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Saturday, November
29, 2003 at 00:05:26 (EST) |
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Black on the outside
It's been an exhausting holiday. I've cooked for Thanksgiving only
once before and that was only for two people, and really only because
I got a free turkey from my job. This time it was cooking for 10 people.
But between M and I, and the help of several other folks, we managed
quite a feast. I was paranoid about the recado
turkey recipe, even though I've done it before. But it's so simple
it seems like you're getting away with something. It's just a paste
made of dried pasillas
and some other stuff that you slop on the bird and let set in for
10-15 hours before cooking it. It looks kind of funny before it's
cooked (see photo album below), and when it's done it's almost totally
black. But apparently that's what it's supposed to look like. And
it passed the final test: nobody barfed! Success!
It was a long day of cooking and drinking. Dave brought us 25 bottles
of his homebrew and we polished almost all of it off before the
food was ready. But there was plenty of wine and bourbon available,
of course. It occurs to me now that holidays with my own family
might be more enjoyable if there was more liquor available. Ah,
so simple. I'll have to remember that when I'm in Cleveland next
month.
Of the cats, only Pinky knew what the turkey was. She spent a good
portion of the meal dancing around the serving table trying to get
at it. Eventually she got a leg bone and that seemed to placate
her. When we prepared to get a nightcap at The Alibi, M called for
a car service to take his elders to their hotel. But not one place
answered the phone. We knew they couldn't all be closed, even the
liquor store had been open. So M's sister and brother-in-law offered
to drive them if M would direct them. So I went to the bar with
the international contingency, 3 Brits and a Berliner. The hotel
was in Long Island City, but we didn't see M and his kin for over
an hour. Apparently they got lost and M lost his privileges as Head
Navigator.
Today I made turkey stock for some reason. I have no idea what
to do with the stuff now. Soup,
I guess. At this point I am a little tired of thinking of stuff
to do with turkey. Here are some random photos of the event. Of course we forgot to
get any shots of the meal itself, but we have plenty of cat pictures!
What a surprise.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Tuesday, November
25, 2003 at 11:31:45 (EST) |
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Wallkill Creek Survival
Not to keep harping on this new smoking bill, but I found an article
about it. Plus the guy fronting for the bill, Howard
Mills (Assemblyman from Wallkill, NY), was just on NPR. Brian
Lehrer doesn't think the bill has a chance, but if nothing else, at
least something is working against those goddamn anti-smoking ads
I keep seeing on the subway and elsewhere.  You
know what I mean. Those ads that take the slippery slope logic of
"Previous smoking bands didn't spell doom for the city, neither
will this one." I could go on about how their angle is like saying
the Patriot Act is okay because years ago they made seat belts mandatory,
but their condescending pitch is not what bothers me. What bothers
me is, why are they rubbing our noses in it?
Look, American
Legacy Organization (whatever that is), you won. The entire
state of New York has a strict smoking ban in effect. Casual public
smoking as we know it will never be the same. You got what you asked
for. And before Mills' new bill, there had been nary a whimper from
the pro-smoking-choice lobby. So why did they launch this annoying
campaign? Are they sore winners? Or maybe the whole smoking ban
isn't going as well as they originally thought. Like the Bush Administration's
bullshit claim a little while ago that the economy had 'recovered',
these ads try to make people conclude that everything is working
as it should. They're using that "act as if" routine,
hoping to make things better sheerly through the manipulation of
public opinion. This apparently works on most Americans, but I'm
not buying it. Even if it was true, I'd still have trouble believing
it when it's demonstrated in such an over-the-top method.
Mills' bill definitely has its work cut out for it. It goes against
the Zeitgeist, even if it does follow of logic far more sound the
hysterical, puritanical fascism we've been suffering under for months.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Monday, November
24, 2003 at 21:30:54 (EST) |
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Picture your head in a way that excuses things
you say with it
Josh
got his story published by the NY
Post about grouphug.us!
It features brilliant commentary from both myself and Abbypants.
It's just too bad that my first quote in this major publication has
me talking about the "human garbage" that constitutes my
confessions to the site. I don't think I'll be showing this to Mom
& Dad. I've caused them enough misery as it is. Oooh, I feel another
confession coming on!
Posted By Jimmy Legs |
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Monday, November
24, 2003 at 21:15:34 (EST) |
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It's another day waiting for the train
Busy day. Thanks to the ineptitude of both the US Postal Service and
my idiot coworkers, I suffered the indignity of actually having to
go into the office to deliver a CD. I decided to make it interesting
by riding my bike there, something I've never attempted before. I
was bike messenger for a day. I always thought bike messengers were
cool, ever since that Kevin Bacon vehicle
from the 80's, but now I have a newfound respect for them. How do
they do this every day? Some cop yelled at me for trying to go down
a street his patrol car was blocking for some reason. I took the Brooklyn
Bridge this time, which even on a November Monday was full of tourists.
Most of them understood enough not to walk on the bike path side,
but a few required me to do some fancy maneuvering. I took solace
in the fact that I ruined a few photos by dashing through the line
of fire. I got over to the office, dropped off the CD and ... went
to Century 21!
Oh yeah! I needed some new pants, you see. Riding a bike around the
financial district is a real pain. Windy streets, big trucks and comatose
pedestrians abound. And finding a pole to lock your bike is next to
impossible. Because every other bike messenger and delivery guy in
town is there. And if all that weren't enough, there is an enormous
construction project
going on in the middle of it all:
Wow! They're building a walkway over the West Side Highway at
Vesey Street! It's about time. You can just see Century 21 in
the background. |
Here's the new PATH
station. Guess they're keeping the "World Trade Center"
name. So this is a 'temporary' station? |
Look at it! It's a tank, I tells ya! |
We bought our turkey tonight at Pathmark,
and I got some of the supplies I need for the south-of-the-border
recipe
I'll be applying to said turkey. It now occurs to me that it's gonna
be pretty difficult to cook the turkey and bake anything else at
the same time in our tiny oven. We may have to farm some of this
stuff out. So is anybody else sticking around for Thanksgiving?
Or is New York too real for you?
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Monday, November
24, 2003 at 11:18:58 (EST) |
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Smoke smoke smoke all over you
Hey I just heard there's a bill up to change the smoking ban in the
city! The bill creates a "smoking license" that bars will
be able to purchase for a nominal fee to allow smoking in their establishments!
I had this idea way before the ban started, but nobody listens to
me. It's okay, I'm coping. Now, why didn't they attempt this before
throwing the smoking end of the city into panic and chaos for several
months? Actually, maybe moving in this way will help the bill to pass.
By banning smoking everywhere at once and leaving it that way for
months, we've all gotten used to the inconvience. Allowing smoking
licenses now will mean only those bars that really really want to
allow smoking will purchase them. Some bars won't bother. For instance,
I dunno what they think, but I don't believe a bar like the Brooklyn
Inn needs smoking inside the premises. I think I like that bar
better without smoke. On the other hand, a bar like The
Alibi absolutely needs smokers, if for no other reason than to
cover up that weird smell that has developed there of late. Smells
like feet.
Posted By Jimmy Legs |
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Monday, November
24, 2003 at 10:37:16 (EST) |
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Roll out the barrel
After many months of thinking about it, I finally solved the Pickle
Enigma. Years ago, I would go to Essex Street on Sundays to buy pickles
at Guss' Pickles, the old-school pickle house. But they were unceremoniously
tossed from their venerable location because the building owners wanted
to make the neighborhood safe for yuppies and trust-fund kids. The
Lower East Side
Tenement Museum put them up for a while in their space, but after
that I lost track of them. I even searched the neighborhood trying
to find them, all to no avail. Then I remembered I sit in front of
a computer for 3000 hours a week. Not only is the Internet good for
meeting up with hecklers who you saw the previous night at a show,
it also is good for researching where stuff is.
So it turns out that Guss'
Pickles just moved across the street from the LES Tenement Museum.
Duh. I should have looked for it there. Meanwhile, a faction of
the Guss crew broke off and formed the NYC
Pickle Guys, whose shop is like half a block from the old Guss'.
I'm not much of a detective. This means on previous searches I went
right by the store. I guess that's what they call 'tunnel vision.'
Anyhow, armed with addresses I hopped on the Raleigh
Twenty and headed out.
 How
about this weather? During the day, I didn't even need a jacket.
Really fine cycling weather. I took the Manhattan Bridge and rode
to Essex Street. Sure enough, there was the Pickle Guys shop, plain
as day. In the old days of Guss' Pickles, they put the pickle barrels
out on the sidewalk, but here they keep them inside. It loses some
of the old charm, but it probably helps when it gets subzero outside.
I picked up a quart of hot sour pickles ($5.25) and went to find
the legendary Guss'. Indeed it was across the street from the museum,
in a small storefront. They still hand out pickles from barrels
on the sidewalk, which I realize has more to do with their lack
of space than anything else. I picked up another quart of hot sours
($6.00) and a pint of olives stuffed with jalapenos ($7, I think).
They apparently make olives stuffed with habaneros, but they said
it'd be another 3 weeks before they'd be ready. Conventional wisdom
states that Guss' pickles are superior to the upstarts, but considering
the Pickle Guys are an offshoot of Guss', they're probably using
the same basic recipe. They're both bitchin'.
I took the Williamsburg Bridge back home. The walkway on this bridge
has sever inclines on both ends, as well as some that inexplicably
show up in the middle of the bridge as well. The advantage of such
inclines is that after you pump your little legs off going uphill,
you get to coast downhill at top speed. This proved impossible,
as the bridge was covered with pedestrian hipsters and Hasidim with
baby carriages.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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