Ramen in Decatur: Wa Ga Ya

Last week I ventured just a bit outside the Decatur city limits and tried the ramen at Wagaya, in Emory Village. It was a cold early winter day, with incipient rain, and I

Ramen in Decatur: Taiyo

Taiyo is located in the Courtyard Decatur Hotel, just up from the square on Clairemont. (Yes, I know it's Clairmont further north where you're thinking of it, but inside the Decatur city limits it's Clairemont.)

We both had exhausting Mondays for our own individual reasons, so decided to treat ourselves to noodles. Serendipity! As we were

Peter Stormare

I dislike many things about VW as a corporate entity, but it sure was cool when Peter Stormare did some commercials for them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWMpHc77qNI

Lowery on Texas

The piece in the link (if it's not behind a paywall) is difficult to read. Difficult emotionally; the prose itself is plainly written and more powerful because of that. It's an account, by many eyewitnesses, of the Texas church massacre last weekend. Wesley Lowery, the lead reporter, described it on Twitter this way: "We emptied our notebooks of every detail we have . . ."

I have recently finished Wesley Lowery's excellent book They Can't Kill Us All, and recommend it if you're interested in what's behind the movement(s) protesting police violence against unarmed black people. In addition to reporting on the crime scenes, Lowery takes the time to get to know the community leaders who dedicate time and energy to keeping these needless killings in the public eye.  One thing that becomes clear as you read the book is that reporting on these events takes a huge toll on the journalists who cover them. My second reaction on reading this piece is how devastating it must be just talking to people who have so recently gone through this, let alone actually being present during the killing.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-sound-of-hymns-drifted-from-the-country-church-then-came-gunfire/2017/11/08/4bd191b4-c4b7-11e7-aae0-cb18a8c29c65_story.html?utm_term=.d450c89e921e

A First Stab at Ramen in Decatur

Last week, Margaret and I watched Tampopo, and well before we finished, Margaret said out loud what I had been thinking most

A Columbus Day Soup

Navy Bean Soup with Grits

The soup is somewhat of a triangulation. It lies somewhere among the bean soup my mom made when I was a kid, Heidi Swanson’s lima bean soup with chipotle broth, and posole. If I had had whole corn on hand, and time to turn it into hominy, this would have been closer to posole. Using the grits inspired me to use the pumpkin, so the recipe has the three sisters (corn, beans, squash); adding chiles makes this recipe even more appropriate to be served on what I grew up calling Columbus Day (and seems to be becoming Indigenous Peoples Day). I think this soup might be even better with baby limas; they make such a lovely silky broth on their own and cook more quickly. I also think this soup would be good with some bitter greens like arugula or kale tossed in toward the end, but I like that in anything.

Click through for the recipe

Atomic War Tips

This guy Yonatan Zunger has some stuff worth reading. The following showed up today and includes good reminders of things I read about as a child.  https://medium.com/@yonatanzunger/island-tips-for-surviving-a-nuclear-attack-5708fc56fb5d

What I did on Margaret's (Sort of) Spring Break

Last week Margaret attended the CCCC in Portland, Oregon. This is a big convention under the auspices of the National Council of Teachers of English. I took three vacation days to accompany her; while she conferred, I did some sightseeing on my own and visited Gary Rogowski at his Northwest Woodworking Studio. We also visited with my old friends Chris Murray and Shannon Riley.

Here are some pictures.