Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Gertrude was talking to Hamlet about a woman.

A facebook friend posted the following:

There comes a point in life when fun no longer means clubbing, drinking or being out till 4am, or thinking about yourself! Fun means Disney movies, family dinners, bedtime stories, long cuddles, a messy house, sleeping by 10pm and hearing little voices say “I love you.” Becoming a parent doesn’t change you, it makes you realize that the little people that YOU created deserve the very best of your time. Repost if you get it. I hope I see this on the wall of every Mother and Father I know. 


I find this sort of thing really unhelpful: it enforces some kind of crazy ideal (that seems rather un-ideal to me) that we are all supposed to sacrifice our whole selves and further more enjoy the sacrifice, when we have kids. Additionally, this kind of "in-crowd" statement is unhelpful and only serves to further alienate people (seemingly on purpose) and create this false dichotomy of the "parents" (responsible, sacrificing, wholesome) and the "non-parents" (irresponsible, selfish, immature).

That's not to say I don't see equally irritating posts from the non-parent faction. Both have their "ladies* who doth protest too much**"

*Not that it's all ladies, in fact the idiot who posted the above is actually male. It's just that Gertrude was talking to Hamlet about a woman.
**Who are you really trying to convince about your life choices? Because facebook doesn't care and we all, on some level, know that. 

Monday, October 6, 2014

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Black lentils. Polenta. Woody Allen.

I made this black lentil dish last night. I used Trader Joe's European Style Yoghurt instead of greek because Trader Joe's European Style Yoghurt is delicious.

Also: I have been watching the Frugal Gourmet on YouTube and Hulu. Please don't read the Wikipedia article about Jeff Smith: it is giving the same complex that Woody Allen films do, except I'm not really that interested in watching Woody Allen films in the first place* and I do enjoy the Frugal Gourmet. I console myself with thinking he's probably not making any money off of me watching and he's dead.

Anyway. I saw him make lasagne with polenta and now I want to try it. BUT. I have never successfully made polenta that held its shape. This idea has convinced me that it may be worth trying again. I mean, the worst that can happen is I end up with cornmeal mush, and I like that.

*"What makes Annie Hall a great movie is that after watching it for an hour and a half, you check the time and realize it's only actually been playing for thirty minutes. "That's enough for me," you say, and then you've got another hour to your day that you thought you had wasted watching Woody Allen! Mazel tov!" - My friend Michael.