Funny news. A man named Michael Forsythe has been convicted of racism in Wales. Happens all the time you say? Sure, but the crime he committed was nothing more than calling a Welsh woman English. The former truck driver from Northern Ireland had an argument with this woman and apparently called her "English bitch". The bitch part was overlooked, while calling a Briton who isn't English exactly that, English, is apparently racism. I knew that some parts of Great Britain have brought forth more redheads than other parts, but to attribute such a thing to racial differences!? Mr. Forsythe was convicted to a suspended ten week prison sentence with 12 months probation, and he'll have to pay for the trial, a whopping 200 pounds. I wonder why the UK haven't fallen apart yet.
FENNEL/HAM SALAD: The dressing: mix the following together: 4 fl.oz. of mayonaise or 2 fl.oz. of mayonaise and 2 fl.oz. of yoghurt 1 pressed clove of garlic 2 teaspoons of tomato puree a pinch of cayenne pepper
The salad itself: 2 bulbs of fennel 3 tomatos 1 onion 5 oz. of ham the above dressing
Remove the outer leaves and the stems of the fennel bulbs, and discard a slice of the end. Slice it as thinly as you can. Dip the tomatos in boiling water until the skin cracks. Remove the skin, and slice the tomatos. Cut the ham into thin strips. Chop the onion. Mix everything together.
I thought I'd try something new for a change: a book review. Last Friday I've been to Germany, and bought a couple of books, so what better excuse is there to start doing this?
One of the books I bought, and read immediately upon returning home, is "Krabat" (English title: "The Satanic Mill"), by Otfried Preusler. It's about a 14-year-old orphan boy, Krabat, living in the East German-Czech border region, a few hundred years ago. One night he get a dream in which he is summoned to come to a water mill. After receiving this summoning for the third time he goes there, and he's hired to learn the miller's trade. The work is hard but he receives mysterious help from his best friend at the mill. Then, after about three months, he's finally let into the secret that he's in a school for black magic. Every Friday evening the boys are instructed in the black arts. At first he loves it, but he then finds that every New Year's Eve one of the boys dies. He wants to know what's going on. In order to prepare for battle against whoever is guilty of his friends' deaths he works very hard, and soon he's much better at wizardry than any of the other boys, who have been at the mill much longer. Then one day, one of his friends lets him in on a few dark secrets, and he discovers that he may well be next in line to die, and that all that can rescue him is the love of a girl.
I've been a big fan of this book when I was younger, but the Dutch translation, is really aimed at kids aged 12. After a certain age I just grew disenchanted with it. I hoped the original version, in German, would be better, and I wasn't disappointed. I've compared the two versions head on, and the Dutch version was just over-simplified. The original version can easily compete with many fantasy books for an adult audience, while not being too difficult for children to read.
If you're a fan of Harry Potter or other stories about wizards, etc., you really should read this book. Not only is it a great story, it also offers an insight into the legends from that part of Germany. Also, it's not as full of needless twists and turns as Harry Potter (I've been reading the first book, but I still have to finish it), and it covers three years in just over 300 pages. The story is suspenseful, and there is a lot of humor in it. However, it does depict magic as something evil, something that not all of my readers will agree with.
I haven't seized the opportunity yet to listen to my own playlist, and I'm not going to listen to it for at least a few weeks, so I have a few questions. Do the songs played follow the order of the playlist as found under this link? And, if so, does it always start at the top of the list, or does it just run continuously, just waiting for someone to listen in at a given time? Maybe it's even visible, but on this computer I don't even have a recent enough Flash player, and only admins can upgrade. The admins, who are at an office 50 miles south of here, are the worst bureaucrats ever, so no luck there. None of your answers are going to influence my playlist at all, but I'd just like to know.
Right now I have toward 110 songs on the playlist. I can't say whether I'm going to reduce this number or whether I'm going to expand it, though for the time being expansion is far more likely than reduction. I'm also working on a list that is sure to keep you away from my blog between Dec. 24 and 27, but no terrorist activity is to be expected from me before that date.
I do realize, that you might not be able to appreciate each and every song on my list, but I'm a reasonable guy... Everybody on my friends list can request upto three songs that I will add, as long as they're available.
Right... One more question. I tried to add 'The Alabama Song' by the Doors, but it was unavailable on the site. I did include a song with that title, hoping it is in fact the same song. I can't find out for sure however. Please click on the above link, and listen to the 30 second sample. If it goes anything like, "show me the way to the next whiskey bar", be kind enough to tell me.
As usual, when a new feature appears on JournalHome, I'm trying it on for size immediately. In that spirit I've added a Finetune playlist. Sadly, soundcards were recently removed from the computers I usually use, so I can't listen to it myself right away. It'll have to wait till Sunday. Only about 30 out of 45 tracks were chosen with some train of thought behind it, the remaining 15 just to finish it off quickly. I'll be finetuning the list next week. My all time favorite song, by the way, is Mack the Knife. I included the Bobby Darin version, but if I can find better ones, I'll replace it.
I suddenly realised, that I haven't done any new installments in the category "Be Like Me" in a dog's age, and I haven't covered TV yet, so I've chosen today to discuss a few TV shows I like to watch. All three of them are BBC production, and I don't believe they have ever been aired Stateside, but maybe if you're interested you can view them online. Right. Here goes:
"Nighty Night" This is a comedy series. Probably the funniest one I ever saw, even though it's completely politically incorrect. It isn't entirely new, but Belgian TV are showing reruns, so I'm discussing it anyway. It's about a hair dresser by the name of Jill, who is cockiness personified, and a sex addict (no explicit sex shown). Her husband Terry has just survived cancer, but Jill manages to hide it from him, and instead of taking him home, she takes him to a home to die. Then Jill decides she wants to have her neighbor Don, who is married to Cathy, who is beginning to experience the symptoms of MS. Jill goes to great lengths to capture Don's heart at the expense of Cathy, but she's not that successful. In order to reclaim his full attention, she stages Terry's funeral, just when Terry returns home having learned he's not dying. At the funeral party, yes PARTY, some people actually see Terry, so Jill convimces them they've seen a ghost. It does leave her with a problem, so she decides to kill Terry. There's also a need to kill the vicar. She then makes friendly with a real loser, by the name of Glenn, whom she talks into taking the blame for the murders. That (episode eight) is about the end of the funny part of the series, though. After that it sinks into mediocrity. I don't think the series will ever be a success in the States. Too many organizations (cancer survivors, MS patients, obese people, sex abuse survivors, lonely hearts, etc.) will take serious offense. Luckily in Europe they do seem to have a better sense of humor.
"Balderdash and Piffle" This is more of a documentary series, in search for a better word (no pun intended). The origins of common words in the English language are investigated, in a very humoristic and informative manner. It's also an attempt to improve the quality of the Oxford English Dictionary. For each word the origins are given, but this is not entirely accurate, because it relies on written or recorded evidence, and they simply don't always have the oldest available information. Viewers are engaged in finding evidence which can backdate words by as many years as possible. I find that my knowledge of the English language increases with every episode I watch. The most recent installment was about expressions containing the word "dog" by the way.
"The Catherine Tate Show" A sketch show, in which the female comic Catherine Tate plays dozens of different, hilarious characters. The funniest I think are an extremely prejudiced grandmother who embarrasses his grandson in just about any human contact she engages in, a Northern Irish mother of a gay son who is happier about the fact her son is gay than the son himself, and a ginger rights activist. In that series of sketches redheads are discriminated throughout the UK, upto the point where police officers put on plastic gloves before handling a redhead -or ginger- and slowly they begin to stand up for their rights, culminating in a "Gingers for Justice" protest on the roof ofa public building, the way the organization "Fathers for Justice" fight for their right to play a role in their children's lives after a divorce. I watch a lot of British sketch shows, and this one is the best so far. Monty Python eat your hearts out!
This is one entry only, which I will keep updating whenever the need arises. I'm classifying all the books I remember having ever read, except comic books, school books, and my small collection of sports books, into five categories. Also, I can read several languages and I don't know the English titles for most foreign language books, so they probably won't show here, but?the ones I do know will appear in brackets. Books in italics have been read by me thru the age of fourteen. Ratings for these books refer to my opinion at the time of reading.
***
1. I strongly encourage you to read:
De komst van Joachim Stiller - Hubert Lampo D Die Blechtrommel - Günter Grass G
From a Buick 8 - Stephen King
Four past Midnight - Stephen King
It - Stephen King
Jakob, der Lügner (Jacob The Liar) - Jurek Becker G
Kiss Kiss - Roald Dahl
Koot graaft zich autobio - Kees van Kooten D
Krabat - Ottfried Preussler G La Divina Commedià - Dante Alighieri La Nuit - Elie Wiesel F
Le petit prince (The Little Prince) - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry F
Les jeux sont faits - Jean-Paul Sartre F
Lightning - Dean Koontz
Modermismen - Kees van Kooten
Needful Things - Stephen King
Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell Oeroeg - Hella Haasse
Rosemary's Baby - Ira Levin
Stupid White Men - Michael Moore Tell Me How Long The Train's Been Gone - James Baldwin
The Manhattan Hunt Club - John Saul
The Plot against America - Philip Roth
The Revelation - Bentley Little
The Stand - Stephen King
The Time Machine - HG Wells
The Walking - Bentley Little
Tin Toeval en de kunst van het verdwalen - Guus Kuijer
Die Traumnovelle - Arthur Schnitzler True Crime - Andrew Klavan Uitgeverij Guggenheimer - Herman Brusselmans Veertig - Kees van Kooten
*** 2. You probably should read: Alles moet weg - Tom Lanoye Black Lightning - John Saul Candide - Voltaire Cell - Stephen King City of Masks - Daniel Hecht De donkere kamer van Damokles - W.F. Hermans De engelandvaarders (trilogy) - K. Norel Der Untergang (Downfall) - Joachim Fest
De stomme van Kampen - Thea Beckman
Dispatch - Bentley Little Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson Dude Where's My Country? - Michael Moore Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury Faust - Goethe Fightclub - Chuck Palahniuk For Whom The Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway Go Tell It on The Mountain - James Baldwin Het bittere kruid - Marga Minco Le avventure di Pinocchio (The Adventures of Pinocchio) - Carlo Collodi
L'Etranger (The Stranger) - Albert Camus
Mark en de Soldaten - Kees Holierhoek
Max Havelaar - Multatuli On The Road - Jack Kerouac Paradise Lost - John Milton Puk van de Petteflet - Annie M.G. Schmidt The Catcher in The Rye - J.D. Salinger The Covenant - James Michener
The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis The Shining - Stephen King The Store - Bentley Little The Witches - Roald Dahl This Perfect Day - Ira Levin To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson Turks fruit (Turkish Delight) - Jan Wolkers Vol de nuit - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Vrouwen met een IQ - Herman Brusselmans Washington, DC - Gore Vidal ***
3. I allow you to read: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll Bag of Bones - Stephen King Big Sur - Jack Kerouac Carel ende Elegast - I dunno Das Parfum - Patrick Süskind David Copperfield - Charles Dickens De boeken der kleine zielen - Louis Couperus
De brug - Geert Mak De grote wereld - Arthur Japin De klucht van de molenaar - Bredero De ronde van '43 - Henri Knap Gummi Tarzan - Ole Lund Kirkegaard DK
Herr Biedermann und die Brandstifter - Max Frisch Het gouden ei - Tim Krabbe Kort Amerikaans - Jan Wolkers
Land of Echoes - Daniel Hecht Silas Marner - George Eliot The BFG - Roald Dahl The Blackstone Chronicles - John Saul The Burning - Bentley Little The Fixer - Bernard Malamud The Funhouse - Dean Koontz The Hound of The Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle The Invisible Man - HG Wells The Mailman - Bentley Little The Return - Bentley Little The Summoning - Bentley Little The Vanishing - Bentley Little Tristan - anonymous University - Bentley Little Verzet tussen de rails - Wim van Zwol
War of The Worlds - HG Wells
***
4. Read at your own risk: Esio Trot - Roald Dahl Hide and Seek - Ian Rankin House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski
Matilda - Roald Dahl
Misery - Stephen King
Spitzen - Thomas Roosenboom
The Association - Bentley Little
The Colorado Kid - Stephen King
The Dark Half - Stephen King
The Policy - Bentley Little
The Resort - Bentley Little
Vechten voor overmorgen - Evert Hartman
***
5. I strongly encourage you to torch: The Eagle Has Landed - Alistair Maclean Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - John Le Carre
*** PENDING:
open to suggestion
*** Authors I am prejudiced against: Tom Clancy Michael Crichton John Grisham John Le Carre Robert Ludlum *** Should you have established a pattern here and know of any titles I will definitely post in category one upon reading, feel free to share it with me. I promise to look into it within 4-6 months! Yep, I'm famous for my promises!
* 6 pieces of Belgian endive, a slice of the bottom discarded (or fennel, I don't know how to prepare that though) * 6 large slices of ham (optional, vegetarians may replace this with 3 bananas, cut in half lengthwise) * 2 lbs of potatoes * 1 pint of milk (could be less)
for the sauce: * 1 or 2 pint of chicken/beef/vegetable broth * 1/2 to 1 cup of flour * 1 big lump of butter * 1/2 pound of grated cheese, Swiss or Dutch
preparation: * preheat the oven to 375-450 degrees (Fahrenheit) * boil the potatoes for 20 minutes * boil the endive for 15-20 minutes * meanwhile melt butter and bake flour in it and make 1 or 2 pints of broth * add the broth to the flour and stir, while slowly adding the cheese. For a thicker sauce use either less broth or more cheese * take the sauce off the heat * drain the potatoes and use the milk to mash them, put the mashed potatoes on the bottom of a greased oven dish * drain the endives, and discard a slice of the bottom. Wrap ham around the endives, or put half bananas inside the them. Put the endives on top of the mashed potatoes * reheat the sauce a little, and give it an extra stir before pouring it on top of the endives * put the dish in the oven for 12 to 20 minutes, depending on the heat. * put two pieces of endive with mashed potatoes and sauce on each plate, leaving you one each to microwave for lunch the next day
No, I haven't returned to MySpace. This acquaintance goes back eleven years.
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Currently reading: Joseph Heller - Catch-22 Currently watching on TV: In Europa, QI, Graham Norton, Jonathan Ross (only when it's on, of course)
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The translation this generates is poor, but intelligible
Google searchbox
Unword of the Year
nominated for 2009:
YAWN RAPE
Previous winners
* 2008 - Dog grooming porno
* 2007 - Autism community
My top 3 of favorite search terms that have directed visitors to my blog
1 How to tell North American venimous snakes from n0n-venimous snakes
2 Counter bad luck from shoes on table
3 Vietnamese eggroll machine
4 Alarm clock smurf song
5 Pets for sale Sandusky Ohio
Needless to say you're not going to find anything useful on my blog, using these terms.
Please first express a desire to chat with me (PM, email, comment), and then be here during my 'office hrs'. I'm unfamiliar with English text message lingo, so bear with me.
Blogthings
You are Sandusky, OH
Loser! You are boring, have no sense of adventure, no sense of humor, you have no friends, in fact you're no good to this world. You are definitely Sandusky, OH!
Famous Sandusky, Ohio, residents: probably a few hockey players, but no one worth a second glance
* Soraya
