Blogging or Life, An Update

I'm a little between things now. That is, I think my kids have finally settled into some kind of a routine, but, unfortunately, I have not. There was a time when I sat down to this very computer every day and before I got to work, I blogged. I liked that. Now, I don't sit down to the computer every day. Honestly, I'm not sure what I do every day, but I know it involves a lot of time on the subway. And three days a week it involves running. I have a short but very intense list of things I need to do in the apartment: for example, return items, recycle clothing at the Friday Farm Market which I haven't gotten to in four weeks, put up paint samples, clear out files, stuff like that. I get to maybe one a week. I did make banana bread the other day when my son was home sick from school. I couldn't do much else. It's always good to get stuff done when you can't do much. As for blogging, I'll keep looking out for that routine for me. I should stumble upon it any minute now.

Flipping the Company

Of course the New York Times article that led today's paper about private equity firms that buy companies that make things like mattresses and borrow against them to pay themselves loads of money was tipped editorially to leave us sympathetic to the mattress maker (Simmons) now in bankruptcy and the workers who lost their jobs and the company they once loved working for. (Check out the photographs in the print edition after the jump - one of a laid off worker, the other of the former CEO on the porch of "one of his homes" in Jackson Hole with his wife, two wine glasses and a bottle of wine-- they say it all.) But, truthfully, there was no way to write that article that wouldn't have left me furious at the fat cat money guys and their entitled buy in, sell out, fee payments and debt whatevers. I know it's kind of quaint and old fashioned of me, but where's the respect for things made with these guys? Do the people who work at private equity firms just think that those who make a living by making things and not generating paper on which to move meaningless numbers across spread sheets and into their own bank accounts are just chumps?

I know, I don't have to answer that.

Adieu, Gourmet

I'm trying to feel sad about the news that Gourmet is shutting down. There was a time when I really enjoyed that magazine, but, truth be told, that time ended a long time ago. I subscribed up until a year ago and when my subscription lapsed, I didn't really feel too badly. The magazine was, what's the word, boring. Sure there were usually one or two recipes that interested me -- a ten minute meal or something to bake -- but I never read anything in it. And, the fancy stuff was all too fancy and the everyday stuff almost too everyday. Maybe it's just that the damn thing was so, you know, tasteful. To me it felt like the magazine lost its heart and found nothing to replace it. And now, nothing will.

Vegetarian Times

After reading this article in today's New York Times about e-coli in ground meat, I'm ready for the first issue of my new subscription. I bet I'm not the only one.

Lucky is So Not Domino

When Domino folded, the brilliant minds at Conde Nast redirected my subscription to Lucky. Can I just say? Lucky is not a magazine. I don't know what it is, but to call it a magazine is too great a compliment. Seriously. The captions are awful (if I see "well-edited" used to describe clothes or a store one more time I think I might just die), the beauty page indistinguishable from paid promotions, and the clothes? Ugly. The shoes? Uglier. It might be I'm trending too old for this particular beauty book, but all I can say is I want my Domino back.

Rational Irrationality: This Week's New Yorker

In this week's The New Yorker John Cassidy has an article about the financial crisis and the rational -if reprehensible --decisions that drove it. At first I was all, "Do I have to read another article about this?" And then reading it, I was like, "There's nothing RATIONAL about making loans to people who can't afford to pay them back and that's the base of the whole pyramid." But of course Cassidy's point is that it's not nice, but it's rational if you plan to sell those loans to eager Wall Street buyers at a nice fat profit. And that's just what happened; Cassidy himself explains here. If everyone looks the other way no one has to see a thing. Of course the same thing can be said about climate change. Here Elizabeth Kolbert begs our leadership to start looking.

Bread Baking, In Theory

A friend, I won't say who, told me that bread baking was No Big Deal. Not that hard. No reason for the fuss. This, however, has not been my experience. When I've tried to make a basic white loaf, the only thing to recommend it is that it's been fresh from the oven. Once it cools, though, it's just been a yeasty rock. I made challah for Rosh Hashannah two weeks ago. It turned out pretty well and I made them with my daughter who was so excited about the whole thing, which was pretty much the point, but still, they were fine. Fine, but probably not worth it outside of the holiday context. And still, even though I live where very good bread can be bought for not so much money and even though my kids like to eat not very good bread, I want to make it. And so, I'm excited about this on Chocolate & Zucchini about how to make Sour Dough English muffins and a whole web making bread thing. Maybe I'll make some, or maybe I'll just read about it, but just knowing it can be done makes me glad.