Mr. Simpson Has a Cow

Mr. Simpson Has a Cow
By GAIL COLLINS
Published: August 27, 2010

What are we to make of Alan Simpson, the co-chairman of President Obama’s deficit reduction commission, who recently referred to Social Security as “a milk cow with 310 million tits”? More

On Supplanting King

America Is Better Than This
By BOB HERBERT
Published: August 27, 2010

America is better than Glenn Beck. For all of his celebrity, Mr. Beck is an ignorant, divisive, pathetic figure. On the anniversary of the great 1963 March on Washington he will stand in the shadows of giants — Abraham Lincoln and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Who do you think is more representative of this nation? More

I Had a Nightmare
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: August 27, 2010

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was already dead when I was born, and yet I idolized him the way most children idolized athletes and pop stars. I had the poster and the T-shirt, I knew the speeches and the places he’d marched. More

Kitchen Design

What’s Cooking in Kitchen Design?
By ALEXANDRA LANGE

Robert A.M. Stern, the dean of the Yale School of Architecture and a New York-based architect, is famous for his broad palette of traditional styles that includes neoclassical, gothic and art deco. So it was no surprise to see his condominium tower at 15 Central Park West draw heavily on the classic prewar New York apartment, complete with crown molding and parquet floors.

Mr. Stern’s luxury condos don’t hew to prewar standards in every respect, of course; they have all the modern amenities (and then some) that you’d expect for eight figures. Still, it’s striking how far the floor plans veer from tradition in a place that has come to define the modern American home: the kitchen.

Prewar kitchens, no matter how grand the apartment, were for servants and wives. They were small spaces, the only light coming via the air shaft, closed off by double-swing doors. Many of 15 Central Park West’s apartments, in contrast, have open, airy kitchens big enough for tables, islands, sofas and widescreen TVs. And Mr. Stern’s designs aren’t alone — whether in new apartment towers or suburban homes, today’s kitchens are as much about entertaining and relaxing as slicing and boiling. More

♫ In the chapel bells are ringing ♫

Ebert

Farmer's Market

Last Sunday, we went to the farmer's market. The big one off Lyndale, a ways north of here. Except for the ATM being outta commission at SA and having to get money at the farmer's market expensive ATM, the trip was worth it.

The broad beans were finally in. I bought another three pints o' blueberries to stick in the freezer. I bought containers of brussel sprouts, broad beans, a bunch of fingerling taters, and one container of heirloom tomatoes, where heirloom means "I can charge more." Someone bought a container of eggplant after complaining about all of the eggplants wuz too old. (They vanished that afternoon, and I never did get a taste of what happened to them.) The fingerlings got stir-fried with a bunch of caramelized onions in two different batches. They starred with the broad beans with a spun piece o' pig. Earlier this summer, Lunds had a bag o' gay baby taters on sale, that were just incredible. I'm trying to mount another farmer's market expedition, but it's proving a hard sell this morning.

I shoulda taken a picture...

The former head of the IS department has a hobby farm, and sells lambs. Last night was delivery night, and there, in plain sight at IKEA West, he parked in the round outside Parma 8200, and coolers were exchanged, money passed, and everything. Granted, it's hard to snort a frozen chunk o' lamb... We moved the lamb from a cooler to the trunk o' carbonel's car, with a howling west wind somehow whirling around the towers.

Election Day Pay Day

Yesterday I gotta pay check from the city of Mpls along with a nice thank you letter for serving at the primary election. The day was hot and humid, and many election judges suffered worse than I did, because they could not leave their polling places. They claim to have a picture of the flags drying out at city hall the next day. (Election day ended up in downpour, and I ended up paddling my baby car down the river of Nicollet to the creek of 26th Street on my way home.) It was not the tiredest I've ever gotten home after an election, but it was certainly the most drenched.

'Course, I already blew the money on the monitor I'm writing this on...

Yesterday...

Yesterday I bought a Hawking Range extender at MicroCenter. It's available for waay less at costco.com, but I'd read review suggesting it wuz slightly flakey, and I wanted it yesterday. It works, but the Nero service the disc player uses has gone walkabout. So today I gotta order one from Costco and then take back the one I've got...