Re: How to get apostropher to like a cat

1

Especially Australian bacon.

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2

Seems like a waste of good bacon. Now that bacon is probably all fur-ridden. He should have taped a picture of bacon to the cat instead.

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3

Or bacon tape.

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4

Cats!

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5

Maybe the post should be titled "How to get weiner to like bacon"?

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6

That's a pretty tolerant cat.

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7

6: I bet cats get so sick of statements like that. It's like telling an African-American that she's articulate.

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8

How on earth did he get the cat to sit still?

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9

2: Eh wot?

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10

In college, my cob-logger Froz and I had a cat named Protein.

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11

Did you tape bacon to it?

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12

Seems like a waste of good bacon

Didn't you consider that maybe John used lousy bacon for this project? It's good to have some way of getting rid of lousy bacon; taping it to cats is an ok idea.

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13

No tape involved, but here's some bacon on a goat.

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14

Someone needs to write a short story based on the photo in 13.

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15

Huh. Somehow in the earlier discussion of Scalzi's wife's altercation, I'd missed the fact that he's an SF writer. I've read some of his stuff, the name just didn't trigger it for me.

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16

Yeah, Scalzi quickly graduated to my "will buy in hardcover 2 months after release, because no I can't wait" after Old Man's War.

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17

"will buy in hardcover 2 months after release, because no I can't wait"

So you can wait 2 months but cannot wait for it to come out in paperback? I'm not getting it.... If you like it so much why wait the 2 months?

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18

Because I tell myself I can wait--it just turns out I'm wrong. Authors like Charlie Stross, S.M. Stirling, and few others are on "Suck it up and buy it cuz you know you can't wait list."

Baen authors are in a weird zone, because I tend to buy their e-book version rather than shell out for the hardcover.

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19

Huh. Guess that's never been a problem for me since most of my reading material is fairly old so more readily available in paperback than hardcover anyway. When recently there have been a few new books I wanted to read, it was an exciting treat to be able to purchase them brand-new and in hardcover.

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20

But come on! This is pertaining insufficiently to cured pork. You're the Chopper, surely you have some insight into the intersection of felinity and baconity!

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21

Based on the post itself, I thought we were going to see a recipe for Bacon Lettuce and Cat sandwiches.

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22

I am leary of combining semisolids (e.g., bacon fat) and cat fur. I once put a blob of toothpaste on a cat's tail, thinking he would lick it off and it would be funny (gimme a break, I was 6). Instead, he had a matted clump of yuck until he died 10 years later.

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23

Also, I have an 8.5 pound pork belly curing in a mix of salt, brown sugar, and black pepper in my fridge right now. I can't wait to bust out the smoker I built this summer on this thing--although I need to spend part of the weekend finishing up the cold-smoking portion of the contraption.

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24

Isn't bacon fat a colloid?

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25

Now that's trafe.

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26

By the way Chopper, have you got a contingency plan for getting rid of lousy bacon? Does it involve small mammals?

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27

I have an 8.5 pound pork belly

Me too, but I plan to start exercising soon.

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28

re: 27

8.5lbs? You're not even trying...

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29

7: I hope you didn't just compare black women to animals.

I have some good local pork in the freezer, along with a couple of unopened cartons of ice cream I'm going to have to throw out b/c the neighbors across the way aren't home. Sad.

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30

Now that's trafe.

Wait till I tell you about my backfat, shrimp, and parmesan blood sausage.

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31

Is Kosher parmesan an impossibility? This would be news to me. Though I could definitely see there being no such thing currently available. (Excluding from consideration Kraft parmesan, which is Kosher but is not parmesan, and other frozen grated products some of which are Kosher, which vary in their resemblance to parmesan along a scale from "a little bit like" to "not at all like".)

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32

You know what I ate last night that was really tasty? open-faced sandwich with a lot of parmesan sliced very thinly ("a lot" of parmesan being much smaller quantity than "a lot" of many other things) and honey. Mmmm.

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33

Ah I see. Something to do with the presence of rennet in the dairy product.

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34

Parmesan is trafe?

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35

Also, possible Apostropher motto: "like Kryptonite to Kosher"

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36

See this page: "Hard cheeses, however, are made from milk and rennet, an animal product, and the kashrut of such cheeses is a matter of debate in the religious Jewish community."

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37

Also, Google likes the spelling "traif" better than "trafe", and "treif" still better.

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38

"treyf" is also a contender, just a bit behind "treif". "trayf" does about as well as "traif".

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39

You're not allowed to mix dairy and meat. I don't know about the stand-alone kosher status of parmesan cheese.

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40

But no one actually uses rennet for any cheeses anymore. Rennet was the original source for the enzyme chymosin. But in the early 90s the gene for chymosin was inserted into a yeast, so now the enzyme can be produced in industrial quantities using vats of GM yeast.

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41

I would use trayf myownself - it's phonetic and I've seen it spelled that way many times.

I would assume some kosher northern Italian cheeses exist, since enough Jews live in the far north (next to Switzerland) to have their own dialects.

I would assume it would depend on whether you using intensely orthodox, orthodox or conservative standards to determine whether or not hard cheese was kosher. The real problem, I would think, would be that most Italian Parmesean production tends to be highly localized, and not necessarily amenable to adjusting for kosher standards of production.

Having thought that far, I googled kosher parmesean and came up with this and ....AHA. Touchdown!.

's from France tho. They've got a whole section! Groovy.

max
['That's enough.']

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42

re: 40

I'd be surprised if the majority of artisanal cheeses made in Europe are made using enzymes derived GM yeast.

Checking, I found an article that says in the UK 90% of cheese is made with chymosin from GM yeast. I suspect the figures will be lower in France and Italy.

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43

Wikipædia thinks "traditional cheese-makers in central Europe" still use calf rennet. Which would presumably include many makers of parmesan.

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44

42: Sorry I was being US-centric. Here we are so GM crazy that it only made sense to assume that GM chymosin had totally displaced chymosin from rennet.

Although actually the Whole Foods web page suggests that only 50% of chymosin comes from trangenics. The remaining 50% could either be from animals or, at least for soft cheeses, non GM microbes.

I wish this stuff were better labeled. I'd avoid animal chymosin if I had the choice.

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45

I know you like ligatures, Clownæ, but Wikipedia itself spells it with a simple "e".

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46

One of the articles I just found suggested that quite a lot of the 'rennit' these days comes from fungi as well as from GM yeast.

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47

Does this article imply that the "fungi" are something other than yeast?

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48

re: 47

Yes, it implies that. Since it discusses production from 'yeast' separately.

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49

48 was me.

Of course, I may be misreading it. It's possible all teh fungi species under discussion come under the broad 'yeast' heading.

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45 -- When I use a word, it is spelled just as I choose to spell it, and no differently.

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51

re: 47 and 48

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspergillus_niger

was the fungus in question. Which, the other wikipedia article didn't group as a 'yeast'.

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52

If the artisanal gruyère produced at the Château de Gruyère, about which I still dream and of which I cannot seem to be able to buy a decent simulacrum at any price in this damned country, uses GM yeast instead of rennet I will eat my hat. The crap "made in Switzerland" Emmanthal they sell to us US rubes, maybe. "Genuine Swiss Cheese," probably.

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53

Is your hat produced with GM yeast or calf stomachs?

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54

or (with) calf stomachs

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55

It's woven of the grisly remains of a thousand straw men.

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56

New Yorkers, have any of you tried any of these "artisanal coffee" shops? I may have to try the East Village one today.

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57

The article linked in 56 is insufferable. The coffee might be very good though.

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58

I have a similar reaction to Clown: I want to hate on everything involved in that article, but I actually do very much like me some perfectionist espresso (and NYC has a lot more assish coffee than I'd expected). The only thing left to hate on--besides the insufferable NYT writer--is what I presume the espresso costs.

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59

55 is pwesome.

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60

I liked all the description of weird sciencey stuff--like putting exactly 30 pounds of pressure when tamping the espresso, but, zOMG baristas have tattoos. Sacré bleu!

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61

NYC has a lot more assish coffee than I'd expected

Oren's Daily Roast is very good, or at least the product served at their Grand Central Station branch is, so I assume the Upper West Side stuff would be similar. (A parallel belief about the TriBeCa Ceci-Cela based on the Spring St. branch* did not hold up; but hope springs.) I drink only brewed coffee so don't know anything about their espresso-based beverages.

*And if you're on Spring St. with any frequency, Ceci Cela has really excellent coffee.

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62

I like that the "latte art" picture is of the most beginner-ish design going.

A guy I knew in college works at Joe, which goes unmentioned in the article, but which he seems to think is second only to Intelligentsia in Chicago for awesomeness in all things coffee.

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63

Joe.

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64

This is the thread where we talk about the best adveristing jingles-cum-folk songs ever? Good.

If from work you come home late
Rolling in waits at the gate
Smile and bribe her with Nugrape
Then you'll sneak through in good shape
I got your ice cold Nugrape

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65

Rolling pin waits at the gate. Fuck. What's green, hangs on the wall, and sings?

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66

Your mom?

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67

I don't know, what?

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68

Uh.... a herring?

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69

Wolfson!

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70

You guys, we've gotta take this on the road. We could be huge!

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71

Your mom is huge.

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72

In Japan.

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73

Hey Wolfson, is "Big in Japan" by Big Black? I'm suddenly pretty sure it's not. But who?

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74

73: Alphaville. I wish I had seen that particular mistake before Big Black's reunion show last weekend.

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75

Ah -- there are a couple of songs with that title. I'm pretty sure this

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76

There's also a track by that name by Tom Waits.

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77

There's one by Tom Waits too.

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78

Fuckin HTML.

Ah -- there are a couple of songs with that title. I'm pretty sure thisis the one I'm thinking of, but I never heard of Guano Apes. So either I heard a cover or I heard the song without hearing the band name.

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79

Fine, then.

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80

Guano Apes is a pretty great band name.

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81

The Oren's on the Upper West didn't particularly impress me, although I'll admit that I've really enjoyed the coffee I've had earlier in the morning at other Oren's locations. (Caveat: for me, brewed coffee should taste as close to Peet's as possible.)

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82

I hear Wolfson's herring makes really good coffee.

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83

But a herring doesn't make coffee!

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84

Wolfson's herring does indeed make good coffee, but Baltic herring makes better.

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85

Hel-loooo, joke in progress!

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86

His herring farms have produced some amazing results. Even dsquared agrees. There's a quartet of them who get together to play Haydn.

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87

Poor Standpipe, everybody's walkin' all over his/her joke.

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88

Excuse me, overcome by foundling hospital humor.

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89

Herring don't make coffee; fruit flies don't make bananas.

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90

I think I told it wrong.

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91

Relatedly.

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92

Steve Miller had the best take on that, I think.

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93

Related.

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94

Clownæ, that looks like a cover of the Alphaville song. If you have iTunes, try this link.

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95

There was a Big Black reunion? Damn

Well, I guess they only played four songs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Black

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96

This next song is about your fucked up dirty little back alley of a country.

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97

How it goes.

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98

Hey Chopper, here's an anecdote you might appreciate: This evening we were having lamb chops for dinner. The young'un: "Dad, how come lambs have to be killed?" Me: "Well we could not eat them if they were still alive." She: "I don't want lambs to get killed." Me, thinking: Hm -- a budding vegetarian! Who'da thunk it? She: "I want to kill pigs!"

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99

(All quotes except the last are close paraphrases. The last is verbatim.)

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100

100!

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101

Clownae--nice.

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