Mellow Fruitfulness

I think Fall is finally here.  I even wore a jacket today.

Then again, this being Maryland, it could be 90 next week.

Lazy Sunday

 

Frederick, Maryland.

Eyes on the Prize

Han Kang has won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

I've only read The Vegetarian, but I enjoyed it.  Be advised that it's incredibly dark.

"a color in its own right"

"The colors of the autumn in the garden were now brown and black.  I had learned to see the brown of dead leaves and stalks as a color in its own right; I had collected grasses and reeds and taken pleasure in the slow change of their color from green to biscuit brown.  I had even taken pleasure in the browned tints of flowers that had dried in vases without losing their petals; I had been unwilling to throw away such flowers.  On autumn or winter mornings I had gone out to see brown leaves and stalks outlined with white frost.  Now the hand of man had been withdrawn from the garden; everything had grown unchecked during the summer; and I felt only the cold and saw the tall grass and the wet and saw black and brown.  On these short walks in the ruined manor garden, going a little farther each time, past the aspens, then past the great evergreen tree, then approaching the big white-framed greenhouse, after all this time as solid and whole-looking as it had ever been, on these walks brown became again for me what it had been in Trinidad: not a true color, the color of dead vegetation, not a thing one found beauty in, trash."

-- V.S. Naipaul, The Enigma of Arrival

The Agony and The Agony

For two straight years the Orioles have made the playoffs and then totally disappeared, offensively.  (They are a hitting team, not pitching wonders.)

And I'm really not feeling football this year, maybe because I miss watching it with my Dad.

So, thank you for reading this pity-party of a post.  I'll root for the Dodgers and Shohei I guess.

Beef'n Buns'n Paradise!

 

I drove past this place many a time (east side of Frederick) and finally stopped in.  It's a weird location, and you don't really appreciate the beach shack vibe until you pull into the parking lot (only outdoor seating).  I got, of course, the club sandwich and it was pretty good.

Well, there's a glaring problem here.  A club with no chips or fries simply doesn't provide a sufficient level of starch goodness.  It's my fault really, because I could have ordered fries for just a few more bucks.

O.K., still a little sad but improvisation nevertheless.  What I really liked about this sandwich were the tomatoes -- juicy and fat and definitely in season.  Everything else was nicely put together.

Everybody else waiting in the takeouts line got milkshakes, so I need to go back and try one of those.  But I'm looking forward to it!  And yes, that's the real name.

"Geezus Chrise"

"He started a fire with some chunks of pine he got with the ax from a stump.   Over the fire he stuck a wire grill, pushing the four legs down into the ground with his boot. Nick put the frying pan on the grill over the flames. He was hungrier. The beans and spaghetti warmed. Nick stirred them and mixed them together. They began to bubble, making little bubbles that rose with difficulty to the surface. There was a good smell. Nick got out a bottle of tomato catchup and cut four slices of bread. The little bubbles were coming faster now. Nick sat down beside the fire and lifted the frying pan off. He poured about half the contents out into the tin plate. It spread slowly on the plate. Nick knew it was too hot. He poured on some tomato catchup. He knew the beans and spaghetti were still too hot. He looked at the fire, then at the tent, he was not going to spoil it all by burning his tongue. For years he had never enjoyed fried bananas because he had never been able to wait for them to cool. His tongue was very sensitive. He was very hungry. Across the river in the swamp, in the almost dark, he saw a mist rising. He looked at the tent once more.  All right. He took a full spoonful from the plate.

'Chrise,' Nick said, 'Geezus Chrise,' he said happily."

-- Ernest Hemingway, "Big Two-Hearted River"

Good Stuff

 

Chingu is stoked for some European free jazz that just arrived.  RIP, Peter Brotzmann.

Vietnamese

 

Chicken curry noodles at Pho An Loi in Frederick, Maryland. Spice level was perfect for me!

Frederick!

One thing I really like about substitute teaching so far is how it gets me travelling all around the county.  This week I'm off to some pretty remote places, as the majority of my teaching has been close to or inside Frederick city proper.  (I live on the west side of town.)

I need to take more pictures.

Ah, 50

Put my MP3 player in the washer tonight and bricked it.

My short-term memory is crumbling to dust.

At least I didn't lose a cat during the dryer phase, but I did have to double-check.