Selection Day by Aravind Adiga

This is a tale that revolves around class, poverty, opportunities and the use of athletics to escape to a better life.  The story is from Mumbai, but if race were added in, it could have been in the United States.
The book is about two young boys from Mumbai whose father raises them to be the very best cricket players in the world.  You know where that is going.  They are both his hope of sports glory, which eluded him, and getting out of poverty.
Cricket is, of course, a wonderful way of writing about shattered dreams – both personal and national. As such, it isn’t necessary to know the game to appreciate this finely told, often moving and intelligent novel. Cricket here represents what is loved in India, and yet is being corrupted by the changes within the nation.  The nastiness of cricket isn’t only to do with money and corruption. The book takes in class, religion and sexuality – all issues that disrupt the dream of a sport that cares for nothing but talent and temperament. The relationship of the two brothers is significant but eventually becomes secondary to the one between the younger boy, Manju, and Javed, a good-looking Muslim from an affluent family who chooses to walk away from cricket and wants Manju to follow him. Manju’s attraction to Javed, and his awareness of the barriers between them, is subtly and often surprisingly explored.  In the end we do not know if Manju loves cricket or not, but we do know that it has made him.

Step (2017)

This is at heart looking at ways out of poverty.  Everyone on this high school step team comes from income challenged families, and the majority of them will be the first in their family to go to college.  Their lives as students is one thing, but their experience as a step team is another way for them to express who they are.  The two extremes are Cori, who is an excellent student focused on getting a full ride scholarship to an outstanding school.  Her parents are 100% supportive of her, and she is both ambitious and focused.  Step is a way to get out of her more shy shell and express herself.  The other end of the spectrum is Blessin.  She is beautiful and talented and intense on the dance floor, but she really struggles with focus in the classroom.  He mother also struggles, but with depression rather than academics, and she isn't quite as committed to Blessin's success as her teachers and counselors are.  The two of them come out at different places at the end of high school, and then we get to have a little bit of a peak at what lies ahead for them.  Great documentary.

Shrimp in Lettuce Leaves with Serrano-Mint Sauce

Wow, this was really good, and also low carb.  I am always looking for new ways to cook and experience shrimp,  and this is a definite winner.

• 1 pound large shrimp (about 36), peeled and deveined
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 12 leaves green curly leaf lettuce

Serrano-Mint Sauce:

• 1 cup tightly packed mint leaves, plus more for garnish
• 1 Serrano chili, seeded, coursely chopped
  
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• One 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• Salt

Preheat the grill to medium-high. In a large bowl, toss shrimp in oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill the shrimp for 1 to 2 minutes on each side or until just cooked through. Be careful not to overcook the shrimp, or they will be tough and rubbery. Remove from the grill.
Place about 3 shrimp in each lettuce leaf. Drizzle with the Serrano-Mint Sauce. Sprinkle with a few cilantro leaves. Roll up the lettuce leaves, and eat immediately.

Serrano-Mint Sauce:

Place all ingredients, except for salt, in a blender. Pulse until smooth. Season, to taste.

The Only Story by Julian Barnes

This is a well written, sad but oddly comforting story told in the way that this author does as well as anyone.  
Barnes has been exploring the May-December romance and this time it involves a 19 year old man and a 48-year old woman.  The woman is damaged from an early age.  She had an uncle who sexually abused her and has a husband who physically abuses her.  She meets Paul at her tennis club and he falls hard for her.  The intensity of her feelings are harder to gauge, and are likely deeply colored by her traumatic history.  The relationship spans years and comes to an end not because of their age difference or a change of heart, but because of Susan's addiction, both to alcohol and her abusive husband.  The last section of the book is a kind of "what if" scenario that is odd and yet, the whole premise is not entirely within reason.  If the writing is the most important part of reading a book, this is a story well told. 

Don't Think Twice (2016)

This movie is on and about the art of improvisation.  Before the story gets going, there is a brief introduction to the history of improv, as well as an explanation of the cardinal rule of improv, which is commonly known as "Yes, and ... ," this means that a performer says "yes" to everything that happens on-stage. One of the cardinal sins of improv is saying "No." 
The movie follows a New York-based improv group through a year in their lives. The Brooklyn theater where they've been performing has been sold, and homelessness approaches.  One of their members makes it big and the others try to ride his coat tails, which puts him in awkward situations.  The competition to make it is inconsistent with the desire to create scenes that are made up of teamwork.  We get an up close and intimate look at the inner workings of this art form.  Really good and it grows on you after you finish.

Salmon with a Rhubarb Sauce

The thing that I have most consistently made with rhubarb is Strawberry Rhubarb pie and Rhubarb Upside Down Cake, with a recent foray into Rhubarb Simple Syrup for cocktails, but as one article I read pointed out, it is a vegetable and therefore well suited to savory dishes.

• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated peeled ginger 
• 1 onion diced
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 c. soy sauce
• 1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 pound rhubarb, stalks only, cut into 1-inch pieces
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• Four 6-ounce salmon fillets with skin
• 4 ounces pea shoots or watercress

Step 1    

In a saucepan, combine the ingredients above the rhubarb and cook. Add the rhubarb; bring to a boil. Cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is jamlike, about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Discard the vanilla bean.

Step 2    

In a nonstick skillet, heat the oil over moderately high heat. Season the salmon with salt and pepper. Cook, turning once, until lightly browned, 8 minutes. Spoon the sauce onto plates, top with the salmon or vice versa (which is my preference) and serve.

The Act of Shunning

I completely understand wanting to kick people who work for the current administration out of your place of business.They are amoral liars who I would not want to share a meal with, be near in a public venue, or serve them.  But doing so plays right into their hands.  How is this different from not serving them if they were black or gay?  They will play it for all that it is worth, despite their support for the bakery that didn't want to serve a gay couple, because they are all about lying, remember?  Consistency is just really not in their wheel house.
So instead I think we ignore them.  Really ignore them.  Move tables yourself, or leave the restaurant if it makes you ill to sit next to them.  But I would argue that refusing to see them when they are right in front of you is the appropriate response.  They are dead to you.  You cannot see them.  You will not react, because they are nothing to you. Their moral turpitude renders them invisible.  Literally turn the other cheek, and close your eyes to them.

Swiss Army Man (2016)

I read a review of this movie that described it as Cast Away meets Weekend at Bernie's, which succinctly sums up the scenario without delving too deeply into what the take home message might be. One of the film's creators summed it up differently, saying it is about a suicidal man who has to convince a dead body that life is worth living. Therefore it is a film exploring the contradiction and comedy and drama in that.
There is an odd mixture of stupid fart and penis jokes wrapped around a core message that no matter what your current perspective is, there is good to be found out there, you just have to seek it.  Hank has all but given up on his life but when Manny, a dead man who speaks (and farts) asks him why he should pull himself together in the land of the living, he desperately tries to make it worth his while.  Hank's father has abandoned him, he is painfully shy, but there is something to love in there.  It is both sweet and a little stupid at the same time, but so originally different that at no point did we consider turning it off.  

Lemon Caper Dressing

Pay attention, because there is a lot of lemon in this.
It can be used on vegetables as well as salad, or to finish off a chicken or fish dish.

• 2 medium lemons
  
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
  
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard (choose one whose flavor you like on its own -- we used Maille)
  
• 2 tablespoons drained capers, finely chopped
  
• 1/2 teaspoon Maldon or another flaky sea salt
  
• 1/2 teaspoon superfine sugar
  
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  

1. Segment the lemons over a bowl to catch the juices (see note below). Set aside.
2. Squeeze the juice from the membranes into a separate bowl, add the rest of the ingredients, and stir well.
3. Add the lemon segments and toss gently to coat them without breaking them up. Use straightaway or chill in the fridge, covered, for up to an hour.
4. Note: To segment the lemons: Use a sharp knife to cut off just enough of the fruit's top and bottom to expose a full circle of the flesh on either end. Stand the lemon on one of its ends, place your knife point at the seam where the fruit meets the pith, and use a gentle sawing motion to cut away a wide strip of pith and skin, following the curve of the fruit from top to bottom. Repeat the process until all you have left is a nice, round, naked fruit. If you've missed any white pith, trim it off. Make a cut down either side of each segment, right against the membrane, and gently pry out each segment, one at a time (see slideshow). Flick out any seeds, and set the segments aside in a bowl, reserving the juicy membranes.

House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea

I read about this book in The Week, which is not where I get most of my book recommendations, but some of them, and it was right on this time.
This is in your face about pride and Mexican culture.  The elegance that men carry with them each day as well as the machismo.  The role of food in the eyes of those who live there.  The border itself between Mexico and the United States and all that that says about those on either side of it.  The good, the bad, and the ugly--that classic combination that drives the best of fiction--are all on display here.
This noisy, messy, jockeying for position of a family in this novel revolves around the dying patriarch Miguel Angel “Big Angel” de la Cruz.  Three generations gather over the course of a weekend for a final celebration. His mother recently dead, Big Angel himself is on the way out after an outsize life of danger, romance and striving. There are flashbacks to harder times and choices made, and there it the present, where they all are and why.  Orbiting him is a proliferating solar system of children and relatives, and with them a galaxy of feuds, slights, alliances, resentments, flirtations and memories.  It is a flipping of the finger at those who think that Mexico is mono dimensional.  There are rapists and murderers, just like here, but the breadth and beauty that is Mexico is like a hymn being sung.

Thor: Ragnorak (2017)

I do have trouble keeping these straight, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, who can tell.  The Marvel Studios has so successfully cranked out what seems like dozens of movies, to the point where I at least recognize some of the characters (Dr. Strange makes and appearance in this which helps me to link him with the studio, and so on).  
Thor, God of Thunder, is in kind of a tight spot. He is ably played by Chris Hensworth, who has the physicality to play Thor, but got more of the personal side across this time.  He finds out that his father, Odin (played by Anthony Hopkins) is dead, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is alive, and his sister Hela (Cate Blanchett) is back to recapture Asgard.  He knows that none of this bodes well for him, and he is right about that.  He gets captured and there meets a Valkyrie who faced Hela once and barely escaped and the Hulk is also in the mix.  They hatch a plan, which involves the escape fight scene and then the final battle, a CGI riddled landscape that is for me hard to follow.  None the less, this is the most charming Thor movie yet.  This is a movie that will make you wonder when the next Thor movie is coming out.  Two minor glitches, from my perspective.  The film has so many heavy hitters acting wise that it they are bound to be under utilized, which happened.  Idris Elba barely had a chance to act at all.  Finally, the fight scenes are just too much of the movie. 

Juneteenth, 1865

Let the promise of this day, 153 years ago, be seen in the lifetime of my offspring, for it is surely not so today as I write this.
Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States.  Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19^th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.

One of General Granger’s first orders of business was to read to the people of Texas, General Order Number 3 which began most significantly with:

"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer."

The reactions to this profound news ranged from pure shock to immediate jubilation. While many lingered to learn of this new employer to employee relationship, many left before these offers were completely off the lips of their former 'masters' - attesting to the varying conditions on the plantations and the realization of freedom.
Today, right now, we are treating those who are seeking asylum at our southern border in an inhumane way that echoes our treatment of slaves.  It is a return to wrenching children from their parents.  The depiction of immigrants as not human is how our ancestors viewed slaves.  It is as immoral as slavery, and I would contend that it is also criminal.  

RIP Tony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain and I were more or less the same age when he took his life this week.  I do not know what his struggles were, but I certainly know what it is to look death in the eye at this age, and it feels way too young, so I am saddened that he was in that place and carried out his own demise.
I was not directly influenced by him, but his passion for travel for the sake of food is one that I have always whole-heartedly shared.  He was a riskier eater than I am, but I love being some place entirely different from my home, delving into street food that is beautifully made and flavorful, and then coming home and bringing that new food and flavor and culture into my own kitchen, sharing with my circle of friends, and then rinse repeat.  Let not a month go by that I travel, or am about to go, or I just got back, that is the feeling of life and passion.  Embrace what is different.  Try to learn from it.  Taste everything once.  One thing is sure.  He lived large and while his life was short, he got a lot out of it and he shared it broadly, generously, enthusiastically, infectiously.  May his memory be a blessing.

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

My parents read this for a book group, and since I enjoyed her book The Nightingale so much, I read it too.
This one is set in rural Alaska in the early 1970's when the pipeline was still under construction.  It is a small town on the Kenai Peninsula, a drive away from Homer.
Ernst is a Vietnam veteran who was shot down and kept prisoner for six years before coming home to his wife and child.  Cora  welcomed him home, but he was not the same man who went to war.  The key element here is that he is a raging alcoholic who is unbearably violent and despite the fact that she is likely to be killed by him one day, she can't leave, and Leni, her daughter, won't leave without her.  So they move to a remote Alaska town without the resources needed to make it through the winter (think Into the Wild), and they struggle in every way possible.
This is layered over a story of young love and everything that can go wrong does go wrong that is decidedly less complicated on its surface but troubled by a Capulet and Montague problem.   It is an enjoyable read that I had trouble putting down.

Free Fire (2016)

At first I missed the point of this largely shoot them up movie.  If you cannot see the very dark humor that is embedded in a no one gets out of here alive movie, then you should definitely skip this one.

There was a period when Tarentino want to be movies was built around scenes where tough white guys smoke cigarettes, insult each other and launch into interminable monologues about some aspect of popular culture until an argument breaks out and everybody points guns at each other. This is the new but set in the 1970's, and the poster pretty much sums up the situation.
A couple of bright spots are Brie Larson, who stands up to her partners in crime in the gritty shoot out, and Armie Hammer, who is the more intellectual of the criminal element, the guy who cracks a good joke after being shot.  It is not as funny as a comedy, there is less action than you would be looking for in an action adventure movie, and yet those two depictions sum up what you are about to see if you watch this.

Oregon Treaty, 1846

Today is a day for history lessons.  A long history of dispute characterized the ownership of the Oregon Territory, which included present-day Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and portions of Montana, Wyoming, and British Columbia.  Russia and Spain had both surrendered their claims to the region, but the United States and Britain were active claimants in the 19th century's early years. The matter's resolution was delayed by the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, in which both parties agreed to a temporary policy of "joint occupation" of the region. This accommodation was extended in 1827.  During the 1830’s, the American position came to favor establishment of the northern border along 49º-north latitude, arguing that the nation's 'Manifest Destiny' required no less. The British, however, wanted to see the southern boundary of British Columbia established at the Columbia River and based their claims on the Hudson's Bay Company's long history in the area. 

The British position weakened in the early 1840's as large numbers of numbers of American settlers poured into the disputed area over the Oregon Trail. Possession of Oregon became an issue in the 1844 election.  Democratic candidate James Polk took an extreme view by advocating the placement of the border at 54º 40' north latitude (we have a deep history with extravagant claims, some of which have served us well). Expansionists chanted, "Fifty-four Forty or Fight!" After the election, Polk put the British on notice that joint occupation would not be extended, but quietly entered into diplomatic discussions.

On June 15,1846, the Oregon Treaty was signed between Britain and the United States, the latter represented by Secretary of State James Buchanan.

Kale and Orange Salad

I had some orange juice in the fridge that was occupying a lot of space and I wanted it to go into a dish.

• 1 bunch kale, leaves torn off the stalks
• 1/4 cup orange juice 
• 2 tablespoons olive oil 
• 1 teaspoon sugar 
• 1 clove garlic, pressed or grated 
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 heaping tablespoon sour cream or plain Greek yogurt 
• 3 tangerines, mandarins or clementines (or 1 orange), peeled and cut into chunks 
• 4 ounces goat cheese (chevre) or sliced red onions or chopped nuts

Grab bunches of the kale leaves and use a sharp knife to thinly slice them. Keep going until you have a big pile of finely shredded kale.
To make the dressing, combine the orange juice, olive oil, sugar, garlic and some salt and pepper in a small jar. Shake vigorously until combined, then add the sour cream or yogurt and shake again until it's nice and creamy.
Toss the kale in half the dressing for a minute or so, then add the citrus pieces and jalapeno slices. Toss again until combined. Add a little more dressing if it needs it. (Extra dressing can be stored in the fridge and used for any salad.)
Add some optional ingredients and serve.

Detroit (2017)

This was a brutal movie that was definitely an hour too long.  That is a characteristic of Katheryn Bigelow's films, but this one takes brutality to an unbearable level without teaching us anything about new about racism.
The film builds up to an extended sequence based on a real event, a police raid at the Algiers Motel in 1967 Detroit that resulted in the deaths of three young black men and the beatings of nine other people, including two white women. There is a raggedness to the narrative as it opens, giving a portrait of the civil unrest and riots that dominated Detroit at the time before placing the variety of characters introduced into a powder keg of a situation at the Algiers Motel. After the blood has dried and scars began to heal for the survivors, the narrative dashes through the investigation, trial, and aftermath of that night.  It would be ok if it was an hour shorter, but it is not.

Shark Fin Soup and Sichuan Pepper by Fucshia Dunlop

This book was recommended by my nephew.  The author came to China in the 1990's when she was right out of college.  She wan't quite sure what it was that she wanted to do, and when she drifted into Chengdu first as a correspondent for the BBC and then as a student, she was ill prepared for what was about to happen.  She fell in love with Chinese food, the real China, and she ended up in a cooking school and forgetting a lot about her Western roots.
I really relate to her first impressions of how the Chinese eat, which is the ultimate snout to tail cuisine.  She, as am I, was squeamish about the intestine and brain and offal that her Chinese dining companions would drop into her bowl and then looks at her expectantly, feeling like they had bestowed pearls upon her and she was polite about it but not quite getting it.  I am about there, even now.  When my nephew took me for the Hunan delicacy of fish head, I was, well, I took a deep breath and dug in.  The head was so enormous, at least a foot long, and where to start.  Well he showed me the way and in the end, I reall loved it and wondered where and when I would have a fish head quite this good again.  I was unable to get to that level of rapture when he friend in Nanjing took us to a noodle house where the lunch dish was teeming with organ meat.  I have a ways to go, but the author got there, went beyond, and learned to cook it.  Fascinating read, especially if you love food.

Crawfish Etouffe

This is adapted from a now disgraced New Orleans chef, whose reputation for an environment of pervasive sexual harassment is likely correct, but whose food is really quite good.  How do you separate the two, it is hard to say.  One critic pointed out the perils of family branding (we can only hope that happens to a great degree to the first family).  But I digress.  We have a source of great seafood that comes up from Galveston on a more than once a month basis in the warm months, and this was a delicious way to have crawfish.

• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• Half a red bell pepper, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Leaves from two sprigs of fresh thyme
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper 
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 small tomato, peeled, seeded, and diced
• 1 quart stock
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 pound peeled crawfish tails (from 2 ½ pounds live)
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 2 dashes Worchestershire
• 2 dashes Tabasco Salt Freshly ground black pepper

 Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Whisk the flour into the very hot oil. It will immediately begin to sizzle and fizz. Keep whisking and reduce the heat to moderate. Continue whisking until the roux takes on a gorgeous dark brown color, about 15 minutes.  Add the onions, reduce the heat, and cook until the onions caramelize. If you add all the vegetables at the same time, the water that results will boil the onions and their sugars won’t caramelize.
2. When the onions have turned the roux shiny and dark, add the celery, bell peppers, garlic, thyme, cayenne, and paprika. Cook for 5 minutes. Now add the tomatoes and the Shellfish Stock and increase the heat to high.
3. Once the sauce has come to a boil, reduce the heat to moderate and let simmer 5-7 minutes, stirring often. Be careful not to let it burn or stick to the bottom of the pan.
4. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the butter. Add the crawfish tails and green onions. Season with Worcestershire, Tabasco, salt, and black pepper. Once the crawfish tails have heated through, remove the saucepan from the heat.
5. Serve in individual bowl with a dollop of rice.

Ethel & Ernest (2016)

Raymond Briggs, a British illustrator, did a graphic novel about his parents and this movie was developed from that.

The ordinariness of this relationship, though, is just what makes it special. When they met, Ethel was a lady’s maid with prim, middle-class aspirations, and Ernest was a happy-go-lucky milkman, who would pass her workplace on his daily rounds. It took him mere days, after noticing the shy girl flapping a duster out of her employers’ windows, to ring the doorbell and ask her to the pictures.

By the time Britain was at war, they’d married, bought a house, and had Raymond, who was evacuated from London at age 5, much to his mum’s distress, to go and live with relatives in Dorset. They keep calm and carry on, through bombings, the war, the continued deprivation after the war, their son growing into something they are not quite sure about, and then sliding into the problems of old age and finally death.

 It’s a whole history of mid-20th-century, lower-middle-class life in England, even while it remains squarely rooted to one spot.  Briggs honored his parents by playing up their chirpy stoicism, but theirs was a generation of vast change, which we witness overtaking them without their full understanding. The backdrop to this very English mid-century marriage – soot and grit and survival, and that base note of touching bafflement.

Who is Rich? by Matthew Klam

The book title poses a very good question.  Who is Rich?
He is at once a fading author whose one well received novel is now out-of-print, but he is also a middle aged man trying to hand on, in every way possible.  He wants a career, a love life, and the adoration that comes with success in either camp.  But as so often the case when you are grasping at straws and not thinking clearly or looking dispassionately at your situation, mistakes are made.
This book may be working in a well-established tradition, but it’s sexier than Richard Russo and more fun than John Updike, whose New England style of angst was always trying to demonize some man’s middel aged restlessness and make it into a spiritual crisis. The book takes place over a few days at an artists conference, one of those gilded summer retreats where hopeful adults of middling talent are taught by writers and painters of fading repute, but it reflects on his previous life and relationships as well.  It is funny and smart, but it does ultimately ask two things.  What is the making of this man, and then the double entendre of what makes us rich in life.  It is quirky and I didn't love it every moment but I did want to know where it was going and where it would land, so I am recommending it.

Crab Cakes with Green Onions and Red Peppers

We have a source for fresh crab meat about every three weeks that is usually spectacular, and I made this recipe (a bit different than my usual, with more vegetables, less egg, and more spice).  Yum!

• 1 pound crabmeat, picked free of shells
• 1/4-1/3 c. crushed crackers or panko bread crumbs
• 3 green onions (green and white parts), finely chopped
• 1/2 cup finely chopped bell pepper
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Dash cayenne pepper
• Favorite dipping sauce, for serving (I used a Russian dressing with Sriracha) 

In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients. Shape into patties.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot, carefully place crab cakes, in batches, in pan and fry until browned, about 4 to 5 minutes. Carefully flip crab cakes and fry on other side until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Serve warm with preferred sauce.

LBJ (2016)

This is a biopic that sticks pretty close to the story as I know it, starting just before the Democratic convention in 1960 through to the first address to Congress after Kennedy was assassinated.  Johnson's biography ran to six lengthy volumes and in it I am sure the various nuances of his enormous personality came to light.  In this, he plays a political lion who is declawed by the Kennedy boys when he settles in to being the Vice President.  He struggles to find something meaningful to do, and in trying to get the Equal Employment and Opportunity idea off the ground, he comes fist to cuffs with the Southern delegation, where he endures endless conversations about how everyone should have the freedom not to eat next to or sit next to or work next to someone that they don't want to, simple as that.  Well, once Kennedy has died, he says to his personal think tank, who are trying to dissuade him from pursuing Kennedy's agenda that his own cook, the personal cook to the Vice Presdient of the United States, cannot safely travel home to Texas through the American South.  She may be making his meal next week, but this week she has to pee by the side of the road because she can't find a bathroom.  He was going to put an end to that (more of less) and he did (again, more of less).

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

 I lived with immigrants from the war in Vietnam when I was in college, medical school, and during my residency in both Providence and central California.  I have heard many stories from those who left, and throw my work at the VA, through those who served.  When I began in health care, the Vietnam war had been over less than a decade, and there were many people struggling to cope from both of those communities.
This is a memoir by a Vietnamese immigrant who has just had a child of her own and she is struggling to put her family and her past into context with her present.  In doing so, she gives us a bird's eye view of what it was like to be in Vietnam before and during the war, the things that drove both sides to fight, the legacy of colonialism in Asia, and how damaging it was to her parents thereby to her.

The art of storytelling through graphics is something that I am not inherently drawn to (no pun intended).  I do think that something that is this painful is well suited to  simple pictures with straight forward words.  Much like the movie Breadwinner,  some things are just more bearable to consider when the story is in drawings.  This is a powerful memoir, which is quick to read but will keep you thinking about it long after you turn the last page.

Spinach with Pine Nuts and Raisins

This is a variation on a recipe from Toro Bravo, and it is also a traditional Catalan dish as well.  The thing that is absolutely the best about it is how fast and way it is to make.  The thing that is surprising is how much spinach you need if you want to feed a crowd.  The original says to do this in a big saute pan and use two if you have too much or your pans are too small.  I would agree with this, and I would also note that the giant bags of either spinach or power greens at Costco would be perfect for it.

• 2-1/2 lb. fresh spinach, stems trimmed, leaves rinsed
• 1/2 tsp. coarse salt or sea salt
• 2 tbs. butter
• 2 Tbs.  olive oil
• 8 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1/4 c. golden raisins
• 1/4 c. cider vinegar
• 3 Tbs. pine nuts
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
•  Mugolio syrup or honey (optional)

•  Put vinegar and raisins in a container with a loose lid and microwave for 45 seconds.  Set aside.
• Toast pine nuts.
• Heat butter and olive oil in a large sauté pan set over medium heat. Add the garlic,  sauté briefly--no brown. Add the spinach and cook until any excess liquid has evaporated. Season generously with salt and pepper.  When wilted, turn off heat, and let sit for a few minutes to finish cooking in the pan.  Strain to get off excess liquid and place on platter.  Top with plumped raisins and pine nuts.  Drizzle with mugolio or honey, or if you prefer, olive oil.

The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)

Charles Dickens is played by Dan Stevens, who has two things going for him in my book.  The first is that he had a major role in Downton Abbey, which I loved so much I have offered to watch again if my spouse decides he wants to catch up on the major cultural phenomenon that it is.  Secondly, he was a judge one year for the Booker Prize, which is definitely my favorite book award, and the job requires that he read some 250 plus books ( which for me would be just about a full time job for a year). 
The year is 1843 and Dickens is in a commercial slump—his previous three novels have found little favor with the buying public—and he is in need of money in order to help support himself, his loyal wife Catherine, their four children (with a fifth on the way) and an expensive home renovation. While casting about for ideas for a new book, he takes inspiration from his new maid (Anna Murphy), whose literary tastes are of a somewhat lurid bent, and who mentions to him a folk tale about mysterious spirits being revived at Christmastime. This sparks something in Dickens and he decides that he will write and self-publish his own holiday-themed ghost story in time for Christmas as a way of replenishing his coffers. There is one little hitch to this endeavor—Christmas is about six weeks away and to miss that immovable deadline would be disastrous.  This is a somewhat staged story, which ends up being a retelling of A Christmas Carol, but I enjoyed the costumes, the settings, and the inspirations for Dickens novels in his everyday life.

Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego

 Art has so many permutations.  I love to see things that I could not do or make or even think of.  I love the highly detailed art of the Dutch Renaissance.  The blurry Impressionist works really move me.  I can sit in that room in the MOMA in New York that has the Monet triptych for hours.  Contemporary art museums have more art that I can relate to, that I could actually see making.  Assembling objects artfully, or telling a story visually, using intermedia to make a political and social point artistically, all of that I can personally relate to.

Here is the thing.  I like two things that may be on the extreme ends of the Bell curve when it comes to museums of these sort.  The first is that I love the whimsy, and both of these pieces pictured have some of that quality.  Then I also love the intermedia of art to make political statements more powerfully than with words alone.  There was an exhibit by the daughter of a Black Panther that was very thought provoking, using photography, FOIA documents she obtained related to her father, and objects to create a story. 

Snap Pea Salad with Feta and Mint

We recently ate at chef Richard Blais' restaurant in San Diego, Juniper and Ivy, and were very much impressed with the food.  While we waited for the wait staff to put the finishing touches on our table, I perused his cookbook, So Good, and put is on my hold list at my local library.  Not everything in the book is accessible to me in my Midwest location (read almost all the seafood) and some of the recipes are just not at the level of fussiness that I am capable of doing, but this one is in my wheel house and great for spring.

• • 1 cup mayonnaise
  • 2 Tbs. paprika (hot or sweet, your choice)
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil
  • 2 pounds snap peas, trimmed (I did this with broccoli and it was great as well)
  • 1/4 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves, chiffoned
  • 1 cup crumbled feta cheese

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, stir the mayonnaise with the paprika and all but 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice. Cover and refrigerate the aioli for up to 12 hours, or set aside to use.
Heat a large skillet over high heat. When hot, pour in the oil. Add the snap peas and blister for about 30 seconds to char on one side. Turn over and char for about 30 seconds on the other side.
Toss the snap peas with the aioli (to taste.  You may have some left over for the next time) and mint. Serve topped with the feta and drizzled with the reserved tablespoon lemon juice.

Season of New Beginnings

I love this time of year (except for the crippling heat we seem to be having this year, and probably more years than not going forward, given the climate and our profound lack of commitment to doing something about it).  Why?  It is the time when change is in the air all around.  It can happen any time, of course.  One can get married in March or graduate in December, but the density of change seems to peak right about now, and it makes me think about myself and what I want to do when I grown up.
One thing that has changed for me is that my youngest son, the one who has learning differences and whom I helped with college courses, has graduated.  What to do next for me is very real this year, because while he is happy with the change, I am more ambivalent.  In my own undergraduate life, I never took an art history class.  I love art, but it was with more of a sense of what I like rather than any kind of scholarly appreciation.  Now that I have five art history classes under my belt (at least in terms of the reading and the art objects), I am eager for more. Thankfully, in this age, there is a lot of content on line, and yet I feel that the discipline of classes is something I crave.  So time for me to figure out the step forward.