Thus concludes… DEFUNCT OCCUPATIONS WEEK on ANACRUSIS
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This makes it seem like I’m very clever and quick on IM but actually it was Twitter
| Rachel: | HOW CAN YOU DENY BLOG COMMENTS when I must tell you Lev Grossman‘s book teaches children that being an amoral shit = magic? |
| Rachel: | I mean I know I disallow blog comments but DO WANT I WANT, NOT WHAT I DO |
| Brendan: | You give me warm feelings right in the confirmation bias. Blog comments are one of the few things worse than Lev Grossman. |
| Rachel: | Oh come now, I think we can all agree that Dick Cheney’s career is marginally worse than Lev Grossman! |
| Brendan: | That’s still only two things. |
I hate Lev Grossman
What’s that? Lev Grossman wrote a vacuous cover article for Time? I am taken aback! The Stranger (and its sister publication here, the Mercury) grate on me with their preciousness from time to time, but I admire the execution of Noah Kalina’s mirror-parody. It would have fit right into Modern Humor Authority, and I don’t think I’ve ever said that before about something that actually showed up in print.
If none of the preceding makes sense to you, you can pretty much reduce this entire post to its title.
Thus begins… DEFUNCT OCCUPATIONS WEEK on ANACRUSIS
How the HELL did it take me this long to find out about Hyperbole and a Half? Allie Brosh is the best humor columnist alive and she’s been doing it for years and nobody ever told me! (Until Leigh tweeted about it. Thanks, Leigh!) I cannot get through one of her posts without doing the weird crying soundless death-rattle laugh thing that always bothers my roommates, and lately “go to the motherfucking BANK like an ADULT” has been my private mantra when I’m trying to make myself do difficult things.
Stories We Tell, The
My dear friend Joe Mcdaldno–writer, game designer, and fascinating Renaissance human–was kind enough to interview me about Anacrusis for his nascent radio show/podcast, The Stories We Tell. This marks the third podcast to feature me, and my second time on Canadian radio. Soon, listening to my nasal drone trail off in the middle of half-baked jokes will be completely unavoidable!
Incidentally, the term I can’t think of at around 16:45 is syllepsis (and more generally zeugma).
Someday I will get around to organizing something like this for Portland
Hey, remember Journey to the End of the Night, a game I played with the London crew and subsequently wrote an enormous blog post that I just linked to about? (It’s okay if you didn’t parse that.) Anyway, Newsweek did an article on urban exploration that includes it. Thanks to Mink for the tip!
I’m going to PAX for the first time this weekend! I hope it’s fun. A bunch of my GPNW cohorts will be running and demoing games in the unofficial indie RPG room (304), and I’ll be helping out there whenever I’m not wandering the show floor.
If you are also going to PAX, I will see you there! I hope it’s fun. Further updates atwitter.
Epiphiniamb
I suddenly realized why I hate the “humor” in Shakespeare so much: comic timing depends on confounding your expectations of rhythm in speech, so nothing is funny in meter! Also Shakespeare was bad at jokes.
More cooking stuff
I have these two recipes in text files on my desktop, which is dumb because I can’t see my desktop when I need to use them and I am separated from my desktop by three hours and a mountain range. Both are extremely healthy and require a sophisticated palate to appreciate.
Dirty Chicken
(so named by Kara & co on True Blood night; brought to us from Kentucky by Monica)
1 cup shredded or cubed mozzarella
1/2 cup cheap ranch dressing
1/2 cup hot wing sauce (yes, you can buy this in bottles at Safeway)
8 oz cream cheese
1 10-12 oz can chicken (like canned tuna, only… it’s chicken)
Mash up in a glass or ceramic bowl. Microwave for three or four minutes, stirring every minute. Eat with chips. Serves party.
This next one is what I made for months when I wanted potatoes until I discovered an amazing secret recipe for perfect french fries, which I am not going to link to because it is too awesome. MY THIRD-BEST POTATO RECIPE: I HEREBY BEQUEATH IT.
Boiled Fried Potatoes
About 8-10 new potatoes, either Yukon gold or red
3 Tbsp butter
Kosher salt
1 Tbsp thyme
1/2 tsp white pepper
Water
You need a seasoned cast-iron skillet for this because otherwise they’ll stick like demons.
Mash up a tablespoon of the salt and the thyme with a mortar and pestle. Scrub the potatoes and chop them into 2-3 little discs per potato, cutting off the ends so both sides have an exposed surface. Place the potatoes in a single layer on the skillet, add just enough water to cover them, turn the burner to medium-high and add the mixed salt and thyme and the butter. Then wait for the water to all boil off.
When it’s gone–you will know because the tenor of the hissing sound has changed and the bubbles look different–turn the heat down to medium. Continue to fry the potatoes, flipping once and moving the interior potatoes to the sides of the pan once the first side is golden and crusty. When both sides are golden and crusty, add more salt and pepper, then eat. This serves about two hungry people.
NOTE: You can substitute olive oil for the butter but it’s not as bad for you.