Rich and Strange Aeons

* Sahara Mart has sun-dried strawberries in the bulk section. They're pretty good.
** ETA: though given their gumminess and color, I suspect sugar and sulfur dioxide additives. Pure dried (e.g. freeze-dried) strawberries should be darker red. No brand, but some stuff online has strawberry flavor added as well.
* Domo seems to have turned into Ami, long AWOL from Fourth Street. Rumor is that Domo lives, somewhere... don't know where. Gain a Japanese restaurant, lose a Japanese restaurant?
* Is Leela the most useful Doctor Who companion ever? Discuss.
* Anti-noise earmuffs: useful again.
* Did Darwin Get it Right?, John Maynard Smith. Nice collection of essays, somewhat dated. A bit amusing to read old thoughts on sex, before parasite theory or the handicap principle. He has a nice paean to Dawkins's reason and clarity that I should type in.

Link dump.
* War Before Civilization
* Someone's thoughts on D&D 4e
* Planescape Society of Sensation. I thought it was cute.
* Steampunk theme for Firefox
* transgender bank commercial in Argentina
* Dealing with bugs from Mars
* DEA: better to live in agony than risk taking too many opiates.

* The prime minister of Japan has problems with kanji. So do many Japanese, apparently. I say this not to make fun of them but to say "maybe your system is too frigging complicated".
* History and growing abuse of the filibuster
* Won't let me expand my business? Have a sex shop
* Krugman on rent control and how the more economists actually agree on something, the less the world listens to them.
* 2007 letter on land tax
* Med schools and Pharm money

* The Mormons, not having violated the apolitical conditions of their tax-exempt status enough in California, are opposing civil unions in Illinois
* More homophobia in North Carolina
* Creationist War on the Brain

You can practically skate out there. And I see no indication that tomorrow will be warm enough to dismiss it all or likely to cover it in snow. Bleah.

Went to vote at the Curry Building. Whoops, 30 minute line, and that's with like a dozen voting booths. Will try again some other time, with better preparation like water bottle and book. It's open 8:30-6, 1-5 Sunday.

al-Qaeda supporters endorse McCain, hope for an attack that will make more likely his victory, and thus ongoing war and drain of US resources.

Like any soccer mom, Palin had $150,000 spent on her by the RNC buying luxury clothing.

London buses to carry atheist ads.

Racism: not dead yet.

I've now been to the misnamed-in-prior-post Ethiopian restaurant, twice.

Visit 1: I had yebeg wat, lamb curry-stew with yogurt on injera, with sides of curried vegetables and a sweet salad. It was all excellent, though I made the mistake of eating all my injera and felt overstuffed for the next several hours.

Visit 2: I decided to try a bunch of appetizers. Kategna, injera with seasoned butter and yogurt; this was as good I remembered from the Red Sea incarnation. Only $2.50, but possibly best split with someone, since we're talking 6 pieces of bread and fat. But tasty pieces!

Then Yemshimbra Assa, my first big disappointment in Ethiopian food, though an IDS reviewer disagrees. It was described as "chickpea pastry", but what came out was a giant lump of chickpea paste, with no detectable seasonings. Not like falafel, more like a big lump of yellow play-dough. It came under a decent tomato and onion sauce, and mashing the balls into the sauce made it tolerable, but, blah. It came with hambasha, some sort of bread, which was pretty bland too. The review suggests having them together, which I did not think of.

Third was Siga Sambussa, a meat pastry appetizer. Given the name, I anticipated something like a samosa, the Indian dish which made it to East Africa probably quite some time ago. What I got was externally identical to a small egg roll. Internally, there was a bunch of meat, not particularly seasoned. I've come to think most egg rolls are pretty crappy, unless they're Vietnamese, and this was no exception.. It also comes with hambasha, and the sweet salad (sweetness probably from mango) which along with the Kategna was the highlight of tonight's meal.

Both meals ended up being $17 including tax and tip; I took home half the kategna, most of the hambasha, and a bit of chickpea ball.

Puccini's has a website, which is not the URL printed on their receipts.

My review list will be updated soon, possibly just by linking here.

Other food news: I made my first 100% rye sourdough. As far as I can tell it didn't rise at all, doorstop yay. It's at a nice level of sourness though, so it's a tasty and somewhat soft doorstop.

Lyceum and I went to Basil Leaf for lunch today. "Asian Fusion" restaurant with Thai focus near 4th and Grant, next to Casablanca. We had the $9 buffet which was quite good. Selection was small but fresh -- they have teeny tiny serving bowls. I had fried rice, tofu curry, ginger pork, something chicken, and chicken Thai spice salad; all were quite good. The tempura was meh. Lunch and dinner entrees seem to be about the same price, and entree soups include Udon and Pho, the Vietnamese noodle soup popular in the cities. I'd happily go there again, while I'm always reluctant to go to the Siam House buffet.

I should walk around before deciding to have more servings. I can go from "not stuffed" in the chair to "omg what have I done?" a few minutes later on foot.

I travel! I go to Boston! Flight at 12:17 Thursday, returning 5:34pm following Friday the 14th. The Bloomington shuttle can serve me, but involves catching it at 8:40am Thursday for a 10:30 airport arrival, and waiting till 6:40pm on return, to get into town at 8:20pm. I figured I'd ask if anyone could help shave my waiting times, especially on departure.

There's a new cafe in town, which opened just a few days ago. Rachael's, 3rd and Lincoln, right across from Turkuaz. I haven't eaten there yet; I just dropped by today, en route home from lunch. The person there said she's still getting food up to speed, with breakfast and deli coming, but that she's got "good coffee" -- Brown County, same as Tallent and Blue Boy (chocolate place next to Buskirk-Chumley) use, and hot chocolate made from chips and milk, which gets my attention.

Huh, I'm reminded I haven't been to Neannie's since I first went, nor Soma in a long time. Or Django ever.

Walking up Walnut tonight, I found, between 7th and 8th, "insomnia cookies". A cookie place, open from 4pm-2am, making deliveries after 8pm. Cookies and brownies, basically. I had a chocolate chunk cookie for $0.95, and it was good chocolatey gooeyness. Been open a week, I asked if they were still decoration since it looks very industrial -- warehouse-high ceiling, big steam pipes, black walls -- and she said yeah, the owner's looking for artists to pretty up the place. Don't know if that means murals or hanging art or what, but hey.

Japanee, formerly Japonais, I'm pretty sure formerly had a parking lot. Now it has Japanese-ish wooden outdoor seating.

I've usually been disappointed by the savory crepes at Cafe et Crepe, but tonight's chicken fromage was pretty good, and the other SFDG attendees liked their dinners as well.

Random thought: "I owe you a phone call" is not, in the end, a substitute for actually making the phone call.

http://becisblog.blogspot.com/
http://emergency.service.indiana.edu/

Hey, useful links I didn't know about.

Turkuaz is never a bad answer to that question. I'll miss the place, if I ever escape Bloomington; nowhere else so combines delectable tastiness and cheapness and atmosphere. I saw a young woman and mother peering at the menu, earlier, and encouraged them to go in. "What's good?" "Pides!" But Eric and I went pricier -- kebab for him, and a chicken saute for me, which I'd never seen anyone get before. Tasty. Familiar -- probably the same meat as chicken on pides. But seasoned juicy meat never gets old, and the yogurt, rice, and beans go well.

Eric tells me that yes, chess does have named concepts beyond the inadequate set I know, analogous to the concepts I know for Go. Stuff *not* in the Complete Chess Course, despite the name.

Swing club callout was large as usual, overflowing Frangipani. There's a salsa club (new?) which probably stole Alumni Hall from us.

And there's an upright (or synthesizer? Yamaha) piano in the IMU food court now. I inflicted pentatonics on the staff. Because it's hard not to sound at least half-decent if you just play on the black keys.