we own microphone

[rinue]

Went to the doctor this morning. Lower intestinal stuff; nothing serious, but I wanted to make sure it was nothing serious and also establish whether I want this to be my primary care physician. Which I do. And although it is nothing serious, I have been instructed to temporarily avoid seeds and nuts if I want to heal faster (nut pastes are fine). And I thought: well, I don't eat a lot of seeds and nuts anyway. I promptly went home and made myself pork with mustard seeds and halfway through eating it thought . . . oh. Right.

I ignore most North/South contrasts, but something I've noted which I suspect is linked to inadequate and limited sample data is that your average female stranger in the South will be very friendly when you pass them on the sidewalk, because it is inculturated that you must be courteous and hospitable to strangers. However, behind a retail counter, the same woman will be rude as hell and won't like how pushy you are for demanding they push the right buttons on the register. Up in New England, it seems like the opposite. If I can make it past the bitchy, oblivious, sour-faced people in the aisles* and get to the counter or dressing room, I will be treated with respect and intelligence by people who take pride in their work, however minor.

Mainly uneventful day otherwise. Ciro made some very rough recordings of me singing songs that get stuck in his head (and by very rough I mean I miss a lot of chords and have to pause while I find the chords, and also that I'm not remotely warmed up and you can tell). It is nice to have me recorded. I like my higher registers much better through speakers than in my head, which I think is the opposite of how it is for most people.

* This is not to suggest there is a shortage of slack-jawed self-centered grotesques in Texas.

Comments

[movingfinger]

You cook... hm, I should pass on my pine nut warning to you too. This past Sunday I prepared and ate pasta salad with pine nuts from Whole Foods; they were packaged "bulk" style, meaning, WF had bought a huge thing and put the nuts in little plastic tubs with price/weight labels. No info on the label other than Pine Nuts. About two days later, my taste buds went completely haywire. Everything tasted, and still tastes, horrible---bitter, acrid, overpowering---like pith without fruit, like hairspray, like something so non-food it's hard to describe. The problem is apparently that pine nuts from China, which can be packaged and sold as being from there, Russia, Korea, or any of a handful of other places, can include some non-edible ones from different pine species. To be safe, if the nuts are not packaged in and labeled as being from the US or Italy, avoid them. Most bulk nuts, including Whole Foods and Trader Joe's and supermarket nuts in general, are sourced bulk in that way and probably (because they are cheaper) are from China. This wasn't a problem in the past; judging from complaints on the Web, I think that sometime in early 2009, Chinese nuts began being sold and people started noticing the effect.

Blecccch.

Your observations on New England manners: yes, a friend of mine made the same years ago! Californians and Southerners are groovy and friendly and won't do jack for you even if it's their job; Northeasterners won't give you the strokes and cuddles but they'll process your paperwork, ring up your sale, find the right size, or give you real information as needed. With all my shuttling, I find I really do prefer the latter. However, I grew up with it and work well within it, so I'm biased. And I think there are complicated class things at play there too, but can't sort through that before a second coffee.

[rinue]

It is really exciting to be able to get things done quickly and correctly the first time. It's still extremely novel. And at least so far, I don't particularly miss the small talk, partly because in Dallas it was getting pretty loaded (in that it would superficially be small talk, but would actually be an attempt to find a reason to start a fight with you).

Thank you for the warning about the pine nuts; I do cook, and have been known to buy things in bulk, and am in the season where I might make pesto. I am now yet more unsettled about the state of food regulation, and confirmed in my belief that you can't trust the industry to self regulate for its own competitive good. Not if stuff is cheap enough.

Side story: when I was visiting New Mexico and given pinon to eat (roast pine nuts, at least in this case) I was like "what? You can eat nuts from pine trees? Pine trees have nuts?" And my best friend (who I was vising) looked at me really weird, because we used to live together and cooked with pine nuts all the time. But for whatever reason it wasn't until earlier this year that I made the connection that pine nuts come from pine trees. I thought they were just called that because they tasted pine-like.

[movingfinger]

My gourmand pal informs me that I can get excellent fresh sure-fire authentic New Mexico high desert pignola nuts at Berkeley Bowl, but I'll have to shell them myself. I think I'm not going that far... in any sense of the word!

I think most pine cones must have little tiny nuts that aren't very noticeable unless you're a squirrel or chipmunk.

[(Anonymous)]

Doctors = yay.
Mic = also yay.
Pine nuts = how could they do that? That is - just - so - wrong!

In other important news: I went shopping for completely comfortable houseboots, something soft and fuzzy but not entirely hideous, like the fancy $100 ones I've been eyeing at the Naturalizer. Three stores later, could not find anything, not even expensive nice ones. Finally gave up and bought incredibly sexy ankle boots on sale 75% off, a la Catherine Deneuve. Feeling tres sexy now, albeit with cold feet. :D