Food

Sometimes I get a little insecure about my tastes in food.

At age 46, I still like peanut butter. I buy 40 oz. jars of Jif Extra Crunchy and consume them in about two weeks. I eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I eat peanut butter sandwiches. I eat it with a spoon. I smear it on celery. If there's no bread, I'll smear it on a slice of cheese and eat it that way.

I like root beer. The department secretary keeps the fridge in the faculty lounge stocked with soft drinks. (We pay her $.50 a can.) At my request, she makes sure there are always a few cans of A&W in there. I think she smirks behind my back.

I like macaroni and cheese; it's one of my comfort foods. Stouffer's and Marie Callender make fish/mac & cheese dinners, and I buy one maybe once a month.

I get to feeling like one of the great unwashed when I think about these things.

But then I get to thinking something else. I've eaten and enjoyed escargot in Paris, rijstafel in Amsterdam, and bouillabaisse in Marseilles. I've had spaghetti carbonara in Rome, calamari in Venice, and truite almondine in Tours. I've eaten shortbread on the island of Mull. (I've also eaten poi on Oahu, but I didn't enjoy that.) I've made my own pad thai, frittata, and lasagna (with and without spinach). I make two kinds of quiche, and I've even baked my own bread, although not in quite a while. [NB: I'm not bragging; I'm strictly a by-the-book cook. The only virtues I can claim here are a willingness to try things and the ability to follow instructions.]

I still like peanut butter, and root beer, and mac & cheese; but I'm not so insecure about it after that.

Amazon Raid

For some reason, the dogs didn't notify me of today's visit from the Book Fairy. Two packages arrived on my doorstep, with neither bark nor growl as herald.

Contents: Matt Ruff's Sewer, Gas and Electric, about which I have heard many fine things; Quicksilver, by Neal Stephenson (which has met with mixed reviews, but I've enjoyed the Stephenson I've read - Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash); the much-lauded The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde; Joseph Nye's The Paradox of American Power, recommended to me a month and a half ago by oilhistorian; Race of Scorpions, volume 3 of Dorothy Dunnett's "House of Niccolo" series; The Celtic Languages, a set of essays on you-guess-what; two CDs by Mike + the Mechanics (I wanted "Silent Running" and "The Living Years", and they're on different albums. Yes, I know that "The Living Years" is sentimental and manipulative, but it hits one of my buttons squarely, and I wanted it.); and the season-one DVDs of "The Gilmore Girls". (I don't know if I'll buy any of the later seasons, but there were some truly outstanding episodes in that first year. I especially like "The Deer Hunters", "Cinnamon's Wake", the two parter "Rory's Dance"/"Forgiveness and Stuff", "Concert Interruptus", and "Emily in Wonderland".)

Too bad I've got so much else I have to do... Naah.