That's right: Marshal Tito's parrot has been quarantined.
(bemused headshake) If I tried to put something like that in a novel, I can just imagine what the next phone call from my editor would sound like.
posted by Diane: 10/30/2005 12:59:00 PM | link to this post
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Dear sweet Baldur on a bicycle, the thing's got yet another title
According to a report in Variety, the SciFi Channel has bought the U.S. rights to the German sword and sorcery epic, Ring of the Nibelungs. The network will air the miniseries in March under a newer, American-friendly name: Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King.
The "Nibelungs" saga was one of the inspirations for J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" series (as well as the famous Ring Cycle opera by Wagner). The miniseries, when it aired in Germany, was the country's top-rated TV show in 2004.
The program was directed by Uli Edel (director of Mists of Avalon) from a screenplay written by Diane Duane and Peter Morwood. It stars Benno Furmann (The Orde) as "Eric/Siegfried," Kristanna Loken (Terminator 3) as "Brunnhild," Alicia Witt (Dune, Vanilla Sky) as "Kriemhild," and Julian Sands (Rose Red, Warlock) as "Hagen."
Title: Shin of Beef Stewed in Red Wine Categories: Beef, French, Meat, Stew Yield: 6 Servings
6 oz Smoked bacon or salt pork 1 ea Large onion 1 tb Olive oil 5 lb Shin beef off the bone 2 ea Cloves garlic 1 ea Bouquet garni 8 oz Red wine (or more) 1 ts Salt 8 oz Beef stock or water
Cut the bacon or salt pork into small cubes and put them, with a tablespoon of olive oil, into a heavy and fairly wide iron or earthenware pot. When the bacon fat runs, add a large sliced onion and stir about until slightly brown. On top, arrange the shin of beef, off the bone, into thick pieces. Add the cloves of garlic, crushed but not chopped, and the bouquet garni (either one of the "instant" ones, or a small bunch of parsley, thyme and bayleaf, tied up with a string). Pour in a large glass of red wine (about 8 oz) and let all come to a fast boil for 4-5 minutes. Add about the same amount of beef stock or water, and allow to boil again. Add salt. . Cover the pot with paper or foil and a well-fitting lid. Transfer to a very slow oven, 290 degrees F or gas mark 1, and in about 3 hours it will be cooked. Or you can half-cook it one day, remove it, and finish it the next. Serve with potatoes or rice to soak up the sauce. (Egg noodles also work well if you thicken the sauce slightly.) This dish can also be simmered *very* slowly on top of the stove.
MMMMM
...The latter approach makes it easier to take the lid off every twenty minutes and go "Oh, wow, just smell that!" But for the moment, I've stuck it in the oven. It's a pretty afternoon: we'll walk down to the pub and have a glass or so...then wander back, boil some potatoes, smash 'em up, and have the stew over. (To the anguished cries of cats, I'm sure: they were yelling loudly enough while I was cooking.)
Happy birthday, sweetie...
posted by Diane: 10/20/2005 03:30:00 PM | link to this post
Monday, October 17, 2005
It's a game of three halves
Uh. Er.
Do not play in two halves. Rather play in one half or three halves in order to completely differentiate yourselves from the heretics, the polytheists, the corrupted and the disobedient.
(headdesk, headdesk, headdesk, headdesk)
I'm sorry...I feel a sudden urge to go out and dance around the Irminsul or something similar. I'll be back shortly.
posted by Diane: 10/17/2005 12:59:00 PM | link to this post
Saturday, October 15, 2005
And here's a different song to sing --
From the weblog of the alter ego of the guest star of Wizards at War, pp. 525-527:
I found out the other day that there exist in Japanese lyrics to Star Wars' "Imperial March" theme. Some claim that they were actually included in very early releases of the film, but most agree that they were simply invented by sci-fi geeks at a convention. Here they are, with hyphens to help you sing along.
tei-ko-ku wa totemo tsuyoi se-n-kan wa totemo dekai Daa-su Bei-daa wa kuroi toruu-paa wa shiroi De-su su-taa wa marui
Or, in English, "The Empire is very strong/ The battleships are very big/ Darth Vader is black/ The [storm]troopers are white/ The Death Star is round."
(I had to cut out the Japanese characters because they're not showing correctly in my blog for some reason: click here to see the originals. ...And thank you, Matt...)
posted by Diane: 10/15/2005 12:46:00 PM | link to this post
(the writer does a little dance and sings a little song)
Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme are headed back to NBC. Peacock has won an intense bidding war for the next TV show from "The West Wing" duo, an hourlong drama dubbed "Studio 7 on the Sunset Strip" that's set behind-the-scenes at a longrunning Los Angeles-based sketch comedy show. It's believed the net has made a rich 13-episode commitment to the Warner Bros. TV project.
"I hope it's going to be what 'Larry Sanders' did with ... talkshows [Sorkin said.] ...I would like to do that with latenight sketch comedy -- with 'Saturday Night Live': in other words, behind the scenes at a network latenight sketch-comedy, edgy show."
Sorkin wrote the pilot script for the project before the pitching process began. That strategy helped build interest for the project among the webs...Sorkin is expected to personally deliver the script for his project to networks as early as Friday.
And now I'm going to go off and sing and dance some more.
Prince Vladimir Odoevsky, 1803-1869, was a gifted man. Apart from writing philosophical books, stories for children and composing pieces of music, he also wrote science fiction, trying to imagine what his country would look like in 2,500 years, in 4338.
Odoevsky suggested in future there would be a kind of connection between houses that would allow people to communicate quickly and easily, the way they do now via the Internet.
"Houses are connected by means of magnetic telegraphs that allow people who live far from each other to communicate," Odoevsky wrote.
Even more interestingly, Odoevsky suggested every household would publish a kind of daily journal or newsletter and distribute it among selected acquaintances, a habit which Russian bloggers immediately recognized as blogging.
"We received a household journal from the local prime minister, which among other things invited us to his place for a reception," one of Odoevsky's characters tells a friend.
A Wind from the South