Tag Archives: pledge drive

Parentgood

A Series of Questions on Parenting

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Father-Knows-Best-3

Here's the situation. I will soon have a 16 and 14 year old. It feels like we've hit a point where parenting strategy has to shift. Less telling them what to do and more picking them up after they fall. This doesn't seem as obvious as parenting younger kids. I didn't have to think much when a toddler was grabbing an electrical cord. It was pretty obvious what I should do.

Should I monitor digital communications with her friends?

Should I let her use social media?

Should I tell her I know she has a second "secret" Instagram account?

How much input should I give her on classes she chooses?

How much input should I have on college?

Do I encourage her to start looking at colleges or just sit back and wait?

Do I suggest any schools she should visit? What if I think she's going down the wrong road? Do I really know the wrong road for her?

Should I give any advice on her major? What if she thinks she wants to go on to get a PhD?

If she's watching Netflix on her Kindle after she's gone to bed, do I punish her or just explain why it's a bad idea?

Should she have a bed time?

Should I push her to get her driver's license?

We haven't gotten to the dating thing. What do I do then? I picture myself like the coach on Friday Night Lights where I say and do the wrong thing most of the time.

How much do I "warn" her about boys?

How much do I talk about safety and avoiding bad situations? (I have a pretty cautious daughter. The hesitance to get her driver's license comes from a Driver's Ed course that focused on car crashes as a "Scared Straight" strategy. It scared her straight out of the vehicle.)

Thanks for reading and any suggestions!

The Nation Has An Appetite

Triple-Threat Cookies

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Lest y'all think I haven't picked up any sports lingo in the nearly 4 years I've been hanging around here . . .

In this case, the recipe's name refers to the fact that these cookies contain three kinds of chocolate. Yeah, baby.

from The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern by Claudia Fleming, via Epicurious

1/4 (1 1/8 oz.) cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 (4 2/3 oz.) granulated sugar
1/2 tablespoon brewed espresso*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 ounces extra-bittersweet chocolate, chopped**
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup (4 3/4 oz.) mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, briefly whip the eggs to break them up. Add the sugar, espresso, and vanilla and beat on high speed for 15 minutes, until thick. (Yes, that's really 15 minutes.)

Here's how your batter should look at the end of that time:
triple2

While the eggs are whipping, place the butter, extra-bittersweet chocolate, and unsweetened chocolate in the top of a double boiler, or in a medium-size metal bowl suspended over a pot of simmering (not boiling) water. Heat until the butter and chocolate melt. Remove the boiler top from over the water and stir the butter/chocolate mixture until smooth.

Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture until partially combined (there should still be streaks). Add the flour mixture to the batter and carefully fold it in. Fold in the chocolate chips. If the batter is very runny, let it rest until it thickens slightly, about 5 minutes.

Here's my finished batter:
triple3

Drop the batter by heaping teaspoonfuls (yes, these are tiny cookies!) onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 8 to 9 minutes, rotating sheets on top and bottom racks halfway through. When done, the cookies should be puffed and cracked on top. (You don't want to overbake these or you'll miss out on the cookies having a gloriously fudge-y center.) Remove baking sheet from the oven and transfer cookies a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight plastic container or ziplock bag for up to 1 week.

*I'm no coffee drinker, but I keep a jar of instant espresso (e.g. Medaglia d'Oro) in the freezer and brew it when needed for a recipe.
**The chocolate flavor really comes through in these cookies, so if you're making these, I recommend springing for the good stuff.

The Nation Has An Appetite

Comfort food

13 Comments

So, to no one's surprise, I missed the deadline for initial submission of Pledge Week posts. Rather than mail it in, I'm whipping up something quick and simple: crockpot chicken congee.

Congee

Like much of my life at the moment, the photo is a bit out of focus.

This recipe is a mild adaptation of one published by the NY Times.

combine 2 cups brown rice and 2 quarts chicken stock (brought to boil separately) in a crock pot. Cook on low all day, stirring every couple of hours if you can. When the rice cooks down to a porridge, it's ready. Alternatively, this can be cooked on the stovetop. It takes a couple of hours on low. Monitor the liquid level so that it does not dry out. You can always add water to maintain consistency (thick porridge, not thin gruel). And the leftovers will thicken considerably due to all the starch. Just add more water or stock.

The magic lies in the mix-ins and toppings. I served this with spinach (sauteed with chopped garlic and ginger), fried garlic and ginger, toasted sesame seeds (white and black, because that's what I had), chopped green onion, and splashes of soy sauce, sesame oil, and hot chile oil. But let your imagination rule. A common mix-in is a raw egg, which will cook from the residual heat of the congee. Or you could add chopped, leftover pork chops (I did this one night), chicken, fish, or almost any leftover veggies.

So if you need to curl up on the sofa with a tear-jerker movie or a good book, a hot bowl of this will feed your soul. And who doesn't need a little soul food these days?

Baseball Cards, detective work

CSI: Carlsbad, CA [2003 Upper Deck]

25 Comments

It's been a while since we've done this -- not because I don't want to (they're pretty entertaining), but because there has been a serious shortage of Twins' action photographs in recent baseball card sets...thanks Obama Topps. We've done several of these in the past, but never as their own dedicated post.

We're going to go back a bit here, and throw a shout out to a recently retired former Twin. This is 2003 Upper Deck card #114 from their flagship product:
csi-ortiz

Not sure that there is enough to go on here, but you guys are rabid ferrets, and if this play can be singled out, you're just the ones to do it.

The clues:

  • day game, and long sleeves (early season?)
  • away game
  • play at the plate (Safe? Out? Hard to say.)
  • ©2002, so this play is in all likelihood from maybe the first 2/3 or so of the 2002 season, captured in time to use on the 2003 set.

Alright Citizens, have at it! Further clues in the comments are fine, but spoiler your answers.

NBA, WGOM

WGOM Pledge Drive – FTLT on the Wolves

10 Comments

I don't know how many good analogies really exist. Most seem clumsy, if not forced. The ones that don't have been beaten so far into the ground that they have sort of lost any meaning that they once had. I think back to something I heard once in a movie about how if you say a word enough times in a row, it kind of loses all meaning, barely even sounding like a word anymore.

Potential.
Potential.
Potential.
Poe-tench-uhl
Potential.

This Wolves team is pretty fun to watch, right?

Karl-Anthony Towns is evolutionary Tim Duncan
Andrew Wiggins is turning into an absolute scoring machine-- creating images in my head of how people described Bernard King to me
Zach Lavine, seriously, that Zach Lavine is proving to be nearly as effective from the 3 point line as he has been in dunk contests.
Rubio's true shooting percentage has been high in the forbidden zone, if not the restricted area.

See what I mean about analogies being clumsy and forced?

I was surprised when jobu asked me to put together a post about the Wolves for Pledge Week. I haven't posted in over two years here at the WGOM (!). Life kind of gets in the way sometimes. The herd is getting older. The Bison is 5 and The Bisonette is 3. Wife and I just celebrated a wedding anniversary this past weekend. Since I started hanging out at the WGOM in 2008 I have bought three houses and sold two. I had a great job, lost it, Got a bad job and turned it into a good one. Things change, people change, situations change. One thing that has been kind of a constant is a bad Timberwolves team. It reminds me of another show full of clumsy metaphors, Lost. Desmond had Penny and I have the Timberwolves. But then again -- spoiler alert-- something happens with Penny, I think. The whole show got kind of confusing after a little while and the whole thing starts to blend together. One analogy that probably isnt clumsy is Pekovic as Mr. Ecko though.

Some lousy things have happened to some fine folks here over the past few years. Maybe the WGOM has been their constant. The thing that brings them back. The thing that makes you smile when you are having a crummy day.

Maybe it is a Dieng shot from the elbow.
Maybe it is Shabaaz rotating on defense.
Maybe it is Dunn leaping into a lane for a steal.
Maybe it is couting Tyrus Jones' freckles.
Maybe it is cheaptoy's 1000th list comprising of only metal songs on FMD
Maybe it is new guy's twitter account.
Maybe it is hoping that 6 will show up and post one of his homemade photoshops in a gamelog
Maybe it was looking in the CoC everyday in 2016 hoping that Moss will come back with his thoughts about the election...

Everybody needs something to keep them going-- and if that is the WGOM-- even if it is only part time-- and you havent been allowed to talk about politics for like 7 years-- that is a great thing.

Donate some money to keep this thing alive. If you look at it once a week or twenty times a day it is still something worth having.

Sort of like the Timberwolves.

The Nation Has An Appetite

Apple Jelly … Made With Apples & Stuff

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I was going to recap my Wet Hop American Session Ale with homegrown Cascade hops when I realized that cheaps was likely doing brewing post for the old fundraiser

/checks drafts, smiles knowingly/

so I decided to reach back a year to my first run of jelly making.

I've canned a lot of the typical stuff: salsa, cucumbers, pasta sauce, garlic dilly beans, peppers, strawberry rhubarb jam, etc., but I'd never tried jelly before. While at the apple orchard with the family, I noted $8 bottles of apple jelly and thought, "I wouldn't mind some apple jelly, but I ain't paying no $8 for a pint!" Instead, I bought 4# of McIntosh & Fireside apples and hauled 'em home to give her a go.

I used the apple jelly recipe from my favorite canning cook book: Put 'Em Up! A Comprehensive Home Preserving Guide for the Creative Cook  by Sherri Brooks Vinton.

Ingredients:

  • 4# Apples
  • Approx. 4 Cups Water
  • 3 Cups Sugar
  • 1/2 Cup Bottled Lemon Juice

Step 1 

Wash & stem the apples leaving the peel and core. Roughly chop and put into a large stockpot.

img_20141103_211139_556

Step 2

Add enough water to barely cover the apples, bring to a simmer and cook until tender, about 30 minutes. img_20141103_214224_427

Step 3

Pour the mixture into a dampened jelly bag or colander lined with dampened cheese cloth and let drain in the refrigerator (or, in my case, the screen porch as it was mid-30's) overnight.

note: it's tempting, but don't squeeze or press the bag; it'll make the resulting jelly cloudy

img_20141103_222348_640 img_20141103_222405_529

Step 4

Measure 1 quart of the resulting apple juice and add it to a large saucepan over high heat. Stir in the sugar and lemon juice.

img_20141104_192434_171

Bring to a full boil that cannot be stirred down. Continue to boil until the gel stage is reached. Remove from the heat.

Note: this was (is?) the trickiest part. although the jelly will taste fine no matter the viscosity, if you want it to hold like jelly instead of a sauce, you want it to set. I didn't use any additional pectin as apples are naturally high in the stuff... I digress - there's a few different ways to determine 'gel stage' including temperature, sheet/spoon method, or cold plate ... as you can see, I went with the thermometer.

img_20141104_191121_741

Apple jelly sets up quickly, so you have to be ready to transfer to your storage container in a hurry.

I chose to can the jelly (1+ year shelf life) rather than refrigerate it (up to 3 weeks). Unfortunately, I was moving so quickly with hot, sweet, sticky jelly that I didn't get any pictures of the process beyond this:

img_20141104_191217_016Step 5

Boiling Water Canning Method:

  • Ladle the jelly into clean, hot half-pint or pint canning jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace.
  • Release trapped air (wooden spoon handle or small rubber spatula) and wipe the rims clean.
  • Center lids on the jars and screw on jar bands.
  • Process (boil) for 10 minutes.
  • Turn off heat, remove canner lid, and let the jars rest in the water for approximately 5 minutes.
  • Remove the jars and set aside for 24 hours.
  • Check seals (lid should have sucked in - press up on the lid edge slightly with your thumb. It should not pop off easily).
  • Store in your cupboard for as long as it lasts* or give as gifts (being sure to ask for the jar back).

*I don't recall how long it lasted - ended up with 6-8 jars of jelly...but it was "my" jelly, so all the effort was not wasted.

Miscellaneous, WGOM Advice

Who Wants To Be An Astronaut?

32 Comments

Did anyone here used to want to be an astronaut when they grew up?  I don’t remember ever wanting to be an astronaut as a kid.  I think it seemed like a job that regular people don’t ever have, so I’m not sure I ever even thought of it as a real possibility.

NASA announced a new call for astronaut applicants at the end of 2015, and I didn’t seriously consider applying.  I have the degrees and work experience that I would certainly meet the minimum qualifications.  Not saying I would be highly ranked among those who have the required background, and I don’t hold any illusions that I would have been one of the few selected, but I don’t think I’d be the first one removed from the list, either.  Since I teach astronomy, my students often ask me if I would ever try to become an astronaut.  If I had to option to go to space tomorrow, I would sign up immediately.  But, the actual day-to-day work of an astronaut, the years of training, that is not a job I actually want to do.  I love teaching, and don’t really want to become an engineer.

My outlook on the possibility of being an astronaut has changed a great deal since I was a kid.  It is of course still a difficult job to get, but it’s now so much more attainable to me than it seemed as a kid.  I know a few people who have applied in previous years and who also applied this time, some from the civilian side and some as active duty military.  My wife considered applying to this most recent call for applications, and even started working on it, but never actually submitted it.  (Turns out it probably wouldn’t have mattered either way; 18,300 people applied for 14 or fewer positions, so being selected is certainly a long shot.)

For my wife, being an astronaut was something doable, something that could really happen.  She grew up with an astronaut in her family, and lived in the same neighborhood as a bunch of other astronaut families.  Current Administrator of NASA Charlie Bolden’s kids used to babysit her.  For her growing up, being an astronaut was a job real people have, not just something she saw on TV or read about in books.

My youngest son is almost 3, and he’s started saying he wants to go to the moon.  He has spent the last four months saying he wants to be a construction worker when he grows up, but now he’s shifted to saying he wants to be an astronaut construction worker who builds things on the moon.  For my kids, being an astronaut when they grow up seems like more of a possibility than it ever was for me.  For them, it can be “I want to be an astronaut like ______ was.”

I hope that big, long-shot jobs like becoming an astronaut remain a possibility in their minds.  I’m of course not the first parent to hope their kids will see the whole world as a possibility, I just hope I can help them keep feeling like they can do anything.

WGOM Fitness

γνῶθι σεαυτόν – Know thyself

24 Comments

Looking back on 2016, I had some high points (Simsbury TryAthlon, TrapRock 17K Trail Race, Ragnar Trails in MA, Longest Swim Evah in Carnac-Brittany, Narragansett Wheelmen Century Ride), but I also had numerous nadirs.

A glance at my training spreadsheet over the summer yields several gems: "more limping", "muscle spasms", Select Therapy sessions, "sore ankle", "sore knees", "epsom salt/vinegar bath."

Thanks to Baby Jeebus that it's not age-related.  And, this boyo ran my first mile in a month two days ago,  and the knee is behaving.  I'm trying to run responsibly while on the heal, but I want to go out there and run 10 miles.

What are you Citizens doing?

The Nation Has Problems

The Nation Has Problems: Vol. 11

36 Comments

Hi Everybody!

After being gone for a while, I'm back here with a quick edition of The Nation Has Problems for pledge week. I didn't have a lot of time to put things together, but I came up with something that should be pretty fun! Probability questions are always good for people that are interested in sports, so I've got three questions of varying difficulties to attempt!

Easy

Suppose you roll three dice. What is the probability that you roll at least one 5 or 6?

Medium

Two players play a game involving flipping coins. Each player has a particular sequence of Heads and Tails that they'd like to see. Once one of the two sequences occur, then that player wins and the game is over. For instance, suppose Player 1 has HHH and Player 2 has TTT, then the following sequence:

HHTHTTHHTTHTHTTHHH

In this case, Player 1 is the winner.

Here are three different pairs of sequences for the players. In each case, what is each player's chance of winning?


a) Player 1: HHH, Player 2: TTT
b) Player 1: HHH, Player 2: TT
c) Player 1: HTT, Player 2: TTH

Hard

A banquet is thrown for 100 current and ex-Twins players. Each player is assigned his own seat. Unfortunately, A.J. Pierzynski is the first player to enter and he completely ignores the assigned seating and just sits in the seat closest to him. Each other player that comes in after him then sits in his own seat if it is available and otherwise picks a seat at random. Joe Mauer is the last player to enter. What is the probability that Joe sits in his assigned seat?

Good luck and have fun! --GH

First Monday Book Day

Book Day: Award Season

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Before I get to the somewhat traditional recap of the science fiction and fantasy awards from this year, I wanted to take a moment to recognize a book on the longlist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.  I was furnished a copy of this by the editor (someone we probably all would recognize if she didn't go around in a trench coat and sunglasses all the time).  It's a really affecting story and a gorgeous book (as much as any book about the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki can be gorgeous).  If you don't believe me, you can read the review in the New York Times.

This year, all the sci-fi and fantasy awards actually got handed out, so there was improvement from last year.  Some of my favorites, and lots of links, below.

SHORT STORY WINNERS:

Nebula and World Fantasy Winner - Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers - by Alyssa Wong - (link)

Just read it.  The title kind of sums it up. This was a really good and deserving winner.

Hugo and Locus Winner - Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer - (link)

Finally, an explanation for the internet's fascination with the feline.

SHORT STORY NOMINEES:

The Dowager of Bees - by China Mieville - I have Mieville's story collection (Three Moments of an Explosion) sitting on my bedside table, and I'm very excited to get into it. The title story and this one are both really really good.  This one involves the presence of secret cards that can appear in any regular deck.

The Game of Smash and Recovery - by Kelly Link - Link is such a master of revealing just one more thing as you get further and further into the story.

Madeleine - by Amal El-Mohtar - The narrator remembers being someone else.  And it keeps happening more and more often.

The Three Resurrections of Jessica Churchill - by Kelly Robson - Tiny aliens trying to keep their host alive.

NOVELLETE WINNERS:

Hugo Winner – Folding Beijing by Hao Jingfang – (link)

A very cool idea, Beijing is three cities, each only active while the other two sleep, and travelling between them has dangers.

Nebula Winner – And You Shall Know Her By the Trail of Dead by Brooke Bolander – (link)

A kind of tech crime/virtual reality/love story?  I don't know the best way to describe it except that it moves fast and is a lot of fun.  Definitely worth checking out.

Locus Winner – Black Dog by Neil Gaiman –

Can I tell you a secret?  I don’t like Neil Gaiman’s novels.  On the other hand, I have consistently enjoyed his short fiction.  “Black Dog” is a good ghost story where a traveler stumbles upon a town with more to it than meets the eye.

NOVELLETTE NOMINEES:

Our Lady of the Open Road - by Sarah Pinsker - A band on the road in a slightly more post-apocalyptic world than our own.

Another Word for World - by Ann Leckie - A recently anointed ruler is shipwrecked on an unfriendly planet.  (scroll to the end of the linked post for a download link)

NOVELLA WINNERS:

Hugo & Nebula Novella – Binti by Nnedi Okorafor –

Standalone book. Very good.  The main character is the first of her family/community to attend a university on another planet.  The trip there is hijacked by an alien menace.  An exploration of what is alien.

World Fantasy Novella – The Unlicensed Magician by Kelly Barnhill –

Standalone book.  A 1984-like state has been rounding up magic children.  Written in a very particular style (an affected, self-aware childlike tone) that made the world interesting, this still told an engrossing story.

Locus Novella – Slow Bullets by Alistair Reynolds –

Standalone book. A generational starship of war criminals, soldiers and settlers from the recently concluded space war begins to wake up. Reynolds is a pretty good sci-fi author, and he delivers some pretty good sci-fi here.

NOVELLA NOMINEES:

Penric’s Demon – by Lois McMaster Bujold – A country boy is unwittingly tapped as a vessel for a demon and the magic that comes with that.  This might have been my favorite of the novella nominees.  The audiobook is a brisk 4 hours and it tells a good story.  Bujold has published two more in the series this year, which I keep meaning to check out.

The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn – by Usman Malik – A story of multiple cultures and generations.

The Citadel of Weeping Pearls – by Aliette de Bodard – A space station disappeared years ago, and now it seems it might be possible to find it, visit it, or maybe bring it back. I'm just going to keep recommending de Bodard's short fiction every time I write one of these. This is in Asimov's SF magazine, whose stories sometimes appear and disappear online if you search them.  I couldn't find it right now, but keep an eye out.

Guignol – by Kim Newman – Horror story revolving around a theater of the grotesque in Paris.  This was terribly gory, but still did a great job of creating suspense and payoff.

The New Mother – Eugene Fisher – Genetic mutation and what it means to be human and to tolerate those on the other side of that line.

Honestly, this year there wasn't one story that I was over-the-moon excited about, which is kind of rare.  Hungry Daughters and Folding Beijing were both really good, but I don't know that either rises to that level where I will remember them when I write a recap like this next year.

As far as novels go, I'm still working my way through the nominees there a little bit, but N. K. Jemisen's The Fifth Season is probably my current favorite.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik was also really good.  A good old magic story.

I'm currently reading The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi and I'm not too impressed.  It's like a re-setting of The Wind-up Girl.  Which I don't mean as a compliment.

The thing I'm most excited to read from the nominee lists is K. J. Parker's Savages.  I really liked some of Parker's novellas (A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong and Let Maps to Others), so I'm looking forward to reading this longer effort.