Stone

I hated olives until I was about 32. When I spent a week in Croatia, there were bowls of olives at every restaurant, and when I didn't eat any I got nasty stares. So I started eating them. Now I love plain olives (mostly the wrinkly black ones). I'm not such a fan of olives with pimentos, and I still find the flavor of olives in cooked dishes to be too strong. (To me, puttanesca is appropriately named.)

Please go fuck yourself as many times as you like. I assume that if Tommy could do that, he would never have a free moment to be on the Web.

Don't get me started about water flouridation.

I think the superiority of the metric system can be seen as follows (I'm sure almost all of us know this. But I'm testing myself): A random fraction of the Earth's diameter is a meter (unit of distance). A centemeter is 1/100th of a meter. A cubic centimeter is equal to the volume of one milliliter. 1,000 millileters, of course, is a liter (unit of volume). 1 millileter of water weighs one gram. One liter of water, therefore, weighs 1 kilogram (unit of weight). It all fits so nicely. English standard -- not so much. A foot is about yeah long. 1/12th of a foot is an inch. A cubic inch is . . . nothing, so far as I know. An ounce is either a unit of volume or weight. That's where I get lost.

I know many people who don't drink milk and avoid dairy. They point out that humans are the only mammals that drink milk after infancy (We're probably the only mammals that deep fry our food also, so I don't know the relevance of that) and claim that adult's aren't meant to process milk. On the other hand, my sister does advertising for a dairy association, and claims that very few people are actually lactose intolerant, and most are just jumping on the bandwagon (similar to claims of ADD and Epstein's Barr Syndrome, both of which I definitely have). I've never heard of anyone being "allergic" to beef or pork (and from an evolutionary standpoint I find it difficult to believe that such an allergy could affect all but a tiny percentage of the population), although vegetarians tell me that after abstaining for long enough, the body reacts a little violently when the meat is first re-introduced.

When Kevin Spacey was in The Iceman Cometh, someone's cell phone went off, and he turned to the audience and said, "tell him you're busy." I read some reports that claimed that the reason cell-phone use is more distracting than radio or talking is because it uses a different part of the brain. Something about the part of the brain that creates the same images/awareness of sight.

Being able to eat hot peppers and the like has become sort of an undeclared contest in my family. I flinch when my brother says, "Here, try this." I guess it's a macho thing. I can respect that. In college we tried to see who could get through more suicide wings without water or wipe.

Terry Keenan looks like an old girlfriend of mine. Is she single?

This is similar to my recipe. I add leek, and don't use the apples. Toasted pumpkin seeds on top are always a winner. Also, try using half butternut and half spaghetti squash. The SS has a great natural buttery flavor.

Use liquid yeast. The easiest way to improve any beer.

Shaw -- Did Millson ever take you to LeB? I went once with him and a team -- we called ahead to see if they would let me in with jeans and a sport coat -- they would. Millson said, "make sure they know how ugly you are" (I had just shaved my goatee, to his dismay), and he still insisted that I wait outside until he reached the table (upstairs in the private room). He was, of course, wonderfully loose with the money, and the meal was exellent. I can't remember it though because, as usual, I drank too much. I always thought that lunch at LeB was the best part of working for a large NY law firm. It's where I first had and learned to love skate. Unfortunately, I can't afford to pay for mayself.

Gee, you guys who read the New Yorker sure are clever! Actually, I don't read the New Yorker. It's way over my head.

Poorly worded joke on my part. I was referring to his mangling of the English language. I have no doubt that Mario, his guests, most of his ingredients, a good portion of his kitchen equipment and his clogs are more intelligent than our president.

Do you all actually eat the bone, or just pick the meat off it and suck out the marrow?

The current issue of "All About Beer" magazine, contains an interesting Buyer's guide for Beer Lovers, describing over 400 British and North American Ales. It describes general styles, i.e., Amber, Bitters, Pale Ale, and specific beers, such as Red Tail, Sunset Red Ale, etc.

I'd say about $100. What city are you in? For basic extract brewing you need: 1 5 gallon pot 1 7 gallon glass carboy 1 5 gallon glass carboy Wort chiller (you can make one from copper tubing) racking tube bottle capper A few 3-4' lengths of plastic tubing. Thermometer/hydrometer (if you want) I'm sure I'm forgetting something. When I have a chance I'll find a link to an on-line store.

I'm sure you were being a little facetious, but why do you wish you could eat hotter food? I love hot food, when done correctly. Properly made buffalo wings, for example, have an excellent hot pepper and almost buttery flavor -- nothing like the thoughtless tobasco sauces one usually finds. But on the other hand, real hot food often overshadows all other flavors. Is something gained by being able to handle such heat? Commenting on the first post -- what types of restaurants do you eat at? I spent very little time in Bangkok, and ate at only a handful of upscale places. I recall that it was generally better than what we get in America, but I wouldn't put it in a different category. While travelling around the countryside, I usually ate basic curries and stir-fries that were all over the map -- some excellent, some terrible. Did you find a better selection of dishes or were the dishes prepared differently? How much Sang Thip did you drink before eating (just kidding)?

What tour did you go on?

I haven't brewed in a while. I think I'll cook up a batch this weekend. Probably an IPA. Any brewers on the site?

A friend of mine made some mead. I tried it, and it was o.k., but since I'd never had any before, I can't really judge. I keep thinking about making some, but when I get the apparatus out I'm going to make beer.

Click and scroll down to the fig/fig wasp scenario. Or click on "figs" in my post above. In short, a symbiotic relationship has developed between the fig and the fig wasp to the point that one cannot survive without other. The fig wasp must lay its eggs inside a fig; and the only way a fig gets pollinated by by the wasp crawling in and bringing the pollen. (I read somewhere that all figs are filled with wasp eggs

Wow. When I accidentally bite into the gristle at the top of a chicken leg (or any other gristle), my choke reflex goes off big time. Just thinking about it makes me shudder.

Imagine Mario and Pres. Bush trying to hold a conversation. Neither can string together a meaningful sentence without cue cards. At least Mario can cook.

You don't hear that one every day. "Get the butter." Paul

I just saw a news report about one state, I think one of the Carolinas but I'm not sure, that has not spent a dime of the tens of millions it has received from the tobacco settlement on anti-smoking campaigns. Instead, it has spent the money on commercial projects, including a tobacco museum and the construction of a tobacco processing plant. No kidding.