Ben, if you must flirt so with JM, can you do it privately in SMS instead of wasting our time with this? Thanks.
Is the punctuation in this part of a joke I don't get? I bet it is.
Also, all of my flirtation is misinterpretation. It's much easier that way.
email and messaging on facebook
Moreover, Facebook emails me when somebody sends me a message through their interface, and with a reply-to address of noreply@facebookmail.com.
I echo 1. Though I think you're missing a bracket after '"flirt."'
I signed up for facebook about a month ago. I last signed into facebook about a month minus a day or two ago. I have a couple of friend requests from people I haven't heard from since a little after high school. I'll accept them the next time I sign in, which might be a long time from now.
Also, all of my flirtation is misinterpretation.
Wait, what do you mean by that?
Wait, what do you mean by that?
Exactly that.
Moreover, Facebook emails me when somebody sends me a message through their interface, and with a reply-to address of noreply@facebookmail.com.
Seriously. Is that stupid or what?
10: Love Actually. But if you'd asked Bourne Identity the outcome would be different.
Bourne Actually is a bit of touching and hilarious 'vidding' where one Mr. Jason Bourne has to choose between the adorable bachelor Prime Minister and sawing his own arm off to save a starving Russian orphan from snarling dogs, played by Rowan Atkinson.
Which does Rowan Atkinson play? The snarling dogs? I could see that working.
If the TOS is allergic to academicians how come he can read a W-lfs-n and not have his eyes bleed and his brain boil out his ears?
It seems like his kind of part, yes.
Truly, what the fuck is that shit even on about?
AT&T's poll showed that the majority of texters in a relationship or dating (especially 18- to 35-year-olds) believe that messages can be misunderstood.
Compared to other age groups, young adults were less likely to be totally fucking brain dead while in a relationship?
15: I thought it was with Hugh Grant. "I'm so terribly sorry about killing your mum. Really, so sorry. Rather a bad move."
20: he plays the Prime Minister. Who wouldn't tune in for his torrid romance with Matt Damon as Jason Bourne in disguise as a hooker? It's everything the movies are for!
ben, I need two great cheeses to pair with good scotch and chimay. said cheeses must be available at a nice grocery. help!
Bucheron goat and tete du moine!
Tete du moine is perfect for your pairing, but it's a little hard to get and should be sliced with a special tete-du-moine slicer that shaves off the top, so maybe something like a nice one-year-old manchego instead?
ben, I need two great cheeses to pair with good scotch and chimay. said cheeses must be available at a nice grocery. help!
Careful ari, ben is not trustworthy on the subject of cheeses
now I have to write you off on cheeses too, eb? for shame.
Jesus Christ. I wouldn't serve feta at a party because it's not crackerable, but Ben is 100% wrong about feta, probably due to not having feta that has been properly washed.
Unlike Ben, though, I don't recommend foods or wines. But since feta falls into neither category, it shouldn't make a difference.
29: It's like a thousand times better if it's been washed. But also, I've tried a lot of basically shitty feta, perhaps shitty because they expect it won't be tasted under the proper conditions so it's not their best milk. Good feta is very obviously good.
So, pardon my ignorance, but you just like rinse it with water in a colander after breaking up the block?
Yup. Exactly so. Better if you soak it a little, but yup.
Huh. I had no idea. I'll have to try that, as I find even unwashed feta quite palatable in certain dishes. Thanks!
IME it depends a lot how it's been stored both before you get it and at home, but washing it if the brine is heavy can sometimes improve things a lot as AWB notes. I knew one (greek) person who always soaked it in milk & water for 1/2 hour or so.
I don't think I've ever had a cows milk feta that was any good. I used to dispair of anything not imported being any good either, but have happily found counterexamples.
The feta I last had, I had in Greece. It's possible that I just didn't care for it, after all.
well, that's a more reasonable stance on it.
Fwiw my favorite fetas have been consistently not greek (which lead to a boring argument), but israeli and bulgarian. not sure why. I can now get decent feta made 20 miles away, which is nice.
36: You should have heard what it had to say about you, ben.
Feta is delicious, but hardly to be served with crackers.
Ari should serve 1. pecorino and 2. humboldt fog
37: ALL FETA IS GREEK!
That argument?
humbolt fog if he can get it, absolutely.
AWB's manchego suggestion was good too though (the aged stuff, not too young)
The answer to ari's question probably depends a lot on the scotch in question, no?
then again, remembering ari's location, finding it shouldn't be much trouble. Not true elsewhere.
Oh, I forgot about the actual question ari asked.. Hm. Forget the pecorino, go for the manchego.
43: isn't it stocked pretty well nationally at whole (EEEEEEEEEVIL) foods?
42: only to a degree. If it's something like caol ila you've got a lot less latitude than if it's more like dalwhinnie or whatever, but you've still got to have something that will stand up to scotch.
45: is it now? I remember searching and failing to find it, but that was a while ago ... maybe now it's easy.
I got a bottle of caol ila to give to my hostess when I was staying in new york on basically no information and was delighted that it turned out to be delicious.
ben, I need two great cheeses to pair with good scotch and chimay.
There are Chimay cheeses to go with the beer. You're looking at a cow cheese in a coupla varieties, namely a pressed one, and an aged one.
said cheeses must be available at a nice grocery.
Reduces the target window considerably. Gonna have to lean on the English. Also, no idea about actual kind of scotch or beer! Whee!
The stronger crumbly side - I would go with, in descending order (pick one!): Gloucester, Leicester, and then maybe some Chesire, or if all else fails, an aged white cheddar.
The semi-hard hard side, I think, would (in descending order): Tilsit, Gruyere, Appenzeller, with a fallback to some kind of Gouda or Edam, if you're just screwed. (Smoked or not smoked is optional, depending on how you like it.)
You might also get some Neufchatel, as cheese number three. I wouldn't go with some default imported blue, because I think the war between strong booze and strong blue cheese would be too much to take. Meanwhile, a truly soft cheese would be wiped out.
max
['No italianos, I think.']
It's interesting in light of the nominal topic of the post how easily ari was able to totally hijack this thread by using it to ask ben a question that he could easily have asked via e-mail.
He also text messaged, to wit: " sup b-wo nd 2 chzs 2 serv w/scotch n brews"
He also text messaged, to wit: " sup b-wo nd 2 chzs 2 serv w/scotch n brews"
PS That was an amazing kiss last night
Mock all you like. I'm just going to keep re-reading 1.
I am always vaguely nervous when I send a text that they will charge me by the word, like a telegram.* I am also unable to bear to do all that abbreviating the young people do, so my text messages are very terse, but correctly spelled.
I am picturing a w-lfs-nian text message right now, billed by the telegram method. It would cost eighty billion dollars.
*I only send texts in reply to my carefree, text-messaging pals who don't realize I am a secret Luddite. I also don't read my phone bill. I expect that at some point this will all end in tears.
Probably the longest text I've ever sent went "Dear ms [person], i hope this text finds you well. I understand that you have an interview soon, which must be stressful. Please, therefore, accept my invitation for a drink, before or after. Yours, ben w.".
But the formality and ornament was only there because the inclusion of such artifice usually means that the message isn't taken totally straight, and that's the only way I can ever issue invitations.
Well you can't just bring it up and not expect questions.
She didn't say anything. She gave herself to me, body and soul, but always wordlessly.
61: yes, but did she text anything in return?
She gave herself to me, body and soul, but always wordlessly.
The things people will do to avoid extra charges on their phone bills.
61: yes, but did she text anything in return?
I awoke the morning after our last coupling to find the room bare of all her effects. Only the silence with which she had always conducted herself around me remained behind, the only sign that she had ever been present in my life now being the pervasive absence of sound. Then, breaking the spell, my phone buzzed twice, announcing a text message. I pulled it up, and read her final message to me: "c u".
61: You have met Merrilee Rush III, who is carrying on the matrilineal tradition. You may be the father of Merrilee Rush IV, though neither you nor she will ever be allowed to know that. The internet tells me that Merrilee Rush I is now breeding sheepdogs in Washington state.
No comparison between yourself and a stud sheepdog is implied or intended.
Didn't anyone else assume that this meant the Times had linked to us again?
Anyway, 64 is truly brilliant. I don't know whether 57 was written with 64 in mind, but, either way, bravo.
I have been fooled by texts before, but not in the getting offended way. One boy I was seeing seemed determined to conduct our entire relationship (the part that wasn't face-to-face) in text messages. He didn't seem to like writing emails or talking on the phone, even very briefly, and he didn't use FB. He just texted. But these texts! I saved them for a long time after the relationship ended. They were these long, expressive things about desire and longing, full of good humor and humanity, if such a thing can be true of texts.
I did often tire of the back-and-forth, so sometimes I'd call him in the middle of a text conversation, and he'd act sort of surprised, like, oh hello, what are you up to? Was someone else writing those texts for him? According to the texts, he was half-dead of love for me, but on the phone, I could have been his dentist.
I'm currently somewhat involved with a guy who really likes talking on the phone. I myself don't like talking on the phone, actually, and find it quite awkward. He doesn't email or text; he calls, even about very small things.
What I am coming to realize about myself is there is no mode of communication I'm actually comfortable in.
What I am coming to realize about myself is there is no mode of communication I'm actually comfortable in.
Except for Unfogged comments.
||
A colleague actually used the word persiflage in a group discussion the other day. Naturally, my response included persiflageur. Thanks, guys: it was singularly effective.
|>
So your badinage led to a round of particularly agreeable repartee among the assembled flâneurs and flâneuses?
70: I think you probably wanted "persifleur."
That's the beauty part of using unusual words -- who's going to call you on an error? (Assuming neither W-lfs-n nor my dad is in the offing.)
Ah, slol! Wherever have you gone?
the beer was chimay. i think i noted that above, max. the scotch, i should have said but didn't, was 15 yr. laphroaig, the favorite of the host. anyway, thanks for your suggestions, which, unfortunately, arrived after i made my purchases: a welsh pub cheese (with bits of horseradish and something else in it), a stilton (with bits of lemon in it -- i thought the chimay would enjoy the lemon, but this proved to be wrong), and a manchego (which is my go-to cheese for just about everything).
Manchego has become the Cheese That Ate Swipalia, but I've been underwhelmed by it from my first taste. I can't really explain why, and I probably owe it another try.
Also, Penn Brewery renewed its lease for 5 more years, so that's good news. Without their bottling line, I guess it'll just be BYOB.
Ah, slol! Wherever have you gone?
I wonder what he's earning nowadays.
76.2: Interesting, I would have thought the brewery did well and the restaurant was the loss leader. But what do I know? I thought they had contracted a place in eastern Pa (Wilkes-Barre?) to brew their beer, so I presume they will have it available.
You should avoid buying cheese in the United States. Wait to purchase till you're in a country where they make good cheese.
Good cheese is actually illegal in the U.S.
PGD's coastal elitism has gotten out of hand. Good cheese can easily be had, and is made, in the US. One of course knows what he's on about, but he's taking it too far.
The "good", specialty cheeses made in the U.S. are not actually good, but only *seem* good because the consumer is not regularly exposed to actual good cheese. The sainted Humboldt Fog would be at best a very mediocre entrant at any specialty cheese shop in Paris.
The cheese situation in America is truly egregious.
Pffft. Clearly PGD has not been to Brooklyn.
Why are people so insistent about being wrong here tonight?
Also the point re: Humboldt Fog is that it's simultaneously quite tasty, quite versatile, and quite available.
Pffft. Clearly PGD has not been to Brooklyn.
Saying good cheese is available in Brooklyn does not contradict saying that good cheese is not readily available in the U.S. Also, my point applied to American made cheeses, and New York has a decent supply of smuggled good European cheese. The times I've had really good cheese in America it has been black market European stuff.
There is some sort of OK cheese you can find in America, in the sense that you could mistake it for a really mediocre European cheese.
Also the point re: Humboldt Fog is that it's simultaneously quite tasty, quite versatile, and quite available.
Also true of Mickey D's.
Also true of Mickey D's.
No it isn't, that ad where the dude wows the crowd of girls over at his house to play football with a tray of quarter pounders nonwithstanding.
However, if you walk into the right bar and yell, "Who wants to eat Humboldt Fog?", watch out.
"play" in 86 s/b "watch". Silly me. Girls only play football in beer ads.
You should avoid buying cheese in the United States. Wait to purchase till you're in a country where they make good cheese.
Perfect example of the perfect being the enemy of the good.
89: well, pretty good example of it, anyhow. Almost not worth bothering with, honestly.
Mm, cheese.
(Though I can't get on board with the blue cheeses, no matter what country I am in. My palate has yet to grow up and enjoy them. I'm working on it, though).
Switzerland doesn't even export its best Gruyère. The stuff you get in the US, even when you're paying $10 for a little wedge, even when it's got the official Swiss flag on the rind, simply does not compare to what you can buy in the town of Gruyère itself.
However, the town of Gruyère itself is basically a museum and a shitload of cows whereas I live in an exciting metropolis, so there's that.
This exercise in SWPL has gotten out of hand. Apo hasn't posted a luscious photo of a Hardees 5000-calorie ooze-melt in just ages.
i'm reading this this week, it's soo funny and kinda recognizable
a case in a thousand for example
95: That looks like some crappy bread, there.
Wait to purchase till you're in a country where they make good cheese.
Not much for practicality, are you? Besides, you're wrong.
95 doesn't even look remotely appetizing.
Not much for practicality, are you?
Not true. I only buy cheese during quarterly trips to Androuet or Quatrehomme. I see these journeys of discovery as my way of stimulating the international economy and my tastebuds all at once. Not to mention, multi-tasking is the very definition of practicality.
100: I think that was directed to PGD anyway, ari, so you're off the hook.
98: The Apo Juice is pretty!
I've just made the simplest, tastiest curried sweet potato soup in the world. How do you guys usually toast almonds? In the toaster oven or in a pan? For, like, just a couple of minutes, right?
101: I do it in the oven, on a baking sheet, for a few minutes - check early and often. I feel like almonds are big enough that they benefit from the more intense heat than they experience in the pan.
In deference to the times, I suppose, Hardee's is now making Little Thickburgers. I'm trying to decide whether I can forgive them for replacing their hash browns with country potatoes. FAIL.
102: Too late. They're in the small cast iron pan on the stove. Also I chopped them first rather than toasting them whole, then chopping them. I'm making mistakes left and right. The cast iron is probably wrong too, but I rarely use it, as it's small.
I only toast nuts in the oven, but I still burn them 3 times out of 10. I don't know why I can't get it through my head that I cannot multitask -- not even for a second, not even Just One Thing when they are toasting.
parsimon's soup sounds good. I made an absolutely amazing Morroccan carrot/sweet potato/apple soup a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I think the mystery flavor that was causing the guests to rave was the tinge of burnt fennel seeds, which happened by accident and I will never be able to replicate. Ah well.
Unfortunately, I think the mystery flavor that was causing the guests to rave was the tinge of burnt fennel seeds, which happened by accident and I will never be able to replicate.
Try toasting the fennel seeds like you would nuts.
104, 105: Eh, whatever works. And you're supposed to toast spices in a cast iron pan, so I see no reason why it would be wrong for the nuts.
Like Witt, I burn them far too often. So, so annoying. I can multitask 95% of the time but NOT when things are toasting. Or broiling.
Both soups sound super yummy and make me want some!
parsimon's soup sounds good. I made an absolutely amazing Morroccan carrot/sweet potato/apple soup a few weeks ago.
Yes, I think I'm a serious fan of these types of soups. I haven't yet tried incorporating apples and such (I've been aware of the concept for quite a while, just haven't done it).
The simplest curried sweet potato soup in the world is just onions, curry powder, sweet & white potatoes. Takes 45 minutes. Very basic, yet lovely. Half the loveliness is in the scent of the curry powder tossed with the sauteed onions to start. It's always that way with such dishes, and I should do it more often.
I think that our local CSA is going to have apples again this year -- apples seem to alternate years -- so I'll be into the apples in the fall. I've also discovered that sweet potatoes store fine in a loosely closed brown paper bag in a cool cabinet for 5 months. Good to know.
After reading Brock's horror stories, I feel compelled to ask: how long does cheddar last? (If you bought some medium cheddar and kept it refrigerated.)
Cheddar should last a good damn while. At least three weeks, maybe longer. The first stage of degeneration will be little scaly bits of white on the outside. I eat those without the slightest qualm. Green or blue is not okay--but then cheese never lasts that long in my fridge.
109: Until it looks like there's something wrong with it. If it's not fuzzy or dried-out/oily looking, it's fine. Hard cheese is supposed to last.
Thanks, I won't worry about it then. It still looks normal enough.
Semi-hard? I suppose it depends on at what point in the aging process you eat it.
Also, I think this counts as a non SWPL approach to cheese.
Cheese doesn't last long around here.
I miss ogged suddenly, probably because I'm listening to something labeled "ogged mix," and it has all this Jackson Frank and stuff about the blues.
That is indeed something from the mix ogged made.
Blues run the game, or so I'm told.
118.2: I don't know the phrase "run the game," but I believe you.
Get Wazzu's Cougar Gold in the tin and freeze it -- it's even better after a year.
'Course, you can't eat any in the interim.
