Joe Haldeman's Blog, page 20

not-too-super nova

I just got a note that there's a new supernova in M82, an easily visible galaxy near the Big Dipper.  Picture at http://www.universetoday.com/108386/bright-new-supernova-blows-up-in-nearby-m82-the-cigar-galaxy/


I was going to rush out tonight and take a look, but maybe I'll wait for it to get a little brighter.  That two-meter telescope has, let me see, 1600 times the light-gathering power of my four-inch.  That could cause eyestrain.


Joe

fame & fortune

I am somewhat famous now.  The radio show "Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me" yesterday had a mention of one of my novels, I think The Hemingway Hoax. 

Didn't identify the author, though.

Joe

chicken turmeric and shell casings

Yesterday Gay brought me a piece of turmeric from the farmers' market.  One of the weirdest vegetables I ever clapped eyes upon.  (Picture on Library Journal.)


I read a bunch of online recipes for turmeric, many of which were very daunting.  I wound up peeling a piece about the size of my little finger, which I sliced and chopped into tiny bits.  (The turmeric, not my finger.) I put this with about an equal amount of chopped onion into about a tablespoon each of melted butter and olive oil, and fried them until the onion was transparent and soft.  I added a cup of boiling water and a can (15 oz.) of chicken broth and brought them to a boil.  Threw in a small handful of brown rice and reduced it to a simmer.

While that cooked I washed and chopped a large handful of curly kale.  Microwaved it for a minute (to make sure it was cooked through) and added it to the broth, along with a small chopped onion.  Then I cut a pound of chicken thigh meat into bite-sized pieces and added them to the broth.  After it simmered for a while I adjusted the seasoning with salt, pepper, oregano, basil, summer savory, and lime juice.  Let it simmer while I prepared a salad with fresh tomatoes and avocado, and served with cold dry white wine when the news came on at seven.

Turned out well.   The turmeric had a pleasant mild flavor and solid texture; think I would use twice as much next time.  And maybe a half teaspoon of turmeric powder, for color as well as flavor.

Today will be a little odd.  Paul Lane invited me to go out shooting at 1400.  He warned me to wear closed-toe shoes, and on reflection I guess that is something you have to tell Floridians.  The copper shell casings are very hot, and you don't want them falling on your tootsies.

Joe

freezing

Interesting implicit calculation, Hawk. If it only gets cold enough every 17 years, how much labor are you wiling to invest in digging the trench deeper?

brr-r-r-r

Got very cold here last night, inside as well as out.  It was below freezing, and there's a two-foot-wide hole in the ceiling over the master bathroom.  At 0500 there was a palpable wind going through the house.  Basically from the heater straight to the great outdoors.  They say they're going to fix that today.

My office is not to the point where a glass of water will freeze by my desk, which did happen in the winter of '93.  But I am wearing layers, including an obnoxious bile-green St. Augustine sweatshirt.  (I remember buying it in a cold snap up there – there was nothing else in the store in my size!)

The pretty red flowers of my Turk's Cap in the atrium half survived – the ones closest to the house made it through the night; the ones farthest away did not.  It got down in the twenties for a few hours.

Warming up today, though.  It's 30 degrees now, but getting up to 59.  Daily highs steadily rising, to 68, 75, and 80 by Sunday.  Hey; let's go to the beach.  Bring suntan oil and furs.

(The poor guys who are replacing our frozen pipes in the front yard have a real job.  They're natives, and not prepared for the bitter cold.  Well, I wasn't prepared to shell out five grand for the luxury of flush toilets and running water.  He grumps.)

Of course it's more serious in the rest of the country.  Single digits in Boston; we got out just in time.  I'm tempted to go to the beach on Sunday, just to take an annoying picture to send back to the guys at MIT.  "How's the surf up there?"  No, that would be cruel.

Joe

Dear old Jane

Over on a BBC blog about Jane Austen, there was some friction about people honoring Austen by writing things in her style (with no question as to authorship).  I responded with what I thought was the sweet voice of reason:

The question "Why not?" deserves a serious answer.   If someone has a fascination with Austen and chooses to express it in this way -- sure.  With the important observation that her work is in the public domain.  "Do not try this at home."

I love the idea because I love Austen, and anything that keeps her work alive is good.  I make my living as a novelist, though, and am conservative as to the interpretation of copyright.  The author's assigns do have financial interests and rights.

Joe Haldeman

Great model

We had a stunning gorgeous model in open studio this morning.  The LJ censors won't let me show any that have naughty bits in them, but I think this one might be innocuous enough --

a small mystery

I have a question for the company assembled.  On my Christmas wish list I had an intriguing book called Pluche or The Love of Art, by Jean duTourd, the title of which I've been carrying in my notebook for some time.

Gay got the book for me, and I've been enjoying it for a couple of days. I thought I'd gotten the recommendation from Judith Clute while I was in England, and I mentioned it to her in an email – but no; she's never heard of it.

Did anyone out there recommend it to me?  I don't think it was just a lucky guess . . .

Joe

Xmas loot!

We had a nice relaxed Christmas.  I got up early and fried up 3.5 pounds of bacon (eating perhaps a half-pound in the process) and Tim brought over fresh sweet rolls.  We noshed and then had Mimosas and Pomoses while opening presents, one at a time, for about three hours.

I got a clever bird feeder.  The birds can access the seeds through round windows, but if a squirrel steps up to the plate, its weight pulls down shields over the windows.  Boy, does that make them mad!  I wonder how long it will take for them to subvert it.



Lots of good books and CD's --


CD's –
Tom Rush at Symphony Hall
Guy Clark – My Favorite Picture of You
Willy Nelson – To All the Girls
Billy Joe Armstrong – Foreverly
Minnesota Public Radio – Keepers Car Songs
Four Good Days – Jack Williams


books –
The Gorgeous Nothings, Emily Dickinson (photocopies of her rough drafts, on scraps and envelopes, etc.)
Dotter of her Father's Eyes (graphic novel about James Joyce's daughter), Mary & Bryan Talbot
Complete Poems of James Dickey
Steinbeck in Vietnam
for the Birds (a month-to-month feeding guide)
Lucia Joyce -- To Dance in the Wake (bio of James Joyce's "mad" daughter)
Letters of Ernest Hemingway 1923-25
Bushman Lives! – Daniel Pinkwater
The World Until Yesterday, Jared Diamond
Pluche or The Love of Art, Jean duTourd
Autobiography of Mark Twain, v. 2
All the Odes, Pablo Neruda
The Men Who United the States, Simon Winchester
The Great Vegan Cookbook
boxed set of Downton Abbey

Vets for peace concert

Last night we went to the annual Veterans for Peace concert. Cookies and wine and good cheer, the music perhaps better than usual.  (The Scrooge in me rejoices that they didn't have the usual children's chorus.)

Lots of local performers doing good music from the 60's and 70's.  "Teach Your Children" and "Fixin' to Die Rag" and the Beatles  Lennon and Harrison.  Good sing-along hymns for us unbelievers.

Maybe they should call it the Old Hippie Vets' Cookies 'n' Wine Festival.  On LiveJournal I'll paste in a couple of pictures – one conventional and one an accidental abstract that expresses some of the evening's spirit . . . .




(The feminine dark shape is the woman signing for the deaf.)


It was the 27th Annual concert.  We've been to almost all of them.  Missed one for being in Barcelona, but for most of the last thirty years it's been part of the transition from Boston back to Florida.

Off to do last-minute shopping.

Joe