stefanyb

This is information from CNN's own site. And, lest you forget, the governor of Florida was not a disinterested party, ahem. Limits of the study you cited: "The National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago study was commissioned by eight media companies -- The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, the St. Petersburg Times, The Palm Beach Post, The Washington Post and the Tribune Co., which includes the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, the Orlando Sentinel and Baltimore Sun, as well as other papers. A county worker displays a punch-card ballot to a NORC coder. NORC used experienced staff researchers to supervise and train a larger pool of investigators, who then fanned out across Florida and personally examined 175,010 ballots provided by local election officials. The investigators recorded exactly what they saw on each ballot but made no attempt to determine whether the vote should have been counted. From there, the media consortium took over, analyzing the raw data produced by NORC and drawing conclusions for various hypothetical scenarios. As with any large-scale study, the NORC data is subject to some important limitations. NORC reported serious problems with record keeping at many local election offices. NORC relied on these offices to produce the rejected ballots, but county officials were unable to deliver as many as 2,200 problem ballots to NORC investigators. Although trained to produce accurate, impartial reports, the NORC investigators are human and prone to human judgment and error. In particular, NORC discovered that male investigators were more likely to record marks on ballots than women. NORC also found a slight but statistically significant relationship between candidate marks and the investigators' party affiliation. Most importantly, there is no guarantee that the judgments of the NORC investigators would have matched those of local election boards had the recount been permitted to proceed under any scenario." UNABLE TO DELIVER AS MANY AS 2200 PROBLEM BALLOTS TO NORC INVESTIGATORS

My whole cooking life I cracked eggs on the side of the bowl but at the suggestion of someone on these boards (I forget who) I have recently started just tapping them on the counter and then separating the two halves with my thumbnail. It is so much better and so much less likely to result in eggshells in the mix. Oh, and while we're on the subject, if perchance a stray shell piece should get in the bowl, the only way to retrieve it is by scooping it out with the empty half eggshell.

Perfect shiva candy. How come we of a certain age and background all crave the came things?

Jinny, we'll post all about it. You'll feel like you were there but without the calories

Partial recap, participants in order of speaking up from the beginning: (what they are bringing will be addressed in subsequent posts) 1.yours truly 2.Sandra Levine 3.Nina 4.Beau 5.Rachel 6.Jason 7.Jaybee 8.Markstevens 9.Rosie 10.mr Rosie 11.Cabby 12.SobaAddict 13.Wilfrid 14.Yvonne 15.CathyL 16.Helena 17.ahr 18.Double O 19.Liza 20.Toby I culled this list from posts starting in June so I expect there are people who don't even remember they signed up. The date is SUNDAY NOVEMBER 10, 2002 5:00PMsomewhere in Manhattan. Those who cannot make it please speak up now because there is a limit for the space and others may want to join.

Soba, we've been waiting to hear from you. Great!

See theres where your wrong. I hardly think better of the Democrats. They're just not as able as Republicans to perpetrate such character assassinations and by Republicans I mean those in a position of power, not just the average Joe who buys into the message. Don't ever forget that we have a president we didn't elect and who got him there. It wasn't the voters Reps or Dems.

News alert: NJ Supreme Court rules T. can be replaced

The whole Torricelli affair is just another example of the Republican Party doing what they do best- witch hunts. The Democrats try but can never compete in the game of character assassination. Just like the impeachment of Clinton. Just like what precipitated Watergate. The sad fact is they are all a sorry lot of nasty and vicious self-interested hypocrites.

According to Robert Parker, all Sauternes of 1980 and 1985 have an 85 rating and are ready to drink.

I can't take the credit for it but thanks anyway. I have done it with tiny red bliss with the skin on but if you slip off the skin first it comes out a little neater. If you can get potatoes about the size of eggs, thats good but you can always quarter the larger ones. The one caveat is not to overcook the spuds.

This may be something everyone already knows but when I discovered it I was just ecstatic. That is, after boiling the potatoes, slice them by using a hard boiled egg slicer. Definitely use waxy potatoes and then sprinkle with white wine vinegar while still warm. What you do from there is your choice, you can hardly go wrong.

Thanks Suzanne, Jinny and chefette. The dipstick method sounds like the thing for me. Maybe over time I can hone my own perceptions but for now, sticking in a wooden spoon handle sounds perfect. I can't believe I never thought of it considering all the car engine repair experience I have .

I was thinking of doing hams, maybe even a little more specific like country hams or polish hams or smithfield hams or French hams.

When following a recipe where there is an instruction to boil down and reduce by half, how do you really know how far you've gone without pouring the liquid out of the pot and into a measuring cup. And how many times do you actually want to do that while preparing something? If there isn't a time direction, say "cook on a high flame for 5 minutes" or some such thing, I find it very difficult to know how far to boil down. Is there any rule of thumb about this?

Yes I've never had a reservation screwed up in the city, nor have I ever been pushed. Maybe so but whens the last time you saw some customer carry on and then march into the kitchen at, say, Craft?

Answer to problem: Do not eat in burbs

That works for me. There is a limit to the number of people so secure your spot soon!

Okay, we've secured a place for this finally. Lets start talking about it again. It'll be in November, probably on a Sunday at 5 again. How shall we begin to plan?

Crate and Barrel has a pack of six colorful very thin plastic cutting boards . They are shaped similar to placemats and can be easily lifted after you have cut up your whatever and carried with your food over to the pot or any other place. They are flexible because they are so thin. I think they're great for what they are.They can be scrubbed or submerged in boiling water or anything else you may wish to do to them to sanitize. Eventually they do get cutting marks but since six cost something like $12 they can be transformed into some other use or disposed of. I also have a thick plastic white cutting board that I run through the dishwasher on sterile whenever I'm finished with it. Thats easy enough.

While channel surfing I came across this piece on the Travel Channel about high end cruising and ResidenSea the floating condo. These condos run about $5Million. Anyway, they asserted that when cruising, you should not order expensive wines because the bottles cannot be stored without being jostled by the waves of the ocean. What do you know-it-alls think about this notion?

Maybe not quite food related but perhaps eGullet related.

Cabby, The large bamboo stalks (I think they're frozen) were and probably still are used at Nobu as sake containers. I have been served sake in them many times and find that they are excellent vessels and keep the sake cold quite well.

I must take exception to the argument that GWB being the president is an example of majority opinion. This man did not win the popular vote. Did not. Did not! Therefore, neither 'objectively' nor otherwise is he the best person for US president. Duh.

This thread got me to think about Ashkenazi cooking. The only spice I can think of would be paprika and the only herbs, dill and parsley. Am I wrong about this? (And should someone tell the "chef" at Sammy's that he/she needs a refresher course in cooking?)