In Bloom Magazine, Every Burger is Juicy

I always pick up the new copy of Bloom magazine.  It’s a brightly-colored, slickly-produced, and in many ways quite well-done give-away magazine about Bloomington, Indiana, focusing on arts, entertainment, food, and so on.  It sometimes contains interesting long-form journalism about the town and its history of a kind you wouldn’t find elsewhere — for example, [...]

*Cedar Rapids,* Eliot Coleman, and the Midwestern greenhouse dream

[image: http://www.urbanfarmonline.com/urban-gardening/backyard-gardening/small-scale-greenhouse.aspx] We watched the El Helms movie Cedar Rapids: Ed Helms is Tim Lippe, a modest, upstanding, nerdy small-town Iowa insurance salesman who is sent to a conference in the glittering fleshpots of Cedar Rapids, IA, which functions (often wittily) in the movie as a very tame/toned-down version of Las Vegas in The Hangover.  [...]

Montreal: Bagels, Otto Dix

So, I am not going to write about my entire trip to Montreal now, just two details. Montreal Bagels.  I learned about the Montreal Bagel phenomenon a month or two ago when I read a review of a new “Montreal-style” bagel place in NYC.  Hmm, cannot seem to find that review now but here is [...]

Julie and Julia as indictment of 21st century life

I finally got around to watching Julie and Julia.  Thought it was a strangely bifurcated movie.  Meryl Streep was fabulous, Stanley Tucci excellent too, and the whole Julia Child narrative very enjoyable overall.  Amy Adams on the other hand was irritating and off-putting, the character Julie a narcissistic whiner, her husband deeply unappealing.  Was this [...]

Recent movies: Bird & Magic, Redford and Dunaway, etc.

Our t.v. died a month or so ago — just stopped working.  Sarah’s dad had bought it for us at Best Buy for $500 in 2002 or so.  It was a 27″ and/but seemed huge — very bulky and room-dominating.  After some research on the Consumer Reports site I bought this 32″ flatscreen for $380 [...]

Creepy Farmers’ Market Simulacrum

Sarah snapped these pics of this extremely creepy Farmers Market simulacrum on display in the entrance to the Kroger’s near us. “Hey, people seem to really like these ‘farmers’ markets.’  Let’s arrange our sterile fruits and veggies imported from South America, Australia, etc and present it all as the produce raised by a disturbing robot/Cylon [...]

the Hinkleburger

I lost my debit card, Am Ex card, faculty i.d. and driver’s license last weekend.  My wallet had a ripped pocket and I think everything fell out somewhere in the farmer’s market.  I have enough faith in the friendly small-town experience that I kept waiting for someone to get in touch… but no dice.  To [...]

Cup of coffee as baby lamb

Dialogue this morning around 8 a.m.  I’ve been up for 40 minutes, Sarah for ten. Sarah, casting her eyes around the room with mild alarm: “whatever you do, don’t throw out my cup of coffee.” Me: “I’d sooner tear away the baby lamb from the claws of the fierce tiger.” Sarah: looks at me blankly.  [...]

Visit to Louisville

We took an economical, two day one night spring break trip to Louisville.  Stayed in the historic Galt Hotel on the riverfront which in the 19th century hosted such guests as “Jefferson Davis, Stephen Douglas, Edwin Booth, Charles Dickens, P.T. Barnum, Tom Thumb, and presidents Lincoln, Grant, Taylor, Hayes and Buchanan.”  And now us.  We [...]

Remorseless Eatin’ Machine

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Obese diners at all-you-can-eat Chinese restaurants were more likely than other customers to sit closer to the buffet, face the food bar, use forks rather than chopsticks, use larger plates, and serve themselves immediately rather than first browsing the food, according to a study reported in the August [...]