me, but I've long since forgotten from lack of use. Every time my mother made it -- it turned into taffy. My mother's fudge is amazing -- she follows the Fantasy Fudge on the back of the Marshmellow Fluff package, except, like me, she experiments with the ingredients. Adding a bit more chocolate than she should, or a bit too much marshemellow.

I loved my mother's chilli, but my body hates it. She made it with chocolate -- that was her secret ingredient, baker's dark chocolate. I don't know where she got it from -- a friend in Texas, I think. My mother went to undergrad at Texas Christian University, and graduate school at the University of Wisconsin -- where she met my Dad.

But none of these dishes speak to some distant heritage or way of cooking passed down from one generation to the next. It's not what we did. Cooking wasn't something my family passed down to each other. If there's a cooking gene we don't have it.

Twitty is rather interesting in how he discusses the cooking gene -- he notes that as a child he hated being black and he hated soul food. He wanted to be white. Small wonder - as he notes, back then, the media made you think that way. !950s-2005, the television series were mainly white. I can't remember exactly when it began to slowly change. I remember The Wire sticking out for it's mostly black cast. And when the UPN insisted that every series have diverse casting...just before CW bought out UPN and WB. It was slow and gradual. And he's not wrong in that a great deal of American cuisine was handed down or created by a Southern slave culture. American Slavery lasted for 400 years. It began in 1610 and didn't end until roughly the Civil Rights movement. Actually I think it started before the 1600s, albeit possibly not on American soil.

Right now, I've mixed feelings about the book. It's angry in places, strident in others -- with a tendency to make sweeping generalizations, which people tend to do when they feel passionately about something. But on the other hand, the more personal and intimate moments are insightful and compelling. You are pulled in another point of view -- that of an African-American Gay Chef in the Deep South, struggling to reclaim his heritage.



It's strange but in my fifties, I'm beginning to see myself and others more clearly somehow. And I'm less concerned that others share or even understand my skills or tastes. It's as if I no longer feel the need for approval or validation. Or care.
It's weirdly freeing.

For instance, I realized recently that I don't enjoy cooking that much. I don't hate it. I just sort of get tired of it. And I don't enjoy cooking for other people. I'd rather we just go out to eat. I tried the dinner party thing -- and quickly realized that I had no interest in nor was I going to offer to host a dinner at my place. Also potlucks are the worst -- what do you bring to these things? For a while I would sautee shrimp and put it in a spinach leaf salad with red onions, olive oil and cucumbers. But that got old. Being gluten-intolerant makes the whole not liking to cook thing a bit difficult. I hate recipes, usually can't make heads or tails of the damn measurements, and just guess. Which is hard to do with a gluten free or paoelo baking recipe -- that requires some level of precision.

But, good thing for me, I live in NYC, and I can find these things pre-made for the most part.

3. Finished Powers of X #2 by Jonathan Hickman and RB Silva. The art, once again, is quite good. But there is an awful lot of expository world-building and hard science fiction detail in this book. It feels at times like reading Doris Lessing's Sci-Fi Opus.. Canopus in Argos which I couldn't get through. This is just a comic and breaks things up a bit. Canopus in Argos was a huge book...and pages and pages of it.

There's a nifty pair of quotes at the end of the comic -

Stan Lee - February 1969 - " Where do you nuts get your ideas?" " That question is asked of Yours Truly at lectures, interviews, and bull sessions more often than any other..... The point is, ideas are no problem. Here in the Bullpen, we can't talk to each other for five minutes without coming up with a zillion new thoughts and angles. The big hangup is getting the time to develop the ideas...to polish them and refine them until we feel they'll have maximum impact -- until we know they'll be an integral part of the ubiquuitous Marvel universe! Everyone has ideas -- you, I, the gang in the mail room- even our competitors, bless-em. What really counts is what you DO with them. We believe that almost any idea can be worthwhile if it's presented with integrity, taste, and imagination. For, an idea is like a guitar -- it doesn't mean a thing unless you know how to use it!"

This is followed by the quote: " You must see by now,there is no you and I, there is only us. We are together, or we are nothing." - Xavier


I had to read several bits twice. He has towards the end of the book, long descriptive passages along with charts, detailing the development of AI lifeforms or machines by humanity. And how the Nimbrus or Nimrod machines were developed by downloading post-human scientist, artist, and engineering intelligence into a device that was then sent and implanted in a planet -- that in turn developed into a race of mechanical and intelligent beings. These beings in turn ascended to the Phalanx who is a viral race of mechanical machines that eat other organic or mechanical lifeforms, incorporating them into themselves, if they feel they aid them or their hive mind, if not, they turn them into a techno-organic virus that will infect and destroy life-forms that are not of their origin or use to them.

What's not clear and somewhat confusing amidst all of this is the timeline. I'm not certain which life of Moira's we're in -- I'm thinking it's all taking place in year 10, but are the other years previous Moira life-lines that she is remembering and utilizing information from to prevent their re-occurrence? We have an odd ground-hog day story going on in the middle of all of this, which I'm not certain works. It's definitely ambitious and interesting. I'm admittedly not a fan of the time-loop device, because I've never seen it work well -- also what happens during it only appears to affect the central players not everyone else. Russian Doll played with that concept a bit -- showing how the more often the prinicipal characters had to rewind and repeat, the more everything else began to age and decay. I'm not sure what Hickman is doing with it.

The way this reads -- Moira and Charles approach Magneto to aid them in a long-term goal. A complex plan they have to ensure that their species thrives, dreams be damned. And they all have to work together to make it happen. The next bit, has Magneto and Xavier approaching Cyclops on Krakoa to take down a Master Mold device in space that will create or put online Nimrod, which they have to prevent at all costs. And is it even possible to take down -- but Cyclops asks does it need to be done? When Xavier states -- yes it does. Then he says, it will be. Then in the alleged future -- we see Apocalypse take the index information that Rasputin and Cardinal acquired and determine how to take down Nimrod and the machines with it -- it too is a suicide mission. And the only X-men left appear to be Apocalypse, Cardinal, Rasputin, some version of Wolverine, and Magento. But the version of Wolverine doesn't appear to be the actual one or is referred to by Apocalypse as a seed.

I can't help but wonder if the Apocalypse bit is the other Moira Time Line, where Apocalypse created the X-men. And Moira has used knowledge from that timeline to inform Xavier and Magneto that they have to take Nimrod offline? No, never mind, that doesn't work -- since she's not there and would have no way of knowing. So, the only answer is that somehow they failed to take down the machines on earth. But that doesn't necessarily mean they are gone -- according to the first Powers of X issue, there's a group of mutants in space living in Shiar space on the planet Benevolence.

It's a weird-ass story. I like it because I think it does a nice job of commenting on the inherent or integral flaw in humanity. Which is we can't create without destroying, and we can't get past the whole eye-for-eye or anything to survive motif.

I realized this today when my organization chose to advise us on Emergency Evacuation Protocols. If a shooter or violent person pops up, first do whatever is possible to make the floor look empty. Barricade the door. And get behind something that will protect you. If however, it's too late, and they are on the floor hunting you down -- do whatever is necessary to save your lives. The NYPD is clear and adamant on this -- find whatever weapons you can, such as this fire extinguisher -- which can shoot upwards of 100 feet of foam - and right in their eyes. OR bash them in the head with it. Any means necessary to stop them and save your lives.

I'm thinking, eh, I'm going run or hide under my desk. I'm not confronting a crazy person. Turn the other cheek society, we aren't.

There's a rather interesting series of quotes in the book, all around Magneto. Where Moira asks Magneto who chooses what is truly good and truly evil in this world? Magneto states that he does. And she's happy about this. Xavier says basically fuck their dreams, they want to do whatever is necessary to survive. To which Magneto says, I'm not interested in just surviving. Moira states good -- neither is she, she wants their species and people to thrive. And Xavier agrees -- not only thrive but find their rightful place on this world.

It's almost as if the writer is commenting on our current geo-political conversation, where self-interest holds sway and asking some serious questions regarding this mindset -- of putting one's own survival or one's tribe or race or gender or what have you above others. What are the consequences of doing that? And what are the consequences of weaponizing our fears to such a degree that we create the very thing that destroys us or worse, destroy our planet and home, so we are essentially homeless.

These are questions I've asked myself more than once. And have a very long sci-fi novel that I'm writing that is also asking them. What sacrifices are we willing to make for our planet, for our species, for our world, for the species outside of our own? Are we willing to sacrifice having children? Are we willing to sacrifice entertainment? Owning a car? Taking a plane? Are we willing to give up protective devices and/or weapons? What rights are we willing to sacrifice to save what we have and preserve it? Any at all?

Comments

[trepkos]

What sacrifices are we willing to make for our planet, for our species, for our world, for the species outside of our own? Are we willing to sacrifice having children? Are we willing to sacrifice entertainment? Owning a car? Taking a plane? Are we willing to give up protective devices and/or weapons? What rights are we willing to sacrifice to save what we have and preserve it? Any at all?

It seems that few people are ready to give anything up. And think how much sooner we'd have been in this mess if China hadn't had their one child rule ... I haven't had kids, and have been vegetarian most of my life; the former was partly to save the planet, the latter to save individuals. But I only learned to drive in my 30s and am not keen to give that up - or taking holidays abroad, for that matter. Weapons - they can ditch those, but they won't. One of the problems is this insane drive for growth - to feed the bank balances of a greedy few, who intend to sit in their ivory towers and watch the rest of us burn.

[yourlibrarian]

I had to jump in here because your mentioning China's policy reminded me of a news story where someone had written about China during this era. While the way the policy was drawn up and enforced is one thing (and how typical of men not to think of fixing the most important issue, which was the status of women in their society), so often I hear it spoken about as if the mere idea was horrifying.

And yet we are in a major birth decline in many countries (including the U.S.) for many other reasons, such as our lack of support for mothers, children, and families. (Though, frankly, even in countries with much better systems than ours, it still holds true). So it seems to me entirely hypocritical that the idea of trying to rescue the future of one's citizens is somehow anathema while making the lives of most of one's citizens utterly miserable is a-ok.

[shadowkat]

What's interesting about what China and India both did. Wasn't just China. And they did it for the same reasons -- pushing male births over female births...is that it has back-fired on them in a huge way.

For one thing? They now have too many young guys, and the male/female ratio is unequal. Also not enough jobs for those young guys, so running into a weird amount of violence and aggression. And two, and possibly more importantly, their population is well...they won't have a sizable population for future generations.

Go here: China's looming crisis: a shrinking population



Chinese academics recently delivered a stark warning to the country’s leaders: China is facing its most precipitous decline in population in decades, setting the stage for potential demographic, economic and even political crises in the near future.

For years China’s ruling Communist Party implemented a series of policies intended to slow the growth of the world’s most populous nation, including limiting the number of children couples could have to one. The long term effects of those policies mean the country will soon enter an era of “negative growth,” or a contraction in the size of the total population.

The difficulty? They don't have enough women.

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, if they'd made efforts to make girl babies as valuable as male then they could even have done a two child policy and had it be workable, since, long term, they were creating future difficulties with an overly rapid population drop.

[shadowkat]

There are problems with sacrificing things..

For example? It is physically impossible for me to go vegetarian. I can't eat soy, legumes (beans), rice, wheat, corn, barley, spelt, anything with "gluten in it", or most nightshades. Also no dairy. And I have to be careful with nuts.
Peanuts, I should have sparingly.

So..if I don't eat chicken fish and some meat? I won't get the necessary nutrients.

Regarding driving?

It depends on where you live. I don't have to drive, so don't. I can take electric trains everywhere. But, if I were living in Kansas still -- that wouldn't be possible, I'd be limited to a car. Rural and suburban areas require a car to get to and from places for the most part. I suppose you could use Uber or Lyft...but that could get difficult.

Also, more and more cars are electric hybrids or pure electric. My brother has one.

We're making some progress -- my grocery store is no longer using styrofoam for it's produce. Hasn't quite gotten there for the meat and fish and shrimp, however.

[cactuswatcher]

Cooking gene? Excuse me while I laugh for a bit.

Don't get me wrong I don't mind Twitty being interested in his heritage, especially in terms he can best understand. But cooking is a skill that you are either carefully taught or you learn by trial an error. There ain't no short cut through genetics or anything else.

When you were little did you ever have a friend brag about their mom's cooking? Then eat at their house and discover it was actually a little disgusting? People's tastes develop individually. There is a good reason for the old saying about too many cooks spoiling the broth. It's rare that every kid in the same house let alone an extended family likes and dislikes the same things. So cooking in a household is usually a compromise between what the cook is willing to make and what the members of the household are willing to eat. I suspect that what cooking schools are good at is teaching aspiring chefs how to prepare food for a broader selection of tastes.

How my father's mother usually cooked would have eventually made me ill, if I had to keep eating it day after day: Lots of grease, lots of gravy, eggs everyday, mollasses for sweetener. My mother's father's cooking was boring: beef, beef, beef. My mother studied nutrition in college, so she gave us a variety of foods. She grew up in a different era of food safety so she cooked the hell out of everything. She was not attentive at the stove and once in a while burned things to ash.

Unlike the rest of my family I hate green bell peppers in any form. I like ripe ones. I don't hate black pepper, but almost never use it, because for me I don't feel like it adds anything to a dish. It baffles me why on cooking shows some chefs automatically reach for the black pepper. Unlike some of my cousins I like tomatoes. I wouldn't claim to be a good cook, but I don't think I'm a bad one. I've accidentally overcooked things, but I've never burnt anything!

[shadowkat]

It's an interesting book -- he's mainly using food as a way to explain his upbringing and heritage, which is sort of cool in a way. He rambles a lot.
And I'm beginning to think the idea of a cooking gene may be tongue firmly in cheek. (I'm about 19% of the way through. I'm skimming a lot. He's repetitive.)

I can't eat bell peppers -- they kill my stomach. Apparently inflamatory? I also share your dislike of green bell peppers. My mother often would do stuffed green bell peppers and I hated it. I'd eat around the pepper. I like the sweeter ones, that aren't cooked, in salad, but alas, they don't like me.

I like adding pepper to a dish -- prefer it to salt. So I get that. But I'm also into spices. (Much to my own chagrin, since my stomach would prefer I refrain.)

I tend to agree though...everyone's taste is different. What some people love others hate. I despise "down home" traditional American cooking -- such as casseroles, jello mold salads, mashed potatoes, baked beans, gravy, etc. Possibly because I'm ceiliac and had no clue -- so a lot of this had flour in it and my stomach hated it. (I don't know, I did love bread and miss it.) I'm not really a fan of most Southern cooking, too much grease, and I don't like nor can I eat fried foods. Collard Greens are disgusting in my opinion. And I despise cooked spinach. Brussel sprouts? Depends on how they are cooked. They are hard to cook well, apparently. And ...Okra, eh, no.

I'd describe myself as a bit of a foodie, who likes to experiment in the kitchen. And is getting rather bored of what I'm eating -- because no gas, means no gas oven or stove, just a hot pad, a tiny grill and a microwave. Sigh. Could be worse.

[yourlibrarian]

The point is, ideas are no problem. Here in the Bullpen, we can't talk to each other for five minutes without coming up with a zillion new thoughts and angles. The big hangup is getting the time to develop the ideas...to polish them and refine them until we feel they'll have maximum impact -- until we know they'll be an integral part of the ubiquuitous Marvel universe! Everyone has ideas -- you, I, the gang in the mail room- even our competitors, bless-em. What really counts is what you DO with them. We believe that almost any idea can be worthwhile if it's presented with integrity, taste, and imagination.

Well said. It's how a story is told more than the story itself that makes a difference.

[shadowkat]

I love that quote. It's about how you express the idea, not the idea itself. Ideas aren't copyrightable or patentable, you can't buy and sell and idea. But if you do something interesting and innovative with it? Yeah, you can sell that.