Rich and Strange Aeons

A long post here (2200+ words), but I don’t see a natural division point. Also, apparently this journal style doesn't display lists nicely. I may need a new style, sigh. (No, actually it's DW adding p tags to the li tags.)

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So, my past two entries were composed and posted "AO3" style. I write locally in a Markdown text file, I convert it to HTML via pandoc, I check it locally in my browser, I post it in the HTML mode input box. This has worked great on AO3, but I didn't think to double-check my entries here until replying to comments this morning. And discovered my entries were ugly. Raw line breaks (not br codes, just text file breaks) in the HTML were preserved rather than being wrapped. The paratransit entry had huge gaps in the blockquotes. The blockquotes were italicized.

The first two problems are now fixed, by my checking [Disable Auto-Formatting] and re-saving the entries. The blockquote italics I assume are part of the ornate style I chose to use for this journal, and I guess I get to question that decision now.

Auto-Formatting isn't all bad. This entry was written the old way, as simple text typed directly into the HTML mode box (notice the asterisks) (Edit: never mind, see below.) Without Formatting it would be one big paragraph, rather than (so far) three. (Why don't I use Rich Text? I dunno, never liked it much.)

Anyway, if the Pyrrhic and Paratransit entries looked painful to read, they should be better now.

Edit: I noticed a Markdown option on comments, and then found text format documentation and the Beta page. With Beta Create Entries, I could compose Markdown right here! Huh. Plus an option for making up my own entry links? Fascinating.

Yeah, so if you leave Entry Link blank then your entry URL will be the (digits).html style, but if you enter anything, then it will be (year)/(month)/(day)/(text).html style. You can have human-readable post URLs!

And if you update an older post to the new link style, the old links will still work, I tested it. So you won't break old bookmarks.

I grew up knowing of “Pyrrhic victories”, some idea of winning so badly that you were losing anyway. But I never wondered what that really meant for, say, Pyrrhus. I might have guessed something like winning the battle but losing more men.

Well, yesterday I read Bret’s post on Pyrrhus and I’ve learned otherwise. When he beat Roman armies, he in fact lost fewer men – 4000 vs. 7000, say. The problem is that losing 4000 out of 25,000 soldiers was commonly what the loser would do; a winning army of the period might hope to lose 150.

And Pyrrhus was doing an overseas expedition from a small kingdom, he didn’t have reserves. There were local allies of sorts, but the core soldiers of his system were Macedonian-style pikemen, who need actual training and weren’t easily replaceable.

Whereas Rome was on its home ground, and the Middle Republic looks nearly optimally designed for maximizing the number of enthusiastic heavy infantry it could call up. All the landed farmers could be conscripted, land was reasonably evenly distributed to support lots of farmers who could obtain metal armor, the same people were the main voting power so had a say in their own wars. And the subjects/“allies” were ‘taxed’ in soldiers, not food or money, with a share in any loot, so basically brought into the system. “You have to join our gang, but in return you get to join our gang and get a cut.”

Pyrrhus had trouble losing 4000 men. Rome could not only replace 7000, it could raise a whole new consular army of 20,000 people to support the army that had gotten mauled. And if the new army got mauled too, Rome could do it again. And you can’t peel off their allies easily because those have decided they like the system, both for a share in winning battles and for protection from their traditional enemies, their neighbors.

(Time to quote Good Omens: “Even the pious Scots, locked throughout history in a long-drawn-out battle with their arch-enemies the Scots,” – this would apply just as well to the various peoples of Italy. The Pax Romana starts as “don’t fight each other, help us fight those people over there.”)

So yeah. Pyrrhus was winning, even if we compared numbers of casualties – but they were still losses he couldn’t afford to keep losing. And Rome didn’t like accepting a draw, let alone a loss; like a rabid bulldog, it would keep raising armies until it achieved something that could be called victory.

(This stuff on the Roman system draws on many of Bret’s posts, not just that one.)

More fast food exploration!

My local Safeway's deli sells 4 drumsticks and 4 thighs, roast or deep fried, for $9.99, which is a pretty good deal. They're decently tasty, if less so when cold.

Today I wandered down to the nearest Popeye's, open again after renovation, to try their offerings. I'd been hearing mixed things about their chicken sandwich, so wanted to go classic. But according to the signboard, the smallest pure-chicken option was 8 unspecified pieces, for $23. Eek!

I asked if they had any smaller options, and got told there was the Tuesday special -- a drumstick and thigh for $3.49. So I had two of those. If you multiply by 4 it's $14, so still pricier than Safeway but much cheaper than Popeye's usual.

Quality, hrm. I wasn't going to get Safeway chicken too for a side-by-side test. (And that would be a lot of chicken at once, even for me.) I'd say it wasn't clearly better, not enough to justify a longer walk and more money. It was different -- I asked for 'spicy' rather than 'classic' and while it wasn't super hot or anything, it did have some kick and interest. Batter felt looser than Safeway fried, not sure if thinner or not.

I still prefer my own unbattered seasoned pan-fried chicken, which is probably also cheaper, but indulging is nice too.

Also had two sides: Cajun fries, and red beans and rice, both decent.

This is based on a manga, but I will change character names to clear pre-conceptions.

So we have this young woman Sarah, age 20, and an older but still attractive one, Heather.

Sarah has:

* declared that her main motivation in life is seeing Heather be happy

* said that she is susceptible to Heather's seductive wiles

* voluntarily taken over waking up and grooming Heather in the mornings, for the past 4 years

* been repeatedly possessive about anyone else touching Heather, even to the point of ripping Heather out of another woman's arms. She has carried an unconscious Heather through dangerous weather, even when someone much stronger than her was available.

Also, while not doing anything clearly sexual or romantic, Sarah and Heather touch much of the time, including sleeping on each other's bodies, or cuddling together overnight when camping. Sarah often wraps her arms around Heather's shoulders from behind.

There's also a young man, John, the same age as Sarah. Sarah and John are friends, more or less; they certainly care about each other's well-being. They went on a date once, almost by accident or mutual teasing/bullying. It was a nice date. John thought Sarah was cute. Sarah has shown some subtle awareness of John as a strong and kind young man. They did not hold hands or kiss. It was their only known date, in between two separate instances of Sarah being possessive about Heather's body. Sarah has never once shown John the same intensity of feeling (motivation, possessiveness) that she has shown for Heather.

Is Sarah, in any way, remotely straight?

If I add the information that Heather has been Sarah's teacher and housemate since Sarah was 10, and her only guardian since Sarah was 15, does this change your opinion? (All of Sarah's behaviors described have been in the past 2-4 years, there's no trick here a la a 10 year old saying they'll marry a particular adult when they grow up.)

I'm starting to wonder if something damaged my ability to taste apples. I've been systematically trying a bunch of different varieties, and they all register as "crisp, moist", some a bit sweeter than others, none sour or tart. Okay, so then I just tried a Granny Smith apple -- famously sour. Nope. Maaaaybe slightly sourer than the others, but I feel that in a blind taste test I'd say "just another bland apple."

Can I still taste sour things? Oh sure, like diluted lemon juice.

Maybe drinking diluted lemon juice raised my sour threshold? But I've been doing that only recently, while I've been feeling apples were bland for the past few years, and for some unclear reason stopped buying them regularly years before that.

Maybe apples just suck when you're used to pigging out on clementines and berries?

But I remember actively liking Braeburn and Pink Lady apples when I first encountered them...

Inspired by the NJB video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTV-wwszGw8

On my walk today, I decided to attend to sound. What was I hearing, what was the loudest thing I heard?

As you'd expect, a variety of things: power tools, construction hammering, dogs, kids on a playground, planes, trains. But mostly, cars.

Even deep in a residential neighborhood, with few cars at any one time, cars were often the loudest sound around. Even if there's just one car on the block, it _dominates_ as it passes by, and can be heard some distance away. And on my first street, while there was rarely more than one car, there was even more rarely _no_ cars.

And even when there were no cars nearby, I could hear the hum of the two lane arterials a few blocks away, or maybe the 4 lane stroad more blocks away.

More rarely, BART. Or Amtrak or freight trains.

Once I found a pretty quiet spot, deeper into the neighborhood, but then, perversely, two private -- propeller -- planes flew overhead. Pretty loud at the closest point, and noticeably audible for a long time after that.

Same is true from my house. Step out on the front porch, listen, and even when all else fades, there's a low roar of cars on some main street.

This one from Boss. 5 oz patty, I was told. Cheeseburger with veggies and house sauce. It was decent. A lot like the $5 burgers in Harvard Square in 2019, except this one was $11.

There's been a social media meme about "white people food", bland and unseasoned. Yesterday I saw a little video, first with some woman apparently cooking skinless chicken breast in white rice, cutting to a guy saying "Do you ever feel the urge to say 'I'm white but non-practicing?'" as he cut to a big spice rack.

This all irritates me more than it probably should. But let's think about some flavor options available to mid-level peasants -- not buying imports, but not limited to just eating an insufficient amount of barley -- in ancient or medieval Europe, depending on time and place:

salt: actual salt, fish sauce (garum), salted fish or meats

fat: olive oil, butter, lard, chicken or goose fats, suet

sweetness: raisins, dried apple, maybe other dried fruit. Honey? (might have been expensive)

alliums: onions, garlic, shallots, chives

herbs/spices: oregano, fennel, sage, bay leaf, rosemary, anise, cumin, juniper, lavender, marjoram, mint, sorrel, etc. (granted, this category is much richer toward the Mediterranean, but many herbs could be and were cultivated further north, and juniper is Scandinavian)

pungent: mustard, horseradish

acid/alcohol: vinegar, verjuice, wine, ale

Even if chicken-woman were avoiding the first three categories for alleged health reasons, there's still lots of options for pepping it up. And, to be fair, no evidence in a brief low-resolution video excerpt that she wasn't. Garlic, herbs, or marinade wouldn't have been visible.

Not to mention elites importing black pepper and other eastern spices, or the post-Columbian uses of paprika if not other chili peppers.

Granted, industrialization/urbanization, the Great Depression, and World War shortages or rationing, and the lowest common denominator of school cafeterias and TV dinners seem to have sapped the vim out of a lot of American or English home cooking. But that's a partial break in a rich tradition.

I grew up not eating fast food; it just wasn't done in my family, like drinking soft drinks (as my parents called soda/pop). Even in college, while I took to Asian fast food like Taipan, Yoshinoya, or Panda Express, I barely did American fast food. Never have much, apart from Greyhound rest stops, or a period in grad school when I would turn to student center Burger King between classes.

But I've been watching a bunch of food videos, and reading posts about "best burgers", and got interested in trying them again. So today I went to McDonald's and had a double quarter pounder with cheese (actually with extra cheese, due to miscommunication with the kiosk, so 3 slices total.)

And it was good! Not the best burger ever by far (that would be a medium rare burger at a Bloomington cafe), but it was a gustatory experience I enjoyed and would choose to repeat, at least ignoring price/health/ecology. Meaty and juicy (though between meat, cheese, ketchup, and mustard, I'm not sure _which_ juices.) Far better than the cheap Burger King cheeseburger I tried a few months ago, which did not arise above "this is technically food".

(Where did I eat my burger? Outside on the grass. And that stretch of San Pablo is especially stroad for the area. Fast food with parking lots and driveways on one side, auto dealerships on the other.)

Speaking of which, I've learned that the standard McDonald's patty is a mere 1.6 oz before cooking. I'd figured they'd be at least 2 oz. I think this may have always been the case, not modern shrinkflation. The Quarter Pounder ones are 4.25 oz, up from 4, and supposedly never frozen.

Moving on from food for a bit, I afterwards walked west along Harrison, an area I haven't been to. There are a lot of homeless people in the SFBA. There have not been many homeless people around where I'm staying. There were a lot at 7th and Harrison, which (I checked) is in Berkeley, not Albany. I wonder if the Albany police are less tolerant, or Albany is too small and far from services.

Later and back home, I tried my first roast cabbage. Cut up a giant head of red cabbage into, well, pieces; recipes suggested quarter wedges, but my serrated knife was not big or sharp enough to pull that off. Pieces on tray, bit of olive oil, salt, curry powder, garlic powder. 30 minutes at 450 F, 20 at 400 F. The pieces at the front of the tray came out pretty well. The pieces further back are decent, but also have some overly crisped leaves, which I guess tells me something about temperature distribution in the oven.

I am frankly suspicious of the oven, but my new CO detector has not budged, except the one time I deliberately challenged it.

I have mostly moved on in life from instant ramen, despite the blandishments of Yuru Camp's cup noodles, but Safeway has had big sales on Cup Noodles, $1 instead of $2.29, and I have given in to temptation. Certainly tasty. Odd flavors like Terikyaki Beef and Yellow Curry. Protein-enriched with tofu, and green onions except I forgot I have those.

Finally! When I buy hummus, I check the ingredients for what kind of oil it uses. At the foofy store today, I found Haigs "rich and creamy" hummus, which doesn't list _any_ oil. After tasting it, I believe it, though not the "rich and creamy" claim. A good place to add my own olive oil...

As a child, one culinary treat was going to a "Lebanese" (my father said "probably Palestinian in disguise") food shop and getting a plate of hummus, with a pool of olive oil in the middle, sprinkled with paprika, and of course warm pita. Tonight I had carrots not pita, and didn't use a plate, but seeing oil in hummus, and mixing it around, with a bit of kick, gives lots of nostalgia.

(That food shop also had open faced meat pies of a kind I've never seen since. Still miss them.)