Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Ned Sublette, John Pizer, and the Princeton Review

The World That Made New Orleans both delights and instructs. So does John Pizer’s The Idea of World Literature. I recommend it to anyone, but especially to those in or interfacing with an English Department. I am also reading the Princeton Review. The website has a calculator which conjugates your GPA and test scores to … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Ned Sublette, John Pizer, and the Princeton Review

Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Edith Wharton

“Then the populace closes in again, so quickly and densely that it seems impossible it could ever have been parted, and negro water-carriers, muffled women, beggars streaming with sores, sinewy and greasy “saints,” Soudanese sorcerers hung with amulets made of sardine-boxes and hares’-feet, long-lashed boys of the Chleuh in clean embroidered caftans, Jews in black … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Edith Wharton

Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Neil Postman. A Book of Anti-Pleasure: The Velveteen Rabbit

In this post we will discuss Neil Postman, whom I did read for pleasure, but first we will mention my least favorite book of all time: The Velveteen Rabbit. I avoid public radio at this time of year because it is given to reading this book. THE VELVETEEN RABBIT I dislike The Velveteen Rabbit intensely … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Neil Postman. A Book of Anti-Pleasure: The Velveteen Rabbit

Crème Fraîche

I thought crème fraîche only grew in France – i.e. that it was hard to make and only French dairies chose to make it – but it is easy to make and we can make it here. That means we can have it without going to France. Take 1 pint heavy cream, ideally not ultrapasteurized, … More Crème Fraîche

Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Charles Barber, Helen Redmond

Most of this post was written before Hurricane Gustav came into being, but these first paragraphs are written from my very couch, with the help of electricity restored by workers from northern Texas! Other emergency workers I saw were from Kentucky, Indiana, and Oklahoma, and of course from here. There must have been many more, … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Charles Barber, Helen Redmond