THE GURGLING COD

A modest proposal for the Crowley/Gates/Obama playdate.

The conversation in the wake of the Gates incident has been like a Kama Sutra of things that are annoying for The Gurgling Cod. Old fashioned hometown bigotry, mote/beam myopia, smug academic racial fetishizing, conflation of local/national situations,* imprecise language,  and I could go on. But I did want to share my ideas.
Locally:
1) For the sake of a control experiment, we need to lock Harvey Mansfield out of his house, then call 911 when he tries to get in.**
Nationally:
2) This much touted big-boy playdate is covered with a thick layer of awkward sauce. A) At best, it seems like the outcome would be kind of like in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure when Pee-Wee and Francis shake hands. B) Kind of strange to announce in advance which beer each protagonist will be drinking. I'm fine w/ Bud for Obama, but for one Blue Moon is kind of a wussy pick for Sgt. Crowley, not to mention it is a Coors product. Becks/Red Stripe for Gates goes against a White House tradition of serving domestic beer,*** but whatever.
More immediately, think of the opportunity for  President Obama to take The National Conversation On Race™ in a whole new and entirely unexpected direction, were he to channel Frank Booth and exhort both Crowley and Gates to drink Pabst Blue Ribbon.

*For the connoisseur who is jaded by Brooklyn/Manhattan arguments, consider the far subtler pleasures of the 02138 vs. 02139/40 debate.
**Longtime readers of the Cod will recall this is not the first appearance of Harvey Mansfield. Sadly, Dr. Mansfield is not playing for the Atlanta Falcons.
***There is, in fact a longer-term tradition of importing booze for the White House.

The Onion = Nostradamus?

The Gurgling Cod is probably not alone in having a few old stray anthologies from The Onion kicking around the house, and also probably not alone in finding them the kind of books that work best when flipped through on the toilet. Increasingly, however, reading satire from the early Oughts feels like reading prophecy. In 2001, The Onion reported:
After a decade of aggressive expansion throughout North America and abroad, Starbucks suddenly and unexpectedly closed its 2,870 worldwide locations Monday to prepare for what company insiders are calling "Phase Two" of the company's long-range plan.
And now, in 2009, stealth Starbuckses:

Last Friday a cute new coffee shop opened in Seattle, dubbed "15th Avenue E Coffee and Tea"--it's one of those unique places that are being beaten out of business by big nasty Starbucks. Wait a second, it is a Starbucks. And it's right there on the front window--the olde worlde-looking painted store sign says "15th Ave E Coffee and Tea...Inspired by STARBUCKS." It is, in fact, a low-profile, camouflaged stealth Starbucks store. And it's part of a new Starbucks business model that will see stores without the trademark global styling, and interiors that are more of a return to the traditional coffeehouse. Some of them may even, astonishingly, sell wine or beer and host live music and poetry readings.

The irony is that the slogan "inspired by Starbucks" is a 180 degree variation on the truth. Rather than an indie chain w/ indie amenities that aspires to be more like, say, one of the latte abattoir Starbucks at the Chesapeake or Maryland House rest areas, it's a chain coffee house inspired by the independent coffee houses it's been kudzuing out of business for years. That said, if your neighborhood can't keep a real coffee shop in business in the face of a Starbucks challenge, either your neighborhood does not deserve an independent coffee shop, or the independent coffee shop wasn't very good.

Break out the Bag Balm for Julie & Julia!

The inimitable* Gastropoda cooks my exasperation town into one of those 140 character things:
 If the Julia movie were a cow, its udders would be aching. Can they milk it any harder?
Ms. Gastropoda's comment may have been inspired by this valentine from DI/DO, on the challenges of styling food for a movie that is about a book about blogging about cooking through a cookbook, fused with a jankety posthumous memoir by the co-author of aforementioned cookbook, evidently b/c even Nora Ephron could not concoct a screenplay out of J&J.
Luckily for this film, there is a product designed to ease the discomfort that can attend overuse of the udders. It's called Bag Balm. Generations of Vermonters have used it for everything from bovine mastitis to keeping howitzers firing during the Battle of the Bulge, and now it's a new category for when excessive milking of hype needs to be soothed.**

*From the Latin root meaning, "entertaining, and widely feared."
**Speaking of veterinary lubricants, let's hope Bag Balm is available in Columbia, SC!

Splash! Or, would you buy gefelte fish from Ashton Kucher?

That sound you heard? It's the sound of the nouveau food truck bandwagon landing with a resounding splash, after successfully hurdling a Carcharodon Carcharias. As reported from the Wash Sq park dogrun, by a Vendy impressario we know here as the Lime Spider, this conversation happened yesterday:

Him: I think I want to launch a food truck - there's money in it.

Me: What kind of food would you serve?

Him: I'm not sure, maybe Jewish deli food? For me it's just a business, someone else would do that part.

Me: In my experience, a huge part of successful street food ventures is the vendors' passion for their food and focus on sharing that with their customers.

Him: Couldn't I just hire an actor?

Somehow, I imagine that this guy's business team includes the wacky financial advisor who urges his clients to get out of risky bonds and stuff, and make sure that the bulk of his clients' portfolios are in nice sound restaurants.

 

 

Interkosmos

Welcome, Pullquote shoppers. As a public service, Sides 1 & 2 of the OST for Interkosmos.

Download Interkosmosside1

Download InterkosmosSide2

Hi, Neighbor!

Those of you who grew up right will recognize the title phrase as the first part of the slogan for longtime Sox radio sponsor Narragansett. The brand got a relaunch a few years back, and they've renewed their commitment to being neighborly.

Mostly.

Palmettovore? Heard it before.

A little bit of inside baseball here, but also possibly zeitgeist-indicative. A recent visit to the GSP Whole Foods overlapped with a Peach Party, sponsored by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture, as part of a larger Palmettovore program. As the site explains "a Palmettovore is a person who attempts to eat only produce and products grown and processed in South Carolina." It's nice to see that the idea of eating things grown near you has spread to benighted places like SC, and only a few years after Alice Waters came up with the idea.

What makes this interesting is that at least in SC terms, SC Commissioner of Agriculture straight-up ganked this idea from his opponent in the last election, the aforementioned Emile DeFelice, who made "put your state on your plate" his campaign slogan. As one is wont to say when somebody bites someone's style, "Scooby-Do." (See first 30 seconds of below mp3.) On the positive side, it's nice to see Hugh Weathers, a self-described "committed conservative leader," who came to his office from the agribusiness side of things, embracing eating locally as consistent with the role of a state agricultural commission.*

M.C. Battle (Busy Bee vs. Lil Rodney Cee with DJ Grand Wizard Theodore)

*During the Weathers/DeFelice contest in 2006, a Weathers supporter explained to me that DeFelice was a decent fellow, but the problem with him was that he was an "organic farmer," which he used as if it were a synonym for "devil-worshipping commie pederast."

Pitchers pay the price when they face Jim Rice

A big Gurgling Cod salute to Jim Ed Rice, the pride of Anderson, SC*, and Red Sox hall-of-famer.** The best part? Instead of Balco, his performance-enhancing substances came in the form of a meat and three. I am sorry to see that especially these days, no Boston-based writer has used Rice's career in Boston, as player, coach, and TV guy as a window on race in Boston over the last 40 years or so. It's a shame Larry Whiteside is not with us. It would be a complicated story -- and not a pretty one, but it is a story, in that the Boston of Rice's rookie year is a very different place than it is today. Deval Patrick is in the corner office on Beacon Hill, and Rice, notably aloof from the media as a player, is part of the NESN broadcast team. It's shameful that that would have been unthinkable in 1974, but it is a reality now.  The Gurgling Cod likes to think it's possible to note progress like this without being a postracial Pollyanna. 
*Once, when I was buying a set of tires not far from Jim Ed's hometown, the mention of Jim Rice led to a nostalgic reflection on his high school football career.

**Bittersweet, too, in that it happened on what would have been my father's 71st birthday. That's the man who took me to see Jim Rice play baseball, and who talked me off the ledge on 10/2/78 as we were biking home from Fenway.

New Day Riesling

As long as we are jocking Acheson, we might as well mention the future, as well as the past:
Riesling Wine Dinner

Wednesday, July 29th, 7 pm 5 rieslings/5 courses, $85 per person

First course:

Wegeler, Sekt "Brut", NV, Rheingau, Germany with vegetable and curry samosa with tamarind, yogurt and sesame

Second course:

Fritz Haag, 2007, Brauneberg, Germany with Georgia shrimp ceviche (Ecuadorian-style) with popcorn and corn nuts

Third course:

Albert Boxler, 2006, Alsace, France with braised quail with peaches and red bell peppers, wilted watercress

Fourth course:

Domaine Dirler-Cade, Belzbrunnen, 2005, Alsace, France with  crisp house cured bacon, with cabbage, local red potato,parsley salad and ham hock broth

Dessert:

Hermann Donnhoff, Niederhauser Hermannshohle, Auslese, 2006, Nahe, Germany with rustic apple and Vidalia onion tart with goat cheese ice cream

Sounds mighty tasty! Have a good weekend. Play us off Keyboard Cat Husker Du:

 

 

Hugh Acheson, um, cooks the pain away at the Beard house

 A little late on this one, but when the Devil goes down to Georgia, he's looking for a soul to steal. Conversely, when Hugh Acheson leaves Athens for a visit to the Beard House, he brings lots of peaches:

Hors d’Oeuvre
Tomato, Peach, and Basil Salad

Georgia Sturgeon Caviar with Pickled Peaches, Mimosa, and Daikon

Pimientos de Padrón with Maldon Salt

Boiled Peanuts

Bisol Crede Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Brut 2007

Dinner
Georgia Shrimp a la Plancha with Peaches, Cucumbers, Aleppo Peppers, and Lime Raita
Terredora Falanghina 2008

Foie Gras Torchon with Peppered Peaches
Colosi Passito di Pantelleria 2004

Halibut with Grilled Peach–Red Pepper Salad and Serrano Ham Chips
Suavia Soave Classico La Rive 2005

Pork Duo > Braised Nature’s Harmony Farm Pork Shoulder with Peach Couscous, Avocado, and Roasted Peanuts; and Crispy Pork Belly with Tarragon Creamed Corn and Peach Gastrique
Castello Dei Rampolla Chianti Classico 2005

Sweet Grass Dairy Georgia Pecan Chèvre with Peach Compote and Pecan Bread
Damilano Barbera d’Alba 2007

Peach Finale > Peach–Blueberry Crisp with Fromage Blanc and Champagne Syrup
Marenco Pineto Brachetto d’Acqui 2008

Do I bring this up simply so that I can post a picture of Zooey Deschanel? Surprisingly, not. I'd been planning to use this (Peaches, Acheson is from Canada, get it?), when the fates wafted me a the Zooey pic.