Skip to content

Category Archives: Words

Two Ends

Thursday, February 2, 2012

“There are two things that you never want to talk about,” Benjie told me. I stopped eating and turned to look at him and listen, feeling that he was about to say something profound or close to it. “What are those things, Benjie?” “Dying and dessert.”

Also filed in | | Comments (0)

Teapot

Saturday, September 3, 2011

The teapot photo signals a new gadget.

Also filed in | | Comments (0)

Security Guard

Friday, July 8, 2011

At the end of the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica there is a three story tall inflatable Smurf and there’s a full time security guard watching him around the clock. When the guard’s shift ends, he drives home and says, “It was a quiet day. No one tried to touch the Smurf. No one [...]

Also filed in | | Comments (0)

Remember

Monday, June 6, 2011

Benjie draws a person sitting in a chair with a thought balloon over her head. I ask him, “Who is this?” “That’s mama.” “And what’s this?” I point at the thought balloon. “That’s her dream.” “What’s she dreaming about?” “Mama dreams about clothes. Mom dreams about clothes and I dream about toys.” He hesitates for [...]

Also filed in | | Comments (0)

Make It Hot

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Jezebel contributor Jenna Sauers deflates the “rah-rah Rule Britannia stuff” of the Adams, Orwell, and Hitchens essays, strips out the ceremony, and explains the essentials of making tea: The main thing — and the most obvious area of commonality between Hitchens, Orwell, and Adams — is that everything used in the making of tea must [...]

Also filed in How to Make Tea | | Comments (0)

Don’t Boil the Leaves

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

From Arthur’s Home Magazine, Vol. LIV No. 6, June 1886: The Scotch do not say “make tea,” but “infuse tea,” which is more correct. Good tea is an infusion, not a decoction. By boiling the leaves, you get a bitter principle and drive off the delicate perfume of the tea. For this reason, the tea-pot [...]

Also filed in How to Make Tea | | Comments (0)

Qianlong on Making Tea

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Multiple sources attribute this to Qing Dynasty Emperor Qianlong, though I haven’t located the original source: Set an old three-legged teapot over a slow fire. Fill it with water of melted snow. Boil it just as long as is necessary to turn fish white, or lobsters red. Pour it on the leaves of choice in [...]

Also filed in How to Make Tea | | Comments (0)

How To Make Tea Links

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The start of a collection of How to Make Tea essays. Douglas Adams: There is a very simple principle to the making of tea and it’s this – to get the proper flavour of tea, the water has to be boiling (not boiled) when it hits the tea leaves. Christopher Hitchens (after Orwell): If you [...]

Also filed in How to Make Tea | | Comments (0)

Back Up

Friday, December 31, 2010

August 2003 I’m moving old backups to new media.

Also filed in | | Comments (1)

Ten Years of the Unreliable Blogger

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Posted on Thursday, November 30, 2000, at 3:47 pm: I’m guessing that I was 7 or 8, which would mean that Chris was 13 or 14. Chris & next door neighbor friend Robert were messing around with Robert’s motorcycle & had ridden out on the dirt roads that weave around in the grape vine fields. [...]

Also filed in | | Comments (0)