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I’m really captivated by this set of photographs.
There are also lots of pictures of sad people, which I’m not used to seeing. It is comforting to be reminded that people in pictures—all people—feel pain, not just me. I know it’s dumb, but it reminds me that I am not the only person who feels insecure, who feels sad. It brings feelings of pain, sadness or desperation, which are usually painstakingly hidden and private, into full view. I found it comforting but also unsettling to realize how inevitable those feeling are, how we can protect no one from having them.
I just read this article from Tablet Magazine about an elderly novelist becoming the first man in Israel to be acknowledged as “without religion” by the state. It’s really exciting.
Israel lists all of its citizens as being from one religion or other. According to it, all its Jews are religious Jews, which would be laughable if it weren’t so depressing. The Orthodox rabbinate, who decides who is a Jew and thus how thousands of citizens live, is driving the nation crazy, not letting Jews marry non-Jews, wanting to do stuff like disable online banking on Saturdays, and discouraging Israelis who live in the States from staying or marrying American Jews.
Because there are so many secular Jews in Israel, and even religious Jews pissed off at the rabbinate, if this opens a way for Jews to identify as non-religious, perhaps this will have been the first step towards separating religion from state and undoing the monopoly of Orthodox rule.
It’s funny. I used to think that I had been living in a time when things were just normal and calm, like the world had reached the suburbanization of history. Now I realize I just wasn’t paying enough attention.
She sighs and then launches into a tirade that he finds impressive. Even if it’s all about him. I love you more, he says. She opens the wine.
Great recipe from the Globe and Mail. It was more substantial than I imagined, and the broth more flavourful than I expected. I used a bunch of fresh shiitake mushrooms instead of the dried and added two more cups of the broth later on to compensate for mushroom juice; I was very happy with the results. Also, this soup confirms that I’m going through a rapini phase.
Ingredients
2 14-gram packages dried shiitake mushrooms
2 cups boiling water
6 ounces dried soba noodles
1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 tablespoon grated ginger
½ bunch rapini, stems removed and coarsely chopped (about 1½ cups)
1 tablespoon sambal oelek chili paste
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 large carrot, peeled and shredded
Thai basil and green onions (to garnish)
Method
- Place dried shiitake mushrooms in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Let sit until soft (about 20 to 30 minutes).
- Carefully remove mushrooms, slice and reserve mushroom broth for later.
- Meanwhile, cook soba noodles in a medium pot of boiling water for 6 to 7 minutes. Drain, rinse with cold water and set aside.
- Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat and sauté the garlic and ginger until soft (about 2 minutes).
- Add rapini, chili paste, soy sauce and sesame oil and continue to cook until rapini are wilted (about 3 to 4 minutes).
- Add sliced shiitake mushrooms, mushroom broth, chicken broth and carrot.
- Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5 to 6 minutes. To serve, divide soba noodles among bowls and top with hot soup.
- Garnish with torn Thai basil leaves and sliced green onion.
Brief thoughts on feminism prompted by a friend who is doing a project. Her question was whether feminism is still necessary in 2011.
I believe that, indeed, feminism is still relevant and necessary today. I think the concept itself is extremely complex and eludes facile categorization or sweeping generalizations, but essentially it represents the amelioration of women’s status in all aspects of society. There is no easy way to define that, which is why feminism has gone through many phases, undertaken various projects, and had mixed results. I just read this article by the daughter of Alice Walker (http://ow.ly/7NDje), and I think she is totally right in repudiating her mother’s behaviour, and is in no way less feminist for it. It means that there is lots more work to be done and more boundaries to be shifted.
Personally, I think feminism should imply a shift in men’s roles corresponding to the change in those of women. If we believe women are ineffectual at work, and that men are naturally incompetent in terms of family and nurturing, we are being sexist on two counts. We cannot expect for female feminism alone to make the world better: that leads to a worldview that demonizes men and traditional femininity. Instead, let’s redefine gender roles to make them more harmonious, less abusive, and less stacked one way or another in terms of power. Let’s also let people decide for themselves what they want (whether it be women who are maternal or who prefer to devote all their time to a career, or men who are stay-at-home fathers or who hold more traditional roles), all the while with an attentive and critical attitude towards the decisions we make and the realities we live. Ideally, feminism should be a process of creating a more equal and just world; it should change with the times as it changes them.
Interesting to see where I am with this at this moment. It’s changed a lot over the years and expect for it to continue to do so. Wonder how it’ll change over time.
Chicken: sauted with onions, dijon mustard, grainy mustard, honey.
Rapini: blanched, because my kabocha squash in balsamic sweet sauce took longer to bake than I thought it would.
Cinerobotheque: met up with Chris, watched an experimental stop-animation 50s short film, Naomi Klein’s The Take, The Danish Poet short. Sipping on gin on the sly and spilling vodka when it got too funny. Starting watching The Socalled Movie (to be continued).
Biking drunk up St-Laurent to Patati Patata, eating poutine.
Brownies: at 3am, with Mariel, Chris, and Mehdi, listening to klezmer hiphop.
( 1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cold large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Special equipment: An 8-inch square baking pan
Preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter and flour the baking pan.
Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a bowl and set the bowl in a skillet of barely simmering water. Stir from time to time until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth and hot. Remove the bowl from the skillet and set aside briefly until the mixture is only warm, not hot.
Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring after each one. When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well-blended, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer, then beat vigorously for 40 strokes with the wooden spoon or a rubber spatula. Pour into the pan.
Bake until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool completely on a rack. Cut into squares.)
Look forward to getting out into this city more. Montreal is amazing.
