Re: It's That Time Of Year

1

Excellent use of the double possessive separated by a relative clause! Fine use of chocolate also.


Posted by: Unimaginative | Link to this comment | 04- 2-11 7:24 PM
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I was a little unsure about those possessives. The evening's involved a fair amount of wine by now. But if they look good to you, I figure they're okay.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 04- 2-11 7:27 PM
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That's awfully sweet.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 04- 2-11 7:39 PM
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I have to disagree about the possessives, but the BCP looks awesome. I'm planning on a croquembouche for the girls' first communion next month, so I can use the inspiration.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 04- 2-11 7:39 PM
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Recipe, please?


Posted by: good enough cook | Link to this comment | 04- 2-11 8:14 PM
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Forget the recipe, come visit and make one for us.


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 04- 2-11 8:21 PM
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Underrated dessert. Happy birthday to Buck!


Posted by: Scott Lemieux | Link to this comment | 04- 2-11 8:24 PM
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Mmm, tastiness.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 04- 2-11 8:24 PM
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My dad was a huge fan of BCP, but I have to say I've never seen one so tall. More like half that height. This is some variant species Buck hankers after.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 04- 2-11 8:34 PM
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Nice pie/cake. Bet it tastes good. Happy birthday to Buck!


Posted by: md 20/400 | Link to this comment | 04- 2-11 8:40 PM
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This is some variant species Buck hankers after.

Hey, now! There's no need to talk about LB that way!

The dessert looks delicious. Do most adults get birthday desserts or not unless there are children around to mandate it? I suppose I might have a different answer if Lee actually baked. My dad does make me a gingerbread with lemon curd every year, but I've never had birthday cake in a romantic context.


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 04- 2-11 8:51 PM
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sort of make me hungry fro chocolate chip pancakes.


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 04- 2-11 9:44 PM
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me


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 04- 2-11 9:45 PM
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14

Dayum, that is some pie.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 12:40 AM
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That is extremely sweet. And fucking HUGE.


Posted by: donaquixote | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 5:54 AM
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9: It is a mutant -- standard is two layers (that is, one layer baked and cut in half) with pastry cream inbetween, but Buck prefers four layers, as they provide more scope for pastry cream.

I figure the adult/romantic thing comes down to whether you're involved with someone who cooks/bakes, and likes to show off with it.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 6:31 AM
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That is neat. I was very young when last I saw a homemade BCP. Of course, there are other traditional desserts that I have never encountered at all: I've never seen a Lord or Lady Baltimore cake, for example, and I'm pretty sure I've seen Baked Alaska only once.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 7:10 AM
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Mmm. Recipe please! I was just talking about the joys of Boston creme yesterday. Coincidence? Sure, but a delicious coincidence.


Posted by: Sir Kraab | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 9:42 AM
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17: My aunt had Baked Alaska at her wedding, which made a lasting impression on me because I was eight and, you know, dessert plus fire.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 9:50 AM
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17: Strawberry shortcake? My dad was a huge fan of that as well, and now that I think about it, I don't think I've seen it since I was a kid. Do people make that any more?

There are/were a bunch of things I thought were awesome growing up, but which I rarely if ever see now: apple crisp, brown betty, indian pudding. These are down-home kinds of desserts, perhaps, and you're unlikely to see them in finer restaurants, but I don't tend to see them in unfine restaurants either.

Hypothesis: desserts have suffered a glamorization such that the unconstructed dessert that may look, to some, like a bowl of mush, are just not looked kindly upon. If a dessert doesn't put on airs, well, we may not want to associate with it.

No?


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 9:55 AM
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I had to look Indian Pudding up, and good god, anything that has to be carefully simmered and stirred for twenty minutes before being baked for 2 HOURS is just not going to get made. Unless it's really good, and yeah (because I'm superficial), impressive.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 10:02 AM
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Well, it's not like baking takes close supervision, right?


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 10:25 AM
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You're no better than McMegan, JM.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 10:31 AM
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20, 21: I think I noted this at the time, but my family had both Indian pudding and gingerbread at this past Christmas dinner, as we often do.

In unrelated news, we are white.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 10:41 AM
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7, 18: Make 2 9" layers of white cake (I use the White Chocolate Whisper cake from Berenbaum's Cake Bible, because it's got a good firm structure, but whatever white cake you like should work.) Cut the layers in half horizontally with a long serrated knife, and fill with about a quart of pastry cream, one third between each layer. (2 cups half&half, heated to boiling. Beat six egg yolks with half a cup sugar and a pinch of salt, then beat in a quarter cup flour. Whisk in a half cup of the hot cream, then scrape all the eggs into the pot with the cream. Whisk everything together for about a minute, then turn the heat down to low and keep whisking for about eight minutes. Turn it back up and whisk until it's bubbling, and then scrape it into a bowl and chill it before using it to fill the cake. I actually made one and a half times this recipe for the four-layer cake.) Chill the filled cake while you're making the glaze -- heat a half cup of cream with two tablespoons of corn syrup to a simmer, take it off the heat and stir in four ounces of good bittersweet chocolate, chopped, until it's melted and smooth. Let it cool until it's thick enough to pour slowly, and glaze the cake with it.

I would actually suggest doing the standard only-two-layer cake, which would need less than the full recipe of pastry cream. The four-layer thing is how Buck likes it, but he's a metabolic freak who needs about a pound of butter a day on top of a normal diet to avoid starvation, and who generally likes things excessive.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 10:47 AM
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24: You're also from roughly the same area of New England I'm from, which may or may not have anything to do with it.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 10:53 AM
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Errata on the pastry cream: After you take the cream off the stove, whisk in four tablespoons of cold butter, one at a time and adding the next as the last one finishes melting, and one and a half teaspoons vanilla. Without the vanilla it wouldn't taste like anything at all.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 10:55 AM
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Parsimon, I've noticed that rustic desserts are actually quite popular right now; many of my food magazines, etc. have been championing the brown betty and so on. Strawberry shortcake has never gone out of style in my part of the world, but we also grow many.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 11:05 AM
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Yeah, it occurred to me in the course of writing that given that traditional main course foods are experiencing a resurgence -- but reconfigured! (cf. duck fat fries) -- desserts in that vein may be as well.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 11:18 AM
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Crossbows at fifty paces or broadswords in a pit. Your choice, nosflow.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 11:20 AM
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Surely the duel should involve spatulas, whisks, something of that nature.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 11:23 AM
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Broadswords in a pit.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 11:28 AM
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29: Yep. And I haven't seen it spill over into restaurant menus, either, but I also rarely go out. They certainly were neglected for years upon years!


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 11:45 AM
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34

That thing is a beauty.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 11:48 AM
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I see I've been semi-pwned, but- i think you find those more 'traditional' desserts if you look, esp when they're performed as retro/ironic. Landmarc in Tribeca had a wonderful blueberry crisp a half decade ago. And i made my roommates apple crisp as thanksgiving dessert, but that was largely because it seemed the simplest traditional thing.


Posted by: x.trapnel | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 12:10 PM
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36

I told my Korean-American, East-Coast-raised, somewhat sheltered roommate about Renaissance Faire last night. (It's not exactly a big part of my life--I've been once--but I'd always assumed most people had at least heard of it.) Now she wants me to take her to one.

We'll have to dig our own pit for the duel, I assume.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 12:23 PM
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I look forward to sharing in the labor of pit-digging with you, Jackmormon. And as we dig together, the steady sounds of our shovels and of bodily exertion merging rhythmically into one single sweaty song, I will attend to your movements, and uncover the secrets thereof—and when our joint constructive labor has ended, I will use the knowledge thereby won in my labor of destroying your joints.

You stand no chance.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 12:30 PM
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35: I see no reason on earth that such desserts should be performed as retro/ironic! Good grief.

Blueberry crisp sounds fantastic, and I'd take it over double mocha chocolate dreamy creamy dense cake-like thing drizzled in whatever and topped with two decorative raspberries any day.

I hope I've made my position clear.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 12:31 PM
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s/entirety of 37/I'd be happy to dig your pit./


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 12:40 PM
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Surely that can be fobbed off on your seconds.

I wonder who dug the pit for Lincoln and Shields...


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 12:44 PM
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What do seconds actually do in a duel?


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 12:45 PM
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Speaking of baked goods and things that are en vogue, I was sent to retrieve coffee and baked goods this morning, and one of the requested baked goods was a scone. The coffee place had currant scones, and I was not familiar with currants. When asked, the barista explained, "Currants are similar to raisins. I think they're making a bit of a hipster resurgence, like bacon did."

So, there you have it. Currants are cool. Or were cool in Brooklyn, like, five years ago and are now cool here for the next five minutes.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 12:47 PM
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43

Actually, currants aren't very much like raisins at all. Dried blackcurrants are kind of like raisins.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 12:50 PM
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44

Currants were always cool. Where do you live again?

Of more relevance: how did you pronounce "scone" when you asked for one?


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 12:50 PM
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45

</snobbier comparandum="thou">


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 12:51 PM
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46

In the antebellum South at least, they mediated all contacts between the principals once the challenge was made, and were actually expected to go to a great deal of effort to unruffle feathers and keep the duel from actually happening.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 12:53 PM
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47

Actually.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 12:54 PM
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Where do you live again?

Central Virginia

how did you pronounce "scone" when you asked for one?

Rhymes with "cone". How do you pronounce it?


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 12:57 PM
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Some persons pronounce "scone" so that it rhymes with "on".


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 12:57 PM
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50

45 doesn't actually make sense, because closing tags don't have attributes. Let's all agree to overlook this.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 12:58 PM
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Sa-ha, young neb! Do you think to have the only pair of eyes God gave the world? I too can spy as I sing, sweat, and shovel, and even before: my seconds have already been discovering your intimate secrets. That girl who talked to you? One of my minions.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 1:01 PM
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"Sa-ha"?


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 1:03 PM
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53

A pirate thing.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 1:04 PM
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54

Stanley, you know I was teasing, I hope.

What nosflow says about the pronunciation of "scone." In a lot of places, if you ask for a scon the staff might look at you blankly, or ironically. In other places, if you ask for a scone, you may receive a slight flicker of the eye before your request is fulfilled. It's a delicate matter.

Let's not even get into what's involved in asking for a croissant.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 1:04 PM
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Stanley, you know I was teasing, I hope.

I know, babe. I know.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 1:05 PM
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I would have thought that Jackmormon's preferred mode of combat would be the dance-off.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 1:06 PM
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My sense of honor prevents me from challenging neb to a dance-off.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 1:08 PM
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When it comes to dancing, neb is way off. He'd surely win.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 1:11 PM
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Since I have no honor, I am not so constrained. Neb, I challenge you to dance, to the death.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 1:11 PM
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Well, I counter-challenge you to dance to the death first.

After you die, I swear I'll dance to the death myself, honest.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 1:12 PM
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Fucking logicians. Always fucking up the dance-offs.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 1:14 PM
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They fuck you up, your logician.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 1:24 PM
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My logician.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 1:26 PM
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DUDARD: He's the only rhinoceros in a boater! That makes you think. You're sure it's your Logician?"

BERENGER: "The Logican ... a rhinoceros!"

DUDARD: "He's still retained a vestige of his old individuality."


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 1:53 PM
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What do seconds actually do in a duel?

Arrange, with one another, the time, place and choice of weapons (and, I think, in the case of pistols, the crucial matter of the number of paces and/or shots before honor is satisfied; in the case of swords, there was sometimes an agreement on the number of passes to be conducted); procure the services of a physician or two; rouse their respective duelists on the morn, stir their waning courage and convey them to the field of honor; communicate the traditional opportunity to withdraw the insult/apologize before the first shot/passage and after each subsequent, indecisive round; keep their charges from running away, by force if necessary; and, in some cases where the hottest blood gave rise to further insult, to fight the opposing second, either there and then or at a later date. Bring a flask, or two, of Dutch encouragement. I imagine that, in some jurisdictions, there may have been the occasional debate about whether a missed shot was a prohibited delope, and the second might have been called upon to settle that.

(There was a pleasantly comprehensive, rather louche history of dueling on a shelf in my favorite carrel in the undergraduate library, which I preferred reading to pretty much any assigned text.)


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 2:19 PM
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Row the boat to Weehawken.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 2:24 PM
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67

keep their charges from running away, by force if necessary

I like this part.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 4:05 PM
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68

OT semi rant. Germany looks set to get rid of nuclear power in the rather near future. Spiegel, which is very enthusiastic about this touts the environmental paradise that will be achieved, with accompanying graphics. Here is the one on current and projected electricity by energy source Slightly misleading since it breaks out thermoelectric plants from other fossil fuel plants, thus lowering the amount from coal. In any case, Germany currently gets a little over a fifth of its power from nukes, and a little over double that from coal of which a little over half is brown coal (Germany has a large local industry to protect). Ten years from now they're projecting most nukes as gone, coal about the same and with the rest made up from conservation and renewables. For fuck's sake, couldn't they first get rid of at least the brown coal sourced power before they go at the nukes?! Brown coal is the absolute nastiest possible source for electricity around, both in straight up environmental terms and for CO2 emissions. Fucking idiots. But no, nukes must go, because Germany's current plants would go all Fukushima if faced with a one two punch of a 9.0 earthquake and massive tsunami.


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 4:46 PM
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Stanley, how do you pronounce shone?


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 6:14 PM
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Oh come on don't tell me that any living being rhymes "shone" and "on".

If I heard someone say "the sun SHOHN on the water", I … I wouldn't know what to think, at least if that person were a North American.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 6:17 PM
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I do. "The light shone in the darkness..." etc. I don't plan on giving it up myself, but I don't correct others?

I think it makes it clear that one is not saying shown.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 6:21 PM
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68: yeah germany seems to have the actual idiot greens that american libertarians seem to the the US has.


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 6:38 PM
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73

Awesome pastry, LB.


Posted by: Merganser | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 6:43 PM
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Uh, I have heard "shone" pronounced to rhyme with "on", but only in the most formal recitative circumstances.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 6:53 PM
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73: Yes. It is at that.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 7:00 PM
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68: perhaps you should print out some shirts or buttons.

My instincts are in agreement with your position here, but doesn't the aging of the plants have any impact on the proper calculus? Aren't some of the older ones already beyond projected end-of-life, or am I making that up? And if yes, isn't there some reason for that--I dunno, increasingly expensive maintanence?

The 'biomasse' bit puzzles me. Is that the *net* energy produced, minus the energy costs of growing whatever is used for generation?


Posted by: x.trapnel | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 7:11 PM
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28: Parsimon, I've noticed that rustic desserts are actually quite popular right now

At the semi-fancy place where we ate tonight which prides itself on desserts we shared the apple crisp (one of the five desserts offered). Although it was served with homemade Tahitian vanilla ice cream and an "artsy" caramel drizzle.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 9:05 PM
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77: Eat 'n Park again?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 9:08 PM
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78: The other four desserts were different colors of smiley cookies.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 9:11 PM
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80

On the first episode of season five of Friday Night Lights, Mrs. Taylor makes an apple cobbler for dessert, but young Julie decides to skip it so she can attend Landry's last show before he heads off to college. As Julie leaves, her parents register that look of realizing that she, too, will be gone soon, and not just when it's time for cobbler.

It's all very gripping, as you might imagine.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 9:26 PM
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If it would have been snickerdoodle, I wouldn't have been able to keep it together.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 9:39 PM
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82

Snickerdoodles are cinnamonous with delicious.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 9:42 PM
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I had to slap google three times to get it to search "cinnamonous" instead assuming I can't spell.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 9:47 PM
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"68: perhaps you should print out some shirts or buttons.

My instincts are in agreement with your position here, but doesn't the aging of the plants have any impact on the proper calculus? Aren't some of the older ones already beyond projected end-of-life, or am I making that up? And if yes, isn't there some reason for that--I dunno, increasingly expensive maintanence?

The 'biomasse' bit puzzles me. Is that the *net* energy produced, minus the energy costs of growing whatever is used for generation?"

Any discussion of nuclear is a distraction from coal. And if there was no coal, from oil & gas.

Its like worrying about if your french fries are organic.


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 04- 3-11 9:49 PM
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Well, except that the reactors currently running are aging, and refusing to discuss it doesn't stop that process. So I do think there's a certain amount of discussion that ought to happen as existing reactors age and presumably (that's the key, obvs - I know nothing about how age affects this stuff) become more expensive to operate and less reliable.


Posted by: x.trapnel | Link to this comment | 04- 4-11 2:11 AM
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Yeah, a certain amount of discussion should happen. And nuke plants are kind expensive, sorta like renewable, except the cost curve on solar/wind is much steeper.

BUT WE STILL HAVE GOD TAM TCOAL PLANT RUNNING RIGHT NOW JESUF FUCK WHT IF EH#WOTI#@N%$OL#Q@

deck chair on the taitic.


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 04- 4-11 2:21 AM
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86.3 metaphor is better than i realized. (not to claim originality.)

ALL OF THE LYTES!


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 04- 4-11 2:40 AM
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88

54: my daughter, alas, has stopped calling them croissnots


Posted by: Katherine | Link to this comment | 04- 4-11 6:58 PM
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88: That is too bad. It definitely has, or had, potential.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 04- 4-11 7:20 PM
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70, 71, 74: I had never heard it pronounced to rhyme with anything other than "on". I thought neb was being sarcastic. Had to go look it up.


Posted by: Penny | Link to this comment | 04- 5-11 12:30 AM
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I rhyme 'shone' with 'on', but I'm not North American. How else would you pronounce it?


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 04- 5-11 12:52 AM
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92

In the US, "shone" is a long O and "on" is like "awn", the first syllable of "awning". Though I have no idea how they pronounce "awning" in the UK.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 04- 5-11 1:10 AM
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Though I should probably mention I'm from the vowel-rich part of the country, so maybe the rest of the country has to choose from their limited supply of one or two short vowels.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 04- 5-11 1:13 AM
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94

Probably, to 93.

I don't think the vowel I use is like with the US long 'o' or 'awn'. Can probably provide IPA, later.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 04- 5-11 1:15 AM
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92. I've heard plenty of Americans pronounce 'on' with a long O a la Americaine, like the name of the man who wrote 'Rule Britannia'. I'd pronounce 'awning' or-ning.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 04- 5-11 1:16 AM
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94. Nor I (it's a short vowel for a start). I expect ttaM's vowel is a bit more front and closed than mine, but in the same ballpark.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 04- 5-11 1:18 AM
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I use the same vowel for 'on', 'shone', and 'awning', I'd guess, although the latter would be longer, and possibly very slightly more open.*

/ɔn/, /ʃɔn/ and /ɔ:nɪŋ/

* open in the cardinal vowel sense

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


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 04- 5-11 1:21 AM
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I'm trying to figure out how to describe the differences in the position of my mouth and tongue between the two sounds, and every time I do that, it surprises me how subtle the differences really are.

In "shone", my mouth makes more of an "o" shape, while tongue almost touches my lower teeth, while in "on" and "awning" I stretch out the sides of my lips and tilt my tongue slightly.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 04- 5-11 1:27 AM
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re: 98

Yeah, the cardinal vowel* diagram is supposed to represent those subtle changes visually.

See the IPA vowel chart:

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

and the history:

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

As I'm sure teofilo would tell you, though, it's a crude instrument and doesn't actually reflect the anatomic changes that you find when you do imaging of the vocal tract. It's more of an aide memoire for rapid phonemic transcription. Serious work would involve other methods.

* because it is a crude instrument, in the UK linguists are supposed to acquire the cardinal vowel sounds via imitation and a sort of apprenticeship system. Daniel Jones invented it, he taught it to Crystal, who it to Mi k3 Mac/ Mah0n, who taught it to me, etc.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 04- 5-11 1:37 AM
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