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April snow (RJ Peltz-Steele CC BY-SA 4.0) |
What I’m Celebrating…
It was a
Quarantine Birthday!
For my
wife, I made a birthday cake!: a classic
pound cake with hazelnut
buttercream frosting. I won no points
on aesthetics, but the sweet taste was spot on.
I also made our dinner of vegetable pasta with mozzarella garlic bread,
heavy on the garlic. We had my wife’s
favorite wine, Gazela
vinho verde (she’s a cheap date). And from her Amazon
WishList, she received some admittedly non-essential
but long desired Yuxier
BBQ gloves (Spider-Man-style,
but not really, because a Chinese
maker wouldn’t dare test trademark).
Our
daughter sent our favorite flavored
honeys from the Savannah Bee Company,
and there were lots of lovely cards: thanks, family and friends.
What I’m Reading
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🙏 Our ongoing Bible reading has proceeded from First to Second
Kings, and we’ve begun a Sunday Zoom study of my favorite book, James. If you feel in need, or wish to support
others, in these strange times, you are welcome to visit our church’s new virtual prayer wall, as well as Sunday service at 0930 US EDT.
What I’m Listening To
What I’m Listening To
Floodlines
(2020). This eight-part audio series
by Vann R. Newkirk
II represents a first foray into podcasting for The Atlantic. It’s a fascinating deep dive into the
Hurricane Katrina disaster, exploring all angles, especially race and
socioeconomic implications. Newkirk skillfully weaves a narrative that traces New Orleans history from its roots in slavery to its contemporary demography. A lot of
what’s here wasn’t new to me, because, for work, I’ve done a more-than-normal amount of
reading about Katrina, and I'm personally familiar with NOLA.
(The audio pacing is slow, and you can nudge up the speed
if you use an intermediary such as Google
rather than streaming from the home page.) There’s
still plenty here, though, for anyone, and maybe a lot for some: Katrina was 15
years ago, so young adults might not even remember it. For my part, I had never heard of the case of
Ivor van
Heerden, who lost his academic post at LSU Baton Rouge in suspicious
subsequence to his criticism of the Army Corps levees. That one nugget from Floodlines part 3
sent me down a depressing rabbit-hole-reading of van Heerden’s ultimately
unsuccessful litigation. Academics,
even with tenure, almost always lose to judges’ sycophantic deference to
university bureaucrats,
while a 2011
AAUP report had no trouble seeing through LSU’s pretext. FIRE wrote about the importance of the van
Heerden case just
this week.
What I’m Watching
Code 8
(2019). Eh. It killed a couple of hours. Did you know that Stephen Amell (Arrow)
and Robbie Amell
(The Tomorrow People)
are first
cousins?
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_81m55-ai1R4MIbABO8RU_TzyA0TOXWmOpiCkZJDXfRCfnFWudF4q99iWm4zLxvAGcXBR4g7-yfWanq2pcN8TUf7X9w1YrZWmNVcQOvYcVCUJnKR1TDqcIJDL0GnjAKiVFpk-8vYKvbFj/s320/FAM.jpg)
KN Aloysh (Apr. 19). My friend Komlan Aloysh launched his YouTube channel of interviews with African changemakers by sitting down to Zoom with Rhode Island-residing, Liberian tech entrepreneur Jacob Roland, founder and CEO of West Africa-serving Pygmy Technologies. Their wide-ranging conversation reached from the transnational tech sector to Liberian food and culture. Roland well observed, in whatever area one might wish to create, the Liberian market is ripe and ready. And he tipped viewers off to top unspoilt beaches in Liberia, though I suggest you get there before Chinese developers do. The show made me conscious of how much I am missing West Africa just now.
Bluewater Bar + Grill. This week's self-sacrifice (sarcasm) to #SaveOurRestaurants went to a local institution and its generous and hard-working staff. Our bounty included R.I. calamari, battered cauliflower, chili broccoli, burgers and truffle fries, and the pièce de résistance, cinnamon beignets worthy of their Louisiana heritage.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv5k5rYcLmSTK5s4Tn7QSjLAAJfoxdXXP0ZVfrnaBKPGJ2VaiCPF4yeIbjg8Dp8HQUkWvMCajDrPjZHRbCR0mONUj0xxw4U0FM4BVLA2GWW3amk_-1AaQkKbRE2Huav3RF3gMvKoA_1xQo/s200/2020-04-18+16.02.23-a.jpg)
What I’m Drinking
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![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmBNVK1fZx5PYzrWxwociVIRvsGjYugWaPCbNXz-qyNYXtrAXVgfAbwgjc9xFjqJlZr2JPWu0MEgF7LMKKni6xeYXm08ED_DYE2rn3QM9XCWPuouRH5GpG8otKEkROgy0I1Z6GkQfrypdf/s200/hazelnut.jpg)
Veiner Nössliqueur von Pitz-Schweitzer. A yummy sample of hazelnut liqueur I picked up in Luxembourg: I used it in the icing for the birthday cake. And maybe I sampled some according to the one-for-the-cup-one-for-the-cook rule. The drinking policy at my work-from-home-place is super chill.
Burn this. Our
town has suspended
yard-waste pickup, so I collected from the yard and burned in the fireplace the
winter season’s accumulated kindling. We
had a nice, hot fire for the birthday celebration. Though I always worry whether the trees
outside are alarmed
by the smell of smoke from their fallen limbs.
This is the matrix. Ramadan Mubarak to our Muslim friends, and blessed weekend to all.
Photos in Celebrating, Eating, Drinking, and Staying Sane are mine, CC BY-SA 4.0.