Friday Fare
thusspakezuska | May 18, 2009It's May, and that means farmer's market season again - yay! The pain of having to get up early on Saturday - in order to get the good stuff before it's gone - is canceled out by the tasty joys of all the good meals you can make with that good stuff. And the farmer's market has encouraged me to eat outside my comfort zone. The friendly vendors tell me about vegetables I've never tried before and give me cooking suggestions. Last year one of the vendors offered a great cookbook that has been a great help, too - Simply in Season. There's a Simply in Season website, too.
This past…
thusspakezuska | April 1, 2009I've been thinking a lot lately, and it seems to me that I spend way too much time puking on other peoples' shoes and not nearly enough time prancing about in my own fancy high heels. So this past weekend I did some shopping. Here's one result:
Let me tell you, Mr. Zuska is happy about this turn of events! I also got these:
Of course, after an evening in those, I couldn't walk at all the next day due to my arthritic toes but it was all worth it, because I knew I had finally consumed my way into modern womanhood. I know this because I was reading Mechanical Brides: Women and Machines…
thusspakezuska | March 10, 2009If you've been reading the blogs of some of my Sciblings, you know there is this Pi(e) Day contest going on, till March 14. (Get it?) You are supposed to bake a pie, then post a picture and the recipe. Janet in particular has been posting some very tasty looking pies, and her violet custard pie was just astonishing. I thought briefly about submitting an entry but (1) I am no baker, (2) even when I have attempted to bake something, it's never been a pie, and (3) having seen these other entries, I'd be ashamed to even think of submitting whatever shabby thing I could probably come up with…
thusspakezuska | February 28, 2009Mr. Zuska and I went to the Philadelphia Flower Show today. It's always wonderful to enter the show on a dull winter day and be struck with the glory of a giant convention center in full bloom. The show officially opens tomorrow, but today was the preview for Pennsylvania Horticultural Society members - of which there must be a zillion, because the show floor was mobbed.
One of the biggest - certainly one of the most excited - mobs was around this exhibit:
Yes: shoes! Made out of flowers 'n' stuff! Close ups after the jump.
I liked these:
These looked like they'd tickle:
Elegant,…
thusspakezuska | February 27, 2009A week or so ago I went for a walk at the Morris Arboretum on a day with lovely weather, when it had warmed up just enough to make a winter walk delightful. I came around a bend in the path and encountered a cloudy vision of yellow - a witch hazel in full bloom.
It's not the best picture, but mind you I took it with my cell phone. This closeup didn't come out too bad:
Isn't that pretty? Witch hazel blossoms are such amazing things.
And yet -why, why, why, I wondered, why is the Morris Arboretum's witch hazel in such a glory of bloom, while the best my witch hazel can do is produce a few…
thusspakezuska | February 20, 2009Spawned by Alice over at Sciencewomen, who dragged it here from Facebook. Because I needed something silly and lighthearted to think about.
1. YOUR REAL NAME:
Suzanne Franks
2.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME:(mother and fathers middle names)
Ann George
3.NASCAR NAME:(first name of your mother's dad, father's dad)
Andrew Steven
4.STAR WARS NAME:(the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name)
Frasu
5.DETECTIVE NAME:(favorite color, favorite animal)
Green Cat
6.SOAP OPERA NAME:(middle name, town where you were born)
Elizabeth Bobtown
7.SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav color, fav…
thusspakezuska | December 23, 2008By request of the domestic and laboratory goddess, I am posting here a picture of my recent acquisition, a pair of ankle boots, as mentioned in my last post. It's no shoe of the week, but it's the best this hairy-legged feminazi can offer.
The adorable cat next to the boots is Bodhi, who often behaves as if he were a dog, so it's appropriate to have him posed next to the Hush Puppies boots. The style is Windermere, almost sans heel as is appropriate for my arthritic toe joints. I did NOT pay $94.95 for my boots, however. $69.95 on sale at Macy's, plus 15% off for using my Macy's card…
thusspakezuska | March 3, 2008I had lunch today in downtown Philly with the wonderful and always-interesting Lab Cat. We ate at a restaurant whose philosophy seemed to be "why serve a reasonable portion of food when you can serve a GINORMOUS portion of food?!?!"
This is what Cat got when she ordered a piece of chocolate cake for dessert:
Use the fork as your scale. That's a normal-sized fork. That's NOT a normal-sized piece of cake. In fact, I wouldn't even call that a piece of cake. I'd call that a little cake-berg, calved off of some unfathomably large chocolate glacier. Cat ate a portion of it that amounted to…
thusspakezuska | October 5, 2007I spent a lot of time on airplanes in the last few weeks, and so I spent a lot of time reading in-flight magazines. Southwest's Spirit is not so bad. In the pages of the September edition I learned about Galco's Soda Pop Stop in Los Angeles, dedicated to preserving all the unique and tasty soda pops of the world.
John Nese decided in 1995 to devote part of his small Los Angeles grocery store to the fizzy concoctions. Disturbed by the idea that Coke and Pepsi would forever wipe out his beloved rare sodas, Nese started stocking the goods. Along the way, he contacted small soda makers,…
thusspakezuska | September 19, 2007From the Chronicle News Blog...
...it will be 25 years ago tomorrow that Mr. Fahlman, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, invented the digital smiley face.
After a colleague joked about a contaminated elevator on an electronic bulletin board, Mr. Fahlman had his eureka moment: He recommended that future quipsters mark their jokes with ":-)" to make sure no one misconstrued their comments.
What great blessings the emoticon has brought to our society! Although I do think the Abraham Lincoln emoticon is just a little too much:
-- "==):-)=" --
Happy birthday, little…
thusspakezuska | August 25, 2007I'm supposed to be enjoying the music at the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival this afternoon. But it's a hundred and ten, hundred and ten in the shade. And I don't know if I can even drag my ass out there for the Seldom Scene at 3:00 p.m. Mr. Zuska is, of course, sweating it out and recording all the acts. There is no dedication like the dedication of a taper, especially not when he has new Neumann SKM 184's (pictures coming later).
Me, I'm happy here in the Ragged Edge Coffee House. And I thank them for the wifi. But time is running out on the meter, and I'm almost out of change...damn…
thusspakezuska | August 24, 2007Thanks to the Chronicle for pointing me to Beloit College's annual Mind-Set List, which reminds us just how out of touch we old fogies are with this year's crop of first-year students. As the Chronicle notes:
The Mind-Set List draws much of its inspiration from the blank stares of students too young to understand popular references from an older generation, said Ron Nief, the college's public-affairs director, who co-writes the annual list with Thomas E. McBride, a professor of English. Many students associate "Here's Johnny" with "that guy breaking into the bathroom" in The Shining, Mr.…
thusspakezuska | August 20, 2007You know, bad karaoke can happen to good Sciblings.
But however distressing some people might find the proceedings, other people will always blend tastefully with the surroundings.
Kevin and Karmen just sat back and took it all in.
As Chris Rowan has reported, Janet is indeed the most clinical of juke box operators. Though she says she just wanted to make sure we were getting our money's worth.
That's what she said when she brought that tray of 5 for $10 shots to the table, too.
thusspakezuska | August 19, 2007Sciblings in NYC....we came, we met, we ate and drank, we talked nonstop, thanks to Seed and Adam Bly. I did not puke on Adam Bly's shoes after all. He is a very nice guy. And has a beautiful home in Manhattan.
But when we were in some gin joint on Saturday night, who should join us for a beer but Humphrey Bogart.
Loads of Sciblings in that picture: Jake, Kara, Bora, Chris, Grrl, me, Steve, PZ, Josh, and Catherine (Bora's wife). And I think I missed some people whose names I don't know/don't remember/can't be held responsible for because it was late. You can't see Mo because he took…
thusspakezuska | August 3, 2007Thanks to B. Cohen for sending me this link to an installment of McSweeney's Annals of Science. Oh, the mighty struggle of sperm to fertilize egg! That's just good readin'. You'll want to scroll on down and read about electrovibratory massage as well. You may recall I mentioned an essay by Rachel Maines in the last Friday Bookshelf. If this bit on electrovibratory massage piques your interest, maybe you'll want to check out her whole book, The Technology of Orgasm. And if you like the last bit on the McSweeney's link about Stormin' Norman, then by all means do check out Carol Cohn's…
thusspakezuska | July 20, 2007As seen in the Chronicle of Higher Education!
It all started innocently enough, with a protector acquired for a couple of bucks at the 2001 meeting of the American Chemical Society. After that he ordered some for his department. From there, the addiction -- er, collection -- grew.
And grew - to 465 and counting. Beware the ACS meetings, my children!
"I am not a weirdo," he says. "I just collect pocket protectors."
Or so he told the Chronicle...but see what he says on his own website...
"I'm not just a collector, I am also a wearer."
John A. Pojman is one bad-ass pocket-protector wearin'…
thusspakezuska | July 18, 2007So I'm on the computer, trying to figure out how to go to the Caribbean in the winter cheaply, cursing the airline blackout dates and only half listening to the evening news when suddenly I hear something about the new Harry Potter book...hot dang! There it is! In the flesh! or would that be in the pulp?
Channel 6 ABC Action News had a story about a local family who received a package in the mail. The post office called them before they had even opened the package and asked them if they had received the Harry Potter book. "I don't know" said mom. She opened the package and sure…
thusspakezuska | July 13, 2007Two years ago today I wrote my very first blog entry, which wasn't terribly interesting, but I did invite readers to
listen to me rant about gender equity in engineering and science; Intelligent Design, the Christian Right, and the inadequate response of the scientific community; what's lacking in feminist critiques of science; and anything else that gets me riled.
How do I live up to my original promise? I do a pretty good job with the ranting business and anything else that gets me riled, I think. I write much less about Intelligent Design than I did in the early days of the blog,…
thusspakezuska | July 11, 2007I want to go to California and eat cheese. From the LA Times:
The benchmark for California cheese is higher than ever in a market that finally has caught up with a few pioneers who were way ahead of the curve. Both the flavors and types of cheeses are constantly evolving. From the highest end (an elegant triple crème made with cow's milk crème fraîche stirred into fresh goat's milk curds) to the more accessible (a creamy farmhouse sheep's milk cheese drizzled with a little olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt and cracked black pepper or a buttery, rich, handmade cheddar) -- cheese-wise…