After an astonishing talk to Hurley about speed and the migration back to campus activity, it is by amazing chance that today's re-run would include her thoughts. Enjoy.

(con'd from 22 Feb 04 - yup still lazy)
So I dump my whites on the bed, noting the smell of bleach and thinking that I’m weird for actually liking it. But it is a clean, nice feeling, I guess. I slip on the snow again and grab my clothes, which someone has left responsibly on the top of the dryers. I don’t blame them at all, and my stuff is actually warm for the dryer use.
People confuse me. I mean the nature of humans is the confusing thing. Because I worry about my stuff being gone, on the floor, disrespected. I would never do that to someone, but I have a rational, and entirely possible, fear of other people being that way. Which doesn’t really make sense. The only reason I think that way is because I have a natural tendency to think up things like that to do to people. I wouldn’t, ever, but because it pops into my head, I automatically assume that others would act on their whims.
It’s sort of a perspective, thing, probably. We can dissociate ourselves from the minds of others because we don’t understand them. “I know how I think, but because I don’t know how they think, I assume it’s different.” Interesting. I get some looks from people on Wisconsin Ave as I round the slippery slope, but I don’t fall this time.

I come back in and I’m hungry. Grab another piece of salami, noticing how much more salami is missing than yesterday. I wonder, apprehensively, if Novot ate that much or if it was me. But I only remember taking two slices, three including the one in my hand. I shouldn’t let Mikey make fun of Novot for the meat and cheese thing, even though I agree with him on a lot of it. It’s definitely funny, but some things are better left unsaid, and Novot has been really sensitive about money recently. I think chicken wings would be nice and greasy.


Experiment 14732:

Jerk Chicken Wing Confit(ti)

7 chicken wings, frozen
¼ cup lard, used once for pork shoulder
2 Tbs butter
4 Tbs flour
¼ cup Jerk sauce
Garlic Powder
Dad’s Crushed Pepper

Preheat oven to Broil, then 400°. Defrost the chicken wings by clearing the sink into the other one. Don’t bother to do the dishes because there is no dish soap. Put them onto a plate and run water over them, creating a small lake of frozen chicken and whatever else was in the sink. Hopefully, your roommate has dumped a lot of burger fat into the sink the day before and you can successfully mix the fattiness of three animals.

Melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan. Add pepper, garlic powder and sauce. [This is Area Number 1 for improvement. The flour should’ve been put in here, before the sauce. It would’ve made for a nice roux. This would’ve eliminated the need for the lard. Damn.] Realize your mistake and pour contents into a bowl. Set aside.
Melt lard over high heat in same saucepan. Slowly mix flour in, trying to create roux. [Note: lard does not make roux.] When lard has reached smoke point, pour sauce mixture from bowl into saucepan. This will steam and explode much more than expected, but stir quickly. Reduce heat to low and stir continuously until mixture thickens to JELLO consistency, about 30 seconds.

Put defrosted chicken wings into a metal pie tin and spread sauce mix over meat. Cook for 30 minutes or until wings secrete clear liquid when poked with Ginsu 2000. The lard will separate out of mix and essentially fry the chicken. Serve hot with paper towel.

Experiment: Failure.
But overall success noted, with exceptional quantity and quality of knowledge base gained.


I add another working title to list: Recipes, Experiments, and Disasters: One man’s journey into greatness. Sounds very non-fiction, I think. Sell it to old people like that guy with the one word titles so they can give it to their grandkids to build character. But I think I’m going to stick with the cookbookish feel, because that’s a hook, for sure. So now I’m bored and sick to my stomach, because even failures need to be eaten. Usually.
Later on I was checking away messages and Egwene32 suddenly loves Sarah Vowell. So I check out her letter and it’s on patriotism. Meanwhile I’ve insulted Novot back into submission by bringing up Greenspan’s article on the front page of yesterday’s paper (submission meaning he’s plugged in again. reminds me of the Todd McFarlane Pearl Jam video with the guy at the computer screen, with wires out of his eyes and nose. Novot the Robot). Protectionism is a crutch for the middle class irrational mass, a mere blip on the radar of our historically stupid voters. A Thomas Jefferson comment really keys me off into a spin about the Electoral College and why he couldn’t place his confidence in the yeomen farmer. But damn it Vowell’s right about one thing. I am also and always will be a “despite” patriarch, but I’m too cynical to forgive Bush and Cheney for flagrant and useless idiocracy – a word I’ve learned from stupidity and for stupidity. But the country, whatever its flaws and faults, is based upon such a sound and incredible idea, the suffrage and agency of its masses over all else. The historical context of it is overwhelming. Makes me want to veg out and watch Trainspotting. Too bad I don’t smoke or do heroin.

A quick note on confitti…
Word of the day: confit (pronounced con-fee)[n.]French culinary term, meaning meat that has been salted and then cooked, finally cooled and preserved in it’s own fat.
Josh's Word of the Day which may or may not be an actual word: confitti (pronounced con-feet-y) [n.] A culinary term describing a meat stored in fat of an animal other than its own species. When he put the chicken wings in pork lard, he made confitti.