Goldsmith said "
Stockhausen"
Central Park, NYC Gopnik said "
surreal" and Armani said "cinema, cinema"
I finally got my online service back, and have been trying to digest the last week. I am fine, but have not yet been allowed to return to work at 26 Federal Plaza. The building is within a few blocks of the Trade Center, but we got out unscathed, in the minutes between the second impact and the first collapse. The north wind spared me the dust cloud. I made it to Diti’s, at the edge of downtown, where we saw the towers fall on TV. We were joined by Steve, and later made our way to the Lower East Side, to gather with Jim, Mary Beth, Linda, Mike, Dave, and other friends of this family of friends. I’m often happy to be alone, but this was a time to be with the people you love, and I want to thank everyone for just being there, and for just being. I’ve seen some of you since, and that’s been a comfort, but others have been out of reach, and being cut off from the net has been frustrating. It allows me to be isolated yet connected at the same time. Losing this capability at a time of crisis reminds me of how tightly the internet has been woven into my life, and of just how fragile the high-tech filigree of our civilization really is.
Mixed feelings are on the menu, and I’m sure we’ll all be going through this for some time. I’ll be trying to figure out what I feel, and I’ll try to let you know what I think about that. Meanwhile, some of the most beautiful days of the year are passing, and Fall arrives on Saturday. In irony or irrelevance, the natural world goes on without reflection. We will reflect, but we too will go on.
AKA (49 Clinton) is now open for lunch. Kitchen hours are noon to midnight. No empanadas during the day, but otherwise the menu is the same.
Our moron-in-chief used the word
"crusade" to describe our response. Now there's a word without too much
baggage.
Perhaps we need a search and rescue team to look for Dubya's tiny little brain.
apparently if you are not an american you dont exist --
"According to London Times, there are nearly 2,500 foreign nationals missing or dead from 42 countries. Those foreign nationals are not included in the estimated 5,000 missing."
Adventures in Sabayon
I find myself needing useful distractions to get my mind off recent events. One of these distractions is doing homework for a cooking course. Last week's class included four desserts, with a heavy emphasis on eggs. I settled for doing about 1/3 of one dessert for my homework. I took on the task of whipping up a chocolate sabayon which had been used as a filling in a multilayer sponge cake.
I'm using the French spelling for sabayon, 'cause the Italian seems to have entirely too many vowels, especially for a southerner. We often get two or three syllables out of a single vowel, so a word like zabaglione can't help but be bruised.
My first attempt was really quite good until I added the Marsala wine. I had a nice pale yellow custard-like sabayon going, but forgot to add the wine along the way. So I kinda sorta dumped it all in at once, after the egg/sugar mixture was pretty much done -- with nice yellow ribbons, the real deal. With the abrupt addition of wine, the smooth ribbony texture was lost, leaving me with the fluff of air bubbles but without the sensual viscosity of a nice custard. And most of the wine never incorporated. Sugary egg foam floating on fortified wine -- interesting, but not exactly the desired effect.
On my second attempt I drizzled in the Marsala as I whipped up the yolks and sugar over mild heat. I think I now know why I've never been a z-bag fan. I don't really like Marsala. But there's a zillion other alternatives. Sauvignon blanc, grand marnier, cognac or citrus juice come to mind.
I folded in melted bittersweet chocolate, which deflated the eggs a bit, and folded in whipped cream, which added some fluff back. The result is a chocolate mousse-like substance that would be great as an ingredient in most any chocolate concoction as a topping or filling. It's light and fluffy in texture, but intense and heavy in impact. I popped the leftovers in the freezer to see if it sets up as a frozen treat.
Each time I learn some new technique or ingredient, I try to think up a variation of some sort. A warm, light and tart lemon sabayon layered with fresh berries is a prime candidate for experimentation this week.
do we have any way of describing the event other than "surreal"? is "unreal" more correct in this circumstance? i know im as guilty as the next for using it but wouldnt surreal mean a move not merely to the the extraordinary but beyond to something entirely otherworldly and dreamlike. had the towers taken on organic characteristics and become elastic to avoid the planes that i think would have been surrealistic. than again, "unreal" doesnt quite seem to do justice to the cataclysmic visage. i bet the germans have a good word construct for that sense of dislocation.
NEW YORK (September 15, 2001 6:21 p.m. EDT) - Some 11.8 metric tons of gold worth around $110 million and 30.2 million ounces of silver valued at $121 million are buried in the rubble below one of the collapsed World Trade Center buildings, The New York Times reported Saturday.
in this whole week of sadness, i am feeling like my sences are heightened (mostly taste and sight), i had to go to the market today like Dr Wilson goes to the park, its my ritual, the colors almost blind me, the union sq park is a memorial as jim saw, linda and i went one night, i'm sad
nostradamus not
anybody online? ive still only got cbs channel 2. im wondering what the coverage is like. theyve reported that the towers are gone but they havent shown any pictures of it. nor have they gone to the national news but kept the local anchors on. whats the rest of the world seeing?
bill look out your window
new low-cut levi's comercial with lots of bellybuttons singing "I'm coming out"
eating a lot of
pluot's now i know what they are
jim are we going to do somethink like
this on a small scale
get happy with your 24 other
neighbors
if you want to get away from it
all
"After the
Storm" Vinalhaven Maine 1938-9
Marsden Hartley